1 50 763 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/2b8aa9baaf206146d98754fc24025177.pdf e15f32c5dc1cf13cc3a1d9a02d354a18 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 119 Book Reviews Robin Okey. Eastern Europe 1740-1980: feudalism to Communism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1982 . 264 pp . Attempting to write a general survey of Eastern European history is no m ean task . Indeed, a comprehensive overview within the confines of a book numbering less than three hundred pages is altogether impossible. Robin Okey offers an alternative to this dilemma in the form of an interpretive stud y . The author indicates that his purpose is to " present a perspecti ve rather than tell a story. " Focusing on the twin themes of modernization and na tionalism , he traces the evolution of the Central and Eastern European lands through two ce nturies of economic , political, and social change . It is his thesis that Eastern European nationalism arose as a response to the area ' s comparative backwardness in relation to the W est. In approaching thi s theme, Okey notes that feudalism came relatively late to this general area , and suggests that - at least until the sixteenth century - Eastern Europe enjoyed the potential of parallel development with W estern Europe. H e states, however , that dom estic fe udal forces were strong enough to reverse thi s trend . External forces - the Turkish invasion of the Balka ns a nd Hun gary a nd the H a bsburg conquest of rebelliou s Bohemia - are also cited as instrument al facto rs. Ei ghtee nth -century Eastern Europe is ch a racterized as havin g regimes which were ineffi cient even by feudal standards . The peasantry bore the brunt of resulta nt defi ciencies, but thriving popul ar cultures provided an impetu s for future revival. Okey states catego rically that the penetrati on of the Enli ghtenm ent represe nt s the first stages of ra pprochem ent with the W est. In a number of in sta nces th e process was characteri zed by reform from a bove, althou gh the role of th e cl ergy is also cited . In the latter case, the auth or specificall y mention s th e P ole K on a rski and th e Serb Obrad ovic; it is wo rth notin g th a t Bern ola k's contribution to th e Slovak rev ival is omitted . T he Eastern Eu ro pean Enli gh te nment faced the dil emm a th at the socia l premi ses of an al ternative order we re incomplete. Con sequentl y, conservatives were more ext reme and reformers more revolutionary tha n their cou n terpa rt s in the West. �120 SLOVAKIA Liberalism in Eastern Europe differed from the West insofar as members of the nobility were heavily involved in a process which put them in opposition to their own social strata. Okey characterizes Eastern European liberalism as "an elusive, complex creed"; it shared the heavy emotionalism of ideas from other lands , but was only partially emancipated from native traditions. He objects to the Marxist view of nationalism as a creed devised by ambitious bourgeois elements; instead, he cites the role of professional scholars as the vanguard of the national movements . The 1848 revolutionary experience led to a clash between liberalism and nationalism; the former was instrumental in abolishing the last vestiges of serfdom, but also failed to satisfy the national aspirations of subject peoples . The balance of the nineteenth century is treated as a period of ideological fragmentation. The advance of industrial capitalism caused a reaction against liberalism on the part of the Right as well as the Left , and the continued rise of mass nationalism splintered existing political parties along ethnic lines. In assessing the downfall of the old order during World War I , Okey concedes that not all tendencies could be related to the national question. But h e hastens to add that "only nationalism had a magnetism strong enough to draw the dislocated elements into an alternative political order the pattern of nation-states . '' Promoters of the new nation-states viewed their emergence as the culmination of humanist principles. Okey disagrees, and cites three general causes for the failure of Western-style liberalism in the interwar period . Most obviously, one of them is the continuity of ethnic conflict within the new states. Second, the Eastern European nations remained economically de pendent on foreign capital. Finally, both the leaders of the new states and their opponents repudiated democracy in their approach to the outstanding problems of the times. Okey views interwar nationalism as "short-sighted rather than fundamentall y misguided"; the outsider Hitler bore the greatest responsibility for the demise of these states. The author implies that national Communism was most successful in those countries where the Party remained in effective control of public life, and failed in Czechoslovakia because the regime capitulated ideologicall y to non-Party gro ups. Finally, Okey states that the rise of a mass int elli ge nt sia and the emerge nce of common social problem s with the West is indicative of a greater degree of syncopat ion. For the student of Slovak hi story, this book might prove disappointing. Indeed, a genuine weakness may be found in the fact that Okey cites so few examples of the Slovak experien ce which provide important contrasts with certain patterns. Okey ' s contention that Eastern European soc iety had already become "brutali zed" during World War II , and that the Communists were tailor-made representatives of the new age , borders on conjecture. Although the position of the J ews in Slovakia was precarious during the war , they were �SLOVAKIA 121 nevertheless afforded a certain "breathing space" denied to their kin smen in Poland, and the average citizen of the Slovak R epublic was by no m ean s terrorized. It was only during the 1944 risin g - in which Communists played a major role - that "brutalization" on a broad scale was affected . Okey's treatment of the " Prague Spring" also provides a case of omission: He correctly cites the straightj acket command economy model as a major facto r in Novotny's demise, but mentions the Slovak opposition only as merely inciden tal. But insofar as Slovakia may be viewed as an integral part of an Eastern European whole, this book has definite merit. It provides the reader with a concise, refreshing overview of the past two centuries, and the author skillfully employs anecdotal examples to compare and contrast specific national experiences. Okey's book is helpful to the student already well-grounded in general Eastern European history; it can also be useful to the instructor who wishes to co nvey a certain sense of ideological conflict inherent in the region . R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Easley, South Carolin a East Central Europe: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow. Edited by Milorad M. Drachkovitch. Stanford, Calif.: H oover Institution Press, 1982 . 41 7 pp . Thirteen of the seventeen papers contained in this volume were presented at a conferen ce organized by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in January , 1980 . Due to the events in Poland in August , 1980 , publication of the symposium's proceedings was delayed so that individual authors could revise their contributions. According to the editor, Milorad M. Drachkovitch, readers of the book "will not find in it a ny pred ictions " and "will be offered facts and explan ations of recent events" (p. xi). This is true of most but not all of the essays. The latte r are largely analyt ical and of uneven quality. Among th e excellent contributions are Drachkovitch 's survey of the postwar political and economic developm ents in Yu goslavia, Leszek Kolakowski's " Ideology in Eastern Europe ," and the essays by J ohn Erickson, Hugh Seton-Watson, Peter J. Wiles, and Richard F. Staar. Also superb is the overview of developments in East Central Europe , " Present Situation and Principal Trends ," by Robert F. Byrnes. H e points out that '' the opinions of even our most expe rienced an alysts often reflect shallow hi stori cal knowledge , flight y analysis, and the ass umpti on that peoples of this area are far less in terested in independence and self-government than a re West �122 SLOVAKIA Europeans and Americans '' (p. 20). The flip-flops of George K ennan are cited as an example. Byrnes is a very perceptive observer who notices the connection between the election of Pope John Paul II , his visit to P oland in 1979, and the subsequent d evelopments in that country. In contrast , the essay on Poland by Jan T omasz Gross, " What Is Yet To Come," appears to be a rather superficial d escription of events leading up to the establishment of Solidarity in 1980 , claiming that " the impossible was inevitable " (p. 32 1). In the last section of the essay Gross sketches two different scenarios: first , Soviet military intervention ; second, the devolution of the Soviet imperium for which the price would be " m ost likely " the " ne utralization of Germany through unification and detachment from the Atlantic Alliance " (p. 325). As it happened , the imposition of martial law in D ecember 1981 proved his (and man y other observers') projections incorrect. On Alexander Dubcek 's behavior in 1968 Hugh Seton-Watson comments by asking a rhetorical question : How could the United States "defend people who would not defend themselves?" (p . 178). In contrast to it , Zdenek L. Suda, while concentrating mostly on the events in 1968 , is very a pologetic. H e writes: " The peaceful counterrevolution in the ve ry core of the Czechoslovak system must have caused more pani c in Moscow than the armed insurgency of Hungarian workers and soldiers in O ctober 1956 " (p. 258). Suda's cl aim is an undocumented assumption without an y foundation, and so is his interpretation of the events in Czechoslovkia when he writes that " the whole reform movement of 1968 could be defined simply as the application of rules and laws that long had been dead letters, but nt>:vertheless existed. It was precisely this greater respect for legality and constitutionality that sounded an alarm in the Soviet power center and triggered the intervention" (p. 256). Accordin g to Suda, "the Czechoslovak case differs from the Polish case because the Polish reform experim ent initiated in 1956 fa iled without direct Soviet intervent ion " (p. 252). Suda does not differentiate between intervention and in vasion . Soviet military presence in Poland ever since the end of World War II has constituted inter vention and h as m ade in vasion unnecessary. In fact, an invasion would have been cou nterproductive from the Soviet point of view. In contrast to it , by in vading Czechoslovakia in 1968 the Soviets h ave attained their military and strategic objecti ves. The "temporary" stationing of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia has become " permanent. " The even ts in Poland in the earl y 1980s corroborate the view th at the Soviets had military a nd strategic reasons for the 1968 in vasion and that the in ternal de velopments , which certainly did not amount to a "counterrevoluti on" as Sud a and the Sov iets claim, were merely a pretext for the action whose a im was to extract a "consent " from the Czech and Slovak Communist leaders to the stati oning of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia. L abeling people as " neo -Stalinists " a nd "dogmati cs," as �SLOVAKIA 123 Suda does, is meaningless. His lack of knowledge of history is reflected in the essay. For example, he writes that " the division of the world between the two superpowers into spheres of interest - made the eventual integration of Czechoslovakia into the system controlled by the Soviets virtually inevitable'' (p. 244). However , nothing was " inevitable" about the arrangements that Edvard Benes made in Moscow in D ecember , 1943 . It was his decision to sign the trea ty with the Soviet Union and to promise the Czech and Slovak Communist leaders in Moscow that their party would be the strongest element in the new regime and that he would always support it. Indeed , Professor Byrnes' comment on the " shallow historical knowledge" and " flighty analysis," cited above , is applicable to the two essays by the two sociologists on Czechoslovakia and Poland published in this volume . j OSEF KAL YODA Saint Joseph College W est H artford, Connecticut Rudolf Krajcovic. Svedectvo dejfn o slovencine . 2nd edition, corrected. Martin : Matica slovenska, 1980 . 268 pp. The second edi tion of Krajcovic's collection of linguistic eviden ce for the Slovak language is essentially the same as the first of 1977 . In these two edition s, the compiler strives to offer proof that the Slovak language has its own long and distinctive history. He is intent on demonstrating that Slovak is a " language of written documents ." He traces Slovak from the period of the Great Moravian Empire of the ninth century throu gh the "twilight of Hungarian feudalism" in the nineteenth century. For the conclusion of his stud y, Krajcovic gives examples of present-day dialectical variations of the Slovak lan guage. There are photographs of d ocuments u sed as evidence. Especially when documents are in script, Krajcovic has the writings reproduced in printed form for easier appreciat ion. Interspersed among the evidence are bl ac k a nd white as well as colored illu stration s of folk articles and pa intings on a folk theme. The illu st ra tions a re the better to con vey the a tmosphere and period of the docum ents presented. Documen ta ry evidence from the early periods , n a mel y from that of the Great M orav ia n Empire through that of the fifteenth century , is not really extensive. A hi storical lin gui st would find the m aterial interesti ng, perh a ps even intrigu ing , but not conclu sive or even substantial for a judgm ent. From the sixteenth century onwards , the material offered as evidence is increasin gly more substanti ve. Indeed , Krajcovic him self notes th at the m aterial from the sixtee nth ce ntury is of" great significance," because thi s was "when Slovak was �124 SLOVAKIA for the first time committed to written form." The expression " written form " is perhaps a poor choice of phrasing. (The expression is found in the brief Slovak, Russian, as well as English introductions to the documentary evidence for this period.) For virtually all the examples of Slovak in this book are written . By the expression "written form," Krajcovic's probably means that the extant documentary instances of Slovak become more extensive and so more able to be appreciated linguistically. In focusing on this poor phrasing and its alleged implication , I do not intend to impugn the long history and distinctiveness of Slovak that Krajcovic desires so clearly to demonstrate in his book. The reader, nonetheless, cannot help feeling that Krajcovic is straining very hard to do this. On the whole, the book is more a nicely illustrated survey of the Slovak language for the layperson rather than a serious academic study for the specialist. With the Slovak language and its related culture appreciated so little outside of Slovakia and the Czech lands, Krajcovic' s book could enhance to some degree a better understanding of this language and culture . This second edition is a ''corrected '' version of the first . This correcting involves stylistic and typographical errors, but especially a few attributions that include additions, deletions, or actual corrections. For example, Krajfovic has deleted the attribution of the 1648 Trnava dictionary as one used for Virgil's Aeneid. The attribution ofa folk article as coming from Kovafova pri Zvolene has been changed to Kral'ova. Krajcovic has added the name of the Austrian author of Klimko's rendition of Krizant und Daria - Gottfried Uhlich, rendered by Krajcovic as Ulrich . Also, the English text has at times questionable diction and stylistic phrasing. The Russian text has been improved for this edition in various places. Neither language should offer problems in Slovakia, for there are native speakers as well as numerous specialists who could be consulted for a third edition . Finally, the bibliography for this edition has been expanded by one item. The price of this survey of the Slovak language has remained the same as for the earlier edition . This should make the book a readily purchasable acquisition for any individual or institution. G ERALD] . SABO , S.J . John Carroll University Cleveland, Ohio I'.udovft Novak. K najstarsfm dejinam slovenskehojazyka . Bratislava: Veda, vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej adademie vied, 1980 . 352 pp. This important study of the earliest history of the Slovak language evolved out of a plan by I'.udovft Novak in the 1930s to supply the most up-to-date , complete, and detailed presentation of Slovak phonology from its earliest begin- �SLOVAKIA 125 nings . Methods of structu ral analysis were to be applied to the reconstructed phonologies of Slovak dialects . The origi nal ve rsion was begun in the last months of 1938 and earl y 1939 , a period of political turbulence. Over the intervening years, materials added to the original accumulated into several essays, thus resulting in two works. By reason of the a mount of accu mulated m ate rials , a recent decision to publi sh this monograph from just the original alone was ca rried out . The val ue of the original as a linguistic la ndm ark of the structural method in Slovakia was the deciding factor. Novak 's later theories are to be published in a separate volume which will be entitled "Vznik Praslovanov a ich jazyka. '' Four chapters in the book under review provide the most important linguistic phenomena in the d evelopment of the Slovak sou nd system , from the earliest period after the collapse of Common Slavic into the dialect differentiations of the Slovak area. They are: (a) the Slovak reflexes rat-, lat- from P ro to-Slavic *ort- , *oft -; (b) alterat ions in the consonant clusters dl, tl, and dn ; (c) reduced vowel "yer"-changes , the contraction phenomena, and the depalatalization of e( e)»a; and (d) the reconstruction of sound systems of Slovak dialects after the period of liquidation of Common Slavic co rrelations of '' syllabic soft ening. '' Novak is interested in whether (a) can be termed a "Yugoslavism" relating to a theory of colonization of Central Slovakia from the south . With respect to (b) he quotes rare documents of ancient dialect litera ture, gives phonetic a nd phonological ex plana tions , with examples of geographic ex tension of changes in W estern Slovak, and compares this with pa rallel types of like consonantal quantitat ive correlation s in a non-Slavic la nguage. For ( c) the a uthor defines the rapport of Central Slovak especially with East and Central Slavic languages, and refers to the chronology and locali zation of alterations in the Common Slavic dialect dom ai n. R egarding (d) he concen trates first on the contrac tion phenomena in Central Slovak with its chronology a nd that of other Slavic dialects, and then of other West Slavic la nguages . H e provides a n argu m ent for the explanation of the zenou-feminine-instrumental-singular type and a criticism of other theories. Most of the phonological changes in Old Slovak are viewed as occurring due to certain influences of external lan guages or of internal dialects. Hi s terminology illu strates certain developing periods of Old Slovak , for example, turkicizing, mongolization. The aut hor maintains one of several possible theories in lin guistic development. Hi s is an attempt to overcome difficulties connected with the immane nt development of the Slovak language. ova.k's structural approach as innovative and successful in the earl y period of lin gu ist ics is appla uded by colleagues m entioned in the foreword. H owever, his earl y theory is criticized as "one-sided" for three main reasons : fai lure to �126 SLOVAKIA calculate the comparison of internal contradictions; overemphasis on phonology without consideration of grammatical, morphemi c, morphological, or wordbuilding structures as lingui stic units; and finally a lack of regard for sociolin guistic chan ges . I'.udovft Novak is referred to as th e " Nestor of Slovak Linguistics " (p. 9) . This original work is viewed as a monument in the evolution of Slovak lin gu istics a nd is noteworthy, especially considering the period of its composition, the structural methods applied, with its new theoreti cal thought and insights. It is rightly considered the first synthetic conception of the earliest history of Slovak language founded on the development of the dialect sound systems. The dedication of the book is symbolic of its apparent inherent worth. Honored are three famous contributors to Slovak linguistics: to the history of the Slovak language (Trubetzkoy); to the comparative history of Slovak and Czech languages (Travnfcek), and to the foundation of modern Slovak linguistic geography with its Slovak historical dialectology (Vazny). Novak has provided the first synth etic method of structu ral applicat ion to the historical phonology of Slovak , a structural lin gui st ic milestone in Slovak lan guage study. JOHN M . KOCHIK Westmoreland County Community College Youngwood, Pennsyl vania Frantisek Kalesny. Habani na Slovensku. Bratislava: Tatran, 198 1. 376 pp. Scattered today over the prairies of the United States and Canada can be found settlements of a people known as Hutterites or Hutterian Brethren. The Brethren still retain the German language of their forefathers and practice a st ri ctly communitarian way of life. Their mode of collective farming is not th e outcome of economi c calculation ; it results from the Hutterit es' belief that Christ calls on his followers to renounce private property and have all things common . The H utterites originated in th e earl y 1530s as part of the Anabaptist movement that had begun in Central Europe around 1525. The M ennon ites tod ay also claim spiritual descent from this movement which represe nted a left wing of the Protestant R eformation. While onl y the Hutterites esta bli shed community o f goods, all its adherents practiced adult ba ptism (hence the n ame they acqu ired, Anabaptists) in order to stress the volunta ry character of their beli eve rs' church, in which only grown persons could participate meaningfull y. As Dr. Kales ny remarks in the preface to hi s fascinating study of Hutterite hi story, few Slovaks know about th e connection betwee n the Hutterites a nd Slovakia, where they li ved for over two hundred year . The descendants of those Hutterites, who in the mid -e ighteenth century acce pted forced �SLOVAKIA 127 recatholicization rather than have to emigrate, eve ntually lost their German speech and a re today completely assimilated to the Slovak popula tion. If memories of the Hutterites grew dim, the name which their Slovak neighbors gave these German settlers , " H abans " (Habani, H abaner) , has become widely known on acco unt of the beautiful ceramics produced by the Hutterite communities and their successors. These are now valued possessions of the museums of Czechoslovakia a nd Hun gary, and examples of the art form are also to be fo und elsewhere. H a ban folk a rt , according to K alesny (p.12), should be reckoned as an important asse t of Slovak '' n at ion al culture,'' for it was produced on the soil of Slovakia by people who, although of foreign origin , had put down deep roots there. The book , which is a wo rk of scholarship even though it lac ks footnotes, is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the history of the Hutterite communities from their inception down to the present d ay, with m ost a ttention given to their soj ourn in northwest Hungary (present -day Slovakia) . They first set up comm unities there around 1545: Their chief settlement a nd the seat of their " bi sh op" was a t Sobotiste. As in Moravia where the sect had started, h ere too it s ad herents we re welcomed by the landown ing nobility, Catholic as well as Protestant, who valued the Hu tterites as h ardworking and profitable tenants and consequently were prepared to overlook their religiou s peculiarities. After the battle of White Mountain in 1620 the H absburg ruler drove them out of M oravia, but the Moravian brethren also found a refuge on the estates of friendly Hun garia n landown ers. The endemic warfare of the seve nteenth century when Turkish, H absburg, and kuru c forces ravaged the Slovak countryside inflicted terrible suffering on the local population , including the Hutterites . On the eve of the disaster of 1620 the Hutterites in M oravia and Slovakia had numbered abo ut 25,000 persons, a tenfold increase sin ce 1545, which was due to the steady stream of newcomers from the T yrol a nd ot her pa rts of Ce n tral Europe seeking to join the brotherhood. Almost all these were of German speech , but a few adherents were of local origin. On page 46 , fo r instance, K alesny m entions "Wendel H olba ein Schlawak (Ve ndel H olba, Slovak)," who even becam e a Hu tterite minister. Whereas in north Hun gary the Hutterites abandoned their communitarian wa y of life in 1685 a nd were recatholicized under Maria Theresa in the nex t century (w hile still retaining for some time their separate legal identit y as H abaner), in Transylvania - where some Hutterites had settled in 1621 - they contin ued to lead the same life as before, until finally in 1767 the aut horit ies expelled those who would not conform . Ka les ny ch ron icles briefly their subseq uent wanderings, first via Wall ac hia to the Ukraine where they arrived in 1770 and then in 1874 across the Atlantic and on to the American West. After World War I most of the Hutterites moved across the border into Canada . Their later mi grat ions stemmed not from �128 SLOVAKIA religious persecution but from the threat posed to their pacifist principles by the introduction of universal miliary service. Kalesny prefaces his historical narrative, which for the most part does not add to what we already know , by an interestin g discussion of the name haban , the first authenticated m ention of which occurs in a document of 1667 now in the municipal archives of Bratislava. Originally a d erogatory term , it eventually lost its pejorative connotation and became the accepted way of describing the descendants of the former comm unitarians . Concerning the origin of the word no consensus exists among scholars. The latest theory is that of a German scholar who derives it from the H ebrew. D espite what the resumes say, Kalesn y seems to be somewhat sceptical about this. If the author deals rather briefly with the religious aspects of the Hutteri te way of life, h e devotes almost the whole of th e second part of the book to their social organization. The overwhelming majority of community m embers were artisans: Over forty crafts were bei ng practiced when the communities were at their peak. Of course, they also engaged in farming, which today is the chief occupation of the Hutterites. A strict discipline was imposed on members , expulsion from the brotherhood being the final sanction against those who did not conform. But this was not usually necessary since the brethren recognized the advantages of communal living over those of the outside world, despite any momentary attraction they might feel toward the latter. " The Hutterites had succeeded in creating an ordered society, socially egalitarian and materially secure, with high moral principles based on the community'' (p. 169) . Children of both sexes were taught at least to read and write - in an age when illiteracy prevailed among the masses . Great care was taken, too, to provide for the sick and aged, for pregnant women and for children of preschool age . The culture was perhaps narrow and th e aut horit y of the elders excessive, but this must be judged within the context of the times. Purely aesthetic values found no place among Hutterites. Yet their craftsmen succeeded in creatin g countless objects of beauty either for domestic use or for sale: Their pottery became famous throughout east central Europe and was eage rly bought up by the nobility a nd wealthy townspeople of the area. Kalesny, whose specialty is folk a rt , devotes th e third part of hi s book to the history and technology of'' H aban '' pottery. The making of faience , their most hi gly prized produ ct , had bee n introdu ced into th e Hutterite communit ies around 1580 by An a baptist immigra nts from northeas t Italy. Kales ny has included at the end I 09 full-page colored illu strat ion s of ceramics emanating from " H aban" workshops. The bibliography includes man y items in Slovak, Czech, a nd Hungarian that are unknown to North Ameri can scholars who have written on the Hutterites. Man y of these pi eces, it is true , deal with " Haban" ce ramics, but some �SLOVAKIA 129 are of more general interest. K alesny, on the other h and, h as obviously had difficulty in gaining access to sch olarship in the W est. He knows the work of the M ennonite sociologist , J ohn A. H ostetler. But h e does not, for example , appear to be acquainted either with the valua ble study by another M ennonite scholar , Victor J . Peters, All Things Common: The Hutterian Way of Life (Minneapoli s, 1965) , or with the numerous articles published in the United States by the leading authority on Hutterite history and culture, the late Robert Friedmann . Many of them were reprinted in his Hutterite Studies (Goshen , Indian a , 1961) . L et us hope that in future closer contacts can be established in the field of Hutterite studies between North American scholars and those working in Czechoslovakia and Hungary. K alesny is perhaps lucky in dealing with a group like the Hutterites who , while deeply religiou s, have at the same time been dedicated "communists," albeit of the Utopian variety. The T at ran press was able (so to speak) to roll out the red carpet for him . It h as published a volume that , with its excellent pa per, numerou s illu stration s, and tasteful design , is indeed a credit to book production in Slovakia. PETER BROCK University of T oronto Toronto , Canada August A. Skodacek. Lutherans in Slovakia . Pittsburgh : Slavia Printing Company, 1982. 242 pp. This acco unt of the rise and development of the Lutheran Church in Slovakia from the Reformation to the present redresses the oversight of many concern in g the role of the Lutheran Church in the historical development of Slovakia. This may b e a fl aw. The author would have us understand that Slovakia 's history in modern times is a con sequen ce n ot onl y of the R eformation but also of the influence of Lutheranism in Slovak social and political struggles. However, Skodacek does not su ffic ientl y analyze the historical facts a nd ci rcum stances to judge whether hi s claim , that without Lutheranism m od ern Slovakia would not be , is warranted. Skodacek chronciles the fa te and fort une of Lutherani sm in term s of fates and fortun es of the group's leaders. As they fared, so fared their group . Thus, this is a hi story of an in stitution al church and its great m en from a perspective of within the gro up . It uses synodical records to illu strate th e respon se of the Lutheran C hurch in Slovakia to outside social and political forces, na m ely the Roman Catholic C hu rch , the J esuits, and the variou s rulers allied with those two groups. Since there is little in -depth an alysis, thi s essay does not offer a ny new insights into the causes of man y of the events ch ro nicled. �130 SLOVAKIA In the main, it is a hagiographic account extolling historical individuals for their virtues and deeds done in the name of the cause. In describing the influences of a Thurzo , Lani , or Krman and others, Skodacek, interestingly enough, sees them as the real descendants of the missionaries Cyril and Methodius. Just as Cyril and Methodius introduced the Slavs to Christianity and hence to civilization ( of a kind) , so too the followers of Luther reintroduced Christianity and civilization to Slovakia even to the point of generating and maintaining a consciousness of Slovak nationalism. To this point, Skodacek writes that "the R eformation activated a conversion in Slovakia which gradually brought into the open a Slovak nationality; it spread the reformational ideology in an understandable native language and a democratic religious life'' (p. 66). Be this as it may, the book is a good source for anyone who wishes to do research in Slovak history but who does not know th e necessary languages. The volume provides translations of records and documents of the various synodical events which figured large in the life of the Slovak Lutheran Church. This point not withstanding, it is unfortunate that Skodacek did not see fit to describe and analyze the historical dynamics of the sociocultural and political forces beyond the activities of the Lutherans and the Roman Catholics. Not everyone, despite Skodacek's claim, was either a Lutheran or Roman Catholic. Some were Greek Catholic and some were Calvinists. These are never mentioned . Also, not everyone living in Slovakia was either a Slovak or a German . Another missing analytical point is that of socioeconomic class; from what class did the Lutheran leadership come? It is on these points that Skodacek could have given us some insight; perhaps he will irt another book . Although this vol ume is a good in-house version of a historical period and of what happened to the Lutherans in Slovakia , the lack of analysis of the sociocultural and political dynamics limits its effectiveness. ROBERT j. SKOVIRA Saint Vincent College Latrobe, Pennsylvania Paul R obert Magocsi . The Shaping of a National Identity: Subcarpathian Rus ', 1848-1948. Cambridge, Mass .: Harvard University Press, 1978 . 650 pp. P aul R. Magocsi. The Rusyn -Ukrainians of Czechoslovakia: An Historical Survey . Vienna: Wilhelm Braumi.iller Universitats-Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1983. 94 pp . The first of Professor Magocsi ' s books is the one we all dream of writing . The fruit of years of research, it is encyclopedic in its description of the cul- �SLOVAKIA 131 tu ral a nd political development of the territory which m ad e up Subcarpathian Ruthenia in the first C zechoslovak Republic. H e has used a rich array of sources - archives, published statistics, interviews , and most books and articles relating to the subj ect. It will stand for d ecades to com e as the basic referen ce work . Graduate students will be surpr ised to find a detached , obj ective approach in a volume devoted to an East European nationality group of less tha n a million people. It will be a required presence in the library of eve ryo ne who calls himself an Eas t European historian . Slovakists , in particular, will welcome Magocsi ' s dispassiona te understa ndin g of the sensibilities of the ripening Slovak national identity in Eastern Slovakia. The tex t is di vided into three parts. The first cove rs political and cultural hi story un til 19 18 . The second examines history, la nguage, literature , education , and reli gion between 19 18 and 1944. The final part discusses the political hi story from the end of W orld W ar I to the incorporation of the territory into the U krainia n Soviet R epublic at the end of W orld W ar II. This is followed by 4 a ppendices (82 pages), notes ( 106 pages), and bibliography ( 122 pages) . In his introduct ion , M agocsi promises to analyze how one ethnic group was exposed to na tionalism and how its leaders presen ted this new ideology to their people. H e points out that the leaders in what he calls " an embryonic sta te of na tional d evelopment " still did not agree on which national orientation to follow - Ru syn , Hun gari an , Slovak (and/o r C zech), Ukra inian , or Russian. H e then describes the elimination of each alternative until only Ukrainia n was left. With such a rich and well-organized presentation of d ata, it must seem churlish for a reviewer to take issue with the author . And ye t one has the impression tha t the author ' s desire to incl ude every las t piece of info rm ation has di st racted him fro m his original inte ntion of trying to discover the underl ying reaso ns fo r the fi nal victory of the U kra inia n orientation . The book becom es fi nall y a trad itional approach to East Eu ro pean history, albeit without the partisan coloring wh ich usually characterizes such work . H e outlines the failure of leaders of certa in national orien tations to attrac t adherents, or their willingness to sacrifice national fo r political gain. H e find s external factors decisive in dete rmining that the territory wo uld eventu ally become Ukrainian . In an area with such a n embryo nic ethnic and national identity, it seems odd tha t M agocsi limited his book terri to rially, acco rding to political bound aries which existed for onl y two decades . The fa ult m ay lie in his d efinition of ethn ic group as a popul ation that " in m ost cases possesses a distinct territory, com m on traditions, and related dialects. " Although he pays homage to the theories of K a rl D eutsch on natio nalism and social communicatio n , he fa il s in large pa rt to apply them . H e looks a t the intelligentsia in action , but not the intelligen tsia in formatio n . It would �132 SLOVAKIA have been possible, for instance, to examine the changing national composition of the students in the high schools (gymnazia) over time and through the various grades. This might have suggested underlying trends in national identification. Magocsi is quite right in saying it is impossible to explain why individuals join differing national orientations, but the totality of the changes can be very informative. It is quite conceivable that the socioeconomic development in the interwar period showed a trend toward a Ukrainian identity. This would help explain why the Soviet regime met so little opposition when it assigned a Ukrainian identification to the population at the end of the war. After the depth of research and evaluation which characterized the first book , the second volume is a disappointment. While those interested in Slovak history will find useful material here on the political, socioeconomic, and cultural history of what Magocsi calls the "Rusyn-Ukrainians" of Czechoslovakia, there also is a disappointing tendency to blame every difficulty faced by this national grouping on national discrimination. This stands in considerable contrast to his conclusion (p . 270) in the larger volume . OWEN V . JOHNSON Indiana University Bloomington , Indiana Jubilea Matice slovenskej. Compiled by Vojtech Sarluska. "Seria: Monografie - Vyskum dejfn Matice slovenskej, zv. 9." Martin: Matica slovenska, 1980. 130 pp . The volume under review is a compendium of articles resulting from a seminar devoted to the commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the Matica slovenska's reconstitution ( 1919) and its silver anniversary as the Slovak National Library ( 1954 ). The essays discuss various aspects of the Matica's present contributions in the fields of research and education. Themes analyzed include : the Matica ' s efforts in library acquisition, preservation, and dissemination; planning and organization of its activities and resources; bibliographic development over the past quarter century; activities of the Literary Archives; programs of the Literary Museum; efforts of the Biographical Office; activities of the Matica's Office of Slovaks Abroad ; and the Matica ' s publishing activities. The section prepared by Stefan Krivus, the Matica' s present director , sets the tone for the other essays . Krivus traces the Matica's history through interwar Czechoslovakia, its activities during World War II, its place in the resurrected R epublic, and its role in Socialist Slovakia. He describes each period as a step in the Matica's maturation process. Both Krivus and the other contributors make it quite clear that the Matica of 1979 is not the Matica of 1919 ; �SLOVAKIA 133 it has continually changed in response to the demands placed on it as Slovakia' s premier national cultural institution. It is a pity that this publication , which offers much valuable information on the Matica slovenska's vital role in past and contemporary Slovak cultural life , was printed in a limited edition and "only for internal use" by professional scholars, thus making it unavailable to the much wider readership which it deserves . JOHN A . BERTA Middletown, Pennsylvania I1 mondo slavo. Saggi e contributi slavistici a cura del Centro Studi Europ a Orientale di Padova . Volume VIII. Edited by Milan S. Durica. Padova: CESEO-Liviana, 1982 . 318 pp. Professor Milan S. Durica has taken the opportunity of his editorship of this volume of I1 mondo slavo to present a number of studies which help to identify Slovak ethnic consciousness in its language and history and to distinguish it clearly from assimilative Czechoslovak linguistic and political tendencies. In his own article, which offers a historical-philological profile of the Slovak language, he traces the evolution of the Slovak language in Slavic ethnogeny. The Slovak glottogenetic process of isoglosses is delineable on Slovak ethnic territory . This position is butressed by (1) Slovakocentricity - the expression of geometric distance proportional to linguistic elements and (2) the most recent studies on fundamental Slavic lexical patrimony revealing its highest in Slovak . Durica' s ' profile' establishes that the research of historical and comparative lexicology fortifies the theory of the Slovak proto-Slavic glottogenesis. His synthesis of recent· research is a valuable contribution to the thesis that Slovak is an independent Slavic language . Stefan V ragas presents historical and linguistic highlights of the development of the Slovak literary language from 1918 to 1979. A significant portion of his article centers on the linguistic politics of "Czechoslovakism ," i.e. , the linguistic and political claim of one Czechoslovak language and nation , in opposition to any contention of on e separate and individual Slovak language and nation . The author demonstrates that Slovak experts succeeded in counteracting the opposition by applying the facts of history to linguistics and courageously weathering political humiliations as did , for example, Eudovft Novak , author of K najstarsfm dejinam slovenskehojazyka. Vragas must be commended for his definition of Czechoslovakism and for his timely exposition of some generally unknown linguistic-political humiliations of Slovak scholars, especially in the 1950s a nd part of the 1960s. �134 SLOVAKIA The history of Slovak translations on Slovak ethnic territory to 1939 is the subject of the article by Agostino Visco. Brief mention is made of translations into contemporary Slavic during the Great Moravian era and some initial translations into Latin . It was not until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that extensive translation was made from Latin into the Slovak national language, mainly by Catholics. From Greek and Latin some classics and religious works were translated: ancient poetry, meditations, the Bible . Later, translations began from West European authors, then from East European ones, until the abortive years 1848-1849, when translations declined . After 1918 and in the early twentieth century translations resumed . They steadily progressed after 1933, when the Matica slovenska established a translation group , thus institutionalizing and perfecting translations. Visco considers the Slovak R epublic era (1939-1945) as the most important period for translations . Inasmuch as translations have so much influenced both Slovak poetry and prose, they represent an important facet of Slovak literature. Mirella De Martini Tihany examines the emigration of Italian laborers from Venetia and Lombardy to Slovakia in the second half of the nineteenth century . Parish registers of Slovak localities along the main railroad line from Kosice (Slovakia) to Bohumfn (Moravia) are the principal sources of research, especially those found in the State and District Archives of Bytca. Because of mineral transports from central Slovakia, railroads were needed in Slovakia . Historically, the Kosice-Bohumfn line construction in 1870 was urgent for connecting eastern Slovakia with Berlin . In this construction , the temporary Italian immigration initially entered . For some workers it meant death from epidemic , for others it was an occasion for marriage and baptisms. In her article Tihanyi provides a brief insight into Slovak interaction with the emigrants and also a sad commentary on the plight of Italian workers neglected by their non-Slovak contractors . Finally , Lisa Guarda Nardini considers the sole syndicate in Czechoslovakia, the "ROH" - Revolutionary Trade Union Movement. It is studied as an exemplary illustration of the statute of the organization which institutionally represents all workers in a country which claims that labor is paramount and the workers govern . The author proceeds from a relatively brief introduction about members , duties, structure, and other considerations to a translation of the ROH statute with its fifty articles. The m erit of this article is the translation of the ROH statute into Italian from Slovak. Volume III of IJ mondo slavo can be recommended to the readers of Slovakia for its wealth of information on fascinating Slovak topics. JOHN M. KOCHIK Westmoreland County Community College Youngwood, Pennsylvania �SLOVAKIA 135 Josef Korbel. Twentieth-Century Czechoslovakia: The Meanings of Its History. New York: Columbia University Press , 1977 . 346 pp. A rich and varied background prepared the late Professor Josef Korbel for this twentieth-century history of a small country in Central Europe . He was closely associated with the University of Denver, where he served as Dean of the Graduate School oflnternational Studies, Director of the Social Science Foundation , and Andrew W . Mellon Professor of International Studies. He was the author of several books on Central Europe. Prior to his academic career, Korbel had been the Czechoslovak ambassador to Yugoslavia . He also had held a number of other important diplomatic posts and was a personal acquaintance of both Edvard Benes and Jan Masaryk . Twentieth -Century Czechoslovakia begins with the Hussite period. By tracing the "roots" of Czech thought from Jan Hus to the subsequent suppression by the Catholic Habsburgs, and through the era of the Enlightenment, the author demonstrates how the Czech ideal of humanity evolved. He compares concepts derived from Frantisek Palacky and Karel Havlfcek to Tomas G. Masaryk's "Czech humanism. " All three were witnesses to the Hussite influence . A quick glance at opposing interpretations of Czech history by Josef Pekar and Ferdinand Peroutka and their criticism ofT.G. Masaryk's philosophy leads Korbel to the observation that " in times of assured statehood the Czech people strove for the ideals of humanity; in times of peril, they lowered their heads to save the national body" (p. 24). Korbel expands this thought throughout the rest of the book. Beginning with July 6, 1915, the 500th anniversary of the death of Jan Hus , Tomas G. Masaryk is depicted as voicing a vision about to become a reality. As the author discusses the historical formation of Czechoslovakia, he dwells primarily on the Czech leadership. He skillfully paints portraits of national hopes , problems of administration, mistakes in judgment, and fears for the future. Throughout the twenties and thirties these events led to the final breakup of the first Czechoslovakia. By analyzing the Munich crisis and World War II as it affected this Central European victim state, Korbel clearly shows that the Czechs " lowered their heads to save the national body." As he searches for the mea ning of the postwar years in the revitalized Czechoslovak state, he refers to them as " The Sisyphean Years," the title of his last and perhaps most intriguing chapter. With T.G . M asaryk, he believes that " the nation will take up again its active role in mankind's neyer-ending struggle for freedom and social justice" (p. 320). Written in an engaging style, Korbel's story of Czechoslovakia's rise and fall will fascinate not only the student of history but also a ny reader interested �136 SLOVAKIA in learning about Central Europe during the twentieth century. Unfortunately, the author does exhibit a bias against the Slovaks. This is especially apparent in his reference to the well-loved and respected Slovak leader Father Andrej Hlinka as being "fanatic. " Furthermore, while the Czechoslovak state could not exist without the Slovaks, Korbel devotes a mere 25-30 pages to them in a book of 346 pages. His admiration for Tomas G. Masaryk is deep, his respect for Jan Masaryk is genuine, and his evaluation of Edvard Benes appears objective. Had it been possible to apply historical honesty to all aspects of Czechoslovakia's growth from its inception to its dissolution and rebirth, such an account might have added significantly to the rapidly increasing literature in that area of research. One can only conclude that this historical account was written from the so-called Czechoslovak point of view. If this is understood, the reader will enjoy Twentieth-Century Czechoslovakia but will continue to look for "The Meanings of Its History" in other books dealing far more adequately with Slovakia and the Slovaks . M. EVANGELA LUBEK, 0 .S.B. Bishop Noll Institute Hammond, Indiana Martin R . Myant. Socialism and Democracy in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1948. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981. 302 pp. The three years that preceded the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia at the end of the Second World War have been generally understood in the West as a lull in which all the indications of what would happen in February 1948 were present. Although Martin Myant does not contradict this approach, he offers in this study, above all, an examination of the political situation in Czechoslovakia in which the Communist Party was just one of many players until mid-194 7, when a power struggle erupted leading to the Communist victory a few months later. What we have here, according to the author, is a polity which sought to achieve a socialist society by democratic means. It is an interesting thesis that reflects to a great extent the approach that Communist scholars took to this period in the 1960s and which found some sympathy among Western scholars. The book is divided into ten chapters that begin with a rapid overview of the development of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia . The next five chapters are devoted to an analysis of the political situation in the Czech lands, with one chapter on Slovakia . In three more chapters the author looks at the power struggle which culminated in the February crisis . The final chapter �SLOVAKIA 137 examines post-February Czechoslovakia, in particular those events that announced the imposition of a more radical line by the Kremlin . It is clear from Myant 's story that World War II had brought about major changes in the Czech lands. In the postwar world, Czech political life reflected a general consensus that Czech society wanted its government to implement socialist changes because the prewar order had been destroyed during the hostilities . As an organized resistance group, the Communists played a major part in setting the framework for a socialist transformation . They were by far the most cohesive and organized party. Until mid-1947 they were also willing to collaborate - and indeed did so - with the non-Communist parties in implem enting new policies . The author gives a thorough analysis not only of the platforms of all parties, but also of the political activities of the Communist Party. When the struggle for power broke out, the Communists aimed at nothing more than victory and then used whatever means they could get away with to achieve that end. But for Myant - unlike for Paul Zinner and Josef Korbel, who also wrote on this period - the interest lies in the pre-mid 1947 period where, as he writes, "for all its faults, the National Front system established in May 1945 provided a possible basis for the development of socialism in Czechoslovakia" (p. 242). Despite the author's thorough analysis, this reviewer is not convinced that the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia could have played according to democratic rules in an advanced society. Although Myant attributes the shift that occurred in mid-1947 to the international situation and Cominform directives , the fact remains that the Communist Party was willing in the last analysis to abandon democratic means in favor of one-party rule. There is no evidence that the Party offered the Kremlin any resistance . Had its commitment to democracy really existed, it could have defied Moscow since there were no Soviet troops in the country and it is doubtful that Moscow would have risked a war to impose its will . The pre-mid-1947 experience may be interesting for those who still hanker after a form of" democratic socialism"; for m e it merely shows that a Communist Party will also play the democratic game if it brings it closer to its goal of total power, but it does not show a commitment to democracy . The author's treatment of Slovakia is inadequate . He approaches it from the same point of view as the Czech lands , namely that the Slovaks were also headed for socialist transformation. To take this approach is to ignore not only the legacy of prewar Slovak politics, but also the major impact the Slovak R epublic had on the Slovaks. His accusation that Slovakia was backward is both unfair and unfortunate; it is a Czech point of view that was arti~ulated quite openly from 1945 on, especially in the Communist Party. This view was also imposed on Slovak Communists, who accepted it after their defeat in the May 1946 elections. The author does, however, point out that the Communist �138 SLOVAKIA Party was unwilling to embark on a different and distinct Slovak policy, if only not to alienate its Czech constituency. The position of Slovakia in postwar Czechoslovakia was very critical. Forced without consultation into a state where they would be a minority, Slovaks then saw most instruments of autonomous government progressively taken away from them . The non-Communist leadership was weak and faced not only Communist opposition but also Czech resistance to any status beyond minimal autonomy . Thus Slovak political life centered once again on Slovakia ' s role in Czechoslovakia, not on socialist transformation . As time went on, it was clear to most Slovaks that they mattered very little in Czechoslovak politics and were expected to be merely compliant to Prague . In this respect, Myant writes unfairly about President Tiso's execution in 1947 that "its announcement in Slovakia was met with no visible unrest" (p. 158). The truth of the matter is that the army and Czech police had been sent to Slovakia to make sure that there was no unrest. For the same reason the attempted Communist coup in Bratislava failed that autumn. The game had to be played out in Prague. This is a well-researched study that is thorough in its presentation for the Czech lands . It is highly unsatisfactory for Slovakia. For this reason, as well as the author's ideological predelictions, it is regrettably incomplete and, therefore, disappointing. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM Glendon College, York University Toronto, Canada Leon Noel. La Tchecoslovaquie d'avant Munich. Paris: Institut d'etudes slaves, 1982. 208 pp. J.F.N. Bradley. Politics in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1971. Washington, D.C .: University Press of America, 1981. 225 pp. There are few Central European states that have had as turbulent a history as Czechoslovakia. It was created by the Western Powers on the morrow of World War I, only to be abandoned two decades later to German expansionism and another ten years later to Soviet imperialism. Paradoxically, Western scholarship has yet to produce a good history on either the First Republic or on the postwar Communist period. The two volumes under review, while they seek to give us an overview of each period, are also unsatisfactory. Leon Noel was France's Minister to Czechoslovakia from 1932 to 1935. His book constitutes a sort of memoir of the three years he spent in Prague. To this account he added a few chapters that deal with the origins of the state , �SLOVAKIA 139 some of its leading personalities, the Slovaks, the Germans and the Hungarians, the Catholic Church, and the political parties . None is very good , and the chapters on the Slovaks and the political parties are particularly poor. It becomes quickly very clear that this French diplomat understood very little the country in which he represented France . The main impression that one gets is that he was interested above all in maintaining excellent diplomatic relations between Prague and Paris . This he seems to have done, given the number of positive comments about himself by Czechoslovakia's leaders that he quotes . But one does not get any idea what were the main currents in FrancoCzechoslovak relations. It is only when he evaluates the leading personalities in Prague of the common state of the Czechs and Slovaks that he is interesting. That is one of the redeeming features of his book . If this book is at all interesting , it is becau se it reflects French perceptions of Czechoslovakia in the interwar period . The state was to a great extent a French creation, and Czechoslovakia's centralist system of government was modelled on that of France. Paris supported Prague on the German and the Slovak questions with the result that neither French diplomats nor French scholars paid any attention to anyone but the Czechs and accepted everything Prague told them. Noel ' s book is therefore not different from those published in the interwar years. It is a pity that he did not learn from subsequent events about which much has been written to give us a more critical appreciation of the country where he clearly spent three interesting years of his life . The Bradley volume is more in line with contemporary scholarship. But it is a peculiar book. The author has done some thorough research in a number of areas, yet he does not succeed in giving us an adequate overall picture of Communist politics in Czechoslovakia. The greatest flaw is his lack of treatment of the Slovak question, which he does not seem to have understood at all. There are two them es to the book: government and politics. The author gives a thorough description of Czechoslovakia's Communist government structure , examining in turn its constitutions, parliaments , governments, the judiciary , and security. Hi s chapter on the central government for 1948-1968 is rather good . He analyzes well the main problems of any Communist government, namely political domination and efficient administration. As he points out: "Even the most capable administrators among these politicans would have found it impossible to run central ministries efficiently with the politicallyreliable but admi nistratively unfit officials at their disposal" (p. 123) . When it comes to analyzing Communist politics , the author devotes only two chapters, one on the Dubcek era and the other on the Husak period of normalization. Both are somewhat disappointing. The overall result is that at the end of the book the reader is still left wondering what Czechoslovak politics were all about for the period 1948-1971. �140 SLOVAKIA The major flaw of Bradley's book is its treatment of the Slovak question. Clearly the author belongs to that category of Western scholars who do not consider Czech-Slovak relations to have been, and still to be, the focal point of the survival of the common state of these two nations. It is not surprising to come across such a statement as : "The Slovaks, who had apparently been enjoying equality and autonomy since 1948, began to voice their demands for new constitutional arrangements within the Czechoslovak Republic" (p. 183), with no further explanation. The final chapter, on Husak's federalism , is also inadequate in analyzing the new relationship between the two nations, let alone explaining why this formerly centralist state had been transformed into a federation . Neither book fulfills the mission its title suggests . Nevertheless in each there are some aspects of interest which may help the specialist and the interested reader on Czechoslovakia to get a better insight into this troubled common state of the Czechs and Slovaks. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM Glendon College, York University Toronto, Canada Zdenek L. Suda. Zealots and Rebels: A History of the Ruling Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Stanford, Calif. : Hoover Institution Press , 1980 . 412 pp . This first history of the Czechoslovak Communist Party in English, from its beginnings in November, 1917 , in Revolutionary Russia and its foundation in November , 1921, up to the late 1970s, is an impressive achievement. Professor Suda, a sociologist at the University in Pittsburgh, selected some of the best scholarly works written in the West on various topics or periods of his target and complemented them with a few basic books and articles published at different times in Czechoslovakia. Although his opus is based almost exclusively on secondary sources and, surprisingly, does not even mention authors whose work should have been consulted (e .g ., Machonin, Borkenau, Taborsky, Zinner, Horak , Jancar, Korbel, Tigrid) , it is worth reading and including in private as well as public libraries. It is a solid work and excels in its capable and systematic review of major events in the history of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Its organization is clear, and the writer consistently pays attention to domestic developments as well as to Soviet or other Communist parties' history . In Suda' s concluding words , what matters is "the development of the Soviet core to which the CPCS, for the greater part of its existence, has only been peripheral" (p. 380). �SLOVAKIA 141 Suda's main contribution is to be found in his judicious summary of some sixty years in the life of a movement, in his sensible comments, and in his perspicuous analysis. One half of the book is devoted to the Party's history before it came to power in 1945 . There is a certain imbalance in Suda's treatment of the foundation of the CPCS (50 pages) or of its history until 1929 (70 pages) and his discussion of the crucial year of 1968 (only 20 pages) . The later story is much better known that the first two so that it does not constitute any major weakness, especially since the author keeps stressing interesting parallels between different periods of Party history . Basically, it was and is a foreign element brought into a state whose traditions , both cultural and political, have been .at variance with it . Suda devotes a substantial part of his book to developments in the Communist Party of Slovakia and to its asymmetric position in a basically centralist party and state. He rightly considers the unsolved problems of national minorities - and many Slovaks refused to think of themselves as equal partners in a "Czechoslovak" nation - to be the weak point of the whole edifice . The German problem is also systematically studied, and so are the Hungarian and Ruthenian ethnic communities. Paradoxically, even the establishment of a federal state in 1968 did not put an end to Prague centralism, although the general secretary of the Party since 1968 has been a Slovak. The lack of a detailed study of primary sources and of many crucial scholarly works , unfortunately , is responsible for some, mostly minor, mistakes in an otherwise well-printed and well-proofread work. For instance, Trotsky's secret message to disarm the Czechoslovak Corps in Russia is not mentioned; Tomas G . Masaryk is wrongly characterized as "never a socialist" (p. 12); the important role of G eneral Vlasov and his armed units in the Prague uprising in 1945 is omitted; for some reason, the Cominform and Comintern are both spelled with a ' K '; there is nothing on substantial workers' unrest in 1948 and 1949 ; Richta's leadership of a scientific Party commission is assigned to Mlynar , who was in charge of another one about whose existence the author does not seem to have known (p. 328); the Manifesto of 2000 Words was published simultaneously in four Prague papers and not just in one (p. 391) - a fact which was important for the Soviet audience since the pressure group was clearly well organized! Furthermore, the periodical Listy was not a "bimonthly" (p. 367) but rather appeared monthly. In disagreement with the author's statement on page 261, Zapotocky was criticized at Politboro meetings for his relaxation of forced collectivization of agriculture . What is more important, Suda sometimes accepts the terminology of his Communist sources and then refers, for instance , to the "progressive elite " (p. 120) when he discusses individuals who were responsible for bringing shame and enslave- �142 SLOVAKIA ment upon their own nations. Although the author believes that only a small minority of Social Democrats refused to join the CPCS in the year of forced amalgamation (p. 225), the truth is that less than one third of them joined the Communist Party! Also, his description of workers' acceptance of the Slansky trial is only partially true because, according even to Communist sources, after the initial passage of favorable resolutions, there was resolute criticism of the whole Party and state leadership, often calling for their dismissal. Finally , the 1968 meetings at Cierna nad Tisou did not take place in the Soviet train (p . 340) but - with the exception of Dubcek's visit to the "ailing" Brezhev in a railwaymen's club on Czechoslovak territory. There is a good analysis of voting patterns in 1925 but, somewhat surprisingly for a sociologist, the author does not include any analysis and statistics (which are available) of the social or class composition of the CPCS in its period of absolute power. All these and a few other errors and omissions can be easily corrected in an eventual second edition of this pioneering and generally very successful work . PETER R. HRUBY Western Australian Institute of Technology Perth , Australia Frantisek Bielik a kolektfv. Slovaci vo svete. Volume II. Martin : Matica slovenska, 1980. 320 pp . This second volume of Slovaci vo svete is a general survey of pre-World War II Slovak immigration to countries throughout the world. It is a collaborative effort. However, except for the separate sections on Slovak immigrant culture and involvement in labor activities in the United States and the Slovak immigration to Canada and France , Frantisek Bielik is the principal author of the book. Bielik first discusses the general causes of Slovak emigration and its impact on Hungary and later Czechoslovakia. The work is then divided into geographical categories by country. Within each geographical division, the authors adopt a standard, almost monotonous , procedure of chronicling the formation and sporadic activities of various Slovak organizations . They provide brief descriptions of Slovak fraternal societies , schools, newspapers, labor organizations, and cultural associations . In addition, they discuss the political and labor activities of some Slovak immigrants in the different countries. Slovaci vo svete is a useful addition to the literature on Slovak immigration, because it contains tables and statistics as well as literary material that have not been readily available in a single source. The inclusion of sources would have improved the usefulness of the tables. The work is also important �SLOVAKIA 143 because it offers some different perspectives on the Slovak immigration experience . For example, Bielik properly stresses that the United States was the major but not the sole destination of Slovak emigrants . To emphasize this point, the book includes brief sketches of Slovak immigration to New Zealand, Asia, and Africa - countries not commonly associated with the Slovak emigration movement. Also, by discussing Slovak involvement in labor unions and Socialist organizations, the authors offer a different profile of Slovak immigrant laborers than that depicted in earlier literature. Ivan Poljak and Eva Fordinalova, who contributed the segment on Slovak union and work-related activities in the United States, would agree with Victor Greene that Slovak workers were not simply meek laborers whose docility prevented them from becoming actively involved in labor unions and strife. Moreover, their religiosity did not prevent all Slovaks in the United States and elsewhere from flirting with Socialist or Communist ideas and joining Socialist or Communist parties. Despite such points, Slovaci vo svete is marred by serious weaknesses. As a synthesis , the book is far too general and institutionally oriented. Even the lengthier discussion of Slovak immigrants in the United States is primarily a chronicle narrative of various immigrant organizations and newspapers. The treatment of Slovak immigration to other countries serves little more than as a reminder that the United States was not the sole destination of this immigrant group. No attempt is made to offer a comparative analysis of Slovak adjustment to various countries. Rather, Bielik and the other contributors seem content to resort to perfunctory , isolated discussions of Slovaks and their organizations in the several countries. While they are to be commended for the attempt to describe the work life of Slovak laborers, the discussions of this topic suffer from overgeneralizations, oversimplifications, and factual and interpretive errors. The· authors try desperately to show that Slovaks almost naturally harbor Socialist sympathies . They use the participation by Slovaks in labor unions or strikes as examples of these natural sympathies. Typically the authors do not provide sufficient or convincing evidence for their generalizations. For example, they make no attempt even to estimate the number of Slovaks actually involved in the various " Socialist " and labor activities they describe . Unfortunately, Slovaci vo svete is further harmed because the authors overlook some obviously important aspects of Slovak immigrant life in the United States and perhaps in other countries as well. Despite the claim that the book is offering a description of immigrant life , much of the material actually focuses on the activities of prominent Slovaks, not ordinary immigrants . Slovak churches and their role in American Slovak communities are ignored. Overall, Slovaci vo svete is too brief to treat adequately the complex aspects of Slovak immigration to the United States and to other countries. Still, this work does raise questions that merit closer analysis b y students of Slovak �144 SLOVAKIA immigration and of labor and political history. The contributors also do provide a general, institutional history of Slovak immigration throughout the world. This volume does not rank as the definitive study of Slovak immigration, but it is a synthesis that scholars in Czechoslovakia and in those countries where Slovak immigrants have gone will find useful. JUNE GRANATIR ALEXANDER The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio Elena Jakesova . Vyst'ahovalectvo Slovakov do Kanady. Bratislava : Veda, vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej akademie vied, 1981. 160 pp . In recent years there has been a great renewed interest in ethnic and immigration history on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. To the growing list of scholarly studies in this field can be added Elenajakesova's present monograph . Jakesova presents a concise, statistical account of Slovak immigration to Canada from the 1870s to 1938. The book is divided into two sections, one covering the years from the 18 70s to 1914, and the second from 1922 to 1938 . She gives the reasons for Slovak immigration from Hungary, and later from Czechoslovakia, and also an excellent outline of the individual Slovak settlements in Canada. Other chapters or sections are devoted to the development of the Slovak press in Canada and to the rise of Slovak fraternal societies. Separate sections describe Slovak mining settlements in Western Canada, agricultural communities in Central Canada, and urban settlements in Eastern Canada in later years . This is a well-organized and well-written book . The research and documentation are most impressive . The author made use of archival material from Slovak district archives in Slovakia, from the Haus-Hof-und Staatsarchiv in Vienna, and from the Magyar Orszagos Leveltar in Budapest. Most of the periodical literature and monographic studies dealing with Canadian Slovaks were also used. In short, few stones were left unturned . The volume is also enriched by graphs and charts which help clarify the history of Slovak immigration to Canada. Even the illustrations were well selected and add interest to the subject. , Two serious shortcomings of the book arejakesova's treatment of Canadian Slovak societies and churches. Among societies the importance of the Slovak workers' movement was overemphasized . Her account of it was informative and interesting, but the movement itself was of decidedly minor significance. The Canadian Slovak League and Canadian-Slovak Support Society were and remain the largest Canadian-Slovak organizations . More should �SLOVAKIA 145 have been said about these groups and the great work and sacrifices of such individuals as Andrej Kucera and Andrej Potocky, founders of the Canadian Slovak League . In general, more attention should have been devoted to the experiences of Canadian Slovaks - their joys and sufferings - and to the history of their churches, which were not covered at all. Aside from these drawbacks , the work has many merits and can be recomm ended to anyone seeking a general survey of Slovak immigration to Canada. X. SUTHERLAND Stoney Point, New York ANTHONY Engelbert Zobl and Hertha A. Zobl. Holzbaukunst in der Slowakei. Vienna : Fachjournalverlagsgesellschaft, 1978. 92 pp. This unpretentious little paperback volume bears witness to what seems to be a growing interest among enthusiasts in western Europe to " uncover " the art of traditional wooden architecture in the Carpathian region of Slovakia. H ence, since the appearance of the book under review , two more ambitious volumes have appeared: Wooden Churches in th e Carpathians: The Photographic Legacy of Florian Zapletal (Vienna, 1982) by Paul R. Magoci and the monumental Wooden Churches of Eastern Europe (Cambridge , 1981) by David Buxton , both of which contain numerous photograp hs of structures in northeastern Slovakia. In contrast to these two subsequent works , the book by Engelbert and Hertha Zobl seems more of an architectural travel reportage put together as a guide for Austrian and West German tourists who still flock each summer to Czechoslovakia in search of the ostensibly more exotic cultural stimuli of the "east." This is not to suggest that such popular books are without value or that the Zobls have not done a competent job . In fact, as is evident from the albeit self-indulgent autobiographical data (complete with photographs of the whole family), the husband and wife Zobl team have degrees, respectively , in architecture and the a pplied arts. And as the lavishly-illustrated book reveals , they both have a keen sensitivity for the aesthetic as well as technical aspects of their subject. The book is basically divided into five chapters : belfries, wooden churches, wooden crosses, secular wooden architecture, and architectural ornamentation. The appendices include a list of all belfries and churches with their date of construct ion (in most , but not all instances); a map showing the travel route fo llowed by the authors in 1976 with each place indicated that appears in the book ; an index of placenames; and a brief bibliography . The latter indicates a few basi c German, Czech, and Slovak works, but omi ts two recent �146 SLOVAKIA Ukraini an-langu age studies from C zechoslovakia th at deal with the subj ect: an encyclopedia of wooden churches (past and present) in northeastern Slovakia by B. K ovafo vyfova-Puskarova and I. Pu skar , D erev 'jani cerk vy schidnoho obrjadu na Slo vaccyni (Bratislava and Presov, 1971) and a survey of secular architecture in the same region by M . Sopolyha , Narodn a architektura ukrajinciv Schidnoji Slovaccyn y (Svidnfk, 1976) . Each chapter in the book by the Zobls is preceded by a very brief introduction , and each of the 110 photograph s carries a caption. There are also 41 line drawings of structures and ground plans. By far , the largest portion of the book - a to tal of 72 illu strations - d epicts structures from villages inhabited by C a rpatho-Ru syns in the very northea stern part of Slovakia. Thi s is not surprising, since that area had economicall y always been the m ost underdeveloped and , therefore, traditional life-style and architecture have been preserved there the longest. Also , the authors seem ed to have become enchanted by the clusters of wood en churches north of Svidnfk and northea st of Snina, whose almost perfect form a nd balance m ake them stand out aesthetically, in particular when juxta posed to wooden architecture throughout all of eastern Europe, as is evident from the compara tive survey b y David Buxton mentioned above. The photographs are, in fact , the highlight of the Zobl ' s book . They were all ta ken in 1976, were well executed and often provide different views of a given structure, and have been reproduced clearly in the printing process. With the exception of a few iconostases in side Byzantine-rite churches, the photographs are almost all exterior shots. Pa rti cul arl y striking are 39 photograph s in color , am ong the best of which a re the wooden church in Mi rol'a, the cem etary crosses in D etva, and the decoration on hou ses in Zdi ar . All in all , W ooden Architecture in Slovakia is an excellent introd uction to the beauties of trad itional cultu re that still can be found in Slovaki a tod ay. As a serious guide for tourists, it would be pa rticula rl y useful if a n E ngli sh ed ition could be p repa red fo r the increasin g numbers of Am ericans of Slovak a nd Carpatho-Ru syn descent who visit the ancestral hom eland . P AUL R . M AGOCSI Uni versity of T oronto T oronto, Ca nada A tlas CSSR . Brat islava: Slove nska kartografi a, 1980 . This school atlas is obviously intended for student s at about the hi gh school level. It has no accompan yin g text or explana tory m a terial and is even devoid of a n introdu ction. Con sequentl y, the u ser is give n no idea regardin g the in tended audience or the goal s of thi s volume of m aps. �SLOVAKIA 147 There are 42 pages of maps; there are more actual maps, howeve r , because numerous inset (larger scale) maps are displayed on various themes. The first quarter of the atlas is d evoted to physical/environmental subjects temperature, precipitation , geological structure , soils, forests , etc. The remainder of the volume contains social, cultural, and especially economic maps . The physical maps are of standard type, although the last of this group is an interesting map of conservation sites, such as parks and botanical stations. The demographic maps (pages 12 to 15) are interesting because included are maps on density , fertility , mortality , national population growth rates , labor force, and the nationalities. Most of the m aps suffer as a result of the inappropriate scale employed and poor use of color. The nationalities sheet is particularly poor because the combination of colors and patterns to locate and quantify minority groups is a total failure. The economic maps (pages 16-27) again are standard and include maps of minerals , manufacturing, agriculture , crops , transport and more for the entire country. Detailed political/ physical maps of the Czech and Slovak R epublics are then followed by similar economic maps for the two areas. The atlas is rounded out with a set of maps of "regional types" at the micro-scale. There are six of these, including types such as the High Tatra a rea and a section of industrial Ostrava. There are also 10 exam ples of "settlement types," including Nitra and a Czech resort town. The final three maps are interesting cultural maps, including one of higher and middle schools, medical institutions, and historical/cultural monuments. Unfortunately , these maps are of very limited use because they are drawn at a scale ( 1 :4,000,000) which obliterates any detail. In general, the Atlas CSSR is an adequate school level tool. It would have been much better and useful, however , if sharper color had been used and if more reasonable scales had been chosen for many of the maps. The bulkiness (23 cm. x 55 cm .) and the inferior quality of the binding also detract from the Atlas ' value. In sum , a poten tiall y lively collection of maps has bee n rendered into a disappointing volume of no particular distinction. GEORGE J. D EMKO U.S. Department of State W ashington , D .C. Peter Balaz, Miloslav Darovec, and H eather Trebaticka. Slovak for Slavicists . Brat islava: Slovenske pedagogicke nakladatel'stvo, 1976. 302 pp. Students who have some background in another Slavic langu age, as well as those who possess a rudimentary knowledge of Slovak , will find this text- �148 SLOVAKIA book useful. It was written for the intermediate classes at the Studia Academica Slovaca (Summer Seminar of Slovak Language and Culture in Bratislava), and was also intended for use as a textbook in university-level courses abroad . The authors point out in the preface that it is not a handbook for those studying Slovak without a teacher ; however , it can be used in this way if the student's goal is to gain only a reading knowledge of Slovak, and particularly if Slovak is not his/ her first Slavic language. The book contains 27 lessons in addition to the Slovak-English/English-Slovak glossaries . The bilingual d esignation of the section headings in the table of contents and in the lessons themselves is a very desirable feature of the book . It serves the immediate pedagogical purpose of teaching these items in Slovak as well as enabling the student who wishes to augment the explanations in the textbook with those from Slovak sources to find easily the desired items in the Slovak books . Lesson 1 is devoted to a brief discussion of the alphabet and pronunciation . The Slovak letters ii, c, dz, s, z, t', d', 1' are characterized as palatalized consonants (p. 17) , which might well confuse those students who have studied Ru ssian . They would be better described in English as palatals. Furthermore, since regressive voice assimilatio n before nasals and liquids characterizes Slovak sandhi rules in contrast to some of the other Slavic languages, it would be well to include that information in the section on pronunciation . The remaining lessons have the following general format : introductory text , questions , vocabulary, grammatical section , exercises , grammatical section, exercises, translation exercise, and pronunciation exercise. The exercises a re well constructed and provide immediate reinforcement of the concepts just introduced . The notes and notice markers which call attention to exceptions or to features which differ significantly in English are also very effective . R eview exercises, spaced at appropriate intervals throughout the book which would combine the information presented in the various grammatical sections up to that point , would enhance the efficacy of the textbook (e.g., inclusion of a review exercise following Lesson 6 after most declensional paradigms have been introduced) . The introductory texts conta in a vocabulary which is very useful for those students who will be in Bratislava . Howeve r, to those who have never been there , as well as to the newly arrived , certain words such as miestenka are mystifying and a note of explanation would be helpful. Lesson 8 has an informal letter to a friend as the introductory text. The forms of ty are correctly capitalized. H owever , there is no note of explanation on how vy (polite singular/plural) should be written. Since this is one of the areas in which the Slavic languages differ , it would be well to include a note on T /V capitalization in letters. It might be more useful to include a thank- yo u note or a formal letter for exam- �SLOVAKIA 149 pie, to a professor requesting a consultation, because these are the kinds of letters that a more advanced student is likely to be writing . In general the texts are of a very practical nature and provide the student with an adequate vocabulary for functioning in Slovak society. They could be made more effective by deleting some, such as Lesson 4, or editing them, so that they would be more appropriate for and interesting to university students. While it is possible to draw up a list of additions that one would wish to insert into the book, that in no way detracts from its value. It is certainly the best textbook available today for teaching Slovak to English-speaking students at the university level, and we can only hope that it will be expanded and enlarged in future editions. LOUISE B. HAMMER Bloomington , Indiana JozefMistrfk . Basic Slovak . Bratislava : Slovenske pedagogicke nakladatel'stvo, 1981. 160 pp . This textbook is designed for English-speaking students who want to learn the fundamental grammatical phenomena and 800 of the most frequently occurring vocabularly items in Slovak without wading through the complexities that most traditional grammars present. Its focus is on learning to speak Slovak (American speakers of English should be forewarned that the pronunciation equivalents between English and Slovak given in Lesson 1 are based on British English), not on gaining a passive reading knowledge of the language, and it is not designed to be used without a teacher . Therefore, rules are given but exceptions to the rules are introduced into the discussion only when they occur frequently . This approach is based on the theory that second language acquisition, like first language acquisition, requires a knowledge of the productive grammatical rules of a language, i.e. , those patterns that a learner encounters over and over again in everyday usage. Since this textbook is designed for the one-month Studia Academica Slovaca summer school course as an introductory textbook, it alone would not suffice for a traditional American two-year college program; however, even in a more extended course, the texts which begin each chapter , as well as the exercises at the ends of the lessons, could serve as useful supplementary material . The book contains fifteen lessons , paradigm tables, Slovak-English and English-Slovak vocabularies, and a dictionary of linguistic terms . Beginning with the second, each lesson consists of four parts : text, vocabulary, grammar, and exercises. The texts are interest ing from the sociolinguistic point of view because they frequently have as their themes social events which a re common �150 SLOVAKIA in contemporary Slovak life, such as presenting flowers to someone arriving at the station, waiting in line to buy things, the extended family living together, friends sharing their experiences over a glass of wine . These texts serve to familiarize American students with Slovak culture and appropriate language usage in that culture. Each text introduces the vocabulary items which are listed just after it. This section is followed by grammatical explanations which are simple and concise, and are easily understood by learners with a minimal background in traditional grammar . The exercises require the student to create new forms based on the rules and data presented in the preceding sections . In addition to fillin g in blanks , the students are required to form sentences. Since a bilingual text is given in all of the lessons after the fifth , the student is able to check his/her progress in sentence construction . Features of Slovak which are absent in English and are, therefore , troublesome for English-speaking students are re-introduced in the texts or exercises of subsequent lessons; for example, the prefixed forms of ist' are introduced in Lesson 10 and are exemplified in the exercises in Lesson 12 . The last item in the exercises is a list of words to be read aloud for pronunciation purposes. These words do not appear in the glossary at the end of the book. The glossary does possess an attr~ctive feature: It indicates after every word the number of the lesson in which the word was introdu ced . As is usual in a first printing , some errors are to be found in the book (e.g., a few of the r ' s in th e glossary have been deleted , and some of the s's have been transposed into the s section). There are also minor errors in the English text : " present " in stead of " represent" (p. 11) ; "shorting" instead of " shortening" (p . 66) ; "The both forms are possible" (p . 74 ). one of these lead s to misunderstanding ; however, occasionally, as in " byvam dlho h are" (p . 3 1) ( = " not to sleep"), the E nglish m eaning is not immedia tely clear. On the whole , P rofessor Mi strfk 's book successfully fulfills the goals which he set in writing it , and any teacher or student of Slovak will find it a u seful addition to his/her library. L OU ISE B . HAMM ER Blooming ton , Indian a Abel Kral'. Slovenska vyslovn ost'. Banska Bys trica: U cebne pomocky, 1979. 8 stereo phonograph records with accom pan ying text , 173 pp. These high-quality recordings were produced by Abel Kral' , the head of the Phonetics D epartment a t Com enius University, and national artist V . Zaborsky , for u se in seconda ry schools and la ngu age institutes in Slovakia in �SLOVAKIA 151 order to teach students the neutral pronunciation style of standard literary Slovak . In the introduction Kral' explains the theoretical assumptions on which the presentation is based and suggests various ways in which the records can be used effectively. The recordings contain sections on the vowels, diphthongs, consonants, and consonant clusters . In addition there are excellent exercises on gemminated consonants, rhythmic shortening, and particularly on voicing assimilation in the various environments. The last record has a well-exemplifed discussion of sentence intonation. Each section begins with an introduction in which the terminology is defined, the particular sound or sounds under consideration are d escribed, and incorrect pronunciation is sometimes identified. Then the correct pronunciation is given. It is repeated twice with pauses between the utterances so that the student is able to practice the pronunciation and compare it to the record. These sections would be valuable for beginning students, while the more advanced students would additionally gain from hearing the spoken Slovak of the explanations as well as from their content. These recordings would be a very useful teaching aid for non-native speakers who teach Slovak or for Slovaks who speak a dialect and would like to acquire the standard pronunciation . Every student of Slovak who wishes to acquire a good speaking command of the language will benefit from the use of these recordings. They are in fact a very solid course in Slovak phonetics, and selections from the recordings would be ideal material for the pronunciation section of a typical language course. LOUISE B. HAMMER Bloomington , Indiana Vojtech Mihalik . Erotikon. Subor l'ubostn ej lyriky. Bratislava : Slovensky spisovatel' , 1981. Vojtech Mihalik is the grand old m an of Czechoslovak letters , and specifically of Slovak poetry, if this title could apply to a m a n who is only 55 years old. He is undoubtedly the most outstanding poet of the generation which came to the fore after the Second World War. Born in 1926 , Michalik for many years worked as the editor-in-chief of the main publishing house in Bra tislava . A former long-time president of the Association of Slovak Writers, he is at presen t the director of the publi shing house Slovensky spisovatel'. His first selection of poems appeared shortly after the war. H e has published 13 more volumes of poetry as well as numerous essays a nd translations. In 1978 he received the title of Nat ion al Artist, one of the highest literary honors in Czechoslovakia. �152 SLOVAKIA This, his latest volume, contains a selection of poems written at various periods of the author's life. As far as the erotic content of the book is concerned, it is much smaller than could be expected by Western standards . Mihalik is prima rily a romantic poet , a poet of love and emotion . H e puts less stress on the physical aspects of passion than would most of his W estern colleagues . In this he remains firmly rooted in the native Slovak tradition, where the appeal is to the feeling and sentiment , and where the exploitation of sexual aspects is subdued by a sense of decorum. Thus Mihalik ' s main effort in his love is to capture the fl eeting moments of love: the minute of mutual silence, a tree rising against the sun as the lovers embrace , the sorrows and the ecstasies of deep emotion. Mihalik is ve ry conscious of nature . Like most Slovak poets, he lives spiritually in the countryside , with its peasant cottages, lush gardens, orchards full of ripe fruit, meadows suffused by the rays of sun . His erotic imagery refers almost exclu sively to nature. A lonely lover is compared to earth which gave away its beautiful perfume to strolling winds. Lovemaking is perceived by the author in term s of entering a rose garden , searching for a star in the silent sky, or walking unharmed in the midst of a swarm of bees . The metaphors are so intricately ornate that they would be reminiscent of oriental poetry, were it not for the absence of explicitness so characteristic of Arabic and Persian verse. Each poem is a parable of nature sustained to the very end , where in the last lines it unravels into a love poem . If it were not for the last couple of lines, an inexperienced reader might take the poems at their face value of m elancholy or ecstatic descriptions of landscape . Each poem is thus a higly complex and elegantly written puzzle, the m eaning of which has to be d eciphered on two levels , the natural and the erotic. Mihalik 's poems are usually short. His favorite form is the sonnet, whose stylish elegance suits perfectly his method of expression . Some of the poem s are cast in the form of a dialogue, which is a mode deeply rooted in Slovak folk poetry. Mihalik m ay be a romantic lover accordin g to the Slovak tradition , but he is by no means a patient one. If hi s passion does not m eet with a quick response , he rebels. H e sees love as a confusing passion because there is so little understanding between man and woman. Woman is always an outsider in hi s poems. She may be courted, coveted , responsive, submi ssive, or cold , but she always remain s incomprehen sible. Mihalik 's attitude toward women is quite traditional . They are the ones who suffer, who bear the burden of broken relationships, and who carry the whole burden of parental responsibility. Mih alik admires women , feels sorry for them, but he seems to accept their lot as a na tural thing. A s he gets older, Mihalik finds it increasingly difficult to accept the new �SLOVAKIA 153 world around him . It is a world where the traditional values become rejected, where children of living parents become orphans because of desertion , where wives are leaving incompatible husbands , where families becom e broken for no apparent reason. The poet sees the world around him as full of suffering and unhappiness which he can only record, without being able to alleviate them . H e becomes a witness for a new generation that is growing up unloved and unlovable . His poems lose their spontaneous enchantment with life, as life becomes increasingly complex and difficult and as the poet finds he cannot turn to love to provide him with a sense of the m eaning of existence. The only an swer that seem s to emerge from Mihalik 's later poems is the implicit message to endure , to go on, and to do one's best. And in this message, as in so many aspects of hi s poetry, Mihalik shows himself again as the true son of his peopl e, the patient, enduring, and long-suffering people of Slovakia. YVONNE GRABOWSKI York University Downsview, Canada Vincent Sikula. Liesky. Bratislava: Smena, 1980. The novelette Liesky is in many respects firml y embedded in the Slovak literary tradition. Like so many books produced in Slovakia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it describes the trials and tribulations of a country boy on his way toward education and recognition. The chief character is a student at the conservatory who hopes to become a forest horn player and who persists in hi s path in spite of loneliness and abject poverty. The form of the novelette is also an old favorite, a first person narrative. The genre itself has been successfully transplanted from the Russian literature of the Golden Age and has fl ourished in Czechoslovakia since there was a favorable ground for its reception in Czech and Slovak folklore . What saves the story from becoming a typical hardship case narration , so characteristic of Slovak literature, is Sikula's humorous approach. The humor is intensified by the aut hor's use of the skaz technique. The predicam ents of the hero m ay be pathetic, but they are at the same time highly amusing. When the hero describes his family, we learn that his parents had so many children that the y hardly noticed if several of them were missing. The young man 's landlady can carry a conversation only with her cat - she is stone deaf. The hero has to practice music by drumming on the table because he cannot afford an instrument. When he finally gets the opportunity to practice on a real piano, he ruefully notes that it does not sou nd to him as good as the table. The narration thus proceeds at a lively pace, in a jolly animated style, �154 SLOVAKIA full of slan g, colloquiali sm s, and peasant speech m annerism s. It m akes fo r ea sy and pleasant readin g. Yet Sikula is mu ch m ore th an a skillful na rrator . Hi s m astery of style is evident as the story gradually reveals the narrator 's character , his a rtistic strivings , and his sexu al awakening. Sikula possesses a superb sense of n ature. M an is never alone in hi s book. All his ac tion s and feelings ta ke place in a na tural setting of which he is a n integral part. N a ture blends with the action , and the cha n ge of seasons accompanies ch a n ges of life . Thus the story starts with a beautiful description of winter and ends with an equally beautiful episode of picking fresh twigs from bu sh es. The story is deliberatel y left unfinished since Sikula aim s a t portrayin g but one stage in th e hero 's life . W e will never learn what is goin g to ha ppen in the future to the human twig picked from the bu sh of country life, a nd we are not m eant to know. Sikula presen ts u s with a vignette of life in the m a kin g. W e a re expected to enj oy the beaut y and the immediacy of the vignette portrayed b y an exquisite painter and not to look beyond it. Sikula has both the talen t of a pa inter a nd a poe t. Althou gh the story is written in p rose, it read s like a poem , di splayin g the author 's rem arka ble powe r ove r la nguage. Its m easured cad en ces a nd sen se of rhythm give the reader a unique poetic experience. It is the beaut y of style which gives to Liesk y its most definite imprin t. YVONNE G R ABOWS KI Y ork Uni versity D own sview, C anada �SLOVAKIA 155 BOOK NOTE Charles Wojatsek . From Trianon to the First Vienna Arbitral Award: The Hungarian Minority in th e First Czechoslovak Republic, 1918-1938. Montreal: Institute of Comparative Civilizations, 1981. 229 pp . Time and time again Mr. Wojatsek attempted to publish his manuscript through academic and commercial presses , only to have it repea tedly rejected because of its poor quality . Finally, when nothing else could be done, he published the book him self, under the spu rious auspices of the " In stitute of Comparative Civilizations, Montreal." This book is not worth serious consideration. It was written with the patriotic fervor of a true believer, and its reading makes for cruel and unusual punishment, deserved only by other nationalists of Wojatsek's type. This reviewer wishes to warn the unsu specting public: Beware 1 You may jeopardize your time, your money, and your nerves! Y ESHA Y AHU JELINEK Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheba, Israel �� SLOVAKIA 119 Book Reviews Robin Okey. Eastern Europe 1740-1980: feudalism to Communism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1982 . 264 pp . Attempting to write a general survey of Eastern European history is no m ean task . Indeed, a comprehensive overview within the confines of a book numbering less than three hundred pages is altogether impossible. Robin Okey offers an alternative to this dilemma in the form of an interpretive stud y . The author indicates that his purpose is to " present a perspecti ve rather than tell a story. " Focusing on the twin themes of modernization and na tionalism , he traces the evolution of the Central and Eastern European lands through two ce nturies of economic , political, and social change . It is his thesis that Eastern European nationalism arose as a response to the area ' s comparative backwardness in relation to the W est. In approaching thi s theme, Okey notes that feudalism came relatively late to this general area , and suggests that - at least until the sixteenth century - Eastern Europe enjoyed the potential of parallel development with W estern Europe. H e states, however , that dom estic fe udal forces were strong enough to reverse thi s trend . External forces - the Turkish invasion of the Balka ns a nd Hun gary a nd the H a bsburg conquest of rebelliou s Bohemia - are also cited as instrument al facto rs. Ei ghtee nth -century Eastern Europe is ch a racterized as havin g regimes which were ineffi cient even by feudal standards . The peasantry bore the brunt of resulta nt defi ciencies, but thriving popul ar cultures provided an impetu s for future revival. Okey states catego rically that the penetrati on of the Enli ghtenm ent represe nt s the first stages of ra pprochem ent with the W est. In a number of in sta nces th e process was characteri zed by reform from a bove, althou gh the role of th e cl ergy is also cited . In the latter case, the auth or specificall y mention s th e P ole K on a rski and th e Serb Obrad ovic; it is wo rth notin g th a t Bern ola k's contribution to th e Slovak rev ival is omitted . T he Eastern Eu ro pean Enli gh te nment faced the dil emm a th at the socia l premi ses of an al ternative order we re incomplete. Con sequentl y, conservatives were more ext reme and reformers more revolutionary tha n their cou n terpa rt s in the West. �120 SLOVAKIA Liberalism in Eastern Europe differed from the West insofar as members of the nobility were heavily involved in a process which put them in opposition to their own social strata. Okey characterizes Eastern European liberalism as "an elusive, complex creed"; it shared the heavy emotionalism of ideas from other lands , but was only partially emancipated from native traditions. He objects to the Marxist view of nationalism as a creed devised by ambitious bourgeois elements; instead, he cites the role of professional scholars as the vanguard of the national movements . The 1848 revolutionary experience led to a clash between liberalism and nationalism; the former was instrumental in abolishing the last vestiges of serfdom, but also failed to satisfy the national aspirations of subject peoples . The balance of the nineteenth century is treated as a period of ideological fragmentation. The advance of industrial capitalism caused a reaction against liberalism on the part of the Right as well as the Left , and the continued rise of mass nationalism splintered existing political parties along ethnic lines. In assessing the downfall of the old order during World War I , Okey concedes that not all tendencies could be related to the national question. But h e hastens to add that "only nationalism had a magnetism strong enough to draw the dislocated elements into an alternative political order the pattern of nation-states . '' Promoters of the new nation-states viewed their emergence as the culmination of humanist principles. Okey disagrees, and cites three general causes for the failure of Western-style liberalism in the interwar period . Most obviously, one of them is the continuity of ethnic conflict within the new states. Second, the Eastern European nations remained economically de pendent on foreign capital. Finally, both the leaders of the new states and their opponents repudiated democracy in their approach to the outstanding problems of the times. Okey views interwar nationalism as "short-sighted rather than fundamentall y misguided"; the outsider Hitler bore the greatest responsibility for the demise of these states. The author implies that national Communism was most successful in those countries where the Party remained in effective control of public life, and failed in Czechoslovakia because the regime capitulated ideologicall y to non-Party gro ups. Finally, Okey states that the rise of a mass int elli ge nt sia and the emerge nce of common social problem s with the West is indicative of a greater degree of syncopat ion. For the student of Slovak hi story, this book might prove disappointing. Indeed, a genuine weakness may be found in the fact that Okey cites so few examples of the Slovak experien ce which provide important contrasts with certain patterns. Okey ' s contention that Eastern European soc iety had already become "brutali zed" during World War II , and that the Communists were tailor-made representatives of the new age , borders on conjecture. Although the position of the J ews in Slovakia was precarious during the war , they were �SLOVAKIA 121 nevertheless afforded a certain "breathing space" denied to their kin smen in Poland, and the average citizen of the Slovak R epublic was by no m ean s terrorized. It was only during the 1944 risin g - in which Communists played a major role - that "brutalization" on a broad scale was affected . Okey's treatment of the " Prague Spring" also provides a case of omission: He correctly cites the straightj acket command economy model as a major facto r in Novotny's demise, but mentions the Slovak opposition only as merely inciden tal. But insofar as Slovakia may be viewed as an integral part of an Eastern European whole, this book has definite merit. It provides the reader with a concise, refreshing overview of the past two centuries, and the author skillfully employs anecdotal examples to compare and contrast specific national experiences. Okey's book is helpful to the student already well-grounded in general Eastern European history; it can also be useful to the instructor who wishes to co nvey a certain sense of ideological conflict inherent in the region . R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Easley, South Carolin a East Central Europe: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow. Edited by Milorad M. Drachkovitch. Stanford, Calif.: H oover Institution Press, 1982 . 41 7 pp . Thirteen of the seventeen papers contained in this volume were presented at a conferen ce organized by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in January , 1980 . Due to the events in Poland in August , 1980 , publication of the symposium's proceedings was delayed so that individual authors could revise their contributions. According to the editor, Milorad M. Drachkovitch, readers of the book "will not find in it a ny pred ictions " and "will be offered facts and explan ations of recent events" (p. xi). This is true of most but not all of the essays. The latte r are largely analyt ical and of uneven quality. Among th e excellent contributions are Drachkovitch 's survey of the postwar political and economic developm ents in Yu goslavia, Leszek Kolakowski's " Ideology in Eastern Europe ," and the essays by J ohn Erickson, Hugh Seton-Watson, Peter J. Wiles, and Richard F. Staar. Also superb is the overview of developments in East Central Europe , " Present Situation and Principal Trends ," by Robert F. Byrnes. H e points out that '' the opinions of even our most expe rienced an alysts often reflect shallow hi stori cal knowledge , flight y analysis, and the ass umpti on that peoples of this area are far less in terested in independence and self-government than a re West �122 SLOVAKIA Europeans and Americans '' (p. 20). The flip-flops of George K ennan are cited as an example. Byrnes is a very perceptive observer who notices the connection between the election of Pope John Paul II , his visit to P oland in 1979, and the subsequent d evelopments in that country. In contrast , the essay on Poland by Jan T omasz Gross, " What Is Yet To Come," appears to be a rather superficial d escription of events leading up to the establishment of Solidarity in 1980 , claiming that " the impossible was inevitable " (p. 32 1). In the last section of the essay Gross sketches two different scenarios: first , Soviet military intervention ; second, the devolution of the Soviet imperium for which the price would be " m ost likely " the " ne utralization of Germany through unification and detachment from the Atlantic Alliance " (p. 325). As it happened , the imposition of martial law in D ecember 1981 proved his (and man y other observers') projections incorrect. On Alexander Dubcek 's behavior in 1968 Hugh Seton-Watson comments by asking a rhetorical question : How could the United States "defend people who would not defend themselves?" (p . 178). In contrast to it , Zdenek L. Suda, while concentrating mostly on the events in 1968 , is very a pologetic. H e writes: " The peaceful counterrevolution in the ve ry core of the Czechoslovak system must have caused more pani c in Moscow than the armed insurgency of Hungarian workers and soldiers in O ctober 1956 " (p. 258). Suda's cl aim is an undocumented assumption without an y foundation, and so is his interpretation of the events in Czechoslovkia when he writes that " the whole reform movement of 1968 could be defined simply as the application of rules and laws that long had been dead letters, but nt>:vertheless existed. It was precisely this greater respect for legality and constitutionality that sounded an alarm in the Soviet power center and triggered the intervention" (p. 256). Accordin g to Suda, "the Czechoslovak case differs from the Polish case because the Polish reform experim ent initiated in 1956 fa iled without direct Soviet intervent ion " (p. 252). Suda does not differentiate between intervention and in vasion . Soviet military presence in Poland ever since the end of World War II has constituted inter vention and h as m ade in vasion unnecessary. In fact, an invasion would have been cou nterproductive from the Soviet point of view. In contrast to it , by in vading Czechoslovakia in 1968 the Soviets h ave attained their military and strategic objecti ves. The "temporary" stationing of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia has become " permanent. " The even ts in Poland in the earl y 1980s corroborate the view th at the Soviets had military a nd strategic reasons for the 1968 in vasion and that the in ternal de velopments , which certainly did not amount to a "counterrevoluti on" as Sud a and the Sov iets claim, were merely a pretext for the action whose a im was to extract a "consent " from the Czech and Slovak Communist leaders to the stati oning of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia. L abeling people as " neo -Stalinists " a nd "dogmati cs," as �SLOVAKIA 123 Suda does, is meaningless. His lack of knowledge of history is reflected in the essay. For example, he writes that " the division of the world between the two superpowers into spheres of interest - made the eventual integration of Czechoslovakia into the system controlled by the Soviets virtually inevitable'' (p. 244). However , nothing was " inevitable" about the arrangements that Edvard Benes made in Moscow in D ecember , 1943 . It was his decision to sign the trea ty with the Soviet Union and to promise the Czech and Slovak Communist leaders in Moscow that their party would be the strongest element in the new regime and that he would always support it. Indeed , Professor Byrnes' comment on the " shallow historical knowledge" and " flighty analysis," cited above , is applicable to the two essays by the two sociologists on Czechoslovakia and Poland published in this volume . j OSEF KAL YODA Saint Joseph College W est H artford, Connecticut Rudolf Krajcovic. Svedectvo dejfn o slovencine . 2nd edition, corrected. Martin : Matica slovenska, 1980 . 268 pp. The second edi tion of Krajcovic's collection of linguistic eviden ce for the Slovak language is essentially the same as the first of 1977 . In these two edition s, the compiler strives to offer proof that the Slovak language has its own long and distinctive history. He is intent on demonstrating that Slovak is a " language of written documents ." He traces Slovak from the period of the Great Moravian Empire of the ninth century throu gh the "twilight of Hungarian feudalism" in the nineteenth century. For the conclusion of his stud y, Krajcovic gives examples of present-day dialectical variations of the Slovak lan guage. There are photographs of d ocuments u sed as evidence. Especially when documents are in script, Krajcovic has the writings reproduced in printed form for easier appreciat ion. Interspersed among the evidence are bl ac k a nd white as well as colored illu stration s of folk articles and pa intings on a folk theme. The illu st ra tions a re the better to con vey the a tmosphere and period of the docum ents presented. Documen ta ry evidence from the early periods , n a mel y from that of the Great M orav ia n Empire through that of the fifteenth century , is not really extensive. A hi storical lin gui st would find the m aterial interesti ng, perh a ps even intrigu ing , but not conclu sive or even substantial for a judgm ent. From the sixteenth century onwards , the material offered as evidence is increasin gly more substanti ve. Indeed , Krajcovic him self notes th at the m aterial from the sixtee nth ce ntury is of" great significance," because thi s was "when Slovak was �124 SLOVAKIA for the first time committed to written form." The expression " written form " is perhaps a poor choice of phrasing. (The expression is found in the brief Slovak, Russian, as well as English introductions to the documentary evidence for this period.) For virtually all the examples of Slovak in this book are written . By the expression "written form," Krajcovic's probably means that the extant documentary instances of Slovak become more extensive and so more able to be appreciated linguistically. In focusing on this poor phrasing and its alleged implication , I do not intend to impugn the long history and distinctiveness of Slovak that Krajcovic desires so clearly to demonstrate in his book. The reader, nonetheless, cannot help feeling that Krajcovic is straining very hard to do this. On the whole, the book is more a nicely illustrated survey of the Slovak language for the layperson rather than a serious academic study for the specialist. With the Slovak language and its related culture appreciated so little outside of Slovakia and the Czech lands, Krajcovic' s book could enhance to some degree a better understanding of this language and culture . This second edition is a ''corrected '' version of the first . This correcting involves stylistic and typographical errors, but especially a few attributions that include additions, deletions, or actual corrections. For example, Krajfovic has deleted the attribution of the 1648 Trnava dictionary as one used for Virgil's Aeneid. The attribution ofa folk article as coming from Kovafova pri Zvolene has been changed to Kral'ova. Krajcovic has added the name of the Austrian author of Klimko's rendition of Krizant und Daria - Gottfried Uhlich, rendered by Krajcovic as Ulrich . Also, the English text has at times questionable diction and stylistic phrasing. The Russian text has been improved for this edition in various places. Neither language should offer problems in Slovakia, for there are native speakers as well as numerous specialists who could be consulted for a third edition . Finally, the bibliography for this edition has been expanded by one item. The price of this survey of the Slovak language has remained the same as for the earlier edition . This should make the book a readily purchasable acquisition for any individual or institution. G ERALD] . SABO , S.J . John Carroll University Cleveland, Ohio I'.udovft Novak. K najstarsfm dejinam slovenskehojazyka . Bratislava: Veda, vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej adademie vied, 1980 . 352 pp. This important study of the earliest history of the Slovak language evolved out of a plan by I'.udovft Novak in the 1930s to supply the most up-to-date , complete, and detailed presentation of Slovak phonology from its earliest begin- �SLOVAKIA 125 nings . Methods of structu ral analysis were to be applied to the reconstructed phonologies of Slovak dialects . The origi nal ve rsion was begun in the last months of 1938 and earl y 1939 , a period of political turbulence. Over the intervening years, materials added to the original accumulated into several essays, thus resulting in two works. By reason of the a mount of accu mulated m ate rials , a recent decision to publi sh this monograph from just the original alone was ca rried out . The val ue of the original as a linguistic la ndm ark of the structural method in Slovakia was the deciding factor. Novak 's later theories are to be published in a separate volume which will be entitled "Vznik Praslovanov a ich jazyka. '' Four chapters in the book under review provide the most important linguistic phenomena in the d evelopment of the Slovak sou nd system , from the earliest period after the collapse of Common Slavic into the dialect differentiations of the Slovak area. They are: (a) the Slovak reflexes rat-, lat- from P ro to-Slavic *ort- , *oft -; (b) alterat ions in the consonant clusters dl, tl, and dn ; (c) reduced vowel "yer"-changes , the contraction phenomena, and the depalatalization of e( e)»a; and (d) the reconstruction of sound systems of Slovak dialects after the period of liquidation of Common Slavic co rrelations of '' syllabic soft ening. '' Novak is interested in whether (a) can be termed a "Yugoslavism" relating to a theory of colonization of Central Slovakia from the south . With respect to (b) he quotes rare documents of ancient dialect litera ture, gives phonetic a nd phonological ex plana tions , with examples of geographic ex tension of changes in W estern Slovak, and compares this with pa rallel types of like consonantal quantitat ive correlation s in a non-Slavic la nguage. For ( c) the a uthor defines the rapport of Central Slovak especially with East and Central Slavic languages, and refers to the chronology and locali zation of alterations in the Common Slavic dialect dom ai n. R egarding (d) he concen trates first on the contrac tion phenomena in Central Slovak with its chronology a nd that of other Slavic dialects, and then of other West Slavic la nguages . H e provides a n argu m ent for the explanation of the zenou-feminine-instrumental-singular type and a criticism of other theories. Most of the phonological changes in Old Slovak are viewed as occurring due to certain influences of external lan guages or of internal dialects. Hi s terminology illu strates certain developing periods of Old Slovak , for example, turkicizing, mongolization. The aut hor maintains one of several possible theories in lin guistic development. Hi s is an attempt to overcome difficulties connected with the immane nt development of the Slovak language. ova.k's structural approach as innovative and successful in the earl y period of lin gu ist ics is appla uded by colleagues m entioned in the foreword. H owever, his earl y theory is criticized as "one-sided" for three main reasons : fai lure to �126 SLOVAKIA calculate the comparison of internal contradictions; overemphasis on phonology without consideration of grammatical, morphemi c, morphological, or wordbuilding structures as lingui stic units; and finally a lack of regard for sociolin guistic chan ges . I'.udovft Novak is referred to as th e " Nestor of Slovak Linguistics " (p. 9) . This original work is viewed as a monument in the evolution of Slovak lin gu istics a nd is noteworthy, especially considering the period of its composition, the structural methods applied, with its new theoreti cal thought and insights. It is rightly considered the first synthetic conception of the earliest history of Slovak language founded on the development of the dialect sound systems. The dedication of the book is symbolic of its apparent inherent worth. Honored are three famous contributors to Slovak linguistics: to the history of the Slovak language (Trubetzkoy); to the comparative history of Slovak and Czech languages (Travnfcek), and to the foundation of modern Slovak linguistic geography with its Slovak historical dialectology (Vazny). Novak has provided the first synth etic method of structu ral applicat ion to the historical phonology of Slovak , a structural lin gui st ic milestone in Slovak lan guage study. JOHN M . KOCHIK Westmoreland County Community College Youngwood, Pennsyl vania Frantisek Kalesny. Habani na Slovensku. Bratislava: Tatran, 198 1. 376 pp. Scattered today over the prairies of the United States and Canada can be found settlements of a people known as Hutterites or Hutterian Brethren. The Brethren still retain the German language of their forefathers and practice a st ri ctly communitarian way of life. Their mode of collective farming is not th e outcome of economi c calculation ; it results from the Hutterit es' belief that Christ calls on his followers to renounce private property and have all things common . The H utterites originated in th e earl y 1530s as part of the Anabaptist movement that had begun in Central Europe around 1525. The M ennon ites tod ay also claim spiritual descent from this movement which represe nted a left wing of the Protestant R eformation. While onl y the Hutterites esta bli shed community o f goods, all its adherents practiced adult ba ptism (hence the n ame they acqu ired, Anabaptists) in order to stress the volunta ry character of their beli eve rs' church, in which only grown persons could participate meaningfull y. As Dr. Kales ny remarks in the preface to hi s fascinating study of Hutterite hi story, few Slovaks know about th e connection betwee n the Hutterites a nd Slovakia, where they li ved for over two hundred year . The descendants of those Hutterites, who in the mid -e ighteenth century acce pted forced �SLOVAKIA 127 recatholicization rather than have to emigrate, eve ntually lost their German speech and a re today completely assimilated to the Slovak popula tion. If memories of the Hutterites grew dim, the name which their Slovak neighbors gave these German settlers , " H abans " (Habani, H abaner) , has become widely known on acco unt of the beautiful ceramics produced by the Hutterite communities and their successors. These are now valued possessions of the museums of Czechoslovakia a nd Hun gary, and examples of the art form are also to be fo und elsewhere. H a ban folk a rt , according to K alesny (p.12), should be reckoned as an important asse t of Slovak '' n at ion al culture,'' for it was produced on the soil of Slovakia by people who, although of foreign origin , had put down deep roots there. The book , which is a wo rk of scholarship even though it lac ks footnotes, is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the history of the Hutterite communities from their inception down to the present d ay, with m ost a ttention given to their soj ourn in northwest Hungary (present -day Slovakia) . They first set up comm unities there around 1545: Their chief settlement a nd the seat of their " bi sh op" was a t Sobotiste. As in Moravia where the sect had started, h ere too it s ad herents we re welcomed by the landown ing nobility, Catholic as well as Protestant, who valued the Hu tterites as h ardworking and profitable tenants and consequently were prepared to overlook their religiou s peculiarities. After the battle of White Mountain in 1620 the H absburg ruler drove them out of M oravia, but the Moravian brethren also found a refuge on the estates of friendly Hun garia n landown ers. The endemic warfare of the seve nteenth century when Turkish, H absburg, and kuru c forces ravaged the Slovak countryside inflicted terrible suffering on the local population , including the Hutterites . On the eve of the disaster of 1620 the Hutterites in M oravia and Slovakia had numbered abo ut 25,000 persons, a tenfold increase sin ce 1545, which was due to the steady stream of newcomers from the T yrol a nd ot her pa rts of Ce n tral Europe seeking to join the brotherhood. Almost all these were of German speech , but a few adherents were of local origin. On page 46 , fo r instance, K alesny m entions "Wendel H olba ein Schlawak (Ve ndel H olba, Slovak)," who even becam e a Hu tterite minister. Whereas in north Hun gary the Hutterites abandoned their communitarian wa y of life in 1685 a nd were recatholicized under Maria Theresa in the nex t century (w hile still retaining for some time their separate legal identit y as H abaner), in Transylvania - where some Hutterites had settled in 1621 - they contin ued to lead the same life as before, until finally in 1767 the aut horit ies expelled those who would not conform . Ka les ny ch ron icles briefly their subseq uent wanderings, first via Wall ac hia to the Ukraine where they arrived in 1770 and then in 1874 across the Atlantic and on to the American West. After World War I most of the Hutterites moved across the border into Canada . Their later mi grat ions stemmed not from �128 SLOVAKIA religious persecution but from the threat posed to their pacifist principles by the introduction of universal miliary service. Kalesny prefaces his historical narrative, which for the most part does not add to what we already know , by an interestin g discussion of the name haban , the first authenticated m ention of which occurs in a document of 1667 now in the municipal archives of Bratislava. Originally a d erogatory term , it eventually lost its pejorative connotation and became the accepted way of describing the descendants of the former comm unitarians . Concerning the origin of the word no consensus exists among scholars. The latest theory is that of a German scholar who derives it from the H ebrew. D espite what the resumes say, Kalesn y seems to be somewhat sceptical about this. If the author deals rather briefly with the religious aspects of the Hutteri te way of life, h e devotes almost the whole of th e second part of the book to their social organization. The overwhelming majority of community m embers were artisans: Over forty crafts were bei ng practiced when the communities were at their peak. Of course, they also engaged in farming, which today is the chief occupation of the Hutterites. A strict discipline was imposed on members , expulsion from the brotherhood being the final sanction against those who did not conform. But this was not usually necessary since the brethren recognized the advantages of communal living over those of the outside world, despite any momentary attraction they might feel toward the latter. " The Hutterites had succeeded in creating an ordered society, socially egalitarian and materially secure, with high moral principles based on the community'' (p. 169) . Children of both sexes were taught at least to read and write - in an age when illiteracy prevailed among the masses . Great care was taken, too, to provide for the sick and aged, for pregnant women and for children of preschool age . The culture was perhaps narrow and th e aut horit y of the elders excessive, but this must be judged within the context of the times. Purely aesthetic values found no place among Hutterites. Yet their craftsmen succeeded in creatin g countless objects of beauty either for domestic use or for sale: Their pottery became famous throughout east central Europe and was eage rly bought up by the nobility a nd wealthy townspeople of the area. Kalesny, whose specialty is folk a rt , devotes th e third part of hi s book to the history and technology of'' H aban '' pottery. The making of faience , their most hi gly prized produ ct , had bee n introdu ced into th e Hutterite communit ies around 1580 by An a baptist immigra nts from northeas t Italy. Kales ny has included at the end I 09 full-page colored illu strat ion s of ceramics emanating from " H aban" workshops. The bibliography includes man y items in Slovak, Czech, a nd Hungarian that are unknown to North Ameri can scholars who have written on the Hutterites. Man y of these pi eces, it is true , deal with " Haban" ce ramics, but some �SLOVAKIA 129 are of more general interest. K alesny, on the other h and, h as obviously had difficulty in gaining access to sch olarship in the W est. He knows the work of the M ennonite sociologist , J ohn A. H ostetler. But h e does not, for example , appear to be acquainted either with the valua ble study by another M ennonite scholar , Victor J . Peters, All Things Common: The Hutterian Way of Life (Minneapoli s, 1965) , or with the numerous articles published in the United States by the leading authority on Hutterite history and culture, the late Robert Friedmann . Many of them were reprinted in his Hutterite Studies (Goshen , Indian a , 1961) . L et us hope that in future closer contacts can be established in the field of Hutterite studies between North American scholars and those working in Czechoslovakia and Hungary. K alesny is perhaps lucky in dealing with a group like the Hutterites who , while deeply religiou s, have at the same time been dedicated "communists," albeit of the Utopian variety. The T at ran press was able (so to speak) to roll out the red carpet for him . It h as published a volume that , with its excellent pa per, numerou s illu stration s, and tasteful design , is indeed a credit to book production in Slovakia. PETER BROCK University of T oronto Toronto , Canada August A. Skodacek. Lutherans in Slovakia . Pittsburgh : Slavia Printing Company, 1982. 242 pp. This acco unt of the rise and development of the Lutheran Church in Slovakia from the Reformation to the present redresses the oversight of many concern in g the role of the Lutheran Church in the historical development of Slovakia. This may b e a fl aw. The author would have us understand that Slovakia 's history in modern times is a con sequen ce n ot onl y of the R eformation but also of the influence of Lutheranism in Slovak social and political struggles. However, Skodacek does not su ffic ientl y analyze the historical facts a nd ci rcum stances to judge whether hi s claim , that without Lutheranism m od ern Slovakia would not be , is warranted. Skodacek chronciles the fa te and fort une of Lutherani sm in term s of fates and fortun es of the group's leaders. As they fared, so fared their group . Thus, this is a hi story of an in stitution al church and its great m en from a perspective of within the gro up . It uses synodical records to illu strate th e respon se of the Lutheran C hurch in Slovakia to outside social and political forces, na m ely the Roman Catholic C hu rch , the J esuits, and the variou s rulers allied with those two groups. Since there is little in -depth an alysis, thi s essay does not offer a ny new insights into the causes of man y of the events ch ro nicled. �130 SLOVAKIA In the main, it is a hagiographic account extolling historical individuals for their virtues and deeds done in the name of the cause. In describing the influences of a Thurzo , Lani , or Krman and others, Skodacek, interestingly enough, sees them as the real descendants of the missionaries Cyril and Methodius. Just as Cyril and Methodius introduced the Slavs to Christianity and hence to civilization ( of a kind) , so too the followers of Luther reintroduced Christianity and civilization to Slovakia even to the point of generating and maintaining a consciousness of Slovak nationalism. To this point, Skodacek writes that "the R eformation activated a conversion in Slovakia which gradually brought into the open a Slovak nationality; it spread the reformational ideology in an understandable native language and a democratic religious life'' (p. 66). Be this as it may, the book is a good source for anyone who wishes to do research in Slovak history but who does not know th e necessary languages. The volume provides translations of records and documents of the various synodical events which figured large in the life of the Slovak Lutheran Church. This point not withstanding, it is unfortunate that Skodacek did not see fit to describe and analyze the historical dynamics of the sociocultural and political forces beyond the activities of the Lutherans and the Roman Catholics. Not everyone, despite Skodacek's claim, was either a Lutheran or Roman Catholic. Some were Greek Catholic and some were Calvinists. These are never mentioned . Also, not everyone living in Slovakia was either a Slovak or a German . Another missing analytical point is that of socioeconomic class; from what class did the Lutheran leadership come? It is on these points that Skodacek could have given us some insight; perhaps he will irt another book . Although this vol ume is a good in-house version of a historical period and of what happened to the Lutherans in Slovakia , the lack of analysis of the sociocultural and political dynamics limits its effectiveness. ROBERT j. SKOVIRA Saint Vincent College Latrobe, Pennsylvania Paul R obert Magocsi . The Shaping of a National Identity: Subcarpathian Rus ', 1848-1948. Cambridge, Mass .: Harvard University Press, 1978 . 650 pp. P aul R. Magocsi. The Rusyn -Ukrainians of Czechoslovakia: An Historical Survey . Vienna: Wilhelm Braumi.iller Universitats-Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1983. 94 pp . The first of Professor Magocsi ' s books is the one we all dream of writing . The fruit of years of research, it is encyclopedic in its description of the cul- �SLOVAKIA 131 tu ral a nd political development of the territory which m ad e up Subcarpathian Ruthenia in the first C zechoslovak Republic. H e has used a rich array of sources - archives, published statistics, interviews , and most books and articles relating to the subj ect. It will stand for d ecades to com e as the basic referen ce work . Graduate students will be surpr ised to find a detached , obj ective approach in a volume devoted to an East European nationality group of less tha n a million people. It will be a required presence in the library of eve ryo ne who calls himself an Eas t European historian . Slovakists , in particular, will welcome Magocsi ' s dispassiona te understa ndin g of the sensibilities of the ripening Slovak national identity in Eastern Slovakia. The tex t is di vided into three parts. The first cove rs political and cultural hi story un til 19 18 . The second examines history, la nguage, literature , education , and reli gion between 19 18 and 1944. The final part discusses the political hi story from the end of W orld W ar I to the incorporation of the territory into the U krainia n Soviet R epublic at the end of W orld W ar II. This is followed by 4 a ppendices (82 pages), notes ( 106 pages), and bibliography ( 122 pages) . In his introduct ion , M agocsi promises to analyze how one ethnic group was exposed to na tionalism and how its leaders presen ted this new ideology to their people. H e points out that the leaders in what he calls " an embryonic sta te of na tional d evelopment " still did not agree on which national orientation to follow - Ru syn , Hun gari an , Slovak (and/o r C zech), Ukra inian , or Russian. H e then describes the elimination of each alternative until only Ukrainia n was left. With such a rich and well-organized presentation of d ata, it must seem churlish for a reviewer to take issue with the author . And ye t one has the impression tha t the author ' s desire to incl ude every las t piece of info rm ation has di st racted him fro m his original inte ntion of trying to discover the underl ying reaso ns fo r the fi nal victory of the U kra inia n orientation . The book becom es fi nall y a trad itional approach to East Eu ro pean history, albeit without the partisan coloring wh ich usually characterizes such work . H e outlines the failure of leaders of certa in national orien tations to attrac t adherents, or their willingness to sacrifice national fo r political gain. H e find s external factors decisive in dete rmining that the territory wo uld eventu ally become Ukrainian . In an area with such a n embryo nic ethnic and national identity, it seems odd tha t M agocsi limited his book terri to rially, acco rding to political bound aries which existed for onl y two decades . The fa ult m ay lie in his d efinition of ethn ic group as a popul ation that " in m ost cases possesses a distinct territory, com m on traditions, and related dialects. " Although he pays homage to the theories of K a rl D eutsch on natio nalism and social communicatio n , he fa il s in large pa rt to apply them . H e looks a t the intelligentsia in action , but not the intelligen tsia in formatio n . It would �132 SLOVAKIA have been possible, for instance, to examine the changing national composition of the students in the high schools (gymnazia) over time and through the various grades. This might have suggested underlying trends in national identification. Magocsi is quite right in saying it is impossible to explain why individuals join differing national orientations, but the totality of the changes can be very informative. It is quite conceivable that the socioeconomic development in the interwar period showed a trend toward a Ukrainian identity. This would help explain why the Soviet regime met so little opposition when it assigned a Ukrainian identification to the population at the end of the war. After the depth of research and evaluation which characterized the first book , the second volume is a disappointment. While those interested in Slovak history will find useful material here on the political, socioeconomic, and cultural history of what Magocsi calls the "Rusyn-Ukrainians" of Czechoslovakia, there also is a disappointing tendency to blame every difficulty faced by this national grouping on national discrimination. This stands in considerable contrast to his conclusion (p . 270) in the larger volume . OWEN V . JOHNSON Indiana University Bloomington , Indiana Jubilea Matice slovenskej. Compiled by Vojtech Sarluska. "Seria: Monografie - Vyskum dejfn Matice slovenskej, zv. 9." Martin: Matica slovenska, 1980. 130 pp . The volume under review is a compendium of articles resulting from a seminar devoted to the commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the Matica slovenska's reconstitution ( 1919) and its silver anniversary as the Slovak National Library ( 1954 ). The essays discuss various aspects of the Matica's present contributions in the fields of research and education. Themes analyzed include : the Matica ' s efforts in library acquisition, preservation, and dissemination; planning and organization of its activities and resources; bibliographic development over the past quarter century; activities of the Literary Archives; programs of the Literary Museum; efforts of the Biographical Office; activities of the Matica's Office of Slovaks Abroad ; and the Matica ' s publishing activities. The section prepared by Stefan Krivus, the Matica' s present director , sets the tone for the other essays . Krivus traces the Matica's history through interwar Czechoslovakia, its activities during World War II, its place in the resurrected R epublic, and its role in Socialist Slovakia. He describes each period as a step in the Matica's maturation process. Both Krivus and the other contributors make it quite clear that the Matica of 1979 is not the Matica of 1919 ; �SLOVAKIA 133 it has continually changed in response to the demands placed on it as Slovakia' s premier national cultural institution. It is a pity that this publication , which offers much valuable information on the Matica slovenska's vital role in past and contemporary Slovak cultural life , was printed in a limited edition and "only for internal use" by professional scholars, thus making it unavailable to the much wider readership which it deserves . JOHN A . BERTA Middletown, Pennsylvania I1 mondo slavo. Saggi e contributi slavistici a cura del Centro Studi Europ a Orientale di Padova . Volume VIII. Edited by Milan S. Durica. Padova: CESEO-Liviana, 1982 . 318 pp. Professor Milan S. Durica has taken the opportunity of his editorship of this volume of I1 mondo slavo to present a number of studies which help to identify Slovak ethnic consciousness in its language and history and to distinguish it clearly from assimilative Czechoslovak linguistic and political tendencies. In his own article, which offers a historical-philological profile of the Slovak language, he traces the evolution of the Slovak language in Slavic ethnogeny. The Slovak glottogenetic process of isoglosses is delineable on Slovak ethnic territory . This position is butressed by (1) Slovakocentricity - the expression of geometric distance proportional to linguistic elements and (2) the most recent studies on fundamental Slavic lexical patrimony revealing its highest in Slovak . Durica' s ' profile' establishes that the research of historical and comparative lexicology fortifies the theory of the Slovak proto-Slavic glottogenesis. His synthesis of recent· research is a valuable contribution to the thesis that Slovak is an independent Slavic language . Stefan V ragas presents historical and linguistic highlights of the development of the Slovak literary language from 1918 to 1979. A significant portion of his article centers on the linguistic politics of "Czechoslovakism ," i.e. , the linguistic and political claim of one Czechoslovak language and nation , in opposition to any contention of on e separate and individual Slovak language and nation . The author demonstrates that Slovak experts succeeded in counteracting the opposition by applying the facts of history to linguistics and courageously weathering political humiliations as did , for example, Eudovft Novak , author of K najstarsfm dejinam slovenskehojazyka. Vragas must be commended for his definition of Czechoslovakism and for his timely exposition of some generally unknown linguistic-political humiliations of Slovak scholars, especially in the 1950s a nd part of the 1960s. �134 SLOVAKIA The history of Slovak translations on Slovak ethnic territory to 1939 is the subject of the article by Agostino Visco. Brief mention is made of translations into contemporary Slavic during the Great Moravian era and some initial translations into Latin . It was not until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that extensive translation was made from Latin into the Slovak national language, mainly by Catholics. From Greek and Latin some classics and religious works were translated: ancient poetry, meditations, the Bible . Later, translations began from West European authors, then from East European ones, until the abortive years 1848-1849, when translations declined . After 1918 and in the early twentieth century translations resumed . They steadily progressed after 1933, when the Matica slovenska established a translation group , thus institutionalizing and perfecting translations. Visco considers the Slovak R epublic era (1939-1945) as the most important period for translations . Inasmuch as translations have so much influenced both Slovak poetry and prose, they represent an important facet of Slovak literature. Mirella De Martini Tihany examines the emigration of Italian laborers from Venetia and Lombardy to Slovakia in the second half of the nineteenth century . Parish registers of Slovak localities along the main railroad line from Kosice (Slovakia) to Bohumfn (Moravia) are the principal sources of research, especially those found in the State and District Archives of Bytca. Because of mineral transports from central Slovakia, railroads were needed in Slovakia . Historically, the Kosice-Bohumfn line construction in 1870 was urgent for connecting eastern Slovakia with Berlin . In this construction , the temporary Italian immigration initially entered . For some workers it meant death from epidemic , for others it was an occasion for marriage and baptisms. In her article Tihanyi provides a brief insight into Slovak interaction with the emigrants and also a sad commentary on the plight of Italian workers neglected by their non-Slovak contractors . Finally , Lisa Guarda Nardini considers the sole syndicate in Czechoslovakia, the "ROH" - Revolutionary Trade Union Movement. It is studied as an exemplary illustration of the statute of the organization which institutionally represents all workers in a country which claims that labor is paramount and the workers govern . The author proceeds from a relatively brief introduction about members , duties, structure, and other considerations to a translation of the ROH statute with its fifty articles. The m erit of this article is the translation of the ROH statute into Italian from Slovak. Volume III of IJ mondo slavo can be recommended to the readers of Slovakia for its wealth of information on fascinating Slovak topics. JOHN M. KOCHIK Westmoreland County Community College Youngwood, Pennsylvania �SLOVAKIA 135 Josef Korbel. Twentieth-Century Czechoslovakia: The Meanings of Its History. New York: Columbia University Press , 1977 . 346 pp. A rich and varied background prepared the late Professor Josef Korbel for this twentieth-century history of a small country in Central Europe . He was closely associated with the University of Denver, where he served as Dean of the Graduate School oflnternational Studies, Director of the Social Science Foundation , and Andrew W . Mellon Professor of International Studies. He was the author of several books on Central Europe. Prior to his academic career, Korbel had been the Czechoslovak ambassador to Yugoslavia . He also had held a number of other important diplomatic posts and was a personal acquaintance of both Edvard Benes and Jan Masaryk . Twentieth -Century Czechoslovakia begins with the Hussite period. By tracing the "roots" of Czech thought from Jan Hus to the subsequent suppression by the Catholic Habsburgs, and through the era of the Enlightenment, the author demonstrates how the Czech ideal of humanity evolved. He compares concepts derived from Frantisek Palacky and Karel Havlfcek to Tomas G. Masaryk's "Czech humanism. " All three were witnesses to the Hussite influence . A quick glance at opposing interpretations of Czech history by Josef Pekar and Ferdinand Peroutka and their criticism ofT.G. Masaryk's philosophy leads Korbel to the observation that " in times of assured statehood the Czech people strove for the ideals of humanity; in times of peril, they lowered their heads to save the national body" (p. 24). Korbel expands this thought throughout the rest of the book. Beginning with July 6, 1915, the 500th anniversary of the death of Jan Hus , Tomas G. Masaryk is depicted as voicing a vision about to become a reality. As the author discusses the historical formation of Czechoslovakia, he dwells primarily on the Czech leadership. He skillfully paints portraits of national hopes , problems of administration, mistakes in judgment, and fears for the future. Throughout the twenties and thirties these events led to the final breakup of the first Czechoslovakia. By analyzing the Munich crisis and World War II as it affected this Central European victim state, Korbel clearly shows that the Czechs " lowered their heads to save the national body." As he searches for the mea ning of the postwar years in the revitalized Czechoslovak state, he refers to them as " The Sisyphean Years," the title of his last and perhaps most intriguing chapter. With T.G . M asaryk, he believes that " the nation will take up again its active role in mankind's neyer-ending struggle for freedom and social justice" (p. 320). Written in an engaging style, Korbel's story of Czechoslovakia's rise and fall will fascinate not only the student of history but also a ny reader interested �136 SLOVAKIA in learning about Central Europe during the twentieth century. Unfortunately, the author does exhibit a bias against the Slovaks. This is especially apparent in his reference to the well-loved and respected Slovak leader Father Andrej Hlinka as being "fanatic. " Furthermore, while the Czechoslovak state could not exist without the Slovaks, Korbel devotes a mere 25-30 pages to them in a book of 346 pages. His admiration for Tomas G. Masaryk is deep, his respect for Jan Masaryk is genuine, and his evaluation of Edvard Benes appears objective. Had it been possible to apply historical honesty to all aspects of Czechoslovakia's growth from its inception to its dissolution and rebirth, such an account might have added significantly to the rapidly increasing literature in that area of research. One can only conclude that this historical account was written from the so-called Czechoslovak point of view. If this is understood, the reader will enjoy Twentieth-Century Czechoslovakia but will continue to look for "The Meanings of Its History" in other books dealing far more adequately with Slovakia and the Slovaks . M. EVANGELA LUBEK, 0 .S.B. Bishop Noll Institute Hammond, Indiana Martin R . Myant. Socialism and Democracy in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1948. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981. 302 pp. The three years that preceded the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia at the end of the Second World War have been generally understood in the West as a lull in which all the indications of what would happen in February 1948 were present. Although Martin Myant does not contradict this approach, he offers in this study, above all, an examination of the political situation in Czechoslovakia in which the Communist Party was just one of many players until mid-194 7, when a power struggle erupted leading to the Communist victory a few months later. What we have here, according to the author, is a polity which sought to achieve a socialist society by democratic means. It is an interesting thesis that reflects to a great extent the approach that Communist scholars took to this period in the 1960s and which found some sympathy among Western scholars. The book is divided into ten chapters that begin with a rapid overview of the development of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia . The next five chapters are devoted to an analysis of the political situation in the Czech lands, with one chapter on Slovakia . In three more chapters the author looks at the power struggle which culminated in the February crisis . The final chapter �SLOVAKIA 137 examines post-February Czechoslovakia, in particular those events that announced the imposition of a more radical line by the Kremlin . It is clear from Myant 's story that World War II had brought about major changes in the Czech lands. In the postwar world, Czech political life reflected a general consensus that Czech society wanted its government to implement socialist changes because the prewar order had been destroyed during the hostilities . As an organized resistance group, the Communists played a major part in setting the framework for a socialist transformation . They were by far the most cohesive and organized party. Until mid-1947 they were also willing to collaborate - and indeed did so - with the non-Communist parties in implem enting new policies . The author gives a thorough analysis not only of the platforms of all parties, but also of the political activities of the Communist Party. When the struggle for power broke out, the Communists aimed at nothing more than victory and then used whatever means they could get away with to achieve that end. But for Myant - unlike for Paul Zinner and Josef Korbel, who also wrote on this period - the interest lies in the pre-mid 1947 period where, as he writes, "for all its faults, the National Front system established in May 1945 provided a possible basis for the development of socialism in Czechoslovakia" (p. 242). Despite the author's thorough analysis, this reviewer is not convinced that the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia could have played according to democratic rules in an advanced society. Although Myant attributes the shift that occurred in mid-1947 to the international situation and Cominform directives , the fact remains that the Communist Party was willing in the last analysis to abandon democratic means in favor of one-party rule. There is no evidence that the Party offered the Kremlin any resistance . Had its commitment to democracy really existed, it could have defied Moscow since there were no Soviet troops in the country and it is doubtful that Moscow would have risked a war to impose its will . The pre-mid-1947 experience may be interesting for those who still hanker after a form of" democratic socialism"; for m e it merely shows that a Communist Party will also play the democratic game if it brings it closer to its goal of total power, but it does not show a commitment to democracy . The author's treatment of Slovakia is inadequate . He approaches it from the same point of view as the Czech lands , namely that the Slovaks were also headed for socialist transformation. To take this approach is to ignore not only the legacy of prewar Slovak politics, but also the major impact the Slovak R epublic had on the Slovaks. His accusation that Slovakia was backward is both unfair and unfortunate; it is a Czech point of view that was arti~ulated quite openly from 1945 on, especially in the Communist Party. This view was also imposed on Slovak Communists, who accepted it after their defeat in the May 1946 elections. The author does, however, point out that the Communist �138 SLOVAKIA Party was unwilling to embark on a different and distinct Slovak policy, if only not to alienate its Czech constituency. The position of Slovakia in postwar Czechoslovakia was very critical. Forced without consultation into a state where they would be a minority, Slovaks then saw most instruments of autonomous government progressively taken away from them . The non-Communist leadership was weak and faced not only Communist opposition but also Czech resistance to any status beyond minimal autonomy . Thus Slovak political life centered once again on Slovakia ' s role in Czechoslovakia, not on socialist transformation . As time went on, it was clear to most Slovaks that they mattered very little in Czechoslovak politics and were expected to be merely compliant to Prague . In this respect, Myant writes unfairly about President Tiso's execution in 1947 that "its announcement in Slovakia was met with no visible unrest" (p. 158). The truth of the matter is that the army and Czech police had been sent to Slovakia to make sure that there was no unrest. For the same reason the attempted Communist coup in Bratislava failed that autumn. The game had to be played out in Prague. This is a well-researched study that is thorough in its presentation for the Czech lands . It is highly unsatisfactory for Slovakia. For this reason, as well as the author's ideological predelictions, it is regrettably incomplete and, therefore, disappointing. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM Glendon College, York University Toronto, Canada Leon Noel. La Tchecoslovaquie d'avant Munich. Paris: Institut d'etudes slaves, 1982. 208 pp. J.F.N. Bradley. Politics in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1971. Washington, D.C .: University Press of America, 1981. 225 pp. There are few Central European states that have had as turbulent a history as Czechoslovakia. It was created by the Western Powers on the morrow of World War I, only to be abandoned two decades later to German expansionism and another ten years later to Soviet imperialism. Paradoxically, Western scholarship has yet to produce a good history on either the First Republic or on the postwar Communist period. The two volumes under review, while they seek to give us an overview of each period, are also unsatisfactory. Leon Noel was France's Minister to Czechoslovakia from 1932 to 1935. His book constitutes a sort of memoir of the three years he spent in Prague. To this account he added a few chapters that deal with the origins of the state , �SLOVAKIA 139 some of its leading personalities, the Slovaks, the Germans and the Hungarians, the Catholic Church, and the political parties . None is very good , and the chapters on the Slovaks and the political parties are particularly poor. It becomes quickly very clear that this French diplomat understood very little the country in which he represented France . The main impression that one gets is that he was interested above all in maintaining excellent diplomatic relations between Prague and Paris . This he seems to have done, given the number of positive comments about himself by Czechoslovakia's leaders that he quotes . But one does not get any idea what were the main currents in FrancoCzechoslovak relations. It is only when he evaluates the leading personalities in Prague of the common state of the Czechs and Slovaks that he is interesting. That is one of the redeeming features of his book . If this book is at all interesting , it is becau se it reflects French perceptions of Czechoslovakia in the interwar period . The state was to a great extent a French creation, and Czechoslovakia's centralist system of government was modelled on that of France. Paris supported Prague on the German and the Slovak questions with the result that neither French diplomats nor French scholars paid any attention to anyone but the Czechs and accepted everything Prague told them. Noel ' s book is therefore not different from those published in the interwar years. It is a pity that he did not learn from subsequent events about which much has been written to give us a more critical appreciation of the country where he clearly spent three interesting years of his life . The Bradley volume is more in line with contemporary scholarship. But it is a peculiar book. The author has done some thorough research in a number of areas, yet he does not succeed in giving us an adequate overall picture of Communist politics in Czechoslovakia. The greatest flaw is his lack of treatment of the Slovak question, which he does not seem to have understood at all. There are two them es to the book: government and politics. The author gives a thorough description of Czechoslovakia's Communist government structure , examining in turn its constitutions, parliaments , governments, the judiciary , and security. Hi s chapter on the central government for 1948-1968 is rather good . He analyzes well the main problems of any Communist government, namely political domination and efficient administration. As he points out: "Even the most capable administrators among these politicans would have found it impossible to run central ministries efficiently with the politicallyreliable but admi nistratively unfit officials at their disposal" (p. 123) . When it comes to analyzing Communist politics , the author devotes only two chapters, one on the Dubcek era and the other on the Husak period of normalization. Both are somewhat disappointing. The overall result is that at the end of the book the reader is still left wondering what Czechoslovak politics were all about for the period 1948-1971. �140 SLOVAKIA The major flaw of Bradley's book is its treatment of the Slovak question. Clearly the author belongs to that category of Western scholars who do not consider Czech-Slovak relations to have been, and still to be, the focal point of the survival of the common state of these two nations. It is not surprising to come across such a statement as : "The Slovaks, who had apparently been enjoying equality and autonomy since 1948, began to voice their demands for new constitutional arrangements within the Czechoslovak Republic" (p. 183), with no further explanation. The final chapter, on Husak's federalism , is also inadequate in analyzing the new relationship between the two nations, let alone explaining why this formerly centralist state had been transformed into a federation . Neither book fulfills the mission its title suggests . Nevertheless in each there are some aspects of interest which may help the specialist and the interested reader on Czechoslovakia to get a better insight into this troubled common state of the Czechs and Slovaks. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM Glendon College, York University Toronto, Canada Zdenek L. Suda. Zealots and Rebels: A History of the Ruling Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Stanford, Calif. : Hoover Institution Press , 1980 . 412 pp . This first history of the Czechoslovak Communist Party in English, from its beginnings in November, 1917 , in Revolutionary Russia and its foundation in November , 1921, up to the late 1970s, is an impressive achievement. Professor Suda, a sociologist at the University in Pittsburgh, selected some of the best scholarly works written in the West on various topics or periods of his target and complemented them with a few basic books and articles published at different times in Czechoslovakia. Although his opus is based almost exclusively on secondary sources and, surprisingly, does not even mention authors whose work should have been consulted (e .g ., Machonin, Borkenau, Taborsky, Zinner, Horak , Jancar, Korbel, Tigrid) , it is worth reading and including in private as well as public libraries. It is a solid work and excels in its capable and systematic review of major events in the history of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Its organization is clear, and the writer consistently pays attention to domestic developments as well as to Soviet or other Communist parties' history . In Suda' s concluding words , what matters is "the development of the Soviet core to which the CPCS, for the greater part of its existence, has only been peripheral" (p. 380). �SLOVAKIA 141 Suda's main contribution is to be found in his judicious summary of some sixty years in the life of a movement, in his sensible comments, and in his perspicuous analysis. One half of the book is devoted to the Party's history before it came to power in 1945 . There is a certain imbalance in Suda's treatment of the foundation of the CPCS (50 pages) or of its history until 1929 (70 pages) and his discussion of the crucial year of 1968 (only 20 pages) . The later story is much better known that the first two so that it does not constitute any major weakness, especially since the author keeps stressing interesting parallels between different periods of Party history . Basically, it was and is a foreign element brought into a state whose traditions , both cultural and political, have been .at variance with it . Suda devotes a substantial part of his book to developments in the Communist Party of Slovakia and to its asymmetric position in a basically centralist party and state. He rightly considers the unsolved problems of national minorities - and many Slovaks refused to think of themselves as equal partners in a "Czechoslovak" nation - to be the weak point of the whole edifice . The German problem is also systematically studied, and so are the Hungarian and Ruthenian ethnic communities. Paradoxically, even the establishment of a federal state in 1968 did not put an end to Prague centralism, although the general secretary of the Party since 1968 has been a Slovak. The lack of a detailed study of primary sources and of many crucial scholarly works , unfortunately , is responsible for some, mostly minor, mistakes in an otherwise well-printed and well-proofread work. For instance, Trotsky's secret message to disarm the Czechoslovak Corps in Russia is not mentioned; Tomas G . Masaryk is wrongly characterized as "never a socialist" (p. 12); the important role of G eneral Vlasov and his armed units in the Prague uprising in 1945 is omitted; for some reason, the Cominform and Comintern are both spelled with a ' K '; there is nothing on substantial workers' unrest in 1948 and 1949 ; Richta's leadership of a scientific Party commission is assigned to Mlynar , who was in charge of another one about whose existence the author does not seem to have known (p. 328); the Manifesto of 2000 Words was published simultaneously in four Prague papers and not just in one (p. 391) - a fact which was important for the Soviet audience since the pressure group was clearly well organized! Furthermore, the periodical Listy was not a "bimonthly" (p. 367) but rather appeared monthly. In disagreement with the author's statement on page 261, Zapotocky was criticized at Politboro meetings for his relaxation of forced collectivization of agriculture . What is more important, Suda sometimes accepts the terminology of his Communist sources and then refers, for instance , to the "progressive elite " (p. 120) when he discusses individuals who were responsible for bringing shame and enslave- �142 SLOVAKIA ment upon their own nations. Although the author believes that only a small minority of Social Democrats refused to join the CPCS in the year of forced amalgamation (p. 225), the truth is that less than one third of them joined the Communist Party! Also, his description of workers' acceptance of the Slansky trial is only partially true because, according even to Communist sources, after the initial passage of favorable resolutions, there was resolute criticism of the whole Party and state leadership, often calling for their dismissal. Finally , the 1968 meetings at Cierna nad Tisou did not take place in the Soviet train (p . 340) but - with the exception of Dubcek's visit to the "ailing" Brezhev in a railwaymen's club on Czechoslovak territory. There is a good analysis of voting patterns in 1925 but, somewhat surprisingly for a sociologist, the author does not include any analysis and statistics (which are available) of the social or class composition of the CPCS in its period of absolute power. All these and a few other errors and omissions can be easily corrected in an eventual second edition of this pioneering and generally very successful work . PETER R. HRUBY Western Australian Institute of Technology Perth , Australia Frantisek Bielik a kolektfv. Slovaci vo svete. Volume II. Martin : Matica slovenska, 1980. 320 pp . This second volume of Slovaci vo svete is a general survey of pre-World War II Slovak immigration to countries throughout the world. It is a collaborative effort. However, except for the separate sections on Slovak immigrant culture and involvement in labor activities in the United States and the Slovak immigration to Canada and France , Frantisek Bielik is the principal author of the book. Bielik first discusses the general causes of Slovak emigration and its impact on Hungary and later Czechoslovakia. The work is then divided into geographical categories by country. Within each geographical division, the authors adopt a standard, almost monotonous , procedure of chronicling the formation and sporadic activities of various Slovak organizations . They provide brief descriptions of Slovak fraternal societies , schools, newspapers, labor organizations, and cultural associations . In addition, they discuss the political and labor activities of some Slovak immigrants in the different countries. Slovaci vo svete is a useful addition to the literature on Slovak immigration, because it contains tables and statistics as well as literary material that have not been readily available in a single source. The inclusion of sources would have improved the usefulness of the tables. The work is also important �SLOVAKIA 143 because it offers some different perspectives on the Slovak immigration experience . For example, Bielik properly stresses that the United States was the major but not the sole destination of Slovak emigrants . To emphasize this point, the book includes brief sketches of Slovak immigration to New Zealand, Asia, and Africa - countries not commonly associated with the Slovak emigration movement. Also, by discussing Slovak involvement in labor unions and Socialist organizations, the authors offer a different profile of Slovak immigrant laborers than that depicted in earlier literature. Ivan Poljak and Eva Fordinalova, who contributed the segment on Slovak union and work-related activities in the United States, would agree with Victor Greene that Slovak workers were not simply meek laborers whose docility prevented them from becoming actively involved in labor unions and strife. Moreover, their religiosity did not prevent all Slovaks in the United States and elsewhere from flirting with Socialist or Communist ideas and joining Socialist or Communist parties. Despite such points, Slovaci vo svete is marred by serious weaknesses. As a synthesis , the book is far too general and institutionally oriented. Even the lengthier discussion of Slovak immigrants in the United States is primarily a chronicle narrative of various immigrant organizations and newspapers. The treatment of Slovak immigration to other countries serves little more than as a reminder that the United States was not the sole destination of this immigrant group. No attempt is made to offer a comparative analysis of Slovak adjustment to various countries. Rather, Bielik and the other contributors seem content to resort to perfunctory , isolated discussions of Slovaks and their organizations in the several countries. While they are to be commended for the attempt to describe the work life of Slovak laborers, the discussions of this topic suffer from overgeneralizations, oversimplifications, and factual and interpretive errors. The· authors try desperately to show that Slovaks almost naturally harbor Socialist sympathies . They use the participation by Slovaks in labor unions or strikes as examples of these natural sympathies. Typically the authors do not provide sufficient or convincing evidence for their generalizations. For example, they make no attempt even to estimate the number of Slovaks actually involved in the various " Socialist " and labor activities they describe . Unfortunately, Slovaci vo svete is further harmed because the authors overlook some obviously important aspects of Slovak immigrant life in the United States and perhaps in other countries as well. Despite the claim that the book is offering a description of immigrant life , much of the material actually focuses on the activities of prominent Slovaks, not ordinary immigrants . Slovak churches and their role in American Slovak communities are ignored. Overall, Slovaci vo svete is too brief to treat adequately the complex aspects of Slovak immigration to the United States and to other countries. Still, this work does raise questions that merit closer analysis b y students of Slovak �144 SLOVAKIA immigration and of labor and political history. The contributors also do provide a general, institutional history of Slovak immigration throughout the world. This volume does not rank as the definitive study of Slovak immigration, but it is a synthesis that scholars in Czechoslovakia and in those countries where Slovak immigrants have gone will find useful. JUNE GRANATIR ALEXANDER The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio Elena Jakesova . Vyst'ahovalectvo Slovakov do Kanady. Bratislava : Veda, vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej akademie vied, 1981. 160 pp . In recent years there has been a great renewed interest in ethnic and immigration history on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. To the growing list of scholarly studies in this field can be added Elenajakesova's present monograph . Jakesova presents a concise, statistical account of Slovak immigration to Canada from the 1870s to 1938. The book is divided into two sections, one covering the years from the 18 70s to 1914, and the second from 1922 to 1938 . She gives the reasons for Slovak immigration from Hungary, and later from Czechoslovakia, and also an excellent outline of the individual Slovak settlements in Canada. Other chapters or sections are devoted to the development of the Slovak press in Canada and to the rise of Slovak fraternal societies. Separate sections describe Slovak mining settlements in Western Canada, agricultural communities in Central Canada, and urban settlements in Eastern Canada in later years . This is a well-organized and well-written book . The research and documentation are most impressive . The author made use of archival material from Slovak district archives in Slovakia, from the Haus-Hof-und Staatsarchiv in Vienna, and from the Magyar Orszagos Leveltar in Budapest. Most of the periodical literature and monographic studies dealing with Canadian Slovaks were also used. In short, few stones were left unturned . The volume is also enriched by graphs and charts which help clarify the history of Slovak immigration to Canada. Even the illustrations were well selected and add interest to the subject. , Two serious shortcomings of the book arejakesova's treatment of Canadian Slovak societies and churches. Among societies the importance of the Slovak workers' movement was overemphasized . Her account of it was informative and interesting, but the movement itself was of decidedly minor significance. The Canadian Slovak League and Canadian-Slovak Support Society were and remain the largest Canadian-Slovak organizations . More should �SLOVAKIA 145 have been said about these groups and the great work and sacrifices of such individuals as Andrej Kucera and Andrej Potocky, founders of the Canadian Slovak League . In general, more attention should have been devoted to the experiences of Canadian Slovaks - their joys and sufferings - and to the history of their churches, which were not covered at all. Aside from these drawbacks , the work has many merits and can be recomm ended to anyone seeking a general survey of Slovak immigration to Canada. X. SUTHERLAND Stoney Point, New York ANTHONY Engelbert Zobl and Hertha A. Zobl. Holzbaukunst in der Slowakei. Vienna : Fachjournalverlagsgesellschaft, 1978. 92 pp. This unpretentious little paperback volume bears witness to what seems to be a growing interest among enthusiasts in western Europe to " uncover " the art of traditional wooden architecture in the Carpathian region of Slovakia. H ence, since the appearance of the book under review , two more ambitious volumes have appeared: Wooden Churches in th e Carpathians: The Photographic Legacy of Florian Zapletal (Vienna, 1982) by Paul R. Magoci and the monumental Wooden Churches of Eastern Europe (Cambridge , 1981) by David Buxton , both of which contain numerous photograp hs of structures in northeastern Slovakia. In contrast to these two subsequent works , the book by Engelbert and Hertha Zobl seems more of an architectural travel reportage put together as a guide for Austrian and West German tourists who still flock each summer to Czechoslovakia in search of the ostensibly more exotic cultural stimuli of the "east." This is not to suggest that such popular books are without value or that the Zobls have not done a competent job . In fact, as is evident from the albeit self-indulgent autobiographical data (complete with photographs of the whole family), the husband and wife Zobl team have degrees, respectively , in architecture and the a pplied arts. And as the lavishly-illustrated book reveals , they both have a keen sensitivity for the aesthetic as well as technical aspects of their subject. The book is basically divided into five chapters : belfries, wooden churches, wooden crosses, secular wooden architecture, and architectural ornamentation. The appendices include a list of all belfries and churches with their date of construct ion (in most , but not all instances); a map showing the travel route fo llowed by the authors in 1976 with each place indicated that appears in the book ; an index of placenames; and a brief bibliography . The latter indicates a few basi c German, Czech, and Slovak works, but omi ts two recent �146 SLOVAKIA Ukraini an-langu age studies from C zechoslovakia th at deal with the subj ect: an encyclopedia of wooden churches (past and present) in northeastern Slovakia by B. K ovafo vyfova-Puskarova and I. Pu skar , D erev 'jani cerk vy schidnoho obrjadu na Slo vaccyni (Bratislava and Presov, 1971) and a survey of secular architecture in the same region by M . Sopolyha , Narodn a architektura ukrajinciv Schidnoji Slovaccyn y (Svidnfk, 1976) . Each chapter in the book by the Zobls is preceded by a very brief introduction , and each of the 110 photograph s carries a caption. There are also 41 line drawings of structures and ground plans. By far , the largest portion of the book - a to tal of 72 illu strations - d epicts structures from villages inhabited by C a rpatho-Ru syns in the very northea stern part of Slovakia. Thi s is not surprising, since that area had economicall y always been the m ost underdeveloped and , therefore, traditional life-style and architecture have been preserved there the longest. Also , the authors seem ed to have become enchanted by the clusters of wood en churches north of Svidnfk and northea st of Snina, whose almost perfect form a nd balance m ake them stand out aesthetically, in particular when juxta posed to wooden architecture throughout all of eastern Europe, as is evident from the compara tive survey b y David Buxton mentioned above. The photographs are, in fact , the highlight of the Zobl ' s book . They were all ta ken in 1976, were well executed and often provide different views of a given structure, and have been reproduced clearly in the printing process. With the exception of a few iconostases in side Byzantine-rite churches, the photographs are almost all exterior shots. Pa rti cul arl y striking are 39 photograph s in color , am ong the best of which a re the wooden church in Mi rol'a, the cem etary crosses in D etva, and the decoration on hou ses in Zdi ar . All in all , W ooden Architecture in Slovakia is an excellent introd uction to the beauties of trad itional cultu re that still can be found in Slovaki a tod ay. As a serious guide for tourists, it would be pa rticula rl y useful if a n E ngli sh ed ition could be p repa red fo r the increasin g numbers of Am ericans of Slovak a nd Carpatho-Ru syn descent who visit the ancestral hom eland . P AUL R . M AGOCSI Uni versity of T oronto T oronto, Ca nada A tlas CSSR . Brat islava: Slove nska kartografi a, 1980 . This school atlas is obviously intended for student s at about the hi gh school level. It has no accompan yin g text or explana tory m a terial and is even devoid of a n introdu ction. Con sequentl y, the u ser is give n no idea regardin g the in tended audience or the goal s of thi s volume of m aps. �SLOVAKIA 147 There are 42 pages of maps; there are more actual maps, howeve r , because numerous inset (larger scale) maps are displayed on various themes. The first quarter of the atlas is d evoted to physical/environmental subjects temperature, precipitation , geological structure , soils, forests , etc. The remainder of the volume contains social, cultural, and especially economic maps . The physical maps are of standard type, although the last of this group is an interesting map of conservation sites, such as parks and botanical stations. The demographic maps (pages 12 to 15) are interesting because included are maps on density , fertility , mortality , national population growth rates , labor force, and the nationalities. Most of the m aps suffer as a result of the inappropriate scale employed and poor use of color. The nationalities sheet is particularly poor because the combination of colors and patterns to locate and quantify minority groups is a total failure. The economic maps (pages 16-27) again are standard and include maps of minerals , manufacturing, agriculture , crops , transport and more for the entire country. Detailed political/ physical maps of the Czech and Slovak R epublics are then followed by similar economic maps for the two areas. The atlas is rounded out with a set of maps of "regional types" at the micro-scale. There are six of these, including types such as the High Tatra a rea and a section of industrial Ostrava. There are also 10 exam ples of "settlement types," including Nitra and a Czech resort town. The final three maps are interesting cultural maps, including one of higher and middle schools, medical institutions, and historical/cultural monuments. Unfortunately , these maps are of very limited use because they are drawn at a scale ( 1 :4,000,000) which obliterates any detail. In general, the Atlas CSSR is an adequate school level tool. It would have been much better and useful, however , if sharper color had been used and if more reasonable scales had been chosen for many of the maps. The bulkiness (23 cm. x 55 cm .) and the inferior quality of the binding also detract from the Atlas ' value. In sum , a poten tiall y lively collection of maps has bee n rendered into a disappointing volume of no particular distinction. GEORGE J. D EMKO U.S. Department of State W ashington , D .C. Peter Balaz, Miloslav Darovec, and H eather Trebaticka. Slovak for Slavicists . Brat islava: Slovenske pedagogicke nakladatel'stvo, 1976. 302 pp. Students who have some background in another Slavic langu age, as well as those who possess a rudimentary knowledge of Slovak , will find this text- �148 SLOVAKIA book useful. It was written for the intermediate classes at the Studia Academica Slovaca (Summer Seminar of Slovak Language and Culture in Bratislava), and was also intended for use as a textbook in university-level courses abroad . The authors point out in the preface that it is not a handbook for those studying Slovak without a teacher ; however , it can be used in this way if the student's goal is to gain only a reading knowledge of Slovak, and particularly if Slovak is not his/ her first Slavic language. The book contains 27 lessons in addition to the Slovak-English/English-Slovak glossaries . The bilingual d esignation of the section headings in the table of contents and in the lessons themselves is a very desirable feature of the book . It serves the immediate pedagogical purpose of teaching these items in Slovak as well as enabling the student who wishes to augment the explanations in the textbook with those from Slovak sources to find easily the desired items in the Slovak books . Lesson 1 is devoted to a brief discussion of the alphabet and pronunciation . The Slovak letters ii, c, dz, s, z, t', d', 1' are characterized as palatalized consonants (p. 17) , which might well confuse those students who have studied Ru ssian . They would be better described in English as palatals. Furthermore, since regressive voice assimilatio n before nasals and liquids characterizes Slovak sandhi rules in contrast to some of the other Slavic languages, it would be well to include that information in the section on pronunciation . The remaining lessons have the following general format : introductory text , questions , vocabulary, grammatical section , exercises , grammatical section, exercises, translation exercise, and pronunciation exercise. The exercises a re well constructed and provide immediate reinforcement of the concepts just introduced . The notes and notice markers which call attention to exceptions or to features which differ significantly in English are also very effective . R eview exercises, spaced at appropriate intervals throughout the book which would combine the information presented in the various grammatical sections up to that point , would enhance the efficacy of the textbook (e.g., inclusion of a review exercise following Lesson 6 after most declensional paradigms have been introduced) . The introductory texts conta in a vocabulary which is very useful for those students who will be in Bratislava . Howeve r, to those who have never been there , as well as to the newly arrived , certain words such as miestenka are mystifying and a note of explanation would be helpful. Lesson 8 has an informal letter to a friend as the introductory text. The forms of ty are correctly capitalized. H owever , there is no note of explanation on how vy (polite singular/plural) should be written. Since this is one of the areas in which the Slavic languages differ , it would be well to include a note on T /V capitalization in letters. It might be more useful to include a thank- yo u note or a formal letter for exam- �SLOVAKIA 149 pie, to a professor requesting a consultation, because these are the kinds of letters that a more advanced student is likely to be writing . In general the texts are of a very practical nature and provide the student with an adequate vocabulary for functioning in Slovak society. They could be made more effective by deleting some, such as Lesson 4, or editing them, so that they would be more appropriate for and interesting to university students. While it is possible to draw up a list of additions that one would wish to insert into the book, that in no way detracts from its value. It is certainly the best textbook available today for teaching Slovak to English-speaking students at the university level, and we can only hope that it will be expanded and enlarged in future editions. LOUISE B. HAMMER Bloomington , Indiana JozefMistrfk . Basic Slovak . Bratislava : Slovenske pedagogicke nakladatel'stvo, 1981. 160 pp . This textbook is designed for English-speaking students who want to learn the fundamental grammatical phenomena and 800 of the most frequently occurring vocabularly items in Slovak without wading through the complexities that most traditional grammars present. Its focus is on learning to speak Slovak (American speakers of English should be forewarned that the pronunciation equivalents between English and Slovak given in Lesson 1 are based on British English), not on gaining a passive reading knowledge of the language, and it is not designed to be used without a teacher . Therefore, rules are given but exceptions to the rules are introduced into the discussion only when they occur frequently . This approach is based on the theory that second language acquisition, like first language acquisition, requires a knowledge of the productive grammatical rules of a language, i.e. , those patterns that a learner encounters over and over again in everyday usage. Since this textbook is designed for the one-month Studia Academica Slovaca summer school course as an introductory textbook, it alone would not suffice for a traditional American two-year college program; however, even in a more extended course, the texts which begin each chapter , as well as the exercises at the ends of the lessons, could serve as useful supplementary material . The book contains fifteen lessons , paradigm tables, Slovak-English and English-Slovak vocabularies, and a dictionary of linguistic terms . Beginning with the second, each lesson consists of four parts : text, vocabulary, grammar, and exercises. The texts are interest ing from the sociolinguistic point of view because they frequently have as their themes social events which a re common �150 SLOVAKIA in contemporary Slovak life, such as presenting flowers to someone arriving at the station, waiting in line to buy things, the extended family living together, friends sharing their experiences over a glass of wine . These texts serve to familiarize American students with Slovak culture and appropriate language usage in that culture. Each text introduces the vocabulary items which are listed just after it. This section is followed by grammatical explanations which are simple and concise, and are easily understood by learners with a minimal background in traditional grammar . The exercises require the student to create new forms based on the rules and data presented in the preceding sections . In addition to fillin g in blanks , the students are required to form sentences. Since a bilingual text is given in all of the lessons after the fifth , the student is able to check his/her progress in sentence construction . Features of Slovak which are absent in English and are, therefore , troublesome for English-speaking students are re-introduced in the texts or exercises of subsequent lessons; for example, the prefixed forms of ist' are introduced in Lesson 10 and are exemplified in the exercises in Lesson 12 . The last item in the exercises is a list of words to be read aloud for pronunciation purposes. These words do not appear in the glossary at the end of the book. The glossary does possess an attr~ctive feature: It indicates after every word the number of the lesson in which the word was introdu ced . As is usual in a first printing , some errors are to be found in the book (e.g., a few of the r ' s in th e glossary have been deleted , and some of the s's have been transposed into the s section). There are also minor errors in the English text : " present " in stead of " represent" (p. 11) ; "shorting" instead of " shortening" (p . 66) ; "The both forms are possible" (p . 74 ). one of these lead s to misunderstanding ; however, occasionally, as in " byvam dlho h are" (p . 3 1) ( = " not to sleep"), the E nglish m eaning is not immedia tely clear. On the whole , P rofessor Mi strfk 's book successfully fulfills the goals which he set in writing it , and any teacher or student of Slovak will find it a u seful addition to his/her library. L OU ISE B . HAMM ER Blooming ton , Indian a Abel Kral'. Slovenska vyslovn ost'. Banska Bys trica: U cebne pomocky, 1979. 8 stereo phonograph records with accom pan ying text , 173 pp. These high-quality recordings were produced by Abel Kral' , the head of the Phonetics D epartment a t Com enius University, and national artist V . Zaborsky , for u se in seconda ry schools and la ngu age institutes in Slovakia in �SLOVAKIA 151 order to teach students the neutral pronunciation style of standard literary Slovak . In the introduction Kral' explains the theoretical assumptions on which the presentation is based and suggests various ways in which the records can be used effectively. The recordings contain sections on the vowels, diphthongs, consonants, and consonant clusters . In addition there are excellent exercises on gemminated consonants, rhythmic shortening, and particularly on voicing assimilation in the various environments. The last record has a well-exemplifed discussion of sentence intonation. Each section begins with an introduction in which the terminology is defined, the particular sound or sounds under consideration are d escribed, and incorrect pronunciation is sometimes identified. Then the correct pronunciation is given. It is repeated twice with pauses between the utterances so that the student is able to practice the pronunciation and compare it to the record. These sections would be valuable for beginning students, while the more advanced students would additionally gain from hearing the spoken Slovak of the explanations as well as from their content. These recordings would be a very useful teaching aid for non-native speakers who teach Slovak or for Slovaks who speak a dialect and would like to acquire the standard pronunciation . Every student of Slovak who wishes to acquire a good speaking command of the language will benefit from the use of these recordings. They are in fact a very solid course in Slovak phonetics, and selections from the recordings would be ideal material for the pronunciation section of a typical language course. LOUISE B. HAMMER Bloomington , Indiana Vojtech Mihalik . Erotikon. Subor l'ubostn ej lyriky. Bratislava : Slovensky spisovatel' , 1981. Vojtech Mihalik is the grand old m an of Czechoslovak letters , and specifically of Slovak poetry, if this title could apply to a m a n who is only 55 years old. He is undoubtedly the most outstanding poet of the generation which came to the fore after the Second World War. Born in 1926 , Michalik for many years worked as the editor-in-chief of the main publishing house in Bra tislava . A former long-time president of the Association of Slovak Writers, he is at presen t the director of the publi shing house Slovensky spisovatel'. His first selection of poems appeared shortly after the war. H e has published 13 more volumes of poetry as well as numerous essays a nd translations. In 1978 he received the title of Nat ion al Artist, one of the highest literary honors in Czechoslovakia. �152 SLOVAKIA This, his latest volume, contains a selection of poems written at various periods of the author's life. As far as the erotic content of the book is concerned, it is much smaller than could be expected by Western standards . Mihalik is prima rily a romantic poet , a poet of love and emotion . H e puts less stress on the physical aspects of passion than would most of his W estern colleagues . In this he remains firmly rooted in the native Slovak tradition, where the appeal is to the feeling and sentiment , and where the exploitation of sexual aspects is subdued by a sense of decorum. Thus Mihalik ' s main effort in his love is to capture the fl eeting moments of love: the minute of mutual silence, a tree rising against the sun as the lovers embrace , the sorrows and the ecstasies of deep emotion. Mihalik is ve ry conscious of nature . Like most Slovak poets, he lives spiritually in the countryside , with its peasant cottages, lush gardens, orchards full of ripe fruit, meadows suffused by the rays of sun . His erotic imagery refers almost exclu sively to nature. A lonely lover is compared to earth which gave away its beautiful perfume to strolling winds. Lovemaking is perceived by the author in term s of entering a rose garden , searching for a star in the silent sky, or walking unharmed in the midst of a swarm of bees . The metaphors are so intricately ornate that they would be reminiscent of oriental poetry, were it not for the absence of explicitness so characteristic of Arabic and Persian verse. Each poem is a parable of nature sustained to the very end , where in the last lines it unravels into a love poem . If it were not for the last couple of lines, an inexperienced reader might take the poems at their face value of m elancholy or ecstatic descriptions of landscape . Each poem is thus a higly complex and elegantly written puzzle, the m eaning of which has to be d eciphered on two levels , the natural and the erotic. Mihalik 's poems are usually short. His favorite form is the sonnet, whose stylish elegance suits perfectly his method of expression . Some of the poem s are cast in the form of a dialogue, which is a mode deeply rooted in Slovak folk poetry. Mihalik m ay be a romantic lover accordin g to the Slovak tradition , but he is by no means a patient one. If hi s passion does not m eet with a quick response , he rebels. H e sees love as a confusing passion because there is so little understanding between man and woman. Woman is always an outsider in hi s poems. She may be courted, coveted , responsive, submi ssive, or cold , but she always remain s incomprehen sible. Mihalik 's attitude toward women is quite traditional . They are the ones who suffer, who bear the burden of broken relationships, and who carry the whole burden of parental responsibility. Mih alik admires women , feels sorry for them, but he seems to accept their lot as a na tural thing. A s he gets older, Mihalik finds it increasingly difficult to accept the new �SLOVAKIA 153 world around him . It is a world where the traditional values become rejected, where children of living parents become orphans because of desertion , where wives are leaving incompatible husbands , where families becom e broken for no apparent reason. The poet sees the world around him as full of suffering and unhappiness which he can only record, without being able to alleviate them . H e becomes a witness for a new generation that is growing up unloved and unlovable . His poems lose their spontaneous enchantment with life, as life becomes increasingly complex and difficult and as the poet finds he cannot turn to love to provide him with a sense of the m eaning of existence. The only an swer that seem s to emerge from Mihalik 's later poems is the implicit message to endure , to go on, and to do one's best. And in this message, as in so many aspects of hi s poetry, Mihalik shows himself again as the true son of his peopl e, the patient, enduring, and long-suffering people of Slovakia. YVONNE GRABOWSKI York University Downsview, Canada Vincent Sikula. Liesky. Bratislava: Smena, 1980. The novelette Liesky is in many respects firml y embedded in the Slovak literary tradition. Like so many books produced in Slovakia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it describes the trials and tribulations of a country boy on his way toward education and recognition. The chief character is a student at the conservatory who hopes to become a forest horn player and who persists in hi s path in spite of loneliness and abject poverty. The form of the novelette is also an old favorite, a first person narrative. The genre itself has been successfully transplanted from the Russian literature of the Golden Age and has fl ourished in Czechoslovakia since there was a favorable ground for its reception in Czech and Slovak folklore . What saves the story from becoming a typical hardship case narration , so characteristic of Slovak literature, is Sikula's humorous approach. The humor is intensified by the aut hor's use of the skaz technique. The predicam ents of the hero m ay be pathetic, but they are at the same time highly amusing. When the hero describes his family, we learn that his parents had so many children that the y hardly noticed if several of them were missing. The young man 's landlady can carry a conversation only with her cat - she is stone deaf. The hero has to practice music by drumming on the table because he cannot afford an instrument. When he finally gets the opportunity to practice on a real piano, he ruefully notes that it does not sou nd to him as good as the table. The narration thus proceeds at a lively pace, in a jolly animated style, �154 SLOVAKIA full of slan g, colloquiali sm s, and peasant speech m annerism s. It m akes fo r ea sy and pleasant readin g. Yet Sikula is mu ch m ore th an a skillful na rrator . Hi s m astery of style is evident as the story gradually reveals the narrator 's character , his a rtistic strivings , and his sexu al awakening. Sikula possesses a superb sense of n ature. M an is never alone in hi s book. All his ac tion s and feelings ta ke place in a na tural setting of which he is a n integral part. N a ture blends with the action , and the cha n ge of seasons accompanies ch a n ges of life . Thus the story starts with a beautiful description of winter and ends with an equally beautiful episode of picking fresh twigs from bu sh es. The story is deliberatel y left unfinished since Sikula aim s a t portrayin g but one stage in th e hero 's life . W e will never learn what is goin g to ha ppen in the future to the human twig picked from the bu sh of country life, a nd we are not m eant to know. Sikula presen ts u s with a vignette of life in the m a kin g. W e a re expected to enj oy the beaut y and the immediacy of the vignette portrayed b y an exquisite painter and not to look beyond it. Sikula has both the talen t of a pa inter a nd a poe t. Althou gh the story is written in p rose, it read s like a poem , di splayin g the author 's rem arka ble powe r ove r la nguage. Its m easured cad en ces a nd sen se of rhythm give the reader a unique poetic experience. It is the beaut y of style which gives to Liesk y its most definite imprin t. YVONNE G R ABOWS KI Y ork Uni versity D own sview, C anada �SLOVAKIA 155 BOOK NOTE Charles Wojatsek . From Trianon to the First Vienna Arbitral Award: The Hungarian Minority in th e First Czechoslovak Republic, 1918-1938. Montreal: Institute of Comparative Civilizations, 1981. 229 pp . Time and time again Mr. Wojatsek attempted to publish his manuscript through academic and commercial presses , only to have it repea tedly rejected because of its poor quality . Finally, when nothing else could be done, he published the book him self, under the spu rious auspices of the " In stitute of Comparative Civilizations, Montreal." This book is not worth serious consideration. It was written with the patriotic fervor of a true believer, and its reading makes for cruel and unusual punishment, deserved only by other nationalists of Wojatsek's type. This reviewer wishes to warn the unsu specting public: Beware 1 You may jeopardize your time, your money, and your nerves! Y ESHA Y AHU JELINEK Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheba, Israel �� 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 1984, Vol. 31 Description An account of the resource Vol. 31 (No. 57), 1984. 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 1984 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 119 Book Reviews Robin Okey. Eastern Europe 1740-1980: feudalism to Communism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1982 . 264 pp . Attempting to write a general survey of Eastern European history is no m ean task . Indeed, a comprehensive overview within the confines of a book numbering less than three hundred pages is altogether impossible. Robin Okey offers an alternative to this dilemma in the form of an interpretive stud y . The author indicates that his purpose is to " present a perspecti ve rather than tell a story. " Focusing on the twin themes of modernization and na tionalism , he traces the evolution of the Central and Eastern European lands through two ce nturies of economic , political, and social change . It is his thesis that Eastern European nationalism arose as a response to the area ' s comparative backwardness in relation to the W est. In approaching thi s theme, Okey notes that feudalism came relatively late to this general area , and suggests that - at least until the sixteenth century - Eastern Europe enjoyed the potential of parallel development with W estern Europe. H e states, however , that dom estic fe udal forces were strong enough to reverse thi s trend . External forces - the Turkish invasion of the Balka ns a nd Hun gary a nd the H a bsburg conquest of rebelliou s Bohemia - are also cited as instrument al facto rs. Ei ghtee nth -century Eastern Europe is ch a racterized as havin g regimes which were ineffi cient even by feudal standards . The peasantry bore the brunt of resulta nt defi ciencies, but thriving popul ar cultures provided an impetu s for future revival. Okey states catego rically that the penetrati on of the Enli ghtenm ent represe nt s the first stages of ra pprochem ent with the W est. In a number of in sta nces th e process was characteri zed by reform from a bove, althou gh the role of th e cl ergy is also cited . In the latter case, the auth or specificall y mention s th e P ole K on a rski and th e Serb Obrad ovic; it is wo rth notin g th a t Bern ola k's contribution to th e Slovak rev ival is omitted . T he Eastern Eu ro pean Enli gh te nment faced the dil emm a th at the socia l premi ses of an al ternative order we re incomplete. Con sequentl y, conservatives were more ext reme and reformers more revolutionary tha n their cou n terpa rt s in the West. 120 SLOVAKIA Liberalism in Eastern Europe differed from the West insofar as members of the nobility were heavily involved in a process which put them in opposition to their own social strata. Okey characterizes Eastern European liberalism as "an elusive, complex creed"; it shared the heavy emotionalism of ideas from other lands , but was only partially emancipated from native traditions. He objects to the Marxist view of nationalism as a creed devised by ambitious bourgeois elements; instead, he cites the role of professional scholars as the vanguard of the national movements . The 1848 revolutionary experience led to a clash between liberalism and nationalism; the former was instrumental in abolishing the last vestiges of serfdom, but also failed to satisfy the national aspirations of subject peoples . The balance of the nineteenth century is treated as a period of ideological fragmentation. The advance of industrial capitalism caused a reaction against liberalism on the part of the Right as well as the Left , and the continued rise of mass nationalism splintered existing political parties along ethnic lines. In assessing the downfall of the old order during World War I , Okey concedes that not all tendencies could be related to the national question. But h e hastens to add that "only nationalism had a magnetism strong enough to draw the dislocated elements into an alternative political order the pattern of nation-states . '' Promoters of the new nation-states viewed their emergence as the culmination of humanist principles. Okey disagrees, and cites three general causes for the failure of Western-style liberalism in the interwar period . Most obviously, one of them is the continuity of ethnic conflict within the new states. Second, the Eastern European nations remained economically de pendent on foreign capital. Finally, both the leaders of the new states and their opponents repudiated democracy in their approach to the outstanding problems of the times. Okey views interwar nationalism as "short-sighted rather than fundamentall y misguided"; the outsider Hitler bore the greatest responsibility for the demise of these states. The author implies that national Communism was most successful in those countries where the Party remained in effective control of public life, and failed in Czechoslovakia because the regime capitulated ideologicall y to non-Party gro ups. Finally, Okey states that the rise of a mass int elli ge nt sia and the emerge nce of common social problem s with the West is indicative of a greater degree of syncopat ion. For the student of Slovak hi story, this book might prove disappointing. Indeed, a genuine weakness may be found in the fact that Okey cites so few examples of the Slovak experien ce which provide important contrasts with certain patterns. Okey ' s contention that Eastern European soc iety had already become "brutali zed" during World War II , and that the Communists were tailor-made representatives of the new age , borders on conjecture. Although the position of the J ews in Slovakia was precarious during the war , they were SLOVAKIA 121 nevertheless afforded a certain "breathing space" denied to their kin smen in Poland, and the average citizen of the Slovak R epublic was by no m ean s terrorized. It was only during the 1944 risin g - in which Communists played a major role - that "brutalization" on a broad scale was affected . Okey's treatment of the " Prague Spring" also provides a case of omission: He correctly cites the straightj acket command economy model as a major facto r in Novotny's demise, but mentions the Slovak opposition only as merely inciden tal. But insofar as Slovakia may be viewed as an integral part of an Eastern European whole, this book has definite merit. It provides the reader with a concise, refreshing overview of the past two centuries, and the author skillfully employs anecdotal examples to compare and contrast specific national experiences. Okey's book is helpful to the student already well-grounded in general Eastern European history; it can also be useful to the instructor who wishes to co nvey a certain sense of ideological conflict inherent in the region . R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Easley, South Carolin a East Central Europe: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow. Edited by Milorad M. Drachkovitch. Stanford, Calif.: H oover Institution Press, 1982 . 41 7 pp . Thirteen of the seventeen papers contained in this volume were presented at a conferen ce organized by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in January , 1980 . Due to the events in Poland in August , 1980 , publication of the symposium's proceedings was delayed so that individual authors could revise their contributions. According to the editor, Milorad M. Drachkovitch, readers of the book "will not find in it a ny pred ictions " and "will be offered facts and explan ations of recent events" (p. xi). This is true of most but not all of the essays. The latte r are largely analyt ical and of uneven quality. Among th e excellent contributions are Drachkovitch 's survey of the postwar political and economic developm ents in Yu goslavia, Leszek Kolakowski's " Ideology in Eastern Europe ," and the essays by J ohn Erickson, Hugh Seton-Watson, Peter J. Wiles, and Richard F. Staar. Also superb is the overview of developments in East Central Europe , " Present Situation and Principal Trends ," by Robert F. Byrnes. H e points out that '' the opinions of even our most expe rienced an alysts often reflect shallow hi stori cal knowledge , flight y analysis, and the ass umpti on that peoples of this area are far less in terested in independence and self-government than a re West 122 SLOVAKIA Europeans and Americans '' (p. 20). The flip-flops of George K ennan are cited as an example. Byrnes is a very perceptive observer who notices the connection between the election of Pope John Paul II , his visit to P oland in 1979, and the subsequent d evelopments in that country. In contrast , the essay on Poland by Jan T omasz Gross, " What Is Yet To Come," appears to be a rather superficial d escription of events leading up to the establishment of Solidarity in 1980 , claiming that " the impossible was inevitable " (p. 32 1). In the last section of the essay Gross sketches two different scenarios: first , Soviet military intervention ; second, the devolution of the Soviet imperium for which the price would be " m ost likely " the " ne utralization of Germany through unification and detachment from the Atlantic Alliance " (p. 325). As it happened , the imposition of martial law in D ecember 1981 proved his (and man y other observers') projections incorrect. On Alexander Dubcek 's behavior in 1968 Hugh Seton-Watson comments by asking a rhetorical question : How could the United States "defend people who would not defend themselves?" (p . 178). In contrast to it , Zdenek L. Suda, while concentrating mostly on the events in 1968 , is very a pologetic. H e writes: " The peaceful counterrevolution in the ve ry core of the Czechoslovak system must have caused more pani c in Moscow than the armed insurgency of Hungarian workers and soldiers in O ctober 1956 " (p. 258). Suda's cl aim is an undocumented assumption without an y foundation, and so is his interpretation of the events in Czechoslovkia when he writes that " the whole reform movement of 1968 could be defined simply as the application of rules and laws that long had been dead letters, but nt>:vertheless existed. It was precisely this greater respect for legality and constitutionality that sounded an alarm in the Soviet power center and triggered the intervention" (p. 256). Accordin g to Suda, "the Czechoslovak case differs from the Polish case because the Polish reform experim ent initiated in 1956 fa iled without direct Soviet intervent ion " (p. 252). Suda does not differentiate between intervention and in vasion . Soviet military presence in Poland ever since the end of World War II has constituted inter vention and h as m ade in vasion unnecessary. In fact, an invasion would have been cou nterproductive from the Soviet point of view. In contrast to it , by in vading Czechoslovakia in 1968 the Soviets h ave attained their military and strategic objecti ves. The "temporary" stationing of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia has become " permanent. " The even ts in Poland in the earl y 1980s corroborate the view th at the Soviets had military a nd strategic reasons for the 1968 in vasion and that the in ternal de velopments , which certainly did not amount to a "counterrevoluti on" as Sud a and the Sov iets claim, were merely a pretext for the action whose a im was to extract a "consent " from the Czech and Slovak Communist leaders to the stati oning of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia. L abeling people as " neo -Stalinists " a nd "dogmati cs," as SLOVAKIA 123 Suda does, is meaningless. His lack of knowledge of history is reflected in the essay. For example, he writes that " the division of the world between the two superpowers into spheres of interest - made the eventual integration of Czechoslovakia into the system controlled by the Soviets virtually inevitable'' (p. 244). However , nothing was " inevitable" about the arrangements that Edvard Benes made in Moscow in D ecember , 1943 . It was his decision to sign the trea ty with the Soviet Union and to promise the Czech and Slovak Communist leaders in Moscow that their party would be the strongest element in the new regime and that he would always support it. Indeed , Professor Byrnes' comment on the " shallow historical knowledge" and " flighty analysis," cited above , is applicable to the two essays by the two sociologists on Czechoslovakia and Poland published in this volume . j OSEF KAL YODA Saint Joseph College W est H artford, Connecticut Rudolf Krajcovic. Svedectvo dejfn o slovencine . 2nd edition, corrected. Martin : Matica slovenska, 1980 . 268 pp. The second edi tion of Krajcovic's collection of linguistic eviden ce for the Slovak language is essentially the same as the first of 1977 . In these two edition s, the compiler strives to offer proof that the Slovak language has its own long and distinctive history. He is intent on demonstrating that Slovak is a " language of written documents ." He traces Slovak from the period of the Great Moravian Empire of the ninth century throu gh the "twilight of Hungarian feudalism" in the nineteenth century. For the conclusion of his stud y, Krajcovic gives examples of present-day dialectical variations of the Slovak lan guage. There are photographs of d ocuments u sed as evidence. Especially when documents are in script, Krajcovic has the writings reproduced in printed form for easier appreciat ion. Interspersed among the evidence are bl ac k a nd white as well as colored illu stration s of folk articles and pa intings on a folk theme. The illu st ra tions a re the better to con vey the a tmosphere and period of the docum ents presented. Documen ta ry evidence from the early periods , n a mel y from that of the Great M orav ia n Empire through that of the fifteenth century , is not really extensive. A hi storical lin gui st would find the m aterial interesti ng, perh a ps even intrigu ing , but not conclu sive or even substantial for a judgm ent. From the sixteenth century onwards , the material offered as evidence is increasin gly more substanti ve. Indeed , Krajcovic him self notes th at the m aterial from the sixtee nth ce ntury is of" great significance," because thi s was "when Slovak was 124 SLOVAKIA for the first time committed to written form." The expression " written form " is perhaps a poor choice of phrasing. (The expression is found in the brief Slovak, Russian, as well as English introductions to the documentary evidence for this period.) For virtually all the examples of Slovak in this book are written . By the expression "written form," Krajcovic's probably means that the extant documentary instances of Slovak become more extensive and so more able to be appreciated linguistically. In focusing on this poor phrasing and its alleged implication , I do not intend to impugn the long history and distinctiveness of Slovak that Krajcovic desires so clearly to demonstrate in his book. The reader, nonetheless, cannot help feeling that Krajcovic is straining very hard to do this. On the whole, the book is more a nicely illustrated survey of the Slovak language for the layperson rather than a serious academic study for the specialist. With the Slovak language and its related culture appreciated so little outside of Slovakia and the Czech lands, Krajcovic' s book could enhance to some degree a better understanding of this language and culture . This second edition is a ''corrected '' version of the first . This correcting involves stylistic and typographical errors, but especially a few attributions that include additions, deletions, or actual corrections. For example, Krajfovic has deleted the attribution of the 1648 Trnava dictionary as one used for Virgil's Aeneid. The attribution ofa folk article as coming from Kovafova pri Zvolene has been changed to Kral'ova. Krajcovic has added the name of the Austrian author of Klimko's rendition of Krizant und Daria - Gottfried Uhlich, rendered by Krajcovic as Ulrich . Also, the English text has at times questionable diction and stylistic phrasing. The Russian text has been improved for this edition in various places. Neither language should offer problems in Slovakia, for there are native speakers as well as numerous specialists who could be consulted for a third edition . Finally, the bibliography for this edition has been expanded by one item. The price of this survey of the Slovak language has remained the same as for the earlier edition . This should make the book a readily purchasable acquisition for any individual or institution. G ERALD] . SABO , S.J . John Carroll University Cleveland, Ohio I'.udovft Novak. K najstarsfm dejinam slovenskehojazyka . Bratislava: Veda, vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej adademie vied, 1980 . 352 pp. This important study of the earliest history of the Slovak language evolved out of a plan by I'.udovft Novak in the 1930s to supply the most up-to-date , complete, and detailed presentation of Slovak phonology from its earliest begin- SLOVAKIA 125 nings . Methods of structu ral analysis were to be applied to the reconstructed phonologies of Slovak dialects . The origi nal ve rsion was begun in the last months of 1938 and earl y 1939 , a period of political turbulence. Over the intervening years, materials added to the original accumulated into several essays, thus resulting in two works. By reason of the a mount of accu mulated m ate rials , a recent decision to publi sh this monograph from just the original alone was ca rried out . The val ue of the original as a linguistic la ndm ark of the structural method in Slovakia was the deciding factor. Novak 's later theories are to be published in a separate volume which will be entitled "Vznik Praslovanov a ich jazyka. '' Four chapters in the book under review provide the most important linguistic phenomena in the d evelopment of the Slovak sou nd system , from the earliest period after the collapse of Common Slavic into the dialect differentiations of the Slovak area. They are: (a) the Slovak reflexes rat-, lat- from P ro to-Slavic *ort- , *oft -; (b) alterat ions in the consonant clusters dl, tl, and dn ; (c) reduced vowel "yer"-changes , the contraction phenomena, and the depalatalization of e( e)»a; and (d) the reconstruction of sound systems of Slovak dialects after the period of liquidation of Common Slavic co rrelations of '' syllabic soft ening. '' Novak is interested in whether (a) can be termed a "Yugoslavism" relating to a theory of colonization of Central Slovakia from the south . With respect to (b) he quotes rare documents of ancient dialect litera ture, gives phonetic a nd phonological ex plana tions , with examples of geographic ex tension of changes in W estern Slovak, and compares this with pa rallel types of like consonantal quantitat ive correlation s in a non-Slavic la nguage. For ( c) the a uthor defines the rapport of Central Slovak especially with East and Central Slavic languages, and refers to the chronology and locali zation of alterations in the Common Slavic dialect dom ai n. R egarding (d) he concen trates first on the contrac tion phenomena in Central Slovak with its chronology a nd that of other Slavic dialects, and then of other West Slavic la nguages . H e provides a n argu m ent for the explanation of the zenou-feminine-instrumental-singular type and a criticism of other theories. Most of the phonological changes in Old Slovak are viewed as occurring due to certain influences of external lan guages or of internal dialects. Hi s terminology illu strates certain developing periods of Old Slovak , for example, turkicizing, mongolization. The aut hor maintains one of several possible theories in lin guistic development. Hi s is an attempt to overcome difficulties connected with the immane nt development of the Slovak language. ova.k's structural approach as innovative and successful in the earl y period of lin gu ist ics is appla uded by colleagues m entioned in the foreword. H owever, his earl y theory is criticized as "one-sided" for three main reasons : fai lure to 126 SLOVAKIA calculate the comparison of internal contradictions; overemphasis on phonology without consideration of grammatical, morphemi c, morphological, or wordbuilding structures as lingui stic units; and finally a lack of regard for sociolin guistic chan ges . I'.udovft Novak is referred to as th e " Nestor of Slovak Linguistics " (p. 9) . This original work is viewed as a monument in the evolution of Slovak lin gu istics a nd is noteworthy, especially considering the period of its composition, the structural methods applied, with its new theoreti cal thought and insights. It is rightly considered the first synthetic conception of the earliest history of Slovak language founded on the development of the dialect sound systems. The dedication of the book is symbolic of its apparent inherent worth. Honored are three famous contributors to Slovak linguistics: to the history of the Slovak language (Trubetzkoy); to the comparative history of Slovak and Czech languages (Travnfcek), and to the foundation of modern Slovak linguistic geography with its Slovak historical dialectology (Vazny). Novak has provided the first synth etic method of structu ral applicat ion to the historical phonology of Slovak , a structural lin gui st ic milestone in Slovak lan guage study. JOHN M . KOCHIK Westmoreland County Community College Youngwood, Pennsyl vania Frantisek Kalesny. Habani na Slovensku. Bratislava: Tatran, 198 1. 376 pp. Scattered today over the prairies of the United States and Canada can be found settlements of a people known as Hutterites or Hutterian Brethren. The Brethren still retain the German language of their forefathers and practice a st ri ctly communitarian way of life. Their mode of collective farming is not th e outcome of economi c calculation ; it results from the Hutterit es' belief that Christ calls on his followers to renounce private property and have all things common . The H utterites originated in th e earl y 1530s as part of the Anabaptist movement that had begun in Central Europe around 1525. The M ennon ites tod ay also claim spiritual descent from this movement which represe nted a left wing of the Protestant R eformation. While onl y the Hutterites esta bli shed community o f goods, all its adherents practiced adult ba ptism (hence the n ame they acqu ired, Anabaptists) in order to stress the volunta ry character of their beli eve rs' church, in which only grown persons could participate meaningfull y. As Dr. Kales ny remarks in the preface to hi s fascinating study of Hutterite hi story, few Slovaks know about th e connection betwee n the Hutterites a nd Slovakia, where they li ved for over two hundred year . The descendants of those Hutterites, who in the mid -e ighteenth century acce pted forced SLOVAKIA 127 recatholicization rather than have to emigrate, eve ntually lost their German speech and a re today completely assimilated to the Slovak popula tion. If memories of the Hutterites grew dim, the name which their Slovak neighbors gave these German settlers , " H abans " (Habani, H abaner) , has become widely known on acco unt of the beautiful ceramics produced by the Hutterite communities and their successors. These are now valued possessions of the museums of Czechoslovakia a nd Hun gary, and examples of the art form are also to be fo und elsewhere. H a ban folk a rt , according to K alesny (p.12), should be reckoned as an important asse t of Slovak '' n at ion al culture,'' for it was produced on the soil of Slovakia by people who, although of foreign origin , had put down deep roots there. The book , which is a wo rk of scholarship even though it lac ks footnotes, is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the history of the Hutterite communities from their inception down to the present d ay, with m ost a ttention given to their soj ourn in northwest Hungary (present -day Slovakia) . They first set up comm unities there around 1545: Their chief settlement a nd the seat of their " bi sh op" was a t Sobotiste. As in Moravia where the sect had started, h ere too it s ad herents we re welcomed by the landown ing nobility, Catholic as well as Protestant, who valued the Hu tterites as h ardworking and profitable tenants and consequently were prepared to overlook their religiou s peculiarities. After the battle of White Mountain in 1620 the H absburg ruler drove them out of M oravia, but the Moravian brethren also found a refuge on the estates of friendly Hun garia n landown ers. The endemic warfare of the seve nteenth century when Turkish, H absburg, and kuru c forces ravaged the Slovak countryside inflicted terrible suffering on the local population , including the Hutterites . On the eve of the disaster of 1620 the Hutterites in M oravia and Slovakia had numbered abo ut 25,000 persons, a tenfold increase sin ce 1545, which was due to the steady stream of newcomers from the T yrol a nd ot her pa rts of Ce n tral Europe seeking to join the brotherhood. Almost all these were of German speech , but a few adherents were of local origin. On page 46 , fo r instance, K alesny m entions "Wendel H olba ein Schlawak (Ve ndel H olba, Slovak)," who even becam e a Hu tterite minister. Whereas in north Hun gary the Hutterites abandoned their communitarian wa y of life in 1685 a nd were recatholicized under Maria Theresa in the nex t century (w hile still retaining for some time their separate legal identit y as H abaner), in Transylvania - where some Hutterites had settled in 1621 - they contin ued to lead the same life as before, until finally in 1767 the aut horit ies expelled those who would not conform . Ka les ny ch ron icles briefly their subseq uent wanderings, first via Wall ac hia to the Ukraine where they arrived in 1770 and then in 1874 across the Atlantic and on to the American West. After World War I most of the Hutterites moved across the border into Canada . Their later mi grat ions stemmed not from 128 SLOVAKIA religious persecution but from the threat posed to their pacifist principles by the introduction of universal miliary service. Kalesny prefaces his historical narrative, which for the most part does not add to what we already know , by an interestin g discussion of the name haban , the first authenticated m ention of which occurs in a document of 1667 now in the municipal archives of Bratislava. Originally a d erogatory term , it eventually lost its pejorative connotation and became the accepted way of describing the descendants of the former comm unitarians . Concerning the origin of the word no consensus exists among scholars. The latest theory is that of a German scholar who derives it from the H ebrew. D espite what the resumes say, Kalesn y seems to be somewhat sceptical about this. If the author deals rather briefly with the religious aspects of the Hutteri te way of life, h e devotes almost the whole of th e second part of the book to their social organization. The overwhelming majority of community m embers were artisans: Over forty crafts were bei ng practiced when the communities were at their peak. Of course, they also engaged in farming, which today is the chief occupation of the Hutterites. A strict discipline was imposed on members , expulsion from the brotherhood being the final sanction against those who did not conform. But this was not usually necessary since the brethren recognized the advantages of communal living over those of the outside world, despite any momentary attraction they might feel toward the latter. " The Hutterites had succeeded in creating an ordered society, socially egalitarian and materially secure, with high moral principles based on the community'' (p. 169) . Children of both sexes were taught at least to read and write - in an age when illiteracy prevailed among the masses . Great care was taken, too, to provide for the sick and aged, for pregnant women and for children of preschool age . The culture was perhaps narrow and th e aut horit y of the elders excessive, but this must be judged within the context of the times. Purely aesthetic values found no place among Hutterites. Yet their craftsmen succeeded in creatin g countless objects of beauty either for domestic use or for sale: Their pottery became famous throughout east central Europe and was eage rly bought up by the nobility a nd wealthy townspeople of the area. Kalesny, whose specialty is folk a rt , devotes th e third part of hi s book to the history and technology of'' H aban '' pottery. The making of faience , their most hi gly prized produ ct , had bee n introdu ced into th e Hutterite communit ies around 1580 by An a baptist immigra nts from northeas t Italy. Kales ny has included at the end I 09 full-page colored illu strat ion s of ceramics emanating from " H aban" workshops. The bibliography includes man y items in Slovak, Czech, a nd Hungarian that are unknown to North Ameri can scholars who have written on the Hutterites. Man y of these pi eces, it is true , deal with " Haban" ce ramics, but some SLOVAKIA 129 are of more general interest. K alesny, on the other h and, h as obviously had difficulty in gaining access to sch olarship in the W est. He knows the work of the M ennonite sociologist , J ohn A. H ostetler. But h e does not, for example , appear to be acquainted either with the valua ble study by another M ennonite scholar , Victor J . Peters, All Things Common: The Hutterian Way of Life (Minneapoli s, 1965) , or with the numerous articles published in the United States by the leading authority on Hutterite history and culture, the late Robert Friedmann . Many of them were reprinted in his Hutterite Studies (Goshen , Indian a , 1961) . L et us hope that in future closer contacts can be established in the field of Hutterite studies between North American scholars and those working in Czechoslovakia and Hungary. K alesny is perhaps lucky in dealing with a group like the Hutterites who , while deeply religiou s, have at the same time been dedicated "communists," albeit of the Utopian variety. The T at ran press was able (so to speak) to roll out the red carpet for him . It h as published a volume that , with its excellent pa per, numerou s illu stration s, and tasteful design , is indeed a credit to book production in Slovakia. PETER BROCK University of T oronto Toronto , Canada August A. Skodacek. Lutherans in Slovakia . Pittsburgh : Slavia Printing Company, 1982. 242 pp. This acco unt of the rise and development of the Lutheran Church in Slovakia from the Reformation to the present redresses the oversight of many concern in g the role of the Lutheran Church in the historical development of Slovakia. This may b e a fl aw. The author would have us understand that Slovakia 's history in modern times is a con sequen ce n ot onl y of the R eformation but also of the influence of Lutheranism in Slovak social and political struggles. However, Skodacek does not su ffic ientl y analyze the historical facts a nd ci rcum stances to judge whether hi s claim , that without Lutheranism m od ern Slovakia would not be , is warranted. Skodacek chronciles the fa te and fort une of Lutherani sm in term s of fates and fortun es of the group's leaders. As they fared, so fared their group . Thus, this is a hi story of an in stitution al church and its great m en from a perspective of within the gro up . It uses synodical records to illu strate th e respon se of the Lutheran C hurch in Slovakia to outside social and political forces, na m ely the Roman Catholic C hu rch , the J esuits, and the variou s rulers allied with those two groups. Since there is little in -depth an alysis, thi s essay does not offer a ny new insights into the causes of man y of the events ch ro nicled. 130 SLOVAKIA In the main, it is a hagiographic account extolling historical individuals for their virtues and deeds done in the name of the cause. In describing the influences of a Thurzo , Lani , or Krman and others, Skodacek, interestingly enough, sees them as the real descendants of the missionaries Cyril and Methodius. Just as Cyril and Methodius introduced the Slavs to Christianity and hence to civilization ( of a kind) , so too the followers of Luther reintroduced Christianity and civilization to Slovakia even to the point of generating and maintaining a consciousness of Slovak nationalism. To this point, Skodacek writes that "the R eformation activated a conversion in Slovakia which gradually brought into the open a Slovak nationality; it spread the reformational ideology in an understandable native language and a democratic religious life'' (p. 66). Be this as it may, the book is a good source for anyone who wishes to do research in Slovak history but who does not know th e necessary languages. The volume provides translations of records and documents of the various synodical events which figured large in the life of the Slovak Lutheran Church. This point not withstanding, it is unfortunate that Skodacek did not see fit to describe and analyze the historical dynamics of the sociocultural and political forces beyond the activities of the Lutherans and the Roman Catholics. Not everyone, despite Skodacek's claim, was either a Lutheran or Roman Catholic. Some were Greek Catholic and some were Calvinists. These are never mentioned . Also, not everyone living in Slovakia was either a Slovak or a German . Another missing analytical point is that of socioeconomic class; from what class did the Lutheran leadership come? It is on these points that Skodacek could have given us some insight; perhaps he will irt another book . Although this vol ume is a good in-house version of a historical period and of what happened to the Lutherans in Slovakia , the lack of analysis of the sociocultural and political dynamics limits its effectiveness. ROBERT j. SKOVIRA Saint Vincent College Latrobe, Pennsylvania Paul R obert Magocsi . The Shaping of a National Identity: Subcarpathian Rus ', 1848-1948. Cambridge, Mass .: Harvard University Press, 1978 . 650 pp. P aul R. Magocsi. The Rusyn -Ukrainians of Czechoslovakia: An Historical Survey . Vienna: Wilhelm Braumi.iller Universitats-Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1983. 94 pp . The first of Professor Magocsi ' s books is the one we all dream of writing . The fruit of years of research, it is encyclopedic in its description of the cul- SLOVAKIA 131 tu ral a nd political development of the territory which m ad e up Subcarpathian Ruthenia in the first C zechoslovak Republic. H e has used a rich array of sources - archives, published statistics, interviews , and most books and articles relating to the subj ect. It will stand for d ecades to com e as the basic referen ce work . Graduate students will be surpr ised to find a detached , obj ective approach in a volume devoted to an East European nationality group of less tha n a million people. It will be a required presence in the library of eve ryo ne who calls himself an Eas t European historian . Slovakists , in particular, will welcome Magocsi ' s dispassiona te understa ndin g of the sensibilities of the ripening Slovak national identity in Eastern Slovakia. The tex t is di vided into three parts. The first cove rs political and cultural hi story un til 19 18 . The second examines history, la nguage, literature , education , and reli gion between 19 18 and 1944. The final part discusses the political hi story from the end of W orld W ar I to the incorporation of the territory into the U krainia n Soviet R epublic at the end of W orld W ar II. This is followed by 4 a ppendices (82 pages), notes ( 106 pages), and bibliography ( 122 pages) . In his introduct ion , M agocsi promises to analyze how one ethnic group was exposed to na tionalism and how its leaders presen ted this new ideology to their people. H e points out that the leaders in what he calls " an embryonic sta te of na tional d evelopment " still did not agree on which national orientation to follow - Ru syn , Hun gari an , Slovak (and/o r C zech), Ukra inian , or Russian. H e then describes the elimination of each alternative until only Ukrainia n was left. With such a rich and well-organized presentation of d ata, it must seem churlish for a reviewer to take issue with the author . And ye t one has the impression tha t the author ' s desire to incl ude every las t piece of info rm ation has di st racted him fro m his original inte ntion of trying to discover the underl ying reaso ns fo r the fi nal victory of the U kra inia n orientation . The book becom es fi nall y a trad itional approach to East Eu ro pean history, albeit without the partisan coloring wh ich usually characterizes such work . H e outlines the failure of leaders of certa in national orien tations to attrac t adherents, or their willingness to sacrifice national fo r political gain. H e find s external factors decisive in dete rmining that the territory wo uld eventu ally become Ukrainian . In an area with such a n embryo nic ethnic and national identity, it seems odd tha t M agocsi limited his book terri to rially, acco rding to political bound aries which existed for onl y two decades . The fa ult m ay lie in his d efinition of ethn ic group as a popul ation that " in m ost cases possesses a distinct territory, com m on traditions, and related dialects. " Although he pays homage to the theories of K a rl D eutsch on natio nalism and social communicatio n , he fa il s in large pa rt to apply them . H e looks a t the intelligentsia in action , but not the intelligen tsia in formatio n . It would 132 SLOVAKIA have been possible, for instance, to examine the changing national composition of the students in the high schools (gymnazia) over time and through the various grades. This might have suggested underlying trends in national identification. Magocsi is quite right in saying it is impossible to explain why individuals join differing national orientations, but the totality of the changes can be very informative. It is quite conceivable that the socioeconomic development in the interwar period showed a trend toward a Ukrainian identity. This would help explain why the Soviet regime met so little opposition when it assigned a Ukrainian identification to the population at the end of the war. After the depth of research and evaluation which characterized the first book , the second volume is a disappointment. While those interested in Slovak history will find useful material here on the political, socioeconomic, and cultural history of what Magocsi calls the "Rusyn-Ukrainians" of Czechoslovakia, there also is a disappointing tendency to blame every difficulty faced by this national grouping on national discrimination. This stands in considerable contrast to his conclusion (p . 270) in the larger volume . OWEN V . JOHNSON Indiana University Bloomington , Indiana Jubilea Matice slovenskej. Compiled by Vojtech Sarluska. "Seria: Monografie - Vyskum dejfn Matice slovenskej, zv. 9." Martin: Matica slovenska, 1980. 130 pp . The volume under review is a compendium of articles resulting from a seminar devoted to the commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the Matica slovenska's reconstitution ( 1919) and its silver anniversary as the Slovak National Library ( 1954 ). The essays discuss various aspects of the Matica's present contributions in the fields of research and education. Themes analyzed include : the Matica ' s efforts in library acquisition, preservation, and dissemination; planning and organization of its activities and resources; bibliographic development over the past quarter century; activities of the Literary Archives; programs of the Literary Museum; efforts of the Biographical Office; activities of the Matica's Office of Slovaks Abroad ; and the Matica ' s publishing activities. The section prepared by Stefan Krivus, the Matica' s present director , sets the tone for the other essays . Krivus traces the Matica's history through interwar Czechoslovakia, its activities during World War II, its place in the resurrected R epublic, and its role in Socialist Slovakia. He describes each period as a step in the Matica's maturation process. Both Krivus and the other contributors make it quite clear that the Matica of 1979 is not the Matica of 1919 ; SLOVAKIA 133 it has continually changed in response to the demands placed on it as Slovakia' s premier national cultural institution. It is a pity that this publication , which offers much valuable information on the Matica slovenska's vital role in past and contemporary Slovak cultural life , was printed in a limited edition and "only for internal use" by professional scholars, thus making it unavailable to the much wider readership which it deserves . JOHN A . BERTA Middletown, Pennsylvania I1 mondo slavo. Saggi e contributi slavistici a cura del Centro Studi Europ a Orientale di Padova . Volume VIII. Edited by Milan S. Durica. Padova: CESEO-Liviana, 1982 . 318 pp. Professor Milan S. Durica has taken the opportunity of his editorship of this volume of I1 mondo slavo to present a number of studies which help to identify Slovak ethnic consciousness in its language and history and to distinguish it clearly from assimilative Czechoslovak linguistic and political tendencies. In his own article, which offers a historical-philological profile of the Slovak language, he traces the evolution of the Slovak language in Slavic ethnogeny. The Slovak glottogenetic process of isoglosses is delineable on Slovak ethnic territory . This position is butressed by (1) Slovakocentricity - the expression of geometric distance proportional to linguistic elements and (2) the most recent studies on fundamental Slavic lexical patrimony revealing its highest in Slovak . Durica' s ' profile' establishes that the research of historical and comparative lexicology fortifies the theory of the Slovak proto-Slavic glottogenesis. His synthesis of recent· research is a valuable contribution to the thesis that Slovak is an independent Slavic language . Stefan V ragas presents historical and linguistic highlights of the development of the Slovak literary language from 1918 to 1979. A significant portion of his article centers on the linguistic politics of "Czechoslovakism ," i.e. , the linguistic and political claim of one Czechoslovak language and nation , in opposition to any contention of on e separate and individual Slovak language and nation . The author demonstrates that Slovak experts succeeded in counteracting the opposition by applying the facts of history to linguistics and courageously weathering political humiliations as did , for example, Eudovft Novak , author of K najstarsfm dejinam slovenskehojazyka. Vragas must be commended for his definition of Czechoslovakism and for his timely exposition of some generally unknown linguistic-political humiliations of Slovak scholars, especially in the 1950s a nd part of the 1960s. 134 SLOVAKIA The history of Slovak translations on Slovak ethnic territory to 1939 is the subject of the article by Agostino Visco. Brief mention is made of translations into contemporary Slavic during the Great Moravian era and some initial translations into Latin . It was not until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that extensive translation was made from Latin into the Slovak national language, mainly by Catholics. From Greek and Latin some classics and religious works were translated: ancient poetry, meditations, the Bible . Later, translations began from West European authors, then from East European ones, until the abortive years 1848-1849, when translations declined . After 1918 and in the early twentieth century translations resumed . They steadily progressed after 1933, when the Matica slovenska established a translation group , thus institutionalizing and perfecting translations. Visco considers the Slovak R epublic era (1939-1945) as the most important period for translations . Inasmuch as translations have so much influenced both Slovak poetry and prose, they represent an important facet of Slovak literature. Mirella De Martini Tihany examines the emigration of Italian laborers from Venetia and Lombardy to Slovakia in the second half of the nineteenth century . Parish registers of Slovak localities along the main railroad line from Kosice (Slovakia) to Bohumfn (Moravia) are the principal sources of research, especially those found in the State and District Archives of Bytca. Because of mineral transports from central Slovakia, railroads were needed in Slovakia . Historically, the Kosice-Bohumfn line construction in 1870 was urgent for connecting eastern Slovakia with Berlin . In this construction , the temporary Italian immigration initially entered . For some workers it meant death from epidemic , for others it was an occasion for marriage and baptisms. In her article Tihanyi provides a brief insight into Slovak interaction with the emigrants and also a sad commentary on the plight of Italian workers neglected by their non-Slovak contractors . Finally , Lisa Guarda Nardini considers the sole syndicate in Czechoslovakia, the "ROH" - Revolutionary Trade Union Movement. It is studied as an exemplary illustration of the statute of the organization which institutionally represents all workers in a country which claims that labor is paramount and the workers govern . The author proceeds from a relatively brief introduction about members , duties, structure, and other considerations to a translation of the ROH statute with its fifty articles. The m erit of this article is the translation of the ROH statute into Italian from Slovak. Volume III of IJ mondo slavo can be recommended to the readers of Slovakia for its wealth of information on fascinating Slovak topics. JOHN M. KOCHIK Westmoreland County Community College Youngwood, Pennsylvania SLOVAKIA 135 Josef Korbel. Twentieth-Century Czechoslovakia: The Meanings of Its History. New York: Columbia University Press , 1977 . 346 pp. A rich and varied background prepared the late Professor Josef Korbel for this twentieth-century history of a small country in Central Europe . He was closely associated with the University of Denver, where he served as Dean of the Graduate School oflnternational Studies, Director of the Social Science Foundation , and Andrew W . Mellon Professor of International Studies. He was the author of several books on Central Europe. Prior to his academic career, Korbel had been the Czechoslovak ambassador to Yugoslavia . He also had held a number of other important diplomatic posts and was a personal acquaintance of both Edvard Benes and Jan Masaryk . Twentieth -Century Czechoslovakia begins with the Hussite period. By tracing the "roots" of Czech thought from Jan Hus to the subsequent suppression by the Catholic Habsburgs, and through the era of the Enlightenment, the author demonstrates how the Czech ideal of humanity evolved. He compares concepts derived from Frantisek Palacky and Karel Havlfcek to Tomas G. Masaryk's "Czech humanism. " All three were witnesses to the Hussite influence . A quick glance at opposing interpretations of Czech history by Josef Pekar and Ferdinand Peroutka and their criticism ofT.G. Masaryk's philosophy leads Korbel to the observation that " in times of assured statehood the Czech people strove for the ideals of humanity; in times of peril, they lowered their heads to save the national body" (p. 24). Korbel expands this thought throughout the rest of the book. Beginning with July 6, 1915, the 500th anniversary of the death of Jan Hus , Tomas G. Masaryk is depicted as voicing a vision about to become a reality. As the author discusses the historical formation of Czechoslovakia, he dwells primarily on the Czech leadership. He skillfully paints portraits of national hopes , problems of administration, mistakes in judgment, and fears for the future. Throughout the twenties and thirties these events led to the final breakup of the first Czechoslovakia. By analyzing the Munich crisis and World War II as it affected this Central European victim state, Korbel clearly shows that the Czechs " lowered their heads to save the national body." As he searches for the mea ning of the postwar years in the revitalized Czechoslovak state, he refers to them as " The Sisyphean Years," the title of his last and perhaps most intriguing chapter. With T.G . M asaryk, he believes that " the nation will take up again its active role in mankind's neyer-ending struggle for freedom and social justice" (p. 320). Written in an engaging style, Korbel's story of Czechoslovakia's rise and fall will fascinate not only the student of history but also a ny reader interested 136 SLOVAKIA in learning about Central Europe during the twentieth century. Unfortunately, the author does exhibit a bias against the Slovaks. This is especially apparent in his reference to the well-loved and respected Slovak leader Father Andrej Hlinka as being "fanatic. " Furthermore, while the Czechoslovak state could not exist without the Slovaks, Korbel devotes a mere 25-30 pages to them in a book of 346 pages. His admiration for Tomas G. Masaryk is deep, his respect for Jan Masaryk is genuine, and his evaluation of Edvard Benes appears objective. Had it been possible to apply historical honesty to all aspects of Czechoslovakia's growth from its inception to its dissolution and rebirth, such an account might have added significantly to the rapidly increasing literature in that area of research. One can only conclude that this historical account was written from the so-called Czechoslovak point of view. If this is understood, the reader will enjoy Twentieth-Century Czechoslovakia but will continue to look for "The Meanings of Its History" in other books dealing far more adequately with Slovakia and the Slovaks . M. EVANGELA LUBEK, 0 .S.B. Bishop Noll Institute Hammond, Indiana Martin R . Myant. Socialism and Democracy in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1948. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981. 302 pp. The three years that preceded the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia at the end of the Second World War have been generally understood in the West as a lull in which all the indications of what would happen in February 1948 were present. Although Martin Myant does not contradict this approach, he offers in this study, above all, an examination of the political situation in Czechoslovakia in which the Communist Party was just one of many players until mid-194 7, when a power struggle erupted leading to the Communist victory a few months later. What we have here, according to the author, is a polity which sought to achieve a socialist society by democratic means. It is an interesting thesis that reflects to a great extent the approach that Communist scholars took to this period in the 1960s and which found some sympathy among Western scholars. The book is divided into ten chapters that begin with a rapid overview of the development of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia . The next five chapters are devoted to an analysis of the political situation in the Czech lands, with one chapter on Slovakia . In three more chapters the author looks at the power struggle which culminated in the February crisis . The final chapter SLOVAKIA 137 examines post-February Czechoslovakia, in particular those events that announced the imposition of a more radical line by the Kremlin . It is clear from Myant 's story that World War II had brought about major changes in the Czech lands. In the postwar world, Czech political life reflected a general consensus that Czech society wanted its government to implement socialist changes because the prewar order had been destroyed during the hostilities . As an organized resistance group, the Communists played a major part in setting the framework for a socialist transformation . They were by far the most cohesive and organized party. Until mid-1947 they were also willing to collaborate - and indeed did so - with the non-Communist parties in implem enting new policies . The author gives a thorough analysis not only of the platforms of all parties, but also of the political activities of the Communist Party. When the struggle for power broke out, the Communists aimed at nothing more than victory and then used whatever means they could get away with to achieve that end. But for Myant - unlike for Paul Zinner and Josef Korbel, who also wrote on this period - the interest lies in the pre-mid 1947 period where, as he writes, "for all its faults, the National Front system established in May 1945 provided a possible basis for the development of socialism in Czechoslovakia" (p. 242). Despite the author's thorough analysis, this reviewer is not convinced that the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia could have played according to democratic rules in an advanced society. Although Myant attributes the shift that occurred in mid-1947 to the international situation and Cominform directives , the fact remains that the Communist Party was willing in the last analysis to abandon democratic means in favor of one-party rule. There is no evidence that the Party offered the Kremlin any resistance . Had its commitment to democracy really existed, it could have defied Moscow since there were no Soviet troops in the country and it is doubtful that Moscow would have risked a war to impose its will . The pre-mid-1947 experience may be interesting for those who still hanker after a form of" democratic socialism"; for m e it merely shows that a Communist Party will also play the democratic game if it brings it closer to its goal of total power, but it does not show a commitment to democracy . The author's treatment of Slovakia is inadequate . He approaches it from the same point of view as the Czech lands , namely that the Slovaks were also headed for socialist transformation. To take this approach is to ignore not only the legacy of prewar Slovak politics, but also the major impact the Slovak R epublic had on the Slovaks. His accusation that Slovakia was backward is both unfair and unfortunate; it is a Czech point of view that was arti~ulated quite openly from 1945 on, especially in the Communist Party. This view was also imposed on Slovak Communists, who accepted it after their defeat in the May 1946 elections. The author does, however, point out that the Communist 138 SLOVAKIA Party was unwilling to embark on a different and distinct Slovak policy, if only not to alienate its Czech constituency. The position of Slovakia in postwar Czechoslovakia was very critical. Forced without consultation into a state where they would be a minority, Slovaks then saw most instruments of autonomous government progressively taken away from them . The non-Communist leadership was weak and faced not only Communist opposition but also Czech resistance to any status beyond minimal autonomy . Thus Slovak political life centered once again on Slovakia ' s role in Czechoslovakia, not on socialist transformation . As time went on, it was clear to most Slovaks that they mattered very little in Czechoslovak politics and were expected to be merely compliant to Prague . In this respect, Myant writes unfairly about President Tiso's execution in 1947 that "its announcement in Slovakia was met with no visible unrest" (p. 158). The truth of the matter is that the army and Czech police had been sent to Slovakia to make sure that there was no unrest. For the same reason the attempted Communist coup in Bratislava failed that autumn. The game had to be played out in Prague. This is a well-researched study that is thorough in its presentation for the Czech lands . It is highly unsatisfactory for Slovakia. For this reason, as well as the author's ideological predelictions, it is regrettably incomplete and, therefore, disappointing. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM Glendon College, York University Toronto, Canada Leon Noel. La Tchecoslovaquie d'avant Munich. Paris: Institut d'etudes slaves, 1982. 208 pp. J.F.N. Bradley. Politics in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1971. Washington, D.C .: University Press of America, 1981. 225 pp. There are few Central European states that have had as turbulent a history as Czechoslovakia. It was created by the Western Powers on the morrow of World War I, only to be abandoned two decades later to German expansionism and another ten years later to Soviet imperialism. Paradoxically, Western scholarship has yet to produce a good history on either the First Republic or on the postwar Communist period. The two volumes under review, while they seek to give us an overview of each period, are also unsatisfactory. Leon Noel was France's Minister to Czechoslovakia from 1932 to 1935. His book constitutes a sort of memoir of the three years he spent in Prague. To this account he added a few chapters that deal with the origins of the state , SLOVAKIA 139 some of its leading personalities, the Slovaks, the Germans and the Hungarians, the Catholic Church, and the political parties . None is very good , and the chapters on the Slovaks and the political parties are particularly poor. It becomes quickly very clear that this French diplomat understood very little the country in which he represented France . The main impression that one gets is that he was interested above all in maintaining excellent diplomatic relations between Prague and Paris . This he seems to have done, given the number of positive comments about himself by Czechoslovakia's leaders that he quotes . But one does not get any idea what were the main currents in FrancoCzechoslovak relations. It is only when he evaluates the leading personalities in Prague of the common state of the Czechs and Slovaks that he is interesting. That is one of the redeeming features of his book . If this book is at all interesting , it is becau se it reflects French perceptions of Czechoslovakia in the interwar period . The state was to a great extent a French creation, and Czechoslovakia's centralist system of government was modelled on that of France. Paris supported Prague on the German and the Slovak questions with the result that neither French diplomats nor French scholars paid any attention to anyone but the Czechs and accepted everything Prague told them. Noel ' s book is therefore not different from those published in the interwar years. It is a pity that he did not learn from subsequent events about which much has been written to give us a more critical appreciation of the country where he clearly spent three interesting years of his life . The Bradley volume is more in line with contemporary scholarship. But it is a peculiar book. The author has done some thorough research in a number of areas, yet he does not succeed in giving us an adequate overall picture of Communist politics in Czechoslovakia. The greatest flaw is his lack of treatment of the Slovak question, which he does not seem to have understood at all. There are two them es to the book: government and politics. The author gives a thorough description of Czechoslovakia's Communist government structure , examining in turn its constitutions, parliaments , governments, the judiciary , and security. Hi s chapter on the central government for 1948-1968 is rather good . He analyzes well the main problems of any Communist government, namely political domination and efficient administration. As he points out: "Even the most capable administrators among these politicans would have found it impossible to run central ministries efficiently with the politicallyreliable but admi nistratively unfit officials at their disposal" (p. 123) . When it comes to analyzing Communist politics , the author devotes only two chapters, one on the Dubcek era and the other on the Husak period of normalization. Both are somewhat disappointing. The overall result is that at the end of the book the reader is still left wondering what Czechoslovak politics were all about for the period 1948-1971. 140 SLOVAKIA The major flaw of Bradley's book is its treatment of the Slovak question. Clearly the author belongs to that category of Western scholars who do not consider Czech-Slovak relations to have been, and still to be, the focal point of the survival of the common state of these two nations. It is not surprising to come across such a statement as : "The Slovaks, who had apparently been enjoying equality and autonomy since 1948, began to voice their demands for new constitutional arrangements within the Czechoslovak Republic" (p. 183), with no further explanation. The final chapter, on Husak's federalism , is also inadequate in analyzing the new relationship between the two nations, let alone explaining why this formerly centralist state had been transformed into a federation . Neither book fulfills the mission its title suggests . Nevertheless in each there are some aspects of interest which may help the specialist and the interested reader on Czechoslovakia to get a better insight into this troubled common state of the Czechs and Slovaks. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM Glendon College, York University Toronto, Canada Zdenek L. Suda. Zealots and Rebels: A History of the Ruling Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Stanford, Calif. : Hoover Institution Press , 1980 . 412 pp . This first history of the Czechoslovak Communist Party in English, from its beginnings in November, 1917 , in Revolutionary Russia and its foundation in November , 1921, up to the late 1970s, is an impressive achievement. Professor Suda, a sociologist at the University in Pittsburgh, selected some of the best scholarly works written in the West on various topics or periods of his target and complemented them with a few basic books and articles published at different times in Czechoslovakia. Although his opus is based almost exclusively on secondary sources and, surprisingly, does not even mention authors whose work should have been consulted (e .g ., Machonin, Borkenau, Taborsky, Zinner, Horak , Jancar, Korbel, Tigrid) , it is worth reading and including in private as well as public libraries. It is a solid work and excels in its capable and systematic review of major events in the history of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Its organization is clear, and the writer consistently pays attention to domestic developments as well as to Soviet or other Communist parties' history . In Suda' s concluding words , what matters is "the development of the Soviet core to which the CPCS, for the greater part of its existence, has only been peripheral" (p. 380). SLOVAKIA 141 Suda's main contribution is to be found in his judicious summary of some sixty years in the life of a movement, in his sensible comments, and in his perspicuous analysis. One half of the book is devoted to the Party's history before it came to power in 1945 . There is a certain imbalance in Suda's treatment of the foundation of the CPCS (50 pages) or of its history until 1929 (70 pages) and his discussion of the crucial year of 1968 (only 20 pages) . The later story is much better known that the first two so that it does not constitute any major weakness, especially since the author keeps stressing interesting parallels between different periods of Party history . Basically, it was and is a foreign element brought into a state whose traditions , both cultural and political, have been .at variance with it . Suda devotes a substantial part of his book to developments in the Communist Party of Slovakia and to its asymmetric position in a basically centralist party and state. He rightly considers the unsolved problems of national minorities - and many Slovaks refused to think of themselves as equal partners in a "Czechoslovak" nation - to be the weak point of the whole edifice . The German problem is also systematically studied, and so are the Hungarian and Ruthenian ethnic communities. Paradoxically, even the establishment of a federal state in 1968 did not put an end to Prague centralism, although the general secretary of the Party since 1968 has been a Slovak. The lack of a detailed study of primary sources and of many crucial scholarly works , unfortunately , is responsible for some, mostly minor, mistakes in an otherwise well-printed and well-proofread work. For instance, Trotsky's secret message to disarm the Czechoslovak Corps in Russia is not mentioned; Tomas G . Masaryk is wrongly characterized as "never a socialist" (p. 12); the important role of G eneral Vlasov and his armed units in the Prague uprising in 1945 is omitted; for some reason, the Cominform and Comintern are both spelled with a ' K '; there is nothing on substantial workers' unrest in 1948 and 1949 ; Richta's leadership of a scientific Party commission is assigned to Mlynar , who was in charge of another one about whose existence the author does not seem to have known (p. 328); the Manifesto of 2000 Words was published simultaneously in four Prague papers and not just in one (p. 391) - a fact which was important for the Soviet audience since the pressure group was clearly well organized! Furthermore, the periodical Listy was not a "bimonthly" (p. 367) but rather appeared monthly. In disagreement with the author's statement on page 261, Zapotocky was criticized at Politboro meetings for his relaxation of forced collectivization of agriculture . What is more important, Suda sometimes accepts the terminology of his Communist sources and then refers, for instance , to the "progressive elite " (p. 120) when he discusses individuals who were responsible for bringing shame and enslave- 142 SLOVAKIA ment upon their own nations. Although the author believes that only a small minority of Social Democrats refused to join the CPCS in the year of forced amalgamation (p. 225), the truth is that less than one third of them joined the Communist Party! Also, his description of workers' acceptance of the Slansky trial is only partially true because, according even to Communist sources, after the initial passage of favorable resolutions, there was resolute criticism of the whole Party and state leadership, often calling for their dismissal. Finally , the 1968 meetings at Cierna nad Tisou did not take place in the Soviet train (p . 340) but - with the exception of Dubcek's visit to the "ailing" Brezhev in a railwaymen's club on Czechoslovak territory. There is a good analysis of voting patterns in 1925 but, somewhat surprisingly for a sociologist, the author does not include any analysis and statistics (which are available) of the social or class composition of the CPCS in its period of absolute power. All these and a few other errors and omissions can be easily corrected in an eventual second edition of this pioneering and generally very successful work . PETER R. HRUBY Western Australian Institute of Technology Perth , Australia Frantisek Bielik a kolektfv. Slovaci vo svete. Volume II. Martin : Matica slovenska, 1980. 320 pp . This second volume of Slovaci vo svete is a general survey of pre-World War II Slovak immigration to countries throughout the world. It is a collaborative effort. However, except for the separate sections on Slovak immigrant culture and involvement in labor activities in the United States and the Slovak immigration to Canada and France , Frantisek Bielik is the principal author of the book. Bielik first discusses the general causes of Slovak emigration and its impact on Hungary and later Czechoslovakia. The work is then divided into geographical categories by country. Within each geographical division, the authors adopt a standard, almost monotonous , procedure of chronicling the formation and sporadic activities of various Slovak organizations . They provide brief descriptions of Slovak fraternal societies , schools, newspapers, labor organizations, and cultural associations . In addition, they discuss the political and labor activities of some Slovak immigrants in the different countries. Slovaci vo svete is a useful addition to the literature on Slovak immigration, because it contains tables and statistics as well as literary material that have not been readily available in a single source. The inclusion of sources would have improved the usefulness of the tables. The work is also important SLOVAKIA 143 because it offers some different perspectives on the Slovak immigration experience . For example, Bielik properly stresses that the United States was the major but not the sole destination of Slovak emigrants . To emphasize this point, the book includes brief sketches of Slovak immigration to New Zealand, Asia, and Africa - countries not commonly associated with the Slovak emigration movement. Also, by discussing Slovak involvement in labor unions and Socialist organizations, the authors offer a different profile of Slovak immigrant laborers than that depicted in earlier literature. Ivan Poljak and Eva Fordinalova, who contributed the segment on Slovak union and work-related activities in the United States, would agree with Victor Greene that Slovak workers were not simply meek laborers whose docility prevented them from becoming actively involved in labor unions and strife. Moreover, their religiosity did not prevent all Slovaks in the United States and elsewhere from flirting with Socialist or Communist ideas and joining Socialist or Communist parties. Despite such points, Slovaci vo svete is marred by serious weaknesses. As a synthesis , the book is far too general and institutionally oriented. Even the lengthier discussion of Slovak immigrants in the United States is primarily a chronicle narrative of various immigrant organizations and newspapers. The treatment of Slovak immigration to other countries serves little more than as a reminder that the United States was not the sole destination of this immigrant group. No attempt is made to offer a comparative analysis of Slovak adjustment to various countries. Rather, Bielik and the other contributors seem content to resort to perfunctory , isolated discussions of Slovaks and their organizations in the several countries. While they are to be commended for the attempt to describe the work life of Slovak laborers, the discussions of this topic suffer from overgeneralizations, oversimplifications, and factual and interpretive errors. The· authors try desperately to show that Slovaks almost naturally harbor Socialist sympathies . They use the participation by Slovaks in labor unions or strikes as examples of these natural sympathies. Typically the authors do not provide sufficient or convincing evidence for their generalizations. For example, they make no attempt even to estimate the number of Slovaks actually involved in the various " Socialist " and labor activities they describe . Unfortunately, Slovaci vo svete is further harmed because the authors overlook some obviously important aspects of Slovak immigrant life in the United States and perhaps in other countries as well. Despite the claim that the book is offering a description of immigrant life , much of the material actually focuses on the activities of prominent Slovaks, not ordinary immigrants . Slovak churches and their role in American Slovak communities are ignored. Overall, Slovaci vo svete is too brief to treat adequately the complex aspects of Slovak immigration to the United States and to other countries. Still, this work does raise questions that merit closer analysis b y students of Slovak 144 SLOVAKIA immigration and of labor and political history. The contributors also do provide a general, institutional history of Slovak immigration throughout the world. This volume does not rank as the definitive study of Slovak immigration, but it is a synthesis that scholars in Czechoslovakia and in those countries where Slovak immigrants have gone will find useful. JUNE GRANATIR ALEXANDER The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio Elena Jakesova . Vyst'ahovalectvo Slovakov do Kanady. Bratislava : Veda, vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej akademie vied, 1981. 160 pp . In recent years there has been a great renewed interest in ethnic and immigration history on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. To the growing list of scholarly studies in this field can be added Elenajakesova's present monograph . Jakesova presents a concise, statistical account of Slovak immigration to Canada from the 1870s to 1938. The book is divided into two sections, one covering the years from the 18 70s to 1914, and the second from 1922 to 1938 . She gives the reasons for Slovak immigration from Hungary, and later from Czechoslovakia, and also an excellent outline of the individual Slovak settlements in Canada. Other chapters or sections are devoted to the development of the Slovak press in Canada and to the rise of Slovak fraternal societies. Separate sections describe Slovak mining settlements in Western Canada, agricultural communities in Central Canada, and urban settlements in Eastern Canada in later years . This is a well-organized and well-written book . The research and documentation are most impressive . The author made use of archival material from Slovak district archives in Slovakia, from the Haus-Hof-und Staatsarchiv in Vienna, and from the Magyar Orszagos Leveltar in Budapest. Most of the periodical literature and monographic studies dealing with Canadian Slovaks were also used. In short, few stones were left unturned . The volume is also enriched by graphs and charts which help clarify the history of Slovak immigration to Canada. Even the illustrations were well selected and add interest to the subject. , Two serious shortcomings of the book arejakesova's treatment of Canadian Slovak societies and churches. Among societies the importance of the Slovak workers' movement was overemphasized . Her account of it was informative and interesting, but the movement itself was of decidedly minor significance. The Canadian Slovak League and Canadian-Slovak Support Society were and remain the largest Canadian-Slovak organizations . More should SLOVAKIA 145 have been said about these groups and the great work and sacrifices of such individuals as Andrej Kucera and Andrej Potocky, founders of the Canadian Slovak League . In general, more attention should have been devoted to the experiences of Canadian Slovaks - their joys and sufferings - and to the history of their churches, which were not covered at all. Aside from these drawbacks , the work has many merits and can be recomm ended to anyone seeking a general survey of Slovak immigration to Canada. X. SUTHERLAND Stoney Point, New York ANTHONY Engelbert Zobl and Hertha A. Zobl. Holzbaukunst in der Slowakei. Vienna : Fachjournalverlagsgesellschaft, 1978. 92 pp. This unpretentious little paperback volume bears witness to what seems to be a growing interest among enthusiasts in western Europe to " uncover " the art of traditional wooden architecture in the Carpathian region of Slovakia. H ence, since the appearance of the book under review , two more ambitious volumes have appeared: Wooden Churches in th e Carpathians: The Photographic Legacy of Florian Zapletal (Vienna, 1982) by Paul R. Magoci and the monumental Wooden Churches of Eastern Europe (Cambridge , 1981) by David Buxton , both of which contain numerous photograp hs of structures in northeastern Slovakia. In contrast to these two subsequent works , the book by Engelbert and Hertha Zobl seems more of an architectural travel reportage put together as a guide for Austrian and West German tourists who still flock each summer to Czechoslovakia in search of the ostensibly more exotic cultural stimuli of the "east." This is not to suggest that such popular books are without value or that the Zobls have not done a competent job . In fact, as is evident from the albeit self-indulgent autobiographical data (complete with photographs of the whole family), the husband and wife Zobl team have degrees, respectively , in architecture and the a pplied arts. And as the lavishly-illustrated book reveals , they both have a keen sensitivity for the aesthetic as well as technical aspects of their subject. The book is basically divided into five chapters : belfries, wooden churches, wooden crosses, secular wooden architecture, and architectural ornamentation. The appendices include a list of all belfries and churches with their date of construct ion (in most , but not all instances); a map showing the travel route fo llowed by the authors in 1976 with each place indicated that appears in the book ; an index of placenames; and a brief bibliography . The latter indicates a few basi c German, Czech, and Slovak works, but omi ts two recent 146 SLOVAKIA Ukraini an-langu age studies from C zechoslovakia th at deal with the subj ect: an encyclopedia of wooden churches (past and present) in northeastern Slovakia by B. K ovafo vyfova-Puskarova and I. Pu skar , D erev 'jani cerk vy schidnoho obrjadu na Slo vaccyni (Bratislava and Presov, 1971) and a survey of secular architecture in the same region by M . Sopolyha , Narodn a architektura ukrajinciv Schidnoji Slovaccyn y (Svidnfk, 1976) . Each chapter in the book by the Zobls is preceded by a very brief introduction , and each of the 110 photograph s carries a caption. There are also 41 line drawings of structures and ground plans. By far , the largest portion of the book - a to tal of 72 illu strations - d epicts structures from villages inhabited by C a rpatho-Ru syns in the very northea stern part of Slovakia. Thi s is not surprising, since that area had economicall y always been the m ost underdeveloped and , therefore, traditional life-style and architecture have been preserved there the longest. Also , the authors seem ed to have become enchanted by the clusters of wood en churches north of Svidnfk and northea st of Snina, whose almost perfect form a nd balance m ake them stand out aesthetically, in particular when juxta posed to wooden architecture throughout all of eastern Europe, as is evident from the compara tive survey b y David Buxton mentioned above. The photographs are, in fact , the highlight of the Zobl ' s book . They were all ta ken in 1976, were well executed and often provide different views of a given structure, and have been reproduced clearly in the printing process. With the exception of a few iconostases in side Byzantine-rite churches, the photographs are almost all exterior shots. Pa rti cul arl y striking are 39 photograph s in color , am ong the best of which a re the wooden church in Mi rol'a, the cem etary crosses in D etva, and the decoration on hou ses in Zdi ar . All in all , W ooden Architecture in Slovakia is an excellent introd uction to the beauties of trad itional cultu re that still can be found in Slovaki a tod ay. As a serious guide for tourists, it would be pa rticula rl y useful if a n E ngli sh ed ition could be p repa red fo r the increasin g numbers of Am ericans of Slovak a nd Carpatho-Ru syn descent who visit the ancestral hom eland . P AUL R . M AGOCSI Uni versity of T oronto T oronto, Ca nada A tlas CSSR . Brat islava: Slove nska kartografi a, 1980 . This school atlas is obviously intended for student s at about the hi gh school level. It has no accompan yin g text or explana tory m a terial and is even devoid of a n introdu ction. Con sequentl y, the u ser is give n no idea regardin g the in tended audience or the goal s of thi s volume of m aps. SLOVAKIA 147 There are 42 pages of maps; there are more actual maps, howeve r , because numerous inset (larger scale) maps are displayed on various themes. The first quarter of the atlas is d evoted to physical/environmental subjects temperature, precipitation , geological structure , soils, forests , etc. The remainder of the volume contains social, cultural, and especially economic maps . The physical maps are of standard type, although the last of this group is an interesting map of conservation sites, such as parks and botanical stations. The demographic maps (pages 12 to 15) are interesting because included are maps on density , fertility , mortality , national population growth rates , labor force, and the nationalities. Most of the m aps suffer as a result of the inappropriate scale employed and poor use of color. The nationalities sheet is particularly poor because the combination of colors and patterns to locate and quantify minority groups is a total failure. The economic maps (pages 16-27) again are standard and include maps of minerals , manufacturing, agriculture , crops , transport and more for the entire country. Detailed political/ physical maps of the Czech and Slovak R epublics are then followed by similar economic maps for the two areas. The atlas is rounded out with a set of maps of "regional types" at the micro-scale. There are six of these, including types such as the High Tatra a rea and a section of industrial Ostrava. There are also 10 exam ples of "settlement types," including Nitra and a Czech resort town. The final three maps are interesting cultural maps, including one of higher and middle schools, medical institutions, and historical/cultural monuments. Unfortunately , these maps are of very limited use because they are drawn at a scale ( 1 :4,000,000) which obliterates any detail. In general, the Atlas CSSR is an adequate school level tool. It would have been much better and useful, however , if sharper color had been used and if more reasonable scales had been chosen for many of the maps. The bulkiness (23 cm. x 55 cm .) and the inferior quality of the binding also detract from the Atlas ' value. In sum , a poten tiall y lively collection of maps has bee n rendered into a disappointing volume of no particular distinction. GEORGE J. D EMKO U.S. Department of State W ashington , D .C. Peter Balaz, Miloslav Darovec, and H eather Trebaticka. Slovak for Slavicists . Brat islava: Slovenske pedagogicke nakladatel'stvo, 1976. 302 pp. Students who have some background in another Slavic langu age, as well as those who possess a rudimentary knowledge of Slovak , will find this text- 148 SLOVAKIA book useful. It was written for the intermediate classes at the Studia Academica Slovaca (Summer Seminar of Slovak Language and Culture in Bratislava), and was also intended for use as a textbook in university-level courses abroad . The authors point out in the preface that it is not a handbook for those studying Slovak without a teacher ; however , it can be used in this way if the student's goal is to gain only a reading knowledge of Slovak, and particularly if Slovak is not his/ her first Slavic language. The book contains 27 lessons in addition to the Slovak-English/English-Slovak glossaries . The bilingual d esignation of the section headings in the table of contents and in the lessons themselves is a very desirable feature of the book . It serves the immediate pedagogical purpose of teaching these items in Slovak as well as enabling the student who wishes to augment the explanations in the textbook with those from Slovak sources to find easily the desired items in the Slovak books . Lesson 1 is devoted to a brief discussion of the alphabet and pronunciation . The Slovak letters ii, c, dz, s, z, t', d', 1' are characterized as palatalized consonants (p. 17) , which might well confuse those students who have studied Ru ssian . They would be better described in English as palatals. Furthermore, since regressive voice assimilatio n before nasals and liquids characterizes Slovak sandhi rules in contrast to some of the other Slavic languages, it would be well to include that information in the section on pronunciation . The remaining lessons have the following general format : introductory text , questions , vocabulary, grammatical section , exercises , grammatical section, exercises, translation exercise, and pronunciation exercise. The exercises a re well constructed and provide immediate reinforcement of the concepts just introduced . The notes and notice markers which call attention to exceptions or to features which differ significantly in English are also very effective . R eview exercises, spaced at appropriate intervals throughout the book which would combine the information presented in the various grammatical sections up to that point , would enhance the efficacy of the textbook (e.g., inclusion of a review exercise following Lesson 6 after most declensional paradigms have been introduced) . The introductory texts conta in a vocabulary which is very useful for those students who will be in Bratislava . Howeve r, to those who have never been there , as well as to the newly arrived , certain words such as miestenka are mystifying and a note of explanation would be helpful. Lesson 8 has an informal letter to a friend as the introductory text. The forms of ty are correctly capitalized. H owever , there is no note of explanation on how vy (polite singular/plural) should be written. Since this is one of the areas in which the Slavic languages differ , it would be well to include a note on T /V capitalization in letters. It might be more useful to include a thank- yo u note or a formal letter for exam- SLOVAKIA 149 pie, to a professor requesting a consultation, because these are the kinds of letters that a more advanced student is likely to be writing . In general the texts are of a very practical nature and provide the student with an adequate vocabulary for functioning in Slovak society. They could be made more effective by deleting some, such as Lesson 4, or editing them, so that they would be more appropriate for and interesting to university students. While it is possible to draw up a list of additions that one would wish to insert into the book, that in no way detracts from its value. It is certainly the best textbook available today for teaching Slovak to English-speaking students at the university level, and we can only hope that it will be expanded and enlarged in future editions. LOUISE B. HAMMER Bloomington , Indiana JozefMistrfk . Basic Slovak . Bratislava : Slovenske pedagogicke nakladatel'stvo, 1981. 160 pp . This textbook is designed for English-speaking students who want to learn the fundamental grammatical phenomena and 800 of the most frequently occurring vocabularly items in Slovak without wading through the complexities that most traditional grammars present. Its focus is on learning to speak Slovak (American speakers of English should be forewarned that the pronunciation equivalents between English and Slovak given in Lesson 1 are based on British English), not on gaining a passive reading knowledge of the language, and it is not designed to be used without a teacher . Therefore, rules are given but exceptions to the rules are introduced into the discussion only when they occur frequently . This approach is based on the theory that second language acquisition, like first language acquisition, requires a knowledge of the productive grammatical rules of a language, i.e. , those patterns that a learner encounters over and over again in everyday usage. Since this textbook is designed for the one-month Studia Academica Slovaca summer school course as an introductory textbook, it alone would not suffice for a traditional American two-year college program; however, even in a more extended course, the texts which begin each chapter , as well as the exercises at the ends of the lessons, could serve as useful supplementary material . The book contains fifteen lessons , paradigm tables, Slovak-English and English-Slovak vocabularies, and a dictionary of linguistic terms . Beginning with the second, each lesson consists of four parts : text, vocabulary, grammar, and exercises. The texts are interest ing from the sociolinguistic point of view because they frequently have as their themes social events which a re common 150 SLOVAKIA in contemporary Slovak life, such as presenting flowers to someone arriving at the station, waiting in line to buy things, the extended family living together, friends sharing their experiences over a glass of wine . These texts serve to familiarize American students with Slovak culture and appropriate language usage in that culture. Each text introduces the vocabulary items which are listed just after it. This section is followed by grammatical explanations which are simple and concise, and are easily understood by learners with a minimal background in traditional grammar . The exercises require the student to create new forms based on the rules and data presented in the preceding sections . In addition to fillin g in blanks , the students are required to form sentences. Since a bilingual text is given in all of the lessons after the fifth , the student is able to check his/her progress in sentence construction . Features of Slovak which are absent in English and are, therefore , troublesome for English-speaking students are re-introduced in the texts or exercises of subsequent lessons; for example, the prefixed forms of ist' are introduced in Lesson 10 and are exemplified in the exercises in Lesson 12 . The last item in the exercises is a list of words to be read aloud for pronunciation purposes. These words do not appear in the glossary at the end of the book. The glossary does possess an attr~ctive feature: It indicates after every word the number of the lesson in which the word was introdu ced . As is usual in a first printing , some errors are to be found in the book (e.g., a few of the r ' s in th e glossary have been deleted , and some of the s's have been transposed into the s section). There are also minor errors in the English text : " present " in stead of " represent" (p. 11) ; "shorting" instead of " shortening" (p . 66) ; "The both forms are possible" (p . 74 ). one of these lead s to misunderstanding ; however, occasionally, as in " byvam dlho h are" (p . 3 1) ( = " not to sleep"), the E nglish m eaning is not immedia tely clear. On the whole , P rofessor Mi strfk 's book successfully fulfills the goals which he set in writing it , and any teacher or student of Slovak will find it a u seful addition to his/her library. L OU ISE B . HAMM ER Blooming ton , Indian a Abel Kral'. Slovenska vyslovn ost'. Banska Bys trica: U cebne pomocky, 1979. 8 stereo phonograph records with accom pan ying text , 173 pp. These high-quality recordings were produced by Abel Kral' , the head of the Phonetics D epartment a t Com enius University, and national artist V . Zaborsky , for u se in seconda ry schools and la ngu age institutes in Slovakia in SLOVAKIA 151 order to teach students the neutral pronunciation style of standard literary Slovak . In the introduction Kral' explains the theoretical assumptions on which the presentation is based and suggests various ways in which the records can be used effectively. The recordings contain sections on the vowels, diphthongs, consonants, and consonant clusters . In addition there are excellent exercises on gemminated consonants, rhythmic shortening, and particularly on voicing assimilation in the various environments. The last record has a well-exemplifed discussion of sentence intonation. Each section begins with an introduction in which the terminology is defined, the particular sound or sounds under consideration are d escribed, and incorrect pronunciation is sometimes identified. Then the correct pronunciation is given. It is repeated twice with pauses between the utterances so that the student is able to practice the pronunciation and compare it to the record. These sections would be valuable for beginning students, while the more advanced students would additionally gain from hearing the spoken Slovak of the explanations as well as from their content. These recordings would be a very useful teaching aid for non-native speakers who teach Slovak or for Slovaks who speak a dialect and would like to acquire the standard pronunciation . Every student of Slovak who wishes to acquire a good speaking command of the language will benefit from the use of these recordings. They are in fact a very solid course in Slovak phonetics, and selections from the recordings would be ideal material for the pronunciation section of a typical language course. LOUISE B. HAMMER Bloomington , Indiana Vojtech Mihalik . Erotikon. Subor l'ubostn ej lyriky. Bratislava : Slovensky spisovatel' , 1981. Vojtech Mihalik is the grand old m an of Czechoslovak letters , and specifically of Slovak poetry, if this title could apply to a m a n who is only 55 years old. He is undoubtedly the most outstanding poet of the generation which came to the fore after the Second World War. Born in 1926 , Michalik for many years worked as the editor-in-chief of the main publishing house in Bra tislava . A former long-time president of the Association of Slovak Writers, he is at presen t the director of the publi shing house Slovensky spisovatel'. His first selection of poems appeared shortly after the war. H e has published 13 more volumes of poetry as well as numerous essays a nd translations. In 1978 he received the title of Nat ion al Artist, one of the highest literary honors in Czechoslovakia. 152 SLOVAKIA This, his latest volume, contains a selection of poems written at various periods of the author's life. As far as the erotic content of the book is concerned, it is much smaller than could be expected by Western standards . Mihalik is prima rily a romantic poet , a poet of love and emotion . H e puts less stress on the physical aspects of passion than would most of his W estern colleagues . In this he remains firmly rooted in the native Slovak tradition, where the appeal is to the feeling and sentiment , and where the exploitation of sexual aspects is subdued by a sense of decorum. Thus Mihalik ' s main effort in his love is to capture the fl eeting moments of love: the minute of mutual silence, a tree rising against the sun as the lovers embrace , the sorrows and the ecstasies of deep emotion. Mihalik is ve ry conscious of nature . Like most Slovak poets, he lives spiritually in the countryside , with its peasant cottages, lush gardens, orchards full of ripe fruit, meadows suffused by the rays of sun . His erotic imagery refers almost exclu sively to nature. A lonely lover is compared to earth which gave away its beautiful perfume to strolling winds. Lovemaking is perceived by the author in term s of entering a rose garden , searching for a star in the silent sky, or walking unharmed in the midst of a swarm of bees . The metaphors are so intricately ornate that they would be reminiscent of oriental poetry, were it not for the absence of explicitness so characteristic of Arabic and Persian verse. Each poem is a parable of nature sustained to the very end , where in the last lines it unravels into a love poem . If it were not for the last couple of lines, an inexperienced reader might take the poems at their face value of m elancholy or ecstatic descriptions of landscape . Each poem is thus a higly complex and elegantly written puzzle, the m eaning of which has to be d eciphered on two levels , the natural and the erotic. Mihalik 's poems are usually short. His favorite form is the sonnet, whose stylish elegance suits perfectly his method of expression . Some of the poem s are cast in the form of a dialogue, which is a mode deeply rooted in Slovak folk poetry. Mihalik m ay be a romantic lover accordin g to the Slovak tradition , but he is by no means a patient one. If hi s passion does not m eet with a quick response , he rebels. H e sees love as a confusing passion because there is so little understanding between man and woman. Woman is always an outsider in hi s poems. She may be courted, coveted , responsive, submi ssive, or cold , but she always remain s incomprehen sible. Mihalik 's attitude toward women is quite traditional . They are the ones who suffer, who bear the burden of broken relationships, and who carry the whole burden of parental responsibility. Mih alik admires women , feels sorry for them, but he seems to accept their lot as a na tural thing. A s he gets older, Mihalik finds it increasingly difficult to accept the new SLOVAKIA 153 world around him . It is a world where the traditional values become rejected, where children of living parents become orphans because of desertion , where wives are leaving incompatible husbands , where families becom e broken for no apparent reason. The poet sees the world around him as full of suffering and unhappiness which he can only record, without being able to alleviate them . H e becomes a witness for a new generation that is growing up unloved and unlovable . His poems lose their spontaneous enchantment with life, as life becomes increasingly complex and difficult and as the poet finds he cannot turn to love to provide him with a sense of the m eaning of existence. The only an swer that seem s to emerge from Mihalik 's later poems is the implicit message to endure , to go on, and to do one's best. And in this message, as in so many aspects of hi s poetry, Mihalik shows himself again as the true son of his peopl e, the patient, enduring, and long-suffering people of Slovakia. YVONNE GRABOWSKI York University Downsview, Canada Vincent Sikula. Liesky. Bratislava: Smena, 1980. The novelette Liesky is in many respects firml y embedded in the Slovak literary tradition. Like so many books produced in Slovakia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it describes the trials and tribulations of a country boy on his way toward education and recognition. The chief character is a student at the conservatory who hopes to become a forest horn player and who persists in hi s path in spite of loneliness and abject poverty. The form of the novelette is also an old favorite, a first person narrative. The genre itself has been successfully transplanted from the Russian literature of the Golden Age and has fl ourished in Czechoslovakia since there was a favorable ground for its reception in Czech and Slovak folklore . What saves the story from becoming a typical hardship case narration , so characteristic of Slovak literature, is Sikula's humorous approach. The humor is intensified by the aut hor's use of the skaz technique. The predicam ents of the hero m ay be pathetic, but they are at the same time highly amusing. When the hero describes his family, we learn that his parents had so many children that the y hardly noticed if several of them were missing. The young man 's landlady can carry a conversation only with her cat - she is stone deaf. The hero has to practice music by drumming on the table because he cannot afford an instrument. When he finally gets the opportunity to practice on a real piano, he ruefully notes that it does not sou nd to him as good as the table. The narration thus proceeds at a lively pace, in a jolly animated style, 154 SLOVAKIA full of slan g, colloquiali sm s, and peasant speech m annerism s. It m akes fo r ea sy and pleasant readin g. Yet Sikula is mu ch m ore th an a skillful na rrator . Hi s m astery of style is evident as the story gradually reveals the narrator 's character , his a rtistic strivings , and his sexu al awakening. Sikula possesses a superb sense of n ature. M an is never alone in hi s book. All his ac tion s and feelings ta ke place in a na tural setting of which he is a n integral part. N a ture blends with the action , and the cha n ge of seasons accompanies ch a n ges of life . Thus the story starts with a beautiful description of winter and ends with an equally beautiful episode of picking fresh twigs from bu sh es. The story is deliberatel y left unfinished since Sikula aim s a t portrayin g but one stage in th e hero 's life . W e will never learn what is goin g to ha ppen in the future to the human twig picked from the bu sh of country life, a nd we are not m eant to know. Sikula presen ts u s with a vignette of life in the m a kin g. W e a re expected to enj oy the beaut y and the immediacy of the vignette portrayed b y an exquisite painter and not to look beyond it. Sikula has both the talen t of a pa inter a nd a poe t. Althou gh the story is written in p rose, it read s like a poem , di splayin g the author 's rem arka ble powe r ove r la nguage. Its m easured cad en ces a nd sen se of rhythm give the reader a unique poetic experience. It is the beaut y of style which gives to Liesk y its most definite imprin t. YVONNE G R ABOWS KI Y ork Uni versity D own sview, C anada SLOVAKIA 155 BOOK NOTE Charles Wojatsek . From Trianon to the First Vienna Arbitral Award: The Hungarian Minority in th e First Czechoslovak Republic, 1918-1938. Montreal: Institute of Comparative Civilizations, 1981. 229 pp . Time and time again Mr. Wojatsek attempted to publish his manuscript through academic and commercial presses , only to have it repea tedly rejected because of its poor quality . Finally, when nothing else could be done, he published the book him self, under the spu rious auspices of the " In stitute of Comparative Civilizations, Montreal." This book is not worth serious consideration. It was written with the patriotic fervor of a true believer, and its reading makes for cruel and unusual punishment, deserved only by other nationalists of Wojatsek's type. This reviewer wishes to warn the unsu specting public: Beware 1 You may jeopardize your time, your money, and your nerves! Y ESHA Y AHU JELINEK Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheba, Israel  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. 31 (No. 57) Description An account of the resource includes:<br /><ul><li>Robin Okey, <em>Eastern Europe, 1740-1980</em> (R. Vladimir Baumgarten), p. 119</li> <li>Milorad M. Drachkovitch, ed., <em>East Central Europe</em> (Josef Kalvoda), p. 121</li> <li>Rudolf Krajčovič, <em>Svedectvo dejín o slovenčine</em> (Gerald J. Sabo), p. 123</li> <li>Ľudovít Novák, <em>K najstarším dejinám slovenského jazyka</em> (John M. Kochik), p. 124</li> <li>František Kalesný, <em>Habáni na Slovensku</em> (Peter Brock), p. 126</li> <li>August A. Skodacek, <em>Lutherans in Slovakia</em> (Robert J. Skovira), p. 129</li> <li>Paul Robert Magocsi, <em>The Shaping of a National Identity and The Rusyn-Ukrainians of Czechoslovakia</em> (Owen V. Johnson), p. 130</li> <li>Vojtech Šarluška, comp., <em>Jubileá Matice slovenskej</em> (John A. Berta), p. 132</li> <li>Milan S. Ďurica, ed., <em>Il mondo slavo</em>. Volume VIII. (John M. Kochik), p. 133</li> <li>Josef Korbel, <em>Twentieth-Century Czechoslovakia</em> (M. Evangela Lubek), p. 135</li> <li>Martin R. Myant, <em>Socialism and Democracy in Czechoslovakia</em> (Stanislav J. Kirschbaum), p. 136</li> <li>Léon Noël, <em>La Tchécoslovaquie ďavant Munich and J.F.N. Bradley, Politics in Czechoslovakia</em> (Stanislav J. Kirschbaum), p. 138</li> <li>Zdenek L. Suda, <em>Zealots and Rebels</em> (Peter R. Hruby), p. 140</li> <li>František Bielik, et. al., <em>Slováci vo svete</em>. Volume II. (June Granatir Alexander), p. 142</li> <li>Elena Jakešová, <em>Vysťahovalectvo Slovákov do Kanady</em> (Anthony X. Sutherland), p. 144</li> <li>Engelbert and Hertha Zobl, <em>Holzbaukunst in der Slowakei</em> (Paul R. Magocsi), p. 145</li> <li><em>Atlas ČSSR</em> (George J. Demko), p. 146</li> <li>Peter Baláž et. al., <em>Slovak for Slavicists</em> (Louise B. Hammer), p. 147</li> <li>Jozef Mistrík, <em>Basic Slovak</em> (Louise B. Hammer), p. 149</li> <li>Ábel Kráľ, <em>Slovenská výslovnosť</em> (Louise B. Hammer), p. 150</li> <li>Vojtech Mihálik, <em>Erotikon</em> (Yvonne Grabowski), p. 151</li> <li>Vincent Šikula, <em>Liesky</em> (Yvonne Grabowski), p. 153</li> <li>Charles Wojatsek, <em>From Trianon to the First Vienna Arbitral Award</em> (Yeshayahu Jelinek), p. 155</li> </ul> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Alexander, June Granatir, 1948- Baumgarten, R. Vladimir Berta, John A. Brock, Peter, 1920-2006 Demko, George J., 1933- Grabowski, Yvonne, 1929-1989 Hammer, Louise B., 1940- Hrubý, Petr, 1921-2017 Jelínek, Yešhayahu A., 1933-2016 Johnson, Owen V. Kalvoda, Josef, 1923-1999 Kirschbaum, Stanislav J., 1942- Kochik, John Michael Lubek, Sister M. Evangela, SS.C.M. Magocsi, Paul Robert, 1945- Sabo, Gerald J., 1945–2020 Skovira, Robert J. Sutherland, Anthony X. (Anthony Xavier) LCNAF LCNAF+dates name SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/9d48306a8ca309774f8d2a6e7d9d6320.pdf 00f7397f1994292a5a91d360a97d92c0 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA REVIEWS 83 ��SLOVAKIA 85 Historicky casopis, 33 , 2 (1 985) . "K vel 'komoravskemu vyrociu. " Bratislava: Veda, 19 8 5. Anna Holla. Metod - ucitel' Slovienov. K 1100 vfrrociu umrtia {885-1985}. Martin: Matica slovenska , 1985 . THEODORIC J. ZUBEK, O.F.M. Pittsburgh , Pennsyl vania As the year 1985 approached , Slovak Christians both in Czechoslovakia and abroad wondered in what manner the 1, 100th anniversary of the death of St. Methodius would be observed in Slovakia. The two publications under review provide partial answers to that question. · Historicky casopis , the official organ of the Ustav historickych vied Slovenskej akademie vied , devoted an entire issue to the ' 'Great Moravian Anniversary. ' ' In their introduction, the editors concede that Methodius was ' 'the most important personality in the cultural history of Great Moravia." Further, they note that ''Marxist historiography values highly the work of Constantine and Methodius, who laid the foundations for the development of Slavic literature, which thereafter prevailed among the majority of the South and East Slavs ." However , they also maintain that although Marxist historiography cannot overstate the importance of these two men, it cannot view them only as " evangelizers of the faith." The cultural elements of the Cyrillo-Methodian heritage are, of course, undeniable. But it is equally undeniable that that legacy also - and primarily - includes tremendous religiou s significance for the Slavs in general and the Slovaks in particular. What this reviewer finds especially objectionable in this issue of Historicky casopis is the attempt to minimize the importance of the evangelical activity of Sts . Cyril and Methodius and to neglect the religious dimensions of their work. The cultural achievements of the saintly brothers were the result of their primary goal: to complete the Christianization of the Slavic peoples. This main goal of their mission is never properly recognized by the authors, and the names of Sts . Cyril and Methodius are never mentioned with their title of reverence , " Saint. " Furthermore, not a single arti- �86 SLOVAKIA cle is devoted specifically to St. Methodius in what is supposed to be a commemoration of the anniversary of his death! The first article , by Matus Kucera, assesses Great Moravia and the beginnings of Slovak national history. Although Kucera writes extensively about the era of Rastislav and Svatopluk, he fails to mention Sts. Cyril and Methodius by name as the founders of Christian civilization among the ancestors of the Slovaks. In his article on "fictions and facts" concerning the territorial development of Great Moravia, Peter Ratkos refutes the claims of Imre Boba and other historians that the territory of Great Moravia was situated around the Morava River in Serbia. According to Ratkos , Sirmium was probably not the actual see of Archbishop Methodius , because at that time Sirmium belonged to Bulgaria. Richard Marsina examines the diplomatic documents relating to the history of Great Moravia and their value as sources. He acknowledges the authenticity of seventeen diplomatic texts, mostly the preserved letters of Popes Adrian II, John VIII, Stephen V, and John IX, and eighteen lost documents (deperdita) mentioned in the authentic diplomatic papers and other reliable historical sources. The article which deals the most with St. Cyril is the one by Alexander Avenarius on the contribution of Byzantium to Great Moravian culture. The author explains St. Cyril's philosophy, classifies him as a liberal in his opposition to iconoclasm, and places him in the camp of the liberal patriarch Photius. Avenarius also describes the influence of Byzantine monasticism in Bohemia and Slovakia after the death of Svatopluk. The last two articles are not directly concerned with the work of Sts. Cyril and Metodius . Bohuslav Chropovsky and Alexander Ruttkay evaluate the most recent archeological excavations and situate geographically the extent of the Slovak ethnic group. Finally, Rudolf Krajcovic examines the very complicated issue of language in Great Moravia and its continuity with Slovak. The publication of the Matica slovenska, Metod - ucitel' Slovienov, is more germane to the commemoration of St. Methodius' anniversary than the articles in the Historicky casopis issue. It contains nineteen pages of printed text by Anna Holla and thirty-two photographic reproductions of archeological findings from the �SLOVAKIA 87 Great Moravian era, copies of some Glagolitic and Cyrillic texts, and newer Slovak literary and pictorial works related to Sts. Cyril and Methodius. Holla's brief survey of St. Methodius and the whole CyrilloMethodian legacy in Czechoslovakia is a popular version based on contemporary scholarship. It reflects, not surprisingly, the distortions of present official Marxist historiography concerning the Great Moravian period. Holla characterizes Great Moravia as the first state common to the Czechs and Slovaks; and she emphasizes the cultural, social, and political activity of Sts. Cyril and Methodius and excludes or minimizes their missio.nary efforts. Holla' s assertion that Great Moravia was the first joint state of the Czechs and Slovaks is of dubious historical validity. By military force Svatopluk occupied the adjacent Slavic territories, among them Bohemia, and annexed them to his realm, but he did not incorporate them organically into Great Moravia. After his death in 894, the people in these occupied territories hastened to separate themselves from Great Moravia, searching for independence or joining new political alliances. The annexation of Bohemia to Great Moravia lasted less than twenty years, and after Svatopluk's death the Czechs found themselves again in the orbit of the Eastern Frankish (German) Empire. This reviewer must also take exception to Holla's statement that ''The basis of the missionary work of Constantine and Methodius in the Great Moravian Empire was their legal work, by which they eradicated Frankish church law and the unwritten common law of Great Moravia and substituted for it a strong legal order" (p. 6}. As has been mentioned, the basis of the CyrilloMethodian mission was the evangelization of the Slavs. Sts. Cyril and Methodius did not eliminate the church law which had been brought to the territory of Great Moravia by Irish-Scottish, Acquilean (Italian), and Bavarian missionaries; and they did not abolish the unwritten indigenous laws as long as they did not deviate from either Latin or Byzantine church and civil laws. In conclusion, the jubilee issue of Historicky casopis and the text by Anna Holla in the Matica slovenska publication suffer from gross deficiencies and omissions which stem from the antireligious bias of official Marxist historiography toward the legacy �88 SLOVAKIA of Sts. Cyril and Methodius . Only the Matica slovenska publication, with its well-selected, beautiful reproductions , can in a sense be considered as a tribute to the memory of St. Methodius in Slovakia. Julius Sopko. Stredoveke latinske k6dexy v slovensky ch kniiniciach. (Stredoveke k6dexy slovenskej proveniencie, I]. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1981. 304 pp. Julius Sopko. Stredoveke latinske k6dexy slovenskej proveniencie v Mad'arsku av Rumunsku. (Stredoveke k6dexy slovenskej proveniencie, II). Martin: Matica slovenska, 1982. 400 pp. GERALD J. SABO John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio This two-volume catalogue of codices comprises a listing of all extant medieval manuscripts produced on Slovak territory. Most were written in Latin and are similar to those found throughout medieval Europe. The subject matter pertains, for the most part, to religious faith and practice, and philosophy. Bibles, missals , antiphonaries , graduals , chant collections , sermons and related bilingual dictionaries, rules of a religious order, commentaries on religious topics, and philosophical studies are the kinds of writings found in these manuscripts. Occasionally among them are " secular" - non-religious or philosophical - texts , such as Gesta Romanorum (Feats of the Romans), Chronicon Dubnicense (The History of Dubnica), or Codex Justinian us: Digesta - Excerpta (Justinian's Law Code: Summaries and Excerpts) . Some of these manuscripts are preserved in Slovak archival repositories, while others are found in Hungary and Romania. In the two introductions of the first volume in Slovak and Latin , Sopko considers briefly the emergence and development of libraries and scriptoria on Slovak territory as well as the history of manuscript collections and their present status. He discusses the role of certain religious orders in the execution and collection of such manuscripts; among these are the Benedictines, Fran- �SLOVAKIA 89 ciscans, Dominicans, Cistercians, Carthusians, and Premonstratensians (also known as Norbertines). Sopko also mentions the significant activity of the cathedral chapters in Nitra, Bratislava, and Spis that fostered the composing of manuscripts. Thirteen Slovak areas are listed as locations of repositories for such manuscripts: Banska Bystrica, Bardejov, Bratislava, Dolny Kubin, Jasov, Kezmarok, Kosice, Kremnica, Martin, Nitra, Presov, Spisska Kapitula , and Spisske Vlachy. These cities and towns, institutions in Bratislava and Kremnica contain the overwhelming majority of the 200 medieval manuscripts found on Slovak territory today. In Bratislava, the cathedral chapter library alone contains 82 such codices of the 135 found in the 6 repositories of this city. In Kremnica, the parish library contains 25 of 26 medieval codices in the city. In the second volume , 86 of 88 manuscripts preserved in Hungary are found in Budapest; the remaining 130 of the total 418 listed' in the two volumes are found in Alba Julia, Romania, in the former Batthyany library collection. In his introductions Sopko mentions the art of manuscript illumination that was well developed on Slovak territory . He includes at the end of both volumes photographic reproductions of some manuscripts, usually rendered in color, many of which also exemplify the art of illumination. One of the outstanding examples of manuscript writing and illumination is the ''Bratislava Missal,' ' which today is preserved in Alba Julia, Romania, as part of the former Batthyany library collection. This missal is described in the second volume of the catalogue (#400), and a color reproduction of one of its folio pages can be found at the end among the supplementary illustrations . (A book that presents the illumination aspect of medieval manuscripts in the Slovak area and that would complement this catalogue well is Stredoveka kniina mal 'ba na Slovensku by Alzbeta Giintherova and Jan Misianik published in two editions [1961 and 1977] by Tatran of Bratislava.) Sopko concludes each of the volumes with four lists: concordance of signatures , dated codices, first words of a codex, and a name and topic index. This two-volume catalogue by Sopko is primarily aimed at libraries and specialists in medieval culture and history. It presents �90 SLOVAKIA well the scholarly work that is often produced under the auspices of the Matica slovenska. Vysady miest a mesteciek na Slovensku {1238-1350}, I. Edited by L'ubomir Juck. Bratislava: Veda, 1984. 199 pp. Narodnostny vyvoj miest na Slovensku do roku 1918. K 600. vyrociu vydania vysad pre zilinskych Slovakov Edited by Richard Marsina. Martin: Osveta, 1984 . 275 pp. DAVID P. DANIEL ConcorcJti.a Seminary St. Louis, Missouri These two volumes reflect the breadth and depth of Slovak historical urban studies. They are both welcome additions to the growing body of scholarship on the history of urban life in Slovakia in the late medieval and early modern eras. The first, ''Privileges of the Cities and Towns in Slovakia (1238-1350)" was prepared as part of a long-term project planned by the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences during the 1950's and early 1960's which set as its goal the editing and publication of historical documents from the earliest eras of Slovak history. This volume is the first dealing specifically with the charters and grants of legal privileges made to the emerging cities during the High Middle Ages, primarily by Hungarian monarchs. Information concerning the documents which have disappeared and/or the texts of those preserved were drawn from materials in the archives of Slovakia and throughout Central Europe. The volume begins with a general introduction indicating the methodological principles utilized in preparing it and some general comments on the types of documents included . The bulk of the book is devoted to a catalogue, in chronological order, of all the grants of privileges discovered; a brief description of their contents and context in Slovak; the text of the document, in so far as it is known in the original language of composition, Latin; and finally a listing of the provenance of each document. As such , this volume provides a fascinating and accessible entrance into �SLOVAKIA 91 the historical development of the cities and towns which emerged on the territory of modern-day Slovakia during the High Middle Ages. They show that the economic strength of the towns grew in conjunction with the grants of economic and political privileges extended to them by the Hungarian monarchs. The towns sought to develop and protect their economic basis, manufacture, and trade by securing from the kings extensive rights of selfadministration and governance. The second volume, "Nationality Development of Cities in Slovakia to the Year 1918," is a collection of essays arranged according to the three thematic sections of the book: ''Nationality Development in Zilina"; "Nationality Development in the Towns of Slovakia''; and ''Nationality Development in Czech and Moravian Towns in the Middle Ages." However, despite the title, all but four of the sixteen studies treat the medieval and early modern periods. In the first section Marsina himself analyzes the privileges given to the Slovaks in Zilina in 1381; Julius Sopko attempts to identify the various individuals who made entries into the city record book of Zilina; Izidor Kotulic evaluates the language of the Zilina record book and other historical documents in Slovak; and Rudolf Kuchar examines the family names which appear in the Zilina record book. The studies of Peter Stansky on the structuring of nationalities in Zilina up to 1918 and of Pavol Hapak on the economic life and workers movement in Zilina during the last half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries conclude the section devoted specifically to the history of Zilina. In the second section Ferdinand Ulicny investigates the national groupings within the medieval cities of Slovakia; Jan Dorul'a examines the use of Slovak in the cities between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries; Anton Spiesz provides an analysis of Slovak artisan activity during the so-called later feudal period, the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries; and Jozef Vozaf evaluates the relationship between ethnic groups in the so-called montana or mining cities of central Slovakia during the same era. Ivan Chalupecky provides an analysis of ethnic relationships in the towns of Spis county for the century between 1550 to 1650, and Jana Skladana examines the oldest city books in Banovec nad Bebravou, dating from the sixteenth through the early eighteenth �92 SLOVAKIA centuries. Milan Podrimavsky concludes this section with an examination of the cities in Slovakia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries . The third section is made up of just three essays: Frantisek Smahel's review of findings and perspectives of the research into ethnic relationships in Bohemian cities during the Late Middle Ages (thirteenth to fifteenth centuries); Ludmila Sulitkova's investigation of the ethnic relationships in the Moravian cities, especially the royal cities, during the Late Middle Ages; and Josef Zemlicka' s essay on the countryside , ethnicity, and the late medieval Bohemian cities. While it is impossible to examine these essays individually, it should be noted that not only do they reveal how much urban studies have come to dominate Slovak late medieval/early modern history research , but also the complexities of ethnic relationships in Slovakia during the same era. Slovaks took an active, if not always an appreciated, role in the life of the cities of Slovakia during the Middle Ages and were, especially but not merely in the smaller towns , significant in their economic and political life. It is to be hoped that these volumes will encourage American scholars to become much more active in more fully investigating late medieval and early modern Slovak history. Juraj Zudel. Stolice na Slovensku. Bratislava: Obzor, 1984. 200 pp. R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee , Florida This book was written to provide a generaLhistory of the counties of Slovakia until 1849, when a modern centralized administration was imposed by Imperial decree in the so-called "Bach era". It may consequently be subtitled "Patterns of Feudalism''. Zudel summarizes characteristics common to all the Slovak districts, and then depicts both individual and regional peculiarities. The main theme is an analysis of the evolution of the counties under the feudal order. In the introductory section, Zudel points out that originally individual Slovak counties had �SLOVAKIA 93 their own codes of law, but in all cases , in greater or lesser measure, these were eventually supplanted by more centralized government. Particular mention is made of the efforts of the Habsburgs, especially in the case of the Josephine reforms of the eighteenth century, to provide a uniform code of law for Hungary. These endeavors were only partially successful, and many of them were undone following the death of the King-Emperor in 1790 . Only in the aftermath of the 1848 revolution was it possible for enduring institutions of modern government to be established. Zudel points out that the 1848 experience may be characterized as a ''conflict of popular sovereignty''. The Hungarian reyolutionary leader Lajos Kossuth sought to protect the jealously-guarded privileges of individual counties, while at the same time using them as instruments of Magyarization in Upper Hungary. By contrast, the more conservative Hungarian reformer Istvan Szechenyi considered the county structure as antiquated, yet he opposed forced Magyarization. The archival sources consulted by the author are listed at the end of the introductory section, and a more general bibliography is included at the conclusion of the text. Zudel's introduction is followed by a survey of each individual county. These surveys include a summary of the territorial boundaries of each administration, the patterns of settlement and habitation , agricultural conditions, and cultural traditions . In cases where a county has been inhabited by more than one ethnic group, an additional section concerning ethnic relations is added . Although Zudel's presentation summarizes the counties in alphabetical order, any attempts at comparison and contrast are best served by examining the counties from a regional perspective. Two of the counties - Bratislava and Abauj - contained Slovakia's major metropolitan centers . In the case of the western county Bratislava, Zudel stresses its strategic location at the point where the Morava and Danube rivers converge. This location guaranteed that Bratislava was affected by the Hussite invasion. The author also mentions the presence of a Croatian element since the time of the Turkish wars. In the case of Abauj, which contains the eastern metropolis, Zudel indicates that the city of Kosice �94 SLOVAKIA was noteworthy for its traditionally oligarchical form of government. The southern Slovak counties of Gerner, Hant , Komarno , and Novohrad had the common denominators of all being ethnically mixed areas, plus serving as frontier zones in the HabsburgOttoman wars. Much the same treatment is accorded to Ostrihom, although the author also cites the latter for its significance in the Catholic Counterreformation. In the case of northern counties the author mentions that Liptov had lingering anti-feudal traditions, and also served as a stronghold for Slovak nationalism. Orava, in spite of its close geographic proximity to Liptov, evolved in the more traditional feudal pattern. Among central counties Nitra is particularly noted for having had a state organization which pre-dated the kingdom of Hungary; Tekov and Trencin are treated in a similar manner. In the case of the latter, Zudel also mentions the importance of the city of Zilina as a center of Slovak trade with the Czech lands, Silesia, and Prussia. Zvolen is noteworthy for its strategic location in defense of the fertile lowlands of southern Slovakia; the author also· mentions the influence of the Czech immigration following the Thirty Years War. Turiec is especially noted for having separated itself from Rakoczi's rising in the early eighteenth century . The author might have given this event more than passing treatment had he chosen to do so . The eastern counties of Slovakia present some of the most noteworthy peculiarities of all. Mention is made of the fact that the Hungarian king Sigismund mortgaged certain cities of Spis to Poland in the fifteenth century; they were returned to Hungary in the eighteenth. In spite of the fact that Saris was a major focal point for the Magyarization campaign, Zudel points out that the native Slovak nobility played a prominent role in public life. In the case of Zemplin county , the author mentions that the nobles long maintained a sense of autonomy , and consequently supported the Transylvanian rebels in the latter's struggle against the Habsburgs . Zudel also briefly summarizes the history of less " traditional" Slovak countries . After World War II much of the territory of Uz �SLOVAKIA 95 county was transferred to the Ukrainian S.S.R., and the population of the area is today classified as Ukrainian. Zudel, however, mentions the role of the Slovak element in siding with the Hungarian nobles against their Habsburg kings. Turn.a is treated as an extension of Abauj county (with which it was long affiliated) , although the influence of political patterns emanating from Gerner is also mentioned. In his concluding chapter Zudel summarizes administrative realignments dating from Bach's regime in the 1850s. Since the terms stolica and zupa are often used interchangeably, the author makes a distinction here between velzupa , containing more than one stolica, and zupa, constituting a single district. This distinction is an important one, and the author would hav~ served his readers better by mentioning it in the earlier portion of the text. Although the text conveys the ideological spirit common to contemporary Czechoslovakia, the historical facts are presented in a straightforward manner. Zudel points out that contemporary Hungarian Marxist historiography is more favorably disposed towards Slovak demographic claims in Upper Hungary, and he makes liberal use of Hungarian source materials. The major weakness of the book lies less in what is said than in what remains unsaid. In reference to Abauj county, Zudel cites the Mongol invasion as a determining factor in population distribution; he fails to mention that Kosice was temporarily transferred to the jurisdiction of Transylvania by the Treaty of Linz in 1645. One especially glaring contradiction is found in the case of Saris. The author mentions a "pestilental epidemic" in the eighteenth century, but no mention is made of the cholera epidemic which convulsed Saris and other eastern Slovak counties in 1831. Since the latter event was accompanied by a peasant rising which greatly undermined feudal society, the omission is a particularly serious one . For the student who is already well-grounded in Slovak history , Stolice presents little that is original. But is serves as an adequate text within the limits which have been mentioned , and is especially useful as a reference guide to the individual districts . �96 SLOVAKIA Tvorcovia noveho Slovenska/ The Shaping of Modern Slovakia. Festschrift to the Seventieth Birthday of Dr. Joseph A. Mikus . Edited by Joseph Stasko. Cambridge, Canada: Friends of Good Books, 1982 . xv . 271 pp . GEORGE VIRSIK Monash University Clayton, Australia This collection of articles by Imrich Kruzliak, Joseph Stasko , Joseph M. Kirschbaum, Frantisek Vnuk, and the celebrant can be looked upon from two different perspectives . The first is readily apparent . Kruzliak's interpretive account of Slovak history from 1918 to 1948; Stasko's soul-searching reflections on the meaning of the Slovak national heritage; Kirschbaum's examination of Slovak student organizations and their aims in the interwar period; and Vnuk's analysis of Slovak diplomacy before the Salzburg event of 1940 all have one common denominator: either the role played by, or the contemporary views held by , Joseph A. Mikus. Mikus's own article , "The International System in Transition,'' is a study of the moral and legal principles underlying the pre~ent system of (soverign or not) states and nations , as well as an application and projection into the future of his own ideas, summarized by the view that "not territorially defined states , particularly multinational structures or empires, but nations in the ethnic and cultural sense are the real members of the international community.'' The other perspective becomes more apparent only after one has finished reading the book. With the exception of Vnuk, the authors have all by now reached, or almost reached , their seventieth birthdays. They are all well-known emigre writers ; political commentators, and interpreters of the Slovak cultural heritage . And - again perhaps with the exception of Vnuk - all the contributions are representative of the particular author's " Slovak creed .' ' They read as a personal legacy to the generation to follow. No Slovak intellectual of the younger generation can afford to ignore what they have to say. Politically and territorially, of course, there is only one Slovakia. But spiritually and culturally there is �SLOVAKIA 97 also an alternative Slovakia, a Slovakia that many of us in the West (as well as some non-conformists in Slovakia) are proud to belong to , a Slovakia that would be unthinkable without its pioneers, and now seniors, like Mikus and Stasko, Kirschbaum, and Kruzliak. Thus it seems to me that - at least from the point of view of the new generation - the title of the book should have been something like " The Shape of a Slovakia We are Inheriting," meaning the spiritual and cultural shape of unofficial Slovakia forced to ''live in exile.'' To summarize: If one cannot read Slovak, it might be preferable to obtain just a reprint of Mikus' s English article rather than buy the whole book. But if one can read Slovak and is interested in Slovak matters, this book is a must. Slovak Politics: Essays on Slovak History in honour of Joseph M . Kirschbaum. Edited by Stanislav J. Kirschbaum. ClevelandRome: Slovak Institute, 1983. xviii, 381 pp. GEORGE VIRSIK Monash University Clayton , Australia This Festschrift dedicated to Joseph M. Kirschbaum offers nine articles on various political themes from Slovak history ranging from 1882 to about 1948 . It includes a brief appraisal of the celebrant's life and his contribution to Slovak politics by Charles Murin and a " select bibliography" of Kirschbaum 's publications written in exile. In the first article Edita Bosak deals with Czech-Slovak relations from 1882 to 1914, focusing on the student organization Detvan in Prague. Bosak sees Detvan "as a springboard and nursery for the young Slovak inteligentsia" as opposed to the "conservative Martin leadership ." Although she admits that "the amount of co-operation between Detvan and the Czechs was limited,'' she recognizes the resulting journal Hlas as "progressive," giving "wide distribution to many of the ideas that the students had already worked out in the debates in Detvan, �98 SLOVAKIA especially the idea of Czech-Slovak reciprocity." A comprehensive and unbiased study of Milan Hodza and his original political thinking (contrasted by his often controversial political associations that ended so sadly) is still missing from Slovak political literature . The article by Susan Mikula comes a long way toward such a study, but unfortunately it does not go beyond the year 1914. Still, her account of Hodza's Belvedere orientation and his attitude toward Magyars and Czechs seems to support those political thinkers who see him as the harbinger of contemporary Slovak aspirations toward Central European, or Danubian, Confederation. The contribution by Manfred Alexander is based on a study of the reports from the German Mission in Prague to the Foreign Office of the German Reich from 1918 to 1921. It contains over fifty pages of original documents related to Slovakia, published for the first time. Somehow, the documents make more interesting reading then the article itself. At least in one place the author's conclusions are hard to follow: It is true that Document 13 illustrates in many details the fact that Czech anti-clericalism was at the core of early Czech-Slovak frictions; and that it was the Catholic priests in Slovakia who raised the alarm, and often overreacted. But it seems to be a rather sweeping statement to claim that this is ',!valuable information indicating that the efforts made by the Slovak people to obtain autonomy did not originate spontaneously but were stirred up through agitation.'' Stanislav J. Kirschbaum's study of Hlinka's Slovak People's Party should certainly be read in conjunction with the German documents referred to above, especially by a non-specialist. It throws light on some points raised in the preceding article, and its systematic and more detached account well complements the subjectiveness and immediacy of the documents. The constitution of the Slovak Republic is analyzed by Karin Schmid. She comes to some mixed conclusions, perhaps best expressed in her own words: "If we consider every aspect of the Slovak Constitution - especially the role of the party on one hand, and on the other the control of the government by Parliament (although Parliament itself, in turn, was composed of only one party) - a comparison with what is known as 'socialist democracy' �SLOVAKIA 99 suggests itself. It is tempting, on the model of this concept, to coin the term 'fascist democracy.' However, if we wish to avoid jargon and if we bear in mind that fascism completely rejects the concept of democracy, then the Slovak system can be best described as an authoritarian system with rather surprising democratic features." Lisa Guarda Nardini examines President Tiso's political program. The person of Dr. Jozef Tiso, more so than the Slovak Republic as such, symbolizes the Slovak tragedy during and after World War II: After forty years, most Slovaks are by now resigned to the fact that, given all the circumstances, there was not much chance for the six years of the Slovak Republic to end' differently. But only a few will maintain that Dr. Tiso did not deserve a better fate, a fairer treatment and trial, and less prejudice connected with his place in Slovak history. The article and its discerningly apologetic tone have to be seen in this light. To a certain extent, the same atmosphere permeates the next article on the foreign policy of the Slovak Republic by Milan S. Durica. Of special interest is the section on relations with the Holy See. Durica does not hesitate to state explicitly that "the sharpest dispute between the Slovak Government and the Vatican arose over the Jewish question." Stanislav J. Kirschbaum tackles the extremely complicated and controversial Slovak revolt of 1944. He points out two options that the Slovaks faced by the end of World War II. The first was "to remain true to their state" not excluding "the taking of whatever means were necessary, including changing the regime and the political system'' and hoping that ''the victorious powers would realize that independence was indeed what the nation desired.'' The second option was to return to the Czechoslovak Republic. He is realistic enought to admit that the first option called for an acute sense of timing, exceptional diplomacy, faith on the part of people, and above all capable leadership at the top. But even given the second option, Kirschbaum observes that ''had Benes not been so prejudiced against the Slovaks, but rather had taken into account the evolution of the Slovak nation ... much of the tragedy that befell the Slovak people from 1944 on might have been avoided.'' �100 SLOVAKIA Frantisek Vnuk elaborates on this theme in his article on Slovak-Czech relations between 1945 and 1948. It describes the situation and events in Slovakia prior to February 1948, and it makes very sad reading. As one has come to expect from Vnuk, it is thoroughly documented. But it is also concise and comprehensive enough to be recommended to all - notably younger generation Slovaks, but also Czechs - who wish to understand the reasons behind Slovak resentments and political distrust of their Czech neighbors . In this reviewer's opinion, there is an increasing need for a comprehensive, critical study of Slovak political history from 1918 to 1968 written by a younger generation of scholars free of the compulsion either to fit that story into prescribed ideological frames or to justify a posteriori one's own role or moral position. The publication under review has perhaps so far come closest to fulfilling that need. Frantisek Vnuk. Zivotopis Konstantina Culena. Cleveland: Slovak Institute , 1984. 247 pp. OWEN V. JOHNSON Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana For several years I have been trying to persuade several important Slovak figures representing different political persuasions to write their memoirs, to give us an intimate perspective on their youth, their education, and the development of their careers. Each of the three has resisted , perhaps fearing that to write memoirs means to declare one's public life to be over. This is unfortunate because when I have stumbled onto memoir material , such as a dozen unpublished essays by as many interwar and wartime Slovak journalists, they have been a rich mine of information that their authors could never have realized would be so important. Other than oral interviews, the second best source of personal information is the biography . From that perspective, this book about Konstantin Culen is to be welcomed. Published with the �SLOVAKIA 101 support of Slovak-American activist Jan Beliansky a dozen years after completion of the manuscript, it traces the career of the headstrong Slovak publicist, amateur historian, diplomat, government official and emigre journalist. The author draws on his twenty-year correspondence with Culen, Culen's autobiographical "Posedenia," published in the early 1960s, and 15 short chapters that were parts of Culen's various unsuccessful efforts to write an autobiography. Vnuk makes no claim that this is a careful , complete, or scholarly biography. Nor does he promise any neutral and objective point-of-view, stating in the opening pages his respect and admiration for Culen. Vnuk asserts that the heart of the work is the la.s t section which describes Culen's work in exile - because it is the period he knows best. The historian will disagree. It is the first part (describing his youth and education) and to a lesser degree the second part (describing his twenty-year career in Slovakia) that more effectively transport the reader into the life of the periods they describe. This is so because it is precisely for those periods that Culen provided more of his own testimony about his life and times. We are reminded, for instance, that even though their eventual political views became quite different , many members of the Slovak intelligentsia initially were good friends of each other. Among Culen's early friends were such a diverse group as Vladimir Clementis, Julius Sefranek, Jan Golian, Ferdinand Jurgia, and Florian Tomanek. There are several references, too, to how important connections - Slovak or Czech - were in finding gainful employment. Particularly interesting is Vnuk's description of Culen's short career as a writer and reporter for Slovak, the daily Hlinkist organ. As with other institutions of the Slovak People 's Party, the newspaper staff reflected the splits among the different wings of the party. Eventually the splits led to Culen's dismissal from the staff. It foreshadowed his later ouster from the Slovak Government in July , 1940. The tragedy of Culen is that these divisions continued in emigration, and because he continued to be first and foremost a publicist, he became their victim. Despite a decade of service to �102 SLOVAKIA the Slovak press in North America, he was eventually forced out of all fulltime work in that area. During the last few years, Vnuk reports , Culen struggled to find gainful employment, eventually winding up as superintendent of a Brooklyn apartment house. He died in 1964. Miroslav Kropilak a kolektiv. Dejiny Slovenska V {1918-1945). Bratislava: Veda , 1985 . 612 pp. JAMES R. FELAK Bloomington, Indiana It would be hard to find a quarter century in Slovak history more eventful than the period from 1918 to 1945 . These years saw the creation, destruction , and re-creation of the Czechoslovak Republic , the emergence and disappearance of an independent Slovak state , a great economic crisis , and a world war. In this fifth volume of the new Dejiny Slovenska, a team of Slovak Marxist scholars provides the most extensive and detailed discussion of this period available in any language. Dejiny Slovenska Vis composed of two parts. The first covers Slovakia within the interwar Czechoslovak Republic; the second deals with the Slovak state and World War II. Each part is divided into chronologically based chapters, which in turn contain subchapters on themes like politics, foreign affairs , economics, social unrest, and developments within the Communist Party. In analyzing the interwar period, the authors focus on the so-called Slovak Question, that is , the place of Slovakia and the Slovak nation in a Czechoslovak state. This question involves a complex of political, economic , social , and cultural factors that gave rise to tensions between Slovaks and Czechs. The Czechoslovak government's failure to ease these tensions contributed mightily to the shape that the First Republic's demise took in 1938-39. In discussing this failure , the authors contend that only the Communist Party was capable of solving the problems that caused social and national dissatisfaction in Slovakia. The authors consider Slovak discontent as essentially a product of the ''bourgeois-democratic , capitalist system'' of the First �SLOVAKIA 103 Republic, with the Czech bourgeoisie as the main perpetrators of this discontent. This ruling class is accused of economically exploiting Slovakia, repressing manifestations of Slovak dissatisfaction, and ruling the country on the basis of centralism, with a complete disregard for Slovakia's special conditions and problems . To help rule Slovakia, this " ruling Czech bourgeoisie " fostered the idea of Czechoslovakism, that is, the notion that the Slovaks were not a distinct nation but rather members of a Czechdominated "Czechoslovak" nation. The authors sharply criticize Czechoslovakism, which they see as a reactionary ideology serving only to fan the flames of Slovak nationalism and to hamper Czechoslovak state unity in the face of the external threats of the 1930s. As allies of the ''ruling Czech bourgeoisie,' ' the so-called centralist parties in Slovakia, above all the Social Democrats and the Agrarians , come under attack in this volume. The Social Democrats are strongly criticized for their so-called reformist approach to Slovakia's social and economic ills , for placing the interests of the state ahead of the interests of the working class , and for staunchly supporting centralism and Czechoslovakism. The Agrarians are reproached for similar reasons, including an economic policy that favored the rural middle class of the expense of the working class and poorer peasants. The authors indeed point out that many Slovak Agrarians were lukewarm in their support for centralism and Czechoslovakism and tried to advance Slovakia's interests under the guise of "silent revision of centralism" or "regionalism." Nevertheless, the authors believe that by failing to distance themselves effectively from Prague and to solve Slovakia's economic problems, the centralist parties drove many Slovaks into the camp of Hlinka 's Slovak People 's Party (HSPP or L'udaks). The authors do not condemn the HSPP for its autonomist program and political opposition, but rather for " catering to the reactionary classes" at home and seeking ties with Czechoslovakia's enemies abroad. In their Marxist interpretation, the authors see the HSPP as the representative of those bourgeois elements that were dissatisfied with their political and economic position in Czechoslovakia. The fact that the HSPP had broad popular appeal �104 SLOVAKIA cutting across class boundaries is explained by the party's ability to exploit Slovakia's economic ills and national discontent demagogically in order to win votes. Although the authors condemn the HSPP's leadership, they are more lenient toward its rankand-file, whom they characterize as justly disaffected by the social and national situation in Slovakia but misled by L'udak propaganda. If the L'udaks were too reactionary to solve the Slovak Question, and the centralist parties too reformist and ''Czechoslovak,'' the Communist Party alone , according to this work, possessed the correct formula. In the authors' interpretation, the Communist Party was committed both to the distinctiveness of the Slovak nation and the integrity of the Czechoslovak state, which, after a socialist revolution and installation of a dictatorship of the proletariat, was to be set up on the basis of national equality and mutual respect between the Czech and Slovak nations. The party did not hold this position consistently from 1918 to 1945, but did take this stance during the Slovak National Uprising. The book depicts, although somewhat opaquely, the shifts in the party's nationality policy in the period under discussion and presents the party's position during the Uprising not as a mere tactical move but rather as the culmination of twenty-five years of Communist thinking al}d experience regarding the Slovak Question. Although the portrayal of the Communist Party in this volume is overwhelmingly positive , there is some criticism, especially of party centralism. The authors clearly side with those Slovak Communists, above all the Davists, who preferred a party that was more responsive to Slovak conditions to one that rigidly applied directives from the leadership in Prague. While centralism and "dogmatism" may be reproached, however, the authors never question the Communist Party's fundamental goals. The second part of this work deals with the Slovak state and World War II. This period is presented dichotomously. On the negative side is the Slovak state. Although the authors deem it "an acceptable alternative for the majority of the Slovak population in 1939-1941 from the constitutional point of view," they portray its L'udak leaders as fascists and opportunists, tools of German imperalism who tried but ultimately failed to win over the �SLOVAKIA 105 Slovak population via social demagoguery and exaggerated nationalism. On the positive side is the Slovak resistance movement, manifested above all in the Slovak National Uprising. According to the authors, the Uprising represented the progressive majority of the Slovak population. They claim that the Uprising was never defeated politically or militarily, but rather won out as the first stage of a democratic and national revolution in Slovakia. Although the authors acknowledge the role played by nonCommunists in the Slovak resistance, they repeatedly assert that Communist influence was paramount. The party gets credit forsuccessfully helping bring down the L'udak regime while at the same time resisting efforts of the Benes government in London to restore the pre-Munich Republic on its old sociopolitical bases. Not surprisingly, the authors also credit the Soviet Union with greatly assisting the Uprising. The authors have considerable sympathy for the selfdetermination of the Slovak nation, as their condemnation of centralism and Czechoslovakism attests . However , when this sympathy comes into conflict with their orthodox Marxist-Leninst line, the latter wins out. For example, the occupation of Slovakia by Bela Kun's army in 1919 is portrayed as a totally positive event for the Slovak population, and any suggestions that they may have constituted a restoration of Hungarian rule over the Slovaks are dismissed as myth. To the volume's credit, it provides an informative survey of social and economic developments in Slovakia. In addition, it devotes much attention to cultural history, including discussions of the growth of Slovak education, literature, art, and even film and radio. It also treats the cultural affairs of Slovakia's German , Magyar, and Ukrainian minorities. On the debit side, there is very little biographical information offered regarding the key figures in Slovak political life , the subchapters on diplomatic developments are completely and unequivocally pro-Soviet, and several important Western publications are absent from the relatively lengthly bibliography. As a comprehensive survey of some of the most crucial years in Slovak history, this installment of Dejiny Slovenska should interest all scholars of twentieth-century Slovak history . Not only �106 SLOVAKIA is it a source of much information, but it also presents the most up-to-date official view on controversial issues such as the Slovak Question, the Slovak state, and the Slovak National Uprising. Yeshayahu A. Jelinek. The Lust for Power: Nationalism, Slovakia, and the Communists, 1918-1948. "East European Monographs, No. CXXX. " Boulder, CO: East European Monographs , 1983. xi , 185 pp. Distributed by Columbia University Press. ROBERT K. EVANSON University of Missouri-Kansas City Kansas City, Missouri Students of Slovak history are greatly indebted to Yeshayahu Jelinek for his painstaking dissection of the response of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSC) to ''the Slovak Question'' during the 1918-1948 period. Jelinek trudges admirably through the bewildering zigs and zags and general confusion of Communist nationality policies during the First, Second, and Third Czechoslovak Republics and the wartime Slovak Republic. It is well known that the political tasks of Czechoslovak Communism have often been complicated by the subjection of the KSC to Soviet supervision and interference. Slovak Communists faced an even tougher road in their efforts to expand their base of popular support within Slovakia, in part because their mentors in Prague were even more overbearing and less sensitive to Slovak national aspirations than were the Soviets. Czech Communist leaders tended to view Slovak nationalism as either an obstacle or a vehicle to their achievement of pow~r in Prague, depending on the moment. Their lack of understanding or respect for Slovak feelings was, of course, (ypical of Czech politicians of almost all ideological stripes. Not that Slovak Communists possessed any clear idea of how to handle the national question. Pulled in different directions by nationalist feelings and a desire to win popular support on the one hand , and by loyalty to the KSC and Moscow on the other, they adopted an array of "solutions" which were, as Jelinek notes, testimony to the failure of Communist ideology to address effec- �SLOVAKIA 107 tively the nationalist phenomenon. Different Slovak Communist spokesmen variously proposed the creation of a Slovak-Hungarian Soviet Republic, incorporation of Slovakia into the Soviet Union, complete independence, autonomous federative status within a unified Czechoslovakia, equality without autonomy , and extreme centralization under Prague 's control. Jelinek 's discussion provides essential background reading to Czech-Slovak tensions since 1948, including the tragic persecution of Slovak Communists during the 1950s and the renewal of Slovak demands for genuine federalism during the 1960s. Nationalism has been ·'a powerful force in Slovak Communism throughout the history of Czechoslovakia, and there is little reason to believe that the current quasi-federal formula will permanently sweep the issue of Slovak-Czech relations under the rug. Despite Jelinek 's yeoman service in delineating these matters , the book contains a number of typographical and some factual errors that should have been caught by the editor. Rudolf Slansky, for example, is twice identified as "Josef Slansky" (pp. 36, 72); and Viliam Siroky seems to be identified as a Czech - the language is ambiguous - on p . 40 , although later on he is characterized correctly as a Magyarized Slovak. On a more general level , this reviewer has two criticisms, one minor and one major. The period and events described by Jelinek are so complex that he could have helped the reader by more often stepping back to address the confusion and reorder the facts in summary form. Whenever such a broad overview is absent, the narrative unavoidably gets bogged down in the myraid of individuals, factions , and endless changes in party line that defined Communist nationality policies during the thirty years in question. When the author chooses to summarize , as in his excellent passage on the war years (pp. 40-41) and in his fine concluding chapter, the reader is greatly enlightened . More serious is Jelinek's tendency to lump all Communists together in his insistence that they regard nationalism as " a mere tool to achieve [power] " (p . 1). This is the author 's major thesis , but his book's evidence suggests rather that many Communists were confused about the Slovak issue and failed to reach a consensus about nationality policies . While Czech centralizers were �108 SLOVAKIA inclined to be cynical or fearful of Slovak nationalism, many Slovaks were genuine nationalists who took considerable risks to advocate their people's cause. Jelinek explicitly recognizes this fact on several occasions, as in his fascinating discussion of Communist cooperation with the rightwing L'udaks, and in his description of the Slovak National Uprising, neither of which can be regarded as a mere power tactic. The author's general thesis, therefore, is at odds with his narrative. Nonetheless, this book is a valuable and original contribution to the study of Slovak Communism. M. Mark Stolarik. Growing Up on the South Side: Three Generations of Slovaks in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1880-1976. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 1985. 147 pp. JUNE GRANATIR ALEXANDER The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio In the preface to this work, M . Mark Stolarik states "that it is the responsibility of professional historians to also write the histories of particular ethnic groups for those groups'' and warns his readers that Growing Up on the South Side was written "only incidentally for fellow academics" (p. 13). Indeed, his research was partially supported by funds bequeathed for the purpose of writing a history of Bethlehem Slovaks for Bethlehem Slovaks. Growing Up on the South Side is too brief to offer an in-depth analysis of the Bethlehem Slovak population over a lengthy ninetysix-year period. Still, Stolarik touches upon important aspects of the history of that ethnic communtiy . He relies extensively on material generated by the Slovak community: fraternal and church records and publications, newspapers, and short histories written by Slovaks . He skillfully blends these sources with oral interviews with second- and third-generation Slovaks. Stolarik overlooks, however , the newspapers Narodne noviny and, with one minor exception, Slovensky hlasnik. His bibliography is somewhat dated because he does not cite relevant works, including his own, published after 1981. �SLOVAKIA 109 Although the author does not burden his narrative with statistics, tables, or theories , he generally succeeds in achieving his objective of writing for a more general , rather than an academic audience . On several occasions, either in the narrative or footnotes , he corrects factual errors that apparently heretofore have been accepted by Bethlehem Slovaks . However, by trying to avoid becoming bogged down in scholarly analysis , Stolarik, at times, forgets his responsibility to the general public as a professional historian. Indeed , he misses opportunities to use his scholarly expertise to investigate the veracity of some popularly-held beliefs or attitudes and is not always careful to use solid evidence to support some generalizations. For example , Stolarik rather nonchalantly refers to "the Irish police" as stopping fights at Slovak weddings (p. 82) . Were all the policemen in Bethlehem Irish , or were only Irish policemen sent to quiet down rowdy Slovak celebrations? Here statistics and footnotes are needed. Stolarik's nice composite picture of Slovak fraternal meetings drawn from the minutes of different lodges includes the suggestion that women disrupted meetings when they attended in their husbands' stead. This was a popular view held by Slovak males who opposed accepting females into lodges in the early twentieth century. How " often" did women actually delay meetings? Stolarik observes that secular lodges opened with the presidents warning '' all in attendance to behave themselves" (p . 40) . This presumably included both men and women present. Can women, then , be singled out as a particular problem? In both instances just cited , Stolarik's descriptions may be accurate, but statements by a professional historian that confirm ethnic and sexual stereotypes in the minds of a general audience require more concrete, explicit evidence . At times , Stolarik is also confusing because his discussion is too brief. For example , he relates that several factors gave rise to a large number of Slovak lodges in Bethlehem. Some lodges were formed on the basis of geographic origins, while the membership of others , he explains, reflected social standing in the Slovak community. Does this mean that Slovaks who joined the same lodge as fellow villagers but then subsequently attained a different social status in the community switched lodges? If this was the case, it has strong implications for further exploring the emergence �110 SLOVAKIA of class divisions within ethnic communities. The discussion of female occupations should also be expanded and clarified . It is not clear if the second- and third-generation working women he discusses (pp. 113, 115-17) were married or single . Did married women routinely work outside of the home? Such clarifications would have enhanced his discussion of the acculturation process among American-Slovaks. Also, since formal affiliation of the Slovak Evangelical Lutheran Church (founded in 1902) with the Missouri Synod did not occur until 1908, Stolarik's passing reference to 1902 as the date when Slovak Lutherans affiliated with that conservative body can create confusion. Finally, some Bethlehem Slovaks as well as scholars will surely disagree with some of Stolarik's generalizations about the Slovak experience in general and the Bethlehem experience in particular. Although Stolarik was concerned primarily with writing a history for Bethlehem Slovaks, his work does touch on issues of interest to professional scholars. His discussions of politics and social mobility support those scholars who suggest that social mobility in America can be gauged on different levels. While some Slovaks did not achieve social prominence in American society, they did achieve such prominence within their own ethnic community. His analysis of politics offers some insight into how immigrants dealt with, adjusted to, and influenced America's political structure. Overall, the author remains faithful to his objective of writing a history for Bethlehem Slovaks. In doing so, he avoids the trappings of filiopietism often evident in such ethnic histories. While careful not to offend their descendants, Stolarik, on occasion, provides critical judgments of individuals. Additionally, while he clearly regrets the ongoing demise of Slovak culture and the waning of ethnic identity that has taken place among Bethlehem Slovaks, he does not reduce his study to one of "Slovak contributions" and a celebration of Slovak culture in a propagan distic effort to stir ethnocentrism among second- and thirdgeneration Slovaks. Thus, w hile scholars will likely agree with Stolarik's own assessment that " traditional concerns of historians" generally remain beyond the scope of Growing Up on the South Side , Bethlehem Slovaks will find that Stolarik has done what he set out to do: write a readable English-language history for them. �SLOVAKIA 111 Ferenc Feher and Agnes Heller Hungary 1956 Revisited: The Message of a Revolution - A Quarter of a Century After. London: George Allen & Unwin , 1983 . xviii, 174 pp. PETER R. HRUBY Western Australian Institute of Technology Bentley, Australia The authors of this book left Hungary in 1977. Since then they have published a remarkable series of books, especially (together with George Markus) Dictatorship over Needs: A Study of Soviet Societies, also in 1983 . The present volume is a well written and passionately argued attempt to interpret the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 from a leftist and socialist radical point of view. The authors' thesis on the revolution is divided into two parts: its impact on the world, and on Hungary. There is hardly any doubt that the revolution was felt all over the world. Equally correct is the writers' conviction that because no substantial help was offered to the revolutionaries from the West , "the result was a major loss of face for the Western powers, a second moral Munich" (p. 15) . More questionable is their often repeated affirmation that the Hungarians rebelled equally against the Soviets as against the West, because during World War II the latter allowed Central and Eastern Europe to be incorporated into the Soviet sphere of influence. Only Istvan Bib6 and his " Draft of a compromise solution of the Hungarian question'' can be quoted in support of such a surprising assertion. Sure enough, most Central and East Europeans did not like the overwhelming Soviets interest and the shocking Western lack of interest in their fate and territories, but it is stretching the point to claim that ''the Hungarian revolution was a revolt against all signatories of the Yalta and Potsdam agreements" (p. 16) . Feher and Heller are on safer grounds when they assert that in 1956 the Americans lost a great opportunity by not offering to the Soviets a compromise by which Hungary would have been granted neutrality and the Soviet Union an end to the Cold War. The Soviet leaders were for a few crucial days divided about how to deal with the crisis, and the authors believe that the Soviets would have considered such an offer. �112 SLOVAKIA There follows a good discussion of "national communism, " and in this context Yugoslav leaders are blamed for their opportunist attitude toward the Hungarian revolution. Western Communist parties lost many members, fellow-travellers, and prestige in the process: "The events of October 1956 [sounded] the deathknell of the Popular Front policy" (p. 44). In their review of other East European Communist parties' reaction to the revolution, the writers express their support for "the idea of a confederation between the free nations of the region" (p. 62). In the second part of the book the authors stress the lack of democratic and liberal traditions in their native country. Several times they point out that only in Czechoslovakia was there a successful marriage of nationalism with such progressive tendencies. Although they believe that after both the First and Second World Wars Hungary was treated too harshly by the victors, they contend that only during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was a democratic, liberal, and socialist model being created in their country. One of the major points of the message should be seen in that historical development. Ferenc Feher and Agnes Heller would also like their readers to believe that after a long series of failed heroes of Hungarian history Imre Nagy should be accepted as a genuine hero , "forger, arbiter , martyr and symbol of a murdered revolution" (pp . 15 7-8). What fascinated this reviewers most was the obvious learning process experienced by extreme leftist radicals about the real substance of 'Soviet Commu nism and of its betrayal of the working people. The authors castigate not only Lenin, Trotsky , and Stalin, but also Deutscher and Sartre , among others, for trusting professional revolutionaries and manipulators more than the masses. From the authors ' arguments it is also clear that they themselves had to be transformed from typical radical intellectuals' positions of misuse of the wage earners to admiration for their democratic and pluralist hopes . They admit that only several years after the revolution were some of the w ishes and actions of the Hungarian people understood and accepted by them (e.g ., p . 92). The last pages of the volume are devoted to an excellent analysis of Kadarism and of the modernized sophisticated terror which is also well known in Czechoslovakia. �SLOVAKIA 113 Slovak readers will find occasional reference to Hungarian "bereft territories" (p. 149) and of the Hungarians expelled from Slovakia (pp. 50 -51). They might wonder who are the "Slovakians" (p . 51). Of much greater interest is the insight into the way leftist radical socialists inside of Hungary view the past and the future and what can be expected from them and their nation . Jozef Ciger-Hronsky. Jozef Mak. Translated by Andrew Cincura. Afterword by Peter Petro. Columbus: Slavica, 1984. 232 pp. WILLIAM E. HARKINS Columbia University New York, New York This volume is the first in a series of works of Slovak literature slated to be published by Slavica Publishers in Columbus, Ohio. Currently projected for publication are volumes by Hugolin Gavlovic and Bozena Timrava, as well as a volume of folk ballads. The project represents a notable break-through for the cause of Slovak literature in translation in this country . Jozef Ciger (1894-1960), who published under the pseudonym of Hronsky, is one of the great writers of Modern Slovak Literature, one comparatively neglected , presumably for ideological reasons. A village school teacher , Hronsky knew the Slovak peasants as perhaps no other Slovak writer did; in particular, he understood the mysticism of the peasantry and portrayed it in his works : During World War II he supported the nationalistic Tiso regime , and in 1945 emigrated to Argentina. Under the new Czechoslovak republic he was never mentioned, not to say published, along with a number of other nationalist writers . In 1970 his contemporary, the critic Alexander Matuska , published a monograph devoted to him. Jozef Mak was published in 1933. It is a novel of the Slovak village in the period of Hungarian oppression and the time of emigration to America. Maryarization and Emigration are portrayed as twin perils and twin temptations , for both seem to pro- �114 SLOVAKIA mise political or economic salvation to the poverty-ridden peasantry. The novel represents a unique blend of realism and symbolism, one hardly to be found among contemporary Czech writers, for instance, or even among other Slovak writers. Those aspects of the novel that pertain to individual characters and their fates are more symbolic, while the public and social facets of the story are realistic. The first are richer in metaphors , certainly while the latter are richer in metonyms. The blending of the two strains gave the author considerable difficulty , and it is the private, symbolic novel that is more memorable for the reader . The term "symbolic" is customarily used for fiction in the style of Jozef Mak , but the novel is actually as much mythic as symbolic. (Of course the two styles are closely interrelated.) The leading characters are archetypes who draw much of their being from an idealized metaphorical world close to folklore. Jozef Mak himself is an image of the alienated orphan, denied his inheritance, material as well as spiritual. The novel ends without his having found himself or his true destiny. Jozef Mak is born the illegitimate son of a poor peasant woman, to be ousted from the house and land by his worthless older, legitimate half brother. Still he grows up honest, hard working, and resourceful. He finally marries a crippled woman whom he seduces, a wife who provides a spiritual guide for him throughout his married life . But, exhausted from the weight of burdens, physical and spiritual, his wife Jula dies . Jozef is left alone at the end of the novel to endure and to plot his path through life alone. The wife Jula is certainly one of the great characters in Slovak literature. Her piety and meekness , and her endurance of her husband's deceptions, are entirely believable , as is the aura of spiritual beauty (in spite of physical deformity) with which the author invests her. The author's conception of such a character required great artistic imagination; Mak himself is hardly so successful. Perhaps his position as central character (and also as perceiving subject) in so much of the novel has precluded the writer from developing a firm, coherent image of him. Less sharp are the characters involved, positively or negative- �SLOVAKIA 115 ly , in their nation's political struggle , and it is evident that Hronsky had difficulties with the realistic side of the novel , partly because the struggle in question corresponds to the time of his boyhood, when he hardly could have succeeded in grasping its meaning. Thus the mythic, symbolic , mystical side of the novel is the stronger, and makes a powerful nostalgic imprint on the reader. Pavol Stevcek. Contemporary Slovak Literature . Translated by Ol 'ga Horska. Bratislava: Obzor, 1980. 122 pp. GERALDJ. SABO John Carroll University University Heights , Ohio Contemporary Slovak literature is often an unfamiliar area even to Slavic literary specialists, whereas writings of contemporary Czech authors from the same country are internationally known. Perhaps it is true , as one Slovak specialist in North America has stated , that Slovak literature is a Cinderella among the literatures of Europe that awaits the discovery of her true worth. The study under review is an attempt to dispel some of this unfamiliarity for an English-reading audience. In this book Stevcek discusses twenty-three writers of the post-1945 era. Twenty-one men are presented as poets and writers of prose and children's literature, but only two women are discussed and that in the area of children 's literature. Among the poets are Pavol Horov, Jan Kostra, Ladislav Novomesky, Milan Rufus, Jan Smrek, and Miroslav Valek; among the prose writers are Alfonz Bednar, Peter Jaros , Vladimir Minac, Vincent Sikula, and Frantisek Svantner. The first of six chapters sets the context for appreciating the work of these writers. In describing the development of this modern era in literature Stevcek employs a Marxist interpretation and even discusses briefly the features of literature written according to such a viewpoint. (The English here is rather stilted and contrived; if the translation is at fault, it is probably because it is a literal rendition of the author's diction and style , which in Slovak may be appropriate for such a work but becomes at times opaque in English translation .) In the remaining five �116 SLOVAKIA chapters, Stevcek considers respectively writers of poetry, prose, children's literature, drama, and literary studies and theoretical presentations. At the end of the chapters on poetry and prose, the author presents brief commentary on a number of other such contemporary writers in order to round out the presentation for these areas . In the chapter on poetry Stevcek fails to include Masa Hal 'amova. Why? Does not a poet who was at the time of this study an "Artist of Merit" deserve mention? (At the present time, she holds the title "National Artist.") This is a significant omission, especially as consideration of Hal'amova would also have increased the number of women presented . In the chapter on children's literature Stevcek includes two women, one of whom, Klara Jarunkova, could just as well have been discussed in the prose chapter. Indeed, she could have been included in both chapters . Likewise , L'ubomir Feldek should have been discussed for more than his contribution to children's literature. Some commentary on or at least mention of L'udo Zubek and Dominik Tatarka would also have been quite justified. Such additions to this study would certainly not have increased its size by much, and yet would have definitely enhanced its benefit to Slavic scholars and anyone interested in Slovak literature. Contemporary Slovak Literature is a noteworthy contribution from Slovakia that provides some basic information on a large number of writers. Such a publication in English is crucial if Slovak literature is to be able to assume its proper place in modern world literature . Given the paucity of such publications , this study should be helpful not only to specialists but also libraries. Given also the excellent literary specialists now writing in Slovakia, more such publications as the one above, with style and English rendition improved , should be rightly expected and published in the future. � SLOVAKIA REVIEWS 83 ��SLOVAKIA 85 Historicky casopis, 33 , 2 (1 985) . "K vel 'komoravskemu vyrociu. " Bratislava: Veda, 19 8 5. Anna Holla. Metod - ucitel' Slovienov. K 1100 vfrrociu umrtia {885-1985}. Martin: Matica slovenska , 1985 . THEODORIC J. ZUBEK, O.F.M. Pittsburgh , Pennsyl vania As the year 1985 approached , Slovak Christians both in Czechoslovakia and abroad wondered in what manner the 1, 100th anniversary of the death of St. Methodius would be observed in Slovakia. The two publications under review provide partial answers to that question. · Historicky casopis , the official organ of the Ustav historickych vied Slovenskej akademie vied , devoted an entire issue to the ' 'Great Moravian Anniversary. ' ' In their introduction, the editors concede that Methodius was ' 'the most important personality in the cultural history of Great Moravia." Further, they note that ''Marxist historiography values highly the work of Constantine and Methodius, who laid the foundations for the development of Slavic literature, which thereafter prevailed among the majority of the South and East Slavs ." However , they also maintain that although Marxist historiography cannot overstate the importance of these two men, it cannot view them only as " evangelizers of the faith." The cultural elements of the Cyrillo-Methodian heritage are, of course, undeniable. But it is equally undeniable that that legacy also - and primarily - includes tremendous religiou s significance for the Slavs in general and the Slovaks in particular. What this reviewer finds especially objectionable in this issue of Historicky casopis is the attempt to minimize the importance of the evangelical activity of Sts . Cyril and Methodius and to neglect the religious dimensions of their work. The cultural achievements of the saintly brothers were the result of their primary goal: to complete the Christianization of the Slavic peoples. This main goal of their mission is never properly recognized by the authors, and the names of Sts . Cyril and Methodius are never mentioned with their title of reverence , " Saint. " Furthermore, not a single arti- �86 SLOVAKIA cle is devoted specifically to St. Methodius in what is supposed to be a commemoration of the anniversary of his death! The first article , by Matus Kucera, assesses Great Moravia and the beginnings of Slovak national history. Although Kucera writes extensively about the era of Rastislav and Svatopluk, he fails to mention Sts. Cyril and Methodius by name as the founders of Christian civilization among the ancestors of the Slovaks. In his article on "fictions and facts" concerning the territorial development of Great Moravia, Peter Ratkos refutes the claims of Imre Boba and other historians that the territory of Great Moravia was situated around the Morava River in Serbia. According to Ratkos , Sirmium was probably not the actual see of Archbishop Methodius , because at that time Sirmium belonged to Bulgaria. Richard Marsina examines the diplomatic documents relating to the history of Great Moravia and their value as sources. He acknowledges the authenticity of seventeen diplomatic texts, mostly the preserved letters of Popes Adrian II, John VIII, Stephen V, and John IX, and eighteen lost documents (deperdita) mentioned in the authentic diplomatic papers and other reliable historical sources. The article which deals the most with St. Cyril is the one by Alexander Avenarius on the contribution of Byzantium to Great Moravian culture. The author explains St. Cyril's philosophy, classifies him as a liberal in his opposition to iconoclasm, and places him in the camp of the liberal patriarch Photius. Avenarius also describes the influence of Byzantine monasticism in Bohemia and Slovakia after the death of Svatopluk. The last two articles are not directly concerned with the work of Sts. Cyril and Metodius . Bohuslav Chropovsky and Alexander Ruttkay evaluate the most recent archeological excavations and situate geographically the extent of the Slovak ethnic group. Finally, Rudolf Krajcovic examines the very complicated issue of language in Great Moravia and its continuity with Slovak. The publication of the Matica slovenska, Metod - ucitel' Slovienov, is more germane to the commemoration of St. Methodius' anniversary than the articles in the Historicky casopis issue. It contains nineteen pages of printed text by Anna Holla and thirty-two photographic reproductions of archeological findings from the �SLOVAKIA 87 Great Moravian era, copies of some Glagolitic and Cyrillic texts, and newer Slovak literary and pictorial works related to Sts. Cyril and Methodius. Holla's brief survey of St. Methodius and the whole CyrilloMethodian legacy in Czechoslovakia is a popular version based on contemporary scholarship. It reflects, not surprisingly, the distortions of present official Marxist historiography concerning the Great Moravian period. Holla characterizes Great Moravia as the first state common to the Czechs and Slovaks; and she emphasizes the cultural, social, and political activity of Sts. Cyril and Methodius and excludes or minimizes their missio.nary efforts. Holla' s assertion that Great Moravia was the first joint state of the Czechs and Slovaks is of dubious historical validity. By military force Svatopluk occupied the adjacent Slavic territories, among them Bohemia, and annexed them to his realm, but he did not incorporate them organically into Great Moravia. After his death in 894, the people in these occupied territories hastened to separate themselves from Great Moravia, searching for independence or joining new political alliances. The annexation of Bohemia to Great Moravia lasted less than twenty years, and after Svatopluk's death the Czechs found themselves again in the orbit of the Eastern Frankish (German) Empire. This reviewer must also take exception to Holla's statement that ''The basis of the missionary work of Constantine and Methodius in the Great Moravian Empire was their legal work, by which they eradicated Frankish church law and the unwritten common law of Great Moravia and substituted for it a strong legal order" (p. 6}. As has been mentioned, the basis of the CyrilloMethodian mission was the evangelization of the Slavs. Sts. Cyril and Methodius did not eliminate the church law which had been brought to the territory of Great Moravia by Irish-Scottish, Acquilean (Italian), and Bavarian missionaries; and they did not abolish the unwritten indigenous laws as long as they did not deviate from either Latin or Byzantine church and civil laws. In conclusion, the jubilee issue of Historicky casopis and the text by Anna Holla in the Matica slovenska publication suffer from gross deficiencies and omissions which stem from the antireligious bias of official Marxist historiography toward the legacy �88 SLOVAKIA of Sts. Cyril and Methodius . Only the Matica slovenska publication, with its well-selected, beautiful reproductions , can in a sense be considered as a tribute to the memory of St. Methodius in Slovakia. Julius Sopko. Stredoveke latinske k6dexy v slovensky ch kniiniciach. (Stredoveke k6dexy slovenskej proveniencie, I]. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1981. 304 pp. Julius Sopko. Stredoveke latinske k6dexy slovenskej proveniencie v Mad'arsku av Rumunsku. (Stredoveke k6dexy slovenskej proveniencie, II). Martin: Matica slovenska, 1982. 400 pp. GERALD J. SABO John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio This two-volume catalogue of codices comprises a listing of all extant medieval manuscripts produced on Slovak territory. Most were written in Latin and are similar to those found throughout medieval Europe. The subject matter pertains, for the most part, to religious faith and practice, and philosophy. Bibles, missals , antiphonaries , graduals , chant collections , sermons and related bilingual dictionaries, rules of a religious order, commentaries on religious topics, and philosophical studies are the kinds of writings found in these manuscripts. Occasionally among them are " secular" - non-religious or philosophical - texts , such as Gesta Romanorum (Feats of the Romans), Chronicon Dubnicense (The History of Dubnica), or Codex Justinian us: Digesta - Excerpta (Justinian's Law Code: Summaries and Excerpts) . Some of these manuscripts are preserved in Slovak archival repositories, while others are found in Hungary and Romania. In the two introductions of the first volume in Slovak and Latin , Sopko considers briefly the emergence and development of libraries and scriptoria on Slovak territory as well as the history of manuscript collections and their present status. He discusses the role of certain religious orders in the execution and collection of such manuscripts; among these are the Benedictines, Fran- �SLOVAKIA 89 ciscans, Dominicans, Cistercians, Carthusians, and Premonstratensians (also known as Norbertines). Sopko also mentions the significant activity of the cathedral chapters in Nitra, Bratislava, and Spis that fostered the composing of manuscripts. Thirteen Slovak areas are listed as locations of repositories for such manuscripts: Banska Bystrica, Bardejov, Bratislava, Dolny Kubin, Jasov, Kezmarok, Kosice, Kremnica, Martin, Nitra, Presov, Spisska Kapitula , and Spisske Vlachy. These cities and towns, institutions in Bratislava and Kremnica contain the overwhelming majority of the 200 medieval manuscripts found on Slovak territory today. In Bratislava, the cathedral chapter library alone contains 82 such codices of the 135 found in the 6 repositories of this city. In Kremnica, the parish library contains 25 of 26 medieval codices in the city. In the second volume , 86 of 88 manuscripts preserved in Hungary are found in Budapest; the remaining 130 of the total 418 listed' in the two volumes are found in Alba Julia, Romania, in the former Batthyany library collection. In his introductions Sopko mentions the art of manuscript illumination that was well developed on Slovak territory . He includes at the end of both volumes photographic reproductions of some manuscripts, usually rendered in color, many of which also exemplify the art of illumination. One of the outstanding examples of manuscript writing and illumination is the ''Bratislava Missal,' ' which today is preserved in Alba Julia, Romania, as part of the former Batthyany library collection. This missal is described in the second volume of the catalogue (#400), and a color reproduction of one of its folio pages can be found at the end among the supplementary illustrations . (A book that presents the illumination aspect of medieval manuscripts in the Slovak area and that would complement this catalogue well is Stredoveka kniina mal 'ba na Slovensku by Alzbeta Giintherova and Jan Misianik published in two editions [1961 and 1977] by Tatran of Bratislava.) Sopko concludes each of the volumes with four lists: concordance of signatures , dated codices, first words of a codex, and a name and topic index. This two-volume catalogue by Sopko is primarily aimed at libraries and specialists in medieval culture and history. It presents �90 SLOVAKIA well the scholarly work that is often produced under the auspices of the Matica slovenska. Vysady miest a mesteciek na Slovensku {1238-1350}, I. Edited by L'ubomir Juck. Bratislava: Veda, 1984. 199 pp. Narodnostny vyvoj miest na Slovensku do roku 1918. K 600. vyrociu vydania vysad pre zilinskych Slovakov Edited by Richard Marsina. Martin: Osveta, 1984 . 275 pp. DAVID P. DANIEL ConcorcJti.a Seminary St. Louis, Missouri These two volumes reflect the breadth and depth of Slovak historical urban studies. They are both welcome additions to the growing body of scholarship on the history of urban life in Slovakia in the late medieval and early modern eras. The first, ''Privileges of the Cities and Towns in Slovakia (1238-1350)" was prepared as part of a long-term project planned by the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences during the 1950's and early 1960's which set as its goal the editing and publication of historical documents from the earliest eras of Slovak history. This volume is the first dealing specifically with the charters and grants of legal privileges made to the emerging cities during the High Middle Ages, primarily by Hungarian monarchs. Information concerning the documents which have disappeared and/or the texts of those preserved were drawn from materials in the archives of Slovakia and throughout Central Europe. The volume begins with a general introduction indicating the methodological principles utilized in preparing it and some general comments on the types of documents included . The bulk of the book is devoted to a catalogue, in chronological order, of all the grants of privileges discovered; a brief description of their contents and context in Slovak; the text of the document, in so far as it is known in the original language of composition, Latin; and finally a listing of the provenance of each document. As such , this volume provides a fascinating and accessible entrance into �SLOVAKIA 91 the historical development of the cities and towns which emerged on the territory of modern-day Slovakia during the High Middle Ages. They show that the economic strength of the towns grew in conjunction with the grants of economic and political privileges extended to them by the Hungarian monarchs. The towns sought to develop and protect their economic basis, manufacture, and trade by securing from the kings extensive rights of selfadministration and governance. The second volume, "Nationality Development of Cities in Slovakia to the Year 1918," is a collection of essays arranged according to the three thematic sections of the book: ''Nationality Development in Zilina"; "Nationality Development in the Towns of Slovakia''; and ''Nationality Development in Czech and Moravian Towns in the Middle Ages." However, despite the title, all but four of the sixteen studies treat the medieval and early modern periods. In the first section Marsina himself analyzes the privileges given to the Slovaks in Zilina in 1381; Julius Sopko attempts to identify the various individuals who made entries into the city record book of Zilina; Izidor Kotulic evaluates the language of the Zilina record book and other historical documents in Slovak; and Rudolf Kuchar examines the family names which appear in the Zilina record book. The studies of Peter Stansky on the structuring of nationalities in Zilina up to 1918 and of Pavol Hapak on the economic life and workers movement in Zilina during the last half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries conclude the section devoted specifically to the history of Zilina. In the second section Ferdinand Ulicny investigates the national groupings within the medieval cities of Slovakia; Jan Dorul'a examines the use of Slovak in the cities between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries; Anton Spiesz provides an analysis of Slovak artisan activity during the so-called later feudal period, the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries; and Jozef Vozaf evaluates the relationship between ethnic groups in the so-called montana or mining cities of central Slovakia during the same era. Ivan Chalupecky provides an analysis of ethnic relationships in the towns of Spis county for the century between 1550 to 1650, and Jana Skladana examines the oldest city books in Banovec nad Bebravou, dating from the sixteenth through the early eighteenth �92 SLOVAKIA centuries. Milan Podrimavsky concludes this section with an examination of the cities in Slovakia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries . The third section is made up of just three essays: Frantisek Smahel's review of findings and perspectives of the research into ethnic relationships in Bohemian cities during the Late Middle Ages (thirteenth to fifteenth centuries); Ludmila Sulitkova's investigation of the ethnic relationships in the Moravian cities, especially the royal cities, during the Late Middle Ages; and Josef Zemlicka' s essay on the countryside , ethnicity, and the late medieval Bohemian cities. While it is impossible to examine these essays individually, it should be noted that not only do they reveal how much urban studies have come to dominate Slovak late medieval/early modern history research , but also the complexities of ethnic relationships in Slovakia during the same era. Slovaks took an active, if not always an appreciated, role in the life of the cities of Slovakia during the Middle Ages and were, especially but not merely in the smaller towns , significant in their economic and political life. It is to be hoped that these volumes will encourage American scholars to become much more active in more fully investigating late medieval and early modern Slovak history. Juraj Zudel. Stolice na Slovensku. Bratislava: Obzor, 1984. 200 pp. R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee , Florida This book was written to provide a generaLhistory of the counties of Slovakia until 1849, when a modern centralized administration was imposed by Imperial decree in the so-called "Bach era". It may consequently be subtitled "Patterns of Feudalism''. Zudel summarizes characteristics common to all the Slovak districts, and then depicts both individual and regional peculiarities. The main theme is an analysis of the evolution of the counties under the feudal order. In the introductory section, Zudel points out that originally individual Slovak counties had �SLOVAKIA 93 their own codes of law, but in all cases , in greater or lesser measure, these were eventually supplanted by more centralized government. Particular mention is made of the efforts of the Habsburgs, especially in the case of the Josephine reforms of the eighteenth century, to provide a uniform code of law for Hungary. These endeavors were only partially successful, and many of them were undone following the death of the King-Emperor in 1790 . Only in the aftermath of the 1848 revolution was it possible for enduring institutions of modern government to be established. Zudel points out that the 1848 experience may be characterized as a ''conflict of popular sovereignty''. The Hungarian reyolutionary leader Lajos Kossuth sought to protect the jealously-guarded privileges of individual counties, while at the same time using them as instruments of Magyarization in Upper Hungary. By contrast, the more conservative Hungarian reformer Istvan Szechenyi considered the county structure as antiquated, yet he opposed forced Magyarization. The archival sources consulted by the author are listed at the end of the introductory section, and a more general bibliography is included at the conclusion of the text. Zudel's introduction is followed by a survey of each individual county. These surveys include a summary of the territorial boundaries of each administration, the patterns of settlement and habitation , agricultural conditions, and cultural traditions . In cases where a county has been inhabited by more than one ethnic group, an additional section concerning ethnic relations is added . Although Zudel's presentation summarizes the counties in alphabetical order, any attempts at comparison and contrast are best served by examining the counties from a regional perspective. Two of the counties - Bratislava and Abauj - contained Slovakia's major metropolitan centers . In the case of the western county Bratislava, Zudel stresses its strategic location at the point where the Morava and Danube rivers converge. This location guaranteed that Bratislava was affected by the Hussite invasion. The author also mentions the presence of a Croatian element since the time of the Turkish wars. In the case of Abauj, which contains the eastern metropolis, Zudel indicates that the city of Kosice �94 SLOVAKIA was noteworthy for its traditionally oligarchical form of government. The southern Slovak counties of Gerner, Hant , Komarno , and Novohrad had the common denominators of all being ethnically mixed areas, plus serving as frontier zones in the HabsburgOttoman wars. Much the same treatment is accorded to Ostrihom, although the author also cites the latter for its significance in the Catholic Counterreformation. In the case of northern counties the author mentions that Liptov had lingering anti-feudal traditions, and also served as a stronghold for Slovak nationalism. Orava, in spite of its close geographic proximity to Liptov, evolved in the more traditional feudal pattern. Among central counties Nitra is particularly noted for having had a state organization which pre-dated the kingdom of Hungary; Tekov and Trencin are treated in a similar manner. In the case of the latter, Zudel also mentions the importance of the city of Zilina as a center of Slovak trade with the Czech lands, Silesia, and Prussia. Zvolen is noteworthy for its strategic location in defense of the fertile lowlands of southern Slovakia; the author also· mentions the influence of the Czech immigration following the Thirty Years War. Turiec is especially noted for having separated itself from Rakoczi's rising in the early eighteenth century . The author might have given this event more than passing treatment had he chosen to do so . The eastern counties of Slovakia present some of the most noteworthy peculiarities of all. Mention is made of the fact that the Hungarian king Sigismund mortgaged certain cities of Spis to Poland in the fifteenth century; they were returned to Hungary in the eighteenth. In spite of the fact that Saris was a major focal point for the Magyarization campaign, Zudel points out that the native Slovak nobility played a prominent role in public life. In the case of Zemplin county , the author mentions that the nobles long maintained a sense of autonomy , and consequently supported the Transylvanian rebels in the latter's struggle against the Habsburgs . Zudel also briefly summarizes the history of less " traditional" Slovak countries . After World War II much of the territory of Uz �SLOVAKIA 95 county was transferred to the Ukrainian S.S.R., and the population of the area is today classified as Ukrainian. Zudel, however, mentions the role of the Slovak element in siding with the Hungarian nobles against their Habsburg kings. Turn.a is treated as an extension of Abauj county (with which it was long affiliated) , although the influence of political patterns emanating from Gerner is also mentioned. In his concluding chapter Zudel summarizes administrative realignments dating from Bach's regime in the 1850s. Since the terms stolica and zupa are often used interchangeably, the author makes a distinction here between velzupa , containing more than one stolica, and zupa, constituting a single district. This distinction is an important one, and the author would hav~ served his readers better by mentioning it in the earlier portion of the text. Although the text conveys the ideological spirit common to contemporary Czechoslovakia, the historical facts are presented in a straightforward manner. Zudel points out that contemporary Hungarian Marxist historiography is more favorably disposed towards Slovak demographic claims in Upper Hungary, and he makes liberal use of Hungarian source materials. The major weakness of the book lies less in what is said than in what remains unsaid. In reference to Abauj county, Zudel cites the Mongol invasion as a determining factor in population distribution; he fails to mention that Kosice was temporarily transferred to the jurisdiction of Transylvania by the Treaty of Linz in 1645. One especially glaring contradiction is found in the case of Saris. The author mentions a "pestilental epidemic" in the eighteenth century, but no mention is made of the cholera epidemic which convulsed Saris and other eastern Slovak counties in 1831. Since the latter event was accompanied by a peasant rising which greatly undermined feudal society, the omission is a particularly serious one . For the student who is already well-grounded in Slovak history , Stolice presents little that is original. But is serves as an adequate text within the limits which have been mentioned , and is especially useful as a reference guide to the individual districts . �96 SLOVAKIA Tvorcovia noveho Slovenska/ The Shaping of Modern Slovakia. Festschrift to the Seventieth Birthday of Dr. Joseph A. Mikus . Edited by Joseph Stasko. Cambridge, Canada: Friends of Good Books, 1982 . xv . 271 pp . GEORGE VIRSIK Monash University Clayton, Australia This collection of articles by Imrich Kruzliak, Joseph Stasko , Joseph M. Kirschbaum, Frantisek Vnuk, and the celebrant can be looked upon from two different perspectives . The first is readily apparent . Kruzliak's interpretive account of Slovak history from 1918 to 1948; Stasko's soul-searching reflections on the meaning of the Slovak national heritage; Kirschbaum's examination of Slovak student organizations and their aims in the interwar period; and Vnuk's analysis of Slovak diplomacy before the Salzburg event of 1940 all have one common denominator: either the role played by, or the contemporary views held by , Joseph A. Mikus. Mikus's own article , "The International System in Transition,'' is a study of the moral and legal principles underlying the pre~ent system of (soverign or not) states and nations , as well as an application and projection into the future of his own ideas, summarized by the view that "not territorially defined states , particularly multinational structures or empires, but nations in the ethnic and cultural sense are the real members of the international community.'' The other perspective becomes more apparent only after one has finished reading the book. With the exception of Vnuk, the authors have all by now reached, or almost reached , their seventieth birthdays. They are all well-known emigre writers ; political commentators, and interpreters of the Slovak cultural heritage . And - again perhaps with the exception of Vnuk - all the contributions are representative of the particular author's " Slovak creed .' ' They read as a personal legacy to the generation to follow. No Slovak intellectual of the younger generation can afford to ignore what they have to say. Politically and territorially, of course, there is only one Slovakia. But spiritually and culturally there is �SLOVAKIA 97 also an alternative Slovakia, a Slovakia that many of us in the West (as well as some non-conformists in Slovakia) are proud to belong to , a Slovakia that would be unthinkable without its pioneers, and now seniors, like Mikus and Stasko, Kirschbaum, and Kruzliak. Thus it seems to me that - at least from the point of view of the new generation - the title of the book should have been something like " The Shape of a Slovakia We are Inheriting," meaning the spiritual and cultural shape of unofficial Slovakia forced to ''live in exile.'' To summarize: If one cannot read Slovak, it might be preferable to obtain just a reprint of Mikus' s English article rather than buy the whole book. But if one can read Slovak and is interested in Slovak matters, this book is a must. Slovak Politics: Essays on Slovak History in honour of Joseph M . Kirschbaum. Edited by Stanislav J. Kirschbaum. ClevelandRome: Slovak Institute, 1983. xviii, 381 pp. GEORGE VIRSIK Monash University Clayton , Australia This Festschrift dedicated to Joseph M. Kirschbaum offers nine articles on various political themes from Slovak history ranging from 1882 to about 1948 . It includes a brief appraisal of the celebrant's life and his contribution to Slovak politics by Charles Murin and a " select bibliography" of Kirschbaum 's publications written in exile. In the first article Edita Bosak deals with Czech-Slovak relations from 1882 to 1914, focusing on the student organization Detvan in Prague. Bosak sees Detvan "as a springboard and nursery for the young Slovak inteligentsia" as opposed to the "conservative Martin leadership ." Although she admits that "the amount of co-operation between Detvan and the Czechs was limited,'' she recognizes the resulting journal Hlas as "progressive," giving "wide distribution to many of the ideas that the students had already worked out in the debates in Detvan, �98 SLOVAKIA especially the idea of Czech-Slovak reciprocity." A comprehensive and unbiased study of Milan Hodza and his original political thinking (contrasted by his often controversial political associations that ended so sadly) is still missing from Slovak political literature . The article by Susan Mikula comes a long way toward such a study, but unfortunately it does not go beyond the year 1914. Still, her account of Hodza's Belvedere orientation and his attitude toward Magyars and Czechs seems to support those political thinkers who see him as the harbinger of contemporary Slovak aspirations toward Central European, or Danubian, Confederation. The contribution by Manfred Alexander is based on a study of the reports from the German Mission in Prague to the Foreign Office of the German Reich from 1918 to 1921. It contains over fifty pages of original documents related to Slovakia, published for the first time. Somehow, the documents make more interesting reading then the article itself. At least in one place the author's conclusions are hard to follow: It is true that Document 13 illustrates in many details the fact that Czech anti-clericalism was at the core of early Czech-Slovak frictions; and that it was the Catholic priests in Slovakia who raised the alarm, and often overreacted. But it seems to be a rather sweeping statement to claim that this is ',!valuable information indicating that the efforts made by the Slovak people to obtain autonomy did not originate spontaneously but were stirred up through agitation.'' Stanislav J. Kirschbaum's study of Hlinka's Slovak People's Party should certainly be read in conjunction with the German documents referred to above, especially by a non-specialist. It throws light on some points raised in the preceding article, and its systematic and more detached account well complements the subjectiveness and immediacy of the documents. The constitution of the Slovak Republic is analyzed by Karin Schmid. She comes to some mixed conclusions, perhaps best expressed in her own words: "If we consider every aspect of the Slovak Constitution - especially the role of the party on one hand, and on the other the control of the government by Parliament (although Parliament itself, in turn, was composed of only one party) - a comparison with what is known as 'socialist democracy' �SLOVAKIA 99 suggests itself. It is tempting, on the model of this concept, to coin the term 'fascist democracy.' However, if we wish to avoid jargon and if we bear in mind that fascism completely rejects the concept of democracy, then the Slovak system can be best described as an authoritarian system with rather surprising democratic features." Lisa Guarda Nardini examines President Tiso's political program. The person of Dr. Jozef Tiso, more so than the Slovak Republic as such, symbolizes the Slovak tragedy during and after World War II: After forty years, most Slovaks are by now resigned to the fact that, given all the circumstances, there was not much chance for the six years of the Slovak Republic to end' differently. But only a few will maintain that Dr. Tiso did not deserve a better fate, a fairer treatment and trial, and less prejudice connected with his place in Slovak history. The article and its discerningly apologetic tone have to be seen in this light. To a certain extent, the same atmosphere permeates the next article on the foreign policy of the Slovak Republic by Milan S. Durica. Of special interest is the section on relations with the Holy See. Durica does not hesitate to state explicitly that "the sharpest dispute between the Slovak Government and the Vatican arose over the Jewish question." Stanislav J. Kirschbaum tackles the extremely complicated and controversial Slovak revolt of 1944. He points out two options that the Slovaks faced by the end of World War II. The first was "to remain true to their state" not excluding "the taking of whatever means were necessary, including changing the regime and the political system'' and hoping that ''the victorious powers would realize that independence was indeed what the nation desired.'' The second option was to return to the Czechoslovak Republic. He is realistic enought to admit that the first option called for an acute sense of timing, exceptional diplomacy, faith on the part of people, and above all capable leadership at the top. But even given the second option, Kirschbaum observes that ''had Benes not been so prejudiced against the Slovaks, but rather had taken into account the evolution of the Slovak nation ... much of the tragedy that befell the Slovak people from 1944 on might have been avoided.'' �100 SLOVAKIA Frantisek Vnuk elaborates on this theme in his article on Slovak-Czech relations between 1945 and 1948. It describes the situation and events in Slovakia prior to February 1948, and it makes very sad reading. As one has come to expect from Vnuk, it is thoroughly documented. But it is also concise and comprehensive enough to be recommended to all - notably younger generation Slovaks, but also Czechs - who wish to understand the reasons behind Slovak resentments and political distrust of their Czech neighbors . In this reviewer's opinion, there is an increasing need for a comprehensive, critical study of Slovak political history from 1918 to 1968 written by a younger generation of scholars free of the compulsion either to fit that story into prescribed ideological frames or to justify a posteriori one's own role or moral position. The publication under review has perhaps so far come closest to fulfilling that need. Frantisek Vnuk. Zivotopis Konstantina Culena. Cleveland: Slovak Institute , 1984. 247 pp. OWEN V. JOHNSON Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana For several years I have been trying to persuade several important Slovak figures representing different political persuasions to write their memoirs, to give us an intimate perspective on their youth, their education, and the development of their careers. Each of the three has resisted , perhaps fearing that to write memoirs means to declare one's public life to be over. This is unfortunate because when I have stumbled onto memoir material , such as a dozen unpublished essays by as many interwar and wartime Slovak journalists, they have been a rich mine of information that their authors could never have realized would be so important. Other than oral interviews, the second best source of personal information is the biography . From that perspective, this book about Konstantin Culen is to be welcomed. Published with the �SLOVAKIA 101 support of Slovak-American activist Jan Beliansky a dozen years after completion of the manuscript, it traces the career of the headstrong Slovak publicist, amateur historian, diplomat, government official and emigre journalist. The author draws on his twenty-year correspondence with Culen, Culen's autobiographical "Posedenia," published in the early 1960s, and 15 short chapters that were parts of Culen's various unsuccessful efforts to write an autobiography. Vnuk makes no claim that this is a careful , complete, or scholarly biography. Nor does he promise any neutral and objective point-of-view, stating in the opening pages his respect and admiration for Culen. Vnuk asserts that the heart of the work is the la.s t section which describes Culen's work in exile - because it is the period he knows best. The historian will disagree. It is the first part (describing his youth and education) and to a lesser degree the second part (describing his twenty-year career in Slovakia) that more effectively transport the reader into the life of the periods they describe. This is so because it is precisely for those periods that Culen provided more of his own testimony about his life and times. We are reminded, for instance, that even though their eventual political views became quite different , many members of the Slovak intelligentsia initially were good friends of each other. Among Culen's early friends were such a diverse group as Vladimir Clementis, Julius Sefranek, Jan Golian, Ferdinand Jurgia, and Florian Tomanek. There are several references, too, to how important connections - Slovak or Czech - were in finding gainful employment. Particularly interesting is Vnuk's description of Culen's short career as a writer and reporter for Slovak, the daily Hlinkist organ. As with other institutions of the Slovak People 's Party, the newspaper staff reflected the splits among the different wings of the party. Eventually the splits led to Culen's dismissal from the staff. It foreshadowed his later ouster from the Slovak Government in July , 1940. The tragedy of Culen is that these divisions continued in emigration, and because he continued to be first and foremost a publicist, he became their victim. Despite a decade of service to �102 SLOVAKIA the Slovak press in North America, he was eventually forced out of all fulltime work in that area. During the last few years, Vnuk reports , Culen struggled to find gainful employment, eventually winding up as superintendent of a Brooklyn apartment house. He died in 1964. Miroslav Kropilak a kolektiv. Dejiny Slovenska V {1918-1945). Bratislava: Veda , 1985 . 612 pp. JAMES R. FELAK Bloomington, Indiana It would be hard to find a quarter century in Slovak history more eventful than the period from 1918 to 1945 . These years saw the creation, destruction , and re-creation of the Czechoslovak Republic , the emergence and disappearance of an independent Slovak state , a great economic crisis , and a world war. In this fifth volume of the new Dejiny Slovenska, a team of Slovak Marxist scholars provides the most extensive and detailed discussion of this period available in any language. Dejiny Slovenska Vis composed of two parts. The first covers Slovakia within the interwar Czechoslovak Republic; the second deals with the Slovak state and World War II. Each part is divided into chronologically based chapters, which in turn contain subchapters on themes like politics, foreign affairs , economics, social unrest, and developments within the Communist Party. In analyzing the interwar period, the authors focus on the so-called Slovak Question, that is , the place of Slovakia and the Slovak nation in a Czechoslovak state. This question involves a complex of political, economic , social , and cultural factors that gave rise to tensions between Slovaks and Czechs. The Czechoslovak government's failure to ease these tensions contributed mightily to the shape that the First Republic's demise took in 1938-39. In discussing this failure , the authors contend that only the Communist Party was capable of solving the problems that caused social and national dissatisfaction in Slovakia. The authors consider Slovak discontent as essentially a product of the ''bourgeois-democratic , capitalist system'' of the First �SLOVAKIA 103 Republic, with the Czech bourgeoisie as the main perpetrators of this discontent. This ruling class is accused of economically exploiting Slovakia, repressing manifestations of Slovak dissatisfaction, and ruling the country on the basis of centralism, with a complete disregard for Slovakia's special conditions and problems . To help rule Slovakia, this " ruling Czech bourgeoisie " fostered the idea of Czechoslovakism, that is, the notion that the Slovaks were not a distinct nation but rather members of a Czechdominated "Czechoslovak" nation. The authors sharply criticize Czechoslovakism, which they see as a reactionary ideology serving only to fan the flames of Slovak nationalism and to hamper Czechoslovak state unity in the face of the external threats of the 1930s. As allies of the ''ruling Czech bourgeoisie,' ' the so-called centralist parties in Slovakia, above all the Social Democrats and the Agrarians , come under attack in this volume. The Social Democrats are strongly criticized for their so-called reformist approach to Slovakia's social and economic ills , for placing the interests of the state ahead of the interests of the working class , and for staunchly supporting centralism and Czechoslovakism. The Agrarians are reproached for similar reasons, including an economic policy that favored the rural middle class of the expense of the working class and poorer peasants. The authors indeed point out that many Slovak Agrarians were lukewarm in their support for centralism and Czechoslovakism and tried to advance Slovakia's interests under the guise of "silent revision of centralism" or "regionalism." Nevertheless, the authors believe that by failing to distance themselves effectively from Prague and to solve Slovakia's economic problems, the centralist parties drove many Slovaks into the camp of Hlinka 's Slovak People 's Party (HSPP or L'udaks). The authors do not condemn the HSPP for its autonomist program and political opposition, but rather for " catering to the reactionary classes" at home and seeking ties with Czechoslovakia's enemies abroad. In their Marxist interpretation, the authors see the HSPP as the representative of those bourgeois elements that were dissatisfied with their political and economic position in Czechoslovakia. The fact that the HSPP had broad popular appeal �104 SLOVAKIA cutting across class boundaries is explained by the party's ability to exploit Slovakia's economic ills and national discontent demagogically in order to win votes. Although the authors condemn the HSPP's leadership, they are more lenient toward its rankand-file, whom they characterize as justly disaffected by the social and national situation in Slovakia but misled by L'udak propaganda. If the L'udaks were too reactionary to solve the Slovak Question, and the centralist parties too reformist and ''Czechoslovak,'' the Communist Party alone , according to this work, possessed the correct formula. In the authors' interpretation, the Communist Party was committed both to the distinctiveness of the Slovak nation and the integrity of the Czechoslovak state, which, after a socialist revolution and installation of a dictatorship of the proletariat, was to be set up on the basis of national equality and mutual respect between the Czech and Slovak nations. The party did not hold this position consistently from 1918 to 1945, but did take this stance during the Slovak National Uprising. The book depicts, although somewhat opaquely, the shifts in the party's nationality policy in the period under discussion and presents the party's position during the Uprising not as a mere tactical move but rather as the culmination of twenty-five years of Communist thinking al}d experience regarding the Slovak Question. Although the portrayal of the Communist Party in this volume is overwhelmingly positive , there is some criticism, especially of party centralism. The authors clearly side with those Slovak Communists, above all the Davists, who preferred a party that was more responsive to Slovak conditions to one that rigidly applied directives from the leadership in Prague. While centralism and "dogmatism" may be reproached, however, the authors never question the Communist Party's fundamental goals. The second part of this work deals with the Slovak state and World War II. This period is presented dichotomously. On the negative side is the Slovak state. Although the authors deem it "an acceptable alternative for the majority of the Slovak population in 1939-1941 from the constitutional point of view," they portray its L'udak leaders as fascists and opportunists, tools of German imperalism who tried but ultimately failed to win over the �SLOVAKIA 105 Slovak population via social demagoguery and exaggerated nationalism. On the positive side is the Slovak resistance movement, manifested above all in the Slovak National Uprising. According to the authors, the Uprising represented the progressive majority of the Slovak population. They claim that the Uprising was never defeated politically or militarily, but rather won out as the first stage of a democratic and national revolution in Slovakia. Although the authors acknowledge the role played by nonCommunists in the Slovak resistance, they repeatedly assert that Communist influence was paramount. The party gets credit forsuccessfully helping bring down the L'udak regime while at the same time resisting efforts of the Benes government in London to restore the pre-Munich Republic on its old sociopolitical bases. Not surprisingly, the authors also credit the Soviet Union with greatly assisting the Uprising. The authors have considerable sympathy for the selfdetermination of the Slovak nation, as their condemnation of centralism and Czechoslovakism attests . However , when this sympathy comes into conflict with their orthodox Marxist-Leninst line, the latter wins out. For example, the occupation of Slovakia by Bela Kun's army in 1919 is portrayed as a totally positive event for the Slovak population, and any suggestions that they may have constituted a restoration of Hungarian rule over the Slovaks are dismissed as myth. To the volume's credit, it provides an informative survey of social and economic developments in Slovakia. In addition, it devotes much attention to cultural history, including discussions of the growth of Slovak education, literature, art, and even film and radio. It also treats the cultural affairs of Slovakia's German , Magyar, and Ukrainian minorities. On the debit side, there is very little biographical information offered regarding the key figures in Slovak political life , the subchapters on diplomatic developments are completely and unequivocally pro-Soviet, and several important Western publications are absent from the relatively lengthly bibliography. As a comprehensive survey of some of the most crucial years in Slovak history, this installment of Dejiny Slovenska should interest all scholars of twentieth-century Slovak history . Not only �106 SLOVAKIA is it a source of much information, but it also presents the most up-to-date official view on controversial issues such as the Slovak Question, the Slovak state, and the Slovak National Uprising. Yeshayahu A. Jelinek. The Lust for Power: Nationalism, Slovakia, and the Communists, 1918-1948. "East European Monographs, No. CXXX. " Boulder, CO: East European Monographs , 1983. xi , 185 pp. Distributed by Columbia University Press. ROBERT K. EVANSON University of Missouri-Kansas City Kansas City, Missouri Students of Slovak history are greatly indebted to Yeshayahu Jelinek for his painstaking dissection of the response of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSC) to ''the Slovak Question'' during the 1918-1948 period. Jelinek trudges admirably through the bewildering zigs and zags and general confusion of Communist nationality policies during the First, Second, and Third Czechoslovak Republics and the wartime Slovak Republic. It is well known that the political tasks of Czechoslovak Communism have often been complicated by the subjection of the KSC to Soviet supervision and interference. Slovak Communists faced an even tougher road in their efforts to expand their base of popular support within Slovakia, in part because their mentors in Prague were even more overbearing and less sensitive to Slovak national aspirations than were the Soviets. Czech Communist leaders tended to view Slovak nationalism as either an obstacle or a vehicle to their achievement of pow~r in Prague, depending on the moment. Their lack of understanding or respect for Slovak feelings was, of course, (ypical of Czech politicians of almost all ideological stripes. Not that Slovak Communists possessed any clear idea of how to handle the national question. Pulled in different directions by nationalist feelings and a desire to win popular support on the one hand , and by loyalty to the KSC and Moscow on the other, they adopted an array of "solutions" which were, as Jelinek notes, testimony to the failure of Communist ideology to address effec- �SLOVAKIA 107 tively the nationalist phenomenon. Different Slovak Communist spokesmen variously proposed the creation of a Slovak-Hungarian Soviet Republic, incorporation of Slovakia into the Soviet Union, complete independence, autonomous federative status within a unified Czechoslovakia, equality without autonomy , and extreme centralization under Prague 's control. Jelinek 's discussion provides essential background reading to Czech-Slovak tensions since 1948, including the tragic persecution of Slovak Communists during the 1950s and the renewal of Slovak demands for genuine federalism during the 1960s. Nationalism has been ·'a powerful force in Slovak Communism throughout the history of Czechoslovakia, and there is little reason to believe that the current quasi-federal formula will permanently sweep the issue of Slovak-Czech relations under the rug. Despite Jelinek 's yeoman service in delineating these matters , the book contains a number of typographical and some factual errors that should have been caught by the editor. Rudolf Slansky, for example, is twice identified as "Josef Slansky" (pp. 36, 72); and Viliam Siroky seems to be identified as a Czech - the language is ambiguous - on p . 40 , although later on he is characterized correctly as a Magyarized Slovak. On a more general level , this reviewer has two criticisms, one minor and one major. The period and events described by Jelinek are so complex that he could have helped the reader by more often stepping back to address the confusion and reorder the facts in summary form. Whenever such a broad overview is absent, the narrative unavoidably gets bogged down in the myraid of individuals, factions , and endless changes in party line that defined Communist nationality policies during the thirty years in question. When the author chooses to summarize , as in his excellent passage on the war years (pp. 40-41) and in his fine concluding chapter, the reader is greatly enlightened . More serious is Jelinek's tendency to lump all Communists together in his insistence that they regard nationalism as " a mere tool to achieve [power] " (p . 1). This is the author 's major thesis , but his book's evidence suggests rather that many Communists were confused about the Slovak issue and failed to reach a consensus about nationality policies . While Czech centralizers were �108 SLOVAKIA inclined to be cynical or fearful of Slovak nationalism, many Slovaks were genuine nationalists who took considerable risks to advocate their people's cause. Jelinek explicitly recognizes this fact on several occasions, as in his fascinating discussion of Communist cooperation with the rightwing L'udaks, and in his description of the Slovak National Uprising, neither of which can be regarded as a mere power tactic. The author's general thesis, therefore, is at odds with his narrative. Nonetheless, this book is a valuable and original contribution to the study of Slovak Communism. M. Mark Stolarik. Growing Up on the South Side: Three Generations of Slovaks in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1880-1976. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 1985. 147 pp. JUNE GRANATIR ALEXANDER The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio In the preface to this work, M . Mark Stolarik states "that it is the responsibility of professional historians to also write the histories of particular ethnic groups for those groups'' and warns his readers that Growing Up on the South Side was written "only incidentally for fellow academics" (p. 13). Indeed, his research was partially supported by funds bequeathed for the purpose of writing a history of Bethlehem Slovaks for Bethlehem Slovaks. Growing Up on the South Side is too brief to offer an in-depth analysis of the Bethlehem Slovak population over a lengthy ninetysix-year period. Still, Stolarik touches upon important aspects of the history of that ethnic communtiy . He relies extensively on material generated by the Slovak community: fraternal and church records and publications, newspapers, and short histories written by Slovaks . He skillfully blends these sources with oral interviews with second- and third-generation Slovaks. Stolarik overlooks, however , the newspapers Narodne noviny and, with one minor exception, Slovensky hlasnik. His bibliography is somewhat dated because he does not cite relevant works, including his own, published after 1981. �SLOVAKIA 109 Although the author does not burden his narrative with statistics, tables, or theories , he generally succeeds in achieving his objective of writing for a more general , rather than an academic audience . On several occasions, either in the narrative or footnotes , he corrects factual errors that apparently heretofore have been accepted by Bethlehem Slovaks . However, by trying to avoid becoming bogged down in scholarly analysis , Stolarik, at times, forgets his responsibility to the general public as a professional historian. Indeed , he misses opportunities to use his scholarly expertise to investigate the veracity of some popularly-held beliefs or attitudes and is not always careful to use solid evidence to support some generalizations. For example , Stolarik rather nonchalantly refers to "the Irish police" as stopping fights at Slovak weddings (p. 82) . Were all the policemen in Bethlehem Irish , or were only Irish policemen sent to quiet down rowdy Slovak celebrations? Here statistics and footnotes are needed. Stolarik's nice composite picture of Slovak fraternal meetings drawn from the minutes of different lodges includes the suggestion that women disrupted meetings when they attended in their husbands' stead. This was a popular view held by Slovak males who opposed accepting females into lodges in the early twentieth century. How " often" did women actually delay meetings? Stolarik observes that secular lodges opened with the presidents warning '' all in attendance to behave themselves" (p . 40) . This presumably included both men and women present. Can women, then , be singled out as a particular problem? In both instances just cited , Stolarik's descriptions may be accurate, but statements by a professional historian that confirm ethnic and sexual stereotypes in the minds of a general audience require more concrete, explicit evidence . At times , Stolarik is also confusing because his discussion is too brief. For example , he relates that several factors gave rise to a large number of Slovak lodges in Bethlehem. Some lodges were formed on the basis of geographic origins, while the membership of others , he explains, reflected social standing in the Slovak community. Does this mean that Slovaks who joined the same lodge as fellow villagers but then subsequently attained a different social status in the community switched lodges? If this was the case, it has strong implications for further exploring the emergence �110 SLOVAKIA of class divisions within ethnic communities. The discussion of female occupations should also be expanded and clarified . It is not clear if the second- and third-generation working women he discusses (pp. 113, 115-17) were married or single . Did married women routinely work outside of the home? Such clarifications would have enhanced his discussion of the acculturation process among American-Slovaks. Also, since formal affiliation of the Slovak Evangelical Lutheran Church (founded in 1902) with the Missouri Synod did not occur until 1908, Stolarik's passing reference to 1902 as the date when Slovak Lutherans affiliated with that conservative body can create confusion. Finally, some Bethlehem Slovaks as well as scholars will surely disagree with some of Stolarik's generalizations about the Slovak experience in general and the Bethlehem experience in particular. Although Stolarik was concerned primarily with writing a history for Bethlehem Slovaks, his work does touch on issues of interest to professional scholars. His discussions of politics and social mobility support those scholars who suggest that social mobility in America can be gauged on different levels. While some Slovaks did not achieve social prominence in American society, they did achieve such prominence within their own ethnic community. His analysis of politics offers some insight into how immigrants dealt with, adjusted to, and influenced America's political structure. Overall, the author remains faithful to his objective of writing a history for Bethlehem Slovaks. In doing so, he avoids the trappings of filiopietism often evident in such ethnic histories. While careful not to offend their descendants, Stolarik, on occasion, provides critical judgments of individuals. Additionally, while he clearly regrets the ongoing demise of Slovak culture and the waning of ethnic identity that has taken place among Bethlehem Slovaks, he does not reduce his study to one of "Slovak contributions" and a celebration of Slovak culture in a propagan distic effort to stir ethnocentrism among second- and thirdgeneration Slovaks. Thus, w hile scholars will likely agree with Stolarik's own assessment that " traditional concerns of historians" generally remain beyond the scope of Growing Up on the South Side , Bethlehem Slovaks will find that Stolarik has done what he set out to do: write a readable English-language history for them. �SLOVAKIA 111 Ferenc Feher and Agnes Heller Hungary 1956 Revisited: The Message of a Revolution - A Quarter of a Century After. London: George Allen & Unwin , 1983 . xviii, 174 pp. PETER R. HRUBY Western Australian Institute of Technology Bentley, Australia The authors of this book left Hungary in 1977. Since then they have published a remarkable series of books, especially (together with George Markus) Dictatorship over Needs: A Study of Soviet Societies, also in 1983 . The present volume is a well written and passionately argued attempt to interpret the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 from a leftist and socialist radical point of view. The authors' thesis on the revolution is divided into two parts: its impact on the world, and on Hungary. There is hardly any doubt that the revolution was felt all over the world. Equally correct is the writers' conviction that because no substantial help was offered to the revolutionaries from the West , "the result was a major loss of face for the Western powers, a second moral Munich" (p. 15) . More questionable is their often repeated affirmation that the Hungarians rebelled equally against the Soviets as against the West, because during World War II the latter allowed Central and Eastern Europe to be incorporated into the Soviet sphere of influence. Only Istvan Bib6 and his " Draft of a compromise solution of the Hungarian question'' can be quoted in support of such a surprising assertion. Sure enough, most Central and East Europeans did not like the overwhelming Soviets interest and the shocking Western lack of interest in their fate and territories, but it is stretching the point to claim that ''the Hungarian revolution was a revolt against all signatories of the Yalta and Potsdam agreements" (p. 16) . Feher and Heller are on safer grounds when they assert that in 1956 the Americans lost a great opportunity by not offering to the Soviets a compromise by which Hungary would have been granted neutrality and the Soviet Union an end to the Cold War. The Soviet leaders were for a few crucial days divided about how to deal with the crisis, and the authors believe that the Soviets would have considered such an offer. �112 SLOVAKIA There follows a good discussion of "national communism, " and in this context Yugoslav leaders are blamed for their opportunist attitude toward the Hungarian revolution. Western Communist parties lost many members, fellow-travellers, and prestige in the process: "The events of October 1956 [sounded] the deathknell of the Popular Front policy" (p. 44). In their review of other East European Communist parties' reaction to the revolution, the writers express their support for "the idea of a confederation between the free nations of the region" (p. 62). In the second part of the book the authors stress the lack of democratic and liberal traditions in their native country. Several times they point out that only in Czechoslovakia was there a successful marriage of nationalism with such progressive tendencies. Although they believe that after both the First and Second World Wars Hungary was treated too harshly by the victors, they contend that only during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was a democratic, liberal, and socialist model being created in their country. One of the major points of the message should be seen in that historical development. Ferenc Feher and Agnes Heller would also like their readers to believe that after a long series of failed heroes of Hungarian history Imre Nagy should be accepted as a genuine hero , "forger, arbiter , martyr and symbol of a murdered revolution" (pp . 15 7-8). What fascinated this reviewers most was the obvious learning process experienced by extreme leftist radicals about the real substance of 'Soviet Commu nism and of its betrayal of the working people. The authors castigate not only Lenin, Trotsky , and Stalin, but also Deutscher and Sartre , among others, for trusting professional revolutionaries and manipulators more than the masses. From the authors ' arguments it is also clear that they themselves had to be transformed from typical radical intellectuals' positions of misuse of the wage earners to admiration for their democratic and pluralist hopes . They admit that only several years after the revolution were some of the w ishes and actions of the Hungarian people understood and accepted by them (e.g ., p . 92). The last pages of the volume are devoted to an excellent analysis of Kadarism and of the modernized sophisticated terror which is also well known in Czechoslovakia. �SLOVAKIA 113 Slovak readers will find occasional reference to Hungarian "bereft territories" (p. 149) and of the Hungarians expelled from Slovakia (pp. 50 -51). They might wonder who are the "Slovakians" (p . 51). Of much greater interest is the insight into the way leftist radical socialists inside of Hungary view the past and the future and what can be expected from them and their nation . Jozef Ciger-Hronsky. Jozef Mak. Translated by Andrew Cincura. Afterword by Peter Petro. Columbus: Slavica, 1984. 232 pp. WILLIAM E. HARKINS Columbia University New York, New York This volume is the first in a series of works of Slovak literature slated to be published by Slavica Publishers in Columbus, Ohio. Currently projected for publication are volumes by Hugolin Gavlovic and Bozena Timrava, as well as a volume of folk ballads. The project represents a notable break-through for the cause of Slovak literature in translation in this country . Jozef Ciger (1894-1960), who published under the pseudonym of Hronsky, is one of the great writers of Modern Slovak Literature, one comparatively neglected , presumably for ideological reasons. A village school teacher , Hronsky knew the Slovak peasants as perhaps no other Slovak writer did; in particular, he understood the mysticism of the peasantry and portrayed it in his works : During World War II he supported the nationalistic Tiso regime , and in 1945 emigrated to Argentina. Under the new Czechoslovak republic he was never mentioned, not to say published, along with a number of other nationalist writers . In 1970 his contemporary, the critic Alexander Matuska , published a monograph devoted to him. Jozef Mak was published in 1933. It is a novel of the Slovak village in the period of Hungarian oppression and the time of emigration to America. Maryarization and Emigration are portrayed as twin perils and twin temptations , for both seem to pro- �114 SLOVAKIA mise political or economic salvation to the poverty-ridden peasantry. The novel represents a unique blend of realism and symbolism, one hardly to be found among contemporary Czech writers, for instance, or even among other Slovak writers. Those aspects of the novel that pertain to individual characters and their fates are more symbolic, while the public and social facets of the story are realistic. The first are richer in metaphors , certainly while the latter are richer in metonyms. The blending of the two strains gave the author considerable difficulty , and it is the private, symbolic novel that is more memorable for the reader . The term "symbolic" is customarily used for fiction in the style of Jozef Mak , but the novel is actually as much mythic as symbolic. (Of course the two styles are closely interrelated.) The leading characters are archetypes who draw much of their being from an idealized metaphorical world close to folklore. Jozef Mak himself is an image of the alienated orphan, denied his inheritance, material as well as spiritual. The novel ends without his having found himself or his true destiny. Jozef Mak is born the illegitimate son of a poor peasant woman, to be ousted from the house and land by his worthless older, legitimate half brother. Still he grows up honest, hard working, and resourceful. He finally marries a crippled woman whom he seduces, a wife who provides a spiritual guide for him throughout his married life . But, exhausted from the weight of burdens, physical and spiritual, his wife Jula dies . Jozef is left alone at the end of the novel to endure and to plot his path through life alone. The wife Jula is certainly one of the great characters in Slovak literature. Her piety and meekness , and her endurance of her husband's deceptions, are entirely believable , as is the aura of spiritual beauty (in spite of physical deformity) with which the author invests her. The author's conception of such a character required great artistic imagination; Mak himself is hardly so successful. Perhaps his position as central character (and also as perceiving subject) in so much of the novel has precluded the writer from developing a firm, coherent image of him. Less sharp are the characters involved, positively or negative- �SLOVAKIA 115 ly , in their nation's political struggle , and it is evident that Hronsky had difficulties with the realistic side of the novel , partly because the struggle in question corresponds to the time of his boyhood, when he hardly could have succeeded in grasping its meaning. Thus the mythic, symbolic , mystical side of the novel is the stronger, and makes a powerful nostalgic imprint on the reader. Pavol Stevcek. Contemporary Slovak Literature . Translated by Ol 'ga Horska. Bratislava: Obzor, 1980. 122 pp. GERALDJ. SABO John Carroll University University Heights , Ohio Contemporary Slovak literature is often an unfamiliar area even to Slavic literary specialists, whereas writings of contemporary Czech authors from the same country are internationally known. Perhaps it is true , as one Slovak specialist in North America has stated , that Slovak literature is a Cinderella among the literatures of Europe that awaits the discovery of her true worth. The study under review is an attempt to dispel some of this unfamiliarity for an English-reading audience. In this book Stevcek discusses twenty-three writers of the post-1945 era. Twenty-one men are presented as poets and writers of prose and children's literature, but only two women are discussed and that in the area of children 's literature. Among the poets are Pavol Horov, Jan Kostra, Ladislav Novomesky, Milan Rufus, Jan Smrek, and Miroslav Valek; among the prose writers are Alfonz Bednar, Peter Jaros , Vladimir Minac, Vincent Sikula, and Frantisek Svantner. The first of six chapters sets the context for appreciating the work of these writers. In describing the development of this modern era in literature Stevcek employs a Marxist interpretation and even discusses briefly the features of literature written according to such a viewpoint. (The English here is rather stilted and contrived; if the translation is at fault, it is probably because it is a literal rendition of the author's diction and style , which in Slovak may be appropriate for such a work but becomes at times opaque in English translation .) In the remaining five �116 SLOVAKIA chapters, Stevcek considers respectively writers of poetry, prose, children's literature, drama, and literary studies and theoretical presentations. At the end of the chapters on poetry and prose, the author presents brief commentary on a number of other such contemporary writers in order to round out the presentation for these areas . In the chapter on poetry Stevcek fails to include Masa Hal 'amova. Why? Does not a poet who was at the time of this study an "Artist of Merit" deserve mention? (At the present time, she holds the title "National Artist.") This is a significant omission, especially as consideration of Hal'amova would also have increased the number of women presented . In the chapter on children's literature Stevcek includes two women, one of whom, Klara Jarunkova, could just as well have been discussed in the prose chapter. Indeed, she could have been included in both chapters . Likewise , L'ubomir Feldek should have been discussed for more than his contribution to children's literature. Some commentary on or at least mention of L'udo Zubek and Dominik Tatarka would also have been quite justified. Such additions to this study would certainly not have increased its size by much, and yet would have definitely enhanced its benefit to Slavic scholars and anyone interested in Slovak literature. Contemporary Slovak Literature is a noteworthy contribution from Slovakia that provides some basic information on a large number of writers. Such a publication in English is crucial if Slovak literature is to be able to assume its proper place in modern world literature . Given the paucity of such publications , this study should be helpful not only to specialists but also libraries. Given also the excellent literary specialists now writing in Slovakia, more such publications as the one above, with style and English rendition improved , should be rightly expected and published in the 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 1985-86, Vol. 32 Description An account of the resource Vol. 32 (No. 58-59), 1985-86. 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 1985-86 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 REVIEWS 83 SLOVAKIA 85 Historicky casopis, 33 , 2 (1 985) . "K vel 'komoravskemu vyrociu. " Bratislava: Veda, 19 8 5. Anna Holla. Metod - ucitel' Slovienov. K 1100 vfrrociu umrtia {885-1985}. Martin: Matica slovenska , 1985 . THEODORIC J. ZUBEK, O.F.M. Pittsburgh , Pennsyl vania As the year 1985 approached , Slovak Christians both in Czechoslovakia and abroad wondered in what manner the 1, 100th anniversary of the death of St. Methodius would be observed in Slovakia. The two publications under review provide partial answers to that question. · Historicky casopis , the official organ of the Ustav historickych vied Slovenskej akademie vied , devoted an entire issue to the ' 'Great Moravian Anniversary. ' ' In their introduction, the editors concede that Methodius was ' 'the most important personality in the cultural history of Great Moravia." Further, they note that ''Marxist historiography values highly the work of Constantine and Methodius, who laid the foundations for the development of Slavic literature, which thereafter prevailed among the majority of the South and East Slavs ." However , they also maintain that although Marxist historiography cannot overstate the importance of these two men, it cannot view them only as " evangelizers of the faith." The cultural elements of the Cyrillo-Methodian heritage are, of course, undeniable. But it is equally undeniable that that legacy also - and primarily - includes tremendous religiou s significance for the Slavs in general and the Slovaks in particular. What this reviewer finds especially objectionable in this issue of Historicky casopis is the attempt to minimize the importance of the evangelical activity of Sts . Cyril and Methodius and to neglect the religious dimensions of their work. The cultural achievements of the saintly brothers were the result of their primary goal: to complete the Christianization of the Slavic peoples. This main goal of their mission is never properly recognized by the authors, and the names of Sts . Cyril and Methodius are never mentioned with their title of reverence , " Saint. " Furthermore, not a single arti- 86 SLOVAKIA cle is devoted specifically to St. Methodius in what is supposed to be a commemoration of the anniversary of his death! The first article , by Matus Kucera, assesses Great Moravia and the beginnings of Slovak national history. Although Kucera writes extensively about the era of Rastislav and Svatopluk, he fails to mention Sts. Cyril and Methodius by name as the founders of Christian civilization among the ancestors of the Slovaks. In his article on "fictions and facts" concerning the territorial development of Great Moravia, Peter Ratkos refutes the claims of Imre Boba and other historians that the territory of Great Moravia was situated around the Morava River in Serbia. According to Ratkos , Sirmium was probably not the actual see of Archbishop Methodius , because at that time Sirmium belonged to Bulgaria. Richard Marsina examines the diplomatic documents relating to the history of Great Moravia and their value as sources. He acknowledges the authenticity of seventeen diplomatic texts, mostly the preserved letters of Popes Adrian II, John VIII, Stephen V, and John IX, and eighteen lost documents (deperdita) mentioned in the authentic diplomatic papers and other reliable historical sources. The article which deals the most with St. Cyril is the one by Alexander Avenarius on the contribution of Byzantium to Great Moravian culture. The author explains St. Cyril's philosophy, classifies him as a liberal in his opposition to iconoclasm, and places him in the camp of the liberal patriarch Photius. Avenarius also describes the influence of Byzantine monasticism in Bohemia and Slovakia after the death of Svatopluk. The last two articles are not directly concerned with the work of Sts. Cyril and Metodius . Bohuslav Chropovsky and Alexander Ruttkay evaluate the most recent archeological excavations and situate geographically the extent of the Slovak ethnic group. Finally, Rudolf Krajcovic examines the very complicated issue of language in Great Moravia and its continuity with Slovak. The publication of the Matica slovenska, Metod - ucitel' Slovienov, is more germane to the commemoration of St. Methodius' anniversary than the articles in the Historicky casopis issue. It contains nineteen pages of printed text by Anna Holla and thirty-two photographic reproductions of archeological findings from the SLOVAKIA 87 Great Moravian era, copies of some Glagolitic and Cyrillic texts, and newer Slovak literary and pictorial works related to Sts. Cyril and Methodius. Holla's brief survey of St. Methodius and the whole CyrilloMethodian legacy in Czechoslovakia is a popular version based on contemporary scholarship. It reflects, not surprisingly, the distortions of present official Marxist historiography concerning the Great Moravian period. Holla characterizes Great Moravia as the first state common to the Czechs and Slovaks; and she emphasizes the cultural, social, and political activity of Sts. Cyril and Methodius and excludes or minimizes their missio.nary efforts. Holla' s assertion that Great Moravia was the first joint state of the Czechs and Slovaks is of dubious historical validity. By military force Svatopluk occupied the adjacent Slavic territories, among them Bohemia, and annexed them to his realm, but he did not incorporate them organically into Great Moravia. After his death in 894, the people in these occupied territories hastened to separate themselves from Great Moravia, searching for independence or joining new political alliances. The annexation of Bohemia to Great Moravia lasted less than twenty years, and after Svatopluk's death the Czechs found themselves again in the orbit of the Eastern Frankish (German) Empire. This reviewer must also take exception to Holla's statement that ''The basis of the missionary work of Constantine and Methodius in the Great Moravian Empire was their legal work, by which they eradicated Frankish church law and the unwritten common law of Great Moravia and substituted for it a strong legal order" (p. 6}. As has been mentioned, the basis of the CyrilloMethodian mission was the evangelization of the Slavs. Sts. Cyril and Methodius did not eliminate the church law which had been brought to the territory of Great Moravia by Irish-Scottish, Acquilean (Italian), and Bavarian missionaries; and they did not abolish the unwritten indigenous laws as long as they did not deviate from either Latin or Byzantine church and civil laws. In conclusion, the jubilee issue of Historicky casopis and the text by Anna Holla in the Matica slovenska publication suffer from gross deficiencies and omissions which stem from the antireligious bias of official Marxist historiography toward the legacy 88 SLOVAKIA of Sts. Cyril and Methodius . Only the Matica slovenska publication, with its well-selected, beautiful reproductions , can in a sense be considered as a tribute to the memory of St. Methodius in Slovakia. Julius Sopko. Stredoveke latinske k6dexy v slovensky ch kniiniciach. (Stredoveke k6dexy slovenskej proveniencie, I]. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1981. 304 pp. Julius Sopko. Stredoveke latinske k6dexy slovenskej proveniencie v Mad'arsku av Rumunsku. (Stredoveke k6dexy slovenskej proveniencie, II). Martin: Matica slovenska, 1982. 400 pp. GERALD J. SABO John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio This two-volume catalogue of codices comprises a listing of all extant medieval manuscripts produced on Slovak territory. Most were written in Latin and are similar to those found throughout medieval Europe. The subject matter pertains, for the most part, to religious faith and practice, and philosophy. Bibles, missals , antiphonaries , graduals , chant collections , sermons and related bilingual dictionaries, rules of a religious order, commentaries on religious topics, and philosophical studies are the kinds of writings found in these manuscripts. Occasionally among them are " secular" - non-religious or philosophical - texts , such as Gesta Romanorum (Feats of the Romans), Chronicon Dubnicense (The History of Dubnica), or Codex Justinian us: Digesta - Excerpta (Justinian's Law Code: Summaries and Excerpts) . Some of these manuscripts are preserved in Slovak archival repositories, while others are found in Hungary and Romania. In the two introductions of the first volume in Slovak and Latin , Sopko considers briefly the emergence and development of libraries and scriptoria on Slovak territory as well as the history of manuscript collections and their present status. He discusses the role of certain religious orders in the execution and collection of such manuscripts; among these are the Benedictines, Fran- SLOVAKIA 89 ciscans, Dominicans, Cistercians, Carthusians, and Premonstratensians (also known as Norbertines). Sopko also mentions the significant activity of the cathedral chapters in Nitra, Bratislava, and Spis that fostered the composing of manuscripts. Thirteen Slovak areas are listed as locations of repositories for such manuscripts: Banska Bystrica, Bardejov, Bratislava, Dolny Kubin, Jasov, Kezmarok, Kosice, Kremnica, Martin, Nitra, Presov, Spisska Kapitula , and Spisske Vlachy. These cities and towns, institutions in Bratislava and Kremnica contain the overwhelming majority of the 200 medieval manuscripts found on Slovak territory today. In Bratislava, the cathedral chapter library alone contains 82 such codices of the 135 found in the 6 repositories of this city. In Kremnica, the parish library contains 25 of 26 medieval codices in the city. In the second volume , 86 of 88 manuscripts preserved in Hungary are found in Budapest; the remaining 130 of the total 418 listed' in the two volumes are found in Alba Julia, Romania, in the former Batthyany library collection. In his introductions Sopko mentions the art of manuscript illumination that was well developed on Slovak territory . He includes at the end of both volumes photographic reproductions of some manuscripts, usually rendered in color, many of which also exemplify the art of illumination. One of the outstanding examples of manuscript writing and illumination is the ''Bratislava Missal,' ' which today is preserved in Alba Julia, Romania, as part of the former Batthyany library collection. This missal is described in the second volume of the catalogue (#400), and a color reproduction of one of its folio pages can be found at the end among the supplementary illustrations . (A book that presents the illumination aspect of medieval manuscripts in the Slovak area and that would complement this catalogue well is Stredoveka kniina mal 'ba na Slovensku by Alzbeta Giintherova and Jan Misianik published in two editions [1961 and 1977] by Tatran of Bratislava.) Sopko concludes each of the volumes with four lists: concordance of signatures , dated codices, first words of a codex, and a name and topic index. This two-volume catalogue by Sopko is primarily aimed at libraries and specialists in medieval culture and history. It presents 90 SLOVAKIA well the scholarly work that is often produced under the auspices of the Matica slovenska. Vysady miest a mesteciek na Slovensku {1238-1350}, I. Edited by L'ubomir Juck. Bratislava: Veda, 1984. 199 pp. Narodnostny vyvoj miest na Slovensku do roku 1918. K 600. vyrociu vydania vysad pre zilinskych Slovakov Edited by Richard Marsina. Martin: Osveta, 1984 . 275 pp. DAVID P. DANIEL ConcorcJti.a Seminary St. Louis, Missouri These two volumes reflect the breadth and depth of Slovak historical urban studies. They are both welcome additions to the growing body of scholarship on the history of urban life in Slovakia in the late medieval and early modern eras. The first, ''Privileges of the Cities and Towns in Slovakia (1238-1350)" was prepared as part of a long-term project planned by the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences during the 1950's and early 1960's which set as its goal the editing and publication of historical documents from the earliest eras of Slovak history. This volume is the first dealing specifically with the charters and grants of legal privileges made to the emerging cities during the High Middle Ages, primarily by Hungarian monarchs. Information concerning the documents which have disappeared and/or the texts of those preserved were drawn from materials in the archives of Slovakia and throughout Central Europe. The volume begins with a general introduction indicating the methodological principles utilized in preparing it and some general comments on the types of documents included . The bulk of the book is devoted to a catalogue, in chronological order, of all the grants of privileges discovered; a brief description of their contents and context in Slovak; the text of the document, in so far as it is known in the original language of composition, Latin; and finally a listing of the provenance of each document. As such , this volume provides a fascinating and accessible entrance into SLOVAKIA 91 the historical development of the cities and towns which emerged on the territory of modern-day Slovakia during the High Middle Ages. They show that the economic strength of the towns grew in conjunction with the grants of economic and political privileges extended to them by the Hungarian monarchs. The towns sought to develop and protect their economic basis, manufacture, and trade by securing from the kings extensive rights of selfadministration and governance. The second volume, "Nationality Development of Cities in Slovakia to the Year 1918," is a collection of essays arranged according to the three thematic sections of the book: ''Nationality Development in Zilina"; "Nationality Development in the Towns of Slovakia''; and ''Nationality Development in Czech and Moravian Towns in the Middle Ages." However, despite the title, all but four of the sixteen studies treat the medieval and early modern periods. In the first section Marsina himself analyzes the privileges given to the Slovaks in Zilina in 1381; Julius Sopko attempts to identify the various individuals who made entries into the city record book of Zilina; Izidor Kotulic evaluates the language of the Zilina record book and other historical documents in Slovak; and Rudolf Kuchar examines the family names which appear in the Zilina record book. The studies of Peter Stansky on the structuring of nationalities in Zilina up to 1918 and of Pavol Hapak on the economic life and workers movement in Zilina during the last half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries conclude the section devoted specifically to the history of Zilina. In the second section Ferdinand Ulicny investigates the national groupings within the medieval cities of Slovakia; Jan Dorul'a examines the use of Slovak in the cities between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries; Anton Spiesz provides an analysis of Slovak artisan activity during the so-called later feudal period, the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries; and Jozef Vozaf evaluates the relationship between ethnic groups in the so-called montana or mining cities of central Slovakia during the same era. Ivan Chalupecky provides an analysis of ethnic relationships in the towns of Spis county for the century between 1550 to 1650, and Jana Skladana examines the oldest city books in Banovec nad Bebravou, dating from the sixteenth through the early eighteenth 92 SLOVAKIA centuries. Milan Podrimavsky concludes this section with an examination of the cities in Slovakia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries . The third section is made up of just three essays: Frantisek Smahel's review of findings and perspectives of the research into ethnic relationships in Bohemian cities during the Late Middle Ages (thirteenth to fifteenth centuries); Ludmila Sulitkova's investigation of the ethnic relationships in the Moravian cities, especially the royal cities, during the Late Middle Ages; and Josef Zemlicka' s essay on the countryside , ethnicity, and the late medieval Bohemian cities. While it is impossible to examine these essays individually, it should be noted that not only do they reveal how much urban studies have come to dominate Slovak late medieval/early modern history research , but also the complexities of ethnic relationships in Slovakia during the same era. Slovaks took an active, if not always an appreciated, role in the life of the cities of Slovakia during the Middle Ages and were, especially but not merely in the smaller towns , significant in their economic and political life. It is to be hoped that these volumes will encourage American scholars to become much more active in more fully investigating late medieval and early modern Slovak history. Juraj Zudel. Stolice na Slovensku. Bratislava: Obzor, 1984. 200 pp. R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee , Florida This book was written to provide a generaLhistory of the counties of Slovakia until 1849, when a modern centralized administration was imposed by Imperial decree in the so-called "Bach era". It may consequently be subtitled "Patterns of Feudalism''. Zudel summarizes characteristics common to all the Slovak districts, and then depicts both individual and regional peculiarities. The main theme is an analysis of the evolution of the counties under the feudal order. In the introductory section, Zudel points out that originally individual Slovak counties had SLOVAKIA 93 their own codes of law, but in all cases , in greater or lesser measure, these were eventually supplanted by more centralized government. Particular mention is made of the efforts of the Habsburgs, especially in the case of the Josephine reforms of the eighteenth century, to provide a uniform code of law for Hungary. These endeavors were only partially successful, and many of them were undone following the death of the King-Emperor in 1790 . Only in the aftermath of the 1848 revolution was it possible for enduring institutions of modern government to be established. Zudel points out that the 1848 experience may be characterized as a ''conflict of popular sovereignty''. The Hungarian reyolutionary leader Lajos Kossuth sought to protect the jealously-guarded privileges of individual counties, while at the same time using them as instruments of Magyarization in Upper Hungary. By contrast, the more conservative Hungarian reformer Istvan Szechenyi considered the county structure as antiquated, yet he opposed forced Magyarization. The archival sources consulted by the author are listed at the end of the introductory section, and a more general bibliography is included at the conclusion of the text. Zudel's introduction is followed by a survey of each individual county. These surveys include a summary of the territorial boundaries of each administration, the patterns of settlement and habitation , agricultural conditions, and cultural traditions . In cases where a county has been inhabited by more than one ethnic group, an additional section concerning ethnic relations is added . Although Zudel's presentation summarizes the counties in alphabetical order, any attempts at comparison and contrast are best served by examining the counties from a regional perspective. Two of the counties - Bratislava and Abauj - contained Slovakia's major metropolitan centers . In the case of the western county Bratislava, Zudel stresses its strategic location at the point where the Morava and Danube rivers converge. This location guaranteed that Bratislava was affected by the Hussite invasion. The author also mentions the presence of a Croatian element since the time of the Turkish wars. In the case of Abauj, which contains the eastern metropolis, Zudel indicates that the city of Kosice 94 SLOVAKIA was noteworthy for its traditionally oligarchical form of government. The southern Slovak counties of Gerner, Hant , Komarno , and Novohrad had the common denominators of all being ethnically mixed areas, plus serving as frontier zones in the HabsburgOttoman wars. Much the same treatment is accorded to Ostrihom, although the author also cites the latter for its significance in the Catholic Counterreformation. In the case of northern counties the author mentions that Liptov had lingering anti-feudal traditions, and also served as a stronghold for Slovak nationalism. Orava, in spite of its close geographic proximity to Liptov, evolved in the more traditional feudal pattern. Among central counties Nitra is particularly noted for having had a state organization which pre-dated the kingdom of Hungary; Tekov and Trencin are treated in a similar manner. In the case of the latter, Zudel also mentions the importance of the city of Zilina as a center of Slovak trade with the Czech lands, Silesia, and Prussia. Zvolen is noteworthy for its strategic location in defense of the fertile lowlands of southern Slovakia; the author also· mentions the influence of the Czech immigration following the Thirty Years War. Turiec is especially noted for having separated itself from Rakoczi's rising in the early eighteenth century . The author might have given this event more than passing treatment had he chosen to do so . The eastern counties of Slovakia present some of the most noteworthy peculiarities of all. Mention is made of the fact that the Hungarian king Sigismund mortgaged certain cities of Spis to Poland in the fifteenth century; they were returned to Hungary in the eighteenth. In spite of the fact that Saris was a major focal point for the Magyarization campaign, Zudel points out that the native Slovak nobility played a prominent role in public life. In the case of Zemplin county , the author mentions that the nobles long maintained a sense of autonomy , and consequently supported the Transylvanian rebels in the latter's struggle against the Habsburgs . Zudel also briefly summarizes the history of less " traditional" Slovak countries . After World War II much of the territory of Uz SLOVAKIA 95 county was transferred to the Ukrainian S.S.R., and the population of the area is today classified as Ukrainian. Zudel, however, mentions the role of the Slovak element in siding with the Hungarian nobles against their Habsburg kings. Turn.a is treated as an extension of Abauj county (with which it was long affiliated) , although the influence of political patterns emanating from Gerner is also mentioned. In his concluding chapter Zudel summarizes administrative realignments dating from Bach's regime in the 1850s. Since the terms stolica and zupa are often used interchangeably, the author makes a distinction here between velzupa , containing more than one stolica, and zupa, constituting a single district. This distinction is an important one, and the author would hav~ served his readers better by mentioning it in the earlier portion of the text. Although the text conveys the ideological spirit common to contemporary Czechoslovakia, the historical facts are presented in a straightforward manner. Zudel points out that contemporary Hungarian Marxist historiography is more favorably disposed towards Slovak demographic claims in Upper Hungary, and he makes liberal use of Hungarian source materials. The major weakness of the book lies less in what is said than in what remains unsaid. In reference to Abauj county, Zudel cites the Mongol invasion as a determining factor in population distribution; he fails to mention that Kosice was temporarily transferred to the jurisdiction of Transylvania by the Treaty of Linz in 1645. One especially glaring contradiction is found in the case of Saris. The author mentions a "pestilental epidemic" in the eighteenth century, but no mention is made of the cholera epidemic which convulsed Saris and other eastern Slovak counties in 1831. Since the latter event was accompanied by a peasant rising which greatly undermined feudal society, the omission is a particularly serious one . For the student who is already well-grounded in Slovak history , Stolice presents little that is original. But is serves as an adequate text within the limits which have been mentioned , and is especially useful as a reference guide to the individual districts . 96 SLOVAKIA Tvorcovia noveho Slovenska/ The Shaping of Modern Slovakia. Festschrift to the Seventieth Birthday of Dr. Joseph A. Mikus . Edited by Joseph Stasko. Cambridge, Canada: Friends of Good Books, 1982 . xv . 271 pp . GEORGE VIRSIK Monash University Clayton, Australia This collection of articles by Imrich Kruzliak, Joseph Stasko , Joseph M. Kirschbaum, Frantisek Vnuk, and the celebrant can be looked upon from two different perspectives . The first is readily apparent . Kruzliak's interpretive account of Slovak history from 1918 to 1948; Stasko's soul-searching reflections on the meaning of the Slovak national heritage; Kirschbaum's examination of Slovak student organizations and their aims in the interwar period; and Vnuk's analysis of Slovak diplomacy before the Salzburg event of 1940 all have one common denominator: either the role played by, or the contemporary views held by , Joseph A. Mikus. Mikus's own article , "The International System in Transition,'' is a study of the moral and legal principles underlying the pre~ent system of (soverign or not) states and nations , as well as an application and projection into the future of his own ideas, summarized by the view that "not territorially defined states , particularly multinational structures or empires, but nations in the ethnic and cultural sense are the real members of the international community.'' The other perspective becomes more apparent only after one has finished reading the book. With the exception of Vnuk, the authors have all by now reached, or almost reached , their seventieth birthdays. They are all well-known emigre writers ; political commentators, and interpreters of the Slovak cultural heritage . And - again perhaps with the exception of Vnuk - all the contributions are representative of the particular author's " Slovak creed .' ' They read as a personal legacy to the generation to follow. No Slovak intellectual of the younger generation can afford to ignore what they have to say. Politically and territorially, of course, there is only one Slovakia. But spiritually and culturally there is SLOVAKIA 97 also an alternative Slovakia, a Slovakia that many of us in the West (as well as some non-conformists in Slovakia) are proud to belong to , a Slovakia that would be unthinkable without its pioneers, and now seniors, like Mikus and Stasko, Kirschbaum, and Kruzliak. Thus it seems to me that - at least from the point of view of the new generation - the title of the book should have been something like " The Shape of a Slovakia We are Inheriting," meaning the spiritual and cultural shape of unofficial Slovakia forced to ''live in exile.'' To summarize: If one cannot read Slovak, it might be preferable to obtain just a reprint of Mikus' s English article rather than buy the whole book. But if one can read Slovak and is interested in Slovak matters, this book is a must. Slovak Politics: Essays on Slovak History in honour of Joseph M . Kirschbaum. Edited by Stanislav J. Kirschbaum. ClevelandRome: Slovak Institute, 1983. xviii, 381 pp. GEORGE VIRSIK Monash University Clayton , Australia This Festschrift dedicated to Joseph M. Kirschbaum offers nine articles on various political themes from Slovak history ranging from 1882 to about 1948 . It includes a brief appraisal of the celebrant's life and his contribution to Slovak politics by Charles Murin and a " select bibliography" of Kirschbaum 's publications written in exile. In the first article Edita Bosak deals with Czech-Slovak relations from 1882 to 1914, focusing on the student organization Detvan in Prague. Bosak sees Detvan "as a springboard and nursery for the young Slovak inteligentsia" as opposed to the "conservative Martin leadership ." Although she admits that "the amount of co-operation between Detvan and the Czechs was limited,'' she recognizes the resulting journal Hlas as "progressive," giving "wide distribution to many of the ideas that the students had already worked out in the debates in Detvan, 98 SLOVAKIA especially the idea of Czech-Slovak reciprocity." A comprehensive and unbiased study of Milan Hodza and his original political thinking (contrasted by his often controversial political associations that ended so sadly) is still missing from Slovak political literature . The article by Susan Mikula comes a long way toward such a study, but unfortunately it does not go beyond the year 1914. Still, her account of Hodza's Belvedere orientation and his attitude toward Magyars and Czechs seems to support those political thinkers who see him as the harbinger of contemporary Slovak aspirations toward Central European, or Danubian, Confederation. The contribution by Manfred Alexander is based on a study of the reports from the German Mission in Prague to the Foreign Office of the German Reich from 1918 to 1921. It contains over fifty pages of original documents related to Slovakia, published for the first time. Somehow, the documents make more interesting reading then the article itself. At least in one place the author's conclusions are hard to follow: It is true that Document 13 illustrates in many details the fact that Czech anti-clericalism was at the core of early Czech-Slovak frictions; and that it was the Catholic priests in Slovakia who raised the alarm, and often overreacted. But it seems to be a rather sweeping statement to claim that this is ',!valuable information indicating that the efforts made by the Slovak people to obtain autonomy did not originate spontaneously but were stirred up through agitation.'' Stanislav J. Kirschbaum's study of Hlinka's Slovak People's Party should certainly be read in conjunction with the German documents referred to above, especially by a non-specialist. It throws light on some points raised in the preceding article, and its systematic and more detached account well complements the subjectiveness and immediacy of the documents. The constitution of the Slovak Republic is analyzed by Karin Schmid. She comes to some mixed conclusions, perhaps best expressed in her own words: "If we consider every aspect of the Slovak Constitution - especially the role of the party on one hand, and on the other the control of the government by Parliament (although Parliament itself, in turn, was composed of only one party) - a comparison with what is known as 'socialist democracy' SLOVAKIA 99 suggests itself. It is tempting, on the model of this concept, to coin the term 'fascist democracy.' However, if we wish to avoid jargon and if we bear in mind that fascism completely rejects the concept of democracy, then the Slovak system can be best described as an authoritarian system with rather surprising democratic features." Lisa Guarda Nardini examines President Tiso's political program. The person of Dr. Jozef Tiso, more so than the Slovak Republic as such, symbolizes the Slovak tragedy during and after World War II: After forty years, most Slovaks are by now resigned to the fact that, given all the circumstances, there was not much chance for the six years of the Slovak Republic to end' differently. But only a few will maintain that Dr. Tiso did not deserve a better fate, a fairer treatment and trial, and less prejudice connected with his place in Slovak history. The article and its discerningly apologetic tone have to be seen in this light. To a certain extent, the same atmosphere permeates the next article on the foreign policy of the Slovak Republic by Milan S. Durica. Of special interest is the section on relations with the Holy See. Durica does not hesitate to state explicitly that "the sharpest dispute between the Slovak Government and the Vatican arose over the Jewish question." Stanislav J. Kirschbaum tackles the extremely complicated and controversial Slovak revolt of 1944. He points out two options that the Slovaks faced by the end of World War II. The first was "to remain true to their state" not excluding "the taking of whatever means were necessary, including changing the regime and the political system'' and hoping that ''the victorious powers would realize that independence was indeed what the nation desired.'' The second option was to return to the Czechoslovak Republic. He is realistic enought to admit that the first option called for an acute sense of timing, exceptional diplomacy, faith on the part of people, and above all capable leadership at the top. But even given the second option, Kirschbaum observes that ''had Benes not been so prejudiced against the Slovaks, but rather had taken into account the evolution of the Slovak nation ... much of the tragedy that befell the Slovak people from 1944 on might have been avoided.'' 100 SLOVAKIA Frantisek Vnuk elaborates on this theme in his article on Slovak-Czech relations between 1945 and 1948. It describes the situation and events in Slovakia prior to February 1948, and it makes very sad reading. As one has come to expect from Vnuk, it is thoroughly documented. But it is also concise and comprehensive enough to be recommended to all - notably younger generation Slovaks, but also Czechs - who wish to understand the reasons behind Slovak resentments and political distrust of their Czech neighbors . In this reviewer's opinion, there is an increasing need for a comprehensive, critical study of Slovak political history from 1918 to 1968 written by a younger generation of scholars free of the compulsion either to fit that story into prescribed ideological frames or to justify a posteriori one's own role or moral position. The publication under review has perhaps so far come closest to fulfilling that need. Frantisek Vnuk. Zivotopis Konstantina Culena. Cleveland: Slovak Institute , 1984. 247 pp. OWEN V. JOHNSON Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana For several years I have been trying to persuade several important Slovak figures representing different political persuasions to write their memoirs, to give us an intimate perspective on their youth, their education, and the development of their careers. Each of the three has resisted , perhaps fearing that to write memoirs means to declare one's public life to be over. This is unfortunate because when I have stumbled onto memoir material , such as a dozen unpublished essays by as many interwar and wartime Slovak journalists, they have been a rich mine of information that their authors could never have realized would be so important. Other than oral interviews, the second best source of personal information is the biography . From that perspective, this book about Konstantin Culen is to be welcomed. Published with the SLOVAKIA 101 support of Slovak-American activist Jan Beliansky a dozen years after completion of the manuscript, it traces the career of the headstrong Slovak publicist, amateur historian, diplomat, government official and emigre journalist. The author draws on his twenty-year correspondence with Culen, Culen's autobiographical "Posedenia," published in the early 1960s, and 15 short chapters that were parts of Culen's various unsuccessful efforts to write an autobiography. Vnuk makes no claim that this is a careful , complete, or scholarly biography. Nor does he promise any neutral and objective point-of-view, stating in the opening pages his respect and admiration for Culen. Vnuk asserts that the heart of the work is the la.s t section which describes Culen's work in exile - because it is the period he knows best. The historian will disagree. It is the first part (describing his youth and education) and to a lesser degree the second part (describing his twenty-year career in Slovakia) that more effectively transport the reader into the life of the periods they describe. This is so because it is precisely for those periods that Culen provided more of his own testimony about his life and times. We are reminded, for instance, that even though their eventual political views became quite different , many members of the Slovak intelligentsia initially were good friends of each other. Among Culen's early friends were such a diverse group as Vladimir Clementis, Julius Sefranek, Jan Golian, Ferdinand Jurgia, and Florian Tomanek. There are several references, too, to how important connections - Slovak or Czech - were in finding gainful employment. Particularly interesting is Vnuk's description of Culen's short career as a writer and reporter for Slovak, the daily Hlinkist organ. As with other institutions of the Slovak People 's Party, the newspaper staff reflected the splits among the different wings of the party. Eventually the splits led to Culen's dismissal from the staff. It foreshadowed his later ouster from the Slovak Government in July , 1940. The tragedy of Culen is that these divisions continued in emigration, and because he continued to be first and foremost a publicist, he became their victim. Despite a decade of service to 102 SLOVAKIA the Slovak press in North America, he was eventually forced out of all fulltime work in that area. During the last few years, Vnuk reports , Culen struggled to find gainful employment, eventually winding up as superintendent of a Brooklyn apartment house. He died in 1964. Miroslav Kropilak a kolektiv. Dejiny Slovenska V {1918-1945). Bratislava: Veda , 1985 . 612 pp. JAMES R. FELAK Bloomington, Indiana It would be hard to find a quarter century in Slovak history more eventful than the period from 1918 to 1945 . These years saw the creation, destruction , and re-creation of the Czechoslovak Republic , the emergence and disappearance of an independent Slovak state , a great economic crisis , and a world war. In this fifth volume of the new Dejiny Slovenska, a team of Slovak Marxist scholars provides the most extensive and detailed discussion of this period available in any language. Dejiny Slovenska Vis composed of two parts. The first covers Slovakia within the interwar Czechoslovak Republic; the second deals with the Slovak state and World War II. Each part is divided into chronologically based chapters, which in turn contain subchapters on themes like politics, foreign affairs , economics, social unrest, and developments within the Communist Party. In analyzing the interwar period, the authors focus on the so-called Slovak Question, that is , the place of Slovakia and the Slovak nation in a Czechoslovak state. This question involves a complex of political, economic , social , and cultural factors that gave rise to tensions between Slovaks and Czechs. The Czechoslovak government's failure to ease these tensions contributed mightily to the shape that the First Republic's demise took in 1938-39. In discussing this failure , the authors contend that only the Communist Party was capable of solving the problems that caused social and national dissatisfaction in Slovakia. The authors consider Slovak discontent as essentially a product of the ''bourgeois-democratic , capitalist system'' of the First SLOVAKIA 103 Republic, with the Czech bourgeoisie as the main perpetrators of this discontent. This ruling class is accused of economically exploiting Slovakia, repressing manifestations of Slovak dissatisfaction, and ruling the country on the basis of centralism, with a complete disregard for Slovakia's special conditions and problems . To help rule Slovakia, this " ruling Czech bourgeoisie " fostered the idea of Czechoslovakism, that is, the notion that the Slovaks were not a distinct nation but rather members of a Czechdominated "Czechoslovak" nation. The authors sharply criticize Czechoslovakism, which they see as a reactionary ideology serving only to fan the flames of Slovak nationalism and to hamper Czechoslovak state unity in the face of the external threats of the 1930s. As allies of the ''ruling Czech bourgeoisie,' ' the so-called centralist parties in Slovakia, above all the Social Democrats and the Agrarians , come under attack in this volume. The Social Democrats are strongly criticized for their so-called reformist approach to Slovakia's social and economic ills , for placing the interests of the state ahead of the interests of the working class , and for staunchly supporting centralism and Czechoslovakism. The Agrarians are reproached for similar reasons, including an economic policy that favored the rural middle class of the expense of the working class and poorer peasants. The authors indeed point out that many Slovak Agrarians were lukewarm in their support for centralism and Czechoslovakism and tried to advance Slovakia's interests under the guise of "silent revision of centralism" or "regionalism." Nevertheless, the authors believe that by failing to distance themselves effectively from Prague and to solve Slovakia's economic problems, the centralist parties drove many Slovaks into the camp of Hlinka 's Slovak People 's Party (HSPP or L'udaks). The authors do not condemn the HSPP for its autonomist program and political opposition, but rather for " catering to the reactionary classes" at home and seeking ties with Czechoslovakia's enemies abroad. In their Marxist interpretation, the authors see the HSPP as the representative of those bourgeois elements that were dissatisfied with their political and economic position in Czechoslovakia. The fact that the HSPP had broad popular appeal 104 SLOVAKIA cutting across class boundaries is explained by the party's ability to exploit Slovakia's economic ills and national discontent demagogically in order to win votes. Although the authors condemn the HSPP's leadership, they are more lenient toward its rankand-file, whom they characterize as justly disaffected by the social and national situation in Slovakia but misled by L'udak propaganda. If the L'udaks were too reactionary to solve the Slovak Question, and the centralist parties too reformist and ''Czechoslovak,'' the Communist Party alone , according to this work, possessed the correct formula. In the authors' interpretation, the Communist Party was committed both to the distinctiveness of the Slovak nation and the integrity of the Czechoslovak state, which, after a socialist revolution and installation of a dictatorship of the proletariat, was to be set up on the basis of national equality and mutual respect between the Czech and Slovak nations. The party did not hold this position consistently from 1918 to 1945, but did take this stance during the Slovak National Uprising. The book depicts, although somewhat opaquely, the shifts in the party's nationality policy in the period under discussion and presents the party's position during the Uprising not as a mere tactical move but rather as the culmination of twenty-five years of Communist thinking al}d experience regarding the Slovak Question. Although the portrayal of the Communist Party in this volume is overwhelmingly positive , there is some criticism, especially of party centralism. The authors clearly side with those Slovak Communists, above all the Davists, who preferred a party that was more responsive to Slovak conditions to one that rigidly applied directives from the leadership in Prague. While centralism and "dogmatism" may be reproached, however, the authors never question the Communist Party's fundamental goals. The second part of this work deals with the Slovak state and World War II. This period is presented dichotomously. On the negative side is the Slovak state. Although the authors deem it "an acceptable alternative for the majority of the Slovak population in 1939-1941 from the constitutional point of view," they portray its L'udak leaders as fascists and opportunists, tools of German imperalism who tried but ultimately failed to win over the SLOVAKIA 105 Slovak population via social demagoguery and exaggerated nationalism. On the positive side is the Slovak resistance movement, manifested above all in the Slovak National Uprising. According to the authors, the Uprising represented the progressive majority of the Slovak population. They claim that the Uprising was never defeated politically or militarily, but rather won out as the first stage of a democratic and national revolution in Slovakia. Although the authors acknowledge the role played by nonCommunists in the Slovak resistance, they repeatedly assert that Communist influence was paramount. The party gets credit forsuccessfully helping bring down the L'udak regime while at the same time resisting efforts of the Benes government in London to restore the pre-Munich Republic on its old sociopolitical bases. Not surprisingly, the authors also credit the Soviet Union with greatly assisting the Uprising. The authors have considerable sympathy for the selfdetermination of the Slovak nation, as their condemnation of centralism and Czechoslovakism attests . However , when this sympathy comes into conflict with their orthodox Marxist-Leninst line, the latter wins out. For example, the occupation of Slovakia by Bela Kun's army in 1919 is portrayed as a totally positive event for the Slovak population, and any suggestions that they may have constituted a restoration of Hungarian rule over the Slovaks are dismissed as myth. To the volume's credit, it provides an informative survey of social and economic developments in Slovakia. In addition, it devotes much attention to cultural history, including discussions of the growth of Slovak education, literature, art, and even film and radio. It also treats the cultural affairs of Slovakia's German , Magyar, and Ukrainian minorities. On the debit side, there is very little biographical information offered regarding the key figures in Slovak political life , the subchapters on diplomatic developments are completely and unequivocally pro-Soviet, and several important Western publications are absent from the relatively lengthly bibliography. As a comprehensive survey of some of the most crucial years in Slovak history, this installment of Dejiny Slovenska should interest all scholars of twentieth-century Slovak history . Not only 106 SLOVAKIA is it a source of much information, but it also presents the most up-to-date official view on controversial issues such as the Slovak Question, the Slovak state, and the Slovak National Uprising. Yeshayahu A. Jelinek. The Lust for Power: Nationalism, Slovakia, and the Communists, 1918-1948. "East European Monographs, No. CXXX. " Boulder, CO: East European Monographs , 1983. xi , 185 pp. Distributed by Columbia University Press. ROBERT K. EVANSON University of Missouri-Kansas City Kansas City, Missouri Students of Slovak history are greatly indebted to Yeshayahu Jelinek for his painstaking dissection of the response of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSC) to ''the Slovak Question'' during the 1918-1948 period. Jelinek trudges admirably through the bewildering zigs and zags and general confusion of Communist nationality policies during the First, Second, and Third Czechoslovak Republics and the wartime Slovak Republic. It is well known that the political tasks of Czechoslovak Communism have often been complicated by the subjection of the KSC to Soviet supervision and interference. Slovak Communists faced an even tougher road in their efforts to expand their base of popular support within Slovakia, in part because their mentors in Prague were even more overbearing and less sensitive to Slovak national aspirations than were the Soviets. Czech Communist leaders tended to view Slovak nationalism as either an obstacle or a vehicle to their achievement of pow~r in Prague, depending on the moment. Their lack of understanding or respect for Slovak feelings was, of course, (ypical of Czech politicians of almost all ideological stripes. Not that Slovak Communists possessed any clear idea of how to handle the national question. Pulled in different directions by nationalist feelings and a desire to win popular support on the one hand , and by loyalty to the KSC and Moscow on the other, they adopted an array of "solutions" which were, as Jelinek notes, testimony to the failure of Communist ideology to address effec- SLOVAKIA 107 tively the nationalist phenomenon. Different Slovak Communist spokesmen variously proposed the creation of a Slovak-Hungarian Soviet Republic, incorporation of Slovakia into the Soviet Union, complete independence, autonomous federative status within a unified Czechoslovakia, equality without autonomy , and extreme centralization under Prague 's control. Jelinek 's discussion provides essential background reading to Czech-Slovak tensions since 1948, including the tragic persecution of Slovak Communists during the 1950s and the renewal of Slovak demands for genuine federalism during the 1960s. Nationalism has been ·'a powerful force in Slovak Communism throughout the history of Czechoslovakia, and there is little reason to believe that the current quasi-federal formula will permanently sweep the issue of Slovak-Czech relations under the rug. Despite Jelinek 's yeoman service in delineating these matters , the book contains a number of typographical and some factual errors that should have been caught by the editor. Rudolf Slansky, for example, is twice identified as "Josef Slansky" (pp. 36, 72); and Viliam Siroky seems to be identified as a Czech - the language is ambiguous - on p . 40 , although later on he is characterized correctly as a Magyarized Slovak. On a more general level , this reviewer has two criticisms, one minor and one major. The period and events described by Jelinek are so complex that he could have helped the reader by more often stepping back to address the confusion and reorder the facts in summary form. Whenever such a broad overview is absent, the narrative unavoidably gets bogged down in the myraid of individuals, factions , and endless changes in party line that defined Communist nationality policies during the thirty years in question. When the author chooses to summarize , as in his excellent passage on the war years (pp. 40-41) and in his fine concluding chapter, the reader is greatly enlightened . More serious is Jelinek's tendency to lump all Communists together in his insistence that they regard nationalism as " a mere tool to achieve [power] " (p . 1). This is the author 's major thesis , but his book's evidence suggests rather that many Communists were confused about the Slovak issue and failed to reach a consensus about nationality policies . While Czech centralizers were 108 SLOVAKIA inclined to be cynical or fearful of Slovak nationalism, many Slovaks were genuine nationalists who took considerable risks to advocate their people's cause. Jelinek explicitly recognizes this fact on several occasions, as in his fascinating discussion of Communist cooperation with the rightwing L'udaks, and in his description of the Slovak National Uprising, neither of which can be regarded as a mere power tactic. The author's general thesis, therefore, is at odds with his narrative. Nonetheless, this book is a valuable and original contribution to the study of Slovak Communism. M. Mark Stolarik. Growing Up on the South Side: Three Generations of Slovaks in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1880-1976. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 1985. 147 pp. JUNE GRANATIR ALEXANDER The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio In the preface to this work, M . Mark Stolarik states "that it is the responsibility of professional historians to also write the histories of particular ethnic groups for those groups'' and warns his readers that Growing Up on the South Side was written "only incidentally for fellow academics" (p. 13). Indeed, his research was partially supported by funds bequeathed for the purpose of writing a history of Bethlehem Slovaks for Bethlehem Slovaks. Growing Up on the South Side is too brief to offer an in-depth analysis of the Bethlehem Slovak population over a lengthy ninetysix-year period. Still, Stolarik touches upon important aspects of the history of that ethnic communtiy . He relies extensively on material generated by the Slovak community: fraternal and church records and publications, newspapers, and short histories written by Slovaks . He skillfully blends these sources with oral interviews with second- and third-generation Slovaks. Stolarik overlooks, however , the newspapers Narodne noviny and, with one minor exception, Slovensky hlasnik. His bibliography is somewhat dated because he does not cite relevant works, including his own, published after 1981. SLOVAKIA 109 Although the author does not burden his narrative with statistics, tables, or theories , he generally succeeds in achieving his objective of writing for a more general , rather than an academic audience . On several occasions, either in the narrative or footnotes , he corrects factual errors that apparently heretofore have been accepted by Bethlehem Slovaks . However, by trying to avoid becoming bogged down in scholarly analysis , Stolarik, at times, forgets his responsibility to the general public as a professional historian. Indeed , he misses opportunities to use his scholarly expertise to investigate the veracity of some popularly-held beliefs or attitudes and is not always careful to use solid evidence to support some generalizations. For example , Stolarik rather nonchalantly refers to "the Irish police" as stopping fights at Slovak weddings (p. 82) . Were all the policemen in Bethlehem Irish , or were only Irish policemen sent to quiet down rowdy Slovak celebrations? Here statistics and footnotes are needed. Stolarik's nice composite picture of Slovak fraternal meetings drawn from the minutes of different lodges includes the suggestion that women disrupted meetings when they attended in their husbands' stead. This was a popular view held by Slovak males who opposed accepting females into lodges in the early twentieth century. How " often" did women actually delay meetings? Stolarik observes that secular lodges opened with the presidents warning '' all in attendance to behave themselves" (p . 40) . This presumably included both men and women present. Can women, then , be singled out as a particular problem? In both instances just cited , Stolarik's descriptions may be accurate, but statements by a professional historian that confirm ethnic and sexual stereotypes in the minds of a general audience require more concrete, explicit evidence . At times , Stolarik is also confusing because his discussion is too brief. For example , he relates that several factors gave rise to a large number of Slovak lodges in Bethlehem. Some lodges were formed on the basis of geographic origins, while the membership of others , he explains, reflected social standing in the Slovak community. Does this mean that Slovaks who joined the same lodge as fellow villagers but then subsequently attained a different social status in the community switched lodges? If this was the case, it has strong implications for further exploring the emergence 110 SLOVAKIA of class divisions within ethnic communities. The discussion of female occupations should also be expanded and clarified . It is not clear if the second- and third-generation working women he discusses (pp. 113, 115-17) were married or single . Did married women routinely work outside of the home? Such clarifications would have enhanced his discussion of the acculturation process among American-Slovaks. Also, since formal affiliation of the Slovak Evangelical Lutheran Church (founded in 1902) with the Missouri Synod did not occur until 1908, Stolarik's passing reference to 1902 as the date when Slovak Lutherans affiliated with that conservative body can create confusion. Finally, some Bethlehem Slovaks as well as scholars will surely disagree with some of Stolarik's generalizations about the Slovak experience in general and the Bethlehem experience in particular. Although Stolarik was concerned primarily with writing a history for Bethlehem Slovaks, his work does touch on issues of interest to professional scholars. His discussions of politics and social mobility support those scholars who suggest that social mobility in America can be gauged on different levels. While some Slovaks did not achieve social prominence in American society, they did achieve such prominence within their own ethnic community. His analysis of politics offers some insight into how immigrants dealt with, adjusted to, and influenced America's political structure. Overall, the author remains faithful to his objective of writing a history for Bethlehem Slovaks. In doing so, he avoids the trappings of filiopietism often evident in such ethnic histories. While careful not to offend their descendants, Stolarik, on occasion, provides critical judgments of individuals. Additionally, while he clearly regrets the ongoing demise of Slovak culture and the waning of ethnic identity that has taken place among Bethlehem Slovaks, he does not reduce his study to one of "Slovak contributions" and a celebration of Slovak culture in a propagan distic effort to stir ethnocentrism among second- and thirdgeneration Slovaks. Thus, w hile scholars will likely agree with Stolarik's own assessment that " traditional concerns of historians" generally remain beyond the scope of Growing Up on the South Side , Bethlehem Slovaks will find that Stolarik has done what he set out to do: write a readable English-language history for them. SLOVAKIA 111 Ferenc Feher and Agnes Heller Hungary 1956 Revisited: The Message of a Revolution - A Quarter of a Century After. London: George Allen & Unwin , 1983 . xviii, 174 pp. PETER R. HRUBY Western Australian Institute of Technology Bentley, Australia The authors of this book left Hungary in 1977. Since then they have published a remarkable series of books, especially (together with George Markus) Dictatorship over Needs: A Study of Soviet Societies, also in 1983 . The present volume is a well written and passionately argued attempt to interpret the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 from a leftist and socialist radical point of view. The authors' thesis on the revolution is divided into two parts: its impact on the world, and on Hungary. There is hardly any doubt that the revolution was felt all over the world. Equally correct is the writers' conviction that because no substantial help was offered to the revolutionaries from the West , "the result was a major loss of face for the Western powers, a second moral Munich" (p. 15) . More questionable is their often repeated affirmation that the Hungarians rebelled equally against the Soviets as against the West, because during World War II the latter allowed Central and Eastern Europe to be incorporated into the Soviet sphere of influence. Only Istvan Bib6 and his " Draft of a compromise solution of the Hungarian question'' can be quoted in support of such a surprising assertion. Sure enough, most Central and East Europeans did not like the overwhelming Soviets interest and the shocking Western lack of interest in their fate and territories, but it is stretching the point to claim that ''the Hungarian revolution was a revolt against all signatories of the Yalta and Potsdam agreements" (p. 16) . Feher and Heller are on safer grounds when they assert that in 1956 the Americans lost a great opportunity by not offering to the Soviets a compromise by which Hungary would have been granted neutrality and the Soviet Union an end to the Cold War. The Soviet leaders were for a few crucial days divided about how to deal with the crisis, and the authors believe that the Soviets would have considered such an offer. 112 SLOVAKIA There follows a good discussion of "national communism, " and in this context Yugoslav leaders are blamed for their opportunist attitude toward the Hungarian revolution. Western Communist parties lost many members, fellow-travellers, and prestige in the process: "The events of October 1956 [sounded] the deathknell of the Popular Front policy" (p. 44). In their review of other East European Communist parties' reaction to the revolution, the writers express their support for "the idea of a confederation between the free nations of the region" (p. 62). In the second part of the book the authors stress the lack of democratic and liberal traditions in their native country. Several times they point out that only in Czechoslovakia was there a successful marriage of nationalism with such progressive tendencies. Although they believe that after both the First and Second World Wars Hungary was treated too harshly by the victors, they contend that only during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was a democratic, liberal, and socialist model being created in their country. One of the major points of the message should be seen in that historical development. Ferenc Feher and Agnes Heller would also like their readers to believe that after a long series of failed heroes of Hungarian history Imre Nagy should be accepted as a genuine hero , "forger, arbiter , martyr and symbol of a murdered revolution" (pp . 15 7-8). What fascinated this reviewers most was the obvious learning process experienced by extreme leftist radicals about the real substance of 'Soviet Commu nism and of its betrayal of the working people. The authors castigate not only Lenin, Trotsky , and Stalin, but also Deutscher and Sartre , among others, for trusting professional revolutionaries and manipulators more than the masses. From the authors ' arguments it is also clear that they themselves had to be transformed from typical radical intellectuals' positions of misuse of the wage earners to admiration for their democratic and pluralist hopes . They admit that only several years after the revolution were some of the w ishes and actions of the Hungarian people understood and accepted by them (e.g ., p . 92). The last pages of the volume are devoted to an excellent analysis of Kadarism and of the modernized sophisticated terror which is also well known in Czechoslovakia. SLOVAKIA 113 Slovak readers will find occasional reference to Hungarian "bereft territories" (p. 149) and of the Hungarians expelled from Slovakia (pp. 50 -51). They might wonder who are the "Slovakians" (p . 51). Of much greater interest is the insight into the way leftist radical socialists inside of Hungary view the past and the future and what can be expected from them and their nation . Jozef Ciger-Hronsky. Jozef Mak. Translated by Andrew Cincura. Afterword by Peter Petro. Columbus: Slavica, 1984. 232 pp. WILLIAM E. HARKINS Columbia University New York, New York This volume is the first in a series of works of Slovak literature slated to be published by Slavica Publishers in Columbus, Ohio. Currently projected for publication are volumes by Hugolin Gavlovic and Bozena Timrava, as well as a volume of folk ballads. The project represents a notable break-through for the cause of Slovak literature in translation in this country . Jozef Ciger (1894-1960), who published under the pseudonym of Hronsky, is one of the great writers of Modern Slovak Literature, one comparatively neglected , presumably for ideological reasons. A village school teacher , Hronsky knew the Slovak peasants as perhaps no other Slovak writer did; in particular, he understood the mysticism of the peasantry and portrayed it in his works : During World War II he supported the nationalistic Tiso regime , and in 1945 emigrated to Argentina. Under the new Czechoslovak republic he was never mentioned, not to say published, along with a number of other nationalist writers . In 1970 his contemporary, the critic Alexander Matuska , published a monograph devoted to him. Jozef Mak was published in 1933. It is a novel of the Slovak village in the period of Hungarian oppression and the time of emigration to America. Maryarization and Emigration are portrayed as twin perils and twin temptations , for both seem to pro- 114 SLOVAKIA mise political or economic salvation to the poverty-ridden peasantry. The novel represents a unique blend of realism and symbolism, one hardly to be found among contemporary Czech writers, for instance, or even among other Slovak writers. Those aspects of the novel that pertain to individual characters and their fates are more symbolic, while the public and social facets of the story are realistic. The first are richer in metaphors , certainly while the latter are richer in metonyms. The blending of the two strains gave the author considerable difficulty , and it is the private, symbolic novel that is more memorable for the reader . The term "symbolic" is customarily used for fiction in the style of Jozef Mak , but the novel is actually as much mythic as symbolic. (Of course the two styles are closely interrelated.) The leading characters are archetypes who draw much of their being from an idealized metaphorical world close to folklore. Jozef Mak himself is an image of the alienated orphan, denied his inheritance, material as well as spiritual. The novel ends without his having found himself or his true destiny. Jozef Mak is born the illegitimate son of a poor peasant woman, to be ousted from the house and land by his worthless older, legitimate half brother. Still he grows up honest, hard working, and resourceful. He finally marries a crippled woman whom he seduces, a wife who provides a spiritual guide for him throughout his married life . But, exhausted from the weight of burdens, physical and spiritual, his wife Jula dies . Jozef is left alone at the end of the novel to endure and to plot his path through life alone. The wife Jula is certainly one of the great characters in Slovak literature. Her piety and meekness , and her endurance of her husband's deceptions, are entirely believable , as is the aura of spiritual beauty (in spite of physical deformity) with which the author invests her. The author's conception of such a character required great artistic imagination; Mak himself is hardly so successful. Perhaps his position as central character (and also as perceiving subject) in so much of the novel has precluded the writer from developing a firm, coherent image of him. Less sharp are the characters involved, positively or negative- SLOVAKIA 115 ly , in their nation's political struggle , and it is evident that Hronsky had difficulties with the realistic side of the novel , partly because the struggle in question corresponds to the time of his boyhood, when he hardly could have succeeded in grasping its meaning. Thus the mythic, symbolic , mystical side of the novel is the stronger, and makes a powerful nostalgic imprint on the reader. Pavol Stevcek. Contemporary Slovak Literature . Translated by Ol 'ga Horska. Bratislava: Obzor, 1980. 122 pp. GERALDJ. SABO John Carroll University University Heights , Ohio Contemporary Slovak literature is often an unfamiliar area even to Slavic literary specialists, whereas writings of contemporary Czech authors from the same country are internationally known. Perhaps it is true , as one Slovak specialist in North America has stated , that Slovak literature is a Cinderella among the literatures of Europe that awaits the discovery of her true worth. The study under review is an attempt to dispel some of this unfamiliarity for an English-reading audience. In this book Stevcek discusses twenty-three writers of the post-1945 era. Twenty-one men are presented as poets and writers of prose and children's literature, but only two women are discussed and that in the area of children 's literature. Among the poets are Pavol Horov, Jan Kostra, Ladislav Novomesky, Milan Rufus, Jan Smrek, and Miroslav Valek; among the prose writers are Alfonz Bednar, Peter Jaros , Vladimir Minac, Vincent Sikula, and Frantisek Svantner. The first of six chapters sets the context for appreciating the work of these writers. In describing the development of this modern era in literature Stevcek employs a Marxist interpretation and even discusses briefly the features of literature written according to such a viewpoint. (The English here is rather stilted and contrived; if the translation is at fault, it is probably because it is a literal rendition of the author's diction and style , which in Slovak may be appropriate for such a work but becomes at times opaque in English translation .) In the remaining five 116 SLOVAKIA chapters, Stevcek considers respectively writers of poetry, prose, children's literature, drama, and literary studies and theoretical presentations. At the end of the chapters on poetry and prose, the author presents brief commentary on a number of other such contemporary writers in order to round out the presentation for these areas . In the chapter on poetry Stevcek fails to include Masa Hal 'amova. Why? Does not a poet who was at the time of this study an "Artist of Merit" deserve mention? (At the present time, she holds the title "National Artist.") This is a significant omission, especially as consideration of Hal'amova would also have increased the number of women presented . In the chapter on children's literature Stevcek includes two women, one of whom, Klara Jarunkova, could just as well have been discussed in the prose chapter. Indeed, she could have been included in both chapters . Likewise , L'ubomir Feldek should have been discussed for more than his contribution to children's literature. Some commentary on or at least mention of L'udo Zubek and Dominik Tatarka would also have been quite justified. Such additions to this study would certainly not have increased its size by much, and yet would have definitely enhanced its benefit to Slavic scholars and anyone interested in Slovak literature. Contemporary Slovak Literature is a noteworthy contribution from Slovakia that provides some basic information on a large number of writers. Such a publication in English is crucial if Slovak literature is to be able to assume its proper place in modern world literature . Given the paucity of such publications , this study should be helpful not only to specialists but also libraries. Given also the excellent literary specialists now writing in Slovakia, more such publications as the one above, with style and English rendition improved , should be rightly expected and published in the 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 Book Reviews, Slovakia, Vol. 32 (No. 58-59) Description An account of the resource includes:<br /><ul><li><em>Historický časopis</em>, 33, 2 (1985), "K Veľkomoravskému výročiu," and Anna Hollá, <em>Metod - učiteľ Slovienov. K 1100 výročiu úmrtia (885-1985)</em> (Theodoric F. Zubek), p. 85</li> <li>Július Sopko, <em>Stredoveké latinské kódexy v slovenských knižniciach</em>, and <em>Stredoveké latinské kodexy slovenskej proveniencie v Maďarsku a v Rumunsku</em> (Gerald J. Sabo), p. 88</li> <li>Ľubomír Juck, ed., <em>Výsady miest a mestečiek na Slovensku</em>, and Richard Marsina, ed., <em>Národnostný vývoj miest na Slovensku</em> (David P. Daniel), p. 90</li> <li>Juraj Žudel, Stolice na Slovensku (R. Vladimir Baumgerten), p. 92</li> <li>Joseph Stasko, ed., <em>Tvorcovia nového Slovenskať - The Shaping of Modern Slovakia</em> (George Virsik), p. 96</li> <li>Stanislav J. Kirschbaum, ed., <em>Slovak Politics</em> (George Virsik), p. 97</li> <li>František Vnuk, <em>Životopis Konštantina Čulena</em> (Owen V. Johnson), p. 100</li> <li>Miroslav Kropilák a kolektív, <em>Dejiny Slovenska</em> V (James R. Felak), p. 102</li> <li>Yeshayahu A. Jelinek, <em>The Lust for Power</em> (Robert K. Evanson), p. 106</li> <li>M. Mark Stolarik, <em>Growing Up on the South Side</em> (June G. Alexander), p. 108</li> <li>Ferenc Féher &amp; Ágnes Heller, <em>Hungary 1956 Revisited</em> (Peter R. Hruby), p. 111</li> <li>Jozef Ciger-Hronský, <em>Jozef Mak</em> (William E. Harkins), p. 113</li> <li>Pavol Števček, <em>Contemporary Slovak Literature</em> (Gerald J. Sabo), p. 115</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Alexander, June Granatir, 1948- Baumgarten, R. Vladimir Daniel, David P., 1940-2020 Evanson, Robert Kent, 1944- Felak, James Ramon, 1957- Harkins, William Edward, 1921-2014 Hrubý, Petr, 1921-2017 Johnson, Owen V. Sabo, Gerald J., 1945–2020 Virsik, George Zúbek, Teodorik J., 1914-1988 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-86 LCNAF LCNAF+dates name SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/7244682d680670ec4c562ef840bbef03.pdf a7ccb8b62904ee62106e826f79d899c1 PDF Text Text SLOVAKlA 31 THE WlllTE LEGION OF SLOVAKIA B Y: ANO NYMOU S There is a strong, anti-oommunlst reslstance in Slovakia, the eastern porUon of the 111-!ated Czecho-Slovaki-a. The movement is ,;pea11headed by the WHITE LEGION (BIELA LEGIA) which has been menrtioned i,n the AlmerLcan press from time to time. Liťtle is knowu ahout M.s compOSiltlon and its leaders, hut there ls no doubt ahout the fact that the Wh1te Leglon 1s very effective in its work of opposlng the Red stooges ot ithe Kremlln and preparing Slovakia for the d,a y of liheraition from the pla,gue of cornmunisro. I know hecause I am directly connec.ted wi:ilth lt. The Whlte Legion has heen carefully organ.ized and has existP.d for .some tlme. ]t !s feared by 4he Red regime of Prague, and its members are the most hunted men in Slovakia. Golt.twia.ld - S,talln's man "Fl'iday" in Czecho,Slovalda - and Ibis red stooges In Sloviakla know that the Whd.te Legion has quite a following, bec-ause 1t seems to know everyl'thlng thaJt is happening or even going to h appen Iu Slovakla and her nelghbors. That is why purges are frequent in Slov ak'la and pri.som; ,an(I concerutration camps ftlled to capacity. ]jut the work of the White Legjon goes on . . The White Legion hroadcas'ts from its hidlng place every Saturday and Sunday. To get a true plcture of llhe effects of tts hroadcast.s, especlally In Slovakia, one would have to visi-t some communist fa,mlly durdng one of thes e bTOadcais.ts and observe its reactions. The faces of the 11steners grow teruie and pale and seem to ask the questlon: '·Do they also know a,bout me? wm they reveal something about mc, too?" About the middle of lasit December, the White Leg!on broadcast poin,ted out thart Cp'l. Francls Gasparik of Žilina was a communlsit, a dangerous dndivldual and !Illforaner, and exhorted lts llsteners to be on guard. Up to that tlm e Gasparlk was quite cocky and imperlous, hut atlter the broa.doast •b ecame sullen and downcast; he was completely b roken. Ga,s,pardk remained home for a week, felgning illness, and llhen asked to b e tran.s.fe.i,red from Žilína. The Whlte Legjon was lnform ed by one of Gasparik's "frlends" that he had revealed resigned-Iy: "Now I k:now ľm a goner!" 'I\he White Leg·i on has proved to the commurústs that their par• tlsan appara.tus is not as perfect as they thought lit to he and that their activitles a.re not as secret as t-hey had wished them to he. The White Legion poses ca serlous prohlem to the Communi-st Party, hecause lt knows of the disasitrous effeots lt has on lts memhers. The Reds, of course, have ralsed a hue and a cry to securtty officials to llquldaite the Wihllte Leg'ion. Red offlclals and memhers ask qutzicatly why ithe White Leglon has not as yet heen uncovered and Ji. quldated? Seoorlty ofticlals ialways have the same answer: we are on the trail of the 'trailtors and lhope to make arrests soon. But the underground work ot the Wihiite Leglon goes on. · Last December several leadlng communls-ts of Prešov were arre&ted. This was the b eginilllng of the purge in connectrion w1 th th e so~alled Clemenitls ''deviMlonls,t" affair. It so happened that the �32 SLOVAKIA Whtte Legion r1adio beca.me sileni about the same tlme and rema.ined silent for a month. Was Clementis secretly associated witb the White Legion? Of course not, and <t.he communists knew he was not, but they had •to make hay. The people of Slovakia were iense and curfous; they gathered secretly about their receivers and listened for some sign of the Wrute Legion broadcasts. But the voice of 1Jbe Whiie Legion remained sllen,t. Coonmunist commissars were ex· tremely nervous. As the days passed, the communi11ts regaáned a measure of composure and told the Slovaks that tlhe White Legion had been líquidated. Preparations were in order to celebrate the apprehension and 1iquidation of rthe "traltors" In al! ,t he larger towns. Then, on the second Sunday of February, 1951, like a bolt out of t he clear, blue sky, the Wh~te Legion again began beaming its broadéas.ts. "The WMte Legion is broadcasting again and you can he-ar it bel!ter than ever" spread ex<:!tedly from person to person ihroughout Slovakla. 'rule stooges of Gottwald and Stalin had to postpone their fes.ti~tles: the White Legion was stm much alive! The inmates of the ooncentration camp at Novaky got the news of the White Legion broadcast that very Sunday evening and patriotic Slovak songs were sung deep into the n•i ght. All thanked God that the White Legion leaders were not captured as they had aJ. ready feared they had been. 'Dhe General Secretariate of the Communist Party in Slovakia meets frequeDJtly In the striotest secrecy. One of t he maln themes dijscussed 1s the Whlte Legion. With rare sincerity the communlsts themselves have admitted that tlhe influence of the Whňe Legion and lis broadca&ts ls much greaiter fäa,n they had supposed it to be. Because of it, the reliabillty o.f •the security organs in Slovakfa is constantly questioned and shake-ups are frequent. It seem.s that even the leadlng •Reds do not know who 1s trustwo11thy; everybody seems io be susplcious of everybody else and Ibis brother. Dlrectlves given by •t he White Legion are simple and clear. The people of Slovakia have been thoroughly instructed by the Legion broadcasts how -to protect themselves agalnst snares of ,the hated Secret Police. The Slovaks know the methods used by the Red secret agents; they know how to act, whrut to do and what to say in any particular case involváng the security police. They are patiently bldlng their tlme and avoiding as much open hostility as poss ible to prevent useless shedding or blood, but they vow that "our tíme shall come!" The lnfluen,ce of the White Legion is tremendously sign1flcant. Its services have saved hundreds of Slovaks from lncarcer-a.tion and persecuUon. 'I'he WhHe Legion flghits against Red tyranny without itself re.sorting to ,terror. The ranks of aotlve anti-communists in Slovakia are lncreasing steadily and t'he Reds there are displaying a grea.ter amdety about their future in the !and of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, the Slovak Apostles. The methods employed by the Whlte Legion have been quŕte successful. The White Legion ls teachlng the people of Slovakda to help and protec,t them selv01! and thus to defend human ri~ts against communis.tic terror of the regime. In Slovakia it has been definitely shown that the popuJ.ation, lf counseled properly, 1s capable of resisting its oppre.ssors even for a longer Ume. �SLOVAKIA 33 Credit must also be given 1the White Legion that the border guards are not performi-ng their duties very conscientiously. This allows a greater percentage of escapees to make its way to the free West. Of course, the communlsrts are aware of this and, consquently, frontitir guards are ohanged more frequerutly and checked more closely. But Slovaks, especially many of those tagged by the communists, still make their way to the West. Naturally the Whlte Legtion is ",taboo" in Slovakia. Its name must not be mentioned in public under penalty of imprisonmerut or worse. To minlmize 4he effectiveness of the White Legion, newspapers and radlo broadcasts - all government controlled - are forbidden to mention t!he name of the White Legion or its activities. One of the chief occupwtions of the Secret Police in Czecho-Slovakla i.s to track down the Wihilte Legäon. Great efforts have been expended to trace its transmitter, blrt to no avall. Slovakia is replete with legends about the movements of the Wblite Legion in the mountalns of Slovakia. Secret Police following -these leads have been known to disappear without a trace. As far as the Red bosses of Slovakia are concerned, the Whi,te Legion is no longer a nuisance, but a real menace to the securl.ty of the Red regime, which they term the "State." The view prevails even in high communisit circles thait army officia!ls and securJty agents are in some way connected with the While Legion, otherwtise - ii !s asked - how would it be possiible for the W•h lte Legion to carry on its "subversive" actlvities for such a long Ume wjthout being uncovered? From time to time the White Legion transmi,tter becomes sdlent. That, too, ls quíte understandable. It would be folly to carry on when danger threatens or when condi· tions are not jUS't right for the Legion's functions. The Reds in Slovak.ia have jammed Whi-te Legion broadcasts. At flrs,t their jammlng was not S'trong enough to cause too much difflculty, but slnce March of this year they have been more successful in preventing the White Legion broadcasts from being heard clearly. The White Legion has counteracted this measure by changing the wave-leng,th of its broadcasts frequently; before the Reds can change over to the proper w1ave-length, the W·hirt.e Legion is usually through witlh iJts most important repor-ts and directives. I have been informed tha4 the Wh'ite Legion is now coulllteracting the Red jammlng process by more eMectlive means. We must remember that the Reds in Slovakia have ithe modern appa.ratus of the State at their disposal. while the Whlte Legion has only whait it can get hold of on the black market. The duel between the broadca sts of the White Legion and the Red reglme of Czecho-Slovakla is quite interesting. I listened to the Whi,te Legion's; broadcasts recenUy and can honestiy say that the White Legion is winning its battle against the Red jammers of Prague and Bratislava. The Wihite Legion ls in existence for almost two years and has grown dear to the hearts of the Slovaks, who pray and hope for a hasiened liberatíon day. The White Legion has become a symbol of hope and courage to the Slovak people. The White Legion keeps lln telling the people of Slovakia thM the Reds and their stooges can be, must be, and wlll be driven out of thelr Iand, lf they are on the alert and follow t he directives of the Legion broadcasts. The White Le- �34 SLOVA.KlA gion has returned self-.confildence to the people; they feel that Red oppression can,not la,st long and are determined to be rea.dy for cthe grea,t drive on the Red tyrants when the opportune tlme presents itsell. The Wh1te Legion has taken hold of old and young allke and has influenced communists as well as non-communists. In the latter it strengthens the falth that their ens-lavement by the Reds shall not la.st long, wh.lle the fot•mer it divests of courage and underm1nes their faith in their own strength and their belief in victory. The White Legion has a.cco.mplished this revolution in the thlnldng of the Slovak.s in a smooth, peaceful wiay. To help those who are In immediate danger is considered llhe rurst civic duty oť all me.mbers of the White Leglon. The White Legion urges the Slovaks to persevere in their resistance to godless communlmn, to unite in the flght agains,t communtsm and in the defense of human rJghts and freedom. The program.s of tb.e White Legion are not chauvinistic; they fully realize they are not the only people who were forced behind the Iron Cur.tain after the war. Iťs a f,ight between the sons ol evll and the sons of good, a fight between the fooces of ligl:l't and fäe forces of darkness. The broadcasts of the W•h1te Legion do not mince words; opinions are stated llirectly and wlthou,t fea:r a bout the most burning question.s of éhe times. ShorUy ~ter its inaugurartion in April 1950, tbe White Legion transmitter reacted enthusia.stically to Presldent Truman's launched "truth offensive." A:t thait tlime it said that it identifies ltsell utterly ,v;ith the argumeD1ts advanced by Truman and ,that lt shall do everything wirt:hin its power to contrdbute to the succes.s of tlhat of'ďenslve. Slnce that Ume much has been said and wribten by man,y imporbant persons of the world, ,b ut I can say wÚhout fear of contradiction that very few people a.od organizart:íons with almost unMmited resources •have aotually contributed as much to that oampaign of truth as has the Whlte Legion of Slovalda with i-t.s very limited resources. Slova.ks can be 11lg1htfully proud of the fact that the WMte L egion orlginated in Slov,a.kia. But this did not happen by accident. The White Legion resulted from the century-old fight of the Slovak people against oommuni:&m. llt is a liv.ing testimony of true SloV'ak mentaUty - a menta:lity to which violence is alien. It is a system thait has been brougblt lnto being by v.Jolence, but does not exis,t by vlolence. Pemecuted by terror and ruthless tyranny, it efffectively flghts tyrants and terrorists without vengeance and aggressive violence. Today, the movement of the White Legion is uo Ionger llmited to tJhe terratory of Slovaldia; lt already has a foothold in Bohem:la and Moravfa, Poland and Hungary. Probably we shall not have to wait too long before the radlo transmitters of the White Legion corps or these nations begin haunting thelr respeictlve llttle Red dictart.ors and stooges of the KTemlln. The Whi-t.e Leg.ion of Slovak.la has a great and serious miss ion: to liberate the SJov,ak natlon from Red dominat1on and to f-!ght In the defense of, natural human rights. The Whlte Leglon has proved ltself. It deserves a ll the mora! and material help the western democraicie~ can give it . . . . BUT N O , W! � SLOVAKlA 31 THE WlllTE LEGION OF SLOVAKIA B Y: ANO NYMOU S There is a strong, anti-oommunlst reslstance in Slovakia, the eastern porUon of the 111-!ated Czecho-Slovaki-a. The movement is ,;pea11headed by the WHITE LEGION (BIELA LEGIA) which has been menrtioned i,n the AlmerLcan press from time to time. Liťtle is knowu ahout M.s compOSiltlon and its leaders, hut there ls no doubt ahout the fact that the Wh1te Leglon 1s very effective in its work of opposlng the Red stooges ot ithe Kremlln and preparing Slovakia for the d,a y of liheraition from the pla,gue of cornmunisro. I know hecause I am directly connec.ted wi:ilth lt. The Whlte Legion has heen carefully organ.ized and has existP.d for .some tlme. ]t !s feared by 4he Red regime of Prague, and its members are the most hunted men in Slovakia. Golt.twia.ld - S,talln's man "Fl'iday" in Czecho,Slovalda - and Ibis red stooges In Sloviakla know that the Whd.te Legion has quite a following, bec-ause 1t seems to know everyl'thlng thaJt is happening or even going to h appen Iu Slovakla and her nelghbors. That is why purges are frequent in Slov ak'la and pri.som; ,an(I concerutration camps ftlled to capacity. ]jut the work of the White Legjon goes on . . The White Legion hroadcas'ts from its hidlng place every Saturday and Sunday. To get a true plcture of llhe effects of tts hroadcast.s, especlally In Slovakia, one would have to visi-t some communist fa,mlly durdng one of thes e bTOadcais.ts and observe its reactions. The faces of the 11steners grow teruie and pale and seem to ask the questlon: '·Do they also know a,bout me? wm they reveal something about mc, too?" About the middle of lasit December, the White Leg!on broadcast poin,ted out thart Cp'l. Francls Gasparik of Žilina was a communlsit, a dangerous dndivldual and !Illforaner, and exhorted lts llsteners to be on guard. Up to that tlm e Gasparlk was quite cocky and imperlous, hut atlter the broa.doast •b ecame sullen and downcast; he was completely b roken. Ga,s,pardk remained home for a week, felgning illness, and llhen asked to b e tran.s.fe.i,red from Žilína. The Whlte Legjon was lnform ed by one of Gasparik's "frlends" that he had revealed resigned-Iy: "Now I k:now ľm a goner!" 'I\he White Leg·i on has proved to the commurústs that their par• tlsan appara.tus is not as perfect as they thought lit to he and that their activitles a.re not as secret as t-hey had wished them to he. The White Legion poses ca serlous prohlem to the Communi-st Party, hecause lt knows of the disasitrous effeots lt has on lts memhers. The Reds, of course, have ralsed a hue and a cry to securtty officials to llquldaite the Wihllte Leg'ion. Red offlclals and memhers ask qutzicatly why ithe White Leglon has not as yet heen uncovered and Ji. quldated? Seoorlty ofticlals ialways have the same answer: we are on the trail of the 'trailtors and lhope to make arrests soon. But the underground work ot the Wihiite Leglon goes on. · Last December several leadlng communls-ts of Prešov were arre&ted. This was the b eginilllng of the purge in connectrion w1 th th e so~alled Clemenitls ''deviMlonls,t" affair. It so happened that the �32 SLOVAKIA Whtte Legion r1adio beca.me sileni about the same tlme and rema.ined silent for a month. Was Clementis secretly associated witb the White Legion? Of course not, and <t.he communists knew he was not, but they had •to make hay. The people of Slovakia were iense and curfous; they gathered secretly about their receivers and listened for some sign of the Wrute Legion broadcasts. But the voice of 1Jbe Whiie Legion remained sllen,t. Coonmunist commissars were ex· tremely nervous. As the days passed, the communi11ts regaáned a measure of composure and told the Slovaks that tlhe White Legion had been líquidated. Preparations were in order to celebrate the apprehension and 1iquidation of rthe "traltors" In al! ,t he larger towns. Then, on the second Sunday of February, 1951, like a bolt out of t he clear, blue sky, the Wh~te Legion again began beaming its broadéas.ts. "The WMte Legion is broadcasting again and you can he-ar it bel!ter than ever" spread ex<:!tedly from person to person ihroughout Slovakla. 'rule stooges of Gottwald and Stalin had to postpone their fes.ti~tles: the White Legion was stm much alive! The inmates of the ooncentration camp at Novaky got the news of the White Legion broadcast that very Sunday evening and patriotic Slovak songs were sung deep into the n•i ght. All thanked God that the White Legion leaders were not captured as they had aJ. ready feared they had been. 'Dhe General Secretariate of the Communist Party in Slovakia meets frequeDJtly In the striotest secrecy. One of t he maln themes dijscussed 1s the Whlte Legion. With rare sincerity the communlsts themselves have admitted that tlhe influence of the Whňe Legion and lis broadca&ts ls much greaiter fäa,n they had supposed it to be. Because of it, the reliabillty o.f •the security organs in Slovakfa is constantly questioned and shake-ups are frequent. It seem.s that even the leadlng •Reds do not know who 1s trustwo11thy; everybody seems io be susplcious of everybody else and Ibis brother. Dlrectlves given by •t he White Legion are simple and clear. The people of Slovakia have been thoroughly instructed by the Legion broadcasts how -to protect themselves agalnst snares of ,the hated Secret Police. The Slovaks know the methods used by the Red secret agents; they know how to act, whrut to do and what to say in any particular case involváng the security police. They are patiently bldlng their tlme and avoiding as much open hostility as poss ible to prevent useless shedding or blood, but they vow that "our tíme shall come!" The lnfluen,ce of the White Legion is tremendously sign1flcant. Its services have saved hundreds of Slovaks from lncarcer-a.tion and persecuUon. 'I'he WhHe Legion flghits against Red tyranny without itself re.sorting to ,terror. The ranks of aotlve anti-communists in Slovakia are lncreasing steadily and t'he Reds there are displaying a grea.ter amdety about their future in the !and of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, the Slovak Apostles. The methods employed by the Whlte Legion have been quŕte successful. The White Legion ls teachlng the people of Slovakda to help and protec,t them selv01! and thus to defend human ri~ts against communis.tic terror of the regime. In Slovakia it has been definitely shown that the popuJ.ation, lf counseled properly, 1s capable of resisting its oppre.ssors even for a longer Ume. �SLOVAKIA 33 Credit must also be given 1the White Legion that the border guards are not performi-ng their duties very conscientiously. This allows a greater percentage of escapees to make its way to the free West. Of course, the communlsrts are aware of this and, consquently, frontitir guards are ohanged more frequerutly and checked more closely. But Slovaks, especially many of those tagged by the communists, still make their way to the West. Naturally the Whlte Legtion is ",taboo" in Slovakia. Its name must not be mentioned in public under penalty of imprisonmerut or worse. To minlmize 4he effectiveness of the White Legion, newspapers and radlo broadcasts - all government controlled - are forbidden to mention t!he name of the White Legion or its activities. One of the chief occupwtions of the Secret Police in Czecho-Slovakla i.s to track down the Wihilte Legäon. Great efforts have been expended to trace its transmitter, blrt to no avall. Slovakia is replete with legends about the movements of the Wblite Legion in the mountalns of Slovakia. Secret Police following -these leads have been known to disappear without a trace. As far as the Red bosses of Slovakia are concerned, the Whi,te Legion is no longer a nuisance, but a real menace to the securl.ty of the Red regime, which they term the "State." The view prevails even in high communisit circles thait army officia!ls and securJty agents are in some way connected with the While Legion, otherwtise - ii !s asked - how would it be possiible for the W•h lte Legion to carry on its "subversive" actlvities for such a long Ume wjthout being uncovered? From time to time the White Legion transmi,tter becomes sdlent. That, too, ls quíte understandable. It would be folly to carry on when danger threatens or when condi· tions are not jUS't right for the Legion's functions. The Reds in Slovak.ia have jammed Whi-te Legion broadcasts. At flrs,t their jammlng was not S'trong enough to cause too much difflculty, but slnce March of this year they have been more successful in preventing the White Legion broadcasts from being heard clearly. The White Legion has counteracted this measure by changing the wave-leng,th of its broadcasts frequently; before the Reds can change over to the proper w1ave-length, the W·hirt.e Legion is usually through witlh iJts most important repor-ts and directives. I have been informed tha4 the Wh'ite Legion is now coulllteracting the Red jammlng process by more eMectlive means. We must remember that the Reds in Slovakia have ithe modern appa.ratus of the State at their disposal. while the Whlte Legion has only whait it can get hold of on the black market. The duel between the broadca sts of the White Legion and the Red reglme of Czecho-Slovakla is quite interesting. I listened to the Whi,te Legion's; broadcasts recenUy and can honestiy say that the White Legion is winning its battle against the Red jammers of Prague and Bratislava. The Wihite Legion ls in existence for almost two years and has grown dear to the hearts of the Slovaks, who pray and hope for a hasiened liberatíon day. The White Legion has become a symbol of hope and courage to the Slovak people. The White Legion keeps lln telling the people of Slovakia thM the Reds and their stooges can be, must be, and wlll be driven out of thelr Iand, lf they are on the alert and follow t he directives of the Legion broadcasts. The White Le- �34 SLOVA.KlA gion has returned self-.confildence to the people; they feel that Red oppression can,not la,st long and are determined to be rea.dy for cthe grea,t drive on the Red tyrants when the opportune tlme presents itsell. The Wh1te Legion has taken hold of old and young allke and has influenced communists as well as non-communists. In the latter it strengthens the falth that their ens-lavement by the Reds shall not la.st long, wh.lle the fot•mer it divests of courage and underm1nes their faith in their own strength and their belief in victory. The White Legion has a.cco.mplished this revolution in the thlnldng of the Slovak.s in a smooth, peaceful wiay. To help those who are In immediate danger is considered llhe rurst civic duty oť all me.mbers of the White Leglon. The White Legion urges the Slovaks to persevere in their resistance to godless communlmn, to unite in the flght agains,t communtsm and in the defense of human rJghts and freedom. The program.s of tb.e White Legion are not chauvinistic; they fully realize they are not the only people who were forced behind the Iron Cur.tain after the war. Iťs a f,ight between the sons ol evll and the sons of good, a fight between the fooces of ligl:l't and fäe forces of darkness. The broadcasts of the W•h1te Legion do not mince words; opinions are stated llirectly and wlthou,t fea:r a bout the most burning question.s of éhe times. ShorUy ~ter its inaugurartion in April 1950, tbe White Legion transmitter reacted enthusia.stically to Presldent Truman's launched "truth offensive." A:t thait tlime it said that it identifies ltsell utterly ,v;ith the argumeD1ts advanced by Truman and ,that lt shall do everything wirt:hin its power to contrdbute to the succes.s of tlhat of'ďenslve. Slnce that Ume much has been said and wribten by man,y imporbant persons of the world, ,b ut I can say wÚhout fear of contradiction that very few people a.od organizart:íons with almost unMmited resources •have aotually contributed as much to that oampaign of truth as has the Whlte Legion of Slovalda with i-t.s very limited resources. Slova.ks can be 11lg1htfully proud of the fact that the WMte L egion orlginated in Slov,a.kia. But this did not happen by accident. The White Legion resulted from the century-old fight of the Slovak people against oommuni:&m. llt is a liv.ing testimony of true SloV'ak mentaUty - a menta:lity to which violence is alien. It is a system thait has been brougblt lnto being by v.Jolence, but does not exis,t by vlolence. Pemecuted by terror and ruthless tyranny, it efffectively flghts tyrants and terrorists without vengeance and aggressive violence. Today, the movement of the White Legion is uo Ionger llmited to tJhe terratory of Slovaldia; lt already has a foothold in Bohem:la and Moravfa, Poland and Hungary. Probably we shall not have to wait too long before the radlo transmitters of the White Legion corps or these nations begin haunting thelr respeictlve llttle Red dictart.ors and stooges of the KTemlln. The Whi-t.e Leg.ion of Slovak.la has a great and serious miss ion: to liberate the SJov,ak natlon from Red dominat1on and to f-!ght In the defense of, natural human rights. The Whlte Leglon has proved ltself. It deserves a ll the mora! and material help the western democraicie~ can give it . . . . BUT N O , W! � 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 1951, Vol. 1 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 1951 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 1), May 1951.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 2), December 1951.</li> </ul> Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context <ul><li><a href="https://n2t.net/ark:/13960/s261hfmshm7" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><span>ark:/13960/s261hfmshm7</span></a></li> <li><a href="https://n2t.net/ark:/13960/s21tk2wkzj4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><span>ark:/13960/s21tk2wkzj4</span></a></li> </ul> 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 SLOVAKlA 31 THE WlllTE LEGION OF SLOVAKIA B Y: ANO NYMOU S There is a strong, anti-oommunlst reslstance in Slovakia, the eastern porUon of the 111-!ated Czecho-Slovaki-a. The movement is ,;pea11headed by the WHITE LEGION (BIELA LEGIA) which has been menrtioned i,n the AlmerLcan press from time to time. Liťtle is knowu ahout M.s compOSiltlon and its leaders, hut there ls no doubt ahout the fact that the Wh1te Leglon 1s very effective in its work of opposlng the Red stooges ot ithe Kremlln and preparing Slovakia for the d,a y of liheraition from the pla,gue of cornmunisro. I know hecause I am directly connec.ted wi:ilth lt. The Whlte Legion has heen carefully organ.ized and has existP.d for .some tlme. ]t !s feared by 4he Red regime of Prague, and its members are the most hunted men in Slovakia. Golt.twia.ld - S,talln's man "Fl'iday" in Czecho,Slovalda - and Ibis red stooges In Sloviakla know that the Whd.te Legion has quite a following, bec-ause 1t seems to know everyl'thlng thaJt is happening or even going to h appen Iu Slovakla and her nelghbors. That is why purges are frequent in Slov ak'la and pri.som; ,an(I concerutration camps ftlled to capacity. ]jut the work of the White Legjon goes on . . The White Legion hroadcas'ts from its hidlng place every Saturday and Sunday. To get a true plcture of llhe effects of tts hroadcast.s, especlally In Slovakia, one would have to visi-t some communist fa,mlly durdng one of thes e bTOadcais.ts and observe its reactions. The faces of the 11steners grow teruie and pale and seem to ask the questlon: '·Do they also know a,bout me? wm they reveal something about mc, too?" About the middle of lasit December, the White Leg!on broadcast poin,ted out thart Cp'l. Francls Gasparik of Žilina was a communlsit, a dangerous dndivldual and !Illforaner, and exhorted lts llsteners to be on guard. Up to that tlm e Gasparlk was quite cocky and imperlous, hut atlter the broa.doast •b ecame sullen and downcast; he was completely b roken. Ga,s,pardk remained home for a week, felgning illness, and llhen asked to b e tran.s.fe.i,red from Žilína. The Whlte Legjon was lnform ed by one of Gasparik's "frlends" that he had revealed resigned-Iy: "Now I k:now ľm a goner!" 'I\he White Leg·i on has proved to the commurústs that their par• tlsan appara.tus is not as perfect as they thought lit to he and that their activitles a.re not as secret as t-hey had wished them to he. The White Legion poses ca serlous prohlem to the Communi-st Party, hecause lt knows of the disasitrous effeots lt has on lts memhers. The Reds, of course, have ralsed a hue and a cry to securtty officials to llquldaite the Wihllte Leg'ion. Red offlclals and memhers ask qutzicatly why ithe White Leglon has not as yet heen uncovered and Ji. quldated? Seoorlty ofticlals ialways have the same answer: we are on the trail of the 'trailtors and lhope to make arrests soon. But the underground work ot the Wihiite Leglon goes on. · Last December several leadlng communls-ts of Prešov were arre&ted. This was the b eginilllng of the purge in connectrion w1 th th e so~alled Clemenitls ''deviMlonls,t" affair. It so happened that the 32 SLOVAKIA Whtte Legion r1adio beca.me sileni about the same tlme and rema.ined silent for a month. Was Clementis secretly associated witb the White Legion? Of course not, and <t.he communists knew he was not, but they had •to make hay. The people of Slovakia were iense and curfous; they gathered secretly about their receivers and listened for some sign of the Wrute Legion broadcasts. But the voice of 1Jbe Whiie Legion remained sllen,t. Coonmunist commissars were ex· tremely nervous. As the days passed, the communi11ts regaáned a measure of composure and told the Slovaks that tlhe White Legion had been líquidated. Preparations were in order to celebrate the apprehension and 1iquidation of rthe "traltors" In al! ,t he larger towns. Then, on the second Sunday of February, 1951, like a bolt out of t he clear, blue sky, the Wh~te Legion again began beaming its broadéas.ts. "The WMte Legion is broadcasting again and you can he-ar it bel!ter than ever" spread ex<:!tedly from person to person ihroughout Slovakla. 'rule stooges of Gottwald and Stalin had to postpone their fes.ti~tles: the White Legion was stm much alive! The inmates of the ooncentration camp at Novaky got the news of the White Legion broadcast that very Sunday evening and patriotic Slovak songs were sung deep into the n•i ght. All thanked God that the White Legion leaders were not captured as they had aJ. ready feared they had been. 'Dhe General Secretariate of the Communist Party in Slovakia meets frequeDJtly In the striotest secrecy. One of t he maln themes dijscussed 1s the Whlte Legion. With rare sincerity the communlsts themselves have admitted that tlhe influence of the Whňe Legion and lis broadca&ts ls much greaiter fäa,n they had supposed it to be. Because of it, the reliabillty o.f •the security organs in Slovakfa is constantly questioned and shake-ups are frequent. It seem.s that even the leadlng •Reds do not know who 1s trustwo11thy; everybody seems io be susplcious of everybody else and Ibis brother. Dlrectlves given by •t he White Legion are simple and clear. The people of Slovakia have been thoroughly instructed by the Legion broadcasts how -to protect themselves agalnst snares of ,the hated Secret Police. The Slovaks know the methods used by the Red secret agents; they know how to act, whrut to do and what to say in any particular case involváng the security police. They are patiently bldlng their tlme and avoiding as much open hostility as poss ible to prevent useless shedding or blood, but they vow that "our tíme shall come!" The lnfluen,ce of the White Legion is tremendously sign1flcant. Its services have saved hundreds of Slovaks from lncarcer-a.tion and persecuUon. 'I'he WhHe Legion flghits against Red tyranny without itself re.sorting to ,terror. The ranks of aotlve anti-communists in Slovakia are lncreasing steadily and t'he Reds there are displaying a grea.ter amdety about their future in the !and of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, the Slovak Apostles. The methods employed by the Whlte Legion have been quŕte successful. The White Legion ls teachlng the people of Slovakda to help and protec,t them selv01! and thus to defend human ri~ts against communis.tic terror of the regime. In Slovakia it has been definitely shown that the popuJ.ation, lf counseled properly, 1s capable of resisting its oppre.ssors even for a longer Ume. SLOVAKIA 33 Credit must also be given 1the White Legion that the border guards are not performi-ng their duties very conscientiously. This allows a greater percentage of escapees to make its way to the free West. Of course, the communlsrts are aware of this and, consquently, frontitir guards are ohanged more frequerutly and checked more closely. But Slovaks, especially many of those tagged by the communists, still make their way to the West. Naturally the Whlte Legtion is ",taboo" in Slovakia. Its name must not be mentioned in public under penalty of imprisonmerut or worse. To minlmize 4he effectiveness of the White Legion, newspapers and radlo broadcasts - all government controlled - are forbidden to mention t!he name of the White Legion or its activities. One of the chief occupwtions of the Secret Police in Czecho-Slovakla i.s to track down the Wihilte Legäon. Great efforts have been expended to trace its transmitter, blrt to no avall. Slovakia is replete with legends about the movements of the Wblite Legion in the mountalns of Slovakia. Secret Police following -these leads have been known to disappear without a trace. As far as the Red bosses of Slovakia are concerned, the Whi,te Legion is no longer a nuisance, but a real menace to the securl.ty of the Red regime, which they term the "State." The view prevails even in high communisit circles thait army officia!ls and securJty agents are in some way connected with the While Legion, otherwtise - ii !s asked - how would it be possiible for the W•h lte Legion to carry on its "subversive" actlvities for such a long Ume wjthout being uncovered? From time to time the White Legion transmi,tter becomes sdlent. That, too, ls quíte understandable. It would be folly to carry on when danger threatens or when condi· tions are not jUS't right for the Legion's functions. The Reds in Slovak.ia have jammed Whi-te Legion broadcasts. At flrs,t their jammlng was not S'trong enough to cause too much difflculty, but slnce March of this year they have been more successful in preventing the White Legion broadcasts from being heard clearly. The White Legion has counteracted this measure by changing the wave-leng,th of its broadcasts frequently; before the Reds can change over to the proper w1ave-length, the W·hirt.e Legion is usually through witlh iJts most important repor-ts and directives. I have been informed tha4 the Wh'ite Legion is now coulllteracting the Red jammlng process by more eMectlive means. We must remember that the Reds in Slovakia have ithe modern appa.ratus of the State at their disposal. while the Whlte Legion has only whait it can get hold of on the black market. The duel between the broadca sts of the White Legion and the Red reglme of Czecho-Slovakla is quite interesting. I listened to the Whi,te Legion's; broadcasts recenUy and can honestiy say that the White Legion is winning its battle against the Red jammers of Prague and Bratislava. The Wihite Legion ls in existence for almost two years and has grown dear to the hearts of the Slovaks, who pray and hope for a hasiened liberatíon day. The White Legion has become a symbol of hope and courage to the Slovak people. The White Legion keeps lln telling the people of Slovakia thM the Reds and their stooges can be, must be, and wlll be driven out of thelr Iand, lf they are on the alert and follow t he directives of the Legion broadcasts. The White Le- 34 SLOVA.KlA gion has returned self-.confildence to the people; they feel that Red oppression can,not la,st long and are determined to be rea.dy for cthe grea,t drive on the Red tyrants when the opportune tlme presents itsell. The Wh1te Legion has taken hold of old and young allke and has influenced communists as well as non-communists. In the latter it strengthens the falth that their ens-lavement by the Reds shall not la.st long, wh.lle the fot•mer it divests of courage and underm1nes their faith in their own strength and their belief in victory. The White Legion has a.cco.mplished this revolution in the thlnldng of the Slovak.s in a smooth, peaceful wiay. To help those who are In immediate danger is considered llhe rurst civic duty oť all me.mbers of the White Leglon. The White Legion urges the Slovaks to persevere in their resistance to godless communlmn, to unite in the flght agains,t communtsm and in the defense of human rJghts and freedom. The program.s of tb.e White Legion are not chauvinistic; they fully realize they are not the only people who were forced behind the Iron Cur.tain after the war. Iťs a f,ight between the sons ol evll and the sons of good, a fight between the fooces of ligl:l't and fäe forces of darkness. The broadcasts of the W•h1te Legion do not mince words; opinions are stated llirectly and wlthou,t fea:r a bout the most burning question.s of éhe times. ShorUy ~ter its inaugurartion in April 1950, tbe White Legion transmitter reacted enthusia.stically to Presldent Truman's launched "truth offensive." A:t thait tlime it said that it identifies ltsell utterly ,v;ith the argumeD1ts advanced by Truman and ,that lt shall do everything wirt:hin its power to contrdbute to the succes.s of tlhat of'ďenslve. Slnce that Ume much has been said and wribten by man,y imporbant persons of the world, ,b ut I can say wÚhout fear of contradiction that very few people a.od organizart:íons with almost unMmited resources •have aotually contributed as much to that oampaign of truth as has the Whlte Legion of Slovalda with i-t.s very limited resources. Slova.ks can be 11lg1htfully proud of the fact that the WMte L egion orlginated in Slov,a.kia. But this did not happen by accident. The White Legion resulted from the century-old fight of the Slovak people against oommuni:&m. llt is a liv.ing testimony of true SloV'ak mentaUty - a menta:lity to which violence is alien. It is a system thait has been brougblt lnto being by v.Jolence, but does not exis,t by vlolence. Pemecuted by terror and ruthless tyranny, it efffectively flghts tyrants and terrorists without vengeance and aggressive violence. Today, the movement of the White Legion is uo Ionger llmited to tJhe terratory of Slovaldia; lt already has a foothold in Bohem:la and Moravfa, Poland and Hungary. Probably we shall not have to wait too long before the radlo transmitters of the White Legion corps or these nations begin haunting thelr respeictlve llttle Red dictart.ors and stooges of the KTemlln. The Whi-t.e Leg.ion of Slovak.la has a great and serious miss ion: to liberate the SJov,ak natlon from Red dominat1on and to f-!ght In the defense of, natural human rights. The Whlte Leglon has proved ltself. It deserves a ll the mora! and material help the western democraicie~ can give it . . . . BUT N O , W!  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 White Legion of Slovakia Description An account of the resource Anonymous Slovakia, Vol. 1, No. 2 (2), December 1951 pp. 31-34 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Anonymous Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource December 1951 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/2cdaac0688357b8c1d5f4f9d35026a92.pdf ef5e9274705487f6301c7fef1bdeed56 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 47 AN HONOR IN SWVAK SEPARA'l1ISM By E. W ., an Amer i c an Stude n t of Centra l E u r opean Polit ics The above title should not cause surprise and if it causes talk, then its main purpose is accompl!shed. Slovak and Czech friends, permit an American who has learned your languages and history to throw a few comments into the .slowly-but-surely boiling pot now termed "separatism." Curiosity arouaed by friends of both nationalities has propelled me headlong into reference books, newspaper research, etc., from the time of SS. Cyril and Methodlus to the present to "look the ground over" of this old question wlth a new face dealing wlth independent statehood for both nations. The study of the past and observation of today's events boil down to the plain fact that neither nation fared too well down the centuries while being tied to another, even in the pre.sent-day tie of two people closely related to each other. Even in a family where two brothers go into a partnershlp it must be understood that to succeed neither must try to get a head of the other; either both must proceed together or both must remain at an even pace. Otherwise, one will soon "lord it" over the other. Now in tbe Slovak and Czech issue, very frankly, both have a list of grievances against the Czechoslovak republ!c, though it is most obvious that the Slovak list is much, much Jonger. And that, breeding dlscontent and an unhealthy atmo• sphere, Jong ago signaled the tíme for a termlnation of all relationshlps before lt comes to blows. In fact, that tíme did come and the Slovaks did get the opportunity for self-rule, but world affairs engulfed and finally rulned the little state and brought it to former surveillance. The loglcal conclusion now, when the fight for freedom is again essential, is to have each nation go its own way, live peacefully apart and stm be good frlends. Actually, ~wo relatives can always be better friends by going to two separate City Halls, churches, markets, etc. Furthe rmore, it is only inherent in every creature as in every nation to be independent, for only in that way can lts polltical, economlc and spiritual rlghts be freely exercised and protected. Two cooks in one kitchen never did too well except to mess it up, and even worse when one gets the honors and the other peels the potatoes. There is no progress in such a system for both, but only for one. Matter of fact, it amazes an outsider that two peoples of such greatly dlfferent temperaments ever did go into such a partnership. The only apparent reason seems to be that the Slovaks after centurles of oppression thought that the Czechs might give them a better deal. The irony was, however, that the Slovak never did get a fair deal, for the big-hearted, good, though a bit naive soul, was made a fool of at every occasion.. No Slovak who went to a federal office bulldlng after 1918 will ever forget when he asked for s omethlng and was told in sing-song fashion "nelze vyhovHi; mluvte po česky" ("Can't help you; speak in Ozech"). But that belongs to the list of grlevances, for whlch the good Czech people are not responslble, but only thelr regime whlch milked the good Slovak cow and insulted lt too. �SLOVAKIA Tbe Slovaks apparently feel confident enougb, as ľm aure all good Czecbs do, to try a little country of thelr own for a change. Tbey feel tbey can succeed at it. And tbey did !rom 1939-194-5. Slnce tbey are certain tbat tbey can run thelr own government, carry on sound economlcs lnternally and in outslde trade, not be afraid to be llttle in tbe midst of big odds, etc., then wby should the larger Bohemla have anytbing to fear in belng a country on lts own? However, and tbis from the record, Bohemia herself was never afrald for she was alwa.ys tbe leader, but only a certain group of ber degenerate, of!iceseeking, renegade "leaders" do not want Bohemia independent, for tben tbere would be less titles and more centralized work (wb at tbat breed never liked), and then there would be no Slovakla to rule and from wbicb to take •·ror free," because tben they would have to pay for everythlng in fair trade. Yes, the fear 1s not in good Czechs, but in some poor ex-leaders wbo would hate to lose Slovakia, the happy huntlng ground for food, labor, graft and taxes. The ill-begotten, Benes-betrayed republic. according to this renegade· group, should continue to exist, holding two un wllllng natlons iu bondage to a regime that dared call itself democratic and pro· gresslve. How democratic was that r egime when a Slovak had no word In it? How progressive was it when it curbed every desire for Slovak independence and wanted to pave the streets of Bratislava with Slovak heads should same attempt at freedom be made? The greatest !ie of the century was the claim that Czechoslovakla was democratlc. Apparently the word sounded good but they didn't know just what it meant. And. tbe fact that "equal" partner Slovakla was beld as a colony and exploited proves the fact. Tbose who fought and stlll flght against Slovak independence are the backward, underoocratic ones, and tbose who figbt for Slovak freedom are the truly democratlc and progresslve ones. Tbls small Czech imperlallstlc group has also coined tbe word "Czechoslovak." Since God never did create such a species of man, lt ls a barefaced insult to H im (but then tbey didn't believe In Hlm) and an insult to every Czecb to be called half a Czech and half a Slovak for tbe same reason. Tbe ,\·hole idea ls ridlculous blologicaUy and morally, as well. Of course, tbe title is a pure, underbanded political scbeme to attempt asslmilatlon of the Slovaks by the Czechs. Had this group any foresight, they would have understood that sucb attempts at assimilation do not work anywhere on earth except in America where dozens of nations make.s lt expedient and even beneficial to assume one name of identification. But In a republlc of only two natlons, and partlcularly in a !and where both natlons never did have too much freedom for centuries, the scheme smeUs of subordlnatlon of one nation to another or ellmlnation of both to create a new breed. Tbat only creates contempt and averslon. Con• sequently, that bright idea has helped to create a good bit of lll• teellng. Equality 1s misconstrued in such a case, because the true concept of equality lies not in adoptlng the name of another natlon but in retalnlng your own and belng irble to go just as far wlth' lt as your neighbor. In any case, however, tbe Slovaks stubbornly re• fused to be assimillated by the Czechs. �SLOVAKlA 49 Next, this same group goes further in the game of antagonizing, but not shamlng the Slovaks, by coining another word "aeparatist" and "aeparatiam" by whlch they thlnk they wlll abuse all freedomloving Slovaks and, perbaps, s quelcb tbelr movement for independence. Anotber rldlculous title wblcb ls so wrong morally, and whicb causes more aversion towards tbe old regime tban a desire to come back to tbe [old. And, to attempt to squelcb or ridicule any at• tempts for justified independence is morally wrong, for it !s a Godgiven rigbt to flght for freedom from evil, In fact, it !s a patriotlc duty to demand freedom. Tbe "Czechoslovak" group apparently fails to comprebend tbat tbe Slovaks wlll never be contented in a republic wltb anotber 11ation, regardless of wbo that migbt be, after they have tasted some freedom, and tbere will always be discontentment wltb wblch tbey will always have to contend, and wbicb will only be a wblp for tbeir own backs. Apparently, bes ides a lack of comprehenslon of the real situatlon, they also fall to admit this truth to themselves and follow through on the obvious and the apparent. The Slovaks have had enougb of subjugatlon, in any form; they do not wish to be a colony; they wísb to "fly alone and fly right." This separatist movement, then, wlll go on untfl klngdom come so long as Slovaks keep hoping and praying for freedom and inde• pendence. Tbe boil has long been rípe but always there were world affalrs and new terrors which forced domestlc problems l nto tbe background. First the Nazis and then the Commles. But after tbat the current discontentment wlll sweep away every trace of a republic of two nations . The Slovaks and Czechs abroad wlll work out thelr indivídua! states and elect thelr own governments, but some or the groundwork can and should be done here to pave a favorable impressíon and receptlon for the two little countries into the western world when the tlme comes for the debut. In the meantime, the group o( "Czechoslovak" agitators !s running hlgh fever to stem the tide of separatlsm and attempt to klll lt b efore Communism is cleaned out. And thelr cbief weapon apparently is bostlle propaganda, abuse and every trick to dlscredit Slovak leaders here and abroad and. particularly, In front of the United Nations and our own American government. To be a separatist is termed by them a crime, and some foollsh people believe them, as do some uninformed American offlclals who at present are too preoccupied with our own affairs to get the facts on the Slovaks. However, that will pass too, and then there will be time to study the matter of the small natlons. Communlsm is our first problem today and Interna] dlsputes must come second for a whlle. This apparently makes the " Czechoslovak" feel confident that lt wlll al• ways be second and that Washington is sold and fooled by tbeir propaganda for the renewal of the old republlc. But tbat !s only Cor tbe time being, definltely. However, wben there w!ll be time to thlnk of small nations and tbeír battles, there will then be time to flnd tbe Slovak truth and botb Czecb and Slovak aversion towards the renewal of a joint republic. How absolutel y ridiculous the "Czechoslovak" group will �60 SLOVA.K.IA look when the facts are analyzed and they flnd they have been abuslng and dlscredltlng an honorable t hing. lf separa t iam ia a crime, they will then be to ld, and rlght In Wa shington, w hat awfu l criminala our forefahera were when they struggied unde r t he Brit iah a nd went t o war a gainst them; what ug ly fanatics they w ere w hen they met and wrote up t he lis t of grievances against Great Britai n a nd finally the Declara t ion of lndepe ndence and the Constitution which formed t h is g reat and wonderful America. - Sepa ra tista of t he first class ! And it is the same wondertul America, founded by separatlsts, which has given a home to such as they and protects thelr wild propaganda under the articJe or freedom of speech even when they a buse those w ho als o fi ght for freedom tro m a regime wors e t han t he old Engl ish crown because it functioned in a more modern, civilized age. In a bus ing a Slovak desire for independence, they ope n ly tell the whole w orld that after all t hese yeara, Amerlca had no rig ht t o independence fro m Brita in. They aJso abuse the memory ot our honorable, brave and tarsighted coJonists, and even Washington who Jed them, for having Jaid the foundation for the greatest nation in the world. ConcJuslveJy, the Americans or 1776 were the greatest separatista on the face or the earth when they wrote the Declaration ot Independence. How blgoted can the "Czechoslovaks" be and just how blind can they be? What troubJe-maklng separatlsts were lhe French with all thelr revoJutlons, and the Irlsh, and the Israelis, and h osts of o thers who waged wars for years untll their voice in the w!lderness was heard. Now that they have won their independence, we praise them for the!r patience, bravery and do au we can to help them and welcome them lnto our world of free natlons. It is a plty, though, that all such separatlsts have to work so hard, pay such great prices for their freedom, when their partners could have granted them thelr liberty from the start, an_d instead of becoming an enemy could have been a benefactor and friend immediateJy. Look around, you who are separatists, Czechs and Slovaks, and see how separatlsm ls golng on today in every field for a better worJd, and how much glorious hlstory ha.s been made by separatista through the centuries, for it is they who turn the wheeJs of progress. It is the separatist from the standard scheme that is enterprlslng, progressive and democratlc in every field. And yet, accordlng to your own papers, the "CzechosJovaks" cJaim that the separatlsts are not democrat!c, progresslve, etc. The tact that t.hey are separatista proves othel'Wise, and the ones who retard their progress are the duJI conservatives, dictatorial and contradictory. Hence, separatista, your Jot ls a glorious and an honorabJe one. There is no shame in wantlng freedom, rather lt is a duty to flght for it, even when your own ldnd curb lt and attempt to dlscredlt you. That, as all things, wiJI pass, and at least by the Jaw ot averages, with your ettorts, the SJovaks musJ, be tree some day. The day ls at your flngertlps to name and reallze. Read your own hlstory and that ot thls land, and you wlll flnd lt full of freedom-lovlng people as yoursel!. There is no shame, then, in belng a separatist, and th!s applles to both Slovaks and Czechs. �SLOVAKIA 61 The Cz.e chs must free themselves of their own leaders who have betrayed them and led them lnto chaos; and they should prepare now to rlse with new leaders, true Czechs, who are lnterested In thelr own people and not with artillatlons wlth powers who would swallow them up. Let them also prove that they do not need Slovakla, that they can subsist wlthout ber, and that they can truly be slsters and exemplary natlons. Leave the renegades and weakllng.s behlnd, and forge ahead lnto new horlzons, not back to stale systems that wlll hurt all over agaln. Come up wlth new leaders, fresh leaders, pro• gresslve leaders who aren't afrald to live alone. A separatlst move• ment should be as strong among Czechs as among the Slovaks. Form two nations as friends, not one republic as enemies. And, to those that want the old republlc and are waltlng to re• sume office, and to those who trumpet this false ldeology on reams and reams of paper to keep such a degenerate idea allve, conslder how foolish you sound now when you think you abuse good people by calling them separatists and think you are plnnlng a crlme to thelr backs when actually you are flatterlng them and placlng them lnto a glorious classlflcation. Consider how even more foollsh you wlll feel when all your evll, dlrty work of dlscredlting wlll ltself be discredited and separatlsm will after all win out and produce some• t hlng decent and fine which the old republlc was not capable ot do· ing. And above all, you are not only politically but also morally wrong, as are all who curb movements for freedom. The separatlsts are the real democrats and progressives, for it !s they who want freedom and democracy and not you who want to bind two natlons lnto an outdated and hated republic. Yours !s only a cause of contradlction and stubborn hate to preserve something that 1s rotten trom the core. For every move to stamp out independent ideas you only acquire new enemies, and the more enemies the more stronger the separatlsts; and the more ot those, the sooner two independent countrles wlll be formed. Any decent Czech w!ll tllll you that the old republlc was a ml.stake and "just not right," and any decent Slovak, by God• insplred love of country, automatlca\ly wants independence for hls natlon. What percentage then do you rea\ly have In your camp? 5 per cent or even less? And a Gallup poli is not needed to reallze that, inherently, the Slovak wants hls own government and country! Any Slovak that wants the old Czechoslovak republlc !s a twisted and spoiled breed that, frankly, even the Czechs ot the old regime should not care to associate with and form a partnersh!p wlth. That rene• gade type, wlth shame must be admitted, count up to a fractlon ot one percent of all Slovaks, no more. It !s amazing and tantastic, that with this tiny group then, the old regime wants to form a republlc. How will they contend with the rest? Satan himself has walked about the earth sowing dissenslon and oppre.ssion. Those who curb freedom anrl abuse thoše who flgbt for it, must once reap Satan's trash. The floor o[ every ball is yours, separatists„ and the movement i~ yours to complete and the fruits of lndependence wlll be yours to enjoy. This 1s the exhortatlon of an A.m erlcan whose studles prove you ha.ve a cause - a just and holy cause. �52 SLOVAKIA WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT TISO "By executing Dr. Tiso, priest-presldent of wartlme Slovakia, the Czechoslov.ak governm ent of Dr. Beneš h as turned t he clock of civilizatlon back a few centuries in Czecho-Slovakia. T he mu rder of this gallant and upright Slovak leader and exemplary priest, w ho remained wlth b is people under the most trying condltions, by Dr. Edward Beneš, who resigned as president of his country and surrendered it 'in toto' to the Nazis, must s hock every Christian and every believer In the democratic way of life. Tbe infamous act of th e Beneš governm ent rightfully deserves the »evere.st condemnation of all righteous people." - Stephen Šuhaj čik, Councilman Second W ard, Cleveland, Ohio, April 1947. • • • "MURDER IN SLOVAKIA" ( From the speech of Hon. Alvin E . O' Konski of Wisconsin, in the House of Representati ves, Wednesday, Aprí l 23, 1947) . Mr. Speaker, the recent hanging by the Communists of Czech0slovakia of the brave and gallant Monsignor Joseph Tiso was murder in its most ghastl y and shameful form.••• But the hanging of Monsignor Tiso itself is not the greatest tragedy. The greatest tragedy is the silence by our American President and by our American State Department while this murder was going o n. Our Government gave the Czec hosl ovakian Government hundreds of million of dollars in the past two years. We are going to give them mi llions of dollars more. Vet, with this giving of millions of dollars to the Government of Czechoslovakia, our President and our State Department are not even men enough to stand up and protest against this murder by the Soviets. AII of this leads me to believe that the l eaders of our country in the White House and in our State Department no longer understand the meaning of the term " honor." Monsignor Tiso is dead. H e was murdered. Whi l e he was murd ered America was sil ent. The day is not very far distant when these American leaders will regret their silence. The day may come and may be too soon when these leaders who were so shamefully silent wi l l b e treated the same way that Monsignor Tiso and Bishop Ste• panic and General Mihailovitc h were treated. Then maybe there will be protests. But then it wi II be too late. Frankly, 1 do not think America coulá have saved the life of Monsignor Tiso. But I am ashamed that my country did not even have the decency and honor to file a protest just for the record. By some miracl e suc h a protest might have at least postponed the exec utio n. Here in Ame r i ca our o fficials grant our basest cr i minals a stay of execution. The least that our national leaders could have done i s f ile a p lea for the same consideration for a Christian lover of freedom M onsignor T i so whose only c rime was that he hated Communi sm just as he hated nazism. But Ameri ca remains silent and murder has free sway. � SLOVAKIA 47 AN HONOR IN SWVAK SEPARA'l1ISM By E. W ., an Amer i c an Stude n t of Centra l E u r opean Polit ics The above title should not cause surprise and if it causes talk, then its main purpose is accompl!shed. Slovak and Czech friends, permit an American who has learned your languages and history to throw a few comments into the .slowly-but-surely boiling pot now termed "separatism." Curiosity arouaed by friends of both nationalities has propelled me headlong into reference books, newspaper research, etc., from the time of SS. Cyril and Methodlus to the present to "look the ground over" of this old question wlth a new face dealing wlth independent statehood for both nations. The study of the past and observation of today's events boil down to the plain fact that neither nation fared too well down the centuries while being tied to another, even in the pre.sent-day tie of two people closely related to each other. Even in a family where two brothers go into a partnershlp it must be understood that to succeed neither must try to get a head of the other; either both must proceed together or both must remain at an even pace. Otherwise, one will soon "lord it" over the other. Now in tbe Slovak and Czech issue, very frankly, both have a list of grievances against the Czechoslovak republ!c, though it is most obvious that the Slovak list is much, much Jonger. And that, breeding dlscontent and an unhealthy atmo• sphere, Jong ago signaled the tíme for a termlnation of all relationshlps before lt comes to blows. In fact, that tíme did come and the Slovaks did get the opportunity for self-rule, but world affairs engulfed and finally rulned the little state and brought it to former surveillance. The loglcal conclusion now, when the fight for freedom is again essential, is to have each nation go its own way, live peacefully apart and stm be good frlends. Actually, ~wo relatives can always be better friends by going to two separate City Halls, churches, markets, etc. Furthe rmore, it is only inherent in every creature as in every nation to be independent, for only in that way can lts polltical, economlc and spiritual rlghts be freely exercised and protected. Two cooks in one kitchen never did too well except to mess it up, and even worse when one gets the honors and the other peels the potatoes. There is no progress in such a system for both, but only for one. Matter of fact, it amazes an outsider that two peoples of such greatly dlfferent temperaments ever did go into such a partnership. The only apparent reason seems to be that the Slovaks after centurles of oppression thought that the Czechs might give them a better deal. The irony was, however, that the Slovak never did get a fair deal, for the big-hearted, good, though a bit naive soul, was made a fool of at every occasion.. No Slovak who went to a federal office bulldlng after 1918 will ever forget when he asked for s omethlng and was told in sing-song fashion "nelze vyhovHi; mluvte po česky" ("Can't help you; speak in Ozech"). But that belongs to the list of grlevances, for whlch the good Czech people are not responslble, but only thelr regime whlch milked the good Slovak cow and insulted lt too. �SLOVAKIA Tbe Slovaks apparently feel confident enougb, as ľm aure all good Czecbs do, to try a little country of thelr own for a change. Tbey feel tbey can succeed at it. And tbey did !rom 1939-194-5. Slnce tbey are certain tbat tbey can run thelr own government, carry on sound economlcs lnternally and in outslde trade, not be afraid to be llttle in tbe midst of big odds, etc., then wby should the larger Bohemla have anytbing to fear in belng a country on lts own? However, and tbis from the record, Bohemia herself was never afrald for she was alwa.ys tbe leader, but only a certain group of ber degenerate, of!iceseeking, renegade "leaders" do not want Bohemia independent, for tben tbere would be less titles and more centralized work (wb at tbat breed never liked), and then there would be no Slovakla to rule and from wbicb to take •·ror free," because tben they would have to pay for everythlng in fair trade. Yes, the fear 1s not in good Czechs, but in some poor ex-leaders wbo would hate to lose Slovakia, the happy huntlng ground for food, labor, graft and taxes. The ill-begotten, Benes-betrayed republic. according to this renegade· group, should continue to exist, holding two un wllllng natlons iu bondage to a regime that dared call itself democratic and pro· gresslve. How democratic was that r egime when a Slovak had no word In it? How progressive was it when it curbed every desire for Slovak independence and wanted to pave the streets of Bratislava with Slovak heads should same attempt at freedom be made? The greatest !ie of the century was the claim that Czechoslovakla was democratlc. Apparently the word sounded good but they didn't know just what it meant. And. tbe fact that "equal" partner Slovakla was beld as a colony and exploited proves the fact. Tbose who fought and stlll flght against Slovak independence are the backward, underoocratic ones, and tbose who figbt for Slovak freedom are the truly democratlc and progresslve ones. Tbls small Czech imperlallstlc group has also coined tbe word "Czechoslovak." Since God never did create such a species of man, lt ls a barefaced insult to H im (but then tbey didn't believe In Hlm) and an insult to every Czecb to be called half a Czech and half a Slovak for tbe same reason. Tbe ,\·hole idea ls ridlculous blologicaUy and morally, as well. Of course, tbe title is a pure, underbanded political scbeme to attempt asslmilatlon of the Slovaks by the Czechs. Had this group any foresight, they would have understood that sucb attempts at assimilation do not work anywhere on earth except in America where dozens of nations make.s lt expedient and even beneficial to assume one name of identification. But In a republlc of only two natlons, and partlcularly in a !and where both natlons never did have too much freedom for centuries, the scheme smeUs of subordlnatlon of one nation to another or ellmlnation of both to create a new breed. Tbat only creates contempt and averslon. Con• sequently, that bright idea has helped to create a good bit of lll• teellng. Equality 1s misconstrued in such a case, because the true concept of equality lies not in adoptlng the name of another natlon but in retalnlng your own and belng irble to go just as far wlth' lt as your neighbor. In any case, however, tbe Slovaks stubbornly re• fused to be assimillated by the Czechs. �SLOVAKlA 49 Next, this same group goes further in the game of antagonizing, but not shamlng the Slovaks, by coining another word "aeparatist" and "aeparatiam" by whlch they thlnk they wlll abuse all freedomloving Slovaks and, perbaps, s quelcb tbelr movement for independence. Anotber rldlculous title wblcb ls so wrong morally, and whicb causes more aversion towards tbe old regime tban a desire to come back to tbe [old. And, to attempt to squelcb or ridicule any at• tempts for justified independence is morally wrong, for it !s a Godgiven rigbt to flght for freedom from evil, In fact, it !s a patriotlc duty to demand freedom. Tbe "Czechoslovak" group apparently fails to comprebend tbat tbe Slovaks wlll never be contented in a republic wltb anotber 11ation, regardless of wbo that migbt be, after they have tasted some freedom, and tbere will always be discontentment wltb wblch tbey will always have to contend, and wbicb will only be a wblp for tbeir own backs. Apparently, bes ides a lack of comprehenslon of the real situatlon, they also fall to admit this truth to themselves and follow through on the obvious and the apparent. The Slovaks have had enougb of subjugatlon, in any form; they do not wish to be a colony; they wísb to "fly alone and fly right." This separatist movement, then, wlll go on untfl klngdom come so long as Slovaks keep hoping and praying for freedom and inde• pendence. Tbe boil has long been rípe but always there were world affalrs and new terrors which forced domestlc problems l nto tbe background. First the Nazis and then the Commles. But after tbat the current discontentment wlll sweep away every trace of a republic of two nations . The Slovaks and Czechs abroad wlll work out thelr indivídua! states and elect thelr own governments, but some or the groundwork can and should be done here to pave a favorable impressíon and receptlon for the two little countries into the western world when the tlme comes for the debut. In the meantime, the group o( "Czechoslovak" agitators !s running hlgh fever to stem the tide of separatlsm and attempt to klll lt b efore Communism is cleaned out. And thelr cbief weapon apparently is bostlle propaganda, abuse and every trick to dlscredit Slovak leaders here and abroad and. particularly, In front of the United Nations and our own American government. To be a separatist is termed by them a crime, and some foollsh people believe them, as do some uninformed American offlclals who at present are too preoccupied with our own affairs to get the facts on the Slovaks. However, that will pass too, and then there will be time to study the matter of the small natlons. Communlsm is our first problem today and Interna] dlsputes must come second for a whlle. This apparently makes the " Czechoslovak" feel confident that lt wlll al• ways be second and that Washington is sold and fooled by tbeir propaganda for the renewal of the old republlc. But tbat !s only Cor tbe time being, definltely. However, wben there w!ll be time to thlnk of small nations and tbeír battles, there will then be time to flnd tbe Slovak truth and botb Czecb and Slovak aversion towards the renewal of a joint republic. How absolutel y ridiculous the "Czechoslovak" group will �60 SLOVA.K.IA look when the facts are analyzed and they flnd they have been abuslng and dlscredltlng an honorable t hing. lf separa t iam ia a crime, they will then be to ld, and rlght In Wa shington, w hat awfu l criminala our forefahera were when they struggied unde r t he Brit iah a nd went t o war a gainst them; what ug ly fanatics they w ere w hen they met and wrote up t he lis t of grievances against Great Britai n a nd finally the Declara t ion of lndepe ndence and the Constitution which formed t h is g reat and wonderful America. - Sepa ra tista of t he first class ! And it is the same wondertul America, founded by separatlsts, which has given a home to such as they and protects thelr wild propaganda under the articJe or freedom of speech even when they a buse those w ho als o fi ght for freedom tro m a regime wors e t han t he old Engl ish crown because it functioned in a more modern, civilized age. In a bus ing a Slovak desire for independence, they ope n ly tell the whole w orld that after all t hese yeara, Amerlca had no rig ht t o independence fro m Brita in. They aJso abuse the memory ot our honorable, brave and tarsighted coJonists, and even Washington who Jed them, for having Jaid the foundation for the greatest nation in the world. ConcJuslveJy, the Americans or 1776 were the greatest separatista on the face or the earth when they wrote the Declaration ot Independence. How blgoted can the "Czechoslovaks" be and just how blind can they be? What troubJe-maklng separatlsts were lhe French with all thelr revoJutlons, and the Irlsh, and the Israelis, and h osts of o thers who waged wars for years untll their voice in the w!lderness was heard. Now that they have won their independence, we praise them for the!r patience, bravery and do au we can to help them and welcome them lnto our world of free natlons. It is a plty, though, that all such separatlsts have to work so hard, pay such great prices for their freedom, when their partners could have granted them thelr liberty from the start, an_d instead of becoming an enemy could have been a benefactor and friend immediateJy. Look around, you who are separatists, Czechs and Slovaks, and see how separatlsm ls golng on today in every field for a better worJd, and how much glorious hlstory ha.s been made by separatista through the centuries, for it is they who turn the wheeJs of progress. It is the separatist from the standard scheme that is enterprlslng, progressive and democratlc in every field. And yet, accordlng to your own papers, the "CzechosJovaks" cJaim that the separatlsts are not democrat!c, progresslve, etc. The tact that t.hey are separatista proves othel'Wise, and the ones who retard their progress are the duJI conservatives, dictatorial and contradictory. Hence, separatista, your Jot ls a glorious and an honorabJe one. There is no shame in wantlng freedom, rather lt is a duty to flght for it, even when your own ldnd curb lt and attempt to dlscredlt you. That, as all things, wiJI pass, and at least by the Jaw ot averages, with your ettorts, the SJovaks musJ, be tree some day. The day ls at your flngertlps to name and reallze. Read your own hlstory and that ot thls land, and you wlll flnd lt full of freedom-lovlng people as yoursel!. There is no shame, then, in belng a separatist, and th!s applles to both Slovaks and Czechs. �SLOVAKIA 61 The Cz.e chs must free themselves of their own leaders who have betrayed them and led them lnto chaos; and they should prepare now to rlse with new leaders, true Czechs, who are lnterested In thelr own people and not with artillatlons wlth powers who would swallow them up. Let them also prove that they do not need Slovakla, that they can subsist wlthout ber, and that they can truly be slsters and exemplary natlons. Leave the renegades and weakllng.s behlnd, and forge ahead lnto new horlzons, not back to stale systems that wlll hurt all over agaln. Come up wlth new leaders, fresh leaders, pro• gresslve leaders who aren't afrald to live alone. A separatlst move• ment should be as strong among Czechs as among the Slovaks. Form two nations as friends, not one republic as enemies. And, to those that want the old republlc and are waltlng to re• sume office, and to those who trumpet this false ldeology on reams and reams of paper to keep such a degenerate idea allve, conslder how foolish you sound now when you think you abuse good people by calling them separatists and think you are plnnlng a crlme to thelr backs when actually you are flatterlng them and placlng them lnto a glorious classlflcation. Consider how even more foollsh you wlll feel when all your evll, dlrty work of dlscredlting wlll ltself be discredited and separatlsm will after all win out and produce some• t hlng decent and fine which the old republlc was not capable ot do· ing. And above all, you are not only politically but also morally wrong, as are all who curb movements for freedom. The separatlsts are the real democrats and progressives, for it !s they who want freedom and democracy and not you who want to bind two natlons lnto an outdated and hated republic. Yours !s only a cause of contradlction and stubborn hate to preserve something that 1s rotten trom the core. For every move to stamp out independent ideas you only acquire new enemies, and the more enemies the more stronger the separatlsts; and the more ot those, the sooner two independent countrles wlll be formed. Any decent Czech w!ll tllll you that the old republlc was a ml.stake and "just not right," and any decent Slovak, by God• insplred love of country, automatlca\ly wants independence for hls natlon. What percentage then do you rea\ly have In your camp? 5 per cent or even less? And a Gallup poli is not needed to reallze that, inherently, the Slovak wants hls own government and country! Any Slovak that wants the old Czechoslovak republlc !s a twisted and spoiled breed that, frankly, even the Czechs ot the old regime should not care to associate with and form a partnersh!p wlth. That rene• gade type, wlth shame must be admitted, count up to a fractlon ot one percent of all Slovaks, no more. It !s amazing and tantastic, that with this tiny group then, the old regime wants to form a republlc. How will they contend with the rest? Satan himself has walked about the earth sowing dissenslon and oppre.ssion. Those who curb freedom anrl abuse thoše who flgbt for it, must once reap Satan's trash. The floor o[ every ball is yours, separatists„ and the movement i~ yours to complete and the fruits of lndependence wlll be yours to enjoy. This 1s the exhortatlon of an A.m erlcan whose studles prove you ha.ve a cause - a just and holy cause. �52 SLOVAKIA WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT TISO "By executing Dr. Tiso, priest-presldent of wartlme Slovakia, the Czechoslov.ak governm ent of Dr. Beneš h as turned t he clock of civilizatlon back a few centuries in Czecho-Slovakia. T he mu rder of this gallant and upright Slovak leader and exemplary priest, w ho remained wlth b is people under the most trying condltions, by Dr. Edward Beneš, who resigned as president of his country and surrendered it 'in toto' to the Nazis, must s hock every Christian and every believer In the democratic way of life. Tbe infamous act of th e Beneš governm ent rightfully deserves the »evere.st condemnation of all righteous people." - Stephen Šuhaj čik, Councilman Second W ard, Cleveland, Ohio, April 1947. • • • "MURDER IN SLOVAKIA" ( From the speech of Hon. Alvin E . O' Konski of Wisconsin, in the House of Representati ves, Wednesday, Aprí l 23, 1947) . Mr. Speaker, the recent hanging by the Communists of Czech0slovakia of the brave and gallant Monsignor Joseph Tiso was murder in its most ghastl y and shameful form.••• But the hanging of Monsignor Tiso itself is not the greatest tragedy. The greatest tragedy is the silence by our American President and by our American State Department while this murder was going o n. Our Government gave the Czec hosl ovakian Government hundreds of million of dollars in the past two years. We are going to give them mi llions of dollars more. Vet, with this giving of millions of dollars to the Government of Czechoslovakia, our President and our State Department are not even men enough to stand up and protest against this murder by the Soviets. AII of this leads me to believe that the l eaders of our country in the White House and in our State Department no longer understand the meaning of the term " honor." Monsignor Tiso is dead. H e was murdered. Whi l e he was murd ered America was sil ent. The day is not very far distant when these American leaders will regret their silence. The day may come and may be too soon when these leaders who were so shamefully silent wi l l b e treated the same way that Monsignor Tiso and Bishop Ste• panic and General Mihailovitc h were treated. Then maybe there will be protests. But then it wi II be too late. Frankly, 1 do not think America coulá have saved the life of Monsignor Tiso. But I am ashamed that my country did not even have the decency and honor to file a protest just for the record. By some miracl e suc h a protest might have at least postponed the exec utio n. Here in Ame r i ca our o fficials grant our basest cr i minals a stay of execution. The least that our national leaders could have done i s f ile a p lea for the same consideration for a Christian lover of freedom M onsignor T i so whose only c rime was that he hated Communi sm just as he hated nazism. But Ameri ca remains silent and murder has free sway. � 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 1952, Vol. 2 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 1952 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 3), March 1952.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 4), August 1952.</li> <li>Issue 3 (No. 5), December 1952.</li> </ul> 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 47 AN HONOR IN SWVAK SEPARA'l1ISM By E. W ., an Amer i c an Stude n t of Centra l E u r opean Polit ics The above title should not cause surprise and if it causes talk, then its main purpose is accompl!shed. Slovak and Czech friends, permit an American who has learned your languages and history to throw a few comments into the .slowly-but-surely boiling pot now termed "separatism." Curiosity arouaed by friends of both nationalities has propelled me headlong into reference books, newspaper research, etc., from the time of SS. Cyril and Methodlus to the present to "look the ground over" of this old question wlth a new face dealing wlth independent statehood for both nations. The study of the past and observation of today's events boil down to the plain fact that neither nation fared too well down the centuries while being tied to another, even in the pre.sent-day tie of two people closely related to each other. Even in a family where two brothers go into a partnershlp it must be understood that to succeed neither must try to get a head of the other; either both must proceed together or both must remain at an even pace. Otherwise, one will soon "lord it" over the other. Now in tbe Slovak and Czech issue, very frankly, both have a list of grievances against the Czechoslovak republ!c, though it is most obvious that the Slovak list is much, much Jonger. And that, breeding dlscontent and an unhealthy atmo• sphere, Jong ago signaled the tíme for a termlnation of all relationshlps before lt comes to blows. In fact, that tíme did come and the Slovaks did get the opportunity for self-rule, but world affairs engulfed and finally rulned the little state and brought it to former surveillance. The loglcal conclusion now, when the fight for freedom is again essential, is to have each nation go its own way, live peacefully apart and stm be good frlends. Actually, ~wo relatives can always be better friends by going to two separate City Halls, churches, markets, etc. Furthe rmore, it is only inherent in every creature as in every nation to be independent, for only in that way can lts polltical, economlc and spiritual rlghts be freely exercised and protected. Two cooks in one kitchen never did too well except to mess it up, and even worse when one gets the honors and the other peels the potatoes. There is no progress in such a system for both, but only for one. Matter of fact, it amazes an outsider that two peoples of such greatly dlfferent temperaments ever did go into such a partnership. The only apparent reason seems to be that the Slovaks after centurles of oppression thought that the Czechs might give them a better deal. The irony was, however, that the Slovak never did get a fair deal, for the big-hearted, good, though a bit naive soul, was made a fool of at every occasion.. No Slovak who went to a federal office bulldlng after 1918 will ever forget when he asked for s omethlng and was told in sing-song fashion "nelze vyhovHi; mluvte po česky" ("Can't help you; speak in Ozech"). But that belongs to the list of grlevances, for whlch the good Czech people are not responslble, but only thelr regime whlch milked the good Slovak cow and insulted lt too. SLOVAKIA Tbe Slovaks apparently feel confident enougb, as ľm aure all good Czecbs do, to try a little country of thelr own for a change. Tbey feel tbey can succeed at it. And tbey did !rom 1939-194-5. Slnce tbey are certain tbat tbey can run thelr own government, carry on sound economlcs lnternally and in outslde trade, not be afraid to be llttle in tbe midst of big odds, etc., then wby should the larger Bohemla have anytbing to fear in belng a country on lts own? However, and tbis from the record, Bohemia herself was never afrald for she was alwa.ys tbe leader, but only a certain group of ber degenerate, of!iceseeking, renegade "leaders" do not want Bohemia independent, for tben tbere would be less titles and more centralized work (wb at tbat breed never liked), and then there would be no Slovakla to rule and from wbicb to take •·ror free," because tben they would have to pay for everythlng in fair trade. Yes, the fear 1s not in good Czechs, but in some poor ex-leaders wbo would hate to lose Slovakia, the happy huntlng ground for food, labor, graft and taxes. The ill-begotten, Benes-betrayed republic. according to this renegade· group, should continue to exist, holding two un wllllng natlons iu bondage to a regime that dared call itself democratic and pro· gresslve. How democratic was that r egime when a Slovak had no word In it? How progressive was it when it curbed every desire for Slovak independence and wanted to pave the streets of Bratislava with Slovak heads should same attempt at freedom be made? The greatest !ie of the century was the claim that Czechoslovakla was democratlc. Apparently the word sounded good but they didn't know just what it meant. And. tbe fact that "equal" partner Slovakla was beld as a colony and exploited proves the fact. Tbose who fought and stlll flght against Slovak independence are the backward, underoocratic ones, and tbose who figbt for Slovak freedom are the truly democratlc and progresslve ones. Tbls small Czech imperlallstlc group has also coined tbe word "Czechoslovak." Since God never did create such a species of man, lt ls a barefaced insult to H im (but then tbey didn't believe In Hlm) and an insult to every Czecb to be called half a Czech and half a Slovak for tbe same reason. Tbe ,\·hole idea ls ridlculous blologicaUy and morally, as well. Of course, tbe title is a pure, underbanded political scbeme to attempt asslmilatlon of the Slovaks by the Czechs. Had this group any foresight, they would have understood that sucb attempts at assimilation do not work anywhere on earth except in America where dozens of nations make.s lt expedient and even beneficial to assume one name of identification. But In a republlc of only two natlons, and partlcularly in a !and where both natlons never did have too much freedom for centuries, the scheme smeUs of subordlnatlon of one nation to another or ellmlnation of both to create a new breed. Tbat only creates contempt and averslon. Con• sequently, that bright idea has helped to create a good bit of lll• teellng. Equality 1s misconstrued in such a case, because the true concept of equality lies not in adoptlng the name of another natlon but in retalnlng your own and belng irble to go just as far wlth' lt as your neighbor. In any case, however, tbe Slovaks stubbornly re• fused to be assimillated by the Czechs. SLOVAKlA 49 Next, this same group goes further in the game of antagonizing, but not shamlng the Slovaks, by coining another word "aeparatist" and "aeparatiam" by whlch they thlnk they wlll abuse all freedomloving Slovaks and, perbaps, s quelcb tbelr movement for independence. Anotber rldlculous title wblcb ls so wrong morally, and whicb causes more aversion towards tbe old regime tban a desire to come back to tbe [old. And, to attempt to squelcb or ridicule any at• tempts for justified independence is morally wrong, for it !s a Godgiven rigbt to flght for freedom from evil, In fact, it !s a patriotlc duty to demand freedom. Tbe "Czechoslovak" group apparently fails to comprebend tbat tbe Slovaks wlll never be contented in a republic wltb anotber 11ation, regardless of wbo that migbt be, after they have tasted some freedom, and tbere will always be discontentment wltb wblch tbey will always have to contend, and wbicb will only be a wblp for tbeir own backs. Apparently, bes ides a lack of comprehenslon of the real situatlon, they also fall to admit this truth to themselves and follow through on the obvious and the apparent. The Slovaks have had enougb of subjugatlon, in any form; they do not wish to be a colony; they wísb to "fly alone and fly right." This separatist movement, then, wlll go on untfl klngdom come so long as Slovaks keep hoping and praying for freedom and inde• pendence. Tbe boil has long been rípe but always there were world affalrs and new terrors which forced domestlc problems l nto tbe background. First the Nazis and then the Commles. But after tbat the current discontentment wlll sweep away every trace of a republic of two nations . The Slovaks and Czechs abroad wlll work out thelr indivídua! states and elect thelr own governments, but some or the groundwork can and should be done here to pave a favorable impressíon and receptlon for the two little countries into the western world when the tlme comes for the debut. In the meantime, the group o( "Czechoslovak" agitators !s running hlgh fever to stem the tide of separatlsm and attempt to klll lt b efore Communism is cleaned out. And thelr cbief weapon apparently is bostlle propaganda, abuse and every trick to dlscredit Slovak leaders here and abroad and. particularly, In front of the United Nations and our own American government. To be a separatist is termed by them a crime, and some foollsh people believe them, as do some uninformed American offlclals who at present are too preoccupied with our own affairs to get the facts on the Slovaks. However, that will pass too, and then there will be time to study the matter of the small natlons. Communlsm is our first problem today and Interna] dlsputes must come second for a whlle. This apparently makes the " Czechoslovak" feel confident that lt wlll al• ways be second and that Washington is sold and fooled by tbeir propaganda for the renewal of the old republlc. But tbat !s only Cor tbe time being, definltely. However, wben there w!ll be time to thlnk of small nations and tbeír battles, there will then be time to flnd tbe Slovak truth and botb Czecb and Slovak aversion towards the renewal of a joint republic. How absolutel y ridiculous the "Czechoslovak" group will 60 SLOVA.K.IA look when the facts are analyzed and they flnd they have been abuslng and dlscredltlng an honorable t hing. lf separa t iam ia a crime, they will then be to ld, and rlght In Wa shington, w hat awfu l criminala our forefahera were when they struggied unde r t he Brit iah a nd went t o war a gainst them; what ug ly fanatics they w ere w hen they met and wrote up t he lis t of grievances against Great Britai n a nd finally the Declara t ion of lndepe ndence and the Constitution which formed t h is g reat and wonderful America. - Sepa ra tista of t he first class ! And it is the same wondertul America, founded by separatlsts, which has given a home to such as they and protects thelr wild propaganda under the articJe or freedom of speech even when they a buse those w ho als o fi ght for freedom tro m a regime wors e t han t he old Engl ish crown because it functioned in a more modern, civilized age. In a bus ing a Slovak desire for independence, they ope n ly tell the whole w orld that after all t hese yeara, Amerlca had no rig ht t o independence fro m Brita in. They aJso abuse the memory ot our honorable, brave and tarsighted coJonists, and even Washington who Jed them, for having Jaid the foundation for the greatest nation in the world. ConcJuslveJy, the Americans or 1776 were the greatest separatista on the face or the earth when they wrote the Declaration ot Independence. How blgoted can the "Czechoslovaks" be and just how blind can they be? What troubJe-maklng separatlsts were lhe French with all thelr revoJutlons, and the Irlsh, and the Israelis, and h osts of o thers who waged wars for years untll their voice in the w!lderness was heard. Now that they have won their independence, we praise them for the!r patience, bravery and do au we can to help them and welcome them lnto our world of free natlons. It is a plty, though, that all such separatlsts have to work so hard, pay such great prices for their freedom, when their partners could have granted them thelr liberty from the start, an_d instead of becoming an enemy could have been a benefactor and friend immediateJy. Look around, you who are separatists, Czechs and Slovaks, and see how separatlsm ls golng on today in every field for a better worJd, and how much glorious hlstory ha.s been made by separatista through the centuries, for it is they who turn the wheeJs of progress. It is the separatist from the standard scheme that is enterprlslng, progressive and democratlc in every field. And yet, accordlng to your own papers, the "CzechosJovaks" cJaim that the separatlsts are not democrat!c, progresslve, etc. The tact that t.hey are separatista proves othel'Wise, and the ones who retard their progress are the duJI conservatives, dictatorial and contradictory. Hence, separatista, your Jot ls a glorious and an honorabJe one. There is no shame in wantlng freedom, rather lt is a duty to flght for it, even when your own ldnd curb lt and attempt to dlscredlt you. That, as all things, wiJI pass, and at least by the Jaw ot averages, with your ettorts, the SJovaks musJ, be tree some day. The day ls at your flngertlps to name and reallze. Read your own hlstory and that ot thls land, and you wlll flnd lt full of freedom-lovlng people as yoursel!. There is no shame, then, in belng a separatist, and th!s applles to both Slovaks and Czechs. SLOVAKIA 61 The Cz.e chs must free themselves of their own leaders who have betrayed them and led them lnto chaos; and they should prepare now to rlse with new leaders, true Czechs, who are lnterested In thelr own people and not with artillatlons wlth powers who would swallow them up. Let them also prove that they do not need Slovakla, that they can subsist wlthout ber, and that they can truly be slsters and exemplary natlons. Leave the renegades and weakllng.s behlnd, and forge ahead lnto new horlzons, not back to stale systems that wlll hurt all over agaln. Come up wlth new leaders, fresh leaders, pro• gresslve leaders who aren't afrald to live alone. A separatlst move• ment should be as strong among Czechs as among the Slovaks. Form two nations as friends, not one republic as enemies. And, to those that want the old republlc and are waltlng to re• sume office, and to those who trumpet this false ldeology on reams and reams of paper to keep such a degenerate idea allve, conslder how foolish you sound now when you think you abuse good people by calling them separatists and think you are plnnlng a crlme to thelr backs when actually you are flatterlng them and placlng them lnto a glorious classlflcation. Consider how even more foollsh you wlll feel when all your evll, dlrty work of dlscredlting wlll ltself be discredited and separatlsm will after all win out and produce some• t hlng decent and fine which the old republlc was not capable ot do· ing. And above all, you are not only politically but also morally wrong, as are all who curb movements for freedom. The separatlsts are the real democrats and progressives, for it !s they who want freedom and democracy and not you who want to bind two natlons lnto an outdated and hated republic. Yours !s only a cause of contradlction and stubborn hate to preserve something that 1s rotten trom the core. For every move to stamp out independent ideas you only acquire new enemies, and the more enemies the more stronger the separatlsts; and the more ot those, the sooner two independent countrles wlll be formed. Any decent Czech w!ll tllll you that the old republlc was a ml.stake and "just not right," and any decent Slovak, by God• insplred love of country, automatlca\ly wants independence for hls natlon. What percentage then do you rea\ly have In your camp? 5 per cent or even less? And a Gallup poli is not needed to reallze that, inherently, the Slovak wants hls own government and country! Any Slovak that wants the old Czechoslovak republlc !s a twisted and spoiled breed that, frankly, even the Czechs ot the old regime should not care to associate with and form a partnersh!p wlth. That rene• gade type, wlth shame must be admitted, count up to a fractlon ot one percent of all Slovaks, no more. It !s amazing and tantastic, that with this tiny group then, the old regime wants to form a republlc. How will they contend with the rest? Satan himself has walked about the earth sowing dissenslon and oppre.ssion. Those who curb freedom anrl abuse thoše who flgbt for it, must once reap Satan's trash. The floor o[ every ball is yours, separatists„ and the movement i~ yours to complete and the fruits of lndependence wlll be yours to enjoy. This 1s the exhortatlon of an A.m erlcan whose studles prove you ha.ve a cause - a just and holy cause. 52 SLOVAKIA WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT TISO "By executing Dr. Tiso, priest-presldent of wartlme Slovakia, the Czechoslov.ak governm ent of Dr. Beneš h as turned t he clock of civilizatlon back a few centuries in Czecho-Slovakia. T he mu rder of this gallant and upright Slovak leader and exemplary priest, w ho remained wlth b is people under the most trying condltions, by Dr. Edward Beneš, who resigned as president of his country and surrendered it 'in toto' to the Nazis, must s hock every Christian and every believer In the democratic way of life. Tbe infamous act of th e Beneš governm ent rightfully deserves the »evere.st condemnation of all righteous people." - Stephen Šuhaj čik, Councilman Second W ard, Cleveland, Ohio, April 1947. • • • "MURDER IN SLOVAKIA" ( From the speech of Hon. Alvin E . O' Konski of Wisconsin, in the House of Representati ves, Wednesday, Aprí l 23, 1947) . Mr. Speaker, the recent hanging by the Communists of Czech0slovakia of the brave and gallant Monsignor Joseph Tiso was murder in its most ghastl y and shameful form.••• But the hanging of Monsignor Tiso itself is not the greatest tragedy. The greatest tragedy is the silence by our American President and by our American State Department while this murder was going o n. Our Government gave the Czec hosl ovakian Government hundreds of million of dollars in the past two years. We are going to give them mi llions of dollars more. Vet, with this giving of millions of dollars to the Government of Czechoslovakia, our President and our State Department are not even men enough to stand up and protest against this murder by the Soviets. AII of this leads me to believe that the l eaders of our country in the White House and in our State Department no longer understand the meaning of the term " honor." Monsignor Tiso is dead. H e was murdered. Whi l e he was murd ered America was sil ent. The day is not very far distant when these American leaders will regret their silence. The day may come and may be too soon when these leaders who were so shamefully silent wi l l b e treated the same way that Monsignor Tiso and Bishop Ste• panic and General Mihailovitc h were treated. Then maybe there will be protests. But then it wi II be too late. Frankly, 1 do not think America coulá have saved the life of Monsignor Tiso. But I am ashamed that my country did not even have the decency and honor to file a protest just for the record. By some miracl e suc h a protest might have at least postponed the exec utio n. Here in Ame r i ca our o fficials grant our basest cr i minals a stay of execution. The least that our national leaders could have done i s f ile a p lea for the same consideration for a Christian lover of freedom M onsignor T i so whose only c rime was that he hated Communi sm just as he hated nazism. But Ameri ca remains silent and murder has free sway.  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 An Honor in Slovak Separatism Description An account of the resource By E. W., an American Student of Central European Politics Slovakia, Vol. 2, No. 1 (3), March 1952 pp. 47-52 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Anonymous Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1952 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/fe15352d8e1a70cb9f81cab07783bcfa.pdf 34067c7af7e7338496eb0152b9150b71 PDF Text Text 90 SLOVAKIA - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ----- I Was a Counnunist Yes, I was a Communist I am one no longer. For forty-five years I had lived in Canada. I survived the depression with all its critical aspects; I had seen misery hunger. thousands unemployed and I myself was one of them. I had been accustomed to work, for I worked even from my earliest days jn our parental home where there were eleven of us children. Out of that group I ventured to set out for Canada to seek my fortune. And I was overtaken by an economic crisis there. It was w~nt, hunger, unemployment and all their attendant evils that brought me into the midst of the Communists. Comrades always spoke very optimistically. They had glowing terms for Russia where there is no sign of destitution, where bread abounds beyond one's needs, where everything belongs to the ploretariat: farms, homes, factories, the state, the government, everything. That is where Justice reigns. That is where no one is wronged. It is a worker's paradise. Anyone who went through the depression and was young and unmarried found it easy to embrace Communism. That is what happened to me. Once Communism triumphs, I promised myself, there will be an end to hard times; everything will be ours: the factories, the country, the govenunent, the army. And there will be laws only to safeguard the rights of the worker and his interests. All this was promised by the party. I have been in Canada for forty-five years. Twentythree of these years I spent as a Communist. I fought with every one who dared to speak against the Soviet Union. I would not tolerate any unkind remark against it and resorted to name calling, pointing out that those who did not agree with me were blind, ignorant, bartered menials of capitalism. That was my line of action before the war. Nor was I any better during the war and I did not change after the fighting. I was dedicated to the idea that Communism must dominate the whole world and only then would good times prevail. For this pronounce- �SLOVAKIA 91 ment I almost had my teeth knocked out and I was proud to bear it as a martyr defending Communist thought. I evicted God from my heart, for they said that He is a helper of capitalists, that He commands us to obey those who are destroying us of the working class. They called me a Red and I took pride in it. For the cause of Communism I would have fought the world and for its triumph I would have laid dawn my life without a moment's thought or hesitation. When they wanted to compliment someone among the Communists, they compared him to me. I was a shining example. I worked for the party, I collected funds to further its interests, I canvassed for subscribers to our party publication. Nine years after the war I believed this with an indomitable faith that did not waver for a single instant. I waited patiently. I was not interested in reports that this or that individual brought from Slovakia. If I heard someone say that it was now worse there than it ever had been, I immediately countered the observation in my own mind as an example of base paid propaganda aimed against Communism and I reacted with intensified effort in behalf of "world peace," that beguiling cloak that effectively conceals the true nature of Communist dictatorship all the world over. The time will come, I repeated prophetically on every possible accasion and I uttered the words with vehemence and fiery emphasis. And it did come. My family in Slovakia included a number of Communists and I believed everything that they wrote me, that there is plenty in the land, that absolute justice is accorded to everyone, that life is better than it ever had been there. I believed them then but I believe them no longer. Twenty-five years of Communism in Slovakia disillusioned me and cured me effectively. A friend of mine was going over and I wanted to go and to stay there permanently. I planned to sell all that I had here before leaving. I wanted to go to build the homeland for the proletariat, the paradise for workers of which I had fondly dreamed for so many years but my wife and children were unwilling. And today I thank them and �92 SLOVAKIA I thank God that I did not go, for r would have perished there miserably as did thousands of other Communists like m,;;, men of whom there are very many more in the world. My Communist friend left. He was tougher and more impassioned than I. He left and within half a year he returned. He said very little to others, for he feared reprisals on his family and relatives in Slovakia and he even feared for his own life and welfare. He has a fine family, a wife and children; he owns a car and has some savings in the bank. He opened up and told me everything two years ago. He was deathly pale as he confided in me, for was not sure but that I might betray him. Ever since that day, I have a changed attitude toward reports from Slovakia. I began to see with my eyes wide open. My brother-in-law who was sending me those glorified accounts of Communist achievements was a base scoundrel and a sot who would have denounced or murdered his very mother for drink. The friend who was definitely cured of Communism by his visit to Slovakia put this question to me : Do you know what is the greatest source of sustenance for our people who suffer indescribably at home? - THE FAITH_ And their most powerful and invincible helper is GOD. He whom we treated as an object of ridicule. It was in the course of this discussion thit I first began to doubt. Two years passed from the time of that visit. It was twenty-three years from the time that power passed into the hands of the Communists in Slovakia. I was fifty years since the Reds had seized power in Russia, in the Ukraine and elsewhere. And these years did not suffice-not for the evclution of a paradise but not even for the betterment of life in general. A million times I asked myself why. Why? For is not the government of the ploretariat to be concerned in the first place about the food supply, the housing, the security and well-being of the ploretariat? It heaps all the excuses and the reasons for failure upon others and it dins upon those who never saw the rest of the world that the best of life exists in Russia and in those countries and places where the Communists are in control. �93 SLOVAKIA My enthusiasm cooled. Subsequent months brought a complete r evelation and I was cured of Communism forever. I made it a point to speak with scores of people who had been in Slovakia and in similar countries. Always it was in privatf:) with just the two of us exchanging views. I wanted to know the unvarnished truth about how they lived-the Slovaks, the Poles, and the others who were under the Reds . There came a message from my distressed father : My son, on bared knees pray daily that God may preserve you from the adversities upon which we have fallen here . It brought me to my knees. Never in my life had I prayed as I did then . I openly wept like a child; I clasped my hands fervently and begged to be forgiven for all those insults with which I had toasted God. I went out to find a church, to find a priest, a confessional and peace of soul. Today I pray with all my heart for those pitiable victims that languish in that Communist "paradise" which is more truthfully termed a hell. There is no justice there, no truth, no peace. There is only fear, terror, destitution and misery, insecurity and a protracted death in life. There lies on the table before me the last letter I have had from my father. They have stripped him of all that he had saved up in the sweat of his brow-his farmlands , his horses, his cows. And they want to commit him to a poorhouse where people do not live but die, for Communism does in fact talk about an old age pension but allots to the aged so little that they waste away, they starve, they die . "They have taken away everything," he writes, " and they keep taking- from everybody. You would actually have to weep over the injustices which are perpetrated upon us. As I write the letter, my eyes are filled with tears of blood; my heart is oppressed with extreme distress. I am overwhelmed not for myself alone but rather for the nation. Pray that God may save and protect you and deliver us before we perish. The situation is becoming worse and worse." J. V. � 90 SLOVAKIA - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ----- I Was a Counnunist Yes, I was a Communist I am one no longer. For forty-five years I had lived in Canada. I survived the depression with all its critical aspects; I had seen misery hunger. thousands unemployed and I myself was one of them. I had been accustomed to work, for I worked even from my earliest days jn our parental home where there were eleven of us children. Out of that group I ventured to set out for Canada to seek my fortune. And I was overtaken by an economic crisis there. It was w~nt, hunger, unemployment and all their attendant evils that brought me into the midst of the Communists. Comrades always spoke very optimistically. They had glowing terms for Russia where there is no sign of destitution, where bread abounds beyond one's needs, where everything belongs to the ploretariat: farms, homes, factories, the state, the government, everything. That is where Justice reigns. That is where no one is wronged. It is a worker's paradise. Anyone who went through the depression and was young and unmarried found it easy to embrace Communism. That is what happened to me. Once Communism triumphs, I promised myself, there will be an end to hard times; everything will be ours: the factories, the country, the govenunent, the army. And there will be laws only to safeguard the rights of the worker and his interests. All this was promised by the party. I have been in Canada for forty-five years. Twentythree of these years I spent as a Communist. I fought with every one who dared to speak against the Soviet Union. I would not tolerate any unkind remark against it and resorted to name calling, pointing out that those who did not agree with me were blind, ignorant, bartered menials of capitalism. That was my line of action before the war. Nor was I any better during the war and I did not change after the fighting. I was dedicated to the idea that Communism must dominate the whole world and only then would good times prevail. For this pronounce- �SLOVAKIA 91 ment I almost had my teeth knocked out and I was proud to bear it as a martyr defending Communist thought. I evicted God from my heart, for they said that He is a helper of capitalists, that He commands us to obey those who are destroying us of the working class. They called me a Red and I took pride in it. For the cause of Communism I would have fought the world and for its triumph I would have laid dawn my life without a moment's thought or hesitation. When they wanted to compliment someone among the Communists, they compared him to me. I was a shining example. I worked for the party, I collected funds to further its interests, I canvassed for subscribers to our party publication. Nine years after the war I believed this with an indomitable faith that did not waver for a single instant. I waited patiently. I was not interested in reports that this or that individual brought from Slovakia. If I heard someone say that it was now worse there than it ever had been, I immediately countered the observation in my own mind as an example of base paid propaganda aimed against Communism and I reacted with intensified effort in behalf of "world peace," that beguiling cloak that effectively conceals the true nature of Communist dictatorship all the world over. The time will come, I repeated prophetically on every possible accasion and I uttered the words with vehemence and fiery emphasis. And it did come. My family in Slovakia included a number of Communists and I believed everything that they wrote me, that there is plenty in the land, that absolute justice is accorded to everyone, that life is better than it ever had been there. I believed them then but I believe them no longer. Twenty-five years of Communism in Slovakia disillusioned me and cured me effectively. A friend of mine was going over and I wanted to go and to stay there permanently. I planned to sell all that I had here before leaving. I wanted to go to build the homeland for the proletariat, the paradise for workers of which I had fondly dreamed for so many years but my wife and children were unwilling. And today I thank them and �92 SLOVAKIA I thank God that I did not go, for r would have perished there miserably as did thousands of other Communists like m,;;, men of whom there are very many more in the world. My Communist friend left. He was tougher and more impassioned than I. He left and within half a year he returned. He said very little to others, for he feared reprisals on his family and relatives in Slovakia and he even feared for his own life and welfare. He has a fine family, a wife and children; he owns a car and has some savings in the bank. He opened up and told me everything two years ago. He was deathly pale as he confided in me, for was not sure but that I might betray him. Ever since that day, I have a changed attitude toward reports from Slovakia. I began to see with my eyes wide open. My brother-in-law who was sending me those glorified accounts of Communist achievements was a base scoundrel and a sot who would have denounced or murdered his very mother for drink. The friend who was definitely cured of Communism by his visit to Slovakia put this question to me : Do you know what is the greatest source of sustenance for our people who suffer indescribably at home? - THE FAITH_ And their most powerful and invincible helper is GOD. He whom we treated as an object of ridicule. It was in the course of this discussion thit I first began to doubt. Two years passed from the time of that visit. It was twenty-three years from the time that power passed into the hands of the Communists in Slovakia. I was fifty years since the Reds had seized power in Russia, in the Ukraine and elsewhere. And these years did not suffice-not for the evclution of a paradise but not even for the betterment of life in general. A million times I asked myself why. Why? For is not the government of the ploretariat to be concerned in the first place about the food supply, the housing, the security and well-being of the ploretariat? It heaps all the excuses and the reasons for failure upon others and it dins upon those who never saw the rest of the world that the best of life exists in Russia and in those countries and places where the Communists are in control. �93 SLOVAKIA My enthusiasm cooled. Subsequent months brought a complete r evelation and I was cured of Communism forever. I made it a point to speak with scores of people who had been in Slovakia and in similar countries. Always it was in privatf:) with just the two of us exchanging views. I wanted to know the unvarnished truth about how they lived-the Slovaks, the Poles, and the others who were under the Reds . There came a message from my distressed father : My son, on bared knees pray daily that God may preserve you from the adversities upon which we have fallen here . It brought me to my knees. Never in my life had I prayed as I did then . I openly wept like a child; I clasped my hands fervently and begged to be forgiven for all those insults with which I had toasted God. I went out to find a church, to find a priest, a confessional and peace of soul. Today I pray with all my heart for those pitiable victims that languish in that Communist "paradise" which is more truthfully termed a hell. There is no justice there, no truth, no peace. There is only fear, terror, destitution and misery, insecurity and a protracted death in life. There lies on the table before me the last letter I have had from my father. They have stripped him of all that he had saved up in the sweat of his brow-his farmlands , his horses, his cows. And they want to commit him to a poorhouse where people do not live but die, for Communism does in fact talk about an old age pension but allots to the aged so little that they waste away, they starve, they die . "They have taken away everything," he writes, " and they keep taking- from everybody. You would actually have to weep over the injustices which are perpetrated upon us. As I write the letter, my eyes are filled with tears of blood; my heart is oppressed with extreme distress. I am overwhelmed not for myself alone but rather for the nation. Pray that God may save and protect you and deliver us before we perish. The situation is becoming worse and worse." J. V. � 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 1970, Vol. 20 Description An account of the resource Vol. 20 (No. 43), 1970. 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 1970 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 90 SLOVAKIA - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ----- I Was a Counnunist Yes, I was a Communist I am one no longer. For forty-five years I had lived in Canada. I survived the depression with all its critical aspects; I had seen misery hunger. thousands unemployed and I myself was one of them. I had been accustomed to work, for I worked even from my earliest days jn our parental home where there were eleven of us children. Out of that group I ventured to set out for Canada to seek my fortune. And I was overtaken by an economic crisis there. It was w~nt, hunger, unemployment and all their attendant evils that brought me into the midst of the Communists. Comrades always spoke very optimistically. They had glowing terms for Russia where there is no sign of destitution, where bread abounds beyond one's needs, where everything belongs to the ploretariat: farms, homes, factories, the state, the government, everything. That is where Justice reigns. That is where no one is wronged. It is a worker's paradise. Anyone who went through the depression and was young and unmarried found it easy to embrace Communism. That is what happened to me. Once Communism triumphs, I promised myself, there will be an end to hard times; everything will be ours: the factories, the country, the govenunent, the army. And there will be laws only to safeguard the rights of the worker and his interests. All this was promised by the party. I have been in Canada for forty-five years. Twentythree of these years I spent as a Communist. I fought with every one who dared to speak against the Soviet Union. I would not tolerate any unkind remark against it and resorted to name calling, pointing out that those who did not agree with me were blind, ignorant, bartered menials of capitalism. That was my line of action before the war. Nor was I any better during the war and I did not change after the fighting. I was dedicated to the idea that Communism must dominate the whole world and only then would good times prevail. For this pronounce- SLOVAKIA 91 ment I almost had my teeth knocked out and I was proud to bear it as a martyr defending Communist thought. I evicted God from my heart, for they said that He is a helper of capitalists, that He commands us to obey those who are destroying us of the working class. They called me a Red and I took pride in it. For the cause of Communism I would have fought the world and for its triumph I would have laid dawn my life without a moment's thought or hesitation. When they wanted to compliment someone among the Communists, they compared him to me. I was a shining example. I worked for the party, I collected funds to further its interests, I canvassed for subscribers to our party publication. Nine years after the war I believed this with an indomitable faith that did not waver for a single instant. I waited patiently. I was not interested in reports that this or that individual brought from Slovakia. If I heard someone say that it was now worse there than it ever had been, I immediately countered the observation in my own mind as an example of base paid propaganda aimed against Communism and I reacted with intensified effort in behalf of "world peace," that beguiling cloak that effectively conceals the true nature of Communist dictatorship all the world over. The time will come, I repeated prophetically on every possible accasion and I uttered the words with vehemence and fiery emphasis. And it did come. My family in Slovakia included a number of Communists and I believed everything that they wrote me, that there is plenty in the land, that absolute justice is accorded to everyone, that life is better than it ever had been there. I believed them then but I believe them no longer. Twenty-five years of Communism in Slovakia disillusioned me and cured me effectively. A friend of mine was going over and I wanted to go and to stay there permanently. I planned to sell all that I had here before leaving. I wanted to go to build the homeland for the proletariat, the paradise for workers of which I had fondly dreamed for so many years but my wife and children were unwilling. And today I thank them and 92 SLOVAKIA I thank God that I did not go, for r would have perished there miserably as did thousands of other Communists like m,;;, men of whom there are very many more in the world. My Communist friend left. He was tougher and more impassioned than I. He left and within half a year he returned. He said very little to others, for he feared reprisals on his family and relatives in Slovakia and he even feared for his own life and welfare. He has a fine family, a wife and children; he owns a car and has some savings in the bank. He opened up and told me everything two years ago. He was deathly pale as he confided in me, for was not sure but that I might betray him. Ever since that day, I have a changed attitude toward reports from Slovakia. I began to see with my eyes wide open. My brother-in-law who was sending me those glorified accounts of Communist achievements was a base scoundrel and a sot who would have denounced or murdered his very mother for drink. The friend who was definitely cured of Communism by his visit to Slovakia put this question to me : Do you know what is the greatest source of sustenance for our people who suffer indescribably at home? - THE FAITH_ And their most powerful and invincible helper is GOD. He whom we treated as an object of ridicule. It was in the course of this discussion thit I first began to doubt. Two years passed from the time of that visit. It was twenty-three years from the time that power passed into the hands of the Communists in Slovakia. I was fifty years since the Reds had seized power in Russia, in the Ukraine and elsewhere. And these years did not suffice-not for the evclution of a paradise but not even for the betterment of life in general. A million times I asked myself why. Why? For is not the government of the ploretariat to be concerned in the first place about the food supply, the housing, the security and well-being of the ploretariat? It heaps all the excuses and the reasons for failure upon others and it dins upon those who never saw the rest of the world that the best of life exists in Russia and in those countries and places where the Communists are in control. 93 SLOVAKIA My enthusiasm cooled. Subsequent months brought a complete r evelation and I was cured of Communism forever. I made it a point to speak with scores of people who had been in Slovakia and in similar countries. Always it was in privatf:) with just the two of us exchanging views. I wanted to know the unvarnished truth about how they lived-the Slovaks, the Poles, and the others who were under the Reds . There came a message from my distressed father : My son, on bared knees pray daily that God may preserve you from the adversities upon which we have fallen here . It brought me to my knees. Never in my life had I prayed as I did then . I openly wept like a child; I clasped my hands fervently and begged to be forgiven for all those insults with which I had toasted God. I went out to find a church, to find a priest, a confessional and peace of soul. Today I pray with all my heart for those pitiable victims that languish in that Communist "paradise" which is more truthfully termed a hell. There is no justice there, no truth, no peace. There is only fear, terror, destitution and misery, insecurity and a protracted death in life. There lies on the table before me the last letter I have had from my father. They have stripped him of all that he had saved up in the sweat of his brow-his farmlands , his horses, his cows. And they want to commit him to a poorhouse where people do not live but die, for Communism does in fact talk about an old age pension but allots to the aged so little that they waste away, they starve, they die . "They have taken away everything," he writes, " and they keep taking- from everybody. You would actually have to weep over the injustices which are perpetrated upon us. As I write the letter, my eyes are filled with tears of blood; my heart is oppressed with extreme distress. I am overwhelmed not for myself alone but rather for the nation. Pray that God may save and protect you and deliver us before we perish. The situation is becoming worse and worse." J. V.  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 I Was a Communist Description An account of the resource J. V. Slovakia, Vol. 20 (No. 43), 1970 pp. 90-93 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1970 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Anonymous LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/ec550c677d62ab56f7bdecb75deac4df.pdf 5b42a7eefdb03b512ec55b30ecbbf712 PDF Text Text 52 SLOVAKIA The Autonomy Discourse in Parliamentary Debates during the First Czechoslovak Republic and after the Velvet Revolution 1 E li sabeth Bakke " We approve the political progra m, w hi ch e ndeavors to unite the Czec hs a nd Slovaks in[to] an indepe nd e nt state of the Czech la nd s and Slovakia. Slovakia sha ll ha ve its own ad mini strati o n, its ow n parli ament and its own courts. The Slovak language shall be the officia l language in the sc hoo l[s], in office[sl and in public li fe in genera l. The Czecho-Slovak state sha ll be a republic , its constitution sha ll be democratic. [ ...] The detail ed reg ulati o ns for the estab lishment of the Czecho-Slovak state are left to the li berated Czechs and Slovaks and the ir lega l representati ves." The Pittsburgh Agreement of May 30th, 1918 2 ' An earli er version of thi s art icle was presented at the 34th National Conven ti on of the AAASS in Pittsburgh. 2 1- 24 November. 2002. 2 Thi s Agreeme nt was signed by the Slovak League of America . th e Czech National A lli ance. th e Al li ance of Czec h Ca th oli cs. representing Czech and Slovak emigrc organi zations in the USA. and T omas G. M asaryk. President of the Czechos lovak ati ona l Council in Pari s. I have quoted th e Engli sh version from The Slovaks and the Pittsburgh Pact (Chicago: Th e Slova k Cath ol ic Federati on of America. 1934). 27. The Slovak ori gin al is reprinted in Edvard Benes. Svetov,i valka a nase revoluce. Vol. Ill (Dokumenty). (Prague: C in-Orbis . 1929) . 365. See also M. Mark Stolarik. 'The Role of Amer ican Slova ks in th e C rea tion of Czecho-S lovak ia. 19 14- 19 18"'. �SLOVAKIA 53 Slovak autonomy was on the agenda throughout Czechoslovakia 's 74 years of existence, from the beginning to the bitter end. Although it may be argued that inexperienced politicians, short deadlines , rigid constitutional amendment procedures and conflicting economic priorities also played a role in the breakup, the long-term conflict that drove Czechoslovakia apart were the closely-related matters of political autonomy and recognition of the Slovaks as a separate nation. 3 What was at stake was not only the institutional set-up and division of power; for the Slovaks, separate political institutions were also important symbols of national individuality and ownership to the shared Czecho-Slovak state. The roots of the conflict go back to the founding of Czechoslovakia in October of 19 I 8. The Czechs and Slovaks had no prior shared statehood tradition s (save perhaps Great Moravia in the ninth century), and independence was not even on the agenda before World War I. Starting in 1915, the independence movement abroad, with Tomas G. Masaryk at the helm, tried to convince the Allies that a Czechoslovak Republic should be established, invoking the principle of national self-determination on behalf of the "Czechoslovak nation. " In the First Czechoslovak Republic the idea that the Czechs and Slovaks were one nation (albeit with two tribes) became official state ideology , and it went hand-in-hand with political centralism. 4 Slovak Studies VIII (Rome, 1968) for a very interesting acco unt of the circumsta nces that led to its signin g and the subseq uent course of even ts in th e new lyfounded Repub lic. 3 For a discussion of the breakup see Eric Stein , Czecho/Slovakia. Ethnic Conflict, Constitutional Fissure. Negotiated Breakup (A nn Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1997); Jirf Musil , ed., The End of Czechoslovakia (Budapest: Central European University Press, 1995 ); Jan Rychlfk, Rozpad Ceskoslovenska . Cesko-slovenske vztahy 1989- 1992 (Bratis lava : AEP, 2002); Carol Skalnik Leff, The Czech and Slovak Republics. Nation Versus State (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1997). 4 For details see Elisabeth Bakke, Doomed to Failure? The Czechoslovak Nation Project and the Slovak Autonomist Reaction 19/9- 1938 (Oslo: Series of Dissertations submitted to the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Un iversity of Oslo, no. 11 /1999). �SLOVAKIA 54 Howeve r, a sub sta nti al pa rt of th e Sl ova k po liti ca l e lite opposed both , de ma ndir.g recog nition of the Slovak nati on and autonomy fo r Slovaki a. The Pittsburgh Agreeme nt became important both beca use it defin ed the contents of Slovak a utonomy and because Masaryk had signed it. Afte r World War II , Czec hos lovaki sm was abandoned, but poli ti ca l centra li sm was not, and th e federali zati on of Czech os lov aki a aft er the Sov iet in vas ion in 1968 did not give Slovak po liti ca l insti tution s any rea l dec ision-m aking power. Afte r the Ve lvet Revo lution in 1989, political autonomy for Slovaki a reappeared on the agenda, and became a major iss ue in the di spute over C zechos lovaki a's new constitution . The main purpose of the present article is to co mpare the autonomy de bates durin g the First Republic and after the Ve lve t Re volu ti o n, in orde r to establi sh continuity and change. The research ques ti o ns are: I . How were the de mands fo r autonomy substa nti ated, and what were the main argume nts aga inst it? 2. Wh at role did the princ ipl e of nation al se lf-de te rmin ati on pl ay in the debates in the two peri ods? The First Re public was a unitary state , and autonom y as such was ne ver on the age nda of the Parliame nt in the interwar pe ri od. Of th e three a utonom y proposa ls th at made it to th e Parli a me nt, two were bl oc ked in committees, whil e the third was adopted without any de bate after th e fa teful Muni c h agree me nt in 1938. My analys is of the inte rwar di sco urse is th e refore based o n a se lec ti o n of govern me nt in a ugurati on de bates and budgetary debates, as we ll as c lippings from Slovak, the main autono mi st ne wspaper. 5 After 1989 seve ral de bates were re levant to the autono my di scourse: In the Federal Parliament I have analyzed the 1990 " hyphen de bate," the de bate on the compete ncy law , a nd the two de bates about the break-up of Czechos lovaki a in the fa ll of 1992. In the res- ' T he analys is of the debate in the interwar period is a condensed version of a part of Chapter 13 of my PhD di ssertat ion. For detai ls see Bakke (ibid. 1999). �SLOVAKIA 55 pec ti ve Czech and Sl ovak Nati onal Council s (Republi c Asse mblies), I have analyzed the 1992 debates on the Sl ovak D ecl aration of Sovereignty, the Slovak Con stitution, and the Czech Constituti on. I will structure the arti cle around the foll owin g three points: I . Th e in stituti onal set-up and th e contents of the autonomy demands. 2. The co mpos iti on and stability of the elite constellations on either side of the conflict. 3. The main arg uments a) in favor of autonomy and b) against autonomy. wi th spec ial emphas is on how they relate to the principle of nati onal sel f-determinati on. 1. The Institutional Set-up and the Contents of the Autonomy Demandi Czec hos lovakia was from the outset presented as the nati on-state of the Czechos lovak nation. 6 Thi s was codified in the 1920 Constituti on, which al so gave the First Czechos lovak Republic a unitary, centrali zed state form and a bi ca meral leg islature. Czec hos lovaki a was at first di vided into 22 co unties, but the county sys tem was implemented onl y in Sl ovaki a and fro m 1928 , four prov inces repl aced the counties (see tabl e I ). In the interw ar peri od, the demands for autonomy were defined in term s of separate Sl ovak instituti ons with dec ision-making powers in matters of vital importance for th e Slovaks as a nati on. The core demands were that Sl ovaki a should have " its own admini strati on, its own parli ament and its ow n co urts," cf. the Pittsburgh Ag reement. M ost of the autonomy proposa ls also included a separate Sl ovak government, but none of the three autonomy proposals that made it into the Parli ament went beyond an asymmetric federati on.7 " In reality. th e Czec hs and Slovaks togeth er comprised 65.5 percent of the populati on. Germans 23.4 percent. Magyars 5.6 percent. Ruthenians 3.5 percen t. Jews 1.4 perce nt. and Po les 0.6 percen t in the 1921 cens us. See Scftanr lidu v repub lice ceskosloven.~ke ze dne 15. unora I 921. Dfl I. (Prague: Statnf ufad statistick y. I 924 ). 7 See Bakke (ibid .. 1999). 465- 77 for a more detailed overv iew of the autonomy proposa ls. See also James Ramon Fe lak. '·A t the Price of the Republic ··. Hlinka ·s �SLOVAKIA 56 The 1938 Constitutional a me ndm ent that inaugurated the shortli ved Second Republi c was based on the third a utonomy proposal of the Slovak People 's Party, which had been submitted in August 1938. The Second Re public co mbined a federa l state form with separate Slovak institutions : a leg islat ive asse mbl y (D iet), a se parate administration and separate co urts. The Slovak gove rnme nt was acco untabl e to the Die t, and received exec uti ve power in all matters under its juri sdi ction , as we ll as many matters unde r central jurisdiction. Slovak became the officia l lang uage in S lovakia, and separate c iti zenship was introduced. After World War II , the Czechos lovak govern me nt recognized the S lovaks as a separate nati on a nd the Slovak National Co un ci l (w hi c h de fac to controlled the liberated parts of Slovakia) as its representative. An exec utive Board of Commissioners was also establi shed. However, through the three Prague agreements and the two first postwar constituti ons, Slovak institution s were gradua ll y stripped of their power and co mpete nce, and Czechoslovakia return ed to a centrali st, unitary state fo rm , with a unicamera l leg is lature. 8 Part of the reaso n for the c la mpdow n o n the Slovak organs was the victory of the De mocratic Party in the 1946 e lectio ns, w hi c h convinced the Communists th at Slovakia could not be tru sted. 9 Slovak People ·s Party. 1929-J 938 (Pi tt sburgh: Pittsburgh University Press, I 994). especially pp. 30, 80- 1, 19 1- 92. ij The 1960 Constitution aboli shed the Board of Commissioners. See Program prve dom;Jcf v/ady repub liky vlady narodnf fronty Cechu a Slovaku, (Prag ue: Mini sterstvo l nformacf. 1945). I 6-17: Jaros lav Chovanec & Peter Mozolfk, Historicke a statopravne korene sa mostatn ost i slovenskej republiky , (Yydavatel's tvo Procom , Brati slava, 1994), 38, 11 4- 122; Michal Barn ovsky. " Tri prazske dohody", in Cesko- slovenske vztahy - Slovensko-ceske vzthhy (Liberec: Technick a Un i verzi ta, 1998). 119 ff.: Elisabeth Bakke, "The Principle of National Self-de termination in Czechoslovak Consti tuti ons 1920- 1992" . CEPSR. no. I O (2002), 173- 98 . 9 The Democratic Party received 62 .0 percent of th e votes in Slovakia. See Michal Barnovsky & Edita l vanickova, eds, Prve povojnove volby v strednej a j uhovychod- nej Eur6pe (Bratislava: VEDA, 1998). 2 15- 18. �57 SLOVAKIA Table 1: State Form, Administrative Structure and Institutional Set-up in Czechoslovak Constitutions and Constitutional Amendments Year 1920 State-forming State form Administrative nation Czechoslovak Un itary 22 co unties : Centra lized, from 1928 four bicameral legislature nation Institutional set-up structure provinces 1938 Czech and Federal Slovak nations 1948 Czech and Unitary Slovak nations Four provi nces : Asymmetric: Bohem ia. M ora- bicamera l via, Slovak ia. & separate Slovak Sub-Carpathian instituti ons with Ruthenia extensi ve powers Two prov inces , Asy mmetric; The Czech lands unicamera l & separate and Slovak ia Slovak inst itutions with lim ited powers 1960 Czech and Uni ta ry Slovak nati ons Two prov inces, Asymme tric: unicame- the Czech lands ra l & separate Slovak and Slovak ia institut ions with more l imited powers 1968 Czech and Federal Slovak nations Two repub lics, Symmetric: bicameral, T he Czech Re- federa l & separate publ ic and the Czech and Slovak Slovak Republ ic institut ions Source: A ll cons titutions can be found in Sbfrka zakonii a naHzenf stalU ceskoslovenskeho. During the Prag ue Spring of 1968, the questi on of Slovak autonomy reappeared on the agenda. The initi ati ve to amend the constituti on ca me from the Slovak Nati onal Council , and thi s time a sy mmetri c so luti on was pro posed, sy mboli zing the equality of the two state-forming nati ons. 10 Accordin g to the 1968 Constitution, Czecho- ' 0 T he process towards federa li za ti on is doc umented in Jozef Za tk uli ak, Fede- ra lizacia Ceskoslovenskeho Staw 1968- 1970. Vznik Cesko-sl ovenskej fede racie �SLOVAKIA 58 slovakia became a federation of two republics, the Czech and th e Slovak Republic s, each with their ow n assemblies (National Councils), and their own govern ments. The bicameral federal legis lature consisted of the proporti onall y elected Chamber of the Peop le, and the Chamber of Nations where the two Republics were represented on equal terms. For important dec isions, a majority was req uired in the Peop le's chamber, as we ll as in the separate Czech and Slovak parts of the Chamber of Nations, in effect giving the Slovaks veto powers. The 1968 Constitution provided the in stitutional foundations for Slovak autonomy, but in practice the political system remained centralized. The original division of power in the 1968 Constitution changed in favor of the federal level during the "Normali zation " of th e early 1970s, and fo rmal decision-making rul es and divi sion of powers did not matter much during Communism . As Carol Skalnik Leff has pointed out, however, federation plu s democra ti zation was a power eq uation. 11 After the Velvet Revo lution in 1989, th e 1968 Constitution acquired new importance; first , it determined the procedures for the adoption of a new constitution (a three-fifths majority in all parts of the federal parliament), and second, it became the point of departure for the negoti ati ons about the contents of a new constitutional settl ement. Under th e new, democratic co nditi ons, the Slovak minorit y had an excell ent bargaining position , since any cons ti tutional settlement required Slovak co nsent. After 1989 the questi on was, therefore, not whether Slovakia should have autonomy, but the ex tent of that autonomy. Separate Slovak institutions were taken for roku 1968 (B rn o: Nak ladatelstvi Doplnek, 1996). See also Jaros lav Krejci & Pave l Machonin , Czechos lovakia 19/8- 92. A U1bora to1y for Social Change (London: Macmill an, I 996), 45-7: Chovanec & Mozolik, (op.cit. , I 994). 48-52: Ales Gerloch . Jiri Hrebej & Vladimir Zoubek. Us tavnf sys tem Ceske republiky ( Prague: Prospektrum, 1999). 51-4 : Carol Skalni k Leff, National Conf7ict in Czechoslo vakia (Princeton: Princeton University Press, I 988), 243 ff. 11 Leff, 132-33. �SLOVAKIA 59 granted, and autonomy now became a matter of allocating more decision-making power to the Republics. The " hyphen delJate" in the sprin g of 1990 was a foreboding of the problems that lay ahead. It was Pres ide nt Vaclav Havel who inadvertently started it. In Janu ary of 1990, without prior consultations, he submitted a constitutional amendment to the federal Parliament, proposing to drop the word "Soc iali st" from the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic . Much to hi s and many others' surpri se, thi s trigged a bitter di spute about whether the name of the Republic should be spelled with or without a hyphe n. The main alternatives were the "Czec ho-S lovak Republic ," favored by a majority of the Slovaks, and the "Czechoslovak Federal Republic ," favored by a majority of the Czechs. Stalemate in the federal Parliament at first resulted in the absurd dec ision to spe ll the word "Czechoslovak" in one word in the Czech Republic and with a hyphen in Slovakia. Thi s was presented as a concession to "S lovak grammar. " This deci sion caused demonstration s in Slovakia, after which the Parliament made a hasty retreat and settled for the "Czech and Slovak Federal Republic ." 12 Negotiations about a new Czechoslovak Constitution started after the elections in June of 1990, but soon ran into trouble. As before, the Czech political elite was generally in favor of more centralized solutions than the Slovaks. The difference was that the Czech majority , rea li zing that a unitary state was not an option , now favored a " function al federation," while the majority of the Slovak political elite increas ing ly leaned toward s confederal rather than federal so lutions. 13 A temporary settl e me nt was reached in the Competency Law 12 Milan Sutovec. Semi6za aka politikum alebo ·'pomlckova vojna." (Bra ti slava: Kalli gram , I 999). 299 ff. 13 Opinion polls cons istently showed th at th e public in the Czech Republic preferred a unitary state. with a federation as the second most popular option. while a confederation never exceeded 6 percent support. By con trast, a confedera ti on or a federation was th e preferred state form in Slovakia. See table 12.3. in Sharon L. Wolchik, ''The Politi cs of Transition and the Break-up of Czechos lovakia," in Jiff Musil. ed. , op.cit.. 235. �SLOVAKIA 60 of December 1990, whi c h more-or-less reestabli shed the co mpetency di vision of the 1968 Constitutio n. However, whil e thi s was abo ut as fa r as the Czechs we re w illing to go , the S lova ks looked at the Co mpete ncy Law merely as a po int of departure fo r further negoti ati ons. The core of the confli ct was the all ocati on of compe te nce and power in two specific areas: Eco nomi c po li cy a nd intern ati ona l re lations. The majority of the S lovak elite pressed fo r S lovak " visibility" in intern ati ona l rel ati ons, and wanted to all ocate more power in economi c matte rs to the Republics . The Czec h side wanted the federa l leve l to be stron g e nough to carry o ut the econo mi c reform s necessar y fo r th e tra ns iti o n to a market econo my, and wanted th e state internati onall y to speak with one vo ice . The negoti atio ns fa il ed to produce an acceptabl e co mpromi se befo re the 1992 elections, 14 and since the vic torious Czec h and Sl ovak parti es di sag reed fund ame nta ll y o n the iss ues of econo mic reform and state fo rm , they dec ided to di vide the state. It turn ed out th at both sides prefe rred a break-up rathe r than accepting the favo red state form of the othe r party, des pite the fac t that before the e lec ti ons, the future ex iste nce of Czec hos lovak ia was still ta ke n fo r granted . The onl y party th at advocated secess io n w as the Sl ova k Nationa l Party. 2. The Composition and Stability of the Elite Constellations In the inter- war peri od, the e lite conste ll atio ns fac in g eac h other were c lear-cut and quite stable. A clear majority of the Czec hos lovak parties was ce ntra li st a nd in fa vor of Czechoslo vaki sm. Thi s camp co mpri sed the e ntire Czech political e lite and a substanti al pa rt of the Slovak political e lite. Inte restingly, the major ce ntrali st pl ayers in the interw ar clashes about autonomy in the Parli ame nt were Slovak s, not Czec hs, a nd like th e ir adversaries, they were posin g as the c ha mpi ons of Slovak inte rests/the Slovak nati on. The two most influe nti al 14 T he negoti ators did reach a co mpromi se in the spring of 1992, but th is was turned down by th e pres idium of th e Slovak Nati onal Counci l. See Rychl fk , Roz pad. 2 18- 20. �SLOVAKIA 61 Slovak centrali sts were the Agrarian Mi Ian Hodza ( 1878- I 944) and the Social Democrat I van Derer ( 1884- 1973). They represented their parties in the Parli ament during the entire First Republi c and betwee n th em, the two men served as mini sters for 23 yea rs. Milan Hodza even became the first Slovak Prime Mini ster in 1935. Apart from these two, the A grarian Anton Stefanek ( I 877-1964) and the Czechoslovak National Socialist Igor Hrusovsky ( 1872- 1937), both seasoned parli amentari ans, played an espec iall y acti ve role in th e debates. By co ntrast, two Slovak parti es represented th e autonomist ca mp. arguing that the Slovaks were a nation of their own and, therefore, entitl ed to autonomy. 15 The larges t autonomi st party was the Slovak Peopl e's Party . Its co-founder and chairman Andrej Hlinka ( 1864- 1938), whose name was added to the party's title in 1925, was a dominatin g fi gure in the stru gg le for Slovak autonomy until hi s death in August of 1938. 16 Ferdinand (Ferdi s) Juriga ( 1878-1950) had been the onl y Slovak deputy in th e Hungari an Parli ament of 19 14 and he continued to defend Slovak autonomy in the Parliament also of the First Republi c. Jozef Ti so ( 1887- 1947) played an important role in the 1930s, as did editor-in-chief of Slovak, Karol Sidor ( 1901 - 53). The Slovak Nati onal Party never had more than one deputy - its chairman M artin Razus ( 1888- 1937) - and pl ayed a more peripheral role. After the Velvet Revolution, elite constellations were more vo latile. The Slovak political elite was from the outset divided on the quest ion of state form, the preferred so lution s ranging from mildl y federa li st to a loose confederat ion. From 1991 the Slovak National Party started to advocate independence, but already in 1990 th e chairman of the Christian Democratic Movement, Jan Carnogursky, argued th at Slovakia should enter the European Community as an in- " In addition. some of th e national minority parties and the Communists su pported autonomy. but for other reasons. '" See Felak. Ac Che Price of Che Republic. 1994: A lena Bartl ova. A ndrej Hlinka. ( Bratislava: Obzor. 1991 ). �SLOVAKIA 62 de pende nt state. Hi s party was earl y in favo r of a confederal so luti on, but o nl y as a te mporary so luti on, until both Re publi cs joined the European Community. 17 Public Aga inst Vi o le nce was be ing pulled in o ppos ite direc ti o ns, and whe n the c irc le around Vl adimfr Mec ia r broke o ut and fo rmed the Moveme nt fo r a De mocrati c Slovaki a in 1991 , the liberal , federa li st oriented w in g re ma ined , whil e the national populi sts w ith confedera l lea nings fo ll owed Mec iar. In the 1992 e lecti on Mec iar' s Move me nt fo r a De mocrati c S lovaki a appeared as the main champion of Slovak interests. The Czec h politica l e lite was fro m the o utset more indiffe rent to the nati onal questi on. Wh ile Public Aga inst Vi o le nce had the nati onal questi o n as o ne of its top pri o riti es , it was co mpl ete ly absent fro m the agenda of C ivic Forum in the first e lecti o n. In stead , " bac k to Eu ro pe" and e limination of communi sm we re the top pri oriti es. 18 Espec iall y after the " ma nagers" aro und Vac lav Kl aus won over the di ss ide nt w in g of C ivic Forum in 199 1, the leadin g Czec h po liti ca l e lite united in favo r of a stro ng fe derati o n. In th e 1992 e lec ti o n Kl aus' C ivic De mocratic Party ca me o ut as the main c hampi on of a federa l so luti on. The Move me nt fo r a De mocrati c S lovaki a and the C ivi c De mocrati c Party won the e lecti ons in th e ir respective Re publics, whil e parti es th at took a more mode rate stand on the questi on of state fo rm lost. Once the victors w ith Vac lav Kl aus and Vl adimfr Mec iar at the he lm had dec ided to di vide the state, fo rmer ene mi es beca me alli es, and the e lite conste ll ati ons changed according ly. The fo rme r oppone nts in the negoti ati o ns on state fo rm now united in favo r of a break-up , aga inst a motl ey c rew of oppos ition parti es, co mpri sing Czec h and Slovak Communi st and Soc ial De mocrati c parties, as we ll as Miros lav Slade k 's ultra- nati ona li st Republican Party of C zec hoslo vaki a. 17 Stein , Czecho/Slovakia. 67 . 93-4. '~Oskar Krejci. Kniha o volbich. (Prag ue: Victori a Pu bli sh ing. 1994). 2 10- 11. �SLOVAKIA 63 3. The Arguments in Favor of Autonomy If we turn to the actual arg ume nts, the main impress ion is that there were e lements of continuity as well as c ha nge when we go from the interwar period to the post-Communist period. On the one hand, the argume nts in favor of autonomy were located within the sa me nat io nalist di sco urse in both periods . On the other hand , the composition of the arg uments in favor of autonomy changed, and so did the contents of the autonomy demands, as we have seen. In the interwar period, the principle of national se lf-determination was used as an arg ument in favor of an asymmetric federation; after 1989 it was first used as an argument in favor of confederal so lutions, and then in favor of an independent Slovak state. Arguments in Favor of Autonomy During the First Republic In the inter-war period , the cornerstone of the a utonomists was the existence of an individual and sovereign Slovak nation , and the core message was that this Slovak nation was entitl ed to auto nomy. The premi se linkin g national identity to the matter of state form was the principle of national se lf-determination, understood as the ri ght of cu ltu ra ll y distinct nation s to se lf-governance. 19 In the a utonomist scheme, the Slovak nation had used thi s right to divorce the Magyars and join the Czec hs in a Czech and Slovak nation-state. Moreove r, as a free a nd equa l nation , the S lovaks were entit led to manage the ir own affairs and, therefore , to autonomo us political institutions. In practice, autonomy demands were always made on be half of Slovakia, yet for the a utonomists this amo unted to the same , s ince they regarded Slovakia as the homeland of the Slovaks, despite its substantial national minoriti es. 19 The principle of national self-determination can be interpreted in at least two other ways: as the right of the people to choose their government without coercion , i.e. popular sovereig nty - or as th e right of independent states to manage their affa irs without foreign intervention. See e.g. 0yvind 0sterud, Nasjonenes selvbestemmel- sesrett. (Oslo: Un iversitetsforlaget. 1984). 150 ff. �64 SLOVAKIA The Slovak a uto nomi sts argued a lon g three ma in lin es. First, they argued that Slovakia was discriminated aga in st in vario us ways, and that autono my was necessary to a ll eviate S lovakia's ill s. Second , they arg ued that Slovakia was entit led to auto no my by virtu e of various " co ntrac ts" (e.g. th e Pittsburgh Agreement). Finally, they argued that the Slovaks had the right to auto nom y s impl y because they were a natio n (the classical nation ali st arg umen t). The point of departure for the deprivation mguments was that the Slovaks were an indi vid ua l nati o n wit h separate nationa l interests, and that these national interests were not properly loo ked after under th e present centrali zed state form. Here S lovak grievances were turned into reasons for autonomy, and autonomy was the so lution to everythin g. Most of the gr ieva nce arguments for auton o my were associated with the use of Slovak as the offic ial lang uage in Slovakia and w ith (w hite-co llar) jobs fo r the Slovak inte lli gentsia. The sig na l words were " Slovak bread" . For in sta nce, before th e 1929 e lec ti on, the a utonomi st news paper Slovak argued that " a uto nomy does no t only mean political ri g hts, but a lso bread. When we get our own administration , our ow n asse mbly and our own courts, only Slovaks will be e mpl oyed there. [ ... ] The auton o mo us adm ini strati o n of the Slova k home land will compel the e mployers first a nd foremost to gran t the Slovaks work and bread." 20 Accord in g to the contract oriented lin e of arg um e nts , Slovakia had the right to autonomy by virtue of certai n (a ll eged ly) binding doc um e nts or "co ntracts". The point of departure was again that the Slovaks were an indi vidu a l and sovere ig n natio n, and th at S lovakia was the ho me la nd of the Slovaks. The argume nt was that Slovakia had been promised autono my, a nd th at thi s promise was lega ll y bindin g. However, fo r a co ntract to be va lid , it must be stipul ated th at the sig natori es had the right to s ig n agreements on behalf of those they were said to represent - in this case th e Czec h and Slovak nati o ns. 20 Slovak no. 240, 22 October I929. p. 3. �SLOVAKIA 65 Several of the many declarations and agreements that were formulated during World War I were used as arguments for (or against) autonomy . However, two documents stand out: The Pittsburgh Agreement of May 30th , 1918, and the Martin Declaration of October 30th , 1918. The former was a clear asset, while the latter soon became a liability (see next subsection). The Martin Declaration had been adopted at an as sembly of all Slovak political parties in Turciansky Svaty Martin. For the autonomists , the significance of the Martin Declaration was that through this act, the Slovaks had voluntarily joined the Czechs as equal s in one state, and they had therefore an equally large part in its founding as the Czechs. Moreover, as an equal nation which had entered the state voluntarily, the Slovaks had the right to autonomy. In effect, the autonomi sts gave the Martin declaration state-forming significance. This was also reflected in repeated attempts to turn October 30th into a national holiday. Compared to the other wartime declarations , however, the Pittsburgh Agreement had some obvious advantages. First and foremost , it had greater symbolic potential as an official agreement binding the government, because Czechoslovakia's first president and co-founder Tomas G. Masaryk had signed it, along with Czech and Slovak emigre leaders in the United States. 2 1 Second, the Agreement contained the most important autonomy demands. From the moment the Pittsburgh Agreement became known in Slovakia in the spring of 1919, it was invoked in every single debate where autonomy was " M asaryk was not Pres ident at th e tim e, of course, but on the initi ati ve of th e Slov ak L eague he signed a calliographed version of the Ag ree ment on November 14th. 19 I 8, the very same day he was elected Pres ident of the Republic. Besides. on October 3 1st. 19 18, th e Czec hoslov ak Nation al Committee had declared as bindin g all ac ti ons by members of the pro visional government abroad (including M asaryk). It may be argued that if the decl arati on of the establi shment of th e Czechos lovak state was valid. then the authori zation of Masaryk 's ac ti ons was valid as we ll. In practice, th e va lidity of th e Pittsburgh Agreement was a political , not a lega l matter. For the tex t of the statement , see Benes (op. cit. . 1929). 490. See also M. M ark Stolarik (op. cit. , 1968), 49. �SLOVAKIA 66 mentioned. At first glance, this Agreement would seem to be a stable element in the argumentation for Slovak autonomy. However, the usage varied. Early in the period, the autonomists would present the Pittsburgh Agreement as a Magna Charta granting the Slovaks the right to autonomy. Later, it became more common to present it as a binding contract. The concept of a Magna Charta brings to mind a sovereign granting hi s subjects certain rights and privileges, and it was Masaryk who (implicitly) had this role. When the Pittsburgh Agreement was presented as a contract, the contracting partners were at first the Czech and Slovak nation s. However, especially after it became public knowledge in 1922 that President Masaryk had actually drafted it, he was increasingly presented as a contracting partner. This shift can also be seen as an answer to the centralist claim that the American Czechs and Slovaks were not the leg itimate representatives of their co-nationals at home. However, the third and most common use, especially in the 1930s, was the Pittsburgh Agreement as "our program" or as an expression of the will of the Slovak nation (not just a small faction, but of all Slovaks). The point of departure was that the Slovaks were an individual nation with a natural right to self-determination, and therefore to autonomy if it so wishes. This usage was associated with the third , classical nationalist line of argument, which rested on three premises: I. that the Slovaks were an individual nation ; 2. that nation s had the right to self-determination; and 3. that the Slovak autonomists represented the true will of the Slovak nation - which was autonomy. The second premise was often implicit, while a lot of effort was put into defending Slovak individuality and the right to speak on the Slovaks ' behalf. The autonomists employed two main strategies to substantiate their claim. One strategy was to argue from the majority, which meant resorting to "advanced math". Election results here came in handy. In a parliamentary debate in 1933, Jozef Tiso argued that as a majority, the autonomists had the right to speak on behalf of the �SLOVAKIA 67 Slovak nation. Upon subtracting the stipulated Czech and Magyar votes from the votes cast for the centralist parties in Slovakia, he ended up with 402,320 votes for the centralist parties and 427,443 votes for the Slovak People ' s Party and the Slovak National Party put together. 22 A second strategy was personal attacks (argumentum ad homi- nem), which were often used to defend the existence of a Slovak nation as well as the claim for autonomy. The autonomists would then accuse Slovak deputies belonging to the Czechoslovak parties of being " renegades," " Phari sees," "sodomites" and "careerists ," and, therefore, not worthy of representing the Slovak nation. In his rather biblical language, the chairman of the Slovak People ' s Party, Andrej Hlinka, argued in 1927 that "S lovakia is ours, only we are Slovaks, you sold out the Slovak language for a bowl of Czechoslovak lentils eight years ago. " 23 Continuity and change after 1989 After 1989, the core message was still that the Slovaks were entitled to national se lf-determination "q ua nation," although the contents of this self-determination had changed from an asymmetric federation to confederate so lutions or even independence. The most important changes compared to the interwar period were, first , that there was no longer any need to defend the existence of an individual Slovak nation , since that was taken for granted, and second, a change in th e composition of the arguments. Deprivation arguments and contract oriented arguments were nearly absent, while classical nationalist arguments now dominated , and the principle of national se lf-determination was invoked more explicitly. 22 30 I. schuze poslanecke snemov ny N.S .R.C. dne 29 . li stopadu 1933. in Tesnopi- secke zpravy o scht1zfch poslanecke snemovny Narodnfho shromaidenf republiky ceskoslovenske. Ill. volebnf obdobf. (Prague. 1929- 35), 47- 50. 23 Hlinka, Slovak no. 86, 16 April , I 927 , p. I. "Sodomi tes•· referred to Social Demo- crats. as a play on wo rd s. �SLOVAKIA 68 There are, of co urse, some differe nces between the various debates, which is perha ps not surpri sin g, sin ce the topics of the debates a lso differed. The principle of nati ona l se lf-determi nati o n was most ex plicitly vo iced in the 1992 debates in the federa l parliament (th e two debates on the break- up of Czec hos lovak ia), a nd in the Slovak National Council (the de bates on the S lovak Declaration of Sovere ig nty and the Slovak Constitution ). Conve rse ly. thi s principle was more impli c it in the 1990 " hyphen debate". The " hyphe n debate" is perhaps the most atyp ica l, in terms of topic ("Czecho-Slo vak Republic" with a hyphen versus "Czechos lovak Federal Republic") as we ll as types of arg ume nt. First, thi s is rea ll y the o nl y debate where identity pl ayed any major part. Ide ntity arg uments appeared in two forms: On the one hand , it was arg ued that for the S lovaks, to spe ll the word Czecho-Slovak w ithout a hyphe n was tantamo unt to accepting the abe rrati o n of Czec hos lova ki sm. On the o ther hand , it was arg ued that th e hyphe n ex pressed Slovak nati o na l indi vidu a lity and the equa l standing of the Czech and Slovak nati o ns in the federati o n. Second, the hyphe n debate is the only debate where the Pittsburg h Agreement was me ntion ed more than o nce. However, of th e six speake rs referrin g to it, o ne appea led to the Agreement to substantiate the c laim for a hyph e n in the "Czecho-Slovak" Rep ubli c. (thi s is how the word was spelled in the orig ina l), while the rest bas ically referred to it as an express io n of the eq ual status of the two natio ns e ntering the state , or as a part of the hi storical narrative lead ing up to the federalization. Nobody referred to it as a contrac t, and the Czech National Socialist Bi anka Hykova even quoted Masaryk to the effect that it was o nl y a n agreement between American Czechs and Slovaks. 2-1 Contract oriented arguments thus disappeared a ltogeth er, and refere nces to the Pittsburg h Agreeme nt and/or the Martin Dec lara20 See Zprava o 26. spolecne sc hi'1zi snemovny lidu a snemovny narodu. 29.3. 1990. in Federalnf shromaidenf Ceskoslovenske socialisticke republiky V. vo lebnf obdobf. ( 1986-90), 25 1. 253 , 256, 270, 304. �SLOVAKIA 69 tion were rare. A utonomy was ex plicitly mentioned in the contex t of the Pittsburgh Ag reement onl y once, in the second debate abou t th e brea k-up of th e state. According to I va n Simko from the Chri stian Democratic Movement, Slovak organization s in the U nited States had made an agreement wi th Masaryk "as a leading personality of Czech po litica l li fe" to fo rm a shared state where Sl ovaki a was to have an autonomous position. Thi s agreement was unfortun ately not honored , he argued. 25 Depri vation arg uments were al so rare . The phrase " Slovak bread" occurred onl y once: In the first debate on the break -up of the state in September 1992, Michal Ko vac from the Mo ve ment for a Democratic Slovaki a ( later to beco me Slovaki a's first pres ident) argued that in a normally functioning federation , it wo uld not be possible for the standard of li ving in Slovaki a to drop as much as it had in onl y two yea rs. In another four years , he argued, " Would we not be in the hi storica l situation w here we have already been, that the Slovak nation would have to go abroad for bread, because there would not be bread for people in Slovakia? And we wou ld be as weakened as we once were under dear father Masaryk." 26 However, in the interw ar period " Slovak bread" was usuall y tantamount to w hite-collar jobs for the yo ung Slovak intelli gentsia in Slovaki a, whi le here th e lack of " bread " obvious ly refers to general unemployment. The probl em was real enough - in the earl y 1990s the unemployment ra te in Slovak ia was three or four times the Czech average. 27 25 Zprava o 5. spo lecne schu zi snemovny lidu a snemo vny narodu. 18.11 . 1992 . 25 .1 1.1 992. in Federi ln f shromiidenf Ceske a S/ovenske Federaci vnf republiky. V il. vo lebnf obdobf. ( 1992). 7 17. 2 '' Zprava o 4. spo lec ne sc huzi snemo vny lidu a snemov ny narodu 29.9. 1992. in Fe- denilni shro m;ii deni Ceske a S/ovenske Federaci vnf republiky. V II. vo lebnf obdobf, ( 1992). 60 I. 27 11. 8 percent in Slovaki a vers us 4. 1 percent in the Czec h Republic in 199 1: 10.3 percent versus 2.6 percent in 1992. Transition reporc I 996. (L ondon. The European Bank fo r Reconstructi on and Deve lopment. I 996). However. th e difference was even larger in 1993. the first yea r of independence. �SLOVAKIA 70 Finall y, compared to the interwar period , classica l nationalist ar g uments were much more co mmon , and the principle of nation al self-determination was invoked more ex plicitly. In the debate about the allocation of competence between the Republics and the Federation it was used as an argument in favor of returnin g to the original 1968 Constitution. 28 Y et, the most co mmon use of th e principle of national self-determination was as an argument in favor of establi shing an independent Slovak state or dividin g Czechoslovakia. There are, however, some interestin g nation al differences between actors in how they used it. Slovak deputies speaking in favor of Slovak independence invoked the principle of national self-determination on behalf of the Slovak nation . They regarded it as an inalienable, natural ri ght, and in one instance, even as a God-given ri ght. 29 An independent Slovak state was presented as the fulfillment of IO00 years of strugg le for Slovak individuality and sovereignty , and as the result of a natural , hi storical process of national emancipation . In the words of HZDS deputy chairman Au gustfn Marian Huska , " the Constitution is the fulfillm ent and lega l enac tment of th e ri ght to se lf-determination . ( ... )To the Slovak s, whose consciousness was molded by more than a thou sand years under foreign rule , the feeling of dependence had become second nature. Slowly, but persistently they formed an awareness of the need for self-determination , the need to search for, find , 28 Zprava o 9. spolecne schi°1zi snemovny lidu a snernovn y narodu. 11 .- 12. 12. 1990. in Federalnf shromaidenf CSFR. ( 1990-1992) . < ww,~ .p,p.c:dckni h/ I 990fs/sbn/-stcn -prot/009,c: hu t./s009077. html/ d> [2 Febru ary, 2004]. See also the debate on th e Slovak declaration of so vereignty. Stenograficka sprava o 3. sch6dzi Slovenskej narodnej rndy konanej 17. j ul a 1992. < www .nr,r.sk/i ndexarch.a,p> ]4 Febru ary. 2004 J. 29 Sedovic (S lovak National Part y), Zprava o 5. spol ec ne schu zi SL a SN , 18. 11 . 1992. in Federalnf shro,mii denf Ceske a Slovenske Federati vnf republiky. VII. volebnf obdobf. ( 1992). 788. �71 SLOVAKIA ex press. a nd at las t rea li ze sovere ig nty." 30 S lova ki a was in o th e r word s pi ctured as a nati on-state a nd the S lova ks as the state-forming nati o n. Howeve r, in the de bates in the Sl ovak Nation a l Counc il , Slovak deputi es, inc ludin g Prime Mini ster Vl adim fr Mec iar, at the same tim e pro mi sed to res pec t the eq ua l rig hts of a ll c iti ze ns, nati o na l minorities and ethni c groups. De puti es re presentin g th e Magyar mino rity in the S lovak Nationa l Counc il recog ni zed o r eve n s uppo rted the S lovak ri g ht to selfde te rmin ati o n, but argued that the princ ipl e sho uld a lso appl y to the nati o na l mino riti es. Thi s was a n arg ume nt in favo r of auto no my. At the same time, Magyar deputi es arg ued th at S lovaki a sho uld not be presented as a nati o n- state in the Co nstituti o n, bec au se it was not nation all y ho moge neous. Founding the state o n the nati o na l princ ipl e meant turnin g the minoriti es into second-c lass c iti zens, they argued . Czec h de puti es co nsiste ntly presented the break-up of Czec hoslovaki a as a matte r of se lf- determinati o n fo r the Slovak nati o n. The 1992 e lecti o n. the Slovak Dec larati o n of Sovere ig nty, and the Slovak Constituti o n were take n as proof th at the S lovak natio n did wa nt inde pende nce. In the words of Prime Mini ste r Vacl av Kl aus of the Czec h Re publi c: "The S lova k nati o n used the o ppo rtunity to co mpl e te its nati o na l e manc ipati o n by fo undin g its own state. Thi s is a rea lity we mu st res pect. " 3 1 T he arg ume nt th at the Czec hs had no ri ght to deny th e S lovak natio n its rig ht to se lf-de termin ati o n was a lso used aga in st ho ld in g a referend um in the Czech Republi c; Czec h c itizens could no t dec ide whet her the S lovaks sho uld beco me a statefo rming natio n o r no t. Interestin g ly, the princi pl e of nati o na l se lf-determin ati o n was not even o nce in voked o n be ha lf of the Czec h na- -'" For Huska ·s statement and the debate on the Const itut ion. see Stenograficka sprava o 5. sch6dzi S lovenskej mirodnej rady kona nej 31. augusta a I . septembra 1992. <www.nr,r. ., k/indexarch.a,p> 14 February . 20041. -' 1 K laus in th e debate on th e Czech Constitution . Ceskii narodnf rada I 992- 1992. Stenoprotokoly. I 0. schuze. 16.- 17. 12. 1992. <www.psp.cz/cknih/ I 992cnr/,tenprot/O I 0schuzi> 13 February. 2004J. �SLOVAKIA 72 tion .32 The reason is obvious: The Czechs did not regard the establi shme nt of the Czec h Republic as a state-formin g process, but as a restoration of Czech statehood , which expl icitly included Czechoslovak state tradition s. But the n the Czechs a lways rega rded Czechoslovakia as their state. Apart from the princ ipl e of national se lf-determination , the main lin e of argument in favor of di ssolution may be termed reali st. It was argued that the federation did not work or that it was a lread y dead, that it was too late to save the state, and now the important thing was to e nd the state in a peaceful , orderly, cultivated , adult and leg itimate fashion , and to ensure good ne ighborl y relation s be twee n the future inde pe nde nt states. 4. The Centralist Arguments Against Autonomy If we turn to the centra li st side, di sco ntinuity 1s th e word that first co mes to mind. In the inte rwar period , the centrali st arg ume nts against a utonomy were located within a nation a li st di sco urse, and mirrored the autonomist arguments to a large ex tent , the difference be ing th at the centralists based the ir arg uments on an a lte rn ative national id eo logy - Czec hos lovakism . After 1989 , the "ce ntra li st" arg um e nts changed profoundly . Czechos lov akism had been abandoned already in 1945 , and the unitary state form in 1968. The "centrali sts" afte r 1989 were , the refore, centra li sts on ly re lative to those advocating confederate so luti ons, a nd in the las t instance, inde pe ndence for Slovakia. " The principle of national se l f-de term ination was invoked on behalf of the .. Moravian nati on" ( 1.5 million . accord ing to the 199 1 census). but then as an argument in favor of Moravi an autonomy in a Czecho-Morav ian federation . See espec ially the speec hes of deputies Jan Jeg la and Jiff Bfl y (both from the Moravi an movement H SD-SMS) . Ceska narodnf rada 1992- 1992 . Stenoprotokoly. 10. sc huze , 16.17. 12. 1992. < www.psp.cz/eknih/ 1992<.:nr/~tenprot/0 I 0schuz/> 13 Febru ary , 2004J. �SLOVAKIA 73 Centralist Arguments during the First Republic ln the inter-war period, the co rnerstone of the ce ntra li st argumentati on was that the Czechs and Slovak s were one Czechoslovak nati on (a lbe it w ith two tri bes), and the core message was th at a ce ntra li zed state form was necessary to preserve nati onal unity and th e integrity of th e state. T he premi se linking nati onal identity to state fo rm was the principl e of nati onal se l f-determin ati on. According to the centrali sts, the Czechos lovak nati on had used its ri ght to self-determ ination to re uni te in a Czechos lovak nati on-state, and thi s unity had to be preserved.·13 A uto nomy for Slovak ia was seen as a th reat to Czechos lovak nationa l unity as we ll as state in tegrity , first because it wo uld dri ve th e two tribes of the Czechos lovak nati on apart, and second , beca use granting Slovaki a autonomy wo ul d be tantamoun t to recogni zing th e Slovak s as a separate nati on, w hich would j eopardi ze the state's ra ison d'etre. Th e centra lists co untered the depri vati on arguments of the autonomi sts in two ways . On the one hand, they denied that the Slovak s were d iscrimin ated agai nst, and on the other hand , they rejec ted autonomy as a suitabl e remedy to Slovaki a's alleged ill s. What was needed to help Slovak ia was not autonomy, but more unity, especiall y economica ll y, the ce ntra li sts argued. Thi s was entirely in line w ith thei r overall "strength th ro ugh unity" message. However, their main artill ery was aimed at the contract-oriented arguments, and espec iall y the Pi tts burgh Agreement. T he main ar guments were: I . T he A meri ca n Czechs and Slovaks were not leg itimate represe ntati ves of th eir co-n ati onals at home, and had no ri ght to dec ide on their behal f; 2. The Pittsburg h Agreement was one of many, and thus had a certain hi stori ca l va lue; but in order to be va lid, it wo uld need the co nse nt of Czechs and Slovak s at home; and 3. Leg itimate Slovak represe ntati ves had conse nted to Czec hos lovak ·'-' There was no big difference between the Slovak autonomists and the Czechoslovak cen tralists in terms of the co ntents of national identity. In both cases . national identi ty was defined in terms of culture. language and ancestry. See Bakke (op.c it. , 1999). especia ll y Chapter I 0. fo r documentati on. �SLOVAKIA 74 national and state unity in the Constitu ti on of 1920, as we ll as at assem bli es before and after Pittsburg h. The first arg ume nt was especia ll y damag in g, since it went to the core of a ll the auto no mi st argument s assoc iated w ith the Pittsburg h Agreement , in va lid atin g the Agreement as a Magna C harta, as a binding contract, a nd as an express io n of the will of the Slovak natio n. It was more difficult for the ce ntra li sts to de nou nce the leg iti macy of Masaryk as a represe ntati ve of the Czec hos lovak state, but the Pres ident did his best to free him se lf and the government of any obligation. Masaryk c la imed that he had sig ned the Pittsburg h Agreement in order to "appease a sma ll Slovak fact io n that dreamed of God know s what sort of independence for Slovakia ," and di smi ssed it as "a loca l pac t between American Czechs and Slovaks, signed by American citizens." 34 There is littl e doubt that Masaryk drafted the Agreement in order to ap pease a part of the Slovak League, but o ne may wo nder why this was important to him if he rega rded the m mere ly as American citizens. I think Mark Stol arik has a va lid point when he arg ues that th e American Slovaks he lped legiti mi ze th e creation of Czechoslovakia in the abse nce of a mandate from the Slovaks in Hungary (caused by war censorship).·15 Masaryk a lso tried , un successfu ll y, to di sc redit the Pittsburg h Agreement through quasi- lega li sti c arguments. In a le tte r to Andrej Hlinka on October 12th, 1929, Masaryk c laimed that the Pittsburgh Agreement was "a forge ry," because at the time, the em ig re organization of the Slovaks present in Pitts burgh , "the [Slovak l Leag ue lega ll y did no t ex ist, and it was recognized by th e Government o nl y in 191 9." Hlinka evide ntl y wrote the Slovak Leag ue , w hi ch retorted th at the re was " no doubt a bout th e a uthe nti c ity of th e Pittsburg h Agreement," and A merica n lega l experts confirmed th at there was no " Tomas G. Masaryk, Svetova revoluce. (Prague: Orbis a Ci n. 1925). 262-263. 35 M . Mark Stolarik (op.c it.. 1968). 54. �SLOVAKIA 75 difference between chartered a nd unc hartered orga ni zatio ns w ith respect to entering such ag ree me nts. 36 T o prop up the claim that leg itim ate Slovak representatives had co nsented to Czec hos lovak nat io na l and state unity after Pitts burg h, the ce ntrali sts preferred to use the Martin Dec lara ti o n of October 30th , 19 18, since thi s Dec laration had been unanimou sly accepted at a n asse mbl y of a ll Slovak po liti ca l part ies. In the beg innin g, they also used the 1920 Constitution for th e same purpose, but the trouble was th at th e Slovak Club in the Constitutional Assembly was coo pted , and arguably not representative of Slovak opinion. The ma in reason why the Martin Dec larati on was s uc h a n asset for the centrali sts, was the sente nce statin g th at the "S lovak nati o n is lingui sti ca ll y as we ll as culturally-historically pa rt of th e unitary Czec ho-Sl ovak nation ." Moreover, the asse mbl y at M artin had demanded nat io na l se lf-dete rmin ation on behalf of this "Czecho-S lovak nat io n," w hil e at the sa me time it was s il e nt on auton omy. The ce ntrali sts thu s used it as proof of Czechoslovak national and state unity, and as proof of the will of the Slovaks to e nter s uc h a unity. (Rumor in Slovakia had it th at the passage o n Czechoslovak national unity was not in the original text. This was , however, refuted in 1923 by Emil Stodola and Samue l Zoch, who had dra fted it).:17 Finally , the centrali sts counte red the c lass ic a l nati o na li st arg ume nt by rejecting the first premi se, that the Slovaks were an indi vidual nation, a nd the third premise. that the autonomi sts represented the tru e w ill of the Slovak nati o n. They presented the Slovaks as a tribe of th e Czechoslovak nati o n, and the Slovak me mbe rs o f the ce nt ral ist parties as the leg itim ate Slovak rep rese ntat ives. At the sa me time, they accepted the seco nd premi se, th at nati o ns had th e -' 6 The letter is pub lished as Document No. 30 in Joseph A. Mikus. Slova kia. A Poli- tica l and Constitutional Histo1y . (Brati slava: SAP. I 995) 209-2 10. The answer of th e Slovak League was published in Slo vak no. 194. 27 August. 1930. p. I. See also M. Mark Stolarik (op. cit.. 1968). 48-49. 52. -' 7 V ac lav Chaloupecky: Martinshi deklilrace 19- 20. II jejf politicke osudy (Prague. I 928). �SLOVAKIA 76 right to sel f-determin ati on, but as we have seen, th ey in vo ked thi s prin ciple on behalf of th e Czec hos lovak nati on. A n I va n Derer specialty was the argument th at i f the Slovak s had been an indi vidual nati on, then they w ould have th e ri ght to secess ion, not onl y to autonomy. 38 B oth sides had their share of argumentati on errors. T he ce ntrali sts argued from maj ority (a rg umentum ad populum ) in the earl y 1920s, w hen they recei ved the maj ority of the Slovak votes, and personal attacks (arg umentum ad hominem) were ac tu all y mos t co mmon on th e centrali st side. probabl y because they fi tted so we ll into their genera l strength-th ro ugh-unity argument. T he Slovak autonomi sts were accused of being " M agyarones" or " new Slovaks," thereby impl y ing th at they had other loya lties or identities,'9 and of being paid by the Hungari an government. In both cases, the M agyars had the ro le of ·'bogeyman" . T hi s M agyarone ca rd was used to expl ain w hy the Slovaks had turned away from the Czechs in the past and in the present , and to co unter th e autonomi st c laim th at they we re the so le leg itimate representati ves of the Slovak nati on. I f the ce ntra li sts believed th at Sl ovak autonomy would j eopardi ze Czechos lovak nati onal unity and th e integrit y of th e state, it w as quite log ica l to acc use th e autonomi sts of being renegades (though probabl y not very smart). Profound Changes after 1989 After 1989 there was not much left of the former ce ntra list arguments, which is not surpri sing considering that Czec hos lovaki srn had 18 • I van Derer. Ceskos/ovensk;i otizkil. (Prague : Orbis. 1935). 88- 90. 39 Both labels we re commonly used about people of Slovak origi n who had become more or less ass imil ated during Hungari an rul e. but who turned back after 19 18. There we re some known M agyarones among the autonomists (chiefl y Franti sek Jehlicka and Yoj tech/ Bela Tuka). but the lead ing figures (Hlin ka. Juri ga) had defended Slovak interests also under Hungary. T he total number of people who ac tu ally switched nati onal affi l iatio n from Magyar to Slovak i n the firs t ten years of Czec hos lovaki a cannot be ascertained prec ise ly, but an educated guess is th at it was betwee n 250.000 and half a million. See Bak ke (op.cit. . 1999). 305- 307. �SLOVAKIA 77 been abandoned and a unitary state form was no longer an option. Th e "centralists" still accepted the principle of nati onal self- determinati on; however, they now recogni zed the Czec hs and Slovaks as equal , state-forming nation s and Czechoslovakia as a Czech and Slova k nati on-state. As long as state form was sti 11 on the agenda, the players on the "centrali st" side were mostly Czechs, and the task was to defend a " function al federation ," which meant to preserve the powers of the federation v is-a-vi s the Republics. Once the break-up of the state appeared on the agenda after the 1992 electi ons, however , th e "centra li st" pl ayers were Czech and Slovak opposition parti es and the task was now to preserve a common Czechoslovak state. In the hy ph en debate, as we ll as in the co mpetenc y debate, Czech deputi es explicitly presented th e federal state form as an express ion of the equality of the Czechs and Slovaks. The main Czech arguments against th e hy phen were that it was divi sive, and that it was unacceptable to the Czech publi c. This probabl y had something to do with the fact that the Second Czecho-Slovak Republi c ( 1938-- 39) was spelled with a hyphen. It was also argued that it was grammati ca ll y probl emati c, th at the original spelling had been without a hyphen (an hi stori ca l argument), and th at the Morav ians would feel offended (an identity argument). The main arguments in favor of a strong federation were that it was necessary in order to carry out the economic reform s and to fulfill Czechos lovakia 's internati onal obligati ons. For the Czech elite, the power and competency of the Czech Republic was irrelevant. In fact, I have onl y found one example of a Czec h deputy in vok ing nat ional interests, and he arg ued th at a confederate solution would be contrary to Czech interests.-lO The Czech and Slovak opposition parties that defended Czec hoslovaki a's ex istence in the debates in the fall of 1992 were mostly Socialists and Communists, but also included the ultra-nati onali st ' 0 M andl er (Libera l Democra ti c Part y). Zprava o 9. spol ecne schuzi SL a S . 11.- 12.1 2. 1990, in Fedenilnf shromaf.difof Ceske a Slovenske Federativnf Republiky V I . vo lebnf obdobf ( 1990), <www.psp.c z/ci,.nih/ 19901\h,bnf!.,tcnprot/009,c:hud ,009()77. htrn ll d> [4 February 2004 1. �78 SLOVAKIA Republican s. Even thoug h this opposition accepted th e principle of national se lf-determination , they mostly interpreted it in the origina l meanin g - as popular sovereignty . The totally dominating line of argument was that the only leg itimate way of dividin g Czechoslovakia according to the principle of se lf-determination was to let the citizens decide by popular vote, a nd that it was unacceptable to divide the state against the will of the peopl e. In the first debate on dissolution , thi s was supported by a hi storical a nalogy. By accident, the debate was held 54 years after the fateful Munich agreement, and the opposition argued that a new Munich was about to happen: Again the fate of the Czechoslovak state wou ld be dec ided without asking the peop le. In the first debate the oppos ition parties advocated a refere ndum before the decision was made; in the second debate a ratifying pl ebisc ite. The motive was obvious ly to save the state, since all opin ion poll s showed that a clear majority was in favor. However, very few deputies ac tually defended the me rits of Czechoslovakia, although a handful of Czechs professed their love for the shared homeland , or invoked the legacy of the founding fathers , mostly T.G. Masary k and Milan Rasti slav Stefanik. Finally, a weak echo of the inte rwar debate could be heard in claims that separation would be a threat to the future existence of the Czech and Slovak nation s (reminiscent of the strength-through-unity argument), and in charges of treason (personal attac ks). Ne ither line of argument was very common. The claim that voting in favor of disso luti on was an act of treason was a preserve of the ultra-nationalist Republican Party of Czec hos lovakia. The debates a lso had their amusing sides, for in stance in the use of metaphors. The federation was alternately see n as a leaking ship, a train being pulled in opposite directions , and an old patient with a severe heart condit ion , whi le the establishment of the new states was compared to giving birth to twins! �SLOVAKIA 79 5. Summary and Conclusion [n the inter-war period, Czechoslovakia was a unitary , centralized state, and autonomy was a matter of separate Slovak institutions. After 1989, Czechoslovakia was a sy mm etric federation of two nationa l Republic s. Separate Slovak inst itutions were, therefore, no longer an iss ue, and autonomy became a matter of allocating more deci s ion-makin g power to the Republic s. However, in both cases, there was a conflict over state form, and in both cases the content of that conflict was how centralized the state should be. As for the actors , the e lite constellations were most stable in the inte rw ar pe riod . However, as lon g as the conflict was about state form, the Czech political elite was in favor of the most centralized so lution , while the Slovak elite was divided . Once the break-up of Czechoslovakia was on the agenda, the re were Czech and Slovak parties on both si des. If we focus on the main arguments on either side, we can obse rve continuity as well as change. Durin g the First Republic , the arguments of both sides were located within a nationali st discourse, but they founded their argume ntation on alternative nation al ideologies. The centralists invoked the principle of national se lf-dete rmination on behalf of the "Czechoslovak nation", the autonomists on behalf of the Slovak nation . After the Velvet Revolution , the autonomist argume nts were still located within a nationali st di scourse, and when the victorious part ies in the 1992 elections dec ided to divide the state, the Czech si de simply adopted the Slovak arg uments. By contrast, the "centrali st" arguments in the debate on state form were mainly economic, while the arguments in the debate on the break-up of Czechoslovakia were procedural. The most strik in g feature of the autonomy di sco urse after 1989 is therefore the asy mmetry of the arguments on both sides. Let us now address th e question of how the arguments related to the principle of national se lf-determination : On the autonomist side, the core message was the sa me in both periods; that the Slovaks were e ntitl ed to autonomy or se lf-determination "qu a nation ." Howeve r, �80 SLOVAKIA the principle of natio na l se lf-d etermin a ti o n was in voked more ex plicitl y after the Velvet Revo lution . On the centra li st side, the principle was used as an argument against a utono my in the interwar period , and w ith a certain twist, against the break-up of Czechos lovakia in 1992 . In the latter case, se lf-de te rmin ation was understood as popul ar sovere ignty - i.e . as a democratic principle. It is also inte res tin g that after 1989, the principl e of nation a l se lfdetermination was consistently invoked on behalf of the Slovaks, not on behalf of the Czechs, other than in the context of Czechoslovakia as the nation- state of two individual , sovere ign nations. In conclusion , the continuity was strongest on the autonomist side , alth ough th e conte nts of nation al se lf-determination c hanged from autonom y to independence. On the "centrali st" side, most of the a mmunition aga inst Slovak autonomy was gone once the concept of a Czechoslovak nation was abandoned. � 52 SLOVAKIA The Autonomy Discourse in Parliamentary Debates during the First Czechoslovak Republic and after the Velvet Revolution 1 E li sabeth Bakke " We approve the political progra m, w hi ch e ndeavors to unite the Czec hs a nd Slovaks in[to] an indepe nd e nt state of the Czech la nd s and Slovakia. Slovakia sha ll ha ve its own ad mini strati o n, its ow n parli ament and its own courts. The Slovak language shall be the officia l language in the sc hoo l[s], in office[sl and in public li fe in genera l. The Czecho-Slovak state sha ll be a republic , its constitution sha ll be democratic. [ ...] The detail ed reg ulati o ns for the estab lishment of the Czecho-Slovak state are left to the li berated Czechs and Slovaks and the ir lega l representati ves." The Pittsburgh Agreement of May 30th, 1918 2 ' An earli er version of thi s art icle was presented at the 34th National Conven ti on of the AAASS in Pittsburgh. 2 1- 24 November. 2002. 2 Thi s Agreeme nt was signed by the Slovak League of America . th e Czech National A lli ance. th e Al li ance of Czec h Ca th oli cs. representing Czech and Slovak emigrc organi zations in the USA. and T omas G. M asaryk. President of the Czechos lovak ati ona l Council in Pari s. I have quoted th e Engli sh version from The Slovaks and the Pittsburgh Pact (Chicago: Th e Slova k Cath ol ic Federati on of America. 1934). 27. The Slovak ori gin al is reprinted in Edvard Benes. Svetov,i valka a nase revoluce. Vol. Ill (Dokumenty). (Prague: C in-Orbis . 1929) . 365. See also M. Mark Stolarik. 'The Role of Amer ican Slova ks in th e C rea tion of Czecho-S lovak ia. 19 14- 19 18"'. �SLOVAKIA 53 Slovak autonomy was on the agenda throughout Czechoslovakia 's 74 years of existence, from the beginning to the bitter end. Although it may be argued that inexperienced politicians, short deadlines , rigid constitutional amendment procedures and conflicting economic priorities also played a role in the breakup, the long-term conflict that drove Czechoslovakia apart were the closely-related matters of political autonomy and recognition of the Slovaks as a separate nation. 3 What was at stake was not only the institutional set-up and division of power; for the Slovaks, separate political institutions were also important symbols of national individuality and ownership to the shared Czecho-Slovak state. The roots of the conflict go back to the founding of Czechoslovakia in October of 19 I 8. The Czechs and Slovaks had no prior shared statehood tradition s (save perhaps Great Moravia in the ninth century), and independence was not even on the agenda before World War I. Starting in 1915, the independence movement abroad, with Tomas G. Masaryk at the helm, tried to convince the Allies that a Czechoslovak Republic should be established, invoking the principle of national self-determination on behalf of the "Czechoslovak nation. " In the First Czechoslovak Republic the idea that the Czechs and Slovaks were one nation (albeit with two tribes) became official state ideology , and it went hand-in-hand with political centralism. 4 Slovak Studies VIII (Rome, 1968) for a very interesting acco unt of the circumsta nces that led to its signin g and the subseq uent course of even ts in th e new lyfounded Repub lic. 3 For a discussion of the breakup see Eric Stein , Czecho/Slovakia. Ethnic Conflict, Constitutional Fissure. Negotiated Breakup (A nn Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1997); Jirf Musil , ed., The End of Czechoslovakia (Budapest: Central European University Press, 1995 ); Jan Rychlfk, Rozpad Ceskoslovenska . Cesko-slovenske vztahy 1989- 1992 (Bratis lava : AEP, 2002); Carol Skalnik Leff, The Czech and Slovak Republics. Nation Versus State (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1997). 4 For details see Elisabeth Bakke, Doomed to Failure? The Czechoslovak Nation Project and the Slovak Autonomist Reaction 19/9- 1938 (Oslo: Series of Dissertations submitted to the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Un iversity of Oslo, no. 11 /1999). �SLOVAKIA 54 Howeve r, a sub sta nti al pa rt of th e Sl ova k po liti ca l e lite opposed both , de ma ndir.g recog nition of the Slovak nati on and autonomy fo r Slovaki a. The Pittsburgh Agreeme nt became important both beca use it defin ed the contents of Slovak a utonomy and because Masaryk had signed it. Afte r World War II , Czec hos lovaki sm was abandoned, but poli ti ca l centra li sm was not, and th e federali zati on of Czech os lov aki a aft er the Sov iet in vas ion in 1968 did not give Slovak po liti ca l insti tution s any rea l dec ision-m aking power. Afte r the Ve lvet Revo lution in 1989, political autonomy for Slovaki a reappeared on the agenda, and became a major iss ue in the di spute over C zechos lovaki a's new constitution . The main purpose of the present article is to co mpare the autonomy de bates durin g the First Republic and after the Ve lve t Re volu ti o n, in orde r to establi sh continuity and change. The research ques ti o ns are: I . How were the de mands fo r autonomy substa nti ated, and what were the main argume nts aga inst it? 2. Wh at role did the princ ipl e of nation al se lf-de te rmin ati on pl ay in the debates in the two peri ods? The First Re public was a unitary state , and autonom y as such was ne ver on the age nda of the Parliame nt in the interwar pe ri od. Of th e three a utonom y proposa ls th at made it to th e Parli a me nt, two were bl oc ked in committees, whil e the third was adopted without any de bate after th e fa teful Muni c h agree me nt in 1938. My analys is of the inte rwar di sco urse is th e refore based o n a se lec ti o n of govern me nt in a ugurati on de bates and budgetary debates, as we ll as c lippings from Slovak, the main autono mi st ne wspaper. 5 After 1989 seve ral de bates were re levant to the autono my di scourse: In the Federal Parliament I have analyzed the 1990 " hyphen de bate," the de bate on the compete ncy law , a nd the two de bates about the break-up of Czechos lovaki a in the fa ll of 1992. In the res- ' T he analys is of the debate in the interwar period is a condensed version of a part of Chapter 13 of my PhD di ssertat ion. For detai ls see Bakke (ibid. 1999). �SLOVAKIA 55 pec ti ve Czech and Sl ovak Nati onal Council s (Republi c Asse mblies), I have analyzed the 1992 debates on the Sl ovak D ecl aration of Sovereignty, the Slovak Con stitution, and the Czech Constituti on. I will structure the arti cle around the foll owin g three points: I . Th e in stituti onal set-up and th e contents of the autonomy demands. 2. The co mpos iti on and stability of the elite constellations on either side of the conflict. 3. The main arg uments a) in favor of autonomy and b) against autonomy. wi th spec ial emphas is on how they relate to the principle of nati onal sel f-determinati on. 1. The Institutional Set-up and the Contents of the Autonomy Demandi Czec hos lovakia was from the outset presented as the nati on-state of the Czechos lovak nation. 6 Thi s was codified in the 1920 Constituti on, which al so gave the First Czechos lovak Republic a unitary, centrali zed state form and a bi ca meral leg islature. Czec hos lovaki a was at first di vided into 22 co unties, but the county sys tem was implemented onl y in Sl ovaki a and fro m 1928 , four prov inces repl aced the counties (see tabl e I ). In the interw ar peri od, the demands for autonomy were defined in term s of separate Sl ovak instituti ons with dec ision-making powers in matters of vital importance for th e Slovaks as a nati on. The core demands were that Sl ovaki a should have " its own admini strati on, its own parli ament and its ow n co urts," cf. the Pittsburgh Ag reement. M ost of the autonomy proposa ls also included a separate Sl ovak government, but none of the three autonomy proposals that made it into the Parli ament went beyond an asymmetric federati on.7 " In reality. th e Czec hs and Slovaks togeth er comprised 65.5 percent of the populati on. Germans 23.4 percent. Magyars 5.6 percent. Ruthenians 3.5 percen t. Jews 1.4 perce nt. and Po les 0.6 percen t in the 1921 cens us. See Scftanr lidu v repub lice ceskosloven.~ke ze dne 15. unora I 921. Dfl I. (Prague: Statnf ufad statistick y. I 924 ). 7 See Bakke (ibid .. 1999). 465- 77 for a more detailed overv iew of the autonomy proposa ls. See also James Ramon Fe lak. '·A t the Price of the Republic ··. Hlinka ·s �SLOVAKIA 56 The 1938 Constitutional a me ndm ent that inaugurated the shortli ved Second Republi c was based on the third a utonomy proposal of the Slovak People 's Party, which had been submitted in August 1938. The Second Re public co mbined a federa l state form with separate Slovak institutions : a leg islat ive asse mbl y (D iet), a se parate administration and separate co urts. The Slovak gove rnme nt was acco untabl e to the Die t, and received exec uti ve power in all matters under its juri sdi ction , as we ll as many matters unde r central jurisdiction. Slovak became the officia l lang uage in S lovakia, and separate c iti zenship was introduced. After World War II , the Czechos lovak govern me nt recognized the S lovaks as a separate nati on a nd the Slovak National Co un ci l (w hi c h de fac to controlled the liberated parts of Slovakia) as its representative. An exec utive Board of Commissioners was also establi shed. However, through the three Prague agreements and the two first postwar constituti ons, Slovak institution s were gradua ll y stripped of their power and co mpete nce, and Czechoslovakia return ed to a centrali st, unitary state fo rm , with a unicamera l leg is lature. 8 Part of the reaso n for the c la mpdow n o n the Slovak organs was the victory of the De mocratic Party in the 1946 e lectio ns, w hi c h convinced the Communists th at Slovakia could not be tru sted. 9 Slovak People ·s Party. 1929-J 938 (Pi tt sburgh: Pittsburgh University Press, I 994). especially pp. 30, 80- 1, 19 1- 92. ij The 1960 Constitution aboli shed the Board of Commissioners. See Program prve dom;Jcf v/ady repub liky vlady narodnf fronty Cechu a Slovaku, (Prag ue: Mini sterstvo l nformacf. 1945). I 6-17: Jaros lav Chovanec & Peter Mozolfk, Historicke a statopravne korene sa mostatn ost i slovenskej republiky , (Yydavatel's tvo Procom , Brati slava, 1994), 38, 11 4- 122; Michal Barn ovsky. " Tri prazske dohody", in Cesko- slovenske vztahy - Slovensko-ceske vzthhy (Liberec: Technick a Un i verzi ta, 1998). 119 ff.: Elisabeth Bakke, "The Principle of National Self-de termination in Czechoslovak Consti tuti ons 1920- 1992" . CEPSR. no. I O (2002), 173- 98 . 9 The Democratic Party received 62 .0 percent of th e votes in Slovakia. See Michal Barnovsky & Edita l vanickova, eds, Prve povojnove volby v strednej a j uhovychod- nej Eur6pe (Bratislava: VEDA, 1998). 2 15- 18. �57 SLOVAKIA Table 1: State Form, Administrative Structure and Institutional Set-up in Czechoslovak Constitutions and Constitutional Amendments Year 1920 State-forming State form Administrative nation Czechoslovak Un itary 22 co unties : Centra lized, from 1928 four bicameral legislature nation Institutional set-up structure provinces 1938 Czech and Federal Slovak nations 1948 Czech and Unitary Slovak nations Four provi nces : Asymmetric: Bohem ia. M ora- bicamera l via, Slovak ia. & separate Slovak Sub-Carpathian instituti ons with Ruthenia extensi ve powers Two prov inces , Asy mmetric; The Czech lands unicamera l & separate and Slovak ia Slovak inst itutions with lim ited powers 1960 Czech and Uni ta ry Slovak nati ons Two prov inces, Asymme tric: unicame- the Czech lands ra l & separate Slovak and Slovak ia institut ions with more l imited powers 1968 Czech and Federal Slovak nations Two repub lics, Symmetric: bicameral, T he Czech Re- federa l & separate publ ic and the Czech and Slovak Slovak Republ ic institut ions Source: A ll cons titutions can be found in Sbfrka zakonii a naHzenf stalU ceskoslovenskeho. During the Prag ue Spring of 1968, the questi on of Slovak autonomy reappeared on the agenda. The initi ati ve to amend the constituti on ca me from the Slovak Nati onal Council , and thi s time a sy mmetri c so luti on was pro posed, sy mboli zing the equality of the two state-forming nati ons. 10 Accordin g to the 1968 Constitution, Czecho- ' 0 T he process towards federa li za ti on is doc umented in Jozef Za tk uli ak, Fede- ra lizacia Ceskoslovenskeho Staw 1968- 1970. Vznik Cesko-sl ovenskej fede racie �SLOVAKIA 58 slovakia became a federation of two republics, the Czech and th e Slovak Republic s, each with their ow n assemblies (National Councils), and their own govern ments. The bicameral federal legis lature consisted of the proporti onall y elected Chamber of the Peop le, and the Chamber of Nations where the two Republics were represented on equal terms. For important dec isions, a majority was req uired in the Peop le's chamber, as we ll as in the separate Czech and Slovak parts of the Chamber of Nations, in effect giving the Slovaks veto powers. The 1968 Constitution provided the in stitutional foundations for Slovak autonomy, but in practice the political system remained centralized. The original division of power in the 1968 Constitution changed in favor of the federal level during the "Normali zation " of th e early 1970s, and fo rmal decision-making rul es and divi sion of powers did not matter much during Communism . As Carol Skalnik Leff has pointed out, however, federation plu s democra ti zation was a power eq uation. 11 After the Velvet Revo lution in 1989, th e 1968 Constitution acquired new importance; first , it determined the procedures for the adoption of a new constitution (a three-fifths majority in all parts of the federal parliament), and second, it became the point of departure for the negoti ati ons about the contents of a new constitutional settl ement. Under th e new, democratic co nditi ons, the Slovak minorit y had an excell ent bargaining position , since any cons ti tutional settlement required Slovak co nsent. After 1989 the questi on was, therefore, not whether Slovakia should have autonomy, but the ex tent of that autonomy. Separate Slovak institutions were taken for roku 1968 (B rn o: Nak ladatelstvi Doplnek, 1996). See also Jaros lav Krejci & Pave l Machonin , Czechos lovakia 19/8- 92. A U1bora to1y for Social Change (London: Macmill an, I 996), 45-7: Chovanec & Mozolik, (op.cit. , I 994). 48-52: Ales Gerloch . Jiri Hrebej & Vladimir Zoubek. Us tavnf sys tem Ceske republiky ( Prague: Prospektrum, 1999). 51-4 : Carol Skalni k Leff, National Conf7ict in Czechoslo vakia (Princeton: Princeton University Press, I 988), 243 ff. 11 Leff, 132-33. �SLOVAKIA 59 granted, and autonomy now became a matter of allocating more decision-making power to the Republics. The " hyphen delJate" in the sprin g of 1990 was a foreboding of the problems that lay ahead. It was Pres ide nt Vaclav Havel who inadvertently started it. In Janu ary of 1990, without prior consultations, he submitted a constitutional amendment to the federal Parliament, proposing to drop the word "Soc iali st" from the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic . Much to hi s and many others' surpri se, thi s trigged a bitter di spute about whether the name of the Republic should be spelled with or without a hyphe n. The main alternatives were the "Czec ho-S lovak Republic ," favored by a majority of the Slovaks, and the "Czechoslovak Federal Republic ," favored by a majority of the Czechs. Stalemate in the federal Parliament at first resulted in the absurd dec ision to spe ll the word "Czechoslovak" in one word in the Czech Republic and with a hyphen in Slovakia. Thi s was presented as a concession to "S lovak grammar. " This deci sion caused demonstration s in Slovakia, after which the Parliament made a hasty retreat and settled for the "Czech and Slovak Federal Republic ." 12 Negotiations about a new Czechoslovak Constitution started after the elections in June of 1990, but soon ran into trouble. As before, the Czech political elite was generally in favor of more centralized solutions than the Slovaks. The difference was that the Czech majority , rea li zing that a unitary state was not an option , now favored a " function al federation," while the majority of the Slovak political elite increas ing ly leaned toward s confederal rather than federal so lutions. 13 A temporary settl e me nt was reached in the Competency Law 12 Milan Sutovec. Semi6za aka politikum alebo ·'pomlckova vojna." (Bra ti slava: Kalli gram , I 999). 299 ff. 13 Opinion polls cons istently showed th at th e public in the Czech Republic preferred a unitary state. with a federation as the second most popular option. while a confederation never exceeded 6 percent support. By con trast, a confedera ti on or a federation was th e preferred state form in Slovakia. See table 12.3. in Sharon L. Wolchik, ''The Politi cs of Transition and the Break-up of Czechos lovakia," in Jiff Musil. ed. , op.cit.. 235. �SLOVAKIA 60 of December 1990, whi c h more-or-less reestabli shed the co mpetency di vision of the 1968 Constitutio n. However, whil e thi s was abo ut as fa r as the Czechs we re w illing to go , the S lova ks looked at the Co mpete ncy Law merely as a po int of departure fo r further negoti ati ons. The core of the confli ct was the all ocati on of compe te nce and power in two specific areas: Eco nomi c po li cy a nd intern ati ona l re lations. The majority of the S lovak elite pressed fo r S lovak " visibility" in intern ati ona l rel ati ons, and wanted to all ocate more power in economi c matte rs to the Republics . The Czec h side wanted the federa l leve l to be stron g e nough to carry o ut the econo mi c reform s necessar y fo r th e tra ns iti o n to a market econo my, and wanted th e state internati onall y to speak with one vo ice . The negoti atio ns fa il ed to produce an acceptabl e co mpromi se befo re the 1992 elections, 14 and since the vic torious Czec h and Sl ovak parti es di sag reed fund ame nta ll y o n the iss ues of econo mic reform and state fo rm , they dec ided to di vide the state. It turn ed out th at both sides prefe rred a break-up rathe r than accepting the favo red state form of the othe r party, des pite the fac t that before the e lec ti ons, the future ex iste nce of Czec hos lovak ia was still ta ke n fo r granted . The onl y party th at advocated secess io n w as the Sl ova k Nationa l Party. 2. The Composition and Stability of the Elite Constellations In the inter- war peri od, the e lite conste ll atio ns fac in g eac h other were c lear-cut and quite stable. A clear majority of the Czec hos lovak parties was ce ntra li st a nd in fa vor of Czechoslo vaki sm. Thi s camp co mpri sed the e ntire Czech political e lite and a substanti al pa rt of the Slovak political e lite. Inte restingly, the major ce ntrali st pl ayers in the interw ar clashes about autonomy in the Parli ame nt were Slovak s, not Czec hs, a nd like th e ir adversaries, they were posin g as the c ha mpi ons of Slovak inte rests/the Slovak nati on. The two most influe nti al 14 T he negoti ators did reach a co mpromi se in the spring of 1992, but th is was turned down by th e pres idium of th e Slovak Nati onal Counci l. See Rychl fk , Roz pad. 2 18- 20. �SLOVAKIA 61 Slovak centrali sts were the Agrarian Mi Ian Hodza ( 1878- I 944) and the Social Democrat I van Derer ( 1884- 1973). They represented their parties in the Parli ament during the entire First Republi c and betwee n th em, the two men served as mini sters for 23 yea rs. Milan Hodza even became the first Slovak Prime Mini ster in 1935. Apart from these two, the A grarian Anton Stefanek ( I 877-1964) and the Czechoslovak National Socialist Igor Hrusovsky ( 1872- 1937), both seasoned parli amentari ans, played an espec iall y acti ve role in th e debates. By co ntrast, two Slovak parti es represented th e autonomist ca mp. arguing that the Slovaks were a nation of their own and, therefore, entitl ed to autonomy. 15 The larges t autonomi st party was the Slovak Peopl e's Party . Its co-founder and chairman Andrej Hlinka ( 1864- 1938), whose name was added to the party's title in 1925, was a dominatin g fi gure in the stru gg le for Slovak autonomy until hi s death in August of 1938. 16 Ferdinand (Ferdi s) Juriga ( 1878-1950) had been the onl y Slovak deputy in th e Hungari an Parli ament of 19 14 and he continued to defend Slovak autonomy in the Parliament also of the First Republi c. Jozef Ti so ( 1887- 1947) played an important role in the 1930s, as did editor-in-chief of Slovak, Karol Sidor ( 1901 - 53). The Slovak Nati onal Party never had more than one deputy - its chairman M artin Razus ( 1888- 1937) - and pl ayed a more peripheral role. After the Velvet Revolution, elite constellations were more vo latile. The Slovak political elite was from the outset divided on the quest ion of state form, the preferred so lution s ranging from mildl y federa li st to a loose confederat ion. From 1991 the Slovak National Party started to advocate independence, but already in 1990 th e chairman of the Christian Democratic Movement, Jan Carnogursky, argued th at Slovakia should enter the European Community as an in- " In addition. some of th e national minority parties and the Communists su pported autonomy. but for other reasons. '" See Felak. Ac Che Price of Che Republic. 1994: A lena Bartl ova. A ndrej Hlinka. ( Bratislava: Obzor. 1991 ). �SLOVAKIA 62 de pende nt state. Hi s party was earl y in favo r of a confederal so luti on, but o nl y as a te mporary so luti on, until both Re publi cs joined the European Community. 17 Public Aga inst Vi o le nce was be ing pulled in o ppos ite direc ti o ns, and whe n the c irc le around Vl adimfr Mec ia r broke o ut and fo rmed the Moveme nt fo r a De mocrati c Slovaki a in 1991 , the liberal , federa li st oriented w in g re ma ined , whil e the national populi sts w ith confedera l lea nings fo ll owed Mec iar. In the 1992 e lecti on Mec iar' s Move me nt fo r a De mocrati c S lovaki a appeared as the main champion of Slovak interests. The Czec h politica l e lite was fro m the o utset more indiffe rent to the nati onal questi on. Wh ile Public Aga inst Vi o le nce had the nati onal questi o n as o ne of its top pri o riti es , it was co mpl ete ly absent fro m the agenda of C ivic Forum in the first e lecti o n. In stead , " bac k to Eu ro pe" and e limination of communi sm we re the top pri oriti es. 18 Espec iall y after the " ma nagers" aro und Vac lav Kl aus won over the di ss ide nt w in g of C ivic Forum in 199 1, the leadin g Czec h po liti ca l e lite united in favo r of a stro ng fe derati o n. In th e 1992 e lec ti o n Kl aus' C ivic De mocratic Party ca me o ut as the main c hampi on of a federa l so luti on. The Move me nt fo r a De mocrati c S lovaki a and the C ivi c De mocrati c Party won the e lecti ons in th e ir respective Re publics, whil e parti es th at took a more mode rate stand on the questi on of state fo rm lost. Once the victors w ith Vac lav Kl aus and Vl adimfr Mec iar at the he lm had dec ided to di vide the state, fo rmer ene mi es beca me alli es, and the e lite conste ll ati ons changed according ly. The fo rme r oppone nts in the negoti ati o ns on state fo rm now united in favo r of a break-up , aga inst a motl ey c rew of oppos ition parti es, co mpri sing Czec h and Slovak Communi st and Soc ial De mocrati c parties, as we ll as Miros lav Slade k 's ultra- nati ona li st Republican Party of C zec hoslo vaki a. 17 Stein , Czecho/Slovakia. 67 . 93-4. '~Oskar Krejci. Kniha o volbich. (Prag ue: Victori a Pu bli sh ing. 1994). 2 10- 11. �SLOVAKIA 63 3. The Arguments in Favor of Autonomy If we turn to the actual arg ume nts, the main impress ion is that there were e lements of continuity as well as c ha nge when we go from the interwar period to the post-Communist period. On the one hand, the argume nts in favor of autonomy were located within the sa me nat io nalist di sco urse in both periods . On the other hand , the composition of the arg uments in favor of autonomy changed, and so did the contents of the autonomy demands, as we have seen. In the interwar period, the principle of national se lf-determination was used as an arg ument in favor of an asymmetric federation; after 1989 it was first used as an argument in favor of confederal so lutions, and then in favor of an independent Slovak state. Arguments in Favor of Autonomy During the First Republic In the inter-war period , the cornerstone of the a utonomists was the existence of an individual and sovereign Slovak nation , and the core message was that this Slovak nation was entitl ed to auto nomy. The premi se linkin g national identity to the matter of state form was the principle of national se lf-determination, understood as the ri ght of cu ltu ra ll y distinct nation s to se lf-governance. 19 In the a utonomist scheme, the Slovak nation had used thi s right to divorce the Magyars and join the Czec hs in a Czech and Slovak nation-state. Moreove r, as a free a nd equa l nation , the S lovaks were entit led to manage the ir own affairs and, therefore , to autonomo us political institutions. In practice, autonomy demands were always made on be half of Slovakia, yet for the a utonomists this amo unted to the same , s ince they regarded Slovakia as the homeland of the Slovaks, despite its substantial national minoriti es. 19 The principle of national self-determination can be interpreted in at least two other ways: as the right of the people to choose their government without coercion , i.e. popular sovereig nty - or as th e right of independent states to manage their affa irs without foreign intervention. See e.g. 0yvind 0sterud, Nasjonenes selvbestemmel- sesrett. (Oslo: Un iversitetsforlaget. 1984). 150 ff. �64 SLOVAKIA The Slovak a uto nomi sts argued a lon g three ma in lin es. First, they argued that Slovakia was discriminated aga in st in vario us ways, and that autono my was necessary to a ll eviate S lovakia's ill s. Second , they arg ued that Slovakia was entit led to auto no my by virtu e of various " co ntrac ts" (e.g. th e Pittsburgh Agreement). Finally, they argued that the Slovaks had the right to auto nom y s impl y because they were a natio n (the classical nation ali st arg umen t). The point of departure for the deprivation mguments was that the Slovaks were an indi vid ua l nati o n wit h separate nationa l interests, and that these national interests were not properly loo ked after under th e present centrali zed state form. Here S lovak grievances were turned into reasons for autonomy, and autonomy was the so lution to everythin g. Most of the gr ieva nce arguments for auton o my were associated with the use of Slovak as the offic ial lang uage in Slovakia and w ith (w hite-co llar) jobs fo r the Slovak inte lli gentsia. The sig na l words were " Slovak bread" . For in sta nce, before th e 1929 e lec ti on, the a utonomi st news paper Slovak argued that " a uto nomy does no t only mean political ri g hts, but a lso bread. When we get our own administration , our ow n asse mbly and our own courts, only Slovaks will be e mpl oyed there. [ ... ] The auton o mo us adm ini strati o n of the Slova k home land will compel the e mployers first a nd foremost to gran t the Slovaks work and bread." 20 Accord in g to the contract oriented lin e of arg um e nts , Slovakia had the right to autonomy by virtue of certai n (a ll eged ly) binding doc um e nts or "co ntracts". The point of departure was again that the Slovaks were an indi vidu a l and sovere ig n natio n, and th at S lovakia was the ho me la nd of the Slovaks. The argume nt was that Slovakia had been promised autono my, a nd th at thi s promise was lega ll y bindin g. However, fo r a co ntract to be va lid , it must be stipul ated th at the sig natori es had the right to s ig n agreements on behalf of those they were said to represent - in this case th e Czec h and Slovak nati o ns. 20 Slovak no. 240, 22 October I929. p. 3. �SLOVAKIA 65 Several of the many declarations and agreements that were formulated during World War I were used as arguments for (or against) autonomy . However, two documents stand out: The Pittsburgh Agreement of May 30th , 1918, and the Martin Declaration of October 30th , 1918. The former was a clear asset, while the latter soon became a liability (see next subsection). The Martin Declaration had been adopted at an as sembly of all Slovak political parties in Turciansky Svaty Martin. For the autonomists , the significance of the Martin Declaration was that through this act, the Slovaks had voluntarily joined the Czechs as equal s in one state, and they had therefore an equally large part in its founding as the Czechs. Moreover, as an equal nation which had entered the state voluntarily, the Slovaks had the right to autonomy. In effect, the autonomi sts gave the Martin declaration state-forming significance. This was also reflected in repeated attempts to turn October 30th into a national holiday. Compared to the other wartime declarations , however, the Pittsburgh Agreement had some obvious advantages. First and foremost , it had greater symbolic potential as an official agreement binding the government, because Czechoslovakia's first president and co-founder Tomas G. Masaryk had signed it, along with Czech and Slovak emigre leaders in the United States. 2 1 Second, the Agreement contained the most important autonomy demands. From the moment the Pittsburgh Agreement became known in Slovakia in the spring of 1919, it was invoked in every single debate where autonomy was " M asaryk was not Pres ident at th e tim e, of course, but on the initi ati ve of th e Slov ak L eague he signed a calliographed version of the Ag ree ment on November 14th. 19 I 8, the very same day he was elected Pres ident of the Republic. Besides. on October 3 1st. 19 18, th e Czec hoslov ak Nation al Committee had declared as bindin g all ac ti ons by members of the pro visional government abroad (including M asaryk). It may be argued that if the decl arati on of the establi shment of th e Czechos lovak state was valid. then the authori zation of Masaryk 's ac ti ons was valid as we ll. In practice, th e va lidity of th e Pittsburgh Agreement was a political , not a lega l matter. For the tex t of the statement , see Benes (op. cit. . 1929). 490. See also M. M ark Stolarik (op. cit. , 1968), 49. �SLOVAKIA 66 mentioned. At first glance, this Agreement would seem to be a stable element in the argumentation for Slovak autonomy. However, the usage varied. Early in the period, the autonomists would present the Pittsburgh Agreement as a Magna Charta granting the Slovaks the right to autonomy. Later, it became more common to present it as a binding contract. The concept of a Magna Charta brings to mind a sovereign granting hi s subjects certain rights and privileges, and it was Masaryk who (implicitly) had this role. When the Pittsburgh Agreement was presented as a contract, the contracting partners were at first the Czech and Slovak nation s. However, especially after it became public knowledge in 1922 that President Masaryk had actually drafted it, he was increasingly presented as a contracting partner. This shift can also be seen as an answer to the centralist claim that the American Czechs and Slovaks were not the leg itimate representatives of their co-nationals at home. However, the third and most common use, especially in the 1930s, was the Pittsburgh Agreement as "our program" or as an expression of the will of the Slovak nation (not just a small faction, but of all Slovaks). The point of departure was that the Slovaks were an individual nation with a natural right to self-determination, and therefore to autonomy if it so wishes. This usage was associated with the third , classical nationalist line of argument, which rested on three premises: I. that the Slovaks were an individual nation ; 2. that nation s had the right to self-determination; and 3. that the Slovak autonomists represented the true will of the Slovak nation - which was autonomy. The second premise was often implicit, while a lot of effort was put into defending Slovak individuality and the right to speak on the Slovaks ' behalf. The autonomists employed two main strategies to substantiate their claim. One strategy was to argue from the majority, which meant resorting to "advanced math". Election results here came in handy. In a parliamentary debate in 1933, Jozef Tiso argued that as a majority, the autonomists had the right to speak on behalf of the �SLOVAKIA 67 Slovak nation. Upon subtracting the stipulated Czech and Magyar votes from the votes cast for the centralist parties in Slovakia, he ended up with 402,320 votes for the centralist parties and 427,443 votes for the Slovak People ' s Party and the Slovak National Party put together. 22 A second strategy was personal attacks (argumentum ad homi- nem), which were often used to defend the existence of a Slovak nation as well as the claim for autonomy. The autonomists would then accuse Slovak deputies belonging to the Czechoslovak parties of being " renegades," " Phari sees," "sodomites" and "careerists ," and, therefore, not worthy of representing the Slovak nation. In his rather biblical language, the chairman of the Slovak People ' s Party, Andrej Hlinka, argued in 1927 that "S lovakia is ours, only we are Slovaks, you sold out the Slovak language for a bowl of Czechoslovak lentils eight years ago. " 23 Continuity and change after 1989 After 1989, the core message was still that the Slovaks were entitled to national se lf-determination "q ua nation," although the contents of this self-determination had changed from an asymmetric federation to confederate so lutions or even independence. The most important changes compared to the interwar period were, first , that there was no longer any need to defend the existence of an individual Slovak nation , since that was taken for granted, and second, a change in th e composition of the arguments. Deprivation arguments and contract oriented arguments were nearly absent, while classical nationalist arguments now dominated , and the principle of national se lf-determination was invoked more explicitly. 22 30 I. schuze poslanecke snemov ny N.S .R.C. dne 29 . li stopadu 1933. in Tesnopi- secke zpravy o scht1zfch poslanecke snemovny Narodnfho shromaidenf republiky ceskoslovenske. Ill. volebnf obdobf. (Prague. 1929- 35), 47- 50. 23 Hlinka, Slovak no. 86, 16 April , I 927 , p. I. "Sodomi tes•· referred to Social Demo- crats. as a play on wo rd s. �SLOVAKIA 68 There are, of co urse, some differe nces between the various debates, which is perha ps not surpri sin g, sin ce the topics of the debates a lso differed. The principle of nati ona l se lf-determi nati o n was most ex plicitly vo iced in the 1992 debates in the federa l parliament (th e two debates on the break- up of Czec hos lovak ia), a nd in the Slovak National Council (the de bates on the S lovak Declaration of Sovere ig nty and the Slovak Constitution ). Conve rse ly. thi s principle was more impli c it in the 1990 " hyphen debate". The " hyphe n debate" is perhaps the most atyp ica l, in terms of topic ("Czecho-Slo vak Republic" with a hyphen versus "Czechos lovak Federal Republic") as we ll as types of arg ume nt. First, thi s is rea ll y the o nl y debate where identity pl ayed any major part. Ide ntity arg uments appeared in two forms: On the one hand , it was arg ued that for the S lovaks, to spe ll the word Czecho-Slovak w ithout a hyphe n was tantamo unt to accepting the abe rrati o n of Czec hos lova ki sm. On the o ther hand , it was arg ued that th e hyphe n ex pressed Slovak nati o na l indi vidu a lity and the equa l standing of the Czech and Slovak nati o ns in the federati o n. Second, the hyphe n debate is the only debate where the Pittsburg h Agreement was me ntion ed more than o nce. However, of th e six speake rs referrin g to it, o ne appea led to the Agreement to substantiate the c laim for a hyph e n in the "Czecho-Slovak" Rep ubli c. (thi s is how the word was spelled in the orig ina l), while the rest bas ically referred to it as an express io n of the eq ual status of the two natio ns e ntering the state , or as a part of the hi storical narrative lead ing up to the federalization. Nobody referred to it as a contrac t, and the Czech National Socialist Bi anka Hykova even quoted Masaryk to the effect that it was o nl y a n agreement between American Czechs and Slovaks. 2-1 Contract oriented arguments thus disappeared a ltogeth er, and refere nces to the Pittsburg h Agreeme nt and/or the Martin Dec lara20 See Zprava o 26. spolecne sc hi'1zi snemovny lidu a snemovny narodu. 29.3. 1990. in Federalnf shromaidenf Ceskoslovenske socialisticke republiky V. vo lebnf obdobf. ( 1986-90), 25 1. 253 , 256, 270, 304. �SLOVAKIA 69 tion were rare. A utonomy was ex plicitly mentioned in the contex t of the Pittsburgh Ag reement onl y once, in the second debate abou t th e brea k-up of th e state. According to I va n Simko from the Chri stian Democratic Movement, Slovak organization s in the U nited States had made an agreement wi th Masaryk "as a leading personality of Czech po litica l li fe" to fo rm a shared state where Sl ovaki a was to have an autonomous position. Thi s agreement was unfortun ately not honored , he argued. 25 Depri vation arg uments were al so rare . The phrase " Slovak bread" occurred onl y once: In the first debate on the break -up of the state in September 1992, Michal Ko vac from the Mo ve ment for a Democratic Slovaki a ( later to beco me Slovaki a's first pres ident) argued that in a normally functioning federation , it wo uld not be possible for the standard of li ving in Slovaki a to drop as much as it had in onl y two yea rs. In another four years , he argued, " Would we not be in the hi storica l situation w here we have already been, that the Slovak nation would have to go abroad for bread, because there would not be bread for people in Slovakia? And we wou ld be as weakened as we once were under dear father Masaryk." 26 However, in the interw ar period " Slovak bread" was usuall y tantamount to w hite-collar jobs for the yo ung Slovak intelli gentsia in Slovaki a, whi le here th e lack of " bread " obvious ly refers to general unemployment. The probl em was real enough - in the earl y 1990s the unemployment ra te in Slovak ia was three or four times the Czech average. 27 25 Zprava o 5. spo lecne schu zi snemovny lidu a snemo vny narodu. 18.11 . 1992 . 25 .1 1.1 992. in Federi ln f shromiidenf Ceske a S/ovenske Federaci vnf republiky. V il. vo lebnf obdobf. ( 1992). 7 17. 2 '' Zprava o 4. spo lec ne sc huzi snemo vny lidu a snemov ny narodu 29.9. 1992. in Fe- denilni shro m;ii deni Ceske a S/ovenske Federaci vnf republiky. V II. vo lebnf obdobf, ( 1992). 60 I. 27 11. 8 percent in Slovaki a vers us 4. 1 percent in the Czec h Republic in 199 1: 10.3 percent versus 2.6 percent in 1992. Transition reporc I 996. (L ondon. The European Bank fo r Reconstructi on and Deve lopment. I 996). However. th e difference was even larger in 1993. the first yea r of independence. �SLOVAKIA 70 Finall y, compared to the interwar period , classica l nationalist ar g uments were much more co mmon , and the principle of nation al self-determination was invoked more ex plicitly. In the debate about the allocation of competence between the Republics and the Federation it was used as an argument in favor of returnin g to the original 1968 Constitution. 28 Y et, the most co mmon use of th e principle of national self-determination was as an argument in favor of establi shing an independent Slovak state or dividin g Czechoslovakia. There are, however, some interestin g nation al differences between actors in how they used it. Slovak deputies speaking in favor of Slovak independence invoked the principle of national self-determination on behalf of the Slovak nation . They regarded it as an inalienable, natural ri ght, and in one instance, even as a God-given ri ght. 29 An independent Slovak state was presented as the fulfillment of IO00 years of strugg le for Slovak individuality and sovereignty , and as the result of a natural , hi storical process of national emancipation . In the words of HZDS deputy chairman Au gustfn Marian Huska , " the Constitution is the fulfillm ent and lega l enac tment of th e ri ght to se lf-determination . ( ... )To the Slovak s, whose consciousness was molded by more than a thou sand years under foreign rule , the feeling of dependence had become second nature. Slowly, but persistently they formed an awareness of the need for self-determination , the need to search for, find , 28 Zprava o 9. spolecne schi°1zi snemovny lidu a snernovn y narodu. 11 .- 12. 12. 1990. in Federalnf shromaidenf CSFR. ( 1990-1992) . < ww,~ .p,p.c:dckni h/ I 990fs/sbn/-stcn -prot/009,c: hu t./s009077. html/ d> [2 Febru ary, 2004]. See also the debate on th e Slovak declaration of so vereignty. Stenograficka sprava o 3. sch6dzi Slovenskej narodnej rndy konanej 17. j ul a 1992. < www .nr,r.sk/i ndexarch.a,p> ]4 Febru ary. 2004 J. 29 Sedovic (S lovak National Part y), Zprava o 5. spol ec ne schu zi SL a SN , 18. 11 . 1992. in Federalnf shro,mii denf Ceske a Slovenske Federati vnf republiky. VII. volebnf obdobf. ( 1992). 788. �71 SLOVAKIA ex press. a nd at las t rea li ze sovere ig nty." 30 S lova ki a was in o th e r word s pi ctured as a nati on-state a nd the S lova ks as the state-forming nati o n. Howeve r, in the de bates in the Sl ovak Nation a l Counc il , Slovak deputi es, inc ludin g Prime Mini ster Vl adim fr Mec iar, at the same tim e pro mi sed to res pec t the eq ua l rig hts of a ll c iti ze ns, nati o na l minorities and ethni c groups. De puti es re presentin g th e Magyar mino rity in the S lovak Nationa l Counc il recog ni zed o r eve n s uppo rted the S lovak ri g ht to selfde te rmin ati o n, but argued that the princ ipl e sho uld a lso appl y to the nati o na l mino riti es. Thi s was a n arg ume nt in favo r of auto no my. At the same time, Magyar deputi es arg ued th at S lovaki a sho uld not be presented as a nati o n- state in the Co nstituti o n, bec au se it was not nation all y ho moge neous. Founding the state o n the nati o na l princ ipl e meant turnin g the minoriti es into second-c lass c iti zens, they argued . Czec h de puti es co nsiste ntly presented the break-up of Czec hoslovaki a as a matte r of se lf- determinati o n fo r the Slovak nati o n. The 1992 e lecti o n. the Slovak Dec larati o n of Sovere ig nty, and the Slovak Constituti o n were take n as proof th at the S lovak natio n did wa nt inde pende nce. In the words of Prime Mini ste r Vacl av Kl aus of the Czec h Re publi c: "The S lova k nati o n used the o ppo rtunity to co mpl e te its nati o na l e manc ipati o n by fo undin g its own state. Thi s is a rea lity we mu st res pect. " 3 1 T he arg ume nt th at the Czec hs had no ri ght to deny th e S lovak natio n its rig ht to se lf-de termin ati o n was a lso used aga in st ho ld in g a referend um in the Czech Republi c; Czec h c itizens could no t dec ide whet her the S lovaks sho uld beco me a statefo rming natio n o r no t. Interestin g ly, the princi pl e of nati o na l se lf-determin ati o n was not even o nce in voked o n be ha lf of the Czec h na- -'" For Huska ·s statement and the debate on the Const itut ion. see Stenograficka sprava o 5. sch6dzi S lovenskej mirodnej rady kona nej 31. augusta a I . septembra 1992. <www.nr,r. ., k/indexarch.a,p> 14 February . 20041. -' 1 K laus in th e debate on th e Czech Constitution . Ceskii narodnf rada I 992- 1992. Stenoprotokoly. I 0. schuze. 16.- 17. 12. 1992. <www.psp.cz/cknih/ I 992cnr/,tenprot/O I 0schuzi> 13 February. 2004J. �SLOVAKIA 72 tion .32 The reason is obvious: The Czechs did not regard the establi shme nt of the Czec h Republic as a state-formin g process, but as a restoration of Czech statehood , which expl icitly included Czechoslovak state tradition s. But the n the Czechs a lways rega rded Czechoslovakia as their state. Apart from the princ ipl e of national se lf-determination , the main lin e of argument in favor of di ssolution may be termed reali st. It was argued that the federation did not work or that it was a lread y dead, that it was too late to save the state, and now the important thing was to e nd the state in a peaceful , orderly, cultivated , adult and leg itimate fashion , and to ensure good ne ighborl y relation s be twee n the future inde pe nde nt states. 4. The Centralist Arguments Against Autonomy If we turn to the centra li st side, di sco ntinuity 1s th e word that first co mes to mind. In the inte rwar period , the centrali st arg ume nts against a utonomy were located within a nation a li st di sco urse, and mirrored the autonomist arguments to a large ex tent , the difference be ing th at the centralists based the ir arg uments on an a lte rn ative national id eo logy - Czec hos lovakism . After 1989 , the "ce ntra li st" arg um e nts changed profoundly . Czechos lov akism had been abandoned already in 1945 , and the unitary state form in 1968. The "centrali sts" afte r 1989 were , the refore, centra li sts on ly re lative to those advocating confederate so luti ons, a nd in the las t instance, inde pe ndence for Slovakia. " The principle of national se l f-de term ination was invoked on behalf of the .. Moravian nati on" ( 1.5 million . accord ing to the 199 1 census). but then as an argument in favor of Moravi an autonomy in a Czecho-Morav ian federation . See espec ially the speec hes of deputies Jan Jeg la and Jiff Bfl y (both from the Moravi an movement H SD-SMS) . Ceska narodnf rada 1992- 1992 . Stenoprotokoly. 10. sc huze , 16.17. 12. 1992. < www.psp.cz/eknih/ 1992<.:nr/~tenprot/0 I 0schuz/> 13 Febru ary , 2004J. �SLOVAKIA 73 Centralist Arguments during the First Republic ln the inter-war period, the co rnerstone of the ce ntra li st argumentati on was that the Czechs and Slovak s were one Czechoslovak nati on (a lbe it w ith two tri bes), and the core message was th at a ce ntra li zed state form was necessary to preserve nati onal unity and th e integrity of th e state. T he premi se linking nati onal identity to state fo rm was the principl e of nati onal se l f-determin ati on. According to the centrali sts, the Czechos lovak nati on had used its ri ght to self-determ ination to re uni te in a Czechos lovak nati on-state, and thi s unity had to be preserved.·13 A uto nomy for Slovak ia was seen as a th reat to Czechos lovak nationa l unity as we ll as state in tegrity , first because it wo uld dri ve th e two tribes of the Czechos lovak nati on apart, and second , beca use granting Slovaki a autonomy wo ul d be tantamoun t to recogni zing th e Slovak s as a separate nati on, w hich would j eopardi ze the state's ra ison d'etre. Th e centra lists co untered the depri vati on arguments of the autonomi sts in two ways . On the one hand, they denied that the Slovak s were d iscrimin ated agai nst, and on the other hand , they rejec ted autonomy as a suitabl e remedy to Slovaki a's alleged ill s. What was needed to help Slovak ia was not autonomy, but more unity, especiall y economica ll y, the ce ntra li sts argued. Thi s was entirely in line w ith thei r overall "strength th ro ugh unity" message. However, their main artill ery was aimed at the contract-oriented arguments, and espec iall y the Pi tts burgh Agreement. T he main ar guments were: I . T he A meri ca n Czechs and Slovaks were not leg itimate represe ntati ves of th eir co-n ati onals at home, and had no ri ght to dec ide on their behal f; 2. The Pittsburg h Agreement was one of many, and thus had a certain hi stori ca l va lue; but in order to be va lid, it wo uld need the co nse nt of Czechs and Slovak s at home; and 3. Leg itimate Slovak represe ntati ves had conse nted to Czec hos lovak ·'-' There was no big difference between the Slovak autonomists and the Czechoslovak cen tralists in terms of the co ntents of national identity. In both cases . national identi ty was defined in terms of culture. language and ancestry. See Bakke (op.c it. , 1999). especia ll y Chapter I 0. fo r documentati on. �SLOVAKIA 74 national and state unity in the Constitu ti on of 1920, as we ll as at assem bli es before and after Pittsburg h. The first arg ume nt was especia ll y damag in g, since it went to the core of a ll the auto no mi st argument s assoc iated w ith the Pittsburg h Agreement , in va lid atin g the Agreement as a Magna C harta, as a binding contract, a nd as an express io n of the will of the Slovak natio n. It was more difficult for the ce ntra li sts to de nou nce the leg iti macy of Masaryk as a represe ntati ve of the Czec hos lovak state, but the Pres ident did his best to free him se lf and the government of any obligation. Masaryk c la imed that he had sig ned the Pittsburg h Agreement in order to "appease a sma ll Slovak fact io n that dreamed of God know s what sort of independence for Slovakia ," and di smi ssed it as "a loca l pac t between American Czechs and Slovaks, signed by American citizens." 34 There is littl e doubt that Masaryk drafted the Agreement in order to ap pease a part of the Slovak League, but o ne may wo nder why this was important to him if he rega rded the m mere ly as American citizens. I think Mark Stol arik has a va lid point when he arg ues that th e American Slovaks he lped legiti mi ze th e creation of Czechoslovakia in the abse nce of a mandate from the Slovaks in Hungary (caused by war censorship).·15 Masaryk a lso tried , un successfu ll y, to di sc redit the Pittsburg h Agreement through quasi- lega li sti c arguments. In a le tte r to Andrej Hlinka on October 12th, 1929, Masaryk c laimed that the Pittsburgh Agreement was "a forge ry," because at the time, the em ig re organization of the Slovaks present in Pitts burgh , "the [Slovak l Leag ue lega ll y did no t ex ist, and it was recognized by th e Government o nl y in 191 9." Hlinka evide ntl y wrote the Slovak Leag ue , w hi ch retorted th at the re was " no doubt a bout th e a uthe nti c ity of th e Pittsburg h Agreement," and A merica n lega l experts confirmed th at there was no " Tomas G. Masaryk, Svetova revoluce. (Prague: Orbis a Ci n. 1925). 262-263. 35 M . Mark Stolarik (op.c it.. 1968). 54. �SLOVAKIA 75 difference between chartered a nd unc hartered orga ni zatio ns w ith respect to entering such ag ree me nts. 36 T o prop up the claim that leg itim ate Slovak representatives had co nsented to Czec hos lovak nat io na l and state unity after Pitts burg h, the ce ntrali sts preferred to use the Martin Dec lara ti o n of October 30th , 19 18, since thi s Dec laration had been unanimou sly accepted at a n asse mbl y of a ll Slovak po liti ca l part ies. In the beg innin g, they also used the 1920 Constitution for th e same purpose, but the trouble was th at th e Slovak Club in the Constitutional Assembly was coo pted , and arguably not representative of Slovak opinion. The ma in reason why the Martin Dec larati on was s uc h a n asset for the centrali sts, was the sente nce statin g th at the "S lovak nati o n is lingui sti ca ll y as we ll as culturally-historically pa rt of th e unitary Czec ho-Sl ovak nation ." Moreover, the asse mbl y at M artin had demanded nat io na l se lf-dete rmin ation on behalf of this "Czecho-S lovak nat io n," w hil e at the sa me time it was s il e nt on auton omy. The ce ntrali sts thu s used it as proof of Czechoslovak national and state unity, and as proof of the will of the Slovaks to e nter s uc h a unity. (Rumor in Slovakia had it th at the passage o n Czechoslovak national unity was not in the original text. This was , however, refuted in 1923 by Emil Stodola and Samue l Zoch, who had dra fted it).:17 Finally , the centrali sts counte red the c lass ic a l nati o na li st arg ume nt by rejecting the first premi se, that the Slovaks were an indi vidual nation, a nd the third premise. that the autonomi sts represented the tru e w ill of the Slovak nati o n. They presented the Slovaks as a tribe of th e Czechoslovak nati o n, and the Slovak me mbe rs o f the ce nt ral ist parties as the leg itim ate Slovak rep rese ntat ives. At the sa me time, they accepted the seco nd premi se, th at nati o ns had th e -' 6 The letter is pub lished as Document No. 30 in Joseph A. Mikus. Slova kia. A Poli- tica l and Constitutional Histo1y . (Brati slava: SAP. I 995) 209-2 10. The answer of th e Slovak League was published in Slo vak no. 194. 27 August. 1930. p. I. See also M. Mark Stolarik (op. cit.. 1968). 48-49. 52. -' 7 V ac lav Chaloupecky: Martinshi deklilrace 19- 20. II jejf politicke osudy (Prague. I 928). �SLOVAKIA 76 right to sel f-determin ati on, but as we have seen, th ey in vo ked thi s prin ciple on behalf of th e Czec hos lovak nati on. A n I va n Derer specialty was the argument th at i f the Slovak s had been an indi vidual nati on, then they w ould have th e ri ght to secess ion, not onl y to autonomy. 38 B oth sides had their share of argumentati on errors. T he ce ntrali sts argued from maj ority (a rg umentum ad populum ) in the earl y 1920s, w hen they recei ved the maj ority of the Slovak votes, and personal attacks (arg umentum ad hominem) were ac tu all y mos t co mmon on th e centrali st side. probabl y because they fi tted so we ll into their genera l strength-th ro ugh-unity argument. T he Slovak autonomi sts were accused of being " M agyarones" or " new Slovaks," thereby impl y ing th at they had other loya lties or identities,'9 and of being paid by the Hungari an government. In both cases, the M agyars had the ro le of ·'bogeyman" . T hi s M agyarone ca rd was used to expl ain w hy the Slovaks had turned away from the Czechs in the past and in the present , and to co unter th e autonomi st c laim th at they we re the so le leg itimate representati ves of the Slovak nati on. I f the ce ntra li sts believed th at Sl ovak autonomy would j eopardi ze Czechos lovak nati onal unity and th e integrit y of th e state, it w as quite log ica l to acc use th e autonomi sts of being renegades (though probabl y not very smart). Profound Changes after 1989 After 1989 there was not much left of the former ce ntra list arguments, which is not surpri sing considering that Czec hos lovaki srn had 18 • I van Derer. Ceskos/ovensk;i otizkil. (Prague : Orbis. 1935). 88- 90. 39 Both labels we re commonly used about people of Slovak origi n who had become more or less ass imil ated during Hungari an rul e. but who turned back after 19 18. There we re some known M agyarones among the autonomists (chiefl y Franti sek Jehlicka and Yoj tech/ Bela Tuka). but the lead ing figures (Hlin ka. Juri ga) had defended Slovak interests also under Hungary. T he total number of people who ac tu ally switched nati onal affi l iatio n from Magyar to Slovak i n the firs t ten years of Czec hos lovaki a cannot be ascertained prec ise ly, but an educated guess is th at it was betwee n 250.000 and half a million. See Bak ke (op.cit. . 1999). 305- 307. �SLOVAKIA 77 been abandoned and a unitary state form was no longer an option. Th e "centralists" still accepted the principle of nati onal self- determinati on; however, they now recogni zed the Czec hs and Slovaks as equal , state-forming nation s and Czechoslovakia as a Czech and Slova k nati on-state. As long as state form was sti 11 on the agenda, the players on the "centrali st" side were mostly Czechs, and the task was to defend a " function al federation ," which meant to preserve the powers of the federation v is-a-vi s the Republics. Once the break-up of the state appeared on the agenda after the 1992 electi ons, however , th e "centra li st" pl ayers were Czech and Slovak opposition parti es and the task was now to preserve a common Czechoslovak state. In the hy ph en debate, as we ll as in the co mpetenc y debate, Czech deputi es explicitly presented th e federal state form as an express ion of the equality of the Czechs and Slovaks. The main Czech arguments against th e hy phen were that it was divi sive, and that it was unacceptable to the Czech publi c. This probabl y had something to do with the fact that the Second Czecho-Slovak Republi c ( 1938-- 39) was spelled with a hyphen. It was also argued that it was grammati ca ll y probl emati c, th at the original spelling had been without a hyphen (an hi stori ca l argument), and th at the Morav ians would feel offended (an identity argument). The main arguments in favor of a strong federation were that it was necessary in order to carry out the economic reform s and to fulfill Czechos lovakia 's internati onal obligati ons. For the Czech elite, the power and competency of the Czech Republic was irrelevant. In fact, I have onl y found one example of a Czec h deputy in vok ing nat ional interests, and he arg ued th at a confederate solution would be contrary to Czech interests.-lO The Czech and Slovak opposition parties that defended Czec hoslovaki a's ex istence in the debates in the fall of 1992 were mostly Socialists and Communists, but also included the ultra-nati onali st ' 0 M andl er (Libera l Democra ti c Part y). Zprava o 9. spol ecne schuzi SL a S . 11.- 12.1 2. 1990, in Fedenilnf shromaf.difof Ceske a Slovenske Federativnf Republiky V I . vo lebnf obdobf ( 1990), <www.psp.c z/ci,.nih/ 19901\h,bnf!.,tcnprot/009,c:hud ,009()77. htrn ll d> [4 February 2004 1. �78 SLOVAKIA Republican s. Even thoug h this opposition accepted th e principle of national se lf-determination , they mostly interpreted it in the origina l meanin g - as popular sovereignty . The totally dominating line of argument was that the only leg itimate way of dividin g Czechoslovakia according to the principle of se lf-determination was to let the citizens decide by popular vote, a nd that it was unacceptable to divide the state against the will of the peopl e. In the first debate on dissolution , thi s was supported by a hi storical a nalogy. By accident, the debate was held 54 years after the fateful Munich agreement, and the opposition argued that a new Munich was about to happen: Again the fate of the Czechoslovak state wou ld be dec ided without asking the peop le. In the first debate the oppos ition parties advocated a refere ndum before the decision was made; in the second debate a ratifying pl ebisc ite. The motive was obvious ly to save the state, since all opin ion poll s showed that a clear majority was in favor. However, very few deputies ac tually defended the me rits of Czechoslovakia, although a handful of Czechs professed their love for the shared homeland , or invoked the legacy of the founding fathers , mostly T.G. Masary k and Milan Rasti slav Stefanik. Finally, a weak echo of the inte rwar debate could be heard in claims that separation would be a threat to the future existence of the Czech and Slovak nation s (reminiscent of the strength-through-unity argument), and in charges of treason (personal attac ks). Ne ither line of argument was very common. The claim that voting in favor of disso luti on was an act of treason was a preserve of the ultra-nationalist Republican Party of Czec hos lovakia. The debates a lso had their amusing sides, for in stance in the use of metaphors. The federation was alternately see n as a leaking ship, a train being pulled in opposite directions , and an old patient with a severe heart condit ion , whi le the establishment of the new states was compared to giving birth to twins! �SLOVAKIA 79 5. Summary and Conclusion [n the inter-war period, Czechoslovakia was a unitary , centralized state, and autonomy was a matter of separate Slovak institutions. After 1989, Czechoslovakia was a sy mm etric federation of two nationa l Republic s. Separate Slovak inst itutions were, therefore, no longer an iss ue, and autonomy became a matter of allocating more deci s ion-makin g power to the Republic s. However, in both cases, there was a conflict over state form, and in both cases the content of that conflict was how centralized the state should be. As for the actors , the e lite constellations were most stable in the inte rw ar pe riod . However, as lon g as the conflict was about state form, the Czech political elite was in favor of the most centralized so lution , while the Slovak elite was divided . Once the break-up of Czechoslovakia was on the agenda, the re were Czech and Slovak parties on both si des. If we focus on the main arguments on either side, we can obse rve continuity as well as change. Durin g the First Republic , the arguments of both sides were located within a nationali st discourse, but they founded their argume ntation on alternative nation al ideologies. The centralists invoked the principle of national se lf-dete rmination on behalf of the "Czechoslovak nation", the autonomists on behalf of the Slovak nation . After the Velvet Revolution , the autonomist argume nts were still located within a nationali st di scourse, and when the victorious part ies in the 1992 elections dec ided to divide the state, the Czech si de simply adopted the Slovak arg uments. By contrast, the "centrali st" arguments in the debate on state form were mainly economic, while the arguments in the debate on the break-up of Czechoslovakia were procedural. The most strik in g feature of the autonomy di sco urse after 1989 is therefore the asy mmetry of the arguments on both sides. Let us now address th e question of how the arguments related to the principle of national se lf-determination : On the autonomist side, the core message was the sa me in both periods; that the Slovaks were e ntitl ed to autonomy or se lf-determination "qu a nation ." Howeve r, �80 SLOVAKIA the principle of natio na l se lf-d etermin a ti o n was in voked more ex plicitl y after the Velvet Revo lution . On the centra li st side, the principle was used as an argument against a utono my in the interwar period , and w ith a certain twist, against the break-up of Czechos lovakia in 1992 . In the latter case, se lf-de te rmin ation was understood as popul ar sovere ignty - i.e . as a democratic principle. It is also inte res tin g that after 1989, the principl e of nation a l se lfdetermination was consistently invoked on behalf of the Slovaks, not on behalf of the Czechs, other than in the context of Czechoslovakia as the nation- state of two individual , sovere ign nations. In conclusion , the continuity was strongest on the autonomist side , alth ough th e conte nts of nation al se lf-determination c hanged from autonom y to independence. On the "centrali st" side, most of the a mmunition aga inst Slovak autonomy was gone once the concept of a Czechoslovak nation was abandoned. � 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 2005, Vol. 38 Description An account of the resource Vol. 38 (No. 70-71), 2005. 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 2005 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 52 SLOVAKIA The Autonomy Discourse in Parliamentary Debates during the First Czechoslovak Republic and after the Velvet Revolution 1 E li sabeth Bakke " We approve the political progra m, w hi ch e ndeavors to unite the Czec hs a nd Slovaks in[to] an indepe nd e nt state of the Czech la nd s and Slovakia. Slovakia sha ll ha ve its own ad mini strati o n, its ow n parli ament and its own courts. The Slovak language shall be the officia l language in the sc hoo l[s], in office[sl and in public li fe in genera l. The Czecho-Slovak state sha ll be a republic , its constitution sha ll be democratic. [ ...] The detail ed reg ulati o ns for the estab lishment of the Czecho-Slovak state are left to the li berated Czechs and Slovaks and the ir lega l representati ves." The Pittsburgh Agreement of May 30th, 1918 2 ' An earli er version of thi s art icle was presented at the 34th National Conven ti on of the AAASS in Pittsburgh. 2 1- 24 November. 2002. 2 Thi s Agreeme nt was signed by the Slovak League of America . th e Czech National A lli ance. th e Al li ance of Czec h Ca th oli cs. representing Czech and Slovak emigrc organi zations in the USA. and T omas G. M asaryk. President of the Czechos lovak ati ona l Council in Pari s. I have quoted th e Engli sh version from The Slovaks and the Pittsburgh Pact (Chicago: Th e Slova k Cath ol ic Federati on of America. 1934). 27. The Slovak ori gin al is reprinted in Edvard Benes. Svetov,i valka a nase revoluce. Vol. Ill (Dokumenty). (Prague: C in-Orbis . 1929) . 365. See also M. Mark Stolarik. 'The Role of Amer ican Slova ks in th e C rea tion of Czecho-S lovak ia. 19 14- 19 18"'. SLOVAKIA 53 Slovak autonomy was on the agenda throughout Czechoslovakia 's 74 years of existence, from the beginning to the bitter end. Although it may be argued that inexperienced politicians, short deadlines , rigid constitutional amendment procedures and conflicting economic priorities also played a role in the breakup, the long-term conflict that drove Czechoslovakia apart were the closely-related matters of political autonomy and recognition of the Slovaks as a separate nation. 3 What was at stake was not only the institutional set-up and division of power; for the Slovaks, separate political institutions were also important symbols of national individuality and ownership to the shared Czecho-Slovak state. The roots of the conflict go back to the founding of Czechoslovakia in October of 19 I 8. The Czechs and Slovaks had no prior shared statehood tradition s (save perhaps Great Moravia in the ninth century), and independence was not even on the agenda before World War I. Starting in 1915, the independence movement abroad, with Tomas G. Masaryk at the helm, tried to convince the Allies that a Czechoslovak Republic should be established, invoking the principle of national self-determination on behalf of the "Czechoslovak nation. " In the First Czechoslovak Republic the idea that the Czechs and Slovaks were one nation (albeit with two tribes) became official state ideology , and it went hand-in-hand with political centralism. 4 Slovak Studies VIII (Rome, 1968) for a very interesting acco unt of the circumsta nces that led to its signin g and the subseq uent course of even ts in th e new lyfounded Repub lic. 3 For a discussion of the breakup see Eric Stein , Czecho/Slovakia. Ethnic Conflict, Constitutional Fissure. Negotiated Breakup (A nn Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1997); Jirf Musil , ed., The End of Czechoslovakia (Budapest: Central European University Press, 1995 ); Jan Rychlfk, Rozpad Ceskoslovenska . Cesko-slovenske vztahy 1989- 1992 (Bratis lava : AEP, 2002); Carol Skalnik Leff, The Czech and Slovak Republics. Nation Versus State (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1997). 4 For details see Elisabeth Bakke, Doomed to Failure? The Czechoslovak Nation Project and the Slovak Autonomist Reaction 19/9- 1938 (Oslo: Series of Dissertations submitted to the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Un iversity of Oslo, no. 11 /1999). SLOVAKIA 54 Howeve r, a sub sta nti al pa rt of th e Sl ova k po liti ca l e lite opposed both , de ma ndir.g recog nition of the Slovak nati on and autonomy fo r Slovaki a. The Pittsburgh Agreeme nt became important both beca use it defin ed the contents of Slovak a utonomy and because Masaryk had signed it. Afte r World War II , Czec hos lovaki sm was abandoned, but poli ti ca l centra li sm was not, and th e federali zati on of Czech os lov aki a aft er the Sov iet in vas ion in 1968 did not give Slovak po liti ca l insti tution s any rea l dec ision-m aking power. Afte r the Ve lvet Revo lution in 1989, political autonomy for Slovaki a reappeared on the agenda, and became a major iss ue in the di spute over C zechos lovaki a's new constitution . The main purpose of the present article is to co mpare the autonomy de bates durin g the First Republic and after the Ve lve t Re volu ti o n, in orde r to establi sh continuity and change. The research ques ti o ns are: I . How were the de mands fo r autonomy substa nti ated, and what were the main argume nts aga inst it? 2. Wh at role did the princ ipl e of nation al se lf-de te rmin ati on pl ay in the debates in the two peri ods? The First Re public was a unitary state , and autonom y as such was ne ver on the age nda of the Parliame nt in the interwar pe ri od. Of th e three a utonom y proposa ls th at made it to th e Parli a me nt, two were bl oc ked in committees, whil e the third was adopted without any de bate after th e fa teful Muni c h agree me nt in 1938. My analys is of the inte rwar di sco urse is th e refore based o n a se lec ti o n of govern me nt in a ugurati on de bates and budgetary debates, as we ll as c lippings from Slovak, the main autono mi st ne wspaper. 5 After 1989 seve ral de bates were re levant to the autono my di scourse: In the Federal Parliament I have analyzed the 1990 " hyphen de bate," the de bate on the compete ncy law , a nd the two de bates about the break-up of Czechos lovaki a in the fa ll of 1992. In the res- ' T he analys is of the debate in the interwar period is a condensed version of a part of Chapter 13 of my PhD di ssertat ion. For detai ls see Bakke (ibid. 1999). SLOVAKIA 55 pec ti ve Czech and Sl ovak Nati onal Council s (Republi c Asse mblies), I have analyzed the 1992 debates on the Sl ovak D ecl aration of Sovereignty, the Slovak Con stitution, and the Czech Constituti on. I will structure the arti cle around the foll owin g three points: I . Th e in stituti onal set-up and th e contents of the autonomy demands. 2. The co mpos iti on and stability of the elite constellations on either side of the conflict. 3. The main arg uments a) in favor of autonomy and b) against autonomy. wi th spec ial emphas is on how they relate to the principle of nati onal sel f-determinati on. 1. The Institutional Set-up and the Contents of the Autonomy Demandi Czec hos lovakia was from the outset presented as the nati on-state of the Czechos lovak nation. 6 Thi s was codified in the 1920 Constituti on, which al so gave the First Czechos lovak Republic a unitary, centrali zed state form and a bi ca meral leg islature. Czec hos lovaki a was at first di vided into 22 co unties, but the county sys tem was implemented onl y in Sl ovaki a and fro m 1928 , four prov inces repl aced the counties (see tabl e I ). In the interw ar peri od, the demands for autonomy were defined in term s of separate Sl ovak instituti ons with dec ision-making powers in matters of vital importance for th e Slovaks as a nati on. The core demands were that Sl ovaki a should have " its own admini strati on, its own parli ament and its ow n co urts," cf. the Pittsburgh Ag reement. M ost of the autonomy proposa ls also included a separate Sl ovak government, but none of the three autonomy proposals that made it into the Parli ament went beyond an asymmetric federati on.7 " In reality. th e Czec hs and Slovaks togeth er comprised 65.5 percent of the populati on. Germans 23.4 percent. Magyars 5.6 percent. Ruthenians 3.5 percen t. Jews 1.4 perce nt. and Po les 0.6 percen t in the 1921 cens us. See Scftanr lidu v repub lice ceskosloven.~ke ze dne 15. unora I 921. Dfl I. (Prague: Statnf ufad statistick y. I 924 ). 7 See Bakke (ibid .. 1999). 465- 77 for a more detailed overv iew of the autonomy proposa ls. See also James Ramon Fe lak. '·A t the Price of the Republic ··. Hlinka ·s SLOVAKIA 56 The 1938 Constitutional a me ndm ent that inaugurated the shortli ved Second Republi c was based on the third a utonomy proposal of the Slovak People 's Party, which had been submitted in August 1938. The Second Re public co mbined a federa l state form with separate Slovak institutions : a leg islat ive asse mbl y (D iet), a se parate administration and separate co urts. The Slovak gove rnme nt was acco untabl e to the Die t, and received exec uti ve power in all matters under its juri sdi ction , as we ll as many matters unde r central jurisdiction. Slovak became the officia l lang uage in S lovakia, and separate c iti zenship was introduced. After World War II , the Czechos lovak govern me nt recognized the S lovaks as a separate nati on a nd the Slovak National Co un ci l (w hi c h de fac to controlled the liberated parts of Slovakia) as its representative. An exec utive Board of Commissioners was also establi shed. However, through the three Prague agreements and the two first postwar constituti ons, Slovak institution s were gradua ll y stripped of their power and co mpete nce, and Czechoslovakia return ed to a centrali st, unitary state fo rm , with a unicamera l leg is lature. 8 Part of the reaso n for the c la mpdow n o n the Slovak organs was the victory of the De mocratic Party in the 1946 e lectio ns, w hi c h convinced the Communists th at Slovakia could not be tru sted. 9 Slovak People ·s Party. 1929-J 938 (Pi tt sburgh: Pittsburgh University Press, I 994). especially pp. 30, 80- 1, 19 1- 92. ij The 1960 Constitution aboli shed the Board of Commissioners. See Program prve dom;Jcf v/ady repub liky vlady narodnf fronty Cechu a Slovaku, (Prag ue: Mini sterstvo l nformacf. 1945). I 6-17: Jaros lav Chovanec & Peter Mozolfk, Historicke a statopravne korene sa mostatn ost i slovenskej republiky , (Yydavatel's tvo Procom , Brati slava, 1994), 38, 11 4- 122; Michal Barn ovsky. " Tri prazske dohody", in Cesko- slovenske vztahy - Slovensko-ceske vzthhy (Liberec: Technick a Un i verzi ta, 1998). 119 ff.: Elisabeth Bakke, "The Principle of National Self-de termination in Czechoslovak Consti tuti ons 1920- 1992" . CEPSR. no. I O (2002), 173- 98 . 9 The Democratic Party received 62 .0 percent of th e votes in Slovakia. See Michal Barnovsky & Edita l vanickova, eds, Prve povojnove volby v strednej a j uhovychod- nej Eur6pe (Bratislava: VEDA, 1998). 2 15- 18. 57 SLOVAKIA Table 1: State Form, Administrative Structure and Institutional Set-up in Czechoslovak Constitutions and Constitutional Amendments Year 1920 State-forming State form Administrative nation Czechoslovak Un itary 22 co unties : Centra lized, from 1928 four bicameral legislature nation Institutional set-up structure provinces 1938 Czech and Federal Slovak nations 1948 Czech and Unitary Slovak nations Four provi nces : Asymmetric: Bohem ia. M ora- bicamera l via, Slovak ia. & separate Slovak Sub-Carpathian instituti ons with Ruthenia extensi ve powers Two prov inces , Asy mmetric; The Czech lands unicamera l & separate and Slovak ia Slovak inst itutions with lim ited powers 1960 Czech and Uni ta ry Slovak nati ons Two prov inces, Asymme tric: unicame- the Czech lands ra l & separate Slovak and Slovak ia institut ions with more l imited powers 1968 Czech and Federal Slovak nations Two repub lics, Symmetric: bicameral, T he Czech Re- federa l & separate publ ic and the Czech and Slovak Slovak Republ ic institut ions Source: A ll cons titutions can be found in Sbfrka zakonii a naHzenf stalU ceskoslovenskeho. During the Prag ue Spring of 1968, the questi on of Slovak autonomy reappeared on the agenda. The initi ati ve to amend the constituti on ca me from the Slovak Nati onal Council , and thi s time a sy mmetri c so luti on was pro posed, sy mboli zing the equality of the two state-forming nati ons. 10 Accordin g to the 1968 Constitution, Czecho- ' 0 T he process towards federa li za ti on is doc umented in Jozef Za tk uli ak, Fede- ra lizacia Ceskoslovenskeho Staw 1968- 1970. Vznik Cesko-sl ovenskej fede racie SLOVAKIA 58 slovakia became a federation of two republics, the Czech and th e Slovak Republic s, each with their ow n assemblies (National Councils), and their own govern ments. The bicameral federal legis lature consisted of the proporti onall y elected Chamber of the Peop le, and the Chamber of Nations where the two Republics were represented on equal terms. For important dec isions, a majority was req uired in the Peop le's chamber, as we ll as in the separate Czech and Slovak parts of the Chamber of Nations, in effect giving the Slovaks veto powers. The 1968 Constitution provided the in stitutional foundations for Slovak autonomy, but in practice the political system remained centralized. The original division of power in the 1968 Constitution changed in favor of the federal level during the "Normali zation " of th e early 1970s, and fo rmal decision-making rul es and divi sion of powers did not matter much during Communism . As Carol Skalnik Leff has pointed out, however, federation plu s democra ti zation was a power eq uation. 11 After the Velvet Revo lution in 1989, th e 1968 Constitution acquired new importance; first , it determined the procedures for the adoption of a new constitution (a three-fifths majority in all parts of the federal parliament), and second, it became the point of departure for the negoti ati ons about the contents of a new constitutional settl ement. Under th e new, democratic co nditi ons, the Slovak minorit y had an excell ent bargaining position , since any cons ti tutional settlement required Slovak co nsent. After 1989 the questi on was, therefore, not whether Slovakia should have autonomy, but the ex tent of that autonomy. Separate Slovak institutions were taken for roku 1968 (B rn o: Nak ladatelstvi Doplnek, 1996). See also Jaros lav Krejci & Pave l Machonin , Czechos lovakia 19/8- 92. A U1bora to1y for Social Change (London: Macmill an, I 996), 45-7: Chovanec & Mozolik, (op.cit. , I 994). 48-52: Ales Gerloch . Jiri Hrebej & Vladimir Zoubek. Us tavnf sys tem Ceske republiky ( Prague: Prospektrum, 1999). 51-4 : Carol Skalni k Leff, National Conf7ict in Czechoslo vakia (Princeton: Princeton University Press, I 988), 243 ff. 11 Leff, 132-33. SLOVAKIA 59 granted, and autonomy now became a matter of allocating more decision-making power to the Republics. The " hyphen delJate" in the sprin g of 1990 was a foreboding of the problems that lay ahead. It was Pres ide nt Vaclav Havel who inadvertently started it. In Janu ary of 1990, without prior consultations, he submitted a constitutional amendment to the federal Parliament, proposing to drop the word "Soc iali st" from the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic . Much to hi s and many others' surpri se, thi s trigged a bitter di spute about whether the name of the Republic should be spelled with or without a hyphe n. The main alternatives were the "Czec ho-S lovak Republic ," favored by a majority of the Slovaks, and the "Czechoslovak Federal Republic ," favored by a majority of the Czechs. Stalemate in the federal Parliament at first resulted in the absurd dec ision to spe ll the word "Czechoslovak" in one word in the Czech Republic and with a hyphen in Slovakia. Thi s was presented as a concession to "S lovak grammar. " This deci sion caused demonstration s in Slovakia, after which the Parliament made a hasty retreat and settled for the "Czech and Slovak Federal Republic ." 12 Negotiations about a new Czechoslovak Constitution started after the elections in June of 1990, but soon ran into trouble. As before, the Czech political elite was generally in favor of more centralized solutions than the Slovaks. The difference was that the Czech majority , rea li zing that a unitary state was not an option , now favored a " function al federation," while the majority of the Slovak political elite increas ing ly leaned toward s confederal rather than federal so lutions. 13 A temporary settl e me nt was reached in the Competency Law 12 Milan Sutovec. Semi6za aka politikum alebo ·'pomlckova vojna." (Bra ti slava: Kalli gram , I 999). 299 ff. 13 Opinion polls cons istently showed th at th e public in the Czech Republic preferred a unitary state. with a federation as the second most popular option. while a confederation never exceeded 6 percent support. By con trast, a confedera ti on or a federation was th e preferred state form in Slovakia. See table 12.3. in Sharon L. Wolchik, ''The Politi cs of Transition and the Break-up of Czechos lovakia," in Jiff Musil. ed. , op.cit.. 235. SLOVAKIA 60 of December 1990, whi c h more-or-less reestabli shed the co mpetency di vision of the 1968 Constitutio n. However, whil e thi s was abo ut as fa r as the Czechs we re w illing to go , the S lova ks looked at the Co mpete ncy Law merely as a po int of departure fo r further negoti ati ons. The core of the confli ct was the all ocati on of compe te nce and power in two specific areas: Eco nomi c po li cy a nd intern ati ona l re lations. The majority of the S lovak elite pressed fo r S lovak " visibility" in intern ati ona l rel ati ons, and wanted to all ocate more power in economi c matte rs to the Republics . The Czec h side wanted the federa l leve l to be stron g e nough to carry o ut the econo mi c reform s necessar y fo r th e tra ns iti o n to a market econo my, and wanted th e state internati onall y to speak with one vo ice . The negoti atio ns fa il ed to produce an acceptabl e co mpromi se befo re the 1992 elections, 14 and since the vic torious Czec h and Sl ovak parti es di sag reed fund ame nta ll y o n the iss ues of econo mic reform and state fo rm , they dec ided to di vide the state. It turn ed out th at both sides prefe rred a break-up rathe r than accepting the favo red state form of the othe r party, des pite the fac t that before the e lec ti ons, the future ex iste nce of Czec hos lovak ia was still ta ke n fo r granted . The onl y party th at advocated secess io n w as the Sl ova k Nationa l Party. 2. The Composition and Stability of the Elite Constellations In the inter- war peri od, the e lite conste ll atio ns fac in g eac h other were c lear-cut and quite stable. A clear majority of the Czec hos lovak parties was ce ntra li st a nd in fa vor of Czechoslo vaki sm. Thi s camp co mpri sed the e ntire Czech political e lite and a substanti al pa rt of the Slovak political e lite. Inte restingly, the major ce ntrali st pl ayers in the interw ar clashes about autonomy in the Parli ame nt were Slovak s, not Czec hs, a nd like th e ir adversaries, they were posin g as the c ha mpi ons of Slovak inte rests/the Slovak nati on. The two most influe nti al 14 T he negoti ators did reach a co mpromi se in the spring of 1992, but th is was turned down by th e pres idium of th e Slovak Nati onal Counci l. See Rychl fk , Roz pad. 2 18- 20. SLOVAKIA 61 Slovak centrali sts were the Agrarian Mi Ian Hodza ( 1878- I 944) and the Social Democrat I van Derer ( 1884- 1973). They represented their parties in the Parli ament during the entire First Republi c and betwee n th em, the two men served as mini sters for 23 yea rs. Milan Hodza even became the first Slovak Prime Mini ster in 1935. Apart from these two, the A grarian Anton Stefanek ( I 877-1964) and the Czechoslovak National Socialist Igor Hrusovsky ( 1872- 1937), both seasoned parli amentari ans, played an espec iall y acti ve role in th e debates. By co ntrast, two Slovak parti es represented th e autonomist ca mp. arguing that the Slovaks were a nation of their own and, therefore, entitl ed to autonomy. 15 The larges t autonomi st party was the Slovak Peopl e's Party . Its co-founder and chairman Andrej Hlinka ( 1864- 1938), whose name was added to the party's title in 1925, was a dominatin g fi gure in the stru gg le for Slovak autonomy until hi s death in August of 1938. 16 Ferdinand (Ferdi s) Juriga ( 1878-1950) had been the onl y Slovak deputy in th e Hungari an Parli ament of 19 14 and he continued to defend Slovak autonomy in the Parliament also of the First Republi c. Jozef Ti so ( 1887- 1947) played an important role in the 1930s, as did editor-in-chief of Slovak, Karol Sidor ( 1901 - 53). The Slovak Nati onal Party never had more than one deputy - its chairman M artin Razus ( 1888- 1937) - and pl ayed a more peripheral role. After the Velvet Revolution, elite constellations were more vo latile. The Slovak political elite was from the outset divided on the quest ion of state form, the preferred so lution s ranging from mildl y federa li st to a loose confederat ion. From 1991 the Slovak National Party started to advocate independence, but already in 1990 th e chairman of the Christian Democratic Movement, Jan Carnogursky, argued th at Slovakia should enter the European Community as an in- " In addition. some of th e national minority parties and the Communists su pported autonomy. but for other reasons. '" See Felak. Ac Che Price of Che Republic. 1994: A lena Bartl ova. A ndrej Hlinka. ( Bratislava: Obzor. 1991 ). SLOVAKIA 62 de pende nt state. Hi s party was earl y in favo r of a confederal so luti on, but o nl y as a te mporary so luti on, until both Re publi cs joined the European Community. 17 Public Aga inst Vi o le nce was be ing pulled in o ppos ite direc ti o ns, and whe n the c irc le around Vl adimfr Mec ia r broke o ut and fo rmed the Moveme nt fo r a De mocrati c Slovaki a in 1991 , the liberal , federa li st oriented w in g re ma ined , whil e the national populi sts w ith confedera l lea nings fo ll owed Mec iar. In the 1992 e lecti on Mec iar' s Move me nt fo r a De mocrati c S lovaki a appeared as the main champion of Slovak interests. The Czec h politica l e lite was fro m the o utset more indiffe rent to the nati onal questi on. Wh ile Public Aga inst Vi o le nce had the nati onal questi o n as o ne of its top pri o riti es , it was co mpl ete ly absent fro m the agenda of C ivic Forum in the first e lecti o n. In stead , " bac k to Eu ro pe" and e limination of communi sm we re the top pri oriti es. 18 Espec iall y after the " ma nagers" aro und Vac lav Kl aus won over the di ss ide nt w in g of C ivic Forum in 199 1, the leadin g Czec h po liti ca l e lite united in favo r of a stro ng fe derati o n. In th e 1992 e lec ti o n Kl aus' C ivic De mocratic Party ca me o ut as the main c hampi on of a federa l so luti on. The Move me nt fo r a De mocrati c S lovaki a and the C ivi c De mocrati c Party won the e lecti ons in th e ir respective Re publics, whil e parti es th at took a more mode rate stand on the questi on of state fo rm lost. Once the victors w ith Vac lav Kl aus and Vl adimfr Mec iar at the he lm had dec ided to di vide the state, fo rmer ene mi es beca me alli es, and the e lite conste ll ati ons changed according ly. The fo rme r oppone nts in the negoti ati o ns on state fo rm now united in favo r of a break-up , aga inst a motl ey c rew of oppos ition parti es, co mpri sing Czec h and Slovak Communi st and Soc ial De mocrati c parties, as we ll as Miros lav Slade k 's ultra- nati ona li st Republican Party of C zec hoslo vaki a. 17 Stein , Czecho/Slovakia. 67 . 93-4. '~Oskar Krejci. Kniha o volbich. (Prag ue: Victori a Pu bli sh ing. 1994). 2 10- 11. SLOVAKIA 63 3. The Arguments in Favor of Autonomy If we turn to the actual arg ume nts, the main impress ion is that there were e lements of continuity as well as c ha nge when we go from the interwar period to the post-Communist period. On the one hand, the argume nts in favor of autonomy were located within the sa me nat io nalist di sco urse in both periods . On the other hand , the composition of the arg uments in favor of autonomy changed, and so did the contents of the autonomy demands, as we have seen. In the interwar period, the principle of national se lf-determination was used as an arg ument in favor of an asymmetric federation; after 1989 it was first used as an argument in favor of confederal so lutions, and then in favor of an independent Slovak state. Arguments in Favor of Autonomy During the First Republic In the inter-war period , the cornerstone of the a utonomists was the existence of an individual and sovereign Slovak nation , and the core message was that this Slovak nation was entitl ed to auto nomy. The premi se linkin g national identity to the matter of state form was the principle of national se lf-determination, understood as the ri ght of cu ltu ra ll y distinct nation s to se lf-governance. 19 In the a utonomist scheme, the Slovak nation had used thi s right to divorce the Magyars and join the Czec hs in a Czech and Slovak nation-state. Moreove r, as a free a nd equa l nation , the S lovaks were entit led to manage the ir own affairs and, therefore , to autonomo us political institutions. In practice, autonomy demands were always made on be half of Slovakia, yet for the a utonomists this amo unted to the same , s ince they regarded Slovakia as the homeland of the Slovaks, despite its substantial national minoriti es. 19 The principle of national self-determination can be interpreted in at least two other ways: as the right of the people to choose their government without coercion , i.e. popular sovereig nty - or as th e right of independent states to manage their affa irs without foreign intervention. See e.g. 0yvind 0sterud, Nasjonenes selvbestemmel- sesrett. (Oslo: Un iversitetsforlaget. 1984). 150 ff. 64 SLOVAKIA The Slovak a uto nomi sts argued a lon g three ma in lin es. First, they argued that Slovakia was discriminated aga in st in vario us ways, and that autono my was necessary to a ll eviate S lovakia's ill s. Second , they arg ued that Slovakia was entit led to auto no my by virtu e of various " co ntrac ts" (e.g. th e Pittsburgh Agreement). Finally, they argued that the Slovaks had the right to auto nom y s impl y because they were a natio n (the classical nation ali st arg umen t). The point of departure for the deprivation mguments was that the Slovaks were an indi vid ua l nati o n wit h separate nationa l interests, and that these national interests were not properly loo ked after under th e present centrali zed state form. Here S lovak grievances were turned into reasons for autonomy, and autonomy was the so lution to everythin g. Most of the gr ieva nce arguments for auton o my were associated with the use of Slovak as the offic ial lang uage in Slovakia and w ith (w hite-co llar) jobs fo r the Slovak inte lli gentsia. The sig na l words were " Slovak bread" . For in sta nce, before th e 1929 e lec ti on, the a utonomi st news paper Slovak argued that " a uto nomy does no t only mean political ri g hts, but a lso bread. When we get our own administration , our ow n asse mbly and our own courts, only Slovaks will be e mpl oyed there. [ ... ] The auton o mo us adm ini strati o n of the Slova k home land will compel the e mployers first a nd foremost to gran t the Slovaks work and bread." 20 Accord in g to the contract oriented lin e of arg um e nts , Slovakia had the right to autonomy by virtue of certai n (a ll eged ly) binding doc um e nts or "co ntracts". The point of departure was again that the Slovaks were an indi vidu a l and sovere ig n natio n, and th at S lovakia was the ho me la nd of the Slovaks. The argume nt was that Slovakia had been promised autono my, a nd th at thi s promise was lega ll y bindin g. However, fo r a co ntract to be va lid , it must be stipul ated th at the sig natori es had the right to s ig n agreements on behalf of those they were said to represent - in this case th e Czec h and Slovak nati o ns. 20 Slovak no. 240, 22 October I929. p. 3. SLOVAKIA 65 Several of the many declarations and agreements that were formulated during World War I were used as arguments for (or against) autonomy . However, two documents stand out: The Pittsburgh Agreement of May 30th , 1918, and the Martin Declaration of October 30th , 1918. The former was a clear asset, while the latter soon became a liability (see next subsection). The Martin Declaration had been adopted at an as sembly of all Slovak political parties in Turciansky Svaty Martin. For the autonomists , the significance of the Martin Declaration was that through this act, the Slovaks had voluntarily joined the Czechs as equal s in one state, and they had therefore an equally large part in its founding as the Czechs. Moreover, as an equal nation which had entered the state voluntarily, the Slovaks had the right to autonomy. In effect, the autonomi sts gave the Martin declaration state-forming significance. This was also reflected in repeated attempts to turn October 30th into a national holiday. Compared to the other wartime declarations , however, the Pittsburgh Agreement had some obvious advantages. First and foremost , it had greater symbolic potential as an official agreement binding the government, because Czechoslovakia's first president and co-founder Tomas G. Masaryk had signed it, along with Czech and Slovak emigre leaders in the United States. 2 1 Second, the Agreement contained the most important autonomy demands. From the moment the Pittsburgh Agreement became known in Slovakia in the spring of 1919, it was invoked in every single debate where autonomy was " M asaryk was not Pres ident at th e tim e, of course, but on the initi ati ve of th e Slov ak L eague he signed a calliographed version of the Ag ree ment on November 14th. 19 I 8, the very same day he was elected Pres ident of the Republic. Besides. on October 3 1st. 19 18, th e Czec hoslov ak Nation al Committee had declared as bindin g all ac ti ons by members of the pro visional government abroad (including M asaryk). It may be argued that if the decl arati on of the establi shment of th e Czechos lovak state was valid. then the authori zation of Masaryk 's ac ti ons was valid as we ll. In practice, th e va lidity of th e Pittsburgh Agreement was a political , not a lega l matter. For the tex t of the statement , see Benes (op. cit. . 1929). 490. See also M. M ark Stolarik (op. cit. , 1968), 49. SLOVAKIA 66 mentioned. At first glance, this Agreement would seem to be a stable element in the argumentation for Slovak autonomy. However, the usage varied. Early in the period, the autonomists would present the Pittsburgh Agreement as a Magna Charta granting the Slovaks the right to autonomy. Later, it became more common to present it as a binding contract. The concept of a Magna Charta brings to mind a sovereign granting hi s subjects certain rights and privileges, and it was Masaryk who (implicitly) had this role. When the Pittsburgh Agreement was presented as a contract, the contracting partners were at first the Czech and Slovak nation s. However, especially after it became public knowledge in 1922 that President Masaryk had actually drafted it, he was increasingly presented as a contracting partner. This shift can also be seen as an answer to the centralist claim that the American Czechs and Slovaks were not the leg itimate representatives of their co-nationals at home. However, the third and most common use, especially in the 1930s, was the Pittsburgh Agreement as "our program" or as an expression of the will of the Slovak nation (not just a small faction, but of all Slovaks). The point of departure was that the Slovaks were an individual nation with a natural right to self-determination, and therefore to autonomy if it so wishes. This usage was associated with the third , classical nationalist line of argument, which rested on three premises: I. that the Slovaks were an individual nation ; 2. that nation s had the right to self-determination; and 3. that the Slovak autonomists represented the true will of the Slovak nation - which was autonomy. The second premise was often implicit, while a lot of effort was put into defending Slovak individuality and the right to speak on the Slovaks ' behalf. The autonomists employed two main strategies to substantiate their claim. One strategy was to argue from the majority, which meant resorting to "advanced math". Election results here came in handy. In a parliamentary debate in 1933, Jozef Tiso argued that as a majority, the autonomists had the right to speak on behalf of the SLOVAKIA 67 Slovak nation. Upon subtracting the stipulated Czech and Magyar votes from the votes cast for the centralist parties in Slovakia, he ended up with 402,320 votes for the centralist parties and 427,443 votes for the Slovak People ' s Party and the Slovak National Party put together. 22 A second strategy was personal attacks (argumentum ad homi- nem), which were often used to defend the existence of a Slovak nation as well as the claim for autonomy. The autonomists would then accuse Slovak deputies belonging to the Czechoslovak parties of being " renegades," " Phari sees," "sodomites" and "careerists ," and, therefore, not worthy of representing the Slovak nation. In his rather biblical language, the chairman of the Slovak People ' s Party, Andrej Hlinka, argued in 1927 that "S lovakia is ours, only we are Slovaks, you sold out the Slovak language for a bowl of Czechoslovak lentils eight years ago. " 23 Continuity and change after 1989 After 1989, the core message was still that the Slovaks were entitled to national se lf-determination "q ua nation," although the contents of this self-determination had changed from an asymmetric federation to confederate so lutions or even independence. The most important changes compared to the interwar period were, first , that there was no longer any need to defend the existence of an individual Slovak nation , since that was taken for granted, and second, a change in th e composition of the arguments. Deprivation arguments and contract oriented arguments were nearly absent, while classical nationalist arguments now dominated , and the principle of national se lf-determination was invoked more explicitly. 22 30 I. schuze poslanecke snemov ny N.S .R.C. dne 29 . li stopadu 1933. in Tesnopi- secke zpravy o scht1zfch poslanecke snemovny Narodnfho shromaidenf republiky ceskoslovenske. Ill. volebnf obdobf. (Prague. 1929- 35), 47- 50. 23 Hlinka, Slovak no. 86, 16 April , I 927 , p. I. "Sodomi tes•· referred to Social Demo- crats. as a play on wo rd s. SLOVAKIA 68 There are, of co urse, some differe nces between the various debates, which is perha ps not surpri sin g, sin ce the topics of the debates a lso differed. The principle of nati ona l se lf-determi nati o n was most ex plicitly vo iced in the 1992 debates in the federa l parliament (th e two debates on the break- up of Czec hos lovak ia), a nd in the Slovak National Council (the de bates on the S lovak Declaration of Sovere ig nty and the Slovak Constitution ). Conve rse ly. thi s principle was more impli c it in the 1990 " hyphen debate". The " hyphe n debate" is perhaps the most atyp ica l, in terms of topic ("Czecho-Slo vak Republic" with a hyphen versus "Czechos lovak Federal Republic") as we ll as types of arg ume nt. First, thi s is rea ll y the o nl y debate where identity pl ayed any major part. Ide ntity arg uments appeared in two forms: On the one hand , it was arg ued that for the S lovaks, to spe ll the word Czecho-Slovak w ithout a hyphe n was tantamo unt to accepting the abe rrati o n of Czec hos lova ki sm. On the o ther hand , it was arg ued that th e hyphe n ex pressed Slovak nati o na l indi vidu a lity and the equa l standing of the Czech and Slovak nati o ns in the federati o n. Second, the hyphe n debate is the only debate where the Pittsburg h Agreement was me ntion ed more than o nce. However, of th e six speake rs referrin g to it, o ne appea led to the Agreement to substantiate the c laim for a hyph e n in the "Czecho-Slovak" Rep ubli c. (thi s is how the word was spelled in the orig ina l), while the rest bas ically referred to it as an express io n of the eq ual status of the two natio ns e ntering the state , or as a part of the hi storical narrative lead ing up to the federalization. Nobody referred to it as a contrac t, and the Czech National Socialist Bi anka Hykova even quoted Masaryk to the effect that it was o nl y a n agreement between American Czechs and Slovaks. 2-1 Contract oriented arguments thus disappeared a ltogeth er, and refere nces to the Pittsburg h Agreeme nt and/or the Martin Dec lara20 See Zprava o 26. spolecne sc hi'1zi snemovny lidu a snemovny narodu. 29.3. 1990. in Federalnf shromaidenf Ceskoslovenske socialisticke republiky V. vo lebnf obdobf. ( 1986-90), 25 1. 253 , 256, 270, 304. SLOVAKIA 69 tion were rare. A utonomy was ex plicitly mentioned in the contex t of the Pittsburgh Ag reement onl y once, in the second debate abou t th e brea k-up of th e state. According to I va n Simko from the Chri stian Democratic Movement, Slovak organization s in the U nited States had made an agreement wi th Masaryk "as a leading personality of Czech po litica l li fe" to fo rm a shared state where Sl ovaki a was to have an autonomous position. Thi s agreement was unfortun ately not honored , he argued. 25 Depri vation arg uments were al so rare . The phrase " Slovak bread" occurred onl y once: In the first debate on the break -up of the state in September 1992, Michal Ko vac from the Mo ve ment for a Democratic Slovaki a ( later to beco me Slovaki a's first pres ident) argued that in a normally functioning federation , it wo uld not be possible for the standard of li ving in Slovaki a to drop as much as it had in onl y two yea rs. In another four years , he argued, " Would we not be in the hi storica l situation w here we have already been, that the Slovak nation would have to go abroad for bread, because there would not be bread for people in Slovakia? And we wou ld be as weakened as we once were under dear father Masaryk." 26 However, in the interw ar period " Slovak bread" was usuall y tantamount to w hite-collar jobs for the yo ung Slovak intelli gentsia in Slovaki a, whi le here th e lack of " bread " obvious ly refers to general unemployment. The probl em was real enough - in the earl y 1990s the unemployment ra te in Slovak ia was three or four times the Czech average. 27 25 Zprava o 5. spo lecne schu zi snemovny lidu a snemo vny narodu. 18.11 . 1992 . 25 .1 1.1 992. in Federi ln f shromiidenf Ceske a S/ovenske Federaci vnf republiky. V il. vo lebnf obdobf. ( 1992). 7 17. 2 '' Zprava o 4. spo lec ne sc huzi snemo vny lidu a snemov ny narodu 29.9. 1992. in Fe- denilni shro m;ii deni Ceske a S/ovenske Federaci vnf republiky. V II. vo lebnf obdobf, ( 1992). 60 I. 27 11. 8 percent in Slovaki a vers us 4. 1 percent in the Czec h Republic in 199 1: 10.3 percent versus 2.6 percent in 1992. Transition reporc I 996. (L ondon. The European Bank fo r Reconstructi on and Deve lopment. I 996). However. th e difference was even larger in 1993. the first yea r of independence. SLOVAKIA 70 Finall y, compared to the interwar period , classica l nationalist ar g uments were much more co mmon , and the principle of nation al self-determination was invoked more ex plicitly. In the debate about the allocation of competence between the Republics and the Federation it was used as an argument in favor of returnin g to the original 1968 Constitution. 28 Y et, the most co mmon use of th e principle of national self-determination was as an argument in favor of establi shing an independent Slovak state or dividin g Czechoslovakia. There are, however, some interestin g nation al differences between actors in how they used it. Slovak deputies speaking in favor of Slovak independence invoked the principle of national self-determination on behalf of the Slovak nation . They regarded it as an inalienable, natural ri ght, and in one instance, even as a God-given ri ght. 29 An independent Slovak state was presented as the fulfillment of IO00 years of strugg le for Slovak individuality and sovereignty , and as the result of a natural , hi storical process of national emancipation . In the words of HZDS deputy chairman Au gustfn Marian Huska , " the Constitution is the fulfillm ent and lega l enac tment of th e ri ght to se lf-determination . ( ... )To the Slovak s, whose consciousness was molded by more than a thou sand years under foreign rule , the feeling of dependence had become second nature. Slowly, but persistently they formed an awareness of the need for self-determination , the need to search for, find , 28 Zprava o 9. spolecne schi°1zi snemovny lidu a snernovn y narodu. 11 .- 12. 12. 1990. in Federalnf shromaidenf CSFR. ( 1990-1992) . < ww,~ .p,p.c:dckni h/ I 990fs/sbn/-stcn -prot/009,c: hu t./s009077. html/ d> [2 Febru ary, 2004]. See also the debate on th e Slovak declaration of so vereignty. Stenograficka sprava o 3. sch6dzi Slovenskej narodnej rndy konanej 17. j ul a 1992. < www .nr,r.sk/i ndexarch.a,p> ]4 Febru ary. 2004 J. 29 Sedovic (S lovak National Part y), Zprava o 5. spol ec ne schu zi SL a SN , 18. 11 . 1992. in Federalnf shro,mii denf Ceske a Slovenske Federati vnf republiky. VII. volebnf obdobf. ( 1992). 788. 71 SLOVAKIA ex press. a nd at las t rea li ze sovere ig nty." 30 S lova ki a was in o th e r word s pi ctured as a nati on-state a nd the S lova ks as the state-forming nati o n. Howeve r, in the de bates in the Sl ovak Nation a l Counc il , Slovak deputi es, inc ludin g Prime Mini ster Vl adim fr Mec iar, at the same tim e pro mi sed to res pec t the eq ua l rig hts of a ll c iti ze ns, nati o na l minorities and ethni c groups. De puti es re presentin g th e Magyar mino rity in the S lovak Nationa l Counc il recog ni zed o r eve n s uppo rted the S lovak ri g ht to selfde te rmin ati o n, but argued that the princ ipl e sho uld a lso appl y to the nati o na l mino riti es. Thi s was a n arg ume nt in favo r of auto no my. At the same time, Magyar deputi es arg ued th at S lovaki a sho uld not be presented as a nati o n- state in the Co nstituti o n, bec au se it was not nation all y ho moge neous. Founding the state o n the nati o na l princ ipl e meant turnin g the minoriti es into second-c lass c iti zens, they argued . Czec h de puti es co nsiste ntly presented the break-up of Czec hoslovaki a as a matte r of se lf- determinati o n fo r the Slovak nati o n. The 1992 e lecti o n. the Slovak Dec larati o n of Sovere ig nty, and the Slovak Constituti o n were take n as proof th at the S lovak natio n did wa nt inde pende nce. In the words of Prime Mini ste r Vacl av Kl aus of the Czec h Re publi c: "The S lova k nati o n used the o ppo rtunity to co mpl e te its nati o na l e manc ipati o n by fo undin g its own state. Thi s is a rea lity we mu st res pect. " 3 1 T he arg ume nt th at the Czec hs had no ri ght to deny th e S lovak natio n its rig ht to se lf-de termin ati o n was a lso used aga in st ho ld in g a referend um in the Czech Republi c; Czec h c itizens could no t dec ide whet her the S lovaks sho uld beco me a statefo rming natio n o r no t. Interestin g ly, the princi pl e of nati o na l se lf-determin ati o n was not even o nce in voked o n be ha lf of the Czec h na- -'" For Huska ·s statement and the debate on the Const itut ion. see Stenograficka sprava o 5. sch6dzi S lovenskej mirodnej rady kona nej 31. augusta a I . septembra 1992. <www.nr,r. ., k/indexarch.a,p> 14 February . 20041. -' 1 K laus in th e debate on th e Czech Constitution . Ceskii narodnf rada I 992- 1992. Stenoprotokoly. I 0. schuze. 16.- 17. 12. 1992. <www.psp.cz/cknih/ I 992cnr/,tenprot/O I 0schuzi> 13 February. 2004J. SLOVAKIA 72 tion .32 The reason is obvious: The Czechs did not regard the establi shme nt of the Czec h Republic as a state-formin g process, but as a restoration of Czech statehood , which expl icitly included Czechoslovak state tradition s. But the n the Czechs a lways rega rded Czechoslovakia as their state. Apart from the princ ipl e of national se lf-determination , the main lin e of argument in favor of di ssolution may be termed reali st. It was argued that the federation did not work or that it was a lread y dead, that it was too late to save the state, and now the important thing was to e nd the state in a peaceful , orderly, cultivated , adult and leg itimate fashion , and to ensure good ne ighborl y relation s be twee n the future inde pe nde nt states. 4. The Centralist Arguments Against Autonomy If we turn to the centra li st side, di sco ntinuity 1s th e word that first co mes to mind. In the inte rwar period , the centrali st arg ume nts against a utonomy were located within a nation a li st di sco urse, and mirrored the autonomist arguments to a large ex tent , the difference be ing th at the centralists based the ir arg uments on an a lte rn ative national id eo logy - Czec hos lovakism . After 1989 , the "ce ntra li st" arg um e nts changed profoundly . Czechos lov akism had been abandoned already in 1945 , and the unitary state form in 1968. The "centrali sts" afte r 1989 were , the refore, centra li sts on ly re lative to those advocating confederate so luti ons, a nd in the las t instance, inde pe ndence for Slovakia. " The principle of national se l f-de term ination was invoked on behalf of the .. Moravian nati on" ( 1.5 million . accord ing to the 199 1 census). but then as an argument in favor of Moravi an autonomy in a Czecho-Morav ian federation . See espec ially the speec hes of deputies Jan Jeg la and Jiff Bfl y (both from the Moravi an movement H SD-SMS) . Ceska narodnf rada 1992- 1992 . Stenoprotokoly. 10. sc huze , 16.17. 12. 1992. < www.psp.cz/eknih/ 1992<.:nr/~tenprot/0 I 0schuz/> 13 Febru ary , 2004J. SLOVAKIA 73 Centralist Arguments during the First Republic ln the inter-war period, the co rnerstone of the ce ntra li st argumentati on was that the Czechs and Slovak s were one Czechoslovak nati on (a lbe it w ith two tri bes), and the core message was th at a ce ntra li zed state form was necessary to preserve nati onal unity and th e integrity of th e state. T he premi se linking nati onal identity to state fo rm was the principl e of nati onal se l f-determin ati on. According to the centrali sts, the Czechos lovak nati on had used its ri ght to self-determ ination to re uni te in a Czechos lovak nati on-state, and thi s unity had to be preserved.·13 A uto nomy for Slovak ia was seen as a th reat to Czechos lovak nationa l unity as we ll as state in tegrity , first because it wo uld dri ve th e two tribes of the Czechos lovak nati on apart, and second , beca use granting Slovaki a autonomy wo ul d be tantamoun t to recogni zing th e Slovak s as a separate nati on, w hich would j eopardi ze the state's ra ison d'etre. Th e centra lists co untered the depri vati on arguments of the autonomi sts in two ways . On the one hand, they denied that the Slovak s were d iscrimin ated agai nst, and on the other hand , they rejec ted autonomy as a suitabl e remedy to Slovaki a's alleged ill s. What was needed to help Slovak ia was not autonomy, but more unity, especiall y economica ll y, the ce ntra li sts argued. Thi s was entirely in line w ith thei r overall "strength th ro ugh unity" message. However, their main artill ery was aimed at the contract-oriented arguments, and espec iall y the Pi tts burgh Agreement. T he main ar guments were: I . T he A meri ca n Czechs and Slovaks were not leg itimate represe ntati ves of th eir co-n ati onals at home, and had no ri ght to dec ide on their behal f; 2. The Pittsburg h Agreement was one of many, and thus had a certain hi stori ca l va lue; but in order to be va lid, it wo uld need the co nse nt of Czechs and Slovak s at home; and 3. Leg itimate Slovak represe ntati ves had conse nted to Czec hos lovak ·'-' There was no big difference between the Slovak autonomists and the Czechoslovak cen tralists in terms of the co ntents of national identity. In both cases . national identi ty was defined in terms of culture. language and ancestry. See Bakke (op.c it. , 1999). especia ll y Chapter I 0. fo r documentati on. SLOVAKIA 74 national and state unity in the Constitu ti on of 1920, as we ll as at assem bli es before and after Pittsburg h. The first arg ume nt was especia ll y damag in g, since it went to the core of a ll the auto no mi st argument s assoc iated w ith the Pittsburg h Agreement , in va lid atin g the Agreement as a Magna C harta, as a binding contract, a nd as an express io n of the will of the Slovak natio n. It was more difficult for the ce ntra li sts to de nou nce the leg iti macy of Masaryk as a represe ntati ve of the Czec hos lovak state, but the Pres ident did his best to free him se lf and the government of any obligation. Masaryk c la imed that he had sig ned the Pittsburg h Agreement in order to "appease a sma ll Slovak fact io n that dreamed of God know s what sort of independence for Slovakia ," and di smi ssed it as "a loca l pac t between American Czechs and Slovaks, signed by American citizens." 34 There is littl e doubt that Masaryk drafted the Agreement in order to ap pease a part of the Slovak League, but o ne may wo nder why this was important to him if he rega rded the m mere ly as American citizens. I think Mark Stol arik has a va lid point when he arg ues that th e American Slovaks he lped legiti mi ze th e creation of Czechoslovakia in the abse nce of a mandate from the Slovaks in Hungary (caused by war censorship).·15 Masaryk a lso tried , un successfu ll y, to di sc redit the Pittsburg h Agreement through quasi- lega li sti c arguments. In a le tte r to Andrej Hlinka on October 12th, 1929, Masaryk c laimed that the Pittsburgh Agreement was "a forge ry," because at the time, the em ig re organization of the Slovaks present in Pitts burgh , "the [Slovak l Leag ue lega ll y did no t ex ist, and it was recognized by th e Government o nl y in 191 9." Hlinka evide ntl y wrote the Slovak Leag ue , w hi ch retorted th at the re was " no doubt a bout th e a uthe nti c ity of th e Pittsburg h Agreement," and A merica n lega l experts confirmed th at there was no " Tomas G. Masaryk, Svetova revoluce. (Prague: Orbis a Ci n. 1925). 262-263. 35 M . Mark Stolarik (op.c it.. 1968). 54. SLOVAKIA 75 difference between chartered a nd unc hartered orga ni zatio ns w ith respect to entering such ag ree me nts. 36 T o prop up the claim that leg itim ate Slovak representatives had co nsented to Czec hos lovak nat io na l and state unity after Pitts burg h, the ce ntrali sts preferred to use the Martin Dec lara ti o n of October 30th , 19 18, since thi s Dec laration had been unanimou sly accepted at a n asse mbl y of a ll Slovak po liti ca l part ies. In the beg innin g, they also used the 1920 Constitution for th e same purpose, but the trouble was th at th e Slovak Club in the Constitutional Assembly was coo pted , and arguably not representative of Slovak opinion. The ma in reason why the Martin Dec larati on was s uc h a n asset for the centrali sts, was the sente nce statin g th at the "S lovak nati o n is lingui sti ca ll y as we ll as culturally-historically pa rt of th e unitary Czec ho-Sl ovak nation ." Moreover, the asse mbl y at M artin had demanded nat io na l se lf-dete rmin ation on behalf of this "Czecho-S lovak nat io n," w hil e at the sa me time it was s il e nt on auton omy. The ce ntrali sts thu s used it as proof of Czechoslovak national and state unity, and as proof of the will of the Slovaks to e nter s uc h a unity. (Rumor in Slovakia had it th at the passage o n Czechoslovak national unity was not in the original text. This was , however, refuted in 1923 by Emil Stodola and Samue l Zoch, who had dra fted it).:17 Finally , the centrali sts counte red the c lass ic a l nati o na li st arg ume nt by rejecting the first premi se, that the Slovaks were an indi vidual nation, a nd the third premise. that the autonomi sts represented the tru e w ill of the Slovak nati o n. They presented the Slovaks as a tribe of th e Czechoslovak nati o n, and the Slovak me mbe rs o f the ce nt ral ist parties as the leg itim ate Slovak rep rese ntat ives. At the sa me time, they accepted the seco nd premi se, th at nati o ns had th e -' 6 The letter is pub lished as Document No. 30 in Joseph A. Mikus. Slova kia. A Poli- tica l and Constitutional Histo1y . (Brati slava: SAP. I 995) 209-2 10. The answer of th e Slovak League was published in Slo vak no. 194. 27 August. 1930. p. I. See also M. Mark Stolarik (op. cit.. 1968). 48-49. 52. -' 7 V ac lav Chaloupecky: Martinshi deklilrace 19- 20. II jejf politicke osudy (Prague. I 928). SLOVAKIA 76 right to sel f-determin ati on, but as we have seen, th ey in vo ked thi s prin ciple on behalf of th e Czec hos lovak nati on. A n I va n Derer specialty was the argument th at i f the Slovak s had been an indi vidual nati on, then they w ould have th e ri ght to secess ion, not onl y to autonomy. 38 B oth sides had their share of argumentati on errors. T he ce ntrali sts argued from maj ority (a rg umentum ad populum ) in the earl y 1920s, w hen they recei ved the maj ority of the Slovak votes, and personal attacks (arg umentum ad hominem) were ac tu all y mos t co mmon on th e centrali st side. probabl y because they fi tted so we ll into their genera l strength-th ro ugh-unity argument. T he Slovak autonomi sts were accused of being " M agyarones" or " new Slovaks," thereby impl y ing th at they had other loya lties or identities,'9 and of being paid by the Hungari an government. In both cases, the M agyars had the ro le of ·'bogeyman" . T hi s M agyarone ca rd was used to expl ain w hy the Slovaks had turned away from the Czechs in the past and in the present , and to co unter th e autonomi st c laim th at they we re the so le leg itimate representati ves of the Slovak nati on. I f the ce ntra li sts believed th at Sl ovak autonomy would j eopardi ze Czechos lovak nati onal unity and th e integrit y of th e state, it w as quite log ica l to acc use th e autonomi sts of being renegades (though probabl y not very smart). Profound Changes after 1989 After 1989 there was not much left of the former ce ntra list arguments, which is not surpri sing considering that Czec hos lovaki srn had 18 • I van Derer. Ceskos/ovensk;i otizkil. (Prague : Orbis. 1935). 88- 90. 39 Both labels we re commonly used about people of Slovak origi n who had become more or less ass imil ated during Hungari an rul e. but who turned back after 19 18. There we re some known M agyarones among the autonomists (chiefl y Franti sek Jehlicka and Yoj tech/ Bela Tuka). but the lead ing figures (Hlin ka. Juri ga) had defended Slovak interests also under Hungary. T he total number of people who ac tu ally switched nati onal affi l iatio n from Magyar to Slovak i n the firs t ten years of Czec hos lovaki a cannot be ascertained prec ise ly, but an educated guess is th at it was betwee n 250.000 and half a million. See Bak ke (op.cit. . 1999). 305- 307. SLOVAKIA 77 been abandoned and a unitary state form was no longer an option. Th e "centralists" still accepted the principle of nati onal self- determinati on; however, they now recogni zed the Czec hs and Slovaks as equal , state-forming nation s and Czechoslovakia as a Czech and Slova k nati on-state. As long as state form was sti 11 on the agenda, the players on the "centrali st" side were mostly Czechs, and the task was to defend a " function al federation ," which meant to preserve the powers of the federation v is-a-vi s the Republics. Once the break-up of the state appeared on the agenda after the 1992 electi ons, however , th e "centra li st" pl ayers were Czech and Slovak opposition parti es and the task was now to preserve a common Czechoslovak state. In the hy ph en debate, as we ll as in the co mpetenc y debate, Czech deputi es explicitly presented th e federal state form as an express ion of the equality of the Czechs and Slovaks. The main Czech arguments against th e hy phen were that it was divi sive, and that it was unacceptable to the Czech publi c. This probabl y had something to do with the fact that the Second Czecho-Slovak Republi c ( 1938-- 39) was spelled with a hyphen. It was also argued that it was grammati ca ll y probl emati c, th at the original spelling had been without a hyphen (an hi stori ca l argument), and th at the Morav ians would feel offended (an identity argument). The main arguments in favor of a strong federation were that it was necessary in order to carry out the economic reform s and to fulfill Czechos lovakia 's internati onal obligati ons. For the Czech elite, the power and competency of the Czech Republic was irrelevant. In fact, I have onl y found one example of a Czec h deputy in vok ing nat ional interests, and he arg ued th at a confederate solution would be contrary to Czech interests.-lO The Czech and Slovak opposition parties that defended Czec hoslovaki a's ex istence in the debates in the fall of 1992 were mostly Socialists and Communists, but also included the ultra-nati onali st ' 0 M andl er (Libera l Democra ti c Part y). Zprava o 9. spol ecne schuzi SL a S . 11.- 12.1 2. 1990, in Fedenilnf shromaf.difof Ceske a Slovenske Federativnf Republiky V I . vo lebnf obdobf ( 1990), <www.psp.c z/ci,.nih/ 19901\h,bnf!.,tcnprot/009,c:hud ,009()77. htrn ll d> [4 February 2004 1. 78 SLOVAKIA Republican s. Even thoug h this opposition accepted th e principle of national se lf-determination , they mostly interpreted it in the origina l meanin g - as popular sovereignty . The totally dominating line of argument was that the only leg itimate way of dividin g Czechoslovakia according to the principle of se lf-determination was to let the citizens decide by popular vote, a nd that it was unacceptable to divide the state against the will of the peopl e. In the first debate on dissolution , thi s was supported by a hi storical a nalogy. By accident, the debate was held 54 years after the fateful Munich agreement, and the opposition argued that a new Munich was about to happen: Again the fate of the Czechoslovak state wou ld be dec ided without asking the peop le. In the first debate the oppos ition parties advocated a refere ndum before the decision was made; in the second debate a ratifying pl ebisc ite. The motive was obvious ly to save the state, since all opin ion poll s showed that a clear majority was in favor. However, very few deputies ac tually defended the me rits of Czechoslovakia, although a handful of Czechs professed their love for the shared homeland , or invoked the legacy of the founding fathers , mostly T.G. Masary k and Milan Rasti slav Stefanik. Finally, a weak echo of the inte rwar debate could be heard in claims that separation would be a threat to the future existence of the Czech and Slovak nation s (reminiscent of the strength-through-unity argument), and in charges of treason (personal attac ks). Ne ither line of argument was very common. The claim that voting in favor of disso luti on was an act of treason was a preserve of the ultra-nationalist Republican Party of Czec hos lovakia. The debates a lso had their amusing sides, for in stance in the use of metaphors. The federation was alternately see n as a leaking ship, a train being pulled in opposite directions , and an old patient with a severe heart condit ion , whi le the establishment of the new states was compared to giving birth to twins! SLOVAKIA 79 5. Summary and Conclusion [n the inter-war period, Czechoslovakia was a unitary , centralized state, and autonomy was a matter of separate Slovak institutions. After 1989, Czechoslovakia was a sy mm etric federation of two nationa l Republic s. Separate Slovak inst itutions were, therefore, no longer an iss ue, and autonomy became a matter of allocating more deci s ion-makin g power to the Republic s. However, in both cases, there was a conflict over state form, and in both cases the content of that conflict was how centralized the state should be. As for the actors , the e lite constellations were most stable in the inte rw ar pe riod . However, as lon g as the conflict was about state form, the Czech political elite was in favor of the most centralized so lution , while the Slovak elite was divided . Once the break-up of Czechoslovakia was on the agenda, the re were Czech and Slovak parties on both si des. If we focus on the main arguments on either side, we can obse rve continuity as well as change. Durin g the First Republic , the arguments of both sides were located within a nationali st discourse, but they founded their argume ntation on alternative nation al ideologies. The centralists invoked the principle of national se lf-dete rmination on behalf of the "Czechoslovak nation", the autonomists on behalf of the Slovak nation . After the Velvet Revolution , the autonomist argume nts were still located within a nationali st di scourse, and when the victorious part ies in the 1992 elections dec ided to divide the state, the Czech si de simply adopted the Slovak arg uments. By contrast, the "centrali st" arguments in the debate on state form were mainly economic, while the arguments in the debate on the break-up of Czechoslovakia were procedural. The most strik in g feature of the autonomy di sco urse after 1989 is therefore the asy mmetry of the arguments on both sides. Let us now address th e question of how the arguments related to the principle of national se lf-determination : On the autonomist side, the core message was the sa me in both periods; that the Slovaks were e ntitl ed to autonomy or se lf-determination "qu a nation ." Howeve r, 80 SLOVAKIA the principle of natio na l se lf-d etermin a ti o n was in voked more ex plicitl y after the Velvet Revo lution . On the centra li st side, the principle was used as an argument against a utono my in the interwar period , and w ith a certain twist, against the break-up of Czechos lovakia in 1992 . In the latter case, se lf-de te rmin ation was understood as popul ar sovere ignty - i.e . as a democratic principle. It is also inte res tin g that after 1989, the principl e of nation a l se lfdetermination was consistently invoked on behalf of the Slovaks, not on behalf of the Czechs, other than in the context of Czechoslovakia as the nation- state of two individual , sovere ign nations. In conclusion , the continuity was strongest on the autonomist side , alth ough th e conte nts of nation al se lf-determination c hanged from autonom y to independence. On the "centrali st" side, most of the a mmunition aga inst Slovak autonomy was gone once the concept of a Czechoslovak nation was abandoned.  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 Autonomy Discourse in Parliamentary Debates during the First Czechoslovak Republic and after the Velvet Revolution Description An account of the resource Elisabeth Bakke Slovakia, Vol. 38 (No. 70-71), 2005 pp. 52-80 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bakke, Elisabeth Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/16faceb2c693c090d284a24613828946.pdf 4aff0bc875a90f9d7e3d03d99ed64eaf PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 109 ECONOMIC DISCRIMINATIO N AGAINST SLOVAKIA by Frank Bandar This is a story of how economic inequality - or according to a strong expression, economic discrimination can bring social unrest and, ultimately, antagonism against a ruling ethnic majority. (There are many who claim that it was the antagonism of Slovaks against Czechs that brought the destruction of Czecho-Slovakia. The author of this essay, however, believes that the first Republic could not have survived in the international situation even without internal ethnic divisions.) To familiarize the reader with the available evidence in this field : the official Czecho-Slovak interwar statistics distinguished the regions of Czecho-Slovakia according to the ethnic and historical origin, except for production data for Slovakia. Thus we find data explicitly for Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia (sometimes Moravia includes Silesia), Slovakia, and Ruthenia. The first three regions were also officially termed the "historical regions" though the Slovaks also have a history, despite 1,000 years of Magyar occupation. Since World War II, when Ruthenia was annexed by the U.S.S.R., the official statistics refer to the Czech regions and Slovakia. Recent economic data give equal coverage to the Czech regions and Slovakia, in contrast to those published between the two wars, when young Slovak economists had to search for production data on Slovak territory.1 The Background of Slovakia's Industrialization Slovakia was part of "Greater Hungary" from 906 to October 30, 1918, and, indeed, during the 150 years after the battle of Mohacs, in 1526, that Hungary proper was under Turkish domination, Slovakia was the area where independent political and economic life was carried on. When the Turks were driven out at the end of the 17th century, a base for manufacturing in terms of handicraft and artisanship had been firmly laid down in Slovakia. After the AustroHungarian settlement in 1867, when the Monarchy was divided into two administrative and economic units, the Magyar politicians were eager to catch up to the more developed Austria. They started to build industry where con- �110 SLOVAKIA ditions were the most favorable. A cheaper labor market and the availability of raw material - coal, iron, etc., favored the Slovak territory. And, because industries built in Slovakia were of later date, than those in the "historical" regions, they were equipped with more advanced technology. So, immediately after World War I, Slovakia contained 17 .3 % of all former Hungarian industries ( which employed 20 or more workers) employing 20.7 % of all the workers in such industries in former Greater Hungary were employed.2 According to other sources, about 20 % of industry, of 20 or more employees, were in the Slovak territories. The actual total number of industrial workers was much higher, because there were many small workshops of under 20 employees, for which there are no data in the pre-World War I Magyar statistics. In per capita terms, Slovakia seems to have been the most industrialized region in Greater Hungary, for, of the 20.9 million population in Greater Hungary in 1910, 2.9 million lived in the Slovak territory. 3 The Decline of Slovak Industry and Industrial Employment After 1918 The contention of this paper is that, after the First Republic came into existence, the industrial strength of Slovakia declined, for a number of reasons. One of these was the changing structure of industry in Slovakia; the other reason was the policies followed by the economically stronger Czech regions. One writer puts it this way: "The situation in Czecho-Slovakia became critical when all capitalist countries experienced a post-war depression in the winter months of 1922 and 1923. The Czech capitalists tried to overcome the crisis by concentrating industry into the Czech regions ... Industrial production in Slovakia was not so profitable for them, therefore, they stopped production in Slovakia, and industrial equipment was transported to the Czech regions or sold abroad. " 4 Industrial employment indeed declined in the first half of the 1920's and later recovered only very slowly. 1910 85,000 1913 1926 93,000 86,454 �SLOVAKIA (Dec. 31) 1930 1937 111 103,222 104,915 Source: P. Turcan, Socialistickti industrializacia Slovenska, Bratislava: Osveta, 1960, p. 73. Simply the number of workers, however, is misleading. It understates the decline of Slovak industrial strength, for the workers of 1913 were mostly employed in capitalintensive industries, whereas by 1926 and later, they were mostly in labor-intensive industries. Slovak industry underwent a structural change. Capital-intensive heavy industries were moved to the Czech regions and were replaced, partly, with labor-intensive light industries. At the time of the 1930 census, most of Slovak industry consisted of establishments with less than 20 workers, for instance, in stone-clay, graphical, wood and food industries. 5 Of the 3,327 industrial establishments in Slovakia in 1930, 1,624, or about 50%, were in the food industries where many women were employed at lower wages. "The demolition of industry between the years 1921 and 1929 affected about 300 industrial enterprises in Slovakia, mostly iron, textile and wood industries. By this policy, the unequal economic development in the Czech regions and Slovakia deepened. 6 "Demolition and stoppage of metallurgy and iron industries continued. For example, a great part of the production of Podbrezovd (the largest iron industry in Slovakia) was transferred to Vitkovice (Silesia). Plants in Stratend, Pohoreld (towns in Slovakia) and some plants in Gemer (county in Slovakia) were stopped. The blast furnaces in Tisovec (town in Slovakia) stopped production in 1931."7 The question is whether this structural change in industry between the Czech and Slovak regions was in the interest of comparative advantage, i.e., was it in the interest of all Czecho-Slovakia to concentrate heavy industry exclusively in the western regions? This was not so, in my opinion. Before 1918, the Slovak regions had relatively modern and efficient heavy industries and there was a healthy competition with those in the other regions within the confines of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Furthermore, Slovakia is endowed with both iron and coal, albeit the coal fields in Silesia ( Czech region) are larger and richer. There was also much surplus agricultural labor- �SLOVAKIA 112 a common problem of East European countries, but in Czecho-Slovakia this surplus was particularly concentrated in Slovakia and Ruthenia. 8 A well-known English economist, P. W. Rosenstein-Rodan, makes the latter statement even more strongly. His estimates show a 13 percent surplus of labor in Czecho-Slovak agriculture in 1937 concentrated exclusively in Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia. 9 A cross-section comparison gives the picture of industry in 1930 shown in Table 24 . Number of Enterprises and Industrial Employment by Regions in 1930 No. of industrial enterprises Bohemia Moravia & Silesia Slovakia Ruthenia Total No. of workers employed 17,099 6,843 3,327 411 815,016 376,995 103,210 10,699 27,680 1,305,920 Source: Czechoslovak Statistical Office, statisticka rocenka repub• liky ceskoslovenske, 1936, p. 53. This table indicates that in 1930 Slovakia had only 7.9 % of the total industrial employment in the country while she had 24 % of the population.10 Unfortunately, no strictly comparable data are available for the earlier years. In 1937, 10.8 workers out of each 100 population were employed in industry in the Czech regions as against only 3 % in Slovakia. 11 "Slovakian industry undoubtedly did not receive from the Czechoslovak Government the help which it urgently needed to carry it over this difficult period. On the contrary, it was placed in many respects under quite unnecessary disadvantages. Until taxation was unified throughout the Republic (which was not until 1929), it was much more heavily taxed in many respects than the 'Historic lands' ... The rates paid by professional and businessmen were, on the average, three times as high in Slovakia as in Bohemia."12 Hence the economic policy was one reason that led the Slovaks to feel antagonism again.st Czechs. To consider the problems of industry in Slovakia from �SLOVAKIA 113 the purely economic point of view, there were a number of disadvantages : (a ) more expensive transport costs by railway because a substantial part (40 % , see below ) of the railways in Slovakia was in private hands ;13 (b ) lack of capital and high interest rates, about 10 % 14 (c) a small ratio of state orders from the industry in Slovakia; (d ) lack of coke and some raw materials ; (e ) discriminatory taxation policy. The result was a lessening and in some cases stoppage of industrial production in Slovakia.15 Recent authors also add to the list of instances of economic discrimination against the Slovaks during the first Republic with the following considerations: 1. By subsidizing the state railway, which provided most railway transport in the "historical" regions, they favored the Czech industry. The subsidies, meanwhile, were paid for also by the Slovak taxpayers. 2. A high interest rate in Slovakia was not justifiable. 3. The state should have ordered from the industries in Slovakia according to a more equitable ratio. 4. Coke and other raw materials could have been supplied also to industries in Slovakia. 5. Even the recent communist writers acknowledge that the Czech industrialists feared the competition of Slovak industry, whose equipment was modern at that time compared to that in the Czech regions. 16 The discriminatory policy against the industry in Slovakia continued even after the post-war depression was over and world prosperity was near its peak. Thus, the production of pig iron fell in Slovakia accounting for 10-12 % of the total production in Czecho-Slovakia in 1921, to only 2.7 % in 1926. 17 As a consequence of that, between 13 and 17 percent of the industrial production in the Czech region was "exported" to Slovakia during the boom years of 19261929.18 The outcome of the discrimination against Slovak industry was that Slovakia and Ruthenia remained agricultural areas whose employment, or, rather, disguised unemployment in agriculture decreased only slightly. Agricultural occupations accounted for the largest �114 SLOVAKIA single share of employment in post-World War I CzechoSlovakia: an average of 39.6%, including forestry and fishery, for the country as a whole. Geographically, however, the situation was different, as may be seen from this table: Proportion of Employment in Agriculture According to Regions in 1921 and 1930 Bohemia Moravia Silesia Slovakia Ruthenia 1921 1930 29.7% 38.6% 21.9% 60.6% 67.7% 24.1 % 28.6 % 28.6 % 56.8 % 66.3% Source: Czechoslovak Statistical Office, Annuaire Statistique de ia Repubiique Tchecoslovaque, Prague, 1938, p. 15. Thus, while in the Czech regions agriculture represented only about 25 % of employment, in Slovakia and Ruthenia it was about 60 %. Thus far, I have been using the data given by recent authors and the official statistics which, however, lack details concerning industry in Slovakia. Even independent economists, such as I. Karvas, while studying the industries in Slovakia,19 had only one source of employment data: the Workers' Compensation Board of Slovakia. His data, as he himself acknowledges, is one of 79 % coverage concerning the extinguished industrial enterprises and 89 % of the newly established ones. According to I. Karvas, Slovak industry was heavily dependent on railway transportation, because highway conditions were poor in Slovakia. And, because about 48 % of the railway belonged to private companies, transport was more expensive in Slovakia. 20 Railway density was thinnest in Slovakia and Ruthenia throughout the life of the first Republic. In 1933 the situation was this: Railway Density per one square km. Bohemia Moravia Silesia Slovakia, Ruthenia 0.130 0.098 0.136 0.062 km km km km �SLOVAKIA 115 Source : I. Karvas, Sjednoceni vyrobnich podminek v zemi ceskych a na Slovensku, Prague: ORBIS, 1933, p . 11. The other handicap, was that railways were oriented southward toward Budapest, and this handicap was much worse in Slovakia than in the Czech regions. Many localities in Slovakia had railway connections only via Hungary. The only trans-Slovakia line was in the north (KosiceBohumin). The other line that now exists, through the center regions, was completed only during World War II . According to I. Karvas, the decrease of industry in Slovakia had two types of causes, those common to industry in the Czech regions as well, and special causes affecting Slovakia only. 21 Leaving aside the reasons common to all the country's industry, those particular to Slovakia lay in the structure of industry itself, and in the post-war Czecho-Slovak economic policy. When the heavy-capital-intensive industries were demolished, new labor-intensive industries were built, but with less employees, so that loss of employment by demolishing the heavy industries could not have been outweighed by building new industries. In 1929, such was the situation concerning industrial employment. As we can see from next table, about 50 % of Slovak workers lost their jobs from the forced structural change of industry in Slovakia. On balance, many remained unemployed because new entrants into the labor force took jobs in the expanding industries. Loss and Increase of Employment in Slovak Industri es, 1920-1929 Demolished Decrease of Newly built Increase of enterprises employment enterprises employment 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 Total 5 3 15 22 19 21 27 25 17 13 181 74 1,130 870 3,673 2,056 1,534 1,270 1,232 1,066 21 29 23 21 21 16 342 586 482 311 1,825 1,186 603 560 721 381 167 13,386 184 7,003 9 18 16 10 �SLOVAKIA 116 Source: I. Karvas, Sjednoceni viirobnich podminek v zemi ceskiic h a na Slov ensku, Prague, ORBIS, 1933, p. 54. Expansion of Existing Industry in Slovakia in 1920-1929 Workers after expansion Number of enterprises Workers before expansion 6 8 4 15 12 24 22 23 30 42 583 799 342 2,368 1,730 2,826 1,932 1,747 5,359 5,193 990 1,142 1,296 3,615 2,582 3,459 2,857 2,768 6,947 6,316 168 22,859 31,972 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 Total Source : I. Karvas, Sj ednoceni v yrobnich podminek v zemi ceskiic h a na Slov ensku, Prague, ORBIS, 1933, p. 57. According to the two previous tables 6,383 workers lost their jobs; according to Table 28, 9,113 found work. For lack of data one cannot compare the incomes in both cases. However, since heavy industries requiring skilled male labor were demolished and light industries, such as food, etc., were built, wages were most probably below their former levels . Next table indicates a decline in general Slovak wageearnings compared to those in the Czech regions. Ratio of Wages in Slovakia in Terms of those in the Czech Regions Year Daily wages Yearly wages 1921 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 92.8 87 .7 89.3 87 .4 87 .6 86.1 86.1 80.0 71.4 72.7 74.6 75.6 75.0 74.8 Source: V. Prucha in Vysoka skola ekonomicka, Pfehled hospodafske ho viiv oje ceskoslov enska v l etech 1918-1945, Prague: NLP, 1963, p . 275. Therefore, it seems a reasonable inference that the income that workers earned in Slovak industry did not increase even during the boom years in interwar Czecho-Slovakia. �SLOVAKIA 117 Employment in the State Sector in Slovakia The concept of employment in the state sector covers not only civil service, but also state owned enterprises, which included tobacco, railways (except the 48 % privately owned), Post Savings institutions, state mining and smelting enterprises, the Czecho-Slovak Printing Office, an aircraft factory, state forests and land, state spas and recreation centers, etc. 22 The state sector was thus a substantial entity. Receipts and E xpenditures of State-Owned Enterpri ses, 1927-1938 (In Mill. Kcs ) Receipts Outlays 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 9,222 9,592 10,011 10,396 10,614 10,460 7,670 8,064 8,460 8,834 9,064 8,930 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 Receipts Outlays -- -- 9,074 8,013 8,003 7,973 8,330 9,222 7,867 7,164 7,176 7,230 7,452 7,869 Sources: Czechoslovak Statistical Office, Statisticka rocenka republiky Ceskoslovenske, 1936, p. 273. Annuaire statistique de la Republique Tchecoslovaque , 1938, p. 299. While there are no estimates of national income in interwar Czecho-Slovakia, it is the writer's guess that about 25 % of national income originated with state-owned enterprises. In any event, it is evident that employment in the state represented income to a substantial group of wage earners, and it was precisely in this field that some of the more striking evidence of discrimination against Slovaks was to be found. At au levels, from school porters to principals, and in all branches of civil service, as well as the majority of state enterprises, employees were primarily from the Czech regions. Thus, on April 23, 1925, member of Parliament, Mr. Hancko, protesting Czech discrimination against Slovak employees, noted that the employment breakdown in the Railway Management in Bratislava (capital of Slovakia) and in Kosice (the second largest city in Slovakia) was as follows in 1925: 23 of 5,134 clerks of higher ranks - 90 % were Czechs �118 SLOVAKIA of 12,355 clerks of lower ranks - 60 % were Czechs of 16,025 clerks of railway workers 30% were Czechs In addition, the railway departments were proposing to lay off 38 % of the Slovak workers. When there were still unemployed workers, excluding the disguised unemployed in Slovakia, 30 % of the workers came from the Czech regions, not to mention clerks of the highest ranks. Another example is perhaps more striking: Of all civil servants in the central government in Prague (10,825) only 123 or 1.3% were Slovaks, whereas the Slovak population represented 22 .6 % of the national total. 24 Generally, there were no Slovak civil servants in the Czech regions, but a large proportion of the civil servants in the Slovak regions were Czech. No detailed statistics are available because, although data was collected in 1933 by Prime Minister Malypetr, he was persuaded that the Slovak antagonism against the Czechs had a political background, not an economic one. He wanted to publish a table showing how many Slovaks were employed as civil servants, and after having seen the results, he refrained from publishing the figures, although he had promised to the Slovak opposition leaders that he would. The figures cited above are from this originally unpublished report which was eventually released after March 14, 1939, when the Slovaks proclaimed their independence and were entitled to copy all government documents concerning Slovakia. Lack of employment opportunity forced the people in Slovakia to look for jobs outside their mother country. According to recent writers, employment in industry in Slovakia rose by 2,500 persons, or 2.9 % from 1930 to 1937, while it rose in the Czech regions by 10.9 %. Thus lack of opportunity to find income at home caused an emigration from Slovakia that was seven times greater than that from the Czech regions .25 (See next table). Emigration with Valid Passports from Czecho-Slovakia in the Years 1924-1936 Total emigration from Czecho-Slovakia 1924 1925 54,373 19,350 Emigration from Slovakia Ruthenia 35,110 8,700 2,491 475 �SLOVAKIA 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 Total 119 26,129 23,596 24,540 30,715 25,712 9,567 5,165 4,735 5,065 5,685 7,201 14,388 12,053 13,544 19,401 16,682 4,527 2,222 3,009 3,016 3,707 4,831 1,561 2,411 2,286 3,822 2,706 358 123 241 343 445 471 271 ,533 141,190 17,733 Source: Czechoslovak Statistical Office, Statisticka rocenka republi- ky ceskos lovenske, Prague, 1936, p. 29. Thus according to the official data, over 50 % of the emigrants during 1924-1937 came from Slovakia whose population was only 22.6 % (Ruthenia's 4.9 % ) of all the CzechoSlovak population. At that time 50,111 workers in the state sector-including civil servants-came form the "historical lands" to Slovakia. The situation was no bet ter concerning the career army officers . Of 139 army generals only one was a Slovak (no Slovak colonels ) . Of 5,439 higher ranking officers , 67 were Slovaks ; of 6,871 lower ranking officers, 356 were Slova ks .26 This unhappy s ituat ion burst int o social u n rest. When the internation al situation w as crit ical to Czecho-Slovakia, the Slovaks, who had only wanted autonom y within the frame of Czecho-Slovakia, acting under th e pressure of Nazi Germany, procla imed themselves independent on March 14, 1939.27 FOOTNOTES 1. Conversa tion with Dr. Josef Stasko, New York P ublic Library. 2. I. A. Karvas, Sjednoceni vyrobnic h podminek v zemi ceskych a na Slovensku, Prague: ORBIS, 1933, pp. 77-78. 3. Magyar statisztikai zsebkonyv, p. 32. 4. K. Golan and Assoc. in ceskoslovenske dejiny, Bratislava: Osveta, 1961, p. 255. 5. Statisticka rocenka, 1936, p. 53. �120 SLOVAKIA 6. K. Golan, op. cit., p. 256. 7. Ibid. , pp. 262-263. 8. G. Lazarcik, The Performance of Socialist Agriculture, New York: L.W. International Financial Research, Inc., 1963, p. 4. 9. P. W. Rosenstein-Rodan, Agricultural Surplus Population in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, (mimeo), London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, as cited by Lazarcik, The Performance ... op. cit., p . 4. 10. Computed on the basis of 1930 census data. 11. P . Turcan, op. cit., p. 73. 12. C. A. Macartney, Hungary and her Successors, London: Oxford University Press, 1937, p. 131. 13. In the Czech regions where 96% of railways were publicly owned, the cost per ton-mile was 0.5354 Kcs; in the Slovak regions, with only 52%in public hands, the ton-mile cost 1.1218 Kcs. (I. A. Karvas, op. cit., pp. 83-84), although the publicly owned railways received a subsidy. 14. In the Czech regions the prime rate-charged on preferred industrial loans-fluctuated between five and eight percent. 15. A. Dobry in Pf-ehled hospodarskeho vyvoje, pp. 194-195. See also Deset let rozvoje , p. 13. 16. A. Dobry in Prehled hospodarskeho vyvoje, p. 195. 17. Ostredie slovenskeho priemyslu, Slovensky priemysel v.n. 1929, Yearly Report of the Central Slovak Industry, Bratislava-Turciansky Sv. Martin: K.U.S., 1930, pp. 28-29. 18. A. Dobry in Pf-ehled hospodaf-skeho vyvoje, p. 195. 19. I. A. Karvas, op. cit., p. 54. 20. Ibid., pp. 11-12. 21. Ibid. , p. 36. 22. Statisticka rocenka, 1936, p. 275. 23. K. Culen, Slovaci a cesi v statnych sluibach, Bratislava: Vedecky ustav, 1944, p. 70. 24. Ibid., pp. 97-99. 25. Deset let rozvoje, pp. 12-13. 26. K. Culen, Preco Slovaci nechcu ist' s cechmi, pp. 15-16 (mimeo), New York (no publishing date) . 27. J. Kirschbaum, Nas boj o samostatnost' Slovenska, Cleveland, Ohio: Slovensky ustav, 1958, pp. 62-70. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is interested primarily in promoting the welfare and security of the United States of America. � SLOVAKIA 109 ECONOMIC DISCRIMINATIO N AGAINST SLOVAKIA by Frank Bandar This is a story of how economic inequality - or according to a strong expression, economic discrimination can bring social unrest and, ultimately, antagonism against a ruling ethnic majority. (There are many who claim that it was the antagonism of Slovaks against Czechs that brought the destruction of Czecho-Slovakia. The author of this essay, however, believes that the first Republic could not have survived in the international situation even without internal ethnic divisions.) To familiarize the reader with the available evidence in this field : the official Czecho-Slovak interwar statistics distinguished the regions of Czecho-Slovakia according to the ethnic and historical origin, except for production data for Slovakia. Thus we find data explicitly for Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia (sometimes Moravia includes Silesia), Slovakia, and Ruthenia. The first three regions were also officially termed the "historical regions" though the Slovaks also have a history, despite 1,000 years of Magyar occupation. Since World War II, when Ruthenia was annexed by the U.S.S.R., the official statistics refer to the Czech regions and Slovakia. Recent economic data give equal coverage to the Czech regions and Slovakia, in contrast to those published between the two wars, when young Slovak economists had to search for production data on Slovak territory.1 The Background of Slovakia's Industrialization Slovakia was part of "Greater Hungary" from 906 to October 30, 1918, and, indeed, during the 150 years after the battle of Mohacs, in 1526, that Hungary proper was under Turkish domination, Slovakia was the area where independent political and economic life was carried on. When the Turks were driven out at the end of the 17th century, a base for manufacturing in terms of handicraft and artisanship had been firmly laid down in Slovakia. After the AustroHungarian settlement in 1867, when the Monarchy was divided into two administrative and economic units, the Magyar politicians were eager to catch up to the more developed Austria. They started to build industry where con- �110 SLOVAKIA ditions were the most favorable. A cheaper labor market and the availability of raw material - coal, iron, etc., favored the Slovak territory. And, because industries built in Slovakia were of later date, than those in the "historical" regions, they were equipped with more advanced technology. So, immediately after World War I, Slovakia contained 17 .3 % of all former Hungarian industries ( which employed 20 or more workers) employing 20.7 % of all the workers in such industries in former Greater Hungary were employed.2 According to other sources, about 20 % of industry, of 20 or more employees, were in the Slovak territories. The actual total number of industrial workers was much higher, because there were many small workshops of under 20 employees, for which there are no data in the pre-World War I Magyar statistics. In per capita terms, Slovakia seems to have been the most industrialized region in Greater Hungary, for, of the 20.9 million population in Greater Hungary in 1910, 2.9 million lived in the Slovak territory. 3 The Decline of Slovak Industry and Industrial Employment After 1918 The contention of this paper is that, after the First Republic came into existence, the industrial strength of Slovakia declined, for a number of reasons. One of these was the changing structure of industry in Slovakia; the other reason was the policies followed by the economically stronger Czech regions. One writer puts it this way: "The situation in Czecho-Slovakia became critical when all capitalist countries experienced a post-war depression in the winter months of 1922 and 1923. The Czech capitalists tried to overcome the crisis by concentrating industry into the Czech regions ... Industrial production in Slovakia was not so profitable for them, therefore, they stopped production in Slovakia, and industrial equipment was transported to the Czech regions or sold abroad. " 4 Industrial employment indeed declined in the first half of the 1920's and later recovered only very slowly. 1910 85,000 1913 1926 93,000 86,454 �SLOVAKIA (Dec. 31) 1930 1937 111 103,222 104,915 Source: P. Turcan, Socialistickti industrializacia Slovenska, Bratislava: Osveta, 1960, p. 73. Simply the number of workers, however, is misleading. It understates the decline of Slovak industrial strength, for the workers of 1913 were mostly employed in capitalintensive industries, whereas by 1926 and later, they were mostly in labor-intensive industries. Slovak industry underwent a structural change. Capital-intensive heavy industries were moved to the Czech regions and were replaced, partly, with labor-intensive light industries. At the time of the 1930 census, most of Slovak industry consisted of establishments with less than 20 workers, for instance, in stone-clay, graphical, wood and food industries. 5 Of the 3,327 industrial establishments in Slovakia in 1930, 1,624, or about 50%, were in the food industries where many women were employed at lower wages. "The demolition of industry between the years 1921 and 1929 affected about 300 industrial enterprises in Slovakia, mostly iron, textile and wood industries. By this policy, the unequal economic development in the Czech regions and Slovakia deepened. 6 "Demolition and stoppage of metallurgy and iron industries continued. For example, a great part of the production of Podbrezovd (the largest iron industry in Slovakia) was transferred to Vitkovice (Silesia). Plants in Stratend, Pohoreld (towns in Slovakia) and some plants in Gemer (county in Slovakia) were stopped. The blast furnaces in Tisovec (town in Slovakia) stopped production in 1931."7 The question is whether this structural change in industry between the Czech and Slovak regions was in the interest of comparative advantage, i.e., was it in the interest of all Czecho-Slovakia to concentrate heavy industry exclusively in the western regions? This was not so, in my opinion. Before 1918, the Slovak regions had relatively modern and efficient heavy industries and there was a healthy competition with those in the other regions within the confines of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Furthermore, Slovakia is endowed with both iron and coal, albeit the coal fields in Silesia ( Czech region) are larger and richer. There was also much surplus agricultural labor- �SLOVAKIA 112 a common problem of East European countries, but in Czecho-Slovakia this surplus was particularly concentrated in Slovakia and Ruthenia. 8 A well-known English economist, P. W. Rosenstein-Rodan, makes the latter statement even more strongly. His estimates show a 13 percent surplus of labor in Czecho-Slovak agriculture in 1937 concentrated exclusively in Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia. 9 A cross-section comparison gives the picture of industry in 1930 shown in Table 24 . Number of Enterprises and Industrial Employment by Regions in 1930 No. of industrial enterprises Bohemia Moravia & Silesia Slovakia Ruthenia Total No. of workers employed 17,099 6,843 3,327 411 815,016 376,995 103,210 10,699 27,680 1,305,920 Source: Czechoslovak Statistical Office, statisticka rocenka repub• liky ceskoslovenske, 1936, p. 53. This table indicates that in 1930 Slovakia had only 7.9 % of the total industrial employment in the country while she had 24 % of the population.10 Unfortunately, no strictly comparable data are available for the earlier years. In 1937, 10.8 workers out of each 100 population were employed in industry in the Czech regions as against only 3 % in Slovakia. 11 "Slovakian industry undoubtedly did not receive from the Czechoslovak Government the help which it urgently needed to carry it over this difficult period. On the contrary, it was placed in many respects under quite unnecessary disadvantages. Until taxation was unified throughout the Republic (which was not until 1929), it was much more heavily taxed in many respects than the 'Historic lands' ... The rates paid by professional and businessmen were, on the average, three times as high in Slovakia as in Bohemia."12 Hence the economic policy was one reason that led the Slovaks to feel antagonism again.st Czechs. To consider the problems of industry in Slovakia from �SLOVAKIA 113 the purely economic point of view, there were a number of disadvantages : (a ) more expensive transport costs by railway because a substantial part (40 % , see below ) of the railways in Slovakia was in private hands ;13 (b ) lack of capital and high interest rates, about 10 % 14 (c) a small ratio of state orders from the industry in Slovakia; (d ) lack of coke and some raw materials ; (e ) discriminatory taxation policy. The result was a lessening and in some cases stoppage of industrial production in Slovakia.15 Recent authors also add to the list of instances of economic discrimination against the Slovaks during the first Republic with the following considerations: 1. By subsidizing the state railway, which provided most railway transport in the "historical" regions, they favored the Czech industry. The subsidies, meanwhile, were paid for also by the Slovak taxpayers. 2. A high interest rate in Slovakia was not justifiable. 3. The state should have ordered from the industries in Slovakia according to a more equitable ratio. 4. Coke and other raw materials could have been supplied also to industries in Slovakia. 5. Even the recent communist writers acknowledge that the Czech industrialists feared the competition of Slovak industry, whose equipment was modern at that time compared to that in the Czech regions. 16 The discriminatory policy against the industry in Slovakia continued even after the post-war depression was over and world prosperity was near its peak. Thus, the production of pig iron fell in Slovakia accounting for 10-12 % of the total production in Czecho-Slovakia in 1921, to only 2.7 % in 1926. 17 As a consequence of that, between 13 and 17 percent of the industrial production in the Czech region was "exported" to Slovakia during the boom years of 19261929.18 The outcome of the discrimination against Slovak industry was that Slovakia and Ruthenia remained agricultural areas whose employment, or, rather, disguised unemployment in agriculture decreased only slightly. Agricultural occupations accounted for the largest �114 SLOVAKIA single share of employment in post-World War I CzechoSlovakia: an average of 39.6%, including forestry and fishery, for the country as a whole. Geographically, however, the situation was different, as may be seen from this table: Proportion of Employment in Agriculture According to Regions in 1921 and 1930 Bohemia Moravia Silesia Slovakia Ruthenia 1921 1930 29.7% 38.6% 21.9% 60.6% 67.7% 24.1 % 28.6 % 28.6 % 56.8 % 66.3% Source: Czechoslovak Statistical Office, Annuaire Statistique de ia Repubiique Tchecoslovaque, Prague, 1938, p. 15. Thus, while in the Czech regions agriculture represented only about 25 % of employment, in Slovakia and Ruthenia it was about 60 %. Thus far, I have been using the data given by recent authors and the official statistics which, however, lack details concerning industry in Slovakia. Even independent economists, such as I. Karvas, while studying the industries in Slovakia,19 had only one source of employment data: the Workers' Compensation Board of Slovakia. His data, as he himself acknowledges, is one of 79 % coverage concerning the extinguished industrial enterprises and 89 % of the newly established ones. According to I. Karvas, Slovak industry was heavily dependent on railway transportation, because highway conditions were poor in Slovakia. And, because about 48 % of the railway belonged to private companies, transport was more expensive in Slovakia. 20 Railway density was thinnest in Slovakia and Ruthenia throughout the life of the first Republic. In 1933 the situation was this: Railway Density per one square km. Bohemia Moravia Silesia Slovakia, Ruthenia 0.130 0.098 0.136 0.062 km km km km �SLOVAKIA 115 Source : I. Karvas, Sjednoceni vyrobnich podminek v zemi ceskych a na Slovensku, Prague: ORBIS, 1933, p . 11. The other handicap, was that railways were oriented southward toward Budapest, and this handicap was much worse in Slovakia than in the Czech regions. Many localities in Slovakia had railway connections only via Hungary. The only trans-Slovakia line was in the north (KosiceBohumin). The other line that now exists, through the center regions, was completed only during World War II . According to I. Karvas, the decrease of industry in Slovakia had two types of causes, those common to industry in the Czech regions as well, and special causes affecting Slovakia only. 21 Leaving aside the reasons common to all the country's industry, those particular to Slovakia lay in the structure of industry itself, and in the post-war Czecho-Slovak economic policy. When the heavy-capital-intensive industries were demolished, new labor-intensive industries were built, but with less employees, so that loss of employment by demolishing the heavy industries could not have been outweighed by building new industries. In 1929, such was the situation concerning industrial employment. As we can see from next table, about 50 % of Slovak workers lost their jobs from the forced structural change of industry in Slovakia. On balance, many remained unemployed because new entrants into the labor force took jobs in the expanding industries. Loss and Increase of Employment in Slovak Industri es, 1920-1929 Demolished Decrease of Newly built Increase of enterprises employment enterprises employment 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 Total 5 3 15 22 19 21 27 25 17 13 181 74 1,130 870 3,673 2,056 1,534 1,270 1,232 1,066 21 29 23 21 21 16 342 586 482 311 1,825 1,186 603 560 721 381 167 13,386 184 7,003 9 18 16 10 �SLOVAKIA 116 Source: I. Karvas, Sjednoceni viirobnich podminek v zemi ceskiic h a na Slov ensku, Prague, ORBIS, 1933, p. 54. Expansion of Existing Industry in Slovakia in 1920-1929 Workers after expansion Number of enterprises Workers before expansion 6 8 4 15 12 24 22 23 30 42 583 799 342 2,368 1,730 2,826 1,932 1,747 5,359 5,193 990 1,142 1,296 3,615 2,582 3,459 2,857 2,768 6,947 6,316 168 22,859 31,972 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 Total Source : I. Karvas, Sj ednoceni v yrobnich podminek v zemi ceskiic h a na Slov ensku, Prague, ORBIS, 1933, p. 57. According to the two previous tables 6,383 workers lost their jobs; according to Table 28, 9,113 found work. For lack of data one cannot compare the incomes in both cases. However, since heavy industries requiring skilled male labor were demolished and light industries, such as food, etc., were built, wages were most probably below their former levels . Next table indicates a decline in general Slovak wageearnings compared to those in the Czech regions. Ratio of Wages in Slovakia in Terms of those in the Czech Regions Year Daily wages Yearly wages 1921 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 92.8 87 .7 89.3 87 .4 87 .6 86.1 86.1 80.0 71.4 72.7 74.6 75.6 75.0 74.8 Source: V. Prucha in Vysoka skola ekonomicka, Pfehled hospodafske ho viiv oje ceskoslov enska v l etech 1918-1945, Prague: NLP, 1963, p . 275. Therefore, it seems a reasonable inference that the income that workers earned in Slovak industry did not increase even during the boom years in interwar Czecho-Slovakia. �SLOVAKIA 117 Employment in the State Sector in Slovakia The concept of employment in the state sector covers not only civil service, but also state owned enterprises, which included tobacco, railways (except the 48 % privately owned), Post Savings institutions, state mining and smelting enterprises, the Czecho-Slovak Printing Office, an aircraft factory, state forests and land, state spas and recreation centers, etc. 22 The state sector was thus a substantial entity. Receipts and E xpenditures of State-Owned Enterpri ses, 1927-1938 (In Mill. Kcs ) Receipts Outlays 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 9,222 9,592 10,011 10,396 10,614 10,460 7,670 8,064 8,460 8,834 9,064 8,930 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 Receipts Outlays -- -- 9,074 8,013 8,003 7,973 8,330 9,222 7,867 7,164 7,176 7,230 7,452 7,869 Sources: Czechoslovak Statistical Office, Statisticka rocenka republiky Ceskoslovenske, 1936, p. 273. Annuaire statistique de la Republique Tchecoslovaque , 1938, p. 299. While there are no estimates of national income in interwar Czecho-Slovakia, it is the writer's guess that about 25 % of national income originated with state-owned enterprises. In any event, it is evident that employment in the state represented income to a substantial group of wage earners, and it was precisely in this field that some of the more striking evidence of discrimination against Slovaks was to be found. At au levels, from school porters to principals, and in all branches of civil service, as well as the majority of state enterprises, employees were primarily from the Czech regions. Thus, on April 23, 1925, member of Parliament, Mr. Hancko, protesting Czech discrimination against Slovak employees, noted that the employment breakdown in the Railway Management in Bratislava (capital of Slovakia) and in Kosice (the second largest city in Slovakia) was as follows in 1925: 23 of 5,134 clerks of higher ranks - 90 % were Czechs �118 SLOVAKIA of 12,355 clerks of lower ranks - 60 % were Czechs of 16,025 clerks of railway workers 30% were Czechs In addition, the railway departments were proposing to lay off 38 % of the Slovak workers. When there were still unemployed workers, excluding the disguised unemployed in Slovakia, 30 % of the workers came from the Czech regions, not to mention clerks of the highest ranks. Another example is perhaps more striking: Of all civil servants in the central government in Prague (10,825) only 123 or 1.3% were Slovaks, whereas the Slovak population represented 22 .6 % of the national total. 24 Generally, there were no Slovak civil servants in the Czech regions, but a large proportion of the civil servants in the Slovak regions were Czech. No detailed statistics are available because, although data was collected in 1933 by Prime Minister Malypetr, he was persuaded that the Slovak antagonism against the Czechs had a political background, not an economic one. He wanted to publish a table showing how many Slovaks were employed as civil servants, and after having seen the results, he refrained from publishing the figures, although he had promised to the Slovak opposition leaders that he would. The figures cited above are from this originally unpublished report which was eventually released after March 14, 1939, when the Slovaks proclaimed their independence and were entitled to copy all government documents concerning Slovakia. Lack of employment opportunity forced the people in Slovakia to look for jobs outside their mother country. According to recent writers, employment in industry in Slovakia rose by 2,500 persons, or 2.9 % from 1930 to 1937, while it rose in the Czech regions by 10.9 %. Thus lack of opportunity to find income at home caused an emigration from Slovakia that was seven times greater than that from the Czech regions .25 (See next table). Emigration with Valid Passports from Czecho-Slovakia in the Years 1924-1936 Total emigration from Czecho-Slovakia 1924 1925 54,373 19,350 Emigration from Slovakia Ruthenia 35,110 8,700 2,491 475 �SLOVAKIA 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 Total 119 26,129 23,596 24,540 30,715 25,712 9,567 5,165 4,735 5,065 5,685 7,201 14,388 12,053 13,544 19,401 16,682 4,527 2,222 3,009 3,016 3,707 4,831 1,561 2,411 2,286 3,822 2,706 358 123 241 343 445 471 271 ,533 141,190 17,733 Source: Czechoslovak Statistical Office, Statisticka rocenka republi- ky ceskos lovenske, Prague, 1936, p. 29. Thus according to the official data, over 50 % of the emigrants during 1924-1937 came from Slovakia whose population was only 22.6 % (Ruthenia's 4.9 % ) of all the CzechoSlovak population. At that time 50,111 workers in the state sector-including civil servants-came form the "historical lands" to Slovakia. The situation was no bet ter concerning the career army officers . Of 139 army generals only one was a Slovak (no Slovak colonels ) . Of 5,439 higher ranking officers , 67 were Slovaks ; of 6,871 lower ranking officers, 356 were Slova ks .26 This unhappy s ituat ion burst int o social u n rest. When the internation al situation w as crit ical to Czecho-Slovakia, the Slovaks, who had only wanted autonom y within the frame of Czecho-Slovakia, acting under th e pressure of Nazi Germany, procla imed themselves independent on March 14, 1939.27 FOOTNOTES 1. Conversa tion with Dr. Josef Stasko, New York P ublic Library. 2. I. A. Karvas, Sjednoceni vyrobnic h podminek v zemi ceskych a na Slovensku, Prague: ORBIS, 1933, pp. 77-78. 3. Magyar statisztikai zsebkonyv, p. 32. 4. K. Golan and Assoc. in ceskoslovenske dejiny, Bratislava: Osveta, 1961, p. 255. 5. Statisticka rocenka, 1936, p. 53. �120 SLOVAKIA 6. K. Golan, op. cit., p. 256. 7. Ibid. , pp. 262-263. 8. G. Lazarcik, The Performance of Socialist Agriculture, New York: L.W. International Financial Research, Inc., 1963, p. 4. 9. P. W. Rosenstein-Rodan, Agricultural Surplus Population in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, (mimeo), London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, as cited by Lazarcik, The Performance ... op. cit., p . 4. 10. Computed on the basis of 1930 census data. 11. P . Turcan, op. cit., p. 73. 12. C. A. Macartney, Hungary and her Successors, London: Oxford University Press, 1937, p. 131. 13. In the Czech regions where 96% of railways were publicly owned, the cost per ton-mile was 0.5354 Kcs; in the Slovak regions, with only 52%in public hands, the ton-mile cost 1.1218 Kcs. (I. A. Karvas, op. cit., pp. 83-84), although the publicly owned railways received a subsidy. 14. In the Czech regions the prime rate-charged on preferred industrial loans-fluctuated between five and eight percent. 15. A. Dobry in Pf-ehled hospodarskeho vyvoje, pp. 194-195. See also Deset let rozvoje , p. 13. 16. A. Dobry in Prehled hospodarskeho vyvoje, p. 195. 17. Ostredie slovenskeho priemyslu, Slovensky priemysel v.n. 1929, Yearly Report of the Central Slovak Industry, Bratislava-Turciansky Sv. Martin: K.U.S., 1930, pp. 28-29. 18. A. Dobry in Pf-ehled hospodaf-skeho vyvoje, p. 195. 19. I. A. Karvas, op. cit., p. 54. 20. Ibid., pp. 11-12. 21. Ibid. , p. 36. 22. Statisticka rocenka, 1936, p. 275. 23. K. Culen, Slovaci a cesi v statnych sluibach, Bratislava: Vedecky ustav, 1944, p. 70. 24. Ibid., pp. 97-99. 25. Deset let rozvoje, pp. 12-13. 26. K. Culen, Preco Slovaci nechcu ist' s cechmi, pp. 15-16 (mimeo), New York (no publishing date) . 27. J. Kirschbaum, Nas boj o samostatnost' Slovenska, Cleveland, Ohio: Slovensky ustav, 1958, pp. 62-70. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is interested primarily in promoting the welfare and security of the United States of America. � 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 1968, Vol. 18 Description An account of the resource Vol. 18 (No. 41), 1968. 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 1968 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 109 ECONOMIC DISCRIMINATIO N AGAINST SLOVAKIA by Frank Bandar This is a story of how economic inequality - or according to a strong expression, economic discrimination can bring social unrest and, ultimately, antagonism against a ruling ethnic majority. (There are many who claim that it was the antagonism of Slovaks against Czechs that brought the destruction of Czecho-Slovakia. The author of this essay, however, believes that the first Republic could not have survived in the international situation even without internal ethnic divisions.) To familiarize the reader with the available evidence in this field : the official Czecho-Slovak interwar statistics distinguished the regions of Czecho-Slovakia according to the ethnic and historical origin, except for production data for Slovakia. Thus we find data explicitly for Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia (sometimes Moravia includes Silesia), Slovakia, and Ruthenia. The first three regions were also officially termed the "historical regions" though the Slovaks also have a history, despite 1,000 years of Magyar occupation. Since World War II, when Ruthenia was annexed by the U.S.S.R., the official statistics refer to the Czech regions and Slovakia. Recent economic data give equal coverage to the Czech regions and Slovakia, in contrast to those published between the two wars, when young Slovak economists had to search for production data on Slovak territory.1 The Background of Slovakia's Industrialization Slovakia was part of "Greater Hungary" from 906 to October 30, 1918, and, indeed, during the 150 years after the battle of Mohacs, in 1526, that Hungary proper was under Turkish domination, Slovakia was the area where independent political and economic life was carried on. When the Turks were driven out at the end of the 17th century, a base for manufacturing in terms of handicraft and artisanship had been firmly laid down in Slovakia. After the AustroHungarian settlement in 1867, when the Monarchy was divided into two administrative and economic units, the Magyar politicians were eager to catch up to the more developed Austria. They started to build industry where con- 110 SLOVAKIA ditions were the most favorable. A cheaper labor market and the availability of raw material - coal, iron, etc., favored the Slovak territory. And, because industries built in Slovakia were of later date, than those in the "historical" regions, they were equipped with more advanced technology. So, immediately after World War I, Slovakia contained 17 .3 % of all former Hungarian industries ( which employed 20 or more workers) employing 20.7 % of all the workers in such industries in former Greater Hungary were employed.2 According to other sources, about 20 % of industry, of 20 or more employees, were in the Slovak territories. The actual total number of industrial workers was much higher, because there were many small workshops of under 20 employees, for which there are no data in the pre-World War I Magyar statistics. In per capita terms, Slovakia seems to have been the most industrialized region in Greater Hungary, for, of the 20.9 million population in Greater Hungary in 1910, 2.9 million lived in the Slovak territory. 3 The Decline of Slovak Industry and Industrial Employment After 1918 The contention of this paper is that, after the First Republic came into existence, the industrial strength of Slovakia declined, for a number of reasons. One of these was the changing structure of industry in Slovakia; the other reason was the policies followed by the economically stronger Czech regions. One writer puts it this way: "The situation in Czecho-Slovakia became critical when all capitalist countries experienced a post-war depression in the winter months of 1922 and 1923. The Czech capitalists tried to overcome the crisis by concentrating industry into the Czech regions ... Industrial production in Slovakia was not so profitable for them, therefore, they stopped production in Slovakia, and industrial equipment was transported to the Czech regions or sold abroad. " 4 Industrial employment indeed declined in the first half of the 1920's and later recovered only very slowly. 1910 85,000 1913 1926 93,000 86,454 SLOVAKIA (Dec. 31) 1930 1937 111 103,222 104,915 Source: P. Turcan, Socialistickti industrializacia Slovenska, Bratislava: Osveta, 1960, p. 73. Simply the number of workers, however, is misleading. It understates the decline of Slovak industrial strength, for the workers of 1913 were mostly employed in capitalintensive industries, whereas by 1926 and later, they were mostly in labor-intensive industries. Slovak industry underwent a structural change. Capital-intensive heavy industries were moved to the Czech regions and were replaced, partly, with labor-intensive light industries. At the time of the 1930 census, most of Slovak industry consisted of establishments with less than 20 workers, for instance, in stone-clay, graphical, wood and food industries. 5 Of the 3,327 industrial establishments in Slovakia in 1930, 1,624, or about 50%, were in the food industries where many women were employed at lower wages. "The demolition of industry between the years 1921 and 1929 affected about 300 industrial enterprises in Slovakia, mostly iron, textile and wood industries. By this policy, the unequal economic development in the Czech regions and Slovakia deepened. 6 "Demolition and stoppage of metallurgy and iron industries continued. For example, a great part of the production of Podbrezovd (the largest iron industry in Slovakia) was transferred to Vitkovice (Silesia). Plants in Stratend, Pohoreld (towns in Slovakia) and some plants in Gemer (county in Slovakia) were stopped. The blast furnaces in Tisovec (town in Slovakia) stopped production in 1931."7 The question is whether this structural change in industry between the Czech and Slovak regions was in the interest of comparative advantage, i.e., was it in the interest of all Czecho-Slovakia to concentrate heavy industry exclusively in the western regions? This was not so, in my opinion. Before 1918, the Slovak regions had relatively modern and efficient heavy industries and there was a healthy competition with those in the other regions within the confines of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Furthermore, Slovakia is endowed with both iron and coal, albeit the coal fields in Silesia ( Czech region) are larger and richer. There was also much surplus agricultural labor- SLOVAKIA 112 a common problem of East European countries, but in Czecho-Slovakia this surplus was particularly concentrated in Slovakia and Ruthenia. 8 A well-known English economist, P. W. Rosenstein-Rodan, makes the latter statement even more strongly. His estimates show a 13 percent surplus of labor in Czecho-Slovak agriculture in 1937 concentrated exclusively in Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia. 9 A cross-section comparison gives the picture of industry in 1930 shown in Table 24 . Number of Enterprises and Industrial Employment by Regions in 1930 No. of industrial enterprises Bohemia Moravia & Silesia Slovakia Ruthenia Total No. of workers employed 17,099 6,843 3,327 411 815,016 376,995 103,210 10,699 27,680 1,305,920 Source: Czechoslovak Statistical Office, statisticka rocenka repub• liky ceskoslovenske, 1936, p. 53. This table indicates that in 1930 Slovakia had only 7.9 % of the total industrial employment in the country while she had 24 % of the population.10 Unfortunately, no strictly comparable data are available for the earlier years. In 1937, 10.8 workers out of each 100 population were employed in industry in the Czech regions as against only 3 % in Slovakia. 11 "Slovakian industry undoubtedly did not receive from the Czechoslovak Government the help which it urgently needed to carry it over this difficult period. On the contrary, it was placed in many respects under quite unnecessary disadvantages. Until taxation was unified throughout the Republic (which was not until 1929), it was much more heavily taxed in many respects than the 'Historic lands' ... The rates paid by professional and businessmen were, on the average, three times as high in Slovakia as in Bohemia."12 Hence the economic policy was one reason that led the Slovaks to feel antagonism again.st Czechs. To consider the problems of industry in Slovakia from SLOVAKIA 113 the purely economic point of view, there were a number of disadvantages : (a ) more expensive transport costs by railway because a substantial part (40 % , see below ) of the railways in Slovakia was in private hands ;13 (b ) lack of capital and high interest rates, about 10 % 14 (c) a small ratio of state orders from the industry in Slovakia; (d ) lack of coke and some raw materials ; (e ) discriminatory taxation policy. The result was a lessening and in some cases stoppage of industrial production in Slovakia.15 Recent authors also add to the list of instances of economic discrimination against the Slovaks during the first Republic with the following considerations: 1. By subsidizing the state railway, which provided most railway transport in the "historical" regions, they favored the Czech industry. The subsidies, meanwhile, were paid for also by the Slovak taxpayers. 2. A high interest rate in Slovakia was not justifiable. 3. The state should have ordered from the industries in Slovakia according to a more equitable ratio. 4. Coke and other raw materials could have been supplied also to industries in Slovakia. 5. Even the recent communist writers acknowledge that the Czech industrialists feared the competition of Slovak industry, whose equipment was modern at that time compared to that in the Czech regions. 16 The discriminatory policy against the industry in Slovakia continued even after the post-war depression was over and world prosperity was near its peak. Thus, the production of pig iron fell in Slovakia accounting for 10-12 % of the total production in Czecho-Slovakia in 1921, to only 2.7 % in 1926. 17 As a consequence of that, between 13 and 17 percent of the industrial production in the Czech region was "exported" to Slovakia during the boom years of 19261929.18 The outcome of the discrimination against Slovak industry was that Slovakia and Ruthenia remained agricultural areas whose employment, or, rather, disguised unemployment in agriculture decreased only slightly. Agricultural occupations accounted for the largest 114 SLOVAKIA single share of employment in post-World War I CzechoSlovakia: an average of 39.6%, including forestry and fishery, for the country as a whole. Geographically, however, the situation was different, as may be seen from this table: Proportion of Employment in Agriculture According to Regions in 1921 and 1930 Bohemia Moravia Silesia Slovakia Ruthenia 1921 1930 29.7% 38.6% 21.9% 60.6% 67.7% 24.1 % 28.6 % 28.6 % 56.8 % 66.3% Source: Czechoslovak Statistical Office, Annuaire Statistique de ia Repubiique Tchecoslovaque, Prague, 1938, p. 15. Thus, while in the Czech regions agriculture represented only about 25 % of employment, in Slovakia and Ruthenia it was about 60 %. Thus far, I have been using the data given by recent authors and the official statistics which, however, lack details concerning industry in Slovakia. Even independent economists, such as I. Karvas, while studying the industries in Slovakia,19 had only one source of employment data: the Workers' Compensation Board of Slovakia. His data, as he himself acknowledges, is one of 79 % coverage concerning the extinguished industrial enterprises and 89 % of the newly established ones. According to I. Karvas, Slovak industry was heavily dependent on railway transportation, because highway conditions were poor in Slovakia. And, because about 48 % of the railway belonged to private companies, transport was more expensive in Slovakia. 20 Railway density was thinnest in Slovakia and Ruthenia throughout the life of the first Republic. In 1933 the situation was this: Railway Density per one square km. Bohemia Moravia Silesia Slovakia, Ruthenia 0.130 0.098 0.136 0.062 km km km km SLOVAKIA 115 Source : I. Karvas, Sjednoceni vyrobnich podminek v zemi ceskych a na Slovensku, Prague: ORBIS, 1933, p . 11. The other handicap, was that railways were oriented southward toward Budapest, and this handicap was much worse in Slovakia than in the Czech regions. Many localities in Slovakia had railway connections only via Hungary. The only trans-Slovakia line was in the north (KosiceBohumin). The other line that now exists, through the center regions, was completed only during World War II . According to I. Karvas, the decrease of industry in Slovakia had two types of causes, those common to industry in the Czech regions as well, and special causes affecting Slovakia only. 21 Leaving aside the reasons common to all the country's industry, those particular to Slovakia lay in the structure of industry itself, and in the post-war Czecho-Slovak economic policy. When the heavy-capital-intensive industries were demolished, new labor-intensive industries were built, but with less employees, so that loss of employment by demolishing the heavy industries could not have been outweighed by building new industries. In 1929, such was the situation concerning industrial employment. As we can see from next table, about 50 % of Slovak workers lost their jobs from the forced structural change of industry in Slovakia. On balance, many remained unemployed because new entrants into the labor force took jobs in the expanding industries. Loss and Increase of Employment in Slovak Industri es, 1920-1929 Demolished Decrease of Newly built Increase of enterprises employment enterprises employment 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 Total 5 3 15 22 19 21 27 25 17 13 181 74 1,130 870 3,673 2,056 1,534 1,270 1,232 1,066 21 29 23 21 21 16 342 586 482 311 1,825 1,186 603 560 721 381 167 13,386 184 7,003 9 18 16 10 SLOVAKIA 116 Source: I. Karvas, Sjednoceni viirobnich podminek v zemi ceskiic h a na Slov ensku, Prague, ORBIS, 1933, p. 54. Expansion of Existing Industry in Slovakia in 1920-1929 Workers after expansion Number of enterprises Workers before expansion 6 8 4 15 12 24 22 23 30 42 583 799 342 2,368 1,730 2,826 1,932 1,747 5,359 5,193 990 1,142 1,296 3,615 2,582 3,459 2,857 2,768 6,947 6,316 168 22,859 31,972 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 Total Source : I. Karvas, Sj ednoceni v yrobnich podminek v zemi ceskiic h a na Slov ensku, Prague, ORBIS, 1933, p. 57. According to the two previous tables 6,383 workers lost their jobs; according to Table 28, 9,113 found work. For lack of data one cannot compare the incomes in both cases. However, since heavy industries requiring skilled male labor were demolished and light industries, such as food, etc., were built, wages were most probably below their former levels . Next table indicates a decline in general Slovak wageearnings compared to those in the Czech regions. Ratio of Wages in Slovakia in Terms of those in the Czech Regions Year Daily wages Yearly wages 1921 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 92.8 87 .7 89.3 87 .4 87 .6 86.1 86.1 80.0 71.4 72.7 74.6 75.6 75.0 74.8 Source: V. Prucha in Vysoka skola ekonomicka, Pfehled hospodafske ho viiv oje ceskoslov enska v l etech 1918-1945, Prague: NLP, 1963, p . 275. Therefore, it seems a reasonable inference that the income that workers earned in Slovak industry did not increase even during the boom years in interwar Czecho-Slovakia. SLOVAKIA 117 Employment in the State Sector in Slovakia The concept of employment in the state sector covers not only civil service, but also state owned enterprises, which included tobacco, railways (except the 48 % privately owned), Post Savings institutions, state mining and smelting enterprises, the Czecho-Slovak Printing Office, an aircraft factory, state forests and land, state spas and recreation centers, etc. 22 The state sector was thus a substantial entity. Receipts and E xpenditures of State-Owned Enterpri ses, 1927-1938 (In Mill. Kcs ) Receipts Outlays 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 9,222 9,592 10,011 10,396 10,614 10,460 7,670 8,064 8,460 8,834 9,064 8,930 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 Receipts Outlays -- -- 9,074 8,013 8,003 7,973 8,330 9,222 7,867 7,164 7,176 7,230 7,452 7,869 Sources: Czechoslovak Statistical Office, Statisticka rocenka republiky Ceskoslovenske, 1936, p. 273. Annuaire statistique de la Republique Tchecoslovaque , 1938, p. 299. While there are no estimates of national income in interwar Czecho-Slovakia, it is the writer's guess that about 25 % of national income originated with state-owned enterprises. In any event, it is evident that employment in the state represented income to a substantial group of wage earners, and it was precisely in this field that some of the more striking evidence of discrimination against Slovaks was to be found. At au levels, from school porters to principals, and in all branches of civil service, as well as the majority of state enterprises, employees were primarily from the Czech regions. Thus, on April 23, 1925, member of Parliament, Mr. Hancko, protesting Czech discrimination against Slovak employees, noted that the employment breakdown in the Railway Management in Bratislava (capital of Slovakia) and in Kosice (the second largest city in Slovakia) was as follows in 1925: 23 of 5,134 clerks of higher ranks - 90 % were Czechs 118 SLOVAKIA of 12,355 clerks of lower ranks - 60 % were Czechs of 16,025 clerks of railway workers 30% were Czechs In addition, the railway departments were proposing to lay off 38 % of the Slovak workers. When there were still unemployed workers, excluding the disguised unemployed in Slovakia, 30 % of the workers came from the Czech regions, not to mention clerks of the highest ranks. Another example is perhaps more striking: Of all civil servants in the central government in Prague (10,825) only 123 or 1.3% were Slovaks, whereas the Slovak population represented 22 .6 % of the national total. 24 Generally, there were no Slovak civil servants in the Czech regions, but a large proportion of the civil servants in the Slovak regions were Czech. No detailed statistics are available because, although data was collected in 1933 by Prime Minister Malypetr, he was persuaded that the Slovak antagonism against the Czechs had a political background, not an economic one. He wanted to publish a table showing how many Slovaks were employed as civil servants, and after having seen the results, he refrained from publishing the figures, although he had promised to the Slovak opposition leaders that he would. The figures cited above are from this originally unpublished report which was eventually released after March 14, 1939, when the Slovaks proclaimed their independence and were entitled to copy all government documents concerning Slovakia. Lack of employment opportunity forced the people in Slovakia to look for jobs outside their mother country. According to recent writers, employment in industry in Slovakia rose by 2,500 persons, or 2.9 % from 1930 to 1937, while it rose in the Czech regions by 10.9 %. Thus lack of opportunity to find income at home caused an emigration from Slovakia that was seven times greater than that from the Czech regions .25 (See next table). Emigration with Valid Passports from Czecho-Slovakia in the Years 1924-1936 Total emigration from Czecho-Slovakia 1924 1925 54,373 19,350 Emigration from Slovakia Ruthenia 35,110 8,700 2,491 475 SLOVAKIA 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 Total 119 26,129 23,596 24,540 30,715 25,712 9,567 5,165 4,735 5,065 5,685 7,201 14,388 12,053 13,544 19,401 16,682 4,527 2,222 3,009 3,016 3,707 4,831 1,561 2,411 2,286 3,822 2,706 358 123 241 343 445 471 271 ,533 141,190 17,733 Source: Czechoslovak Statistical Office, Statisticka rocenka republi- ky ceskos lovenske, Prague, 1936, p. 29. Thus according to the official data, over 50 % of the emigrants during 1924-1937 came from Slovakia whose population was only 22.6 % (Ruthenia's 4.9 % ) of all the CzechoSlovak population. At that time 50,111 workers in the state sector-including civil servants-came form the "historical lands" to Slovakia. The situation was no bet ter concerning the career army officers . Of 139 army generals only one was a Slovak (no Slovak colonels ) . Of 5,439 higher ranking officers , 67 were Slovaks ; of 6,871 lower ranking officers, 356 were Slova ks .26 This unhappy s ituat ion burst int o social u n rest. When the internation al situation w as crit ical to Czecho-Slovakia, the Slovaks, who had only wanted autonom y within the frame of Czecho-Slovakia, acting under th e pressure of Nazi Germany, procla imed themselves independent on March 14, 1939.27 FOOTNOTES 1. Conversa tion with Dr. Josef Stasko, New York P ublic Library. 2. I. A. Karvas, Sjednoceni vyrobnic h podminek v zemi ceskych a na Slovensku, Prague: ORBIS, 1933, pp. 77-78. 3. Magyar statisztikai zsebkonyv, p. 32. 4. K. Golan and Assoc. in ceskoslovenske dejiny, Bratislava: Osveta, 1961, p. 255. 5. Statisticka rocenka, 1936, p. 53. 120 SLOVAKIA 6. K. Golan, op. cit., p. 256. 7. Ibid. , pp. 262-263. 8. G. Lazarcik, The Performance of Socialist Agriculture, New York: L.W. International Financial Research, Inc., 1963, p. 4. 9. P. W. Rosenstein-Rodan, Agricultural Surplus Population in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, (mimeo), London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, as cited by Lazarcik, The Performance ... op. cit., p . 4. 10. Computed on the basis of 1930 census data. 11. P . Turcan, op. cit., p. 73. 12. C. A. Macartney, Hungary and her Successors, London: Oxford University Press, 1937, p. 131. 13. In the Czech regions where 96% of railways were publicly owned, the cost per ton-mile was 0.5354 Kcs; in the Slovak regions, with only 52%in public hands, the ton-mile cost 1.1218 Kcs. (I. A. Karvas, op. cit., pp. 83-84), although the publicly owned railways received a subsidy. 14. In the Czech regions the prime rate-charged on preferred industrial loans-fluctuated between five and eight percent. 15. A. Dobry in Pf-ehled hospodarskeho vyvoje, pp. 194-195. See also Deset let rozvoje , p. 13. 16. A. Dobry in Prehled hospodarskeho vyvoje, p. 195. 17. Ostredie slovenskeho priemyslu, Slovensky priemysel v.n. 1929, Yearly Report of the Central Slovak Industry, Bratislava-Turciansky Sv. Martin: K.U.S., 1930, pp. 28-29. 18. A. Dobry in Pf-ehled hospodaf-skeho vyvoje, p. 195. 19. I. A. Karvas, op. cit., p. 54. 20. Ibid., pp. 11-12. 21. Ibid. , p. 36. 22. Statisticka rocenka, 1936, p. 275. 23. K. Culen, Slovaci a cesi v statnych sluibach, Bratislava: Vedecky ustav, 1944, p. 70. 24. Ibid., pp. 97-99. 25. Deset let rozvoje, pp. 12-13. 26. K. Culen, Preco Slovaci nechcu ist' s cechmi, pp. 15-16 (mimeo), New York (no publishing date) . 27. J. Kirschbaum, Nas boj o samostatnost' Slovenska, Cleveland, Ohio: Slovensky ustav, 1958, pp. 62-70. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is interested primarily in promoting the welfare and security of the United States of America.  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 Economic Discrimination Against Slovakia Description An account of the resource Frank Bandor Slovakia, Vol. 18 (No. 41), 1968 pp. 109-120 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bandor, Frank Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/6f9439fc83b357065608a09e9c3d34b7.pdf 6b14c62fdc51dbf80f29d47274b82007 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 49 624-659 A.D.: THE SLOVAKS AND KING SAMO'S EMPIRE Dr. Henrich Bartek The Great Morawian IDmpire, which had its greatest development during the reign of King Sivatoplwk (870---895), lasted Q/Ver one hundred years. It was the climax of the long struggle of the SlOIV~ trilbes for their own staite. The core or nucleus of the territory occU1pied by the forefathers of the Slovaik nation was the territory to the north of the coo.tool Danuibe. At the end of the eighth centwy and the beginning of the ninith, the SlovaJk trilbes succesSlf ully threw off the yoke of the A vars with the help of Chaxla;maigne. The history of the ninth century offers many possibilities to inquire into the various political and spiritual tendencies which chanced to meet in Great Moravia. But we must reimemlber that patrioti'c motives from the era of national rebinth strn play a significrunt role and visions of the mighty empire of our forefathers not only strengthened national lirfe, hurt also were a rich source of poetic and artistic creativeness. Overestimating the Cyrillo-Methodius episode, tJherefore, is quite common among the Slovaks. Digressions frOIIIl current views, for example, the Christianiwtion of the Slov,aJks by Saints Cyril and Methodius, are accepted with distrust, even though irt is quite obvious that the Slova;ks were Christians long before the adivent of Saints Cyril and Meithodius. F1unthermore, that t'he epochal work of the creators orf the nationa)l liturgy did not last long in Slovakia, but reached its climax outside the 1and od: the Slova;k,s among the southern and eastern SlolV'anic peoples. A thorough understanding of the cultural and political foundations of the development of the Great Moraivian Empire is unthinlkalble wirbhout -a knowledge of the period that preceded it, since Greait Morwia w,a;s neither the first state arrangement orf our forefathers, nor the beginning of their historical aotivti.1Jy, but the result and the c,limax of actions of seve·r al centuries. - -The meager sources before the ninth century do hot entice historiaJns, becaiuse they do not offer sufficient materia,1 �50 SLOVAKIA for the expression of more or less probable theories a:nd because the Slovruks, long /before the origin of the Great Moravian Empire, had oooupied a space in the Danuibi'clln region several times greater than that which they n:ow occupy. The fortunes of the Slov-aiks in the era before Great Moravia are veiled in mystery and will not become known U!Iltiil historical science shall be aJble to use the results of researches ()If those scientific departments w'hich could effeotwely CQl1lttibute to the solution of the problem of OUT oldest history. To date, however, a•r eheologicai finds were not sufficiently evaluated to let us know the pro,g ressi.ve penetraititon of the Slovaks into the Danulbian territory; and ethnography has not attempted to give an eociplanation of the origin of Slovak culture in comparison with the culture of its SlOIVIMlic •a nd nonSlovanic nei:gh!bors, saying rrothmg about our ,p hilology which neglected the history of our tongue by devoting 1tself ia11gely to registering dialects and the normalimtion of the· language of literature. Furthermore, comparative philology has such reliable methods that it often can with final validity solive even questions which historfans must leawe unnoticed for a laok of written memoirs, ,b ut which they possilbly could 'b uild farther if they had at hand some supporting poinJts gained through other departments. Philology itself could afford much valualble knowledge to clarify not only the era before Great Moravia in the Danubian area, but als'O the geographical position of the Slovak tri·bes in their ancient homeland because this oon 'b e done 'b y analysis of certain strata of the diotionary aind linguistic maI1ks, as well as by an am.alysis o!f geogmphical names of ancient origm. Of course, such resea:z,ches require exiceptional ca.111tion, but the fact that the ecclesiastica:l Slovanic language enaJbles us to reconst:rmct the arra111gement of vowels of Sl'OIV'lalk words used in the second haJ1f of the ninth century is a sufficient -basis so that we could, ac:cord!irng to single words prese:z,ved since before the ninth cen't;ucy, regressiive1y reconstruct the arrangement of vowels of words from the eighth to the fif,t h centuries, nay, even dooper into the past, whereby it win be shown at which sections of time certain foreign ~rds penetrated into our midst, which as dbjective proo1Js wi:ll enruble �S LOVAKIA 51 us to define the cuiturO-ipoliticaJ contacts of our forefathers in the era before Great MOTaviia. In this process of finding the dldest settlements of t'he Sio,V'a,ks, topograJphical names will have a speciaJJ. sig:niificance, a!boJVe al[ else the names of rivers aJnd settlements, as we shall see in examples presented below. So that we miig,ht arrive at positive results from the history before Great Moravia, we must accept a cert.a.in. working hypothesis, the aiutho,rlty of wlhfoh we shall inquire into, wherelby for the saJke of ancient histo11y we are uirged to issue out of Samo.' s emipire and assume that Great Moravria was not the first state formation of the Slova!k tribes, beca~ Fredegar's chronicles record a strong western-.Slovruric empire aJreadly in the sreiventh century; it was headed by King Samo and was strong enough to resist the pressure not only of the Avars, but esven of the Twktish kingdom of King Dagolmllrt. Fredega:r's report aibout the great defeat of the Franlks near the Wogastiburg Castle in 631, as well as several other notations 'by thtis same historian, are the only objective proof aibout Samn's empire, and on these records are based the most various theories about the ethnical composition and the territorial extent, as well as the principal city of Samo's state. As usua11y ha,pperns in such cases, when the som-ce does not a.icoorately define a territory, scho1a:rs of the individu.a1 SIOIValtlic nations striive to a:pip~iate unto themselves Samo's empire: some Czech scientists are seelkting Wogastibrn,g in the most western sections of Bohemia; the Slovenes would liike to find it in Coruta:nia; and foreign scholars lean to one or the other theory. For e}Cample, the Belgian histol'ian Pirenne was for Corutania, whiile Milk.kola, the F~itmish scholar on Slavistics, preferred Bohemia.. In the past recent years, Oze<!h, Polish, and Slov,ak scholars ha:d agreed that King Samo resided at DelVin near the Danube, which, therefore, must have been the center of his empire. We find the weak side of these theories in the lack of new objective proofs which could complement Fredegar's notations. Even. though many new staitemenrts aJbout Samo's empire are very reasonable and very pro!balble, they will re- �52 SLOVAKL<\. main only as suppositions until incontrovert1ble proofs aa-e offered to support them. These theories albout the center of Samo's empire were propagated in 1951 by Oettinger, well-Jmoiwn Viennese historian of arts and arrcheology, who teills us in his book "Das Warden Wiens" thait he regards Vienna as Samo's residence: He bases his b.elief on the fact that the construotion of the Berghof Castle in Vienna, jrUdging it according to prese1wed architectonic relics, can be traced only to Samo's era, because the Avam as a nomadic nation could not build such a great stooe citadel. Besides that, professor Oettinger produces a whole series of othea:- arguments to prove htis theory, one of which we might introduce at this time, that is, that the Slovenes use the name Danu~ for Vienna, namely, that they called the castle a:nd the city according to the rirver, which could hawe happened only during Samo's time, . when the Barghof in Vienna; was the seat of Samo's _, empire. 'I'he discovery of the castle is certainly a very weighty fact, which archeoilogy and history of the arts, th<l!Il!ks to the deductions of Professor Oettinger, presented to historians. Oettinger considers it sellf-evident that Sl0V1a:ks an~l_ other Slovanic peoples lived in the entire region of Vienna and far to the west :tlong the Danulbe territo;ry duriing Samo's time. Theories about the center of Samo's empire at Devin, and especially the proofs of Oeittinger are a suffidenit basis for philology to ask the question: What Slovanic peoples could have li'Ved during Samo.'s time in the Vienna region, near the Danube in present Austria:, and in the vicinity of Devin? Ilf it could be succeSSlf,u lly prorved that during Samo's time the Slovaks a!lrea:dy were settiled in the central Danwbian region, on both sides of this great river, that would mean a milestone in the most ancient history of the SllO!VaJk nation, because F'redegar wrote quite plainly that Samo came among the SlOIV'anic peoiples exactly at the time when they had successfully relbeHed against the Avars. Therefore, it was not Samo, a Frankish merchant by origin, who l~berated the Slovanic peoples who later elected him their king, because they had Uberated themselJves before his advent. Philological proofs of the Slovakness of the regions to �SLOVAKIA 53 the .south: of the central Danube in the seventh century could becomie the basis of extensive historical researches, which wouhl place the beginnings of the historical era of the political efforts of the Slo.vruks two centuries dooper into the past, t'herelby clarif~g eiven the origin of the Great Mom-wan Empire. As mentioned albO!ve, philology can throw light on even very runcient eras of nati:ons by ana>ly,z ing a>dopted foreign words and ancient names of ri'Vers and cities. At this time we shall attempt to girve at least a few examples to illustrate how this could be done. Several Ancient Geographical Names An ex,pl,a;n_ation of the origin of topographii.cal names is a useful aid of historians, be.<:ause quite frequentl;y it presents -a better picture orf an anoient settlement than fragmenta:r:y · reports orf chroniclers and, furthermore, vowel chamges,. to which geographical names succumbed, enaJbied us to determine the time of their origin and the period of their existence. In the past decades many wo;r,k,s were published a'bo.ut Slo'V'anic to,p ographical names, but most frequently they are rather conicerned with simply registering names than with explaining them, since the explanation of the oriigin of names encounters many diflficu[ties, especiaJ>ly i!Il the Danwbe territory, whe;re we meet with traces of the lllyrians, Celts, GeTmans and Romans, even the European aJbocygenes, whiHe t'he illyrian and Celtic languages arre not as yet suflficiently reasea.r ched. It is relatirvely very difficult to eociplain clearly to inexperts the origin orf some ancient name, ibecaiuse that requires considerable k!Ilowledge of comparative philology. Thus, for example, even at first glance it is abvious that the nam·e s Viede:ii and Wien (Vienna), which have a ,b asic importance for an.oient history of the Sloivalks, are somewhat related or conneicted togetherr, but maJking their relationship clear requires centain knowledge so that the explanation might 'be accessible to every one and, therefore, we shall ta'ke Ulp a few oth~ geog~aJphical names to show by what manner names of antique origin come to us. RfM___.ROMA (Rome) : The connooti10n of the terms is obvious, but the difficulty encountered is explaining the Slo- �5-1 SLOVAKIA vruk "i" for the Latin "o", as well as the masculine gender of the Slovak name. Quite some time ago, professor Skok of Zagreb University pointed out that on the Dalmatian coast the Latin Salona was cha:nged into Solin, Nona to Nin, Albona to Labin (lby changing position of V'OCals, like the Czech Labe from Albis, buit the German Elbe Wli,thout changing position; the ancient Serbian and Croatian name Jakin was derirved from Ancona). In these names, the Latin "o" was compensated for by the S1ovanic "ii" which then was changed to "y" and fmally to "i." At the same time t:he Latin femi'Illine gender of the names was changed to the masc'll'line in the Slovanic languages, be"Camse in unrefined Latin the Accusative ending "-m" disappeared' and "ad Roma" was used instead of "aid Roma:m" (to Rome). The Slovank peoples regarded the ending "-a" as a suffix of the genitive case of the mascU!line gender and from the forms "do Rima, z Rima, do Solina, zo Solina," etc., they made the maS:C'U'line nominative "Rim, Solin, Nin," etc. It cannot be said with cert.ainty whether the Slovaks got the word "Rim" through the southern Slova'l1S or directly from the Romans in Pamnon:ia, because the name of the princilpa:1 city of the Roman ffimpire may have become known to them when they already lirved in the Car,pathians, but as yet had not penetrated to the Danuibe. RABA-RABIOA-RAB: One of the important southern tributaries of the central Danulb,e in Pannorua is the river Raalb, which in t:he Roman era was ca.Heel Arabo. R is generaliliy ~cknowled'ged that the name is of Celtic origin, which in the S1orvanic was first aJbbrevfaJted into Arba and then later in the fi.mt half Oif the ninth century became Raba by transposition of letters. We find a river bea:ring the same name in Pol,and, which flows into the Visla alboive the Dunajec ; I :reg,ard the name of the Ra!ba of Polamd also of Celitic origin. The Polish Raba and the Pannonian Ra.ha a.re one Of the many proofs of the wandering Oif the Celts, after whom there are traces e:ven in Slovaikia in the names of rivers. Thus, for example, Orava is of Ce1tic origin,. as is Oravica in Rumania. 'Dhe Rabica (Ra.pea in Mayiga:r and Rabliltz �SLOVAKIA 55 in German) flows into the Danubian Raba. And Rabica means the SmaH Ralba, because in ancient Slovak diminlutiive names were formed- ~ the sulffix "-ica" - e.g. - NitraNitrica, Bystra-lBystrica, Tepla~Teplica, Lomna◄Lomnica, Byoca.,Bytx'!ica., Lovea◄Lovcioa, etc. One o.f the triburtaries of the Ralbica is named Repce in Magyar, which undoubtedly is am. older name than Ra.pea, because the Magyar Repce presupposes the older Slo'Va.k form Ratiica with an "-a" after a soft "c." In other words, the Magyar Repce was adopted bef<>i:re the thirteenth cen<bury, before the hardening of the soft "c," whife the Magyar Ra.pea is of later origin (afiter the "-a" changed into "-a" in Slovak). At the confluence of the Raba into the Danulbe is the city of RaJb (RaaJb), the Magyar Gyor, which used to be the site of a strong gianison to protect the Roman borders. In Slovll!k t'he name of the city is of the masculine gender in contrast to the name of the river. So, here again we meet with tilie same phenomenon as we did with the. name Rim (Rome). The SlovaJks ada,pted and preserved the ancient name of the river in the form oif Raba and out of it made the dimmuti<ve Rabica; but when they came to the name of the city, they changed the gender in the spirit of their language and, therefore, the form Rab proves a direct corm.ection with the Roman population. in Pannonia, from which the Slovaks tOOik the name of the r iver in the form of Arba, but in designating the city changed the form to Arb, from which at .t he end of the second half of the ninth century, by a trans.posiltion of vocals, the forms Raba and Rab originated. The German forms Raab, Rabnitz and the Magyar Raba (the riiveir) , Repce, Rapea coulld have been taJken onlry from the SlovaJk forms. Here the ancient Slov3'k continuity is quite clear. We must also mention that on the Adriatic, south of the ffihune River, lies the island of RaJb with a oity by that name. The IWian name of the island is Arbe, which also supports our etymology of the names Raba (in Poland), Raba, Rabica, Rab (beyond the Danu'be). When dealing with ancient geog,rruphica:l names, if we are concerned. with the afrooment of the name of a river with the name of a city or town, the name of the river, as a rule, is older. For example: Nitra is named according to �56 SLOVAKIA the river bearing that name, and not vice-versa. The same holds for the names Raba and Rab: the Celts first named the river and later the setrtJement by the same name, which became a Roman city or town. On the Polish Raba there is no town with a similiar name, 'b ut only the community Rabka, whose suffix is "-ka" shows that its origin came later, similarly liike Oravka is of a lateT date in comparison with the more ancient Oravica. In the period of migration of nations there were no great oo111flrcit:s in Panrnonia which could have destroyed ancient oities, because the Romans at the beginning of the fifth cenitury ceded Pann.onia to the H'l.l!Ils, who not only did not destroy A:q,uincum, near the present Budin, but not even the principal city of Upper Pannonia, SaJVaria (todaiy, the Magyar Szombathe ly and the German Stein am Anger). This wealthy city, the birthplace oif St. Ma,rtin, was Mstroyed oruy after the fall of the Tums, in 4!56, but by an earthquaJke. The Huns, similat1ly like the Arvara later, were not interested in destrnying the Pannonfam towns which had to pay them tribute. Therefore, eiven outsride oircumstain ces attest to the fact that the forefathers of the Slo:viaks were acquainted with Rab (Raab) during the time when it was a n important ancient town with a harbor on the Danube. RE~WEN NA-VIED EN-WIEN (Vienna): The official name of the southern tribuil:iary of the Danube in Vienna is Fluss Wien (1RiJver Vioona), even though in the ordinary German language, both in the City of Vienna and also in it.s vicmity, the ancient name Rekawenna is still qurite alive. The firsit part o!f the latter appelation cor.respond s to the SlovaJk "rieka" (rwhich happened to be "reka" in the tenth and eleventh centuries,). Near tJhe wpper part of this river is a community called Rekawinke l (A corner of the river). The second part of the com'I)O!U.Ild word with its "-wenna" reminds us of the names V!ienna (Viedeii) in Slov,ruk and Wien in German). The ending "-a" of the name Wenna tells us that we are concerned with a name that was taken o,ver into German at a relatively late date, s,i nce the "-a" ending ·· in old German disappeared . For exaJiniple: the ancient name of the river Ipusa �SLOVAKIA 57 changed into lps ( officially, Ybbs), of courrse thro1Ugh a Slovanic medil.llffi, as is proved by its. trilbutary, the Ipsitz, namely the Small ]jpsa, which in turn wa;s derived from the older term Ipsica. Similarly only thTou·g h a Slovanic medilllffi can be eXiplained the feminine gender of the name Enns, which professor E. Schwrurz noted correctly, according to which the ancient Anisus first gave the Slovams Anisa, from which then, b.y changing the "a" into an "e" and further changes in the German, the form Enns was created. The feminine gender of Enns points to its Slovanic origin against the masc'll!line gender of the class~ca·l name Anisus. This same phenomenon is noticed in t'he names Drava and Sava, which in Latin are Dravus and Savus (masclllline gender) . The change in gender in the Slovanic is given to the omitted or untleratood word "rieka" or probrubly "voda" (rirver and water, lbolth feminine gender). The form Rekawenna, wiith the irresevviation of the word "rieka" indicates not onliy the Sl{)!Varucity of the name, 'but also the necessity of disting1Uishing 'by means of this word t'he name of the ri;ver from another geographical name, so that ambiguity would not a-rise. The existence of the word "Rellmwenna" tells us that the name Wenna had to be. also• the name of a place. Rekawenna found its way into the common German language at the earliest by the end of the eleventh century, that is, aifter the disappearance orf the ending "-a," which otherwise agrees also with historical fact, because the Germans succeSSJfu[ly pushed out the Magyars from the Vienna region only as late as the eleiventh century. According to Much, the Celtic appelation for the Wien (Vienna) River was Vedunia, which means "mountain stream" ("Waldibach"). We thinlk that Much cor:rectly seeks the Ce1tic origin of the name of the river, but we cannot agree with him that we are here concerned with the suffix "-nia," beca:use the Romans wouJd have placed t'his word among the multitude of other names, which ended in "-ania, -onia, -inia, -unia, -enia" and all of which in common or vulgar Latin had a long, accented vowel before the "-n". Burt Vediinia with a long, accented "-ii" would not have become Vieden in Sl01Vak The Celtic V edona we regard as the same name which was preserved in the French name of the �58 SLOVAKIA river Vienne (a tributary of the Loire), as well as in the name of the City of V'ienne near Grenoble and in the regional name Haute Vienne. Here we are concerned with a similar ancient Celtic name as, for exarrniple, the French lsere, which corresponds to the Bava:rian lsar and the Czech Jizera, or the French Aube frrom the Celtic Albis (compaTe with Labe-Elbe, above). The French Vienne presuipposes the Celtic V oo.ona with a short aCJCented "-e-", w'hioh gave "-ie-," simila:rly as bene gaive bien. The change of Voo.ona to Vienne came aJbout according to t!he cmrent old..French vooal changes, which we cannot truke up here. We presuppose the Celto-Latin na,me of the riiver Vedona, in which the Latin short "-o-" gave the short "-u-" in the Sloivanic, w'hich later changed into a hard jer, like the Latin commater gaive kumatra and kmotra: like co:mlite(m) g,a,ve kumet and then kmef, and many others. In the same manner, Vedona first ga.ve Veduna, which after the disappeaora:nce of the weak jer (i.ei. the very short "-u") changed into Vedna, which the Germans adrupted in the form of Wenna, beoause they did not to[e,r ate the intervowel grollip "-dn-". In a word, Rekawenna got into the German lanigua:ge through a Sloviank medium ; not only because of the first part of the compound word, but also the second part. 'l'he glorious Vindobona of antiquity, which was situated rubove the river Vedona, lost its impomnce and a1read'Y in the beginning of tlhe fifth cenitury it is mentioned once as Vindomana, and at other tiimes as Vendomina or Vindomma. IDvidently we a:re concerned with a name of Celtic origin, which originaHy meant as much as "a white city" and whose name was being fu:rigotten by the ancient writers oif the fii.fith and sixth centuries. The SlO!V'aks could have known Vindobona--Vendomina already in the fifth century, and certainly not later than the beginning of the sixth; and sin(!e the names of rive:ris usually became the names of settlements, the settllement near the Vedona RiveT (today, the Rekawenna) was named after it. The name of the to:wn was of the mas<!uline gender, while the riiver remained feminine, like Rab (the river: Raba). �SLO \ .AK IA 59 Here the name of the river was Veduna and the town named after it bore the name Vedun (where the "-u-" later became a hard jer in a strong position, which was p~operly changed into an "-e-"). After the vocalimtion of the je:ra, therefore akeady in the tenth century, the foom Vedeii existed in SlowaJk; the genitive of this form wa.s Vediia (do Vedna - to Vienna) . The German na:me is not derived from the nominatirve, 'but from the SlO!Vlak geinitirve, as attested t-0 by the proof "Wenia" from 881. The attempt of pro!fessoc Liewehr, who preswpposes in this name a nasal vowel, CaJI1not be deduced in any manner, but even more incorrect is his claim that the Gerunans got the name "Wien" from the Czechs. Liehwehr obviously colllf,used Ol;ech with Slovak. When we consider that even today the Slovak ethnic border commences abo1Ut 35 !k ilometers northeast of Vienna, that during the entire ninth century the southern border of Great Moravia in Lower Austria was the Danube, and .tJhat durring the time of Ki'Il!g Sva.topllllk even the Vienna region belonged to his empire, it is altogether clear that the Slova,ks have ,preserved to the present time the ancient appelation o!f Viedeii (Viienna). 'f.he Czechs a;ccepted the name Viden from the Slorvaks, as they did the word "kost.el" (church) , rubout whic h we shall say something before we conclude this article. The German Rekawenna comes from the old Slovak form "reka Vedna" and from the ancient, indfrect cases: do Vediia (to Vienna, z Vedna (from Vienna) , in old German this was first Wena, and then later Wien. Llke the Germans along the Roman border on the Danulbe preserved the names Pata.via, Lentia, Lauriacum in the forms Pasau, Linz, Lorch, so the Slovaks in the names of Vied en and Rab ,preserved the names of V edona and Arabo along that ancient border. '.Ilhe Slo;venian Dunaj (iDanulbe) to designate Vienna supports the theory of professor Oettinger that the principal city of Samo's, empiTe was Vienna, rbecause only the constriuction of Benghof cOIUld haive girven the Slovenians the chance to name the new citadel according to the river, but �60 SLOVAKIA the irrediutaible oontinmty of the Sl01Vruk name wit'h the ancient one attests to the fact that during the time of King Samo, and even 1b efore him, the Slovenes did not live in the Vienna region, but the Slov8Jks did. Edtitz-Edlach-Edlbach: It is dbviol\.ls that the Slovruk population wais found not Ottl!ly in the immedliaite vii.cinity of Vienna, but extended fal'lt'her to the south, aJPpmx:imwte1y to the separation of the southern tributaries O!f the Danube in Lower Austria and partia,Uy in Upper AU1sitria, as is attested to by other to;pograiphica;l names, of which we might mention art 1€18JSt Edlitz and Eillach, which are east and north of Semmering. The consonant group "-di-" indicates its Slo!V'ruk origin. In Slovene "jela' comes from the older form "ela," as compared to the Slovruk "jedfa" (derived from the older fo:ran "edfa"). The grolllp "-di-" was also preseirved in the name of Modling (near Vienna) .f.rom the Sloviak "M:odlin" (another Modlin is near Wa:raaw). And south of Wind<ischg,a,rsten in Upper Austria we find the stream Edlbach. The very drcuimsitance that these names do not start with a "j-" proves their antiquity, that is, they must have penetrated into the Germian before the secondi half of the ninth century. In German names ta;ken over fr<>rr1 SIOIValk, we can ascertain three groups: 1. Edlitz (east of Semmering; another one is west of the Vienna Forest, near Wein1burg); here belong many other names, which we need not mention; Aflenz, a riiver in the SO'Utheastern region of Upper Austria; these and similar n8Jmes were taken over by t'he Germans when the Sloivak sit.HI used 'adfa, ablonica' instead of "jedfa, jablonica"; 2. the group with the initial "g" instead of the Slovak "j-" - e.g., Gaflenz (the nanie of the town above the river Aflertz W8JS ·adlapted later by the Germans, which means that the Sloiv,alk poipuiliaition preserwed itself there quite some time); 3. the ,groUJp with the presenved secondary "j-,r-" e.g. Jauerling (f,r om Javornik, a mountain ridge northw~ of MelO'k, a:bove the Danulbe; . the Gemnans adapted the word, just lirke they got "Moserling" from "MocamI'k"); Jas~tzbach, a trilburtal'y of the Erlaf, whfoh :filows into the Danu'be (Jasnitlz is from the SLO'V'ark Jasenica, naimed accordling to the tree "jasen" - ash). _ �SLOVAKIA 61 All this indicates the possi1bility which philology has to determine the time element of vowel changes, a,lso to ascertain the g.radual penetration of Gernnan colomzation and the period · of Gennanization of the Danube area in present-day Austria. Pregraten: Pro;fessor E. Pragarte Pregarten Schwartz correctly derives the name Pregarten from the word "pregarda," which later iby interposition of vocals, changed to "pregrada" (now priehrada in Slovak). We found over ten Pregartens in Upper AU/Stria alone, in the districts of Vociklalbruok, Perg, Gmunden, Freis,tadit, P,r egarten, Eferding, Ottens,tein, Raa>b, Schwanenstad t, which indicates that defense partitions are concerned, parts of the Slov.amic stronghold system which came from the sixth century and haippened to- be on the western border of Samo's empi-re. Designating territoria;l borders had a specia:l sig,rnifica:nce in the life o;f the ancient Slovans; even the German word "Grenze" comes from the Slo,vanic "granica." The Germans penetrated into easte•r n Tyrol after the change of ''gard-" to "grad-", because Pregraten was preser-v ed there. Of course., in some ,places they penetrated before this chamge took place, beca,use there we also find the settlement Aegarth (Oegarth) from the Sl01Va,k Ograda, similarly li!ke a sm~H plow in the German dialect used there is called "arl" from the ancient Slovene form "arlo" (today ralo a,nd, in Sloivruk, radio). The German form arl comes from the era before the interchange of vocals. Windisch garsten-Garsten: The first part of the na,me Windischgars ten indii'cates the Slovanidty of t'he seoon:d part, rubout which E. Schwartz claims that it comes from the Slovanic "chvorst-" ( chrasf in SloiVaik). We cannot, however, agree with him, beca,me in old German names taJken over from the Slov,8Jnic, "k" takes the place oif "ch"; e.g., in Austria, in the Damulbe region, there are several hills whi'C'h are called Kulm, Kulmitz; these are derived from the Slovak "chu!lm" (today, Chlmec, chlmok); therefore, the 'g" of Garsten ca,nnot come from "ch," but only from a word which began with .a "g". Besides that, Windischga-rs ten lies on the old, very im- �62 SLOVAKIA portant highway which already dUJring the Roman times corrected Noricum with the Danwbian region; therefore, already then this road was fortified with bast.rions. In the proximity Of Win<lischg•a rsten is Grad.au, whose. name is obvious1y connected or rel•a ted to the word "grad." A section of the city of Steyr is also called Garsten. We are here concerned with an elevation which hardly could halve been named after "chraist"' (thicket; s'lmufbbery), but l'ather after "brad" (castle; bastion). In our 01pilll.i.on, Garst.en is derived from "gardisce" - the accented "-i-" dlisappearing in the Geir,man, and the gl'OU'l) olf five consonants "rdsts-", because very difrficw.t to pronounce, was modified to "-rit-". Therefore,, we must derive "Garst.en" from "gardisce" and not from "chvorst" ( ohrasf, today). And since south of Windi-schg,a rsten we find the stream Edlbach, it is necesisary to assll!me that the Slovaks settled here very earJiy, because the Sioivenes along the Dra;v,a penetrated to the west in the sixt'h and serventh centuries and through Istria into northern J.truly. In a word, their goal was west and sourt'hiwest, but not north. Slovak tribes from the north also penetrated souith and so1.lfthwesit into the Danubian region. Inasmuoh as traces of Slovenian colonirzation have been ascertained recently around the central part of the Enns, they came from a 1a:ter ,period, when the penetration of the Slovenes to the west wais stopped by the Bavarians and in northern Italy by the Langobal'ds. The woros Garsten, Windischgarst.en, just lilke Pregart.en, are liiving testimony of the defense organization of the forefathers of the ~ovalks (.castles, bastions, citadels) ; other names in the Dainlllibian region of Austria will lead us to the sa:me conclusion. For example, Gairlen and Grat.en ( Garten berg ipresuipposes the name "Gradna), and many names conta•i ning "Strass", are for the most part related to the Slovak "straza" (guaro, and not to the German Strasse (street). Traces were even found after the name "brad.lo" (huge rock) , which the ancient SlovaJks used to designate a defensilve p1ace, usuiaaly a hill, on which defenses were set up (compare Brad.lo near Myjava and Domica; also Branisko, a hill between Saris and Spis) . �SLOVAKIA 63 By analyzing a large number of locail, river, borderline and other names in Lower and Upper AIUJStria and vicinity, as well as Austrian dia:leotic words of Slovak origin, we can define relatiively a;ccurateily just aibout what tme these areas were colonized, but also the 'beginnings, the bo,r ders and the fortunes of Slovak colonization. In summary, then: 1. The names Wien, Rekawenna, Raab, Rabnitz found their way into, German through a Slovak medium, and the Slovaks received the names Vieden, Raba, Rab directly from the Roman population wath whioh they came into contact after their advent into P,a nnonia. 2. The southern 1b ooodary of Slovak colonization in Lorwer and Upper Austria is coarsely indicated by the propagati001 of names of the Edlitz ty,pe, the Slo;va;kness of which cannot ibe questioned, and for the most par,t is c,overed with the waters of the southern tributaries of the central Danube and the northern tributaries of the Drava, besides the region of the centrai IDnns. 3. Names of the Pregarten--Garst,en type designate an ancient Slovak-Bavarian boundary line, which was sUJbjected to changes from the sixth to the eighth centuries. It is self-evident that the direct Slovak~Roman contact was not limited to topograiphicaJ names alone, but can be traced in a multitude of words which the forefathers of the Slovaks took 0 ver from the Pannonian Romams. Pressed for space here, let us mention at least a feiw exrumples. The Slo~ vaks could ha,ve received the word "cast.ellum" only in Pannonia, whose ecclesiastica.>l organization was clissolved thy the Acvars when they destroyed the archibishopris of Sirmium in 582. The Roman "cast,ella" (ca,s tles) served as places of worship long before that date. At that time, when the Slovaks became acquainted with the word castellum (lkostol" - church), they also came to know the word "t,ehla," which came from "tegla," and this word in turn from the Latin "tegula." The GeI1Illans changed "tegla" to "ziegel" in the first half of the sixth century. The Czec'hs got the word "kost.el' from the western-iSlovaJk "kostel," because on their ethnical territory there never wa,s 1 �64 SLOVAKIA a single Roman "castellum." The Czech "cihla" comes from the German, while the Slova;k "tehla" and the Moravian-Slovak "tihla" come directly from the Roman "teglartegula." Among other words the forefathers Olf the Slovaks took over directly from the Romans were also "marmor" (J1ater "mramor - ma:rible) and "ban.a (mine). This swpports our theory that the Slovaks had direct conitacts with the Romans in Pannon:ia. It is not the purpose of philology to analyize the political sitiuation in Europe of the first half of the seventh century and to point out the possibilities which were presented the ancient Slovaiks so that they became the core of the strong empire of King Samo. It shall be the task of ecclesiastical historiains to throw Hght on the reasons why St. Amandus, the apostle of the Belgians, was not suocessful with the Slovak tri!bes in the western Da;nUJbian area. Historians will perhaps tel,l us which Slovak tribes preserved their independence even after Samo's deat'h. Philology can simply state that the material culture of the Sl01Vak Tribes, just like their administrativ e organization, was the same during Samo's time as it was in the Great Moravian Empire and that differences in spiritual culture were only in religion. During Samo's time the ancient Slovaks held onto their pagan religion, whHe the creators of Great Moraivia were Christian Slovak princes . • • • WHO SAID IT? "The aHiiance with the USSR is the starting ,poirut of our new foreign policy and of our security system. This alliance will be complrumented by alhances with other Slav countries. It r epreseruts a mighty bulwairk ag,ainst iposs,i!bJe danger in the future Jirom German imperia:lisnn. In the spirit of these prino1ples, the Demooraitic Party aicted st!an.mchly at all forums. It put aH its weight behind this conception. This orientation is to be regarded as the invariable devise also for our future political life." - (Dr. Joseph Lettrich, Vi.ce-Chaimnan cxf the IDxecutive Committee of the "Council of Free Czechoslo.vakia," at session of Democratic Party, January 25, 194'8). � SLOVAKIA 49 624-659 A.D.: THE SLOVAKS AND KING SAMO'S EMPIRE Dr. Henrich Bartek The Great Morawian IDmpire, which had its greatest development during the reign of King Sivatoplwk (870---895), lasted Q/Ver one hundred years. It was the climax of the long struggle of the SlOIV~ trilbes for their own staite. The core or nucleus of the territory occU1pied by the forefathers of the Slovaik nation was the territory to the north of the coo.tool Danuibe. At the end of the eighth centwy and the beginning of the ninith, the SlovaJk trilbes succesSlf ully threw off the yoke of the A vars with the help of Chaxla;maigne. The history of the ninth century offers many possibilities to inquire into the various political and spiritual tendencies which chanced to meet in Great Moravia. But we must reimemlber that patrioti'c motives from the era of national rebinth strn play a significrunt role and visions of the mighty empire of our forefathers not only strengthened national lirfe, hurt also were a rich source of poetic and artistic creativeness. Overestimating the Cyrillo-Methodius episode, tJherefore, is quite common among the Slovaks. Digressions frOIIIl current views, for example, the Christianiwtion of the Slov,aJks by Saints Cyril and Methodius, are accepted with distrust, even though irt is quite obvious that the Slova;ks were Christians long before the adivent of Saints Cyril and Meithodius. F1unthermore, that t'he epochal work of the creators orf the nationa)l liturgy did not last long in Slovakia, but reached its climax outside the 1and od: the Slova;k,s among the southern and eastern SlolV'anic peoples. A thorough understanding of the cultural and political foundations of the development of the Great Moraivian Empire is unthinlkalble wirbhout -a knowledge of the period that preceded it, since Greait Morwia w,a;s neither the first state arrangement orf our forefathers, nor the beginning of their historical aotivti.1Jy, but the result and the c,limax of actions of seve·r al centuries. - -The meager sources before the ninth century do hot entice historiaJns, becaiuse they do not offer sufficient materia,1 �50 SLOVAKIA for the expression of more or less probable theories a:nd because the Slovruks, long /before the origin of the Great Moravian Empire, had oooupied a space in the Danuibi'clln region several times greater than that which they n:ow occupy. The fortunes of the Slov-aiks in the era before Great Moravia are veiled in mystery and will not become known U!Iltiil historical science shall be aJble to use the results of researches ()If those scientific departments w'hich could effeotwely CQl1lttibute to the solution of the problem of OUT oldest history. To date, however, a•r eheologicai finds were not sufficiently evaluated to let us know the pro,g ressi.ve penetraititon of the Slovaks into the Danulbian territory; and ethnography has not attempted to give an eociplanation of the origin of Slovak culture in comparison with the culture of its SlOIVIMlic •a nd nonSlovanic nei:gh!bors, saying rrothmg about our ,p hilology which neglected the history of our tongue by devoting 1tself ia11gely to registering dialects and the normalimtion of the· language of literature. Furthermore, comparative philology has such reliable methods that it often can with final validity solive even questions which historfans must leawe unnoticed for a laok of written memoirs, ,b ut which they possilbly could 'b uild farther if they had at hand some supporting poinJts gained through other departments. Philology itself could afford much valualble knowledge to clarify not only the era before Great Moravia in the Danubian area, but als'O the geographical position of the Slovak tri·bes in their ancient homeland because this oon 'b e done 'b y analysis of certain strata of the diotionary aind linguistic maI1ks, as well as by an am.alysis o!f geogmphical names of ancient origm. Of course, such resea:z,ches require exiceptional ca.111tion, but the fact that the ecclesiastica:l Slovanic language enaJbles us to reconst:rmct the arra111gement of vowels of Sl'OIV'lalk words used in the second haJ1f of the ninth century is a sufficient -basis so that we could, ac:cord!irng to single words prese:z,ved since before the ninth cen't;ucy, regressiive1y reconstruct the arrangement of vowels of words from the eighth to the fif,t h centuries, nay, even dooper into the past, whereby it win be shown at which sections of time certain foreign ~rds penetrated into our midst, which as dbjective proo1Js wi:ll enruble �S LOVAKIA 51 us to define the cuiturO-ipoliticaJ contacts of our forefathers in the era before Great MOTaviia. In this process of finding the dldest settlements of t'he Sio,V'a,ks, topograJphical names will have a speciaJJ. sig:niificance, a!boJVe al[ else the names of rivers aJnd settlements, as we shall see in examples presented below. So that we miig,ht arrive at positive results from the history before Great Moravia, we must accept a cert.a.in. working hypothesis, the aiutho,rlty of wlhfoh we shall inquire into, wherelby for the saJke of ancient histo11y we are uirged to issue out of Samo.' s emipire and assume that Great Moravria was not the first state formation of the Slova!k tribes, beca~ Fredegar's chronicles record a strong western-.Slovruric empire aJreadly in the sreiventh century; it was headed by King Samo and was strong enough to resist the pressure not only of the Avars, but esven of the Twktish kingdom of King Dagolmllrt. Fredega:r's report aibout the great defeat of the Franlks near the Wogastiburg Castle in 631, as well as several other notations 'by thtis same historian, are the only objective proof aibout Samn's empire, and on these records are based the most various theories about the ethnical composition and the territorial extent, as well as the principal city of Samo's state. As usua11y ha,pperns in such cases, when the som-ce does not a.icoorately define a territory, scho1a:rs of the individu.a1 SIOIValtlic nations striive to a:pip~iate unto themselves Samo's empire: some Czech scientists are seelkting Wogastibrn,g in the most western sections of Bohemia; the Slovenes would liike to find it in Coruta:nia; and foreign scholars lean to one or the other theory. For e}Cample, the Belgian histol'ian Pirenne was for Corutania, whiile Milk.kola, the F~itmish scholar on Slavistics, preferred Bohemia.. In the past recent years, Oze<!h, Polish, and Slov,ak scholars ha:d agreed that King Samo resided at DelVin near the Danube, which, therefore, must have been the center of his empire. We find the weak side of these theories in the lack of new objective proofs which could complement Fredegar's notations. Even. though many new staitemenrts aJbout Samo's empire are very reasonable and very pro!balble, they will re- �52 SLOVAKL<\. main only as suppositions until incontrovert1ble proofs aa-e offered to support them. These theories albout the center of Samo's empire were propagated in 1951 by Oettinger, well-Jmoiwn Viennese historian of arts and arrcheology, who teills us in his book "Das Warden Wiens" thait he regards Vienna as Samo's residence: He bases his b.elief on the fact that the construotion of the Berghof Castle in Vienna, jrUdging it according to prese1wed architectonic relics, can be traced only to Samo's era, because the Avam as a nomadic nation could not build such a great stooe citadel. Besides that, professor Oettinger produces a whole series of othea:- arguments to prove htis theory, one of which we might introduce at this time, that is, that the Slovenes use the name Danu~ for Vienna, namely, that they called the castle a:nd the city according to the rirver, which could hawe happened only during Samo's time, . when the Barghof in Vienna; was the seat of Samo's _, empire. 'I'he discovery of the castle is certainly a very weighty fact, which archeoilogy and history of the arts, th<l!Il!ks to the deductions of Professor Oettinger, presented to historians. Oettinger considers it sellf-evident that Sl0V1a:ks an~l_ other Slovanic peoples lived in the entire region of Vienna and far to the west :tlong the Danulbe territo;ry duriing Samo's time. Theories about the center of Samo's empire at Devin, and especially the proofs of Oeittinger are a suffidenit basis for philology to ask the question: What Slovanic peoples could have li'Ved during Samo.'s time in the Vienna region, near the Danube in present Austria:, and in the vicinity of Devin? Ilf it could be succeSSlf,u lly prorved that during Samo's time the Slovaks a!lrea:dy were settiled in the central Danwbian region, on both sides of this great river, that would mean a milestone in the most ancient history of the SllO!VaJk nation, because F'redegar wrote quite plainly that Samo came among the SlOIV'anic peoiples exactly at the time when they had successfully relbeHed against the Avars. Therefore, it was not Samo, a Frankish merchant by origin, who l~berated the Slovanic peoples who later elected him their king, because they had Uberated themselJves before his advent. Philological proofs of the Slovakness of the regions to �SLOVAKIA 53 the .south: of the central Danube in the seventh century could becomie the basis of extensive historical researches, which wouhl place the beginnings of the historical era of the political efforts of the Slo.vruks two centuries dooper into the past, t'herelby clarif~g eiven the origin of the Great Mom-wan Empire. As mentioned albO!ve, philology can throw light on even very runcient eras of nati:ons by ana>ly,z ing a>dopted foreign words and ancient names of ri'Vers and cities. At this time we shall attempt to girve at least a few examples to illustrate how this could be done. Several Ancient Geographical Names An ex,pl,a;n_ation of the origin of topographii.cal names is a useful aid of historians, be.<:ause quite frequentl;y it presents -a better picture orf an anoient settlement than fragmenta:r:y · reports orf chroniclers and, furthermore, vowel chamges,. to which geographical names succumbed, enaJbied us to determine the time of their origin and the period of their existence. In the past decades many wo;r,k,s were published a'bo.ut Slo'V'anic to,p ographical names, but most frequently they are rather conicerned with simply registering names than with explaining them, since the explanation of the oriigin of names encounters many diflficu[ties, especiaJ>ly i!Il the Danwbe territory, whe;re we meet with traces of the lllyrians, Celts, GeTmans and Romans, even the European aJbocygenes, whiHe t'he illyrian and Celtic languages arre not as yet suflficiently reasea.r ched. It is relatirvely very difficult to eociplain clearly to inexperts the origin orf some ancient name, ibecaiuse that requires considerable k!Ilowledge of comparative philology. Thus, for example, even at first glance it is abvious that the nam·e s Viede:ii and Wien (Vienna), which have a ,b asic importance for an.oient history of the Sloivalks, are somewhat related or conneicted togetherr, but maJking their relationship clear requires centain knowledge so that the explanation might 'be accessible to every one and, therefore, we shall ta'ke Ulp a few oth~ geog~aJphical names to show by what manner names of antique origin come to us. RfM___.ROMA (Rome) : The connooti10n of the terms is obvious, but the difficulty encountered is explaining the Slo- �5-1 SLOVAKIA vruk "i" for the Latin "o", as well as the masculine gender of the Slovak name. Quite some time ago, professor Skok of Zagreb University pointed out that on the Dalmatian coast the Latin Salona was cha:nged into Solin, Nona to Nin, Albona to Labin (lby changing position of V'OCals, like the Czech Labe from Albis, buit the German Elbe Wli,thout changing position; the ancient Serbian and Croatian name Jakin was derirved from Ancona). In these names, the Latin "o" was compensated for by the S1ovanic "ii" which then was changed to "y" and fmally to "i." At the same time t:he Latin femi'Illine gender of the names was changed to the masc'll'line in the Slovanic languages, be"Camse in unrefined Latin the Accusative ending "-m" disappeared' and "ad Roma" was used instead of "aid Roma:m" (to Rome). The Slovank peoples regarded the ending "-a" as a suffix of the genitive case of the mascU!line gender and from the forms "do Rima, z Rima, do Solina, zo Solina," etc., they made the maS:C'U'line nominative "Rim, Solin, Nin," etc. It cannot be said with cert.ainty whether the Slovaks got the word "Rim" through the southern Slova'l1S or directly from the Romans in Pamnon:ia, because the name of the princilpa:1 city of the Roman ffimpire may have become known to them when they already lirved in the Car,pathians, but as yet had not penetrated to the Danuibe. RABA-RABIOA-RAB: One of the important southern tributaries of the central Danulb,e in Pannorua is the river Raalb, which in t:he Roman era was ca.Heel Arabo. R is generaliliy ~cknowled'ged that the name is of Celtic origin, which in the S1orvanic was first aJbbrevfaJted into Arba and then later in the fi.mt half Oif the ninth century became Raba by transposition of letters. We find a river bea:ring the same name in Pol,and, which flows into the Visla alboive the Dunajec ; I :reg,ard the name of the Ra!ba of Polamd also of Celitic origin. The Polish Raba and the Pannonian Ra.ha a.re one Of the many proofs of the wandering Oif the Celts, after whom there are traces e:ven in Slovaikia in the names of rivers. Thus, for example, Orava is of Ce1tic origin,. as is Oravica in Rumania. 'Dhe Rabica (Ra.pea in Mayiga:r and Rabliltz �SLOVAKIA 55 in German) flows into the Danubian Raba. And Rabica means the SmaH Ralba, because in ancient Slovak diminlutiive names were formed- ~ the sulffix "-ica" - e.g. - NitraNitrica, Bystra-lBystrica, Tepla~Teplica, Lomna◄Lomnica, Byoca.,Bytx'!ica., Lovea◄Lovcioa, etc. One o.f the triburtaries of the Ralbica is named Repce in Magyar, which undoubtedly is am. older name than Ra.pea, because the Magyar Repce presupposes the older Slo'Va.k form Ratiica with an "-a" after a soft "c." In other words, the Magyar Repce was adopted bef<>i:re the thirteenth cen<bury, before the hardening of the soft "c," whife the Magyar Ra.pea is of later origin (afiter the "-a" changed into "-a" in Slovak). At the confluence of the Raba into the Danulbe is the city of RaJb (RaaJb), the Magyar Gyor, which used to be the site of a strong gianison to protect the Roman borders. In Slovll!k t'he name of the city is of the masculine gender in contrast to the name of the river. So, here again we meet with tilie same phenomenon as we did with the. name Rim (Rome). The SlovaJks ada,pted and preserved the ancient name of the river in the form oif Raba and out of it made the dimmuti<ve Rabica; but when they came to the name of the city, they changed the gender in the spirit of their language and, therefore, the form Rab proves a direct corm.ection with the Roman population. in Pannonia, from which the Slovaks tOOik the name of the r iver in the form of Arba, but in designating the city changed the form to Arb, from which at .t he end of the second half of the ninth century, by a trans.posiltion of vocals, the forms Raba and Rab originated. The German forms Raab, Rabnitz and the Magyar Raba (the riiveir) , Repce, Rapea coulld have been taJken onlry from the SlovaJk forms. Here the ancient Slov3'k continuity is quite clear. We must also mention that on the Adriatic, south of the ffihune River, lies the island of RaJb with a oity by that name. The IWian name of the island is Arbe, which also supports our etymology of the names Raba (in Poland), Raba, Rabica, Rab (beyond the Danu'be). When dealing with ancient geog,rruphica:l names, if we are concerned. with the afrooment of the name of a river with the name of a city or town, the name of the river, as a rule, is older. For example: Nitra is named according to �56 SLOVAKIA the river bearing that name, and not vice-versa. The same holds for the names Raba and Rab: the Celts first named the river and later the setrtJement by the same name, which became a Roman city or town. On the Polish Raba there is no town with a similiar name, 'b ut only the community Rabka, whose suffix is "-ka" shows that its origin came later, similarly liike Oravka is of a lateT date in comparison with the more ancient Oravica. In the period of migration of nations there were no great oo111flrcit:s in Panrnonia which could have destroyed ancient oities, because the Romans at the beginning of the fifth cenitury ceded Pann.onia to the H'l.l!Ils, who not only did not destroy A:q,uincum, near the present Budin, but not even the principal city of Upper Pannonia, SaJVaria (todaiy, the Magyar Szombathe ly and the German Stein am Anger). This wealthy city, the birthplace oif St. Ma,rtin, was Mstroyed oruy after the fall of the Tums, in 4!56, but by an earthquaJke. The Huns, similat1ly like the Arvara later, were not interested in destrnying the Pannonfam towns which had to pay them tribute. Therefore, eiven outsride oircumstain ces attest to the fact that the forefathers of the Slo:viaks were acquainted with Rab (Raab) during the time when it was a n important ancient town with a harbor on the Danube. RE~WEN NA-VIED EN-WIEN (Vienna): The official name of the southern tribuil:iary of the Danube in Vienna is Fluss Wien (1RiJver Vioona), even though in the ordinary German language, both in the City of Vienna and also in it.s vicmity, the ancient name Rekawenna is still qurite alive. The firsit part o!f the latter appelation cor.respond s to the SlovaJk "rieka" (rwhich happened to be "reka" in the tenth and eleventh centuries,). Near tJhe wpper part of this river is a community called Rekawinke l (A corner of the river). The second part of the com'I)O!U.Ild word with its "-wenna" reminds us of the names V!ienna (Viedeii) in Slov,ruk and Wien in German). The ending "-a" of the name Wenna tells us that we are concerned with a name that was taken o,ver into German at a relatively late date, s,i nce the "-a" ending ·· in old German disappeared . For exaJiniple: the ancient name of the river Ipusa �SLOVAKIA 57 changed into lps ( officially, Ybbs), of courrse thro1Ugh a Slovanic medil.llffi, as is proved by its. trilbutary, the Ipsitz, namely the Small ]jpsa, which in turn wa;s derived from the older term Ipsica. Similarly only thTou·g h a Slovanic medilllffi can be eXiplained the feminine gender of the name Enns, which professor E. Schwrurz noted correctly, according to which the ancient Anisus first gave the Slovams Anisa, from which then, b.y changing the "a" into an "e" and further changes in the German, the form Enns was created. The feminine gender of Enns points to its Slovanic origin against the masc'll!line gender of the class~ca·l name Anisus. This same phenomenon is noticed in t'he names Drava and Sava, which in Latin are Dravus and Savus (masclllline gender) . The change in gender in the Slovanic is given to the omitted or untleratood word "rieka" or probrubly "voda" (rirver and water, lbolth feminine gender). The form Rekawenna, wiith the irresevviation of the word "rieka" indicates not onliy the Sl{)!Varucity of the name, 'but also the necessity of disting1Uishing 'by means of this word t'he name of the ri;ver from another geographical name, so that ambiguity would not a-rise. The existence of the word "Rellmwenna" tells us that the name Wenna had to be. also• the name of a place. Rekawenna found its way into the common German language at the earliest by the end of the eleventh century, that is, aifter the disappearance orf the ending "-a," which otherwise agrees also with historical fact, because the Germans succeSSJfu[ly pushed out the Magyars from the Vienna region only as late as the eleiventh century. According to Much, the Celtic appelation for the Wien (Vienna) River was Vedunia, which means "mountain stream" ("Waldibach"). We thinlk that Much cor:rectly seeks the Ce1tic origin of the name of the river, but we cannot agree with him that we are here concerned with the suffix "-nia," beca:use the Romans wouJd have placed t'his word among the multitude of other names, which ended in "-ania, -onia, -inia, -unia, -enia" and all of which in common or vulgar Latin had a long, accented vowel before the "-n". Burt Vediinia with a long, accented "-ii" would not have become Vieden in Sl01Vak The Celtic V edona we regard as the same name which was preserved in the French name of the �58 SLOVAKIA river Vienne (a tributary of the Loire), as well as in the name of the City of V'ienne near Grenoble and in the regional name Haute Vienne. Here we are concerned with a similar ancient Celtic name as, for exarrniple, the French lsere, which corresponds to the Bava:rian lsar and the Czech Jizera, or the French Aube frrom the Celtic Albis (compaTe with Labe-Elbe, above). The French Vienne presuipposes the Celtic V oo.ona with a short aCJCented "-e-", w'hioh gave "-ie-," simila:rly as bene gaive bien. The change of Voo.ona to Vienne came aJbout according to t!he cmrent old..French vooal changes, which we cannot truke up here. We presuppose the Celto-Latin na,me of the riiver Vedona, in which the Latin short "-o-" gave the short "-u-" in the Sloivanic, w'hich later changed into a hard jer, like the Latin commater gaive kumatra and kmotra: like co:mlite(m) g,a,ve kumet and then kmef, and many others. In the same manner, Vedona first ga.ve Veduna, which after the disappeaora:nce of the weak jer (i.ei. the very short "-u") changed into Vedna, which the Germans adrupted in the form of Wenna, beoause they did not to[e,r ate the intervowel grollip "-dn-". In a word, Rekawenna got into the German lanigua:ge through a Sloviank medium ; not only because of the first part of the compound word, but also the second part. 'l'he glorious Vindobona of antiquity, which was situated rubove the river Vedona, lost its impomnce and a1read'Y in the beginning of tlhe fifth cenitury it is mentioned once as Vindomana, and at other tiimes as Vendomina or Vindomma. IDvidently we a:re concerned with a name of Celtic origin, which originaHy meant as much as "a white city" and whose name was being fu:rigotten by the ancient writers oif the fii.fith and sixth centuries. The SlO!V'aks could have known Vindobona--Vendomina already in the fifth century, and certainly not later than the beginning of the sixth; and sin(!e the names of rive:ris usually became the names of settlements, the settllement near the Vedona RiveT (today, the Rekawenna) was named after it. The name of the to:wn was of the mas<!uline gender, while the riiver remained feminine, like Rab (the river: Raba). �SLO \ .AK IA 59 Here the name of the river was Veduna and the town named after it bore the name Vedun (where the "-u-" later became a hard jer in a strong position, which was p~operly changed into an "-e-"). After the vocalimtion of the je:ra, therefore akeady in the tenth century, the foom Vedeii existed in SlowaJk; the genitive of this form wa.s Vediia (do Vedna - to Vienna) . The German na:me is not derived from the nominatirve, 'but from the SlO!Vlak geinitirve, as attested t-0 by the proof "Wenia" from 881. The attempt of pro!fessoc Liewehr, who preswpposes in this name a nasal vowel, CaJI1not be deduced in any manner, but even more incorrect is his claim that the Gerunans got the name "Wien" from the Czechs. Liehwehr obviously colllf,used Ol;ech with Slovak. When we consider that even today the Slovak ethnic border commences abo1Ut 35 !k ilometers northeast of Vienna, that during the entire ninth century the southern border of Great Moravia in Lower Austria was the Danube, and .tJhat durring the time of Ki'Il!g Sva.topllllk even the Vienna region belonged to his empire, it is altogether clear that the Slova,ks have ,preserved to the present time the ancient appelation o!f Viedeii (Viienna). 'f.he Czechs a;ccepted the name Viden from the Slorvaks, as they did the word "kost.el" (church) , rubout whic h we shall say something before we conclude this article. The German Rekawenna comes from the old Slovak form "reka Vedna" and from the ancient, indfrect cases: do Vediia (to Vienna, z Vedna (from Vienna) , in old German this was first Wena, and then later Wien. Llke the Germans along the Roman border on the Danulbe preserved the names Pata.via, Lentia, Lauriacum in the forms Pasau, Linz, Lorch, so the Slovaks in the names of Vied en and Rab ,preserved the names of V edona and Arabo along that ancient border. '.Ilhe Slo;venian Dunaj (iDanulbe) to designate Vienna supports the theory of professor Oettinger that the principal city of Samo's, empiTe was Vienna, rbecause only the constriuction of Benghof cOIUld haive girven the Slovenians the chance to name the new citadel according to the river, but �60 SLOVAKIA the irrediutaible oontinmty of the Sl01Vruk name wit'h the ancient one attests to the fact that during the time of King Samo, and even 1b efore him, the Slovenes did not live in the Vienna region, but the Slov8Jks did. Edtitz-Edlach-Edlbach: It is dbviol\.ls that the Slovruk population wais found not Ottl!ly in the immedliaite vii.cinity of Vienna, but extended fal'lt'her to the south, aJPpmx:imwte1y to the separation of the southern tributaries O!f the Danube in Lower Austria and partia,Uy in Upper AU1sitria, as is attested to by other to;pograiphica;l names, of which we might mention art 1€18JSt Edlitz and Eillach, which are east and north of Semmering. The consonant group "-di-" indicates its Slo!V'ruk origin. In Slovene "jela' comes from the older form "ela," as compared to the Slovruk "jedfa" (derived from the older fo:ran "edfa"). The grolllp "-di-" was also preseirved in the name of Modling (near Vienna) .f.rom the Sloviak "M:odlin" (another Modlin is near Wa:raaw). And south of Wind<ischg,a,rsten in Upper Austria we find the stream Edlbach. The very drcuimsitance that these names do not start with a "j-" proves their antiquity, that is, they must have penetrated into the Germian before the secondi half of the ninth century. In German names ta;ken over fr<>rr1 SIOIValk, we can ascertain three groups: 1. Edlitz (east of Semmering; another one is west of the Vienna Forest, near Wein1burg); here belong many other names, which we need not mention; Aflenz, a riiver in the SO'Utheastern region of Upper Austria; these and similar n8Jmes were taken over by t'he Germans when the Sloivak sit.HI used 'adfa, ablonica' instead of "jedfa, jablonica"; 2. the group with the initial "g" instead of the Slovak "j-" - e.g., Gaflenz (the nanie of the town above the river Aflertz W8JS ·adlapted later by the Germans, which means that the Sloiv,alk poipuiliaition preserwed itself there quite some time); 3. the ,groUJp with the presenved secondary "j-,r-" e.g. Jauerling (f,r om Javornik, a mountain ridge northw~ of MelO'k, a:bove the Danulbe; . the Gemnans adapted the word, just lirke they got "Moserling" from "MocamI'k"); Jas~tzbach, a trilburtal'y of the Erlaf, whfoh :filows into the Danu'be (Jasnitlz is from the SLO'V'ark Jasenica, naimed accordling to the tree "jasen" - ash). _ �SLOVAKIA 61 All this indicates the possi1bility which philology has to determine the time element of vowel changes, a,lso to ascertain the g.radual penetration of Gernnan colomzation and the period · of Gennanization of the Danube area in present-day Austria. Pregraten: Pro;fessor E. Pragarte Pregarten Schwartz correctly derives the name Pregarten from the word "pregarda," which later iby interposition of vocals, changed to "pregrada" (now priehrada in Slovak). We found over ten Pregartens in Upper AU/Stria alone, in the districts of Vociklalbruok, Perg, Gmunden, Freis,tadit, P,r egarten, Eferding, Ottens,tein, Raa>b, Schwanenstad t, which indicates that defense partitions are concerned, parts of the Slov.amic stronghold system which came from the sixth century and haippened to- be on the western border of Samo's empi-re. Designating territoria;l borders had a specia:l sig,rnifica:nce in the life o;f the ancient Slovans; even the German word "Grenze" comes from the Slo,vanic "granica." The Germans penetrated into easte•r n Tyrol after the change of ''gard-" to "grad-", because Pregraten was preser-v ed there. Of course., in some ,places they penetrated before this chamge took place, beca,use there we also find the settlement Aegarth (Oegarth) from the Sl01Va,k Ograda, similarly li!ke a sm~H plow in the German dialect used there is called "arl" from the ancient Slovene form "arlo" (today ralo a,nd, in Sloivruk, radio). The German form arl comes from the era before the interchange of vocals. Windisch garsten-Garsten: The first part of the na,me Windischgars ten indii'cates the Slovanidty of t'he seoon:d part, rubout which E. Schwartz claims that it comes from the Slovanic "chvorst-" ( chrasf in SloiVaik). We cannot, however, agree with him, beca,me in old German names taJken over from the Slov,8Jnic, "k" takes the place oif "ch"; e.g., in Austria, in the Damulbe region, there are several hills whi'C'h are called Kulm, Kulmitz; these are derived from the Slovak "chu!lm" (today, Chlmec, chlmok); therefore, the 'g" of Garsten ca,nnot come from "ch," but only from a word which began with .a "g". Besides that, Windischga-rs ten lies on the old, very im- �62 SLOVAKIA portant highway which already dUJring the Roman times corrected Noricum with the Danwbian region; therefore, already then this road was fortified with bast.rions. In the proximity Of Win<lischg•a rsten is Grad.au, whose. name is obvious1y connected or rel•a ted to the word "grad." A section of the city of Steyr is also called Garsten. We are here concerned with an elevation which hardly could halve been named after "chraist"' (thicket; s'lmufbbery), but l'ather after "brad" (castle; bastion). In our 01pilll.i.on, Garst.en is derived from "gardisce" - the accented "-i-" dlisappearing in the Geir,man, and the gl'OU'l) olf five consonants "rdsts-", because very difrficw.t to pronounce, was modified to "-rit-". Therefore,, we must derive "Garst.en" from "gardisce" and not from "chvorst" ( ohrasf, today). And since south of Windi-schg,a rsten we find the stream Edlbach, it is necesisary to assll!me that the Slovaks settled here very earJiy, because the Sioivenes along the Dra;v,a penetrated to the west in the sixt'h and serventh centuries and through Istria into northern J.truly. In a word, their goal was west and sourt'hiwest, but not north. Slovak tribes from the north also penetrated souith and so1.lfthwesit into the Danubian region. Inasmuoh as traces of Slovenian colonirzation have been ascertained recently around the central part of the Enns, they came from a 1a:ter ,period, when the penetration of the Slovenes to the west wais stopped by the Bavarians and in northern Italy by the Langobal'ds. The woros Garsten, Windischgarst.en, just lilke Pregart.en, are liiving testimony of the defense organization of the forefathers of the ~ovalks (.castles, bastions, citadels) ; other names in the Dainlllibian region of Austria will lead us to the sa:me conclusion. For example, Gairlen and Grat.en ( Garten berg ipresuipposes the name "Gradna), and many names conta•i ning "Strass", are for the most part related to the Slovak "straza" (guaro, and not to the German Strasse (street). Traces were even found after the name "brad.lo" (huge rock) , which the ancient SlovaJks used to designate a defensilve p1ace, usuiaaly a hill, on which defenses were set up (compare Brad.lo near Myjava and Domica; also Branisko, a hill between Saris and Spis) . �SLOVAKIA 63 By analyzing a large number of locail, river, borderline and other names in Lower and Upper AIUJStria and vicinity, as well as Austrian dia:leotic words of Slovak origin, we can define relatiively a;ccurateily just aibout what tme these areas were colonized, but also the 'beginnings, the bo,r ders and the fortunes of Slovak colonization. In summary, then: 1. The names Wien, Rekawenna, Raab, Rabnitz found their way into, German through a Slovak medium, and the Slovaks received the names Vieden, Raba, Rab directly from the Roman population wath whioh they came into contact after their advent into P,a nnonia. 2. The southern 1b ooodary of Slovak colonization in Lorwer and Upper Austria is coarsely indicated by the propagati001 of names of the Edlitz ty,pe, the Slo;va;kness of which cannot ibe questioned, and for the most par,t is c,overed with the waters of the southern tributaries of the central Danube and the northern tributaries of the Drava, besides the region of the centrai IDnns. 3. Names of the Pregarten--Garst,en type designate an ancient Slovak-Bavarian boundary line, which was sUJbjected to changes from the sixth to the eighth centuries. It is self-evident that the direct Slovak~Roman contact was not limited to topograiphicaJ names alone, but can be traced in a multitude of words which the forefathers of the Slovaks took 0 ver from the Pannonian Romams. Pressed for space here, let us mention at least a feiw exrumples. The Slo~ vaks could ha,ve received the word "cast.ellum" only in Pannonia, whose ecclesiastica.>l organization was clissolved thy the Acvars when they destroyed the archibishopris of Sirmium in 582. The Roman "cast,ella" (ca,s tles) served as places of worship long before that date. At that time, when the Slovaks became acquainted with the word castellum (lkostol" - church), they also came to know the word "t,ehla," which came from "tegla," and this word in turn from the Latin "tegula." The GeI1Illans changed "tegla" to "ziegel" in the first half of the sixth century. The Czec'hs got the word "kost.el' from the western-iSlovaJk "kostel," because on their ethnical territory there never wa,s 1 �64 SLOVAKIA a single Roman "castellum." The Czech "cihla" comes from the German, while the Slova;k "tehla" and the Moravian-Slovak "tihla" come directly from the Roman "teglartegula." Among other words the forefathers Olf the Slovaks took over directly from the Romans were also "marmor" (J1ater "mramor - ma:rible) and "ban.a (mine). This swpports our theory that the Slovaks had direct conitacts with the Romans in Pannon:ia. It is not the purpose of philology to analyize the political sitiuation in Europe of the first half of the seventh century and to point out the possibilities which were presented the ancient Slovaiks so that they became the core of the strong empire of King Samo. It shall be the task of ecclesiastical historiains to throw Hght on the reasons why St. Amandus, the apostle of the Belgians, was not suocessful with the Slovak tri!bes in the western Da;nUJbian area. Historians will perhaps tel,l us which Slovak tribes preserved their independence even after Samo's deat'h. Philology can simply state that the material culture of the Sl01Vak Tribes, just like their administrativ e organization, was the same during Samo's time as it was in the Great Moravian Empire and that differences in spiritual culture were only in religion. During Samo's time the ancient Slovaks held onto their pagan religion, whHe the creators of Great Moraivia were Christian Slovak princes . • • • WHO SAID IT? "The aHiiance with the USSR is the starting ,poirut of our new foreign policy and of our security system. This alliance will be complrumented by alhances with other Slav countries. It r epreseruts a mighty bulwairk ag,ainst iposs,i!bJe danger in the future Jirom German imperia:lisnn. In the spirit of these prino1ples, the Demooraitic Party aicted st!an.mchly at all forums. It put aH its weight behind this conception. This orientation is to be regarded as the invariable devise also for our future political life." - (Dr. Joseph Lettrich, Vi.ce-Chaimnan cxf the IDxecutive Committee of the "Council of Free Czechoslo.vakia," at session of Democratic Party, January 25, 194'8). � 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 1954, Vol. 4 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 10), March 1954.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 11), June 1954.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 12-13), Sept.-Dec. 1954.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1954 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 49 624-659 A.D.: THE SLOVAKS AND KING SAMO'S EMPIRE Dr. Henrich Bartek The Great Morawian IDmpire, which had its greatest development during the reign of King Sivatoplwk (870---895), lasted Q/Ver one hundred years. It was the climax of the long struggle of the SlOIV~ trilbes for their own staite. The core or nucleus of the territory occU1pied by the forefathers of the Slovaik nation was the territory to the north of the coo.tool Danuibe. At the end of the eighth centwy and the beginning of the ninith, the SlovaJk trilbes succesSlf ully threw off the yoke of the A vars with the help of Chaxla;maigne. The history of the ninth century offers many possibilities to inquire into the various political and spiritual tendencies which chanced to meet in Great Moravia. But we must reimemlber that patrioti'c motives from the era of national rebinth strn play a significrunt role and visions of the mighty empire of our forefathers not only strengthened national lirfe, hurt also were a rich source of poetic and artistic creativeness. Overestimating the Cyrillo-Methodius episode, tJherefore, is quite common among the Slovaks. Digressions frOIIIl current views, for example, the Christianiwtion of the Slov,aJks by Saints Cyril and Methodius, are accepted with distrust, even though irt is quite obvious that the Slova;ks were Christians long before the adivent of Saints Cyril and Meithodius. F1unthermore, that t'he epochal work of the creators orf the nationa)l liturgy did not last long in Slovakia, but reached its climax outside the 1and od: the Slova;k,s among the southern and eastern SlolV'anic peoples. A thorough understanding of the cultural and political foundations of the development of the Great Moraivian Empire is unthinlkalble wirbhout -a knowledge of the period that preceded it, since Greait Morwia w,a;s neither the first state arrangement orf our forefathers, nor the beginning of their historical aotivti.1Jy, but the result and the c,limax of actions of seve·r al centuries. - -The meager sources before the ninth century do hot entice historiaJns, becaiuse they do not offer sufficient materia,1 50 SLOVAKIA for the expression of more or less probable theories a:nd because the Slovruks, long /before the origin of the Great Moravian Empire, had oooupied a space in the Danuibi'clln region several times greater than that which they n:ow occupy. The fortunes of the Slov-aiks in the era before Great Moravia are veiled in mystery and will not become known U!Iltiil historical science shall be aJble to use the results of researches ()If those scientific departments w'hich could effeotwely CQl1lttibute to the solution of the problem of OUT oldest history. To date, however, a•r eheologicai finds were not sufficiently evaluated to let us know the pro,g ressi.ve penetraititon of the Slovaks into the Danulbian territory; and ethnography has not attempted to give an eociplanation of the origin of Slovak culture in comparison with the culture of its SlOIVIMlic •a nd nonSlovanic nei:gh!bors, saying rrothmg about our ,p hilology which neglected the history of our tongue by devoting 1tself ia11gely to registering dialects and the normalimtion of the· language of literature. Furthermore, comparative philology has such reliable methods that it often can with final validity solive even questions which historfans must leawe unnoticed for a laok of written memoirs, ,b ut which they possilbly could 'b uild farther if they had at hand some supporting poinJts gained through other departments. Philology itself could afford much valualble knowledge to clarify not only the era before Great Moravia in the Danubian area, but als'O the geographical position of the Slovak tri·bes in their ancient homeland because this oon 'b e done 'b y analysis of certain strata of the diotionary aind linguistic maI1ks, as well as by an am.alysis o!f geogmphical names of ancient origm. Of course, such resea:z,ches require exiceptional ca.111tion, but the fact that the ecclesiastica:l Slovanic language enaJbles us to reconst:rmct the arra111gement of vowels of Sl'OIV'lalk words used in the second haJ1f of the ninth century is a sufficient -basis so that we could, ac:cord!irng to single words prese:z,ved since before the ninth cen't;ucy, regressiive1y reconstruct the arrangement of vowels of words from the eighth to the fif,t h centuries, nay, even dooper into the past, whereby it win be shown at which sections of time certain foreign ~rds penetrated into our midst, which as dbjective proo1Js wi:ll enruble S LOVAKIA 51 us to define the cuiturO-ipoliticaJ contacts of our forefathers in the era before Great MOTaviia. In this process of finding the dldest settlements of t'he Sio,V'a,ks, topograJphical names will have a speciaJJ. sig:niificance, a!boJVe al[ else the names of rivers aJnd settlements, as we shall see in examples presented below. So that we miig,ht arrive at positive results from the history before Great Moravia, we must accept a cert.a.in. working hypothesis, the aiutho,rlty of wlhfoh we shall inquire into, wherelby for the saJke of ancient histo11y we are uirged to issue out of Samo.' s emipire and assume that Great Moravria was not the first state formation of the Slova!k tribes, beca~ Fredegar's chronicles record a strong western-.Slovruric empire aJreadly in the sreiventh century; it was headed by King Samo and was strong enough to resist the pressure not only of the Avars, but esven of the Twktish kingdom of King Dagolmllrt. Fredega:r's report aibout the great defeat of the Franlks near the Wogastiburg Castle in 631, as well as several other notations 'by thtis same historian, are the only objective proof aibout Samn's empire, and on these records are based the most various theories about the ethnical composition and the territorial extent, as well as the principal city of Samo's state. As usua11y ha,pperns in such cases, when the som-ce does not a.icoorately define a territory, scho1a:rs of the individu.a1 SIOIValtlic nations striive to a:pip~iate unto themselves Samo's empire: some Czech scientists are seelkting Wogastibrn,g in the most western sections of Bohemia; the Slovenes would liike to find it in Coruta:nia; and foreign scholars lean to one or the other theory. For e}Cample, the Belgian histol'ian Pirenne was for Corutania, whiile Milk.kola, the F~itmish scholar on Slavistics, preferred Bohemia.. In the past recent years, Oze<!h, Polish, and Slov,ak scholars ha:d agreed that King Samo resided at DelVin near the Danube, which, therefore, must have been the center of his empire. We find the weak side of these theories in the lack of new objective proofs which could complement Fredegar's notations. Even. though many new staitemenrts aJbout Samo's empire are very reasonable and very pro!balble, they will re- 52 SLOVAKL<\. main only as suppositions until incontrovert1ble proofs aa-e offered to support them. These theories albout the center of Samo's empire were propagated in 1951 by Oettinger, well-Jmoiwn Viennese historian of arts and arrcheology, who teills us in his book "Das Warden Wiens" thait he regards Vienna as Samo's residence: He bases his b.elief on the fact that the construotion of the Berghof Castle in Vienna, jrUdging it according to prese1wed architectonic relics, can be traced only to Samo's era, because the Avam as a nomadic nation could not build such a great stooe citadel. Besides that, professor Oettinger produces a whole series of othea:- arguments to prove htis theory, one of which we might introduce at this time, that is, that the Slovenes use the name Danu~ for Vienna, namely, that they called the castle a:nd the city according to the rirver, which could hawe happened only during Samo's time, . when the Barghof in Vienna; was the seat of Samo's _, empire. 'I'he discovery of the castle is certainly a very weighty fact, which archeoilogy and history of the arts, th<l!Il!ks to the deductions of Professor Oettinger, presented to historians. Oettinger considers it sellf-evident that Sl0V1a:ks an~l_ other Slovanic peoples lived in the entire region of Vienna and far to the west :tlong the Danulbe territo;ry duriing Samo's time. Theories about the center of Samo's empire at Devin, and especially the proofs of Oeittinger are a suffidenit basis for philology to ask the question: What Slovanic peoples could have li'Ved during Samo.'s time in the Vienna region, near the Danube in present Austria:, and in the vicinity of Devin? Ilf it could be succeSSlf,u lly prorved that during Samo's time the Slovaks a!lrea:dy were settiled in the central Danwbian region, on both sides of this great river, that would mean a milestone in the most ancient history of the SllO!VaJk nation, because F'redegar wrote quite plainly that Samo came among the SlOIV'anic peoiples exactly at the time when they had successfully relbeHed against the Avars. Therefore, it was not Samo, a Frankish merchant by origin, who l~berated the Slovanic peoples who later elected him their king, because they had Uberated themselJves before his advent. Philological proofs of the Slovakness of the regions to SLOVAKIA 53 the .south: of the central Danube in the seventh century could becomie the basis of extensive historical researches, which wouhl place the beginnings of the historical era of the political efforts of the Slo.vruks two centuries dooper into the past, t'herelby clarif~g eiven the origin of the Great Mom-wan Empire. As mentioned albO!ve, philology can throw light on even very runcient eras of nati:ons by ana>ly,z ing a>dopted foreign words and ancient names of ri'Vers and cities. At this time we shall attempt to girve at least a few examples to illustrate how this could be done. Several Ancient Geographical Names An ex,pl,a;n_ation of the origin of topographii.cal names is a useful aid of historians, be.<:ause quite frequentl;y it presents -a better picture orf an anoient settlement than fragmenta:r:y · reports orf chroniclers and, furthermore, vowel chamges,. to which geographical names succumbed, enaJbied us to determine the time of their origin and the period of their existence. In the past decades many wo;r,k,s were published a'bo.ut Slo'V'anic to,p ographical names, but most frequently they are rather conicerned with simply registering names than with explaining them, since the explanation of the oriigin of names encounters many diflficu[ties, especiaJ>ly i!Il the Danwbe territory, whe;re we meet with traces of the lllyrians, Celts, GeTmans and Romans, even the European aJbocygenes, whiHe t'he illyrian and Celtic languages arre not as yet suflficiently reasea.r ched. It is relatirvely very difficult to eociplain clearly to inexperts the origin orf some ancient name, ibecaiuse that requires considerable k!Ilowledge of comparative philology. Thus, for example, even at first glance it is abvious that the nam·e s Viede:ii and Wien (Vienna), which have a ,b asic importance for an.oient history of the Sloivalks, are somewhat related or conneicted togetherr, but maJking their relationship clear requires centain knowledge so that the explanation might 'be accessible to every one and, therefore, we shall ta'ke Ulp a few oth~ geog~aJphical names to show by what manner names of antique origin come to us. RfM___.ROMA (Rome) : The connooti10n of the terms is obvious, but the difficulty encountered is explaining the Slo- 5-1 SLOVAKIA vruk "i" for the Latin "o", as well as the masculine gender of the Slovak name. Quite some time ago, professor Skok of Zagreb University pointed out that on the Dalmatian coast the Latin Salona was cha:nged into Solin, Nona to Nin, Albona to Labin (lby changing position of V'OCals, like the Czech Labe from Albis, buit the German Elbe Wli,thout changing position; the ancient Serbian and Croatian name Jakin was derirved from Ancona). In these names, the Latin "o" was compensated for by the S1ovanic "ii" which then was changed to "y" and fmally to "i." At the same time t:he Latin femi'Illine gender of the names was changed to the masc'll'line in the Slovanic languages, be"Camse in unrefined Latin the Accusative ending "-m" disappeared' and "ad Roma" was used instead of "aid Roma:m" (to Rome). The Slovank peoples regarded the ending "-a" as a suffix of the genitive case of the mascU!line gender and from the forms "do Rima, z Rima, do Solina, zo Solina," etc., they made the maS:C'U'line nominative "Rim, Solin, Nin," etc. It cannot be said with cert.ainty whether the Slovaks got the word "Rim" through the southern Slova'l1S or directly from the Romans in Pamnon:ia, because the name of the princilpa:1 city of the Roman ffimpire may have become known to them when they already lirved in the Car,pathians, but as yet had not penetrated to the Danuibe. RABA-RABIOA-RAB: One of the important southern tributaries of the central Danulb,e in Pannorua is the river Raalb, which in t:he Roman era was ca.Heel Arabo. R is generaliliy ~cknowled'ged that the name is of Celtic origin, which in the S1orvanic was first aJbbrevfaJted into Arba and then later in the fi.mt half Oif the ninth century became Raba by transposition of letters. We find a river bea:ring the same name in Pol,and, which flows into the Visla alboive the Dunajec ; I :reg,ard the name of the Ra!ba of Polamd also of Celitic origin. The Polish Raba and the Pannonian Ra.ha a.re one Of the many proofs of the wandering Oif the Celts, after whom there are traces e:ven in Slovaikia in the names of rivers. Thus, for example, Orava is of Ce1tic origin,. as is Oravica in Rumania. 'Dhe Rabica (Ra.pea in Mayiga:r and Rabliltz SLOVAKIA 55 in German) flows into the Danubian Raba. And Rabica means the SmaH Ralba, because in ancient Slovak diminlutiive names were formed- ~ the sulffix "-ica" - e.g. - NitraNitrica, Bystra-lBystrica, Tepla~Teplica, Lomna◄Lomnica, Byoca.,Bytx'!ica., Lovea◄Lovcioa, etc. One o.f the triburtaries of the Ralbica is named Repce in Magyar, which undoubtedly is am. older name than Ra.pea, because the Magyar Repce presupposes the older Slo'Va.k form Ratiica with an "-a" after a soft "c." In other words, the Magyar Repce was adopted bef<>i:re the thirteenth cen<bury, before the hardening of the soft "c," whife the Magyar Ra.pea is of later origin (afiter the "-a" changed into "-a" in Slovak). At the confluence of the Raba into the Danulbe is the city of RaJb (RaaJb), the Magyar Gyor, which used to be the site of a strong gianison to protect the Roman borders. In Slovll!k t'he name of the city is of the masculine gender in contrast to the name of the river. So, here again we meet with tilie same phenomenon as we did with the. name Rim (Rome). The SlovaJks ada,pted and preserved the ancient name of the river in the form oif Raba and out of it made the dimmuti<ve Rabica; but when they came to the name of the city, they changed the gender in the spirit of their language and, therefore, the form Rab proves a direct corm.ection with the Roman population. in Pannonia, from which the Slovaks tOOik the name of the r iver in the form of Arba, but in designating the city changed the form to Arb, from which at .t he end of the second half of the ninth century, by a trans.posiltion of vocals, the forms Raba and Rab originated. The German forms Raab, Rabnitz and the Magyar Raba (the riiveir) , Repce, Rapea coulld have been taJken onlry from the SlovaJk forms. Here the ancient Slov3'k continuity is quite clear. We must also mention that on the Adriatic, south of the ffihune River, lies the island of RaJb with a oity by that name. The IWian name of the island is Arbe, which also supports our etymology of the names Raba (in Poland), Raba, Rabica, Rab (beyond the Danu'be). When dealing with ancient geog,rruphica:l names, if we are concerned. with the afrooment of the name of a river with the name of a city or town, the name of the river, as a rule, is older. For example: Nitra is named according to 56 SLOVAKIA the river bearing that name, and not vice-versa. The same holds for the names Raba and Rab: the Celts first named the river and later the setrtJement by the same name, which became a Roman city or town. On the Polish Raba there is no town with a similiar name, 'b ut only the community Rabka, whose suffix is "-ka" shows that its origin came later, similarly liike Oravka is of a lateT date in comparison with the more ancient Oravica. In the period of migration of nations there were no great oo111flrcit:s in Panrnonia which could have destroyed ancient oities, because the Romans at the beginning of the fifth cenitury ceded Pann.onia to the H'l.l!Ils, who not only did not destroy A:q,uincum, near the present Budin, but not even the principal city of Upper Pannonia, SaJVaria (todaiy, the Magyar Szombathe ly and the German Stein am Anger). This wealthy city, the birthplace oif St. Ma,rtin, was Mstroyed oruy after the fall of the Tums, in 4!56, but by an earthquaJke. The Huns, similat1ly like the Arvara later, were not interested in destrnying the Pannonfam towns which had to pay them tribute. Therefore, eiven outsride oircumstain ces attest to the fact that the forefathers of the Slo:viaks were acquainted with Rab (Raab) during the time when it was a n important ancient town with a harbor on the Danube. RE~WEN NA-VIED EN-WIEN (Vienna): The official name of the southern tribuil:iary of the Danube in Vienna is Fluss Wien (1RiJver Vioona), even though in the ordinary German language, both in the City of Vienna and also in it.s vicmity, the ancient name Rekawenna is still qurite alive. The firsit part o!f the latter appelation cor.respond s to the SlovaJk "rieka" (rwhich happened to be "reka" in the tenth and eleventh centuries,). Near tJhe wpper part of this river is a community called Rekawinke l (A corner of the river). The second part of the com'I)O!U.Ild word with its "-wenna" reminds us of the names V!ienna (Viedeii) in Slov,ruk and Wien in German). The ending "-a" of the name Wenna tells us that we are concerned with a name that was taken o,ver into German at a relatively late date, s,i nce the "-a" ending ·· in old German disappeared . For exaJiniple: the ancient name of the river Ipusa SLOVAKIA 57 changed into lps ( officially, Ybbs), of courrse thro1Ugh a Slovanic medil.llffi, as is proved by its. trilbutary, the Ipsitz, namely the Small ]jpsa, which in turn wa;s derived from the older term Ipsica. Similarly only thTou·g h a Slovanic medilllffi can be eXiplained the feminine gender of the name Enns, which professor E. Schwrurz noted correctly, according to which the ancient Anisus first gave the Slovams Anisa, from which then, b.y changing the "a" into an "e" and further changes in the German, the form Enns was created. The feminine gender of Enns points to its Slovanic origin against the masc'll!line gender of the class~ca·l name Anisus. This same phenomenon is noticed in t'he names Drava and Sava, which in Latin are Dravus and Savus (masclllline gender) . The change in gender in the Slovanic is given to the omitted or untleratood word "rieka" or probrubly "voda" (rirver and water, lbolth feminine gender). The form Rekawenna, wiith the irresevviation of the word "rieka" indicates not onliy the Sl{)!Varucity of the name, 'but also the necessity of disting1Uishing 'by means of this word t'he name of the ri;ver from another geographical name, so that ambiguity would not a-rise. The existence of the word "Rellmwenna" tells us that the name Wenna had to be. also• the name of a place. Rekawenna found its way into the common German language at the earliest by the end of the eleventh century, that is, aifter the disappearance orf the ending "-a," which otherwise agrees also with historical fact, because the Germans succeSSJfu[ly pushed out the Magyars from the Vienna region only as late as the eleiventh century. According to Much, the Celtic appelation for the Wien (Vienna) River was Vedunia, which means "mountain stream" ("Waldibach"). We thinlk that Much cor:rectly seeks the Ce1tic origin of the name of the river, but we cannot agree with him that we are here concerned with the suffix "-nia," beca:use the Romans wouJd have placed t'his word among the multitude of other names, which ended in "-ania, -onia, -inia, -unia, -enia" and all of which in common or vulgar Latin had a long, accented vowel before the "-n". Burt Vediinia with a long, accented "-ii" would not have become Vieden in Sl01Vak The Celtic V edona we regard as the same name which was preserved in the French name of the 58 SLOVAKIA river Vienne (a tributary of the Loire), as well as in the name of the City of V'ienne near Grenoble and in the regional name Haute Vienne. Here we are concerned with a similar ancient Celtic name as, for exarrniple, the French lsere, which corresponds to the Bava:rian lsar and the Czech Jizera, or the French Aube frrom the Celtic Albis (compaTe with Labe-Elbe, above). The French Vienne presuipposes the Celtic V oo.ona with a short aCJCented "-e-", w'hioh gave "-ie-," simila:rly as bene gaive bien. The change of Voo.ona to Vienne came aJbout according to t!he cmrent old..French vooal changes, which we cannot truke up here. We presuppose the Celto-Latin na,me of the riiver Vedona, in which the Latin short "-o-" gave the short "-u-" in the Sloivanic, w'hich later changed into a hard jer, like the Latin commater gaive kumatra and kmotra: like co:mlite(m) g,a,ve kumet and then kmef, and many others. In the same manner, Vedona first ga.ve Veduna, which after the disappeaora:nce of the weak jer (i.ei. the very short "-u") changed into Vedna, which the Germans adrupted in the form of Wenna, beoause they did not to[e,r ate the intervowel grollip "-dn-". In a word, Rekawenna got into the German lanigua:ge through a Sloviank medium ; not only because of the first part of the compound word, but also the second part. 'l'he glorious Vindobona of antiquity, which was situated rubove the river Vedona, lost its impomnce and a1read'Y in the beginning of tlhe fifth cenitury it is mentioned once as Vindomana, and at other tiimes as Vendomina or Vindomma. IDvidently we a:re concerned with a name of Celtic origin, which originaHy meant as much as "a white city" and whose name was being fu:rigotten by the ancient writers oif the fii.fith and sixth centuries. The SlO!V'aks could have known Vindobona--Vendomina already in the fifth century, and certainly not later than the beginning of the sixth; and sin(!e the names of rive:ris usually became the names of settlements, the settllement near the Vedona RiveT (today, the Rekawenna) was named after it. The name of the to:wn was of the mas<!uline gender, while the riiver remained feminine, like Rab (the river: Raba). SLO \ .AK IA 59 Here the name of the river was Veduna and the town named after it bore the name Vedun (where the "-u-" later became a hard jer in a strong position, which was p~operly changed into an "-e-"). After the vocalimtion of the je:ra, therefore akeady in the tenth century, the foom Vedeii existed in SlowaJk; the genitive of this form wa.s Vediia (do Vedna - to Vienna) . The German na:me is not derived from the nominatirve, 'but from the SlO!Vlak geinitirve, as attested t-0 by the proof "Wenia" from 881. The attempt of pro!fessoc Liewehr, who preswpposes in this name a nasal vowel, CaJI1not be deduced in any manner, but even more incorrect is his claim that the Gerunans got the name "Wien" from the Czechs. Liehwehr obviously colllf,used Ol;ech with Slovak. When we consider that even today the Slovak ethnic border commences abo1Ut 35 !k ilometers northeast of Vienna, that during the entire ninth century the southern border of Great Moravia in Lower Austria was the Danube, and .tJhat durring the time of Ki'Il!g Sva.topllllk even the Vienna region belonged to his empire, it is altogether clear that the Slova,ks have ,preserved to the present time the ancient appelation o!f Viedeii (Viienna). 'f.he Czechs a;ccepted the name Viden from the Slorvaks, as they did the word "kost.el" (church) , rubout whic h we shall say something before we conclude this article. The German Rekawenna comes from the old Slovak form "reka Vedna" and from the ancient, indfrect cases: do Vediia (to Vienna, z Vedna (from Vienna) , in old German this was first Wena, and then later Wien. Llke the Germans along the Roman border on the Danulbe preserved the names Pata.via, Lentia, Lauriacum in the forms Pasau, Linz, Lorch, so the Slovaks in the names of Vied en and Rab ,preserved the names of V edona and Arabo along that ancient border. '.Ilhe Slo;venian Dunaj (iDanulbe) to designate Vienna supports the theory of professor Oettinger that the principal city of Samo's, empiTe was Vienna, rbecause only the constriuction of Benghof cOIUld haive girven the Slovenians the chance to name the new citadel according to the river, but 60 SLOVAKIA the irrediutaible oontinmty of the Sl01Vruk name wit'h the ancient one attests to the fact that during the time of King Samo, and even 1b efore him, the Slovenes did not live in the Vienna region, but the Slov8Jks did. Edtitz-Edlach-Edlbach: It is dbviol\.ls that the Slovruk population wais found not Ottl!ly in the immedliaite vii.cinity of Vienna, but extended fal'lt'her to the south, aJPpmx:imwte1y to the separation of the southern tributaries O!f the Danube in Lower Austria and partia,Uy in Upper AU1sitria, as is attested to by other to;pograiphica;l names, of which we might mention art 1€18JSt Edlitz and Eillach, which are east and north of Semmering. The consonant group "-di-" indicates its Slo!V'ruk origin. In Slovene "jela' comes from the older form "ela," as compared to the Slovruk "jedfa" (derived from the older fo:ran "edfa"). The grolllp "-di-" was also preseirved in the name of Modling (near Vienna) .f.rom the Sloviak "M:odlin" (another Modlin is near Wa:raaw). And south of Wind<ischg,a,rsten in Upper Austria we find the stream Edlbach. The very drcuimsitance that these names do not start with a "j-" proves their antiquity, that is, they must have penetrated into the Germian before the secondi half of the ninth century. In German names ta;ken over fr<>rr1 SIOIValk, we can ascertain three groups: 1. Edlitz (east of Semmering; another one is west of the Vienna Forest, near Wein1burg); here belong many other names, which we need not mention; Aflenz, a riiver in the SO'Utheastern region of Upper Austria; these and similar n8Jmes were taken over by t'he Germans when the Sloivak sit.HI used 'adfa, ablonica' instead of "jedfa, jablonica"; 2. the group with the initial "g" instead of the Slovak "j-" - e.g., Gaflenz (the nanie of the town above the river Aflertz W8JS ·adlapted later by the Germans, which means that the Sloiv,alk poipuiliaition preserwed itself there quite some time); 3. the ,groUJp with the presenved secondary "j-,r-" e.g. Jauerling (f,r om Javornik, a mountain ridge northw~ of MelO'k, a:bove the Danulbe; . the Gemnans adapted the word, just lirke they got "Moserling" from "MocamI'k"); Jas~tzbach, a trilburtal'y of the Erlaf, whfoh :filows into the Danu'be (Jasnitlz is from the SLO'V'ark Jasenica, naimed accordling to the tree "jasen" - ash). _ SLOVAKIA 61 All this indicates the possi1bility which philology has to determine the time element of vowel changes, a,lso to ascertain the g.radual penetration of Gernnan colomzation and the period · of Gennanization of the Danube area in present-day Austria. Pregraten: Pro;fessor E. Pragarte Pregarten Schwartz correctly derives the name Pregarten from the word "pregarda," which later iby interposition of vocals, changed to "pregrada" (now priehrada in Slovak). We found over ten Pregartens in Upper AU/Stria alone, in the districts of Vociklalbruok, Perg, Gmunden, Freis,tadit, P,r egarten, Eferding, Ottens,tein, Raa>b, Schwanenstad t, which indicates that defense partitions are concerned, parts of the Slov.amic stronghold system which came from the sixth century and haippened to- be on the western border of Samo's empi-re. Designating territoria;l borders had a specia:l sig,rnifica:nce in the life o;f the ancient Slovans; even the German word "Grenze" comes from the Slo,vanic "granica." The Germans penetrated into easte•r n Tyrol after the change of ''gard-" to "grad-", because Pregraten was preser-v ed there. Of course., in some ,places they penetrated before this chamge took place, beca,use there we also find the settlement Aegarth (Oegarth) from the Sl01Va,k Ograda, similarly li!ke a sm~H plow in the German dialect used there is called "arl" from the ancient Slovene form "arlo" (today ralo a,nd, in Sloivruk, radio). The German form arl comes from the era before the interchange of vocals. Windisch garsten-Garsten: The first part of the na,me Windischgars ten indii'cates the Slovanidty of t'he seoon:d part, rubout which E. Schwartz claims that it comes from the Slovanic "chvorst-" ( chrasf in SloiVaik). We cannot, however, agree with him, beca,me in old German names taJken over from the Slov,8Jnic, "k" takes the place oif "ch"; e.g., in Austria, in the Damulbe region, there are several hills whi'C'h are called Kulm, Kulmitz; these are derived from the Slovak "chu!lm" (today, Chlmec, chlmok); therefore, the 'g" of Garsten ca,nnot come from "ch," but only from a word which began with .a "g". Besides that, Windischga-rs ten lies on the old, very im- 62 SLOVAKIA portant highway which already dUJring the Roman times corrected Noricum with the Danwbian region; therefore, already then this road was fortified with bast.rions. In the proximity Of Win<lischg•a rsten is Grad.au, whose. name is obvious1y connected or rel•a ted to the word "grad." A section of the city of Steyr is also called Garsten. We are here concerned with an elevation which hardly could halve been named after "chraist"' (thicket; s'lmufbbery), but l'ather after "brad" (castle; bastion). In our 01pilll.i.on, Garst.en is derived from "gardisce" - the accented "-i-" dlisappearing in the Geir,man, and the gl'OU'l) olf five consonants "rdsts-", because very difrficw.t to pronounce, was modified to "-rit-". Therefore,, we must derive "Garst.en" from "gardisce" and not from "chvorst" ( ohrasf, today). And since south of Windi-schg,a rsten we find the stream Edlbach, it is necesisary to assll!me that the Slovaks settled here very earJiy, because the Sioivenes along the Dra;v,a penetrated to the west in the sixt'h and serventh centuries and through Istria into northern J.truly. In a word, their goal was west and sourt'hiwest, but not north. Slovak tribes from the north also penetrated souith and so1.lfthwesit into the Danubian region. Inasmuoh as traces of Slovenian colonirzation have been ascertained recently around the central part of the Enns, they came from a 1a:ter ,period, when the penetration of the Slovenes to the west wais stopped by the Bavarians and in northern Italy by the Langobal'ds. The woros Garsten, Windischgarst.en, just lilke Pregart.en, are liiving testimony of the defense organization of the forefathers of the ~ovalks (.castles, bastions, citadels) ; other names in the Dainlllibian region of Austria will lead us to the sa:me conclusion. For example, Gairlen and Grat.en ( Garten berg ipresuipposes the name "Gradna), and many names conta•i ning "Strass", are for the most part related to the Slovak "straza" (guaro, and not to the German Strasse (street). Traces were even found after the name "brad.lo" (huge rock) , which the ancient SlovaJks used to designate a defensilve p1ace, usuiaaly a hill, on which defenses were set up (compare Brad.lo near Myjava and Domica; also Branisko, a hill between Saris and Spis) . SLOVAKIA 63 By analyzing a large number of locail, river, borderline and other names in Lower and Upper AIUJStria and vicinity, as well as Austrian dia:leotic words of Slovak origin, we can define relatiively a;ccurateily just aibout what tme these areas were colonized, but also the 'beginnings, the bo,r ders and the fortunes of Slovak colonization. In summary, then: 1. The names Wien, Rekawenna, Raab, Rabnitz found their way into, German through a Slovak medium, and the Slovaks received the names Vieden, Raba, Rab directly from the Roman population wath whioh they came into contact after their advent into P,a nnonia. 2. The southern 1b ooodary of Slovak colonization in Lorwer and Upper Austria is coarsely indicated by the propagati001 of names of the Edlitz ty,pe, the Slo;va;kness of which cannot ibe questioned, and for the most par,t is c,overed with the waters of the southern tributaries of the central Danube and the northern tributaries of the Drava, besides the region of the centrai IDnns. 3. Names of the Pregarten--Garst,en type designate an ancient Slovak-Bavarian boundary line, which was sUJbjected to changes from the sixth to the eighth centuries. It is self-evident that the direct Slovak~Roman contact was not limited to topograiphicaJ names alone, but can be traced in a multitude of words which the forefathers of the Slovaks took 0 ver from the Pannonian Romams. Pressed for space here, let us mention at least a feiw exrumples. The Slo~ vaks could ha,ve received the word "cast.ellum" only in Pannonia, whose ecclesiastica.>l organization was clissolved thy the Acvars when they destroyed the archibishopris of Sirmium in 582. The Roman "cast,ella" (ca,s tles) served as places of worship long before that date. At that time, when the Slovaks became acquainted with the word castellum (lkostol" - church), they also came to know the word "t,ehla," which came from "tegla," and this word in turn from the Latin "tegula." The GeI1Illans changed "tegla" to "ziegel" in the first half of the sixth century. The Czec'hs got the word "kost.el' from the western-iSlovaJk "kostel," because on their ethnical territory there never wa,s 1 64 SLOVAKIA a single Roman "castellum." The Czech "cihla" comes from the German, while the Slova;k "tehla" and the Moravian-Slovak "tihla" come directly from the Roman "teglartegula." Among other words the forefathers Olf the Slovaks took over directly from the Romans were also "marmor" (J1ater "mramor - ma:rible) and "ban.a (mine). This swpports our theory that the Slovaks had direct conitacts with the Romans in Pannon:ia. It is not the purpose of philology to analyize the political sitiuation in Europe of the first half of the seventh century and to point out the possibilities which were presented the ancient Slovaiks so that they became the core of the strong empire of King Samo. It shall be the task of ecclesiastical historiains to throw Hght on the reasons why St. Amandus, the apostle of the Belgians, was not suocessful with the Slovak tri!bes in the western Da;nUJbian area. Historians will perhaps tel,l us which Slovak tribes preserved their independence even after Samo's deat'h. Philology can simply state that the material culture of the Sl01Vak Tribes, just like their administrativ e organization, was the same during Samo's time as it was in the Great Moravian Empire and that differences in spiritual culture were only in religion. During Samo's time the ancient Slovaks held onto their pagan religion, whHe the creators of Great Moraivia were Christian Slovak princes . • • • WHO SAID IT? "The aHiiance with the USSR is the starting ,poirut of our new foreign policy and of our security system. This alliance will be complrumented by alhances with other Slav countries. It r epreseruts a mighty bulwairk ag,ainst iposs,i!bJe danger in the future Jirom German imperia:lisnn. In the spirit of these prino1ples, the Demooraitic Party aicted st!an.mchly at all forums. It put aH its weight behind this conception. This orientation is to be regarded as the invariable devise also for our future political life." - (Dr. Joseph Lettrich, Vi.ce-Chaimnan cxf the IDxecutive Committee of the "Council of Free Czechoslo.vakia," at session of Democratic Party, January 25, 194'8).  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 624-659 A.D.: The Slovaks and King Samo's Empire Description An account of the resource Dr. Henrich Bartek Slovakia, Vol. 4, No. 2 (10), June 1954 pp. 49-64 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bartek, Henrich, 1907-1986 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 1954 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/5ab34595263a54da8afa1489b5229db4.pdf 5e54c1d9fa399b29de74101669df481a PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 63 THE SIGNIFICA NCE OF SMALL NATIONS Dr. Henrich Bartek Tonrmediate results of the first bloody, world-wide conflict, which ended in 191.8, were such conflicting principles as: the right to se1f-determ ination, national sovereignty , ctrltural self-existen ce, buffer states and spheres of influence. At the sll!me time, small nations with national aSpirations were blamed for igniting catastrophi c, international upheavals when, as a matter ,of fact, they were only pawns in the internation al ,g ame of power 1politics in which the greait nations engage from time to time for world domination. The history of European nations and States during the past century and a half demonstrat es clearly that when small nations make marked social and cultural progress, their desire for political independen ce - a national state of their own - increases, in order to secure their future development as :a free people whose contributio ns are infinitely more valuable to civilization and progress when not handioo.pped by foreign influences and ,p olitical subservienc e. To accuse small countries of harboring imperialisti c schemes is not historically correct, !because both world wars were caused by intense rivalries among the great powers of the world. It is interesting to note that the main arguments against the existence of small nations as independent political states, according to the chief exponents of aggressi~e imperialism of the big ,powers, are their smallness, their inaibility to protect themselves militarily against their stronger neighlbors and to sustain themselves eco111omically. ,F rom the standpoint of historical truth and justice, however, it is always the bigger powers which are at fault when they attempt to subjugate a smaH ,power by brute force. It is significant that no cultural or .social ll!rguments are advanced against :the independen t existence of small nations. '11he truth is that alil small nations are able to hold their own and prove their ability in all fields of human endeavor, if they are not molested by the greater powers. lit is true that there are political, cultural and so- �64 SLOVAKIA cial differences among the several small nations and t:hat their living standards differ, too-, but we find these same differences even in the larger nations and states. Hence, one cannot rightfully determine the right to independen t statehood for SIITlaill. nations merely by such superficial arguments. And who shall say that only the large and mighty nations and states shall possess the right to freedom and independen ce? In the last war, neith·e r France nor Poland were a!ble to defend themselves successfull y - and they a·r e not small nations. If one were to limit the right to statehood on military might, then on:ly those states and nations which could maintain their independen ce against the most powerf.ul nation o.r state would have a "right" to exist. In that case, Europe would pass out of existence. Before World War ill, half the European continent was dominated iby three major powers - Great Britain, Germany and Russia. The other half of Europe was divided into large, middle-size d and small states. That was the true face of the map of Europe; and nothing can change the historic reality that there exists considerabl y more than a score of different nationalitie s on the Continent. In charting the future course of Europe, we must fake into account the national aspirations of these historic ,peoples, who look forward to the historic future as a united people with rights to political freedom and statehood. 'Dhis holds equally true for all nations, the large and the small. The question may arise, hoiWever, whether the recognition of smaU states is for the betterment of mankind and for the emlbellishm ent of European culture, or whether it may turn out to be a detriment to modern civilization . The political and national states which exist as such at present are recognized ; their right to statehood is not questioned. For example, the Norwegian s, Finns, Swiss, Danes, and even the Albanians are officially conceded the right to an independen t political status. After Wocld War I, the Baltic !States of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were orga:ni~ as independen t, political states as called for by the princuple of nationail self-determ ination. Other nationalities, less fortunate and sulbject to power politics, were �SLOVAKIA 66 forced to aissert their :right to statehood. Thus, the Slovenes, a highly cultured nation with a pop_ulation larger than the Alibanians, failed to organize their own national State .because of geopolitical reasons. And as long as aggressive militarism and imperialism hold sway in European politics, the Slovenes will. not be able to establish their natural right to national independence. In 1918, they chose lo become incorporated in the kingdom of Yugoslavia for reasons of self-preservation and security. Nevertheless, this united southern Slavic monarchy -proved incapable of reJ sistinig German aggression in 1941. lt is not at all certain that the Slovenes, or other small nations, would clamor for complete independence, although this is the ideal of all peoP'les -w ith national traditions and a common language, iif international relations iwere.,. founded on genuine democratic prindples of justice and mutual welfare. There are many similar cases in the history of Eurapea,n nationalities. A typical case is that of Slovalkia which has made 1great strides in its cultural, social, and political life. The :Slovaks, as a progressive and democraticminded people, are an idool representative of all the small nations of central and eastern Europe. Slovakia - a Democratic Nation At the close of the 18th century when feudal Hungary, which h.ad been ruled for centuries by pri'Vileged classes without oonsideratiOIIl of national origin, began to change its tradition of supra-nationalism into a national Magyar statism, the various nationalities, moved by their instinct of self..ip.reservation, naturally resisted the new Magyarization program. Accordingly, the Slova:ks intensified their efforts to promote the study of their own ancient native language and national traditions. Slovruk aristocrats, unfortunately, aJbandoned their nationru traditions and succumbed to the Magyar influence for fear of losing their old prerogatives as members of the nobility. The Slovak common people, however, became the chief exponents of SlOV1a;k nationalism; their dbjectives were national in scope, but they aimed at a higher standard of living and, hence, their aims were social and oultural as well as political. �66 SLOVAKIA This, then, is proof of the existence of truly democratic ideals among iSlova.k classes. 1D uring the 19th .c entury, the Slov.aiks repeatedly attempted to oome to an undeMtanding with the Magyars, but the rulers refused to grant their subjects local selfgovernment within the confines of the kingdom. As a direct consequence of their failure .to secUTe national recognition, the Slovaks resolved on a cultural program which was designed for a 1ong range future with the hope that this ,w ould prepare them for the opportune moment in the_ir history when .they would inevi.taJbly emerge ru, a f,uH-fledged natioo.al state. Obstacles in the way of the cultural development of the 'Slovaks were constantly placed "by state authorities rwho were determined to destroy all vestiges of a national tra., dition ainong the tVarious nationalities in the kingdom except those of the Ma:gyar nation. Inspired by their c-hauvinistic mood, the Magyars, following their union with Austria in 1867, closed a:11 schools, suppressed the Slovak Institute (Matica 'Slovenska), imprisoned leading Slova!ks in s•ocia:l, political, educational and cultural life, and made Ma:gyar the sole official language in Hungary. Despite official proscription of all non-Magyar acti-· vities in Hungary, the struggle for national survival in Slovakia went on for more than a century. And even after 1918 the Slovaks resumed the struggle for their national rights to self-government and self-determination in the first Czecho--Slova'k Republic. In their unending fight for political freedom and national equality, the Sl()lVaJks attained a high degree of! eoonomic self-sufficiency and reached a new high in cultural and social ,p rogress,, scarcely equalled by any small nation in Europe in so short a time and under such unfavorable circumstances. In the first Czecho->Slovak Republic, the Slovaks were forced to defend their national individuality against the officiail attempt of the Czechs to suJbmerge their native Sl-ovaJk origin in an artificial ideological "Czechoslovak" nationality. Moreover, due to. the economic crisis in the joint republic of the Czechs and Slovruks, ten per cent of the latter emigrated to foreign lands to seek a livelihood. �SLOVAKIA 67 At last, the inte:maticmal situation in the fall of 1938 gave the Slova,k,s their long-.awaited opportunity to secure their nati01I1al aiutonomy on October 6, 1938, for which they had hoped in vain for a score of years during the life-time of the first Ozecho-lSlo:vruk Republic and during the thous-· and-yeair-rule o:f the Hungarian 'State. Post-\Munich Cz-ooho-lSlova:kia disintegrated rapidly. The Slov.aJks, lbhrootened ,w ith national extinction by being divided among their neig.hlbors as a protectorate of the German Reich, like Bohemia and Moravia, declared their independence on March 14, 1939, through their autonomous national iparjiament in Bratislava. And when Poland and Hungary recognilzed the ISlova;k ,State, Germany, after annexing Bohemia and Moravia, a1so recognized the newlycreated 8'lovak Republic. Before the outlbreak of hostilities in the autumn of 19319, the 1S lovak Republic became a fuMfledged subject of international la:w. Many nations, including the U .IS.1S.R, not only gave their official recognition to the new democratic state in central Europe and its de jure goveirnrnent, ibut exchanged d1plomatic representatives with the newly-.organi!Zed Slovak national state on the Danulbe in central Europe, henceforth to be known as the Slovak Republic. Neutrality was the national policy of the ,Slo,vak Republic in the second World War. The Slovaks were in graive danger of national destruction, caurght as they were in the midst of the mor.ta;l oombat .b etween the Germans and Russians. Nevertheless, they continued to work for the common welfiare of their new state, so, that the Slovruk RepubJic made unprecedented social, economic, industrial, educational a:nd cultural ,progress. 1Slovaik coUeges were founded, the Slova;k lJIIliversity at Bratislava made great progress, thousands of publications and books were published yearly, literary and scientific wo:i:iks appeared in lailge numlbers, living ·s tandards im• proved considera;bly, ,s ocial and industrial relations reached a new hltgh. So ,s pirited amd pros'Perous wes this new life in their pwn !State that the SlovaJks really maJde history in the short span of six years of self-rule in the 'Slovak Republic. �68 SLOVAKIA All these facts have /been cited merely to show how a small nation, freed from fore:ign domination, and then made sulbject to the Ozechs, at last emerged as a self-governing state, and demonstrated beyond a doubt that even in the worst possible situation, that of war, this small nation was aJble to .govern itself wisely and jusUy, ond become a ,p riosperous country and a worthy member of the family of European nations. The present Ozecho-1SJavak regime is far diffeJ"ent from the first Czecho-iSlovak government that attempted to Ozechi·ze the Slovaks and which refused to grant self-.gov-· ernment to. them. The persistent fight of the Sloivak nation for its_ rights for more than a century and a half has 1brought the 1Sl01Vaks some notewo-rthy gains, namely, a high social and cultural standa.rrd, so that the Czechs today must treat them as equals, not as the Czech politiciruis treated them during the years 19118-•19,38, when they looked down upon the Slovaks as an inferior race. What the future rcla,tions between the Czechs and Slovaks will be uncertain, although there are ,s igns of the rene;wal of another Ozech attempt to force the old "Czechoslovak" ideoJogy upon the SloivaJks who defiantly oppose this political heresy. Whatever may be said of the bitterness of the opposition of the Sloiva'ks in the 'Past, it is certain that this opposition in the future shall .be even greater, because the Slovaks proved their ability to govern themselves. The attempt to fuse the Ozechs and Slovaks into one nation is just as futile as the attempt to make .a united nation out of the Swedes and the Norwegians. Slovakia's e:iGperience has amply illustrated the ca;pabiiJ.ity of ,a small country, without the interference of power interests, to work out her national destiny a,nd reach a high standard of living and attain a high degree of culture. This she was ,a ble to do solely through the persevering efforts of her native sons who were inspired to w<mk in the interests of their country and mankind. That the Slovaiks were newcomers on the world's political st.age did not alter the fact that they accomplished a worthwhile feait, one that merits the admiration of the whole civmzed world, for they created their own national state, a creation at the 1 �SI..JOVAK.IA 69 same time of their innate skill and their social, oulturlrl and biological ,p owers as a. virile nation. This achievement of an entire race assures the tSlovaiks a promising future in the history of central Europe. Nationalistic aspkations among ·t he Slovaks were not a new thing, for they had cherished their naUve historic traditions for centuries /before they blossomed into the full bloom of statehood in the spring of 1939. The dormant creative energies of a people, kept in political :bondage fol" a thousand years, were suddenly released and, behold, the Sloviaks erected a monumental and amazingly beautiful national edifice, known forever in history as. the SlovaJk Republic! The miraculous ·CTeation of the Slovak national movement, namely, the tSlo;vak State, was truly the greatest achievement af the Slovak people in all history. And this sha,U continue to inspire them in all their trials and vicissitudes in the .future, for the glorious memory of this brief moment (}If freedom cannot be obliterated from the minds of a gallant people who dedicated themselves to the cause of democracy at the very daiwn af their naition's history. Does this brief review of historic events in the national Hfe of Slovakia hiave any lesson for us? Perhaips, but at any rate there are some very significant observations to be deri!Ved fl'om this consideration. One of these is that a small nation, building its own national culture, labors under greater handica:ps than a large nation; and it must work more intensely to secure its ,p roper place in the social and cultural life of nations. That is why small nations which eD'joy national independence generally have a high cultural standard ,t hat is borne out by statistics which show that, as a rule, they have ·a much smaller percentage of illiterates than the larger nations. fu a small nation, the conditions are lacking for creaiting widely divergent social classes which a.rise from the formation of huge capitalistic monopolies. For that reason, too, the socia:l or~ der in small nations is far more democratic by its· very nature than thait of large countries, and certainly far less complex. 'Small states are oonstaintly aware of the imperative �SLOVAKIA 70 necessity of maintaining high social and cultural standards and, consequently, the individual citi,z en feels his personal responsilbility more keenly than the average citi'zen of a large country. Every ,p rivate citi~n of a small state knows to •w hat extent his country depends on hi:rn and, hence, seeks to make a personal contribution to his society. In the economic field, a small nation cannot afford to emlbark on a large ex-pansion program that ultimately leads to overproduction. Every parcel of land must be made productive and new scientific methods. must lbe constantly introduced into agriculture. 'I1his system of mtensi;ve farming is vitally necessaxy to th~ international economy of an overpopulated Europe. !Social, 'Political, economic, or cultural experiments may be tried with greater safety ,b y sman nations, rfor large nations cannot exiperiment in these fieJds without endangering the very existence of their entire system ,o f government and nationra1 economy. Moreover, there is less danger for the usurpation of porwer in a smalf state, 1becau.se the goal of a111y particular political trend is eaJSHy detected in its incipient stages. In short, a small country is more easily manaiged, and by its very nature is more democratic than a large state. 'I1here are many added advantages that small states have. Not the least among them is the one that small nations are not confined rwithin the narrow limits of a non-· creatiive and non-progres,s ive traditionalism that hinders progress and shuts the door on new ideas. But for humanity the most significant of all is the fact that the small nations cannot harbor imperialistic aims and, for that reason, they concentrate all their resources and energies on cultural and economic endeavor. T,hi,s alone justifies the existence of small nations whioh have a natural right to be founded and maintained. Small states ca:n well be-· come the greatest boon for civilization. The !bitter ex:periences of two World Wars in quick succession haive clearly shorwn that, sooner or later, the world must recognize as an incontrovertible principle that eve;ry nation has a right to its national existence unde,r its own state ,government. Complete equality of all European na1 �SLOVAK.IA 71 tion.s, which are willing to cooperate for universal and 1per~ manent peace among the nations of the world, rmust be the basic principle of civiililzation and the ideal of every national culture. Until this universal ideal is reali~ed, the small nations must persevere in their struggle to attain or maintain their statehood, as the ca.se may be. The middlesized and great nations of Europe, which have ,repeatedly suffered the ravages of war and have just experienced the worst disaster in all history, ought to support the cause of the small states if they hope to preserve our modern civilization and, ,w hat is more important, save humanity from total exUnction. Today - ten years after the termination of the Great War - the situation in Europe is well nigh hopeless cul~ turally, as it is economically. There is a real danger of losing the priceless 01.cltural heritage that has been the pride of Western ·E urope for centuries. lit is the ,g rave responsi'bility of those in power to work honestly and fear• lessly for the preservaition of the high cultural values oi European cirvilization and, through international cooperation among the natiolllS that oherish this age-old inheritance, inaugurate an era of genuine democracy for the peoples of Euroipe, for this alone can save IDurope from complete ruin and decay. We who cherish our Western heritage still have the will and courage to 1preserve it from destruction and we . have high hopes of restoring it to its former ,p restige under the inspiration of true democracy, but we need the wholehearted support of all democratic for-c es throughout the world. If we unite these forces, we can revive the sparlk of life in the smouldering ruins of Europe and save European culture from spiritual ana'.I1chy and desolation. There is still .time, hut only predous little ,t ime, for time is running out. It is the eleventh hour. If we do not act at once, all will be lost for a long time to come . • • • REOOMMENDED BOOKS: "The Slorvaiks" (Juirchak $3.00; SLOVAK FOR BEGINNERS" (Books I-ill!) $1.50 (the set) ; "Htrdbailr's English-Slovak Dictioniary" $4.00; "SLOVAK LIESSONS" (!Hrdbak) $3.50. � SLOVAKIA 63 THE SIGNIFICA NCE OF SMALL NATIONS Dr. Henrich Bartek Tonrmediate results of the first bloody, world-wide conflict, which ended in 191.8, were such conflicting principles as: the right to se1f-determ ination, national sovereignty , ctrltural self-existen ce, buffer states and spheres of influence. At the sll!me time, small nations with national aSpirations were blamed for igniting catastrophi c, international upheavals when, as a matter ,of fact, they were only pawns in the internation al ,g ame of power 1politics in which the greait nations engage from time to time for world domination. The history of European nations and States during the past century and a half demonstrat es clearly that when small nations make marked social and cultural progress, their desire for political independen ce - a national state of their own - increases, in order to secure their future development as :a free people whose contributio ns are infinitely more valuable to civilization and progress when not handioo.pped by foreign influences and ,p olitical subservienc e. To accuse small countries of harboring imperialisti c schemes is not historically correct, !because both world wars were caused by intense rivalries among the great powers of the world. It is interesting to note that the main arguments against the existence of small nations as independent political states, according to the chief exponents of aggressi~e imperialism of the big ,powers, are their smallness, their inaibility to protect themselves militarily against their stronger neighlbors and to sustain themselves eco111omically. ,F rom the standpoint of historical truth and justice, however, it is always the bigger powers which are at fault when they attempt to subjugate a smaH ,power by brute force. It is significant that no cultural or .social ll!rguments are advanced against :the independen t existence of small nations. '11he truth is that alil small nations are able to hold their own and prove their ability in all fields of human endeavor, if they are not molested by the greater powers. lit is true that there are political, cultural and so- �64 SLOVAKIA cial differences among the several small nations and t:hat their living standards differ, too-, but we find these same differences even in the larger nations and states. Hence, one cannot rightfully determine the right to independen t statehood for SIITlaill. nations merely by such superficial arguments. And who shall say that only the large and mighty nations and states shall possess the right to freedom and independen ce? In the last war, neith·e r France nor Poland were a!ble to defend themselves successfull y - and they a·r e not small nations. If one were to limit the right to statehood on military might, then on:ly those states and nations which could maintain their independen ce against the most powerf.ul nation o.r state would have a "right" to exist. In that case, Europe would pass out of existence. Before World War ill, half the European continent was dominated iby three major powers - Great Britain, Germany and Russia. The other half of Europe was divided into large, middle-size d and small states. That was the true face of the map of Europe; and nothing can change the historic reality that there exists considerabl y more than a score of different nationalitie s on the Continent. In charting the future course of Europe, we must fake into account the national aspirations of these historic ,peoples, who look forward to the historic future as a united people with rights to political freedom and statehood. 'Dhis holds equally true for all nations, the large and the small. The question may arise, hoiWever, whether the recognition of smaU states is for the betterment of mankind and for the emlbellishm ent of European culture, or whether it may turn out to be a detriment to modern civilization . The political and national states which exist as such at present are recognized ; their right to statehood is not questioned. For example, the Norwegian s, Finns, Swiss, Danes, and even the Albanians are officially conceded the right to an independen t political status. After Wocld War I, the Baltic !States of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were orga:ni~ as independen t, political states as called for by the princuple of nationail self-determ ination. Other nationalities, less fortunate and sulbject to power politics, were �SLOVAKIA 66 forced to aissert their :right to statehood. Thus, the Slovenes, a highly cultured nation with a pop_ulation larger than the Alibanians, failed to organize their own national State .because of geopolitical reasons. And as long as aggressive militarism and imperialism hold sway in European politics, the Slovenes will. not be able to establish their natural right to national independence. In 1918, they chose lo become incorporated in the kingdom of Yugoslavia for reasons of self-preservation and security. Nevertheless, this united southern Slavic monarchy -proved incapable of reJ sistinig German aggression in 1941. lt is not at all certain that the Slovenes, or other small nations, would clamor for complete independence, although this is the ideal of all peoP'les -w ith national traditions and a common language, iif international relations iwere.,. founded on genuine democratic prindples of justice and mutual welfare. There are many similar cases in the history of Eurapea,n nationalities. A typical case is that of Slovalkia which has made 1great strides in its cultural, social, and political life. The :Slovaks, as a progressive and democraticminded people, are an idool representative of all the small nations of central and eastern Europe. Slovakia - a Democratic Nation At the close of the 18th century when feudal Hungary, which h.ad been ruled for centuries by pri'Vileged classes without oonsideratiOIIl of national origin, began to change its tradition of supra-nationalism into a national Magyar statism, the various nationalities, moved by their instinct of self..ip.reservation, naturally resisted the new Magyarization program. Accordingly, the Slova:ks intensified their efforts to promote the study of their own ancient native language and national traditions. Slovruk aristocrats, unfortunately, aJbandoned their nationru traditions and succumbed to the Magyar influence for fear of losing their old prerogatives as members of the nobility. The Slovak common people, however, became the chief exponents of SlOV1a;k nationalism; their dbjectives were national in scope, but they aimed at a higher standard of living and, hence, their aims were social and oultural as well as political. �66 SLOVAKIA This, then, is proof of the existence of truly democratic ideals among iSlova.k classes. 1D uring the 19th .c entury, the Slov.aiks repeatedly attempted to oome to an undeMtanding with the Magyars, but the rulers refused to grant their subjects local selfgovernment within the confines of the kingdom. As a direct consequence of their failure .to secUTe national recognition, the Slovaks resolved on a cultural program which was designed for a 1ong range future with the hope that this ,w ould prepare them for the opportune moment in the_ir history when .they would inevi.taJbly emerge ru, a f,uH-fledged natioo.al state. Obstacles in the way of the cultural development of the 'Slovaks were constantly placed "by state authorities rwho were determined to destroy all vestiges of a national tra., dition ainong the tVarious nationalities in the kingdom except those of the Ma:gyar nation. Inspired by their c-hauvinistic mood, the Magyars, following their union with Austria in 1867, closed a:11 schools, suppressed the Slovak Institute (Matica 'Slovenska), imprisoned leading Slova!ks in s•ocia:l, political, educational and cultural life, and made Ma:gyar the sole official language in Hungary. Despite official proscription of all non-Magyar acti-· vities in Hungary, the struggle for national survival in Slovakia went on for more than a century. And even after 1918 the Slovaks resumed the struggle for their national rights to self-government and self-determination in the first Czecho--Slova'k Republic. In their unending fight for political freedom and national equality, the Sl()lVaJks attained a high degree of! eoonomic self-sufficiency and reached a new high in cultural and social ,p rogress,, scarcely equalled by any small nation in Europe in so short a time and under such unfavorable circumstances. In the first Czecho->Slovak Republic, the Slovaks were forced to defend their national individuality against the officiail attempt of the Czechs to suJbmerge their native Sl-ovaJk origin in an artificial ideological "Czechoslovak" nationality. Moreover, due to. the economic crisis in the joint republic of the Czechs and Slovruks, ten per cent of the latter emigrated to foreign lands to seek a livelihood. �SLOVAKIA 67 At last, the inte:maticmal situation in the fall of 1938 gave the Slova,k,s their long-.awaited opportunity to secure their nati01I1al aiutonomy on October 6, 1938, for which they had hoped in vain for a score of years during the life-time of the first Ozecho-lSlo:vruk Republic and during the thous-· and-yeair-rule o:f the Hungarian 'State. Post-\Munich Cz-ooho-lSlova:kia disintegrated rapidly. The Slov.aJks, lbhrootened ,w ith national extinction by being divided among their neig.hlbors as a protectorate of the German Reich, like Bohemia and Moravia, declared their independence on March 14, 1939, through their autonomous national iparjiament in Bratislava. And when Poland and Hungary recognilzed the ISlova;k ,State, Germany, after annexing Bohemia and Moravia, a1so recognized the newlycreated 8'lovak Republic. Before the outlbreak of hostilities in the autumn of 19319, the 1S lovak Republic became a fuMfledged subject of international la:w. Many nations, including the U .IS.1S.R, not only gave their official recognition to the new democratic state in central Europe and its de jure goveirnrnent, ibut exchanged d1plomatic representatives with the newly-.organi!Zed Slovak national state on the Danulbe in central Europe, henceforth to be known as the Slovak Republic. Neutrality was the national policy of the ,Slo,vak Republic in the second World War. The Slovaks were in graive danger of national destruction, caurght as they were in the midst of the mor.ta;l oombat .b etween the Germans and Russians. Nevertheless, they continued to work for the common welfiare of their new state, so, that the Slovruk RepubJic made unprecedented social, economic, industrial, educational a:nd cultural ,progress. 1Slovaik coUeges were founded, the Slova;k lJIIliversity at Bratislava made great progress, thousands of publications and books were published yearly, literary and scientific wo:i:iks appeared in lailge numlbers, living ·s tandards im• proved considera;bly, ,s ocial and industrial relations reached a new hltgh. So ,s pirited amd pros'Perous wes this new life in their pwn !State that the SlovaJks really maJde history in the short span of six years of self-rule in the 'Slovak Republic. �68 SLOVAKIA All these facts have /been cited merely to show how a small nation, freed from fore:ign domination, and then made sulbject to the Ozechs, at last emerged as a self-governing state, and demonstrated beyond a doubt that even in the worst possible situation, that of war, this small nation was aJble to .govern itself wisely and jusUy, ond become a ,p riosperous country and a worthy member of the family of European nations. The present Ozecho-1SJavak regime is far diffeJ"ent from the first Czecho-iSlovak government that attempted to Ozechi·ze the Slovaks and which refused to grant self-.gov-· ernment to. them. The persistent fight of the Sloivak nation for its_ rights for more than a century and a half has 1brought the 1Sl01Vaks some notewo-rthy gains, namely, a high social and cultural standa.rrd, so that the Czechs today must treat them as equals, not as the Czech politiciruis treated them during the years 19118-•19,38, when they looked down upon the Slovaks as an inferior race. What the future rcla,tions between the Czechs and Slovaks will be uncertain, although there are ,s igns of the rene;wal of another Ozech attempt to force the old "Czechoslovak" ideoJogy upon the SloivaJks who defiantly oppose this political heresy. Whatever may be said of the bitterness of the opposition of the Sloiva'ks in the 'Past, it is certain that this opposition in the future shall .be even greater, because the Slovaks proved their ability to govern themselves. The attempt to fuse the Ozechs and Slovaks into one nation is just as futile as the attempt to make .a united nation out of the Swedes and the Norwegians. Slovakia's e:iGperience has amply illustrated the ca;pabiiJ.ity of ,a small country, without the interference of power interests, to work out her national destiny a,nd reach a high standard of living and attain a high degree of culture. This she was ,a ble to do solely through the persevering efforts of her native sons who were inspired to w<mk in the interests of their country and mankind. That the Slovaiks were newcomers on the world's political st.age did not alter the fact that they accomplished a worthwhile feait, one that merits the admiration of the whole civmzed world, for they created their own national state, a creation at the 1 �SI..JOVAK.IA 69 same time of their innate skill and their social, oulturlrl and biological ,p owers as a. virile nation. This achievement of an entire race assures the tSlovaiks a promising future in the history of central Europe. Nationalistic aspkations among ·t he Slovaks were not a new thing, for they had cherished their naUve historic traditions for centuries /before they blossomed into the full bloom of statehood in the spring of 1939. The dormant creative energies of a people, kept in political :bondage fol" a thousand years, were suddenly released and, behold, the Sloviaks erected a monumental and amazingly beautiful national edifice, known forever in history as. the SlovaJk Republic! The miraculous ·CTeation of the Slovak national movement, namely, the tSlo;vak State, was truly the greatest achievement af the Slovak people in all history. And this sha,U continue to inspire them in all their trials and vicissitudes in the .future, for the glorious memory of this brief moment (}If freedom cannot be obliterated from the minds of a gallant people who dedicated themselves to the cause of democracy at the very daiwn af their naition's history. Does this brief review of historic events in the national Hfe of Slovakia hiave any lesson for us? Perhaips, but at any rate there are some very significant observations to be deri!Ved fl'om this consideration. One of these is that a small nation, building its own national culture, labors under greater handica:ps than a large nation; and it must work more intensely to secure its ,p roper place in the social and cultural life of nations. That is why small nations which eD'joy national independence generally have a high cultural standard ,t hat is borne out by statistics which show that, as a rule, they have ·a much smaller percentage of illiterates than the larger nations. fu a small nation, the conditions are lacking for creaiting widely divergent social classes which a.rise from the formation of huge capitalistic monopolies. For that reason, too, the socia:l or~ der in small nations is far more democratic by its· very nature than thait of large countries, and certainly far less complex. 'Small states are oonstaintly aware of the imperative �SLOVAKIA 70 necessity of maintaining high social and cultural standards and, consequently, the individual citi,z en feels his personal responsilbility more keenly than the average citi'zen of a large country. Every ,p rivate citi~n of a small state knows to •w hat extent his country depends on hi:rn and, hence, seeks to make a personal contribution to his society. In the economic field, a small nation cannot afford to emlbark on a large ex-pansion program that ultimately leads to overproduction. Every parcel of land must be made productive and new scientific methods. must lbe constantly introduced into agriculture. 'I1his system of mtensi;ve farming is vitally necessaxy to th~ international economy of an overpopulated Europe. !Social, 'Political, economic, or cultural experiments may be tried with greater safety ,b y sman nations, rfor large nations cannot exiperiment in these fieJds without endangering the very existence of their entire system ,o f government and nationra1 economy. Moreover, there is less danger for the usurpation of porwer in a smalf state, 1becau.se the goal of a111y particular political trend is eaJSHy detected in its incipient stages. In short, a small country is more easily manaiged, and by its very nature is more democratic than a large state. 'I1here are many added advantages that small states have. Not the least among them is the one that small nations are not confined rwithin the narrow limits of a non-· creatiive and non-progres,s ive traditionalism that hinders progress and shuts the door on new ideas. But for humanity the most significant of all is the fact that the small nations cannot harbor imperialistic aims and, for that reason, they concentrate all their resources and energies on cultural and economic endeavor. T,hi,s alone justifies the existence of small nations whioh have a natural right to be founded and maintained. Small states ca:n well be-· come the greatest boon for civilization. The !bitter ex:periences of two World Wars in quick succession haive clearly shorwn that, sooner or later, the world must recognize as an incontrovertible principle that eve;ry nation has a right to its national existence unde,r its own state ,government. Complete equality of all European na1 �SLOVAK.IA 71 tion.s, which are willing to cooperate for universal and 1per~ manent peace among the nations of the world, rmust be the basic principle of civiililzation and the ideal of every national culture. Until this universal ideal is reali~ed, the small nations must persevere in their struggle to attain or maintain their statehood, as the ca.se may be. The middlesized and great nations of Europe, which have ,repeatedly suffered the ravages of war and have just experienced the worst disaster in all history, ought to support the cause of the small states if they hope to preserve our modern civilization and, ,w hat is more important, save humanity from total exUnction. Today - ten years after the termination of the Great War - the situation in Europe is well nigh hopeless cul~ turally, as it is economically. There is a real danger of losing the priceless 01.cltural heritage that has been the pride of Western ·E urope for centuries. lit is the ,g rave responsi'bility of those in power to work honestly and fear• lessly for the preservaition of the high cultural values oi European cirvilization and, through international cooperation among the natiolllS that oherish this age-old inheritance, inaugurate an era of genuine democracy for the peoples of Euroipe, for this alone can save IDurope from complete ruin and decay. We who cherish our Western heritage still have the will and courage to 1preserve it from destruction and we . have high hopes of restoring it to its former ,p restige under the inspiration of true democracy, but we need the wholehearted support of all democratic for-c es throughout the world. If we unite these forces, we can revive the sparlk of life in the smouldering ruins of Europe and save European culture from spiritual ana'.I1chy and desolation. There is still .time, hut only predous little ,t ime, for time is running out. It is the eleventh hour. If we do not act at once, all will be lost for a long time to come . • • • REOOMMENDED BOOKS: "The Slorvaiks" (Juirchak $3.00; SLOVAK FOR BEGINNERS" (Books I-ill!) $1.50 (the set) ; "Htrdbailr's English-Slovak Dictioniary" $4.00; "SLOVAK LIESSONS" (!Hrdbak) $3.50. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1955, Vol. 5 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 14), March 1955.</li> <li>Issue 2-3 (No. 15-16), June-September 1955.</li> <li>Issue 4 (No. 17), December 1955.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1955 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 63 THE SIGNIFICA NCE OF SMALL NATIONS Dr. Henrich Bartek Tonrmediate results of the first bloody, world-wide conflict, which ended in 191.8, were such conflicting principles as: the right to se1f-determ ination, national sovereignty , ctrltural self-existen ce, buffer states and spheres of influence. At the sll!me time, small nations with national aSpirations were blamed for igniting catastrophi c, international upheavals when, as a matter ,of fact, they were only pawns in the internation al ,g ame of power 1politics in which the greait nations engage from time to time for world domination. The history of European nations and States during the past century and a half demonstrat es clearly that when small nations make marked social and cultural progress, their desire for political independen ce - a national state of their own - increases, in order to secure their future development as :a free people whose contributio ns are infinitely more valuable to civilization and progress when not handioo.pped by foreign influences and ,p olitical subservienc e. To accuse small countries of harboring imperialisti c schemes is not historically correct, !because both world wars were caused by intense rivalries among the great powers of the world. It is interesting to note that the main arguments against the existence of small nations as independent political states, according to the chief exponents of aggressi~e imperialism of the big ,powers, are their smallness, their inaibility to protect themselves militarily against their stronger neighlbors and to sustain themselves eco111omically. ,F rom the standpoint of historical truth and justice, however, it is always the bigger powers which are at fault when they attempt to subjugate a smaH ,power by brute force. It is significant that no cultural or .social ll!rguments are advanced against :the independen t existence of small nations. '11he truth is that alil small nations are able to hold their own and prove their ability in all fields of human endeavor, if they are not molested by the greater powers. lit is true that there are political, cultural and so- 64 SLOVAKIA cial differences among the several small nations and t:hat their living standards differ, too-, but we find these same differences even in the larger nations and states. Hence, one cannot rightfully determine the right to independen t statehood for SIITlaill. nations merely by such superficial arguments. And who shall say that only the large and mighty nations and states shall possess the right to freedom and independen ce? In the last war, neith·e r France nor Poland were a!ble to defend themselves successfull y - and they a·r e not small nations. If one were to limit the right to statehood on military might, then on:ly those states and nations which could maintain their independen ce against the most powerf.ul nation o.r state would have a "right" to exist. In that case, Europe would pass out of existence. Before World War ill, half the European continent was dominated iby three major powers - Great Britain, Germany and Russia. The other half of Europe was divided into large, middle-size d and small states. That was the true face of the map of Europe; and nothing can change the historic reality that there exists considerabl y more than a score of different nationalitie s on the Continent. In charting the future course of Europe, we must fake into account the national aspirations of these historic ,peoples, who look forward to the historic future as a united people with rights to political freedom and statehood. 'Dhis holds equally true for all nations, the large and the small. The question may arise, hoiWever, whether the recognition of smaU states is for the betterment of mankind and for the emlbellishm ent of European culture, or whether it may turn out to be a detriment to modern civilization . The political and national states which exist as such at present are recognized ; their right to statehood is not questioned. For example, the Norwegian s, Finns, Swiss, Danes, and even the Albanians are officially conceded the right to an independen t political status. After Wocld War I, the Baltic !States of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were orga:ni~ as independen t, political states as called for by the princuple of nationail self-determ ination. Other nationalities, less fortunate and sulbject to power politics, were SLOVAKIA 66 forced to aissert their :right to statehood. Thus, the Slovenes, a highly cultured nation with a pop_ulation larger than the Alibanians, failed to organize their own national State .because of geopolitical reasons. And as long as aggressive militarism and imperialism hold sway in European politics, the Slovenes will. not be able to establish their natural right to national independence. In 1918, they chose lo become incorporated in the kingdom of Yugoslavia for reasons of self-preservation and security. Nevertheless, this united southern Slavic monarchy -proved incapable of reJ sistinig German aggression in 1941. lt is not at all certain that the Slovenes, or other small nations, would clamor for complete independence, although this is the ideal of all peoP'les -w ith national traditions and a common language, iif international relations iwere.,. founded on genuine democratic prindples of justice and mutual welfare. There are many similar cases in the history of Eurapea,n nationalities. A typical case is that of Slovalkia which has made 1great strides in its cultural, social, and political life. The :Slovaks, as a progressive and democraticminded people, are an idool representative of all the small nations of central and eastern Europe. Slovakia - a Democratic Nation At the close of the 18th century when feudal Hungary, which h.ad been ruled for centuries by pri'Vileged classes without oonsideratiOIIl of national origin, began to change its tradition of supra-nationalism into a national Magyar statism, the various nationalities, moved by their instinct of self..ip.reservation, naturally resisted the new Magyarization program. Accordingly, the Slova:ks intensified their efforts to promote the study of their own ancient native language and national traditions. Slovruk aristocrats, unfortunately, aJbandoned their nationru traditions and succumbed to the Magyar influence for fear of losing their old prerogatives as members of the nobility. The Slovak common people, however, became the chief exponents of SlOV1a;k nationalism; their dbjectives were national in scope, but they aimed at a higher standard of living and, hence, their aims were social and oultural as well as political. 66 SLOVAKIA This, then, is proof of the existence of truly democratic ideals among iSlova.k classes. 1D uring the 19th .c entury, the Slov.aiks repeatedly attempted to oome to an undeMtanding with the Magyars, but the rulers refused to grant their subjects local selfgovernment within the confines of the kingdom. As a direct consequence of their failure .to secUTe national recognition, the Slovaks resolved on a cultural program which was designed for a 1ong range future with the hope that this ,w ould prepare them for the opportune moment in the_ir history when .they would inevi.taJbly emerge ru, a f,uH-fledged natioo.al state. Obstacles in the way of the cultural development of the 'Slovaks were constantly placed "by state authorities rwho were determined to destroy all vestiges of a national tra., dition ainong the tVarious nationalities in the kingdom except those of the Ma:gyar nation. Inspired by their c-hauvinistic mood, the Magyars, following their union with Austria in 1867, closed a:11 schools, suppressed the Slovak Institute (Matica 'Slovenska), imprisoned leading Slova!ks in s•ocia:l, political, educational and cultural life, and made Ma:gyar the sole official language in Hungary. Despite official proscription of all non-Magyar acti-· vities in Hungary, the struggle for national survival in Slovakia went on for more than a century. And even after 1918 the Slovaks resumed the struggle for their national rights to self-government and self-determination in the first Czecho--Slova'k Republic. In their unending fight for political freedom and national equality, the Sl()lVaJks attained a high degree of! eoonomic self-sufficiency and reached a new high in cultural and social ,p rogress,, scarcely equalled by any small nation in Europe in so short a time and under such unfavorable circumstances. In the first Czecho->Slovak Republic, the Slovaks were forced to defend their national individuality against the officiail attempt of the Czechs to suJbmerge their native Sl-ovaJk origin in an artificial ideological "Czechoslovak" nationality. Moreover, due to. the economic crisis in the joint republic of the Czechs and Slovruks, ten per cent of the latter emigrated to foreign lands to seek a livelihood. SLOVAKIA 67 At last, the inte:maticmal situation in the fall of 1938 gave the Slova,k,s their long-.awaited opportunity to secure their nati01I1al aiutonomy on October 6, 1938, for which they had hoped in vain for a score of years during the life-time of the first Ozecho-lSlo:vruk Republic and during the thous-· and-yeair-rule o:f the Hungarian 'State. Post-\Munich Cz-ooho-lSlova:kia disintegrated rapidly. The Slov.aJks, lbhrootened ,w ith national extinction by being divided among their neig.hlbors as a protectorate of the German Reich, like Bohemia and Moravia, declared their independence on March 14, 1939, through their autonomous national iparjiament in Bratislava. And when Poland and Hungary recognilzed the ISlova;k ,State, Germany, after annexing Bohemia and Moravia, a1so recognized the newlycreated 8'lovak Republic. Before the outlbreak of hostilities in the autumn of 19319, the 1S lovak Republic became a fuMfledged subject of international la:w. Many nations, including the U .IS.1S.R, not only gave their official recognition to the new democratic state in central Europe and its de jure goveirnrnent, ibut exchanged d1plomatic representatives with the newly-.organi!Zed Slovak national state on the Danulbe in central Europe, henceforth to be known as the Slovak Republic. Neutrality was the national policy of the ,Slo,vak Republic in the second World War. The Slovaks were in graive danger of national destruction, caurght as they were in the midst of the mor.ta;l oombat .b etween the Germans and Russians. Nevertheless, they continued to work for the common welfiare of their new state, so, that the Slovruk RepubJic made unprecedented social, economic, industrial, educational a:nd cultural ,progress. 1Slovaik coUeges were founded, the Slova;k lJIIliversity at Bratislava made great progress, thousands of publications and books were published yearly, literary and scientific wo:i:iks appeared in lailge numlbers, living ·s tandards im• proved considera;bly, ,s ocial and industrial relations reached a new hltgh. So ,s pirited amd pros'Perous wes this new life in their pwn !State that the SlovaJks really maJde history in the short span of six years of self-rule in the 'Slovak Republic. 68 SLOVAKIA All these facts have /been cited merely to show how a small nation, freed from fore:ign domination, and then made sulbject to the Ozechs, at last emerged as a self-governing state, and demonstrated beyond a doubt that even in the worst possible situation, that of war, this small nation was aJble to .govern itself wisely and jusUy, ond become a ,p riosperous country and a worthy member of the family of European nations. The present Ozecho-1SJavak regime is far diffeJ"ent from the first Czecho-iSlovak government that attempted to Ozechi·ze the Slovaks and which refused to grant self-.gov-· ernment to. them. The persistent fight of the Sloivak nation for its_ rights for more than a century and a half has 1brought the 1Sl01Vaks some notewo-rthy gains, namely, a high social and cultural standa.rrd, so that the Czechs today must treat them as equals, not as the Czech politiciruis treated them during the years 19118-•19,38, when they looked down upon the Slovaks as an inferior race. What the future rcla,tions between the Czechs and Slovaks will be uncertain, although there are ,s igns of the rene;wal of another Ozech attempt to force the old "Czechoslovak" ideoJogy upon the SloivaJks who defiantly oppose this political heresy. Whatever may be said of the bitterness of the opposition of the Sloiva'ks in the 'Past, it is certain that this opposition in the future shall .be even greater, because the Slovaks proved their ability to govern themselves. The attempt to fuse the Ozechs and Slovaks into one nation is just as futile as the attempt to make .a united nation out of the Swedes and the Norwegians. Slovakia's e:iGperience has amply illustrated the ca;pabiiJ.ity of ,a small country, without the interference of power interests, to work out her national destiny a,nd reach a high standard of living and attain a high degree of culture. This she was ,a ble to do solely through the persevering efforts of her native sons who were inspired to w<mk in the interests of their country and mankind. That the Slovaiks were newcomers on the world's political st.age did not alter the fact that they accomplished a worthwhile feait, one that merits the admiration of the whole civmzed world, for they created their own national state, a creation at the 1 SI..JOVAK.IA 69 same time of their innate skill and their social, oulturlrl and biological ,p owers as a. virile nation. This achievement of an entire race assures the tSlovaiks a promising future in the history of central Europe. Nationalistic aspkations among ·t he Slovaks were not a new thing, for they had cherished their naUve historic traditions for centuries /before they blossomed into the full bloom of statehood in the spring of 1939. The dormant creative energies of a people, kept in political :bondage fol" a thousand years, were suddenly released and, behold, the Sloviaks erected a monumental and amazingly beautiful national edifice, known forever in history as. the SlovaJk Republic! The miraculous ·CTeation of the Slovak national movement, namely, the tSlo;vak State, was truly the greatest achievement af the Slovak people in all history. And this sha,U continue to inspire them in all their trials and vicissitudes in the .future, for the glorious memory of this brief moment (}If freedom cannot be obliterated from the minds of a gallant people who dedicated themselves to the cause of democracy at the very daiwn af their naition's history. Does this brief review of historic events in the national Hfe of Slovakia hiave any lesson for us? Perhaips, but at any rate there are some very significant observations to be deri!Ved fl'om this consideration. One of these is that a small nation, building its own national culture, labors under greater handica:ps than a large nation; and it must work more intensely to secure its ,p roper place in the social and cultural life of nations. That is why small nations which eD'joy national independence generally have a high cultural standard ,t hat is borne out by statistics which show that, as a rule, they have ·a much smaller percentage of illiterates than the larger nations. fu a small nation, the conditions are lacking for creaiting widely divergent social classes which a.rise from the formation of huge capitalistic monopolies. For that reason, too, the socia:l or~ der in small nations is far more democratic by its· very nature than thait of large countries, and certainly far less complex. 'Small states are oonstaintly aware of the imperative SLOVAKIA 70 necessity of maintaining high social and cultural standards and, consequently, the individual citi,z en feels his personal responsilbility more keenly than the average citi'zen of a large country. Every ,p rivate citi~n of a small state knows to •w hat extent his country depends on hi:rn and, hence, seeks to make a personal contribution to his society. In the economic field, a small nation cannot afford to emlbark on a large ex-pansion program that ultimately leads to overproduction. Every parcel of land must be made productive and new scientific methods. must lbe constantly introduced into agriculture. 'I1his system of mtensi;ve farming is vitally necessaxy to th~ international economy of an overpopulated Europe. !Social, 'Political, economic, or cultural experiments may be tried with greater safety ,b y sman nations, rfor large nations cannot exiperiment in these fieJds without endangering the very existence of their entire system ,o f government and nationra1 economy. Moreover, there is less danger for the usurpation of porwer in a smalf state, 1becau.se the goal of a111y particular political trend is eaJSHy detected in its incipient stages. In short, a small country is more easily manaiged, and by its very nature is more democratic than a large state. 'I1here are many added advantages that small states have. Not the least among them is the one that small nations are not confined rwithin the narrow limits of a non-· creatiive and non-progres,s ive traditionalism that hinders progress and shuts the door on new ideas. But for humanity the most significant of all is the fact that the small nations cannot harbor imperialistic aims and, for that reason, they concentrate all their resources and energies on cultural and economic endeavor. T,hi,s alone justifies the existence of small nations whioh have a natural right to be founded and maintained. Small states ca:n well be-· come the greatest boon for civilization. The !bitter ex:periences of two World Wars in quick succession haive clearly shorwn that, sooner or later, the world must recognize as an incontrovertible principle that eve;ry nation has a right to its national existence unde,r its own state ,government. Complete equality of all European na1 SLOVAK.IA 71 tion.s, which are willing to cooperate for universal and 1per~ manent peace among the nations of the world, rmust be the basic principle of civiililzation and the ideal of every national culture. Until this universal ideal is reali~ed, the small nations must persevere in their struggle to attain or maintain their statehood, as the ca.se may be. The middlesized and great nations of Europe, which have ,repeatedly suffered the ravages of war and have just experienced the worst disaster in all history, ought to support the cause of the small states if they hope to preserve our modern civilization and, ,w hat is more important, save humanity from total exUnction. Today - ten years after the termination of the Great War - the situation in Europe is well nigh hopeless cul~ turally, as it is economically. There is a real danger of losing the priceless 01.cltural heritage that has been the pride of Western ·E urope for centuries. lit is the ,g rave responsi'bility of those in power to work honestly and fear• lessly for the preservaition of the high cultural values oi European cirvilization and, through international cooperation among the natiolllS that oherish this age-old inheritance, inaugurate an era of genuine democracy for the peoples of Euroipe, for this alone can save IDurope from complete ruin and decay. We who cherish our Western heritage still have the will and courage to 1preserve it from destruction and we . have high hopes of restoring it to its former ,p restige under the inspiration of true democracy, but we need the wholehearted support of all democratic for-c es throughout the world. If we unite these forces, we can revive the sparlk of life in the smouldering ruins of Europe and save European culture from spiritual ana'.I1chy and desolation. There is still .time, hut only predous little ,t ime, for time is running out. It is the eleventh hour. If we do not act at once, all will be lost for a long time to come . • • • REOOMMENDED BOOKS: "The Slorvaiks" (Juirchak $3.00; SLOVAK FOR BEGINNERS" (Books I-ill!) $1.50 (the set) ; "Htrdbailr's English-Slovak Dictioniary" $4.00; "SLOVAK LIESSONS" (!Hrdbak) $3.50.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Significance of Small Nations Description An account of the resource Dr. Henrich Bartek Slovakia, Vol. 5, No. 2-3 (15-16), June-September 1955 pp. 63-71 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bartek, Henrich, 1907-1986 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June-September 1955 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/85484dbd56e950bd9572ff275ec66832.pdf e7dfeab06556ebc829abc9b02f8e7f15 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 3 OUR TRADITION AND WUIS STUR Dr. Henrich Bartek The significance of Louis Stur in the evolution of oUII' national life is so g,rea,t amd far-reaching :bhat it is only slowly that we a.re coming to a dooper understanding ()If this extraordinary perso111Mity, of this genial creator of the modem national Sl,O'V'ak d.deo1ogy. Once you delve into his life's work, yoru become permaIDently fascinated and cannot be freed of its charms, -s o strong is the attraction of Stur even today, a hundred years after his death. The iphilologist, philosopher, ,p edagogue, historian, po~ litician, statesman, writer, journalist, nay even the artist - once they have become acquainted witfu. the entire work and activity of .s tur - moot once ask the question how it was even possible that in the times of the greatest national decadence, at the time that Magyarization of the Slova;ks had really begun, there was found among the abandoned· ,Slovruk people a young m1an who, despite all plots and! difficuUies, built the spkitual fol.l!IldaJtions of the modern life of our nation. How that woo possible, that is a question wJiioh .perha,ps science will be ruble to answer at some time ~n the furtuire. Right now, however, it can only assert that in one generation, measwring genius in the strictest sense, only Ol!le extraordinary persOIIl OT genius appear:s among approximately two million people. There is no doubt that Stur was endowed with extraordinary natural capacity for creative and original conceptions. lit is the ma,rlk of a genius to, create woriks of lasting value which live iJ.ong ages after Ms death. Stur was a ge:nius; am.d not only witJhin the Slovak ifrrumewol1k. So it is only natUTal that we return to him and that even future Slovak generations will find their support in him until a greater .spirit apperurs to show the Slova.ks more and ~tter things tJian did Stur. To date, however, Stuir standg ouit as the greatest Slo:vak of all times. We are mindfuil. of, are eternally gratefuil to, and haive the greatest respect and admir,ation. for Vaja:nsky, �4 SLOVAKIA Hviezdoslav, Hli.nka, Tiso, SkuJJtety, and many, many other outstanding Slovak pe71sonalities, even many unknown peOi)le and martyrs, who saorifiiced everythirn.g for Slova:kdom. !But all of these, consdoooly oir lll!Ile◊nsciously, only continued to work for the reaJization of the spiritual plan of Slovak li!fe whlc:h was ~efit us by Stur in his wor:ks aJild in his pupils. Slovak life was given expression thr-o ugh the Slovaik language. According to 'S tur, it could not be otherwise. But Stur hlmself saw :to it that he became its eminent representati'Ve, an example to hi,s compeers and follo,wililg generations: he gave expression to, the irighteous des.ires and demands of his .Slovak nation and became its greatest and thUJS far unsurpassed model in spkituaJ and puiblic acti'Vity. Nations with '1ong state traditions, in which individual generations could develop without hindrance and without regard to age, ha,d the advantage of the experience of thei:r matuire ipeople and &e creativeness of their young peop1e, who always bxought something new, something better into the world and passed it on .to succeeding generations. The Slovak nabion, however, was not aJS fortunate. Having lost their great Moravian E)mpire at the turn of the tenth century, the Slova,ks were ruled iby foreigrn.ers for over a thousamd years. Without its own state traditions the Slovak nation had to rely almost entirely on compruratively young men, youths between 20~30 years old, for new ideas and new aims. In a word, SlovaJk youth was the ,c reator of a new dawn and future ,g oals, because the difficult iltife of the Slovruks undeir foreigrn. political domination did not allow the elders to build a strong national life. A gla,nce at the Slov:a!k past, from the time of Josephinism to the present, shows us tihis picture of Slovak generations: :Bermolak and his g,roup stirred the nation witlt ,theirr new idea wihen they were between 20-30 yea11s old; Holly, Kollar, and Safarik, who came after Bernolak, in the same yeara,, formed a firm outlook of the world; then StuT's generation also formed its national program �SLOVAKIA 5 in its youthful years and it was no different with the generation of ¥ajans:ky a;nd Hviezdosla;v. FoUowing the latter, iit is easier to talk ab{)ll.lt mdirviduiaJs thian generations. Considea:-, if y!()IU wi11, the yews in which the cihaxacters of Hlinka, Stefanik, Razus, and of other Slovaks, who foUowed Hvieooio:s!av's gen.eratioo, developed, and, behold, you will obser:ve that they, too, were between 20-30 years of age wlhen they began theiir creative life for theirr natrian. A :single idea and a single conviction, however, dom~naJted all Slorva·k generations amd eminent individuals: the !Slov3Jk nation coll'ld secl.ll'e and safeguaTd its nation.al existence best onJy if it gained political independence, only if it were free to ruJ.e its own homeland and develop its nation~ Hfe without foreign interference . .Am.d so it was with <YUT generation, which made itself heard .a:t th•e Slova k Institute (Matica Sloivenska) conclave on 'Ma,y 12, 1932, and then again. immediately after at the congress ~ill Trenciansike TepHce, where unanimously and without •r egard ,t o party considerations and con'Victions it declared itselif for a duialistic soJution of Slovak-Czech relatio111Js. Of cowrse, ouir generation came out with nothing new at that time, but ornly strong,l y reiterated what Bernolak and Stur and the1r followers frlad initiated much earlier. For a hundred years, therefore, not,h ing new, nothing moire rulblime apipea,red tiha;n what Stur had e:,opressed and lived for. So it is only natuiral that we must and shall have to .retuvn to. him, !beca;use it is self-evident that every new, Jet U!S say, great plan of Slova,k life must fiTst pass the aqua ,r egi·a test ,o f Stur's thinking. Even today Stuir still is the criter:ion of the life of our rratiOill; a;nd only those aims wihi-ch are in agreement with Stu.r's conception haive any hope and outlook for rea:lizatiolil. Whatever i•s againsit Stur, i,s also a,gainist the vital interests of OU!r nation. Stuir was not quite thmy years old when 'he b,egain to ,u:nite his people . by advocating a uniform language 1 1 1 �6 SLOVAKl1A for Slova,k literature. His wonk bore muoh ,g aod fruit. StUT's ca1l was answered by Sladkovic, ChaJ.upka, Botto, Kirar, Kalinciak, HUTban, and many others. lt Wll)S as if SlOIVak was resurrected by a magk wand. A.ind even though the central Slovak diail.ect is the most divergent of ail Slovak dialects, nevertheless it ri.s the least contaminated by foreigm influences. The Slovaks, therefore, felt ,tJhat the proper cou:rse had been taken in regaird to their literary language. Even John HoHy, not only the greatest 'Slovak poet of that time but a:}so the greatest ideologist of his nation, gave Stu.r's action his blessing, and, therefore, Stur was joined by the Catholics, representing five-sixths, the absolute majority, cl the SlovaJk nation. W1hat is the literary medium of the Italiams today? Is it not the classical ftalian - the Tuscan dialect of Dante and Petrarch - even though in many particulars it diffurs fa·om the other Italian dialects more than does <'entra1 Slovak from the other SlovaJk dialects? But the Itailian of Tuscany is certainly least contaminated by foreign influences and :most ex;pressive of the Railiam. spirit and, hence, the rest of the lta1.ia.n:s accepted it and stand by it. And so it was with the language of central SlwaJkia. It ,i s the most native of all Slovak dia!lects and therefore directly the most appropriate to express the spiiritua,l life of the Slovaks. ·Situr was clearly aware of the fiact that unity in tJhe liteTa,ry laJI1guage was not the uJtimate goal of hiis nation, but only a medium ,o f further national develoipment - of course, an inevitaible medium, if a higher cuiltu.rral level of the broad masses was to be attained and thereby also a proper support for national equality in Hungary. To rea,ch it:he broad masses of the Slo1Vak people and rouse them nationally, Stur published a newspaper in Slovak, Mter waiting some four years for permissri.on from the Hungariain government to do so. The influence of the paper was great; the Slorvaks gave it theiir full. support, while the MagyarSJ, aware of its influence, saon began scheming to suppress it. ,E lected b,y the royail city of �SLOVAKIA 'J Zvoilen to the Hungarian Diet, Stur insisted that the righteous demands of the Slovak nation for free national development ,b e fulf·illed. Before the revo,lution of 1'848 he demanded the DieJt to free the people fr:om the feudalistic Robot system, 1a;bor rent, so that the culture of the country might increase by the foundation of schoo~s in the naJt;ional tO!Ilgue ; he Tecommended the iindusbriali:zation of the land of the Slovaks and the adoption of laws in the huma,nitarian spirit which would enable the development of the country and! for all the nations inhabiting Hungary and ihe fought for a federalistic system in Hungary, whereby taJlJ. natio.n:s mi:ght work as equals for the common weal of the State. Stur appe,a led to the macgnates to give attention to the development of the State and to maJke it possible in the spirit of the modern devellopment of Eurrope. Stur was not a rebel; he did not advocate the destruction of the Hungarlam State aJS long as there wa:i any hope o;f ;s ettlement with the iMagy.aJrs. In the Hunga;rian Diet, •S tur proved himselif .a,s a farsighted politicran and statesmam; he saw and realized what was happening in the coU!Iltries around Hungary. He warned the Magyars that they ,c ould not forever igno,r e and suppress the inherent rights .of natio.ns,, that they couJd not forever e~ploit the Slov:aiks and otlher nations of H'lllilgatry without expecting them to stri1ke baok with their righteous demands for a f,r ee national life, for the same rights the Magyars were resolved to fight for in the Habsb'lliI"g Empire. Stu.r's admonitions, however, hit upon deruf eairs; the Magyam stUJbbor:n,l y amd ignoramtly refused to give ear to a;ny demands for any kind of settlement with the 1t10n~Ma;gyar rnations of Hungacy. The reS1Ult was the revolution of 1848-49, in which the S!l,o vaks also :prurtiiciipated, wihom S·t w togetlieir wi:th Hlurban ,a nd iHodza led in armed resi,s tance against the revoluti()(Il of .the Ma,g yar aristocrats. That the Ha:bsburgs were ung,ratefiul to the Slooaks, that they rfina:Hy settled wtth the Magyairs at the expense of the non-Magyrur natiOIIlS, does not alter the facts, at all. The set- �8 SLOVAKIA tlement of 1867, referred to as Austro~Hungaria,n but in rea.lity Au:stro-iMagyar, became the ,grave of the 'MOIIlarchy which coll!1d haive 'been a miglhty confederation in Central E}ul"ope. Louis Stur, and not 1:Jhe Slovak and M:agyair chauvilll'ist 1Lorui,s Ko,s ut. was the genuine democrat. Sttir and the SIOivak Language As a student at the Bratislmva lyceum and later as a professor, Stur became convinced that Sloiva:k Lutherans would never ,l earn Czech welil enough to oreate worthy scienltific works iirJ. that liangwage and so much more the less artistic ones. From the standpoint of the present and the future, therefore, it made no sense to persevere in Biblical Czech. 'Dhis 'Practical motive,, ·of course, was not enough forr :S tur and, therefore, he made it his business to learn as well as po,s sible all Siova,nic languages and to study comparative phHology. After a tho,r01Ugh reseaTch of the sy:stem of the S[rovalk language, Stur was convinced that the ,Sloivaik [am,g,uiage was not a dira lect of the Czech, but an indepedent Slovanic language and, by the sarrne token, thait the SlO'Vaks were not a part of the Czech nation but am ii.ndependent and individual people. StuT was thairoug,hly fami,l iar with not O!D.ly the w.ritings of the BernolaJk group, not only with the poetkal compO!sitions of John Ho1ly and the works of Bajza and Fandli, but aiso esipecially with the philological works of Anton iBernola.k. Stu,r , therefore, accepted the phonetic orthography of [Bernolak, which from the philologiral and piracticaJ standpoint best answered the purpose, but foc scientific a1r1d ideological rea:sorns decided to adopt the language of central Slovaikia. If Bernolak was it.he first codifier of literary Sloiv:ruk, who set the rules for speaJk:ing and writing Slova:k correctily, then Stur can rightfwlily be c:alled the fiirst reformer of iliterary Slovak, because he really replaced the S1ovaik of western Slovrukia with that of -c entral Slovakia. In the few years after iit was adopted as the literary medii.um of the Slov:aks, the language of central Sl01Vakia developed more talents tha,n were developed during several hundred years �SLOVAKIA 9 by literary Czech. The poems of Slad'kovic, especia!lly his "Marina," the poetical iprodUICtions orf Botto, Ohailuipka, Kral', and many others, pro·v ed that Stur's presuppositions about the sp:uritm1a,l development through the medium of central Slovalk were fuUy justified. In 1943, a: think il was successful in proving, in my work "I'... Stur a slorvenoina" (L. Stur and the SlorvaJk Language), that in !his time Stur was an extraordinarily good ph.ilofogist, who i.lJltuitively often correctly came upo:n certain individurul char.acteiristics of tJhe Slovalk language, so that even a modern philological analysis of his work will confirm the ,c orrectness of many of ,S tur's linguistic findings, the justification for which science ·i n that period could not prove. Stur, howerver, ga!Ve co.rrect judgments not OIIll.y i.lJl philology, but also ,i:n other scientific disciplines, for exaJmple, in history, statecraflt, etc. Stur and Philosophy It is generally said that Stur had aid.opted Hegel's philoso~hy. The maJtter is presented in such a Hght as irf Stur had blindly adopted Hegel's thinking and simply applied lit to Slovak and Slovank life. Philosoiphioal researches with us Slova!ks are, alas, very murch disliked and, therefore, it is ino wonder that S1ov:a1k phi[osophy is incorrectly evaluated. Prior to the war, Profesor Dmitrij Cyzevski, fo:rmerly of the universd.ties orf Hall amd J.einna ibut presently of CoJrunnbia Uni;veTSity, ;in a conversation with me called my attention to the significance of StUT and his followers for phillosophy in general. According to him Stur's generation had seveiraJl t1hin'kers w'.ho tried to create thek own philosophical system and who, in those times, amQIIllg ahl Slovam.ic nations excelled in originality of thinking in philosophy. Cyz.evski later prorved a part of his statement in his excellent book "Sturo•v a :f.ilozofia ziivota" tStur's .Philosophy of Life), which the Slovak Academy orf Sciences published du.ring the war .a nd wlhich, I say regretfully, I do not have today. Even though Cyzevs:ki's book does not deal fuHy with Stur's philosophy neverthe- �10 SLOVAKIA less it did ,p rove that Stur was not a simple student of Hegel's in iphiilosophy, but that he formed an mdependent philosophical system which in many ways differs f.rom that of Hegel. And thus we could gradually consider the political, social, pedagogical, statecraft, and artistic o,pinions of Stur and come to 1:Jhe conclusion that we hia:ve !before us an extremely wealthy personality, which had drawn from native traditions 13Jild in rbhe spirit ()If Slovak needs had formulated !ideas from varioUiS regions into one whole into the ination13Jl ideology of the Slovak nation. To 1UD:derstand Stur •and his wol'lk thoroughly, we must ma.Ike a proper study of all his activities ·amd literary achievements, so that we imi,g ht be able to define accu<!'ately what is .h l,s own, what is domestic tradition, and what has cOIIIle to us .from 01:Jher,s. If we do not ma,ke t'hat study, then we shall not completely understand this greatest phenomenon of Slovruk life of the nineteenth century. The Slovalks, especially recent political emigrants, will have to ,r eturn to Stur firequoot!ly, since for them in many thin:gs he is an excellent example, especially in polilti'cs. For exia.mple, when we t ruke Stur's views on the life of our nation, when his ideas about independent Slovruk national life are taken as the aqua regia of Slovll!k politics from 1918 to the 'Present, then it •s hall not be dificult to ascertain tJhrut, from the Slovak strundpoint, Hlinka's Slovak People's Party and the Slovak National 1P arty of Razus continued to work for the realization of Stur's program, and that they, an:d not a single SlovaJk affiliate of centralistic parties, were the b~arers of traditional Slorvak ideology. Today in 'S}()(Vruk.ia. a foreign 1regime is peTsecuiting and crushing rull elements of the Bernolak-Stur-lHilinka-Razu s tra·d itions, because it is albove all else concerned with the extermination of the !Slovak traditions which in his time Louis Stur had recreated rund reformed in such a manner .that they remain a pernnanent ,bas.is of our national development. � SLOVAKIA 3 OUR TRADITION AND WUIS STUR Dr. Henrich Bartek The significance of Louis Stur in the evolution of oUII' national life is so g,rea,t amd far-reaching :bhat it is only slowly that we a.re coming to a dooper understanding ()If this extraordinary perso111Mity, of this genial creator of the modem national Sl,O'V'ak d.deo1ogy. Once you delve into his life's work, yoru become permaIDently fascinated and cannot be freed of its charms, -s o strong is the attraction of Stur even today, a hundred years after his death. The iphilologist, philosopher, ,p edagogue, historian, po~ litician, statesman, writer, journalist, nay even the artist - once they have become acquainted witfu. the entire work and activity of .s tur - moot once ask the question how it was even possible that in the times of the greatest national decadence, at the time that Magyarization of the Slova;ks had really begun, there was found among the abandoned· ,Slovruk people a young m1an who, despite all plots and! difficuUies, built the spkitual fol.l!IldaJtions of the modern life of our nation. How that woo possible, that is a question wJiioh .perha,ps science will be ruble to answer at some time ~n the furtuire. Right now, however, it can only assert that in one generation, measwring genius in the strictest sense, only Ol!le extraordinary persOIIl OT genius appear:s among approximately two million people. There is no doubt that Stur was endowed with extraordinary natural capacity for creative and original conceptions. lit is the ma,rlk of a genius to, create woriks of lasting value which live iJ.ong ages after Ms death. Stur was a ge:nius; am.d not only witJhin the Slovak ifrrumewol1k. So it is only natUTal that we return to him and that even future Slovak generations will find their support in him until a greater .spirit apperurs to show the Slova.ks more and ~tter things tJian did Stur. To date, however, Stuir standg ouit as the greatest Slo:vak of all times. We are mindfuil. of, are eternally gratefuil to, and haive the greatest respect and admir,ation. for Vaja:nsky, �4 SLOVAKIA Hviezdoslav, Hli.nka, Tiso, SkuJJtety, and many, many other outstanding Slovak pe71sonalities, even many unknown peOi)le and martyrs, who saorifiiced everythirn.g for Slova:kdom. !But all of these, consdoooly oir lll!Ile◊nsciously, only continued to work for the reaJization of the spiritual plan of Slovak li!fe whlc:h was ~efit us by Stur in his wor:ks aJild in his pupils. Slovak life was given expression thr-o ugh the Slovaik language. According to 'S tur, it could not be otherwise. But Stur hlmself saw :to it that he became its eminent representati'Ve, an example to hi,s compeers and follo,wililg generations: he gave expression to, the irighteous des.ires and demands of his .Slovak nation and became its greatest and thUJS far unsurpassed model in spkituaJ and puiblic acti'Vity. Nations with '1ong state traditions, in which individual generations could develop without hindrance and without regard to age, ha,d the advantage of the experience of thei:r matuire ipeople and &e creativeness of their young peop1e, who always bxought something new, something better into the world and passed it on .to succeeding generations. The Slovak nabion, however, was not aJS fortunate. Having lost their great Moravian E)mpire at the turn of the tenth century, the Slova,ks were ruled iby foreigrn.ers for over a thousamd years. Without its own state traditions the Slovak nation had to rely almost entirely on compruratively young men, youths between 20~30 years old, for new ideas and new aims. In a word, SlovaJk youth was the ,c reator of a new dawn and future ,g oals, because the difficult iltife of the Slovruks undeir foreigrn. political domination did not allow the elders to build a strong national life. A gla,nce at the Slov:a!k past, from the time of Josephinism to the present, shows us tihis picture of Slovak generations: :Bermolak and his g,roup stirred the nation witlt ,theirr new idea wihen they were between 20-30 yea11s old; Holly, Kollar, and Safarik, who came after Bernolak, in the same yeara,, formed a firm outlook of the world; then StuT's generation also formed its national program �SLOVAKIA 5 in its youthful years and it was no different with the generation of ¥ajans:ky a;nd Hviezdosla;v. FoUowing the latter, iit is easier to talk ab{)ll.lt mdirviduiaJs thian generations. Considea:-, if y!()IU wi11, the yews in which the cihaxacters of Hlinka, Stefanik, Razus, and of other Slovaks, who foUowed Hvieooio:s!av's gen.eratioo, developed, and, behold, you will obser:ve that they, too, were between 20-30 years of age wlhen they began theiir creative life for theirr natrian. A :single idea and a single conviction, however, dom~naJted all Slorva·k generations amd eminent individuals: the !Slov3Jk nation coll'ld secl.ll'e and safeguaTd its nation.al existence best onJy if it gained political independence, only if it were free to ruJ.e its own homeland and develop its nation~ Hfe without foreign interference . .Am.d so it was with <YUT generation, which made itself heard .a:t th•e Slova k Institute (Matica Sloivenska) conclave on 'Ma,y 12, 1932, and then again. immediately after at the congress ~ill Trenciansike TepHce, where unanimously and without •r egard ,t o party considerations and con'Victions it declared itselif for a duialistic soJution of Slovak-Czech relatio111Js. Of cowrse, ouir generation came out with nothing new at that time, but ornly strong,l y reiterated what Bernolak and Stur and the1r followers frlad initiated much earlier. For a hundred years, therefore, not,h ing new, nothing moire rulblime apipea,red tiha;n what Stur had e:,opressed and lived for. So it is only natuiral that we must and shall have to .retuvn to. him, !beca;use it is self-evident that every new, Jet U!S say, great plan of Slova,k life must fiTst pass the aqua ,r egi·a test ,o f Stur's thinking. Even today Stuir still is the criter:ion of the life of our rratiOill; a;nd only those aims wihi-ch are in agreement with Stu.r's conception haive any hope and outlook for rea:lizatiolil. Whatever i•s againsit Stur, i,s also a,gainist the vital interests of OU!r nation. Stuir was not quite thmy years old when 'he b,egain to ,u:nite his people . by advocating a uniform language 1 1 1 �6 SLOVAKl1A for Slova,k literature. His wonk bore muoh ,g aod fruit. StUT's ca1l was answered by Sladkovic, ChaJ.upka, Botto, Kirar, Kalinciak, HUTban, and many others. lt Wll)S as if SlOIVak was resurrected by a magk wand. A.ind even though the central Slovak diail.ect is the most divergent of ail Slovak dialects, nevertheless it ri.s the least contaminated by foreigm influences. The Slovaks, therefore, felt ,tJhat the proper cou:rse had been taken in regaird to their literary language. Even John HoHy, not only the greatest 'Slovak poet of that time but a:}so the greatest ideologist of his nation, gave Stu.r's action his blessing, and, therefore, Stur was joined by the Catholics, representing five-sixths, the absolute majority, cl the SlovaJk nation. W1hat is the literary medium of the Italiams today? Is it not the classical ftalian - the Tuscan dialect of Dante and Petrarch - even though in many particulars it diffurs fa·om the other Italian dialects more than does <'entra1 Slovak from the other SlovaJk dialects? But the Itailian of Tuscany is certainly least contaminated by foreign influences and :most ex;pressive of the Railiam. spirit and, hence, the rest of the lta1.ia.n:s accepted it and stand by it. And so it was with the language of central SlwaJkia. It ,i s the most native of all Slovak dia!lects and therefore directly the most appropriate to express the spiiritua,l life of the Slovaks. ·Situr was clearly aware of the fiact that unity in tJhe liteTa,ry laJI1guage was not the uJtimate goal of hiis nation, but only a medium ,o f further national develoipment - of course, an inevitaible medium, if a higher cuiltu.rral level of the broad masses was to be attained and thereby also a proper support for national equality in Hungary. To rea,ch it:he broad masses of the Slo1Vak people and rouse them nationally, Stur published a newspaper in Slovak, Mter waiting some four years for permissri.on from the Hungariain government to do so. The influence of the paper was great; the Slorvaks gave it theiir full. support, while the MagyarSJ, aware of its influence, saon began scheming to suppress it. ,E lected b,y the royail city of �SLOVAKIA 'J Zvoilen to the Hungarian Diet, Stur insisted that the righteous demands of the Slovak nation for free national development ,b e fulf·illed. Before the revo,lution of 1'848 he demanded the DieJt to free the people fr:om the feudalistic Robot system, 1a;bor rent, so that the culture of the country might increase by the foundation of schoo~s in the naJt;ional tO!Ilgue ; he Tecommended the iindusbriali:zation of the land of the Slovaks and the adoption of laws in the huma,nitarian spirit which would enable the development of the country and! for all the nations inhabiting Hungary and ihe fought for a federalistic system in Hungary, whereby taJlJ. natio.n:s mi:ght work as equals for the common weal of the State. Stur appe,a led to the macgnates to give attention to the development of the State and to maJke it possible in the spirit of the modern devellopment of Eurrope. Stur was not a rebel; he did not advocate the destruction of the Hungarlam State aJS long as there wa:i any hope o;f ;s ettlement with the iMagy.aJrs. In the Hunga;rian Diet, •S tur proved himselif .a,s a farsighted politicran and statesmam; he saw and realized what was happening in the coU!Iltries around Hungary. He warned the Magyars that they ,c ould not forever igno,r e and suppress the inherent rights .of natio.ns,, that they couJd not forever e~ploit the Slov:aiks and otlher nations of H'lllilgatry without expecting them to stri1ke baok with their righteous demands for a f,r ee national life, for the same rights the Magyars were resolved to fight for in the Habsb'lliI"g Empire. Stu.r's admonitions, however, hit upon deruf eairs; the Magyam stUJbbor:n,l y amd ignoramtly refused to give ear to a;ny demands for any kind of settlement with the 1t10n~Ma;gyar rnations of Hungacy. The reS1Ult was the revolution of 1848-49, in which the S!l,o vaks also :prurtiiciipated, wihom S·t w togetlieir wi:th Hlurban ,a nd iHodza led in armed resi,s tance against the revoluti()(Il of .the Ma,g yar aristocrats. That the Ha:bsburgs were ung,ratefiul to the Slooaks, that they rfina:Hy settled wtth the Magyairs at the expense of the non-Magyrur natiOIIlS, does not alter the facts, at all. The set- �8 SLOVAKIA tlement of 1867, referred to as Austro~Hungaria,n but in rea.lity Au:stro-iMagyar, became the ,grave of the 'MOIIlarchy which coll!1d haive 'been a miglhty confederation in Central E}ul"ope. Louis Stur, and not 1:Jhe Slovak and M:agyair chauvilll'ist 1Lorui,s Ko,s ut. was the genuine democrat. Sttir and the SIOivak Language As a student at the Bratislmva lyceum and later as a professor, Stur became convinced that Sloiva:k Lutherans would never ,l earn Czech welil enough to oreate worthy scienltific works iirJ. that liangwage and so much more the less artistic ones. From the standpoint of the present and the future, therefore, it made no sense to persevere in Biblical Czech. 'Dhis 'Practical motive,, ·of course, was not enough forr :S tur and, therefore, he made it his business to learn as well as po,s sible all Siova,nic languages and to study comparative phHology. After a tho,r01Ugh reseaTch of the sy:stem of the S[rovalk language, Stur was convinced that the ,Sloivaik [am,g,uiage was not a dira lect of the Czech, but an indepedent Slovanic language and, by the sarrne token, thait the SlO'Vaks were not a part of the Czech nation but am ii.ndependent and individual people. StuT was thairoug,hly fami,l iar with not O!D.ly the w.ritings of the BernolaJk group, not only with the poetkal compO!sitions of John Ho1ly and the works of Bajza and Fandli, but aiso esipecially with the philological works of Anton iBernola.k. Stu,r , therefore, accepted the phonetic orthography of [Bernolak, which from the philologiral and piracticaJ standpoint best answered the purpose, but foc scientific a1r1d ideological rea:sorns decided to adopt the language of central Slovaikia. If Bernolak was it.he first codifier of literary Sloiv:ruk, who set the rules for speaJk:ing and writing Slova:k correctily, then Stur can rightfwlily be c:alled the fiirst reformer of iliterary Slovak, because he really replaced the S1ovaik of western Slovrukia with that of -c entral Slovakia. In the few years after iit was adopted as the literary medii.um of the Slov:aks, the language of central Sl01Vakia developed more talents tha,n were developed during several hundred years �SLOVAKIA 9 by literary Czech. The poems of Slad'kovic, especia!lly his "Marina," the poetical iprodUICtions orf Botto, Ohailuipka, Kral', and many others, pro·v ed that Stur's presuppositions about the sp:uritm1a,l development through the medium of central Slovalk were fuUy justified. In 1943, a: think il was successful in proving, in my work "I'... Stur a slorvenoina" (L. Stur and the SlorvaJk Language), that in !his time Stur was an extraordinarily good ph.ilofogist, who i.lJltuitively often correctly came upo:n certain individurul char.acteiristics of tJhe Slovalk language, so that even a modern philological analysis of his work will confirm the ,c orrectness of many of ,S tur's linguistic findings, the justification for which science ·i n that period could not prove. Stur, howerver, ga!Ve co.rrect judgments not OIIll.y i.lJl philology, but also ,i:n other scientific disciplines, for exaJmple, in history, statecraflt, etc. Stur and Philosophy It is generally said that Stur had aid.opted Hegel's philoso~hy. The maJtter is presented in such a Hght as irf Stur had blindly adopted Hegel's thinking and simply applied lit to Slovak and Slovank life. Philosoiphioal researches with us Slova!ks are, alas, very murch disliked and, therefore, it is ino wonder that S1ov:a1k phi[osophy is incorrectly evaluated. Prior to the war, Profesor Dmitrij Cyzevski, fo:rmerly of the universd.ties orf Hall amd J.einna ibut presently of CoJrunnbia Uni;veTSity, ;in a conversation with me called my attention to the significance of StUT and his followers for phillosophy in general. According to him Stur's generation had seveiraJl t1hin'kers w'.ho tried to create thek own philosophical system and who, in those times, amQIIllg ahl Slovam.ic nations excelled in originality of thinking in philosophy. Cyz.evski later prorved a part of his statement in his excellent book "Sturo•v a :f.ilozofia ziivota" tStur's .Philosophy of Life), which the Slovak Academy orf Sciences published du.ring the war .a nd wlhich, I say regretfully, I do not have today. Even though Cyzevs:ki's book does not deal fuHy with Stur's philosophy neverthe- �10 SLOVAKIA less it did ,p rove that Stur was not a simple student of Hegel's in iphiilosophy, but that he formed an mdependent philosophical system which in many ways differs f.rom that of Hegel. And thus we could gradually consider the political, social, pedagogical, statecraft, and artistic o,pinions of Stur and come to 1:Jhe conclusion that we hia:ve !before us an extremely wealthy personality, which had drawn from native traditions 13Jild in rbhe spirit ()If Slovak needs had formulated !ideas from varioUiS regions into one whole into the ination13Jl ideology of the Slovak nation. To 1UD:derstand Stur •and his wol'lk thoroughly, we must ma.Ike a proper study of all his activities ·amd literary achievements, so that we imi,g ht be able to define accu<!'ately what is .h l,s own, what is domestic tradition, and what has cOIIIle to us .from 01:Jher,s. If we do not ma,ke t'hat study, then we shall not completely understand this greatest phenomenon of Slovruk life of the nineteenth century. The Slovalks, especially recent political emigrants, will have to ,r eturn to Stur firequoot!ly, since for them in many thin:gs he is an excellent example, especially in polilti'cs. For exia.mple, when we t ruke Stur's views on the life of our nation, when his ideas about independent Slovruk national life are taken as the aqua regia of Slovll!k politics from 1918 to the 'Present, then it •s hall not be dificult to ascertain tJhrut, from the Slovak strundpoint, Hlinka's Slovak People's Party and the Slovak National 1P arty of Razus continued to work for the realization of Stur's program, and that they, an:d not a single SlovaJk affiliate of centralistic parties, were the b~arers of traditional Slorvak ideology. Today in 'S}()(Vruk.ia. a foreign 1regime is peTsecuiting and crushing rull elements of the Bernolak-Stur-lHilinka-Razu s tra·d itions, because it is albove all else concerned with the extermination of the !Slovak traditions which in his time Louis Stur had recreated rund reformed in such a manner .that they remain a pernnanent ,bas.is of our national development. � 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 1956, Vol. 6 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 18), March 1956.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 19), June 1956.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 20-21), September-December 1956.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1956 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 3 OUR TRADITION AND WUIS STUR Dr. Henrich Bartek The significance of Louis Stur in the evolution of oUII' national life is so g,rea,t amd far-reaching :bhat it is only slowly that we a.re coming to a dooper understanding ()If this extraordinary perso111Mity, of this genial creator of the modem national Sl,O'V'ak d.deo1ogy. Once you delve into his life's work, yoru become permaIDently fascinated and cannot be freed of its charms, -s o strong is the attraction of Stur even today, a hundred years after his death. The iphilologist, philosopher, ,p edagogue, historian, po~ litician, statesman, writer, journalist, nay even the artist - once they have become acquainted witfu. the entire work and activity of .s tur - moot once ask the question how it was even possible that in the times of the greatest national decadence, at the time that Magyarization of the Slova;ks had really begun, there was found among the abandoned· ,Slovruk people a young m1an who, despite all plots and! difficuUies, built the spkitual fol.l!IldaJtions of the modern life of our nation. How that woo possible, that is a question wJiioh .perha,ps science will be ruble to answer at some time ~n the furtuire. Right now, however, it can only assert that in one generation, measwring genius in the strictest sense, only Ol!le extraordinary persOIIl OT genius appear:s among approximately two million people. There is no doubt that Stur was endowed with extraordinary natural capacity for creative and original conceptions. lit is the ma,rlk of a genius to, create woriks of lasting value which live iJ.ong ages after Ms death. Stur was a ge:nius; am.d not only witJhin the Slovak ifrrumewol1k. So it is only natUTal that we return to him and that even future Slovak generations will find their support in him until a greater .spirit apperurs to show the Slova.ks more and ~tter things tJian did Stur. To date, however, Stuir standg ouit as the greatest Slo:vak of all times. We are mindfuil. of, are eternally gratefuil to, and haive the greatest respect and admir,ation. for Vaja:nsky, 4 SLOVAKIA Hviezdoslav, Hli.nka, Tiso, SkuJJtety, and many, many other outstanding Slovak pe71sonalities, even many unknown peOi)le and martyrs, who saorifiiced everythirn.g for Slova:kdom. !But all of these, consdoooly oir lll!Ile◊nsciously, only continued to work for the reaJization of the spiritual plan of Slovak li!fe whlc:h was ~efit us by Stur in his wor:ks aJild in his pupils. Slovak life was given expression thr-o ugh the Slovaik language. According to 'S tur, it could not be otherwise. But Stur hlmself saw :to it that he became its eminent representati'Ve, an example to hi,s compeers and follo,wililg generations: he gave expression to, the irighteous des.ires and demands of his .Slovak nation and became its greatest and thUJS far unsurpassed model in spkituaJ and puiblic acti'Vity. Nations with '1ong state traditions, in which individual generations could develop without hindrance and without regard to age, ha,d the advantage of the experience of thei:r matuire ipeople and &e creativeness of their young peop1e, who always bxought something new, something better into the world and passed it on .to succeeding generations. The Slovak nabion, however, was not aJS fortunate. Having lost their great Moravian E)mpire at the turn of the tenth century, the Slova,ks were ruled iby foreigrn.ers for over a thousamd years. Without its own state traditions the Slovak nation had to rely almost entirely on compruratively young men, youths between 20~30 years old, for new ideas and new aims. In a word, SlovaJk youth was the ,c reator of a new dawn and future ,g oals, because the difficult iltife of the Slovruks undeir foreigrn. political domination did not allow the elders to build a strong national life. A gla,nce at the Slov:a!k past, from the time of Josephinism to the present, shows us tihis picture of Slovak generations: :Bermolak and his g,roup stirred the nation witlt ,theirr new idea wihen they were between 20-30 yea11s old; Holly, Kollar, and Safarik, who came after Bernolak, in the same yeara,, formed a firm outlook of the world; then StuT's generation also formed its national program SLOVAKIA 5 in its youthful years and it was no different with the generation of ¥ajans:ky a;nd Hviezdosla;v. FoUowing the latter, iit is easier to talk ab{)ll.lt mdirviduiaJs thian generations. Considea:-, if y!()IU wi11, the yews in which the cihaxacters of Hlinka, Stefanik, Razus, and of other Slovaks, who foUowed Hvieooio:s!av's gen.eratioo, developed, and, behold, you will obser:ve that they, too, were between 20-30 years of age wlhen they began theiir creative life for theirr natrian. A :single idea and a single conviction, however, dom~naJted all Slorva·k generations amd eminent individuals: the !Slov3Jk nation coll'ld secl.ll'e and safeguaTd its nation.al existence best onJy if it gained political independence, only if it were free to ruJ.e its own homeland and develop its nation~ Hfe without foreign interference . .Am.d so it was with <YUT generation, which made itself heard .a:t th•e Slova k Institute (Matica Sloivenska) conclave on 'Ma,y 12, 1932, and then again. immediately after at the congress ~ill Trenciansike TepHce, where unanimously and without •r egard ,t o party considerations and con'Victions it declared itselif for a duialistic soJution of Slovak-Czech relatio111Js. Of cowrse, ouir generation came out with nothing new at that time, but ornly strong,l y reiterated what Bernolak and Stur and the1r followers frlad initiated much earlier. For a hundred years, therefore, not,h ing new, nothing moire rulblime apipea,red tiha;n what Stur had e:,opressed and lived for. So it is only natuiral that we must and shall have to .retuvn to. him, !beca;use it is self-evident that every new, Jet U!S say, great plan of Slova,k life must fiTst pass the aqua ,r egi·a test ,o f Stur's thinking. Even today Stuir still is the criter:ion of the life of our rratiOill; a;nd only those aims wihi-ch are in agreement with Stu.r's conception haive any hope and outlook for rea:lizatiolil. Whatever i•s againsit Stur, i,s also a,gainist the vital interests of OU!r nation. Stuir was not quite thmy years old when 'he b,egain to ,u:nite his people . by advocating a uniform language 1 1 1 6 SLOVAKl1A for Slova,k literature. His wonk bore muoh ,g aod fruit. StUT's ca1l was answered by Sladkovic, ChaJ.upka, Botto, Kirar, Kalinciak, HUTban, and many others. lt Wll)S as if SlOIVak was resurrected by a magk wand. A.ind even though the central Slovak diail.ect is the most divergent of ail Slovak dialects, nevertheless it ri.s the least contaminated by foreigm influences. The Slovaks, therefore, felt ,tJhat the proper cou:rse had been taken in regaird to their literary language. Even John HoHy, not only the greatest 'Slovak poet of that time but a:}so the greatest ideologist of his nation, gave Stu.r's action his blessing, and, therefore, Stur was joined by the Catholics, representing five-sixths, the absolute majority, cl the SlovaJk nation. W1hat is the literary medium of the Italiams today? Is it not the classical ftalian - the Tuscan dialect of Dante and Petrarch - even though in many particulars it diffurs fa·om the other Italian dialects more than does <'entra1 Slovak from the other SlovaJk dialects? But the Itailian of Tuscany is certainly least contaminated by foreign influences and :most ex;pressive of the Railiam. spirit and, hence, the rest of the lta1.ia.n:s accepted it and stand by it. And so it was with the language of central SlwaJkia. It ,i s the most native of all Slovak dia!lects and therefore directly the most appropriate to express the spiiritua,l life of the Slovaks. ·Situr was clearly aware of the fiact that unity in tJhe liteTa,ry laJI1guage was not the uJtimate goal of hiis nation, but only a medium ,o f further national develoipment - of course, an inevitaible medium, if a higher cuiltu.rral level of the broad masses was to be attained and thereby also a proper support for national equality in Hungary. To rea,ch it:he broad masses of the Slo1Vak people and rouse them nationally, Stur published a newspaper in Slovak, Mter waiting some four years for permissri.on from the Hungariain government to do so. The influence of the paper was great; the Slorvaks gave it theiir full. support, while the MagyarSJ, aware of its influence, saon began scheming to suppress it. ,E lected b,y the royail city of SLOVAKIA 'J Zvoilen to the Hungarian Diet, Stur insisted that the righteous demands of the Slovak nation for free national development ,b e fulf·illed. Before the revo,lution of 1'848 he demanded the DieJt to free the people fr:om the feudalistic Robot system, 1a;bor rent, so that the culture of the country might increase by the foundation of schoo~s in the naJt;ional tO!Ilgue ; he Tecommended the iindusbriali:zation of the land of the Slovaks and the adoption of laws in the huma,nitarian spirit which would enable the development of the country and! for all the nations inhabiting Hungary and ihe fought for a federalistic system in Hungary, whereby taJlJ. natio.n:s mi:ght work as equals for the common weal of the State. Stur appe,a led to the macgnates to give attention to the development of the State and to maJke it possible in the spirit of the modern devellopment of Eurrope. Stur was not a rebel; he did not advocate the destruction of the Hungarlam State aJS long as there wa:i any hope o;f ;s ettlement with the iMagy.aJrs. In the Hunga;rian Diet, •S tur proved himselif .a,s a farsighted politicran and statesmam; he saw and realized what was happening in the coU!Iltries around Hungary. He warned the Magyars that they ,c ould not forever igno,r e and suppress the inherent rights .of natio.ns,, that they couJd not forever e~ploit the Slov:aiks and otlher nations of H'lllilgatry without expecting them to stri1ke baok with their righteous demands for a f,r ee national life, for the same rights the Magyars were resolved to fight for in the Habsb'lliI"g Empire. Stu.r's admonitions, however, hit upon deruf eairs; the Magyam stUJbbor:n,l y amd ignoramtly refused to give ear to a;ny demands for any kind of settlement with the 1t10n~Ma;gyar rnations of Hungacy. The reS1Ult was the revolution of 1848-49, in which the S!l,o vaks also :prurtiiciipated, wihom S·t w togetlieir wi:th Hlurban ,a nd iHodza led in armed resi,s tance against the revoluti()(Il of .the Ma,g yar aristocrats. That the Ha:bsburgs were ung,ratefiul to the Slooaks, that they rfina:Hy settled wtth the Magyairs at the expense of the non-Magyrur natiOIIlS, does not alter the facts, at all. The set- 8 SLOVAKIA tlement of 1867, referred to as Austro~Hungaria,n but in rea.lity Au:stro-iMagyar, became the ,grave of the 'MOIIlarchy which coll!1d haive 'been a miglhty confederation in Central E}ul"ope. Louis Stur, and not 1:Jhe Slovak and M:agyair chauvilll'ist 1Lorui,s Ko,s ut. was the genuine democrat. Sttir and the SIOivak Language As a student at the Bratislmva lyceum and later as a professor, Stur became convinced that Sloiva:k Lutherans would never ,l earn Czech welil enough to oreate worthy scienltific works iirJ. that liangwage and so much more the less artistic ones. From the standpoint of the present and the future, therefore, it made no sense to persevere in Biblical Czech. 'Dhis 'Practical motive,, ·of course, was not enough forr :S tur and, therefore, he made it his business to learn as well as po,s sible all Siova,nic languages and to study comparative phHology. After a tho,r01Ugh reseaTch of the sy:stem of the S[rovalk language, Stur was convinced that the ,Sloivaik [am,g,uiage was not a dira lect of the Czech, but an indepedent Slovanic language and, by the sarrne token, thait the SlO'Vaks were not a part of the Czech nation but am ii.ndependent and individual people. StuT was thairoug,hly fami,l iar with not O!D.ly the w.ritings of the BernolaJk group, not only with the poetkal compO!sitions of John Ho1ly and the works of Bajza and Fandli, but aiso esipecially with the philological works of Anton iBernola.k. Stu,r , therefore, accepted the phonetic orthography of [Bernolak, which from the philologiral and piracticaJ standpoint best answered the purpose, but foc scientific a1r1d ideological rea:sorns decided to adopt the language of central Slovaikia. If Bernolak was it.he first codifier of literary Sloiv:ruk, who set the rules for speaJk:ing and writing Slova:k correctily, then Stur can rightfwlily be c:alled the fiirst reformer of iliterary Slovak, because he really replaced the S1ovaik of western Slovrukia with that of -c entral Slovakia. In the few years after iit was adopted as the literary medii.um of the Slov:aks, the language of central Sl01Vakia developed more talents tha,n were developed during several hundred years SLOVAKIA 9 by literary Czech. The poems of Slad'kovic, especia!lly his "Marina," the poetical iprodUICtions orf Botto, Ohailuipka, Kral', and many others, pro·v ed that Stur's presuppositions about the sp:uritm1a,l development through the medium of central Slovalk were fuUy justified. In 1943, a: think il was successful in proving, in my work "I'... Stur a slorvenoina" (L. Stur and the SlorvaJk Language), that in !his time Stur was an extraordinarily good ph.ilofogist, who i.lJltuitively often correctly came upo:n certain individurul char.acteiristics of tJhe Slovalk language, so that even a modern philological analysis of his work will confirm the ,c orrectness of many of ,S tur's linguistic findings, the justification for which science ·i n that period could not prove. Stur, howerver, ga!Ve co.rrect judgments not OIIll.y i.lJl philology, but also ,i:n other scientific disciplines, for exaJmple, in history, statecraflt, etc. Stur and Philosophy It is generally said that Stur had aid.opted Hegel's philoso~hy. The maJtter is presented in such a Hght as irf Stur had blindly adopted Hegel's thinking and simply applied lit to Slovak and Slovank life. Philosoiphioal researches with us Slova!ks are, alas, very murch disliked and, therefore, it is ino wonder that S1ov:a1k phi[osophy is incorrectly evaluated. Prior to the war, Profesor Dmitrij Cyzevski, fo:rmerly of the universd.ties orf Hall amd J.einna ibut presently of CoJrunnbia Uni;veTSity, ;in a conversation with me called my attention to the significance of StUT and his followers for phillosophy in general. According to him Stur's generation had seveiraJl t1hin'kers w'.ho tried to create thek own philosophical system and who, in those times, amQIIllg ahl Slovam.ic nations excelled in originality of thinking in philosophy. Cyz.evski later prorved a part of his statement in his excellent book "Sturo•v a :f.ilozofia ziivota" tStur's .Philosophy of Life), which the Slovak Academy orf Sciences published du.ring the war .a nd wlhich, I say regretfully, I do not have today. Even though Cyzevs:ki's book does not deal fuHy with Stur's philosophy neverthe- 10 SLOVAKIA less it did ,p rove that Stur was not a simple student of Hegel's in iphiilosophy, but that he formed an mdependent philosophical system which in many ways differs f.rom that of Hegel. And thus we could gradually consider the political, social, pedagogical, statecraft, and artistic o,pinions of Stur and come to 1:Jhe conclusion that we hia:ve !before us an extremely wealthy personality, which had drawn from native traditions 13Jild in rbhe spirit ()If Slovak needs had formulated !ideas from varioUiS regions into one whole into the ination13Jl ideology of the Slovak nation. To 1UD:derstand Stur •and his wol'lk thoroughly, we must ma.Ike a proper study of all his activities ·amd literary achievements, so that we imi,g ht be able to define accu<!'ately what is .h l,s own, what is domestic tradition, and what has cOIIIle to us .from 01:Jher,s. If we do not ma,ke t'hat study, then we shall not completely understand this greatest phenomenon of Slovruk life of the nineteenth century. The Slovalks, especially recent political emigrants, will have to ,r eturn to Stur firequoot!ly, since for them in many thin:gs he is an excellent example, especially in polilti'cs. For exia.mple, when we t ruke Stur's views on the life of our nation, when his ideas about independent Slovruk national life are taken as the aqua regia of Slovll!k politics from 1918 to the 'Present, then it •s hall not be dificult to ascertain tJhrut, from the Slovak strundpoint, Hlinka's Slovak People's Party and the Slovak National 1P arty of Razus continued to work for the realization of Stur's program, and that they, an:d not a single SlovaJk affiliate of centralistic parties, were the b~arers of traditional Slorvak ideology. Today in 'S}()(Vruk.ia. a foreign 1regime is peTsecuiting and crushing rull elements of the Bernolak-Stur-lHilinka-Razu s tra·d itions, because it is albove all else concerned with the extermination of the !Slovak traditions which in his time Louis Stur had recreated rund reformed in such a manner .that they remain a pernnanent ,bas.is of our national development.  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 Our Tradition and Louis Štúr Description An account of the resource Dr. Henrich Bartek Slovakia, Vol. 6, No. 2 (19), June 1956 pp. 3-10 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bartek, Henrich, 1907-1986 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 1956 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/0268b310794cea2a5333798ce11728df.pdf 410663f290902852eacdfbea2d657236 PDF Text Text 30 SLOVAKIA THE ORIGIN OF "SLOVAN" AND "SLOVAK" Dr. Henrich Bartek The et}'lffiology of the name Slovan has not been thusfar clarified satisfactorily. A more accurate definition of the origin and first homeland of the Slovans (Slavs) would be of extraordinary significance, ,p articularly if it were ipossilble to define more precisely in what area the ancient predecessors of the Slovans acquired their name. Thereiby at lea;st the aJpproximate determination of the time the name Slovan originated could become the b.asis for a more profound knowledge of the ancient history of the Slovanic peoples. The solution of the etymology of the word Slovan is, aibove all else, a linguistic problem and, therefore, we must analyze it first of aH a:ccording to the methods of this discipline, so that the remaining scientific departments, such as archeology, ethnography, and history would only have to support the lingll!istic deductions. Until the present time, in popular scientific, but also in many .scientific treatises, there are circulated many different views aJbout the origin of the name Slovan, some of which have been adhered to for long centuries. Before the thirteenth century, for example, the name Slovan was conected with the word Slava (glory). This etymology found and still finds swpport especially in the Russian form Slavjanin (Slahvyahneen), and its qualifying derivative slavjanskij (s'1a1hvyahnskee), whose root, it is said, confoI'.ms with the root of the word slava (slahvah). In the first half of the nineteenth century, this etymology was poipulari'z ed by the Slovak John Kollar in the poetical composition "Slavy dcera," as well as by his romanticscientific dissertations which he wrote as a professor of Slovanic (,SlaJV) archeology at the University of Vienna. This pqpular etymology was a.nd still is very much favored because it caters to the self-conscio,uisness of the Slovans. Nevertheless, the founder of Slavistics, the Czech scholar Joseph Dobrovsky, and the founder of Slova:nic archeology, the eminent SlaV'hStios savant of Slovwk origin, �SLOVAKIA 31 Paul J. SaJ'ari!k, became aware of the untenability of the current explanation of the term Slovan. a:nd concluded that it wrus derived from slovo (1word). Arccortling to the first etymology, the popolar conc-e pt, Slovan would mean "gloriosus," while acco,r ding to the second, it would mean ''v,~rbosus.'' Dolbrovsky and Safarilk correctly deduced it from the root slov in exiplaining the term Slovan, because they probalbly considered the for,m from the r-o ot slav as secondary. But a,g ain,s t their etymology sipeaJks the fact that in the most ancient grou,p of S101Vanic words with the suffix jan, the names of inhaJbitants were formed from names that indioated concrete oibjects. The word slovo, however is a tyipical aJbstract thing and, therefore, cannot be the basis of the term indicating inhaibitants, which become the common national name of the Slorvanic peoples. Many other etymologies orf the name Slovan are not even considered because -o f their .p ha,n tastic nature. In 1-954, the well-1known Polish scholar of Slavistics, Thaddeus LehrSplruwinski, stated in the book which he wrote with Wl. Kuras zkiewicz and F1r. Slawsky (Przeglad i charakterystyka ja;zykow slowianskich): "Whence originated this term is not as yet sufficiently clrurified; most likely at first it indd!cated the peoiple who d,welled near some water (river or lake) that was named Slowa or Slowo (the Polish for Slova, Slovo). This e:,cpression existed at one time in the looguage of the ancient 'Slovanic peoples and related nations, and the suffix -anie ( -enie), w hkh we find in the term Slovanie (Slovienie), normally indicates the dwellers of territories (comp. Wislanie, Podhalanie, Krako· wianie, etc.) . Lehr-Splawinski evidently inclines here, with a reservation, to the ex,pla:nation offered in 1921 by the remarikalble Polish .p hilologist, Joihn Romvadowski (in the Magazine of Phlfo:logical and Lingustical Studies, dedicated to A. Belie), where he expressed the hypothesis that in the ancient Slovanic language there must have existed a river by the name of Slova or Slava, or a lake called Slovo. Rozwadowslci presupposed he was here concerned with the Indo-European root 'kleu- which meant, he said, "to pour 1 �32 SLOVAKIA over, to clean" ( oblievat:, cistit:). To support his thesis he presented in his dissertation also these Slovanic names for rivers : Slawa, Slawica, Slavuta, Slavec, N eslovka. Rozwadowski's explanation is ,possibly the lbest from the standpoint of linguisti!cs, because he derives the name Slovan from concrete river names. Nevertheless, in our Olpinion, difficulties arise from the significance of the root slov- ("o!blievaf, cistif), as well as from the circumstance that he did not define according to which assumed river, called Slova, the S:lovans got their name. Bes~des that the names he mentions as coming from the roots slov- and slav- indicate streams of every different characteristics, so that one cannot exiplain them from the meaning of the root kleu/,s lov ("oblievaf, ocistif). At times we are concerned with small streams and rivers which pour over and clean nothing; at other times with a great stream (for example, Slavuta is the Slovanic archaic term of the Dnieper), whose character is i:n deep contrast with the small mountain streams that bear the names derived from the root slov- or slav-. If we should compare the terrain in which they flow, as well as the characteristics of a whole series of b,roOO{s and rirvers which the Slovans called by the name Bystrica, or Bystra, Bystrec, and other similar names, we would easily ascertain that their names generally indicate a most ex;pressive characteristic of these streams, that is, thcir raJpid, that is, "bystry" flow. We cannot claim a similar common characteristic, however, for the streams which haive the name Slawa, Slawica, Slavuta, Neslovka, etc., if we follow Rozwadowski's meaning of the root slov-. At least the common, very expressive characteristic of these streams is not evident according to the etymology proposed by Rozwadowski, because the meaning of the root kleu-/slov- assumed by him does not sufficiently warrant this characteristic property, according to which in the distant past these streams of various kinds could be called according to the names formed from the root slov- or slav.Words With the Roots "Slov- and "Slav-" Slovanic (Slavic) languages, we meet with a the In twofold sound of the national name of the Slovans. They 1 �SLOVAKIA 33 are the names formed from the root slov-, as well as those formed from the root slav-, for example: Slowian (Polish), Slovan (Slovak and Czech), and (the Russian) Slavjanin, slavjanskij with the accent on the "-ja-." Slovenec, Slovenka (Slovene); and (in Slovak) Slovak, Slovenka, as well as the name Slovan, the name used up to the present time by the inhabitants near the Irmensky Lake in northern Russia (south of Ladoga Lake, and the name Slovinci, the name used by the adherents of the tribe that lives in the neighborhood of the Polish Kashubi on the coast of the Baltic Sea - all these obviously indicate that they are derived from the root slov-. But even the Russian Slavjanin originated from the older form Slovjanin in which the short -o- was duly changed into an -a- before the accented syllable. This is not uncommon in Russian orthography, where an -a- is used instead of -o- (golova - galava), because in Russian this term from ancient times was connected with the word slava, the root of which is slav-. The very fact that national and tribal names bearing the root slov- have been preserved in the border territories of the present ethnic Slovanic territory should be sufficient reason that it issue out of the root slov-. Names from the root slav- are evidently of a secondary origin. Otherwise, crossing of words from the root slov- and slav- is a current phenomenon in Slovanic languages. This is really due to the influence of! the word slava on words derived from the concept slovo. For example, the word pravoslavie (orthodoxy), as a literal translation of the Greek orthodoxia, should be spelled "pravoslovie" - and instead of pravoslavny we should have the adjective "pravoslovny." Yet, due to the influence of the word slava in all Slovanic tongues, we find words derived only from the stem pravoslav-. So, the Slovak blahoslavif (to bless) - the Polish blagoslawic, and Czech blahoslaviti - has slav- due to this influence, even though correctly it should be "blahoslovif," because even the Russian has blagoslovif from the ecclesiastico-Slovanic blagosloviti, which is a literal translation of the Greek eulogein. All this demonstrates that the root of the word slava has influenced from ancient times the words derived from the root slov- (slovo). The opposite influence, that is, com- �34 SLOVAKIA pensation of the root slav- by means of the root slovcannot be ascertained. Therefore, it is indisputable that the national name of the Slovans (Slavic people) comes from the root slov-; and in those Slovanic languages where we find the root slav- in place of it (for example, the Russian Slavjanin), we can safely say that this is due to phonological development (in Russian and White Russian), or to the influence of the word slava. This conclusion can be complemented with the wealth of material from the Slovanic languages. Here we shall mention only two examples from Slovakia. Topographical names demonstrate that they are derived from the root slov-, for example, Slovany in Turiec County. Here we have the older form of the name Slovak which was replaced by the newer already in the fourteenth century. The name of the community Slovany certainly belongs among the ancient names of Slovak origin and comes from the period when the predecessors of the Slovaks immigrated to Turiec and had to settle among non-Slovaks, probably among the remainder of the Celts. It makes sense then that, in a non-Slovak environment, the ancient Slovaks named their settlement Slovany (phonetically Slovani in the Turiec dialect, because the older "-ja-" after labials was changed here to "-a-'; the genitive is Slovian, appropriately from the older Slovan, where the "-ia-" is used in place of older "-a-" as in ciara from cara, etc.). The adjective of Slovany is also appropriately "sloviansky." Even in Spis County there is a community called Slovinky. So, in topographical names in Slovakia we find only the root slov-, that is, before the advent of the Slovaks to their present territory - before the fifth century - the national name of the Slovans was formed from the root slov-, so that the forms with slav- are obviously altogether newer forms, as we mentioned above. From all this it follows that in solving the etymology of the name Slovan, we must start with the root slov-~, and not with the root slav-. Therefore, the possibility of deriving the national name of the Slovaks from the word slava is completely out of the question. Accepting this view, we then have a realistic basis for the solution of the etymology of the word Slovan. �SLOVAKIA 35 The Suffix "-Jan" In the ancient Slovanic tongue names of settlements were formed with the prefix "-jan," for example, pol'an designated an inhabitant of fields. Topographical names in "-any" nicely preserve the original function of the suffix "-jan," for example Brodzany (in the Nitra Valley) originally designated the inhabitants living near a ford (from the word brod there first originated brod+jan and then Brodzany); the name Lipany (for example, in eastern Slovakia, but also elsewhere in Slovanic countries) comes from lip + jan (really from the accusative Lipjany; even today in the dialect of eastern Slovakia it is Lipjani) and designates the inhabitants of a region in linden (basswood) trees, that is, of an area where there were forests of linden trees. According to this it is evident the suffix "-jan" was used to form the names of settlements from concretes, such as: brod, lipa, hora, luh, etc. The second ancient function of the suffix "-jan" was the formation of names of settlements to designate the inhabitants living in the area of some river, for example, the Polish Wislan from Wisljan still designates an inhabitant of the Wisla river region; similarly, the Slovak name Moravan comes from the name of the river Morava, Kysucan from Kysuce, and so on. This means that in the ancient Slovanic tongue the suffix "-jan" was used to create the names of settlers which were derived from concrete names, that is, appellatives, and from topographical names, particularly from the names of rivers. As far as the stem and the significance of the name Slovan is concerned, from the old form Slov + jan, it belongs among ancient names of settlements which were derived from concrete names. Since in the Slovanic languages there is not a trace after the concrete appellatives "slov, slova, slovo," and since the name Slovan is added in old Greek sources already from the sixth century B.C., it must be derived from some topographical name, because with its entire structure the name Slovan belongs to the same type of appellatives as Wislan, Moravan, and the like, that �36 SLOVAKIA is, to names derived from rivers, the names of which belong to the oldest group of topographical names. The names of Slovanic streams are generally of the feminine gender; very often we meet the adjective forms of the appellatives where the word "rieka" (river) or "voda" (water) has been omitted: Bystra, that is, "bystra voda" and Bystrica (a small rapid stream); Byster (a rapid brook) and Bystrec or Bysterec (a small rapid brook), etc. With the larger streams the word "river" is generally omitted and, therefore, the names of the larger rivers of Slovanic countries, inasmuch as they are of native origin, end in an "-a," that is, they are of the feminine gender. This apparently is refuted by the names Vah, Hron, Ipef, but, in our opinion, these are names of Celtic origin. In eastern Slovakia the river names Poprad and Hornad we regard as Daco-Sarmatian. The name Slovan cannot be the name of a settlement derived from the name of a town, as, for example, Romanus · from the name Roma, because there is no such town or city that could be the foundation of the word Slovan. Therefore, only a river name remains open to us, the name of a larger river, along which for a certain period of time the ancestors of the Slovans could have lived. Of course, the Slovanic name of this great river had to be of the feminine gender and, therefore, issue out of the presuposed river name "Slova," from which, by adding the suffix "-jan," was formed the name Slovan (in Russian: Slavjanin from the older form Slovjanin), which then became a national name in the ancient homeland of the Slovans. The River "Slova" In the national names of the south-Slovanic Slovenes (Slovinci) and the western-Slovanic Slovaks (Slovaci), the little altered ancient name of the Slovans has been preserved to this very day originating long before their departure from the ancient homeland. History tells us that the Slovenes by the end of the sixth century had already penetrated all the way to Pustertal in southern Tyrol and that the Slovaks occupied present-day Moravia and Slovakia before the sixth century. It follows from this that the �SLOVAKIA 37 national name of the Slovans must have originated already long before that time. And since, from the standpoint of linguistics, the name Slovan presupposes a river that was named Slova, we must look for such a river on the territory of the supposed ancient homeland of the Slovans. The region along this river had to be sufficiently large, its climactic conditions advantageous, and it had to spread over a geographical area that would assure sufficient protection against foreign invasions and thereby enable the biological development of the numerically great nation of the ancient Slovans. Comparative philology, Slavistics, as well as archeology and history, have long ago come to the generally accepted conclusion that the ancient homeland of the Slovanic peoples must be sought south of the present settlements of the Lithuanians and to the north of the northern arc of the Carpathians, approximately in the area of the eastern tributaries of the central Wisla and in the western water regions of the river Pripet', a tributary of the central Dnieper. As far as the area of the ancient homeland of the Slovans is concerned, as well as the chronology of the disintegration of the ancient Slovanic national and lingual unity, science has not as yet come to any unified conclusion, because particularly Slovanic scholars are frequently even subconsciously led by the contemporary political aspirations of their nations. Thus, for example, Lehr-Splawinski regards as the land of origin of the Slovans the areas of the Oder and Wisla rivers (vd. "Praslowianie," Biblioteka Studium Slowianskiego, Seria B, Nr. 1, Cracow, 1946), that is, the territory of present-day Poland. Generally the problem of the "land of origin" is very complicated and a more accurate localization of it is practically impossible when chronology is omitted, when the time of the existence of this ancient homeland is not marked out. People regard Denmark with the adjacent regions of northwestern Germany and southern Scandinavia as the ancient homeland of the Germans, but the predecessors of the Germans were not the first inhabitants of this territory and must have had their original homeland somewhere else before their advent into this last German homeland, that is, "last" as far as we know it. And the same holds for the �38 SLOVAKIA Slovans. Even the Trans-Carpathian homeland, whose accurate designation encounters so many difficulties, was not the first homeland of the Slovans. Conversely, however, it is the last homeland known to us and its area was not permanently limited because the Slovans spread and migrated just as the Germans and Celts had done before them. The Wisla and Oder regions are, of course, sufficiently large enough territories on which the nation of the ancient Slovans could have developed, but the non-Slovanic name of the Oder, the Celtic names of some of the tributaries of the Oder and Wisla rivers, and the lack of sufficient proof of the Slovanic origin of the name Wisla, indicate that we cannot here look for the land of origin of the Slovans in which the name Slovan could have originated. Besides this, there is nothing to prove even the possibility of expansion of the eastern Slovans from the Oder-Wisla homeland, which Lehr-Splawinski presupposes. There is no proof that the Oder or the Wisla were ever called Slova or any other name formed from the root "slov-" and, therefore, their water areas do not come into consideration in explaining the name Slovan. But there are also many other reasons why this region canot be considered as the land of origin of the Slovans. On the other hand, in folksongs, which have preserved its ancient name, the Dnieper is also called by the name Slavuta, which evidently comes from the older form Slovuta, because the name of the river could not be derived from the root "slav-" but only from the root "slov-" and Slovuta was changed into Slavuta in the same manner as was Slovjanin into Slavjanin, that is, due to the influence of the word slava. It is generally acknowledged that Dnieper, Dniester, and Don are names of Scythian, that is of Iranian origin. Slavuta as the Slovanic name of the Dnieper is certainly the older appellation, because in ancient times the Slovans they must have given the river a name earlier. Obviously came to the river Dnieper sooner than the Scythians, so they could not accept the Scythian word for a territory which the Scythians had not as yet settled. Under pressure from the Scythians, the Slovans came into the forest terrain along the great river whose Slovanic name is Sia- �SLOVAKIA 39 vuta and of which they Scythian name Dnieper was later circulated generally. Etymology of the Name "Slavuta" The archiac name Slavuta comes from the older form Slovuta which in turn was derived from the ancient Slovanic Slovonta. From the etymological standpoint, we are here concerned with an old adjective form, that is, with an ancient form of participle. From verbs of the type viesf, niesf, etc. (from the old Slovanic vezti, nesti), we have the present-day tongue participles of the feminine gender veduca, nesuca from the older forms vedontja, nesontja. The consonant "-j" in these forms is, of course, of ancient Slovanic origin, but not of the ancient tongue, as is attested to, for example, by the forms mohutny along with mohuci, slovutny, tekuty, etc. From the ancient Slovanic mogti (in Slovak today mocf) came the participle of the masculine gender mogontos, and mogonta in the feminine. Only later, probably when the so-called nominal declension of adjectives originated, when the form dobra became dobraja by the addition of "-ja," did the "-j" get also into the participial forms and the older mogontos became mogontjos, mogonta/mogontja, nesontos/nesontjos, nesonta/nesontja ( and later on, nesontja= nesuca), and so on. With this expansion of participles by a "-j", the form mogontos, mogonta dropped out of the category of participles, that is, it became a straight adjective and was expanded by the adjective suffix "-ny." So came into being the adjective mohutny and then the words mohutnosf, mohutnief. The adjective mohutny was so strongly differentiated with its significance from the appropriate verbal participle that, with the acceptance of Christianity, the Latin omnipotens was translated as vsemohuci and not vsemohutny. The consonant "-t-" in the word mohutny demonstrates the ancient origin of this adjective. The same holds for the adjective slovutny: in old Slovanic we first had slovontos, slovonta and this participle became an adjective with a special significance, that is, it became farther removed from the verb sluti, slovon, sloves (compare the old Czech slouti, slovu, sloves, etc.). The same thing happened here as with the form mogont-: the �40 SLOVAKIA suffix of adjectives was added and we got slovonty (now slovutny). To this day slovutny designates one who has a "sounding" (resounding, booming) name. But even before this meaning developed, the forms slovontos, slovonta had an altogether concrete meaning and meant as much as zvuciaci, zvuciaca (sounding, booming). The ancient Slovanic Slovonta (now Slavuta) meant "zvuciaca" (that is, river or water). The question is: do similar river names really exist? The analogy from German territory is at hand, because there we often come across the name Lauterbach, that is, a sounding or booming brook (Laut = sound, vowel; laut= soundingly, melodiously). From ancient times the Dnieper had the Slovanic appellation Slovonta, that is, a resounding (river), and to this day that part of the Dnieper where there are great rapids (porogi, prahy) is still called Slavuta. In historical times, when a part of the Slovans pushed farther East, from the Slovuta all the way to the river Don, the Scythian name for the river was, of course, accepted by the Slovans, but to this very day its typical epiteton ornans is "tichy" (silent, quiet) ; and they call the Don "tichy" in comparison to the Dnieper (zvuciaci) which is particularly known for its rapids (waterfalls, Zaporozie), which in many spots originally extended several kilometers. Water flowing over rapids made a resounding noise and, so, the river was named a resounding (booming) river (zvuciaca rieka), that is, Slovonta, Slavuta. The river originally could have been named SIova, that is, zvucna (= resounding), and later its name enlarged by the suffix "-uta," which better expressed its original meaning. The little river Neslovka is evidently "nezvucna" (not resounding), that is, quiet, while the Slavecna, a tributary of the Pripef, as well as the names of the type Slawa, Slawica, Slavuc, Slavec, etc., come from the root slov-, from which originally were formed the names of streams whose characteristic property was making a sound. The abstract meaning which we find, for example, in the Slovak word slovutny, is therefore of a secondary origin. The root slov- comes from the ancient kleu-, as Rozwadowski already mentioned, but he incorrectly designated it to mean to pour over, to clean ("oblievaf, cistif"), be- �SLOVAKIA 41 -cause only the meaning "zvucat:" (sound, boom) enables us to explain all the names of streams from the root slov( slav-). The words slava, slovo, slovutny come from a varied degree of the Indo-Euripean root Weu- (comp. the Greek Weos from Wefos, the Slovak slovo; the root Wou-, the "-o-" degree of the root Weu-, is also in the word slava). The predecessors of the Slovans came from the East into the region of the lower flow of the Dnieper before the Scythians and had to name it Slova. This great river in ancient times flowed mostly in a woody terrain and particularly the linden forests stretched to the rapids (prahy= porogi). Kiev itself lies on the territory of the former tribe of Polani, whom Nestor's chronicle already mentions by name. The Polani lived south and south west of Kiev; and the Drevl'ania, that is, inhabitants of forests and woodlands, lived north of them. That is the way it was in the beginning of the historical period of Kievian Russia already in the ninth and tenth centuries A.D. We have already said that the name pofan was the name of a settlement derived from the word pole (field). The words rofa and pole originally designated various kinds of cultivated land: rofa comes from the older form or+lja and is connected with the word or-ati (to plow), that is, orlja (rol'a = orlja) ; it indicates land for plowing so that the word has preserved its original meaning to this very day. On the other hand, pole from the older form pol-jo is connected with the root pol-/pal- (poleti- paliti); originally, therefore, it indicated land that was gained by burning a forest. The Polani near Kiev settled first in the wooded terrain which they cleared for plowland by burning the trees. Similarly even the Polish tribe of Polani in the area of present-day Poznan in Greater Poland acquired its name which later became the national name of the Poles, since the creator of the Polish kingdom was the tribe of Polani. The word Poliak is only a continuation of the name Pofan, just as Slovak is of Slovan. Obviously, the Slovans of the Kiev area did not burn out the woods and forests on the border of the steppe, because they would thereby have come under the subjection of the Scythians. South of Kiev, really south of the Polani, in ancient times there stretched a large forest, which pro- �42 SLOVAKIA tected the Slovans from invasions by the steppe Scythians. This circumstance issues from the analysis of the word Pol'an, but it is also attested to by authors of antiquity who wrote about the enormous linden forests in the region south of Kiev. which we find Topographical names of Pol'ana among the southern Slovans (Croations, Slovenes, Serbs), the western Slovans (Slovaks and Czechs), and in lands where Slovaks originally lived, for example, in Lower Austria - do not give testimony of any Polish colonization, but are only proof of colonization by burning. A thousand years ago, the great tribe of the Lachi lived to the west of Kiev and southeast of the Polani of Poznan. In old Russian their territory is called Ljadskaja zemlja (uncultivated land) . Here we are concerned with the name Lendjan, that is, the inhabitants of land that was uncultivated. At the end of the ninth century, when the Magyars came to Kiev, there they found out about the strong tribe of Lendjani and accepted the word Lend'an, from which the Magyars later developed the form Lengyel to designate the Poles. After the Poles of Greater Poland became stronger, the Lachi first succumbed to the Poles (in the tenth century after the fall of the Great Moravian Empire) and gradually adopted the Polish tongue. The names Pol'ania, Eadzania (abbrev. Lasi) were tribal names used at the end of the ancient Slovanic period. The Desna, Tributary of the Dnieper The Slovans came into the region of the central Dnieper from the south or southeast, as is attested to by a tributary of the Slavuta above Kiev, the Desna. The name of this river could have come only from the predecessors of the present southern Slovans, because only in their language does desna mean "right." According to present geographical customs, we use the expressions "right bank" and "left bank" of a river according to the direction of flow, that is, the direction from the source to the mouth of a stream. In ancient times, however, the custom · was just the opposite of this, because new inhabitants did not come in from the mountains, that is, they did not descend according to the direction of the flow, but just the opposite; in �SLOVAKIA 43 settling a new territory they usually went against the current of great rivers and against the current of their tributaries. So, Desna, even though it means "right," is according to our geographical conceptions "left," that is, the left tributary of the Dnieper-Slavu ta. This means that the predecessors of the Slovans who named the tributary Desna could nohow come into the region of the Desna from the west or the north, but only from the south or southeast. It is only natural that Desna comes from those ancient Slovans who spoke a dialect from which later developed the languages of the southern Slovans (Yugoslavs = Juho , Slaviani), because only they have preserved the adjective desan, desna, desno (in Slovak: pravy, prava, prave). In other words, the predecessors of the present Yugoslavs were settled for a certain time even on the river Desna and only much later, after the Scythians became powerless, did they spread farther to the south all the way to the Black Sea and southwest, and finally occupy t,he Bankans. Therefore, in their ancient homeland the Slovanic tribes were distributed approximately the same as are today the Slovanic nations, of course, on a substantially smaller territory. Another river called Desna is a left tributary of the Bug above Vinica. This is a reliable sign that the pre'.iecessors of the southern Slovans for a certain time did live above the upper Bug. Similarly another Desna is the left tributary of the river Marica in Bulgaria. Apparently, however, this is not a logical appellation; even though in all three cases by the word "right" - that is, Desna - left tributaries are designated, it is self-evident since these river names indicate the direction from which the Slovanic inhabitants that had given them their names had come. And so, the Desnas have an extraordinary meaning in ascertaining the course of Slovanic colonization in ancient times. The name of Desna, the left tributary of the Dnieper above Kiev, demonstrates that the ancient Slovans came to the wooded region of the central Dnieper, against the current, that is, from the south, and already at the time when the Scythians were penetrating from the steppe regions of the southern Don into the steppe regions of the Dnieper. �44 SLOVAKIA According to this, then, we must look for the "real land of origin" of the Slovans along the waste areas of the central Dnieper, which with its enormous area and the ad-vantages of wooded terrain, as well as the climactic conditions of that time afforded especially good conditions so that for long centuries and practically without any warfare the ancient Slovans could develop into a numerically large nation, which later spread to the west, southwest and south, and, finally, to the east and north. The name Dnieper (Dneper) is undoubtedly of Scythian origin. The ancient Slovans, retreating before the pressure of the steppe Scythians, could not have accepted a Scythian name for a river that flowed through a territory which was never inhabited by the Scythians. They must have named this great stream first of all by their own name, that is, with a name of Slovanic origin. The popular and archiac name Slavuta indicates that the name is derived from the lower flow of river and that the predecessors of the Slovans, when they came to the "sounding river with rapids," named it according to this most expressive characteristic with the name Slova, namely, "zvucna" (sounding). This could have happened sometime in the second millenary before Christ, but not later than the beginning of the first millenary before Christ, because, according to most recent excavations near Senec in Slovakia, the Scythians were also in the steppe region of the central Danube already in the fifth and fourth centuries before Christ. From all this it follows that before their arrival into the water region of the Dnieper, the Slovans could not have been called Slovans, since this name is derived from the assumed river name Slova or Slovonta. But the Greeks in the fifth century B.C. did know of a great nation, the Sporoi who lived to the north of the Scythians in forests. Lehr-Splawinski connects the word Sporoi with the Greek "sporaden," according to which it would denote a "sporadically" dispersed nation. Our etymology of the name Sporoi is something else, but we cannot go into a solution of it at this time, because it would lead us too far away from our present subject. The very fact that an ancient Greek source from the �SLOVAKIA 45 fifth century B.C. does not use the name Slovan can indicate that this name was not used much among foreigners at that time, or that the Greeks, for traditional motives, used the older appellation of the Slovans, that is, Sporoi. Finally, it is necessary for us to mention that river names were no longer formed from the root slov- after the name Slovan became the national name of the Slovanic peoples. Of course, the process of forming the ancient Slovanic nation lasted long centuries and during this period some of the tribes emigrated to the west and southwest, and even to the northern arc of the Carpathians. But even these peripherally situated Slovanic tribes had connections with the rest of the ancient Slovans and were really the vanguard of their expansive colonization which could have developed fully only after the departure of the Celts from Central Europe, but particularly after the great German migration from the north to the south when thereby the areas were made free for the penetration of the Slovans to the west, southwest, and south. Conclusions About the Origin of the Name Slovan 1. From the linguistic standpoint, the name Slovan is the name of settlers, formed from a concrete by adding the suffix "-jan." Names from the root slav- are secondary, originating under the influence of the word slava. 2. It is necessary to issue out of the presupposed river name Slova, because in present Slovanic tongues there is no appelative slova, while on the other hand there are many river names derived from the root slov- right on the territory that could have been the "pravlasf" (land of origin) of the Slovans. 3. Of these names, only Slavuta, the original Slovanic name of the Dnieper preserved to this day, enables us to explain the name Slovan, because the form Slavuta from the older form Slovonta ("zvuciaca" - sounding) is only an extended form of the original Slova (zvucna). Only in the water region of the river that bore the name Slova (=Slavuta=Dnieper), could the name Slovan originate, because the predecessors of the Slovans, retreating before the pressure of the Scythians, came into the wooded region of this river. Only in this area were there all the climactic, �46 SLOVAKIA vital, and defensive conditions that enabled the developmen t. of the great nation of the ancient Slovans. 4. According to this, "the first known ancient homeland" (land of origin) of the Slovans in Europe was the area of the central Dnieper ( =Slova), from where the individual Slovanic tribes began to spread to the west, into the water areas of the central Visla which were abandoned by the Celts, and gradually they migrated farther south and southwest. For a certain time their ancient land of origin (pravlasf) extended to the water area of the central Wisla and spread farther. From their "first ancient homeland" to their last ancient homeland, there have passed over a thous-· and years. This calls for many researches before we can write the ancient history of the Slovans by periods. In the water area of the central Dnieper they must have lived not later than the beginning of the first millenary before Christ, where they came there from the southeast, retreating before the pressure of the Iranian Scythians. Before their advent to the area of the river Slova (later, the Dnieper), the predecessors of the Slovans could not have been called Slovans, but had to be called by some other name, as is attested to also by the ancient Greek name Sporoi. We hope that we have succeeded in clarifying the meaning of the presuppose d river name Slova and thereby corrected the hypothesis of Rozwadows ki. Besides that, we have tried to localize the river Slova, regarding this form as Slovanic and the older name of the river Dnieper, whose name is of Iranian, that is, of Scythian origin. The name Dnieper (in Ukrainian Diiipro) was spread only after the fall of the Scythians, when the Slovans of the Kiev area could spread to the south as far as the Black Sea. Only the water area of the Slova (Slavuta, now the Dnieper) could have been the cradle of the name Slovan and of the ancient Slovanic nation which gradually spread from the water area of the Dnieper to the west, southwest, and south, and which, after occupying especially large areas, began gradually to become different nationally and linguistically. The linguistic and national differentati on of the Slovans, however, falls into the historical period and can be traced relatively easily. �SLOVAKIA 47 The Origin of the Name "Slovak" In ancient Slovanic, from the word pole we got the name of Pofanin, who settled it, nom. plural Pofane, just as from the topographical name Praga we got Prazanin, plural Prazane (in old Czech "Prazenin," but plural Praiane). In the fourteenth century began the compensation of the forms in "-an" with forms in "-ak" and this change was completed in the fifteenth century, when Polak replaced Pofan, Prazak-Praz an, etc. At about the same time, the older forms Slovanin, pl. Slovane, were replaced with the forms Slovak, Slovaci. From the viewpoint of internal development of Slovak, it is necessary to recall that the form Slovak is evidently -0f western Slovak origin, which is otherwise understandab le when we consider that the inhabitants of western Slovakia, as well as Moravian Slovakia, that is, the whole of eastern Moravia, were the creators of the Great Moravian Empire in the ninth century. According to the vowel system of words of central Slovakia, today we ought to have Sloviak, Sloviaci, like zemiak-zemi aky against the forms zemak-zemak y of western Slovakia and Moravian Slovakia. In the language of central Slovakia, against the original long "-a" after soft consonants we have "-ia-," for example, the older cara, zar, and others, became ciara, ziar, etc.; but in dialects of western Slovakia we still find cara, zar, etc. And it is a fact that in places of western Slovakia, where the older (long) "a" has been preserved, that is, where people say cara, zar, etc., the forms Slovak, Slovaci have been preserved to this day (for example, in Sebechleby, Hont; in Gombas, Liptov; and places in Orava County). Finally, even Sloviak, Sloviaci of eastern Slovakia point to the fact that these forms originated from the older forms Slovak, Slovaci; this happened sometime in the 14th or 15th century. In the literary language of central Slovakia, which came to be used over 112 years ago instead of Bernolak's Slovak, the forms Slovak-Slova ci are evidently of west Slovakian origin; this is in complete agreement with historical development, because the tribes of western and Moravian Slovakia with the number of their inhabitants, as well �48 SLOVAKIA as historical significance, until the middle of the nineteenth century were the nucleus of the Slovak ethnic. Of all the Slovanic nations, only the Slovaci (Slovaks) and Slovinci (Slovenes) have preserved the name of the ancient Slovanic nation to this day. This very circumstance sufficiently proves that in the period of differentiation of the ancient Slovanic nation into individual Slovanic nations and tongues, the forefathers of the Slovaks and Slovenes preserved their original, that is, ancient Slovanic appellation, while the other Slovans - the Russians, Poles, Serbs, Croatians, Bulgarians, Czechs, etc., gave up their original name of Slovans. That the Slovenes preserved their original name is understandable, because they got to the very edge of the Slovanic world and from the end of the eighth century had foreign rulers. But the Slovaks preserved the original name of the ancient Slovans in their name most probably because they once lived on a territory at least five times as large as present Slovakia and because they were the creators of the first great Slovanic empire on the central Danube (under King Samo, 624-659) and, later, were the creators of the historic Great Moravian Empire that in the ninth century was the mightiest Slovanic state, so that the Slovaks did not have the least motive to abandon the traditional name Slovan from which in the 14th and 15th centuries the present form Slovak developed. Acording to this, the name Slovak contains the original name of all the Slovans and it may be just this clinging of the Slovaks to the original, ancient name that may be the basis of new researches that will clarify the reason why just the Slovaks have so adamantly clung to the ancient name of the Slovans which with its origin extends to their very ancient homeland in the Dnieper area. The findings of historians, archeologists, and ethnographers, and probably the philosophy of the Slovak language, will complement and clarify what cannot be done by pure linguistics which is limited to ascertaining, revealing, and clarifying linguistic facts and linguistic connections. (The Slovak original of this article appeared in "MOST" (The Bridge), a quarterly for Slovak Culture and the organ of the Slovak Writers and Artists Association, Cleveland, Ohio, published by the Rev. John J . Lach, Whiting, Ind.; Vol. ill, No. 1, 1956). � 30 SLOVAKIA THE ORIGIN OF "SLOVAN" AND "SLOVAK" Dr. Henrich Bartek The et}'lffiology of the name Slovan has not been thusfar clarified satisfactorily. A more accurate definition of the origin and first homeland of the Slovans (Slavs) would be of extraordinary significance, ,p articularly if it were ipossilble to define more precisely in what area the ancient predecessors of the Slovans acquired their name. Thereiby at lea;st the aJpproximate determination of the time the name Slovan originated could become the b.asis for a more profound knowledge of the ancient history of the Slovanic peoples. The solution of the etymology of the word Slovan is, aibove all else, a linguistic problem and, therefore, we must analyze it first of aH a:ccording to the methods of this discipline, so that the remaining scientific departments, such as archeology, ethnography, and history would only have to support the lingll!istic deductions. Until the present time, in popular scientific, but also in many .scientific treatises, there are circulated many different views aJbout the origin of the name Slovan, some of which have been adhered to for long centuries. Before the thirteenth century, for example, the name Slovan was conected with the word Slava (glory). This etymology found and still finds swpport especially in the Russian form Slavjanin (Slahvyahneen), and its qualifying derivative slavjanskij (s'1a1hvyahnskee), whose root, it is said, confoI'.ms with the root of the word slava (slahvah). In the first half of the nineteenth century, this etymology was poipulari'z ed by the Slovak John Kollar in the poetical composition "Slavy dcera," as well as by his romanticscientific dissertations which he wrote as a professor of Slovanic (,SlaJV) archeology at the University of Vienna. This pqpular etymology was a.nd still is very much favored because it caters to the self-conscio,uisness of the Slovans. Nevertheless, the founder of Slavistics, the Czech scholar Joseph Dobrovsky, and the founder of Slova:nic archeology, the eminent SlaV'hStios savant of Slovwk origin, �SLOVAKIA 31 Paul J. SaJ'ari!k, became aware of the untenability of the current explanation of the term Slovan. a:nd concluded that it wrus derived from slovo (1word). Arccortling to the first etymology, the popolar conc-e pt, Slovan would mean "gloriosus," while acco,r ding to the second, it would mean ''v,~rbosus.'' Dolbrovsky and Safarilk correctly deduced it from the root slov in exiplaining the term Slovan, because they probalbly considered the for,m from the r-o ot slav as secondary. But a,g ain,s t their etymology sipeaJks the fact that in the most ancient grou,p of S101Vanic words with the suffix jan, the names of inhaJbitants were formed from names that indioated concrete oibjects. The word slovo, however is a tyipical aJbstract thing and, therefore, cannot be the basis of the term indicating inhaibitants, which become the common national name of the Slorvanic peoples. Many other etymologies orf the name Slovan are not even considered because -o f their .p ha,n tastic nature. In 1-954, the well-1known Polish scholar of Slavistics, Thaddeus LehrSplruwinski, stated in the book which he wrote with Wl. Kuras zkiewicz and F1r. Slawsky (Przeglad i charakterystyka ja;zykow slowianskich): "Whence originated this term is not as yet sufficiently clrurified; most likely at first it indd!cated the peoiple who d,welled near some water (river or lake) that was named Slowa or Slowo (the Polish for Slova, Slovo). This e:,cpression existed at one time in the looguage of the ancient 'Slovanic peoples and related nations, and the suffix -anie ( -enie), w hkh we find in the term Slovanie (Slovienie), normally indicates the dwellers of territories (comp. Wislanie, Podhalanie, Krako· wianie, etc.) . Lehr-Splawinski evidently inclines here, with a reservation, to the ex,pla:nation offered in 1921 by the remarikalble Polish .p hilologist, Joihn Romvadowski (in the Magazine of Phlfo:logical and Lingustical Studies, dedicated to A. Belie), where he expressed the hypothesis that in the ancient Slovanic language there must have existed a river by the name of Slova or Slava, or a lake called Slovo. Rozwadowslci presupposed he was here concerned with the Indo-European root 'kleu- which meant, he said, "to pour 1 �32 SLOVAKIA over, to clean" ( oblievat:, cistit:). To support his thesis he presented in his dissertation also these Slovanic names for rivers : Slawa, Slawica, Slavuta, Slavec, N eslovka. Rozwadowski's explanation is ,possibly the lbest from the standpoint of linguisti!cs, because he derives the name Slovan from concrete river names. Nevertheless, in our Olpinion, difficulties arise from the significance of the root slov- ("o!blievaf, cistif), as well as from the circumstance that he did not define according to which assumed river, called Slova, the S:lovans got their name. Bes~des that the names he mentions as coming from the roots slov- and slav- indicate streams of every different characteristics, so that one cannot exiplain them from the meaning of the root kleu/,s lov ("oblievaf, ocistif). At times we are concerned with small streams and rivers which pour over and clean nothing; at other times with a great stream (for example, Slavuta is the Slovanic archaic term of the Dnieper), whose character is i:n deep contrast with the small mountain streams that bear the names derived from the root slov- or slav-. If we should compare the terrain in which they flow, as well as the characteristics of a whole series of b,roOO{s and rirvers which the Slovans called by the name Bystrica, or Bystra, Bystrec, and other similar names, we would easily ascertain that their names generally indicate a most ex;pressive characteristic of these streams, that is, thcir raJpid, that is, "bystry" flow. We cannot claim a similar common characteristic, however, for the streams which haive the name Slawa, Slawica, Slavuta, Neslovka, etc., if we follow Rozwadowski's meaning of the root slov-. At least the common, very expressive characteristic of these streams is not evident according to the etymology proposed by Rozwadowski, because the meaning of the root kleu-/slov- assumed by him does not sufficiently warrant this characteristic property, according to which in the distant past these streams of various kinds could be called according to the names formed from the root slov- or slav.Words With the Roots "Slov- and "Slav-" Slovanic (Slavic) languages, we meet with a the In twofold sound of the national name of the Slovans. They 1 �SLOVAKIA 33 are the names formed from the root slov-, as well as those formed from the root slav-, for example: Slowian (Polish), Slovan (Slovak and Czech), and (the Russian) Slavjanin, slavjanskij with the accent on the "-ja-." Slovenec, Slovenka (Slovene); and (in Slovak) Slovak, Slovenka, as well as the name Slovan, the name used up to the present time by the inhabitants near the Irmensky Lake in northern Russia (south of Ladoga Lake, and the name Slovinci, the name used by the adherents of the tribe that lives in the neighborhood of the Polish Kashubi on the coast of the Baltic Sea - all these obviously indicate that they are derived from the root slov-. But even the Russian Slavjanin originated from the older form Slovjanin in which the short -o- was duly changed into an -a- before the accented syllable. This is not uncommon in Russian orthography, where an -a- is used instead of -o- (golova - galava), because in Russian this term from ancient times was connected with the word slava, the root of which is slav-. The very fact that national and tribal names bearing the root slov- have been preserved in the border territories of the present ethnic Slovanic territory should be sufficient reason that it issue out of the root slov-. Names from the root slav- are evidently of a secondary origin. Otherwise, crossing of words from the root slov- and slav- is a current phenomenon in Slovanic languages. This is really due to the influence of! the word slava on words derived from the concept slovo. For example, the word pravoslavie (orthodoxy), as a literal translation of the Greek orthodoxia, should be spelled "pravoslovie" - and instead of pravoslavny we should have the adjective "pravoslovny." Yet, due to the influence of the word slava in all Slovanic tongues, we find words derived only from the stem pravoslav-. So, the Slovak blahoslavif (to bless) - the Polish blagoslawic, and Czech blahoslaviti - has slav- due to this influence, even though correctly it should be "blahoslovif," because even the Russian has blagoslovif from the ecclesiastico-Slovanic blagosloviti, which is a literal translation of the Greek eulogein. All this demonstrates that the root of the word slava has influenced from ancient times the words derived from the root slov- (slovo). The opposite influence, that is, com- �34 SLOVAKIA pensation of the root slav- by means of the root slovcannot be ascertained. Therefore, it is indisputable that the national name of the Slovans (Slavic people) comes from the root slov-; and in those Slovanic languages where we find the root slav- in place of it (for example, the Russian Slavjanin), we can safely say that this is due to phonological development (in Russian and White Russian), or to the influence of the word slava. This conclusion can be complemented with the wealth of material from the Slovanic languages. Here we shall mention only two examples from Slovakia. Topographical names demonstrate that they are derived from the root slov-, for example, Slovany in Turiec County. Here we have the older form of the name Slovak which was replaced by the newer already in the fourteenth century. The name of the community Slovany certainly belongs among the ancient names of Slovak origin and comes from the period when the predecessors of the Slovaks immigrated to Turiec and had to settle among non-Slovaks, probably among the remainder of the Celts. It makes sense then that, in a non-Slovak environment, the ancient Slovaks named their settlement Slovany (phonetically Slovani in the Turiec dialect, because the older "-ja-" after labials was changed here to "-a-'; the genitive is Slovian, appropriately from the older Slovan, where the "-ia-" is used in place of older "-a-" as in ciara from cara, etc.). The adjective of Slovany is also appropriately "sloviansky." Even in Spis County there is a community called Slovinky. So, in topographical names in Slovakia we find only the root slov-, that is, before the advent of the Slovaks to their present territory - before the fifth century - the national name of the Slovans was formed from the root slov-, so that the forms with slav- are obviously altogether newer forms, as we mentioned above. From all this it follows that in solving the etymology of the name Slovan, we must start with the root slov-~, and not with the root slav-. Therefore, the possibility of deriving the national name of the Slovaks from the word slava is completely out of the question. Accepting this view, we then have a realistic basis for the solution of the etymology of the word Slovan. �SLOVAKIA 35 The Suffix "-Jan" In the ancient Slovanic tongue names of settlements were formed with the prefix "-jan," for example, pol'an designated an inhabitant of fields. Topographical names in "-any" nicely preserve the original function of the suffix "-jan," for example Brodzany (in the Nitra Valley) originally designated the inhabitants living near a ford (from the word brod there first originated brod+jan and then Brodzany); the name Lipany (for example, in eastern Slovakia, but also elsewhere in Slovanic countries) comes from lip + jan (really from the accusative Lipjany; even today in the dialect of eastern Slovakia it is Lipjani) and designates the inhabitants of a region in linden (basswood) trees, that is, of an area where there were forests of linden trees. According to this it is evident the suffix "-jan" was used to form the names of settlements from concretes, such as: brod, lipa, hora, luh, etc. The second ancient function of the suffix "-jan" was the formation of names of settlements to designate the inhabitants living in the area of some river, for example, the Polish Wislan from Wisljan still designates an inhabitant of the Wisla river region; similarly, the Slovak name Moravan comes from the name of the river Morava, Kysucan from Kysuce, and so on. This means that in the ancient Slovanic tongue the suffix "-jan" was used to create the names of settlers which were derived from concrete names, that is, appellatives, and from topographical names, particularly from the names of rivers. As far as the stem and the significance of the name Slovan is concerned, from the old form Slov + jan, it belongs among ancient names of settlements which were derived from concrete names. Since in the Slovanic languages there is not a trace after the concrete appellatives "slov, slova, slovo," and since the name Slovan is added in old Greek sources already from the sixth century B.C., it must be derived from some topographical name, because with its entire structure the name Slovan belongs to the same type of appellatives as Wislan, Moravan, and the like, that �36 SLOVAKIA is, to names derived from rivers, the names of which belong to the oldest group of topographical names. The names of Slovanic streams are generally of the feminine gender; very often we meet the adjective forms of the appellatives where the word "rieka" (river) or "voda" (water) has been omitted: Bystra, that is, "bystra voda" and Bystrica (a small rapid stream); Byster (a rapid brook) and Bystrec or Bysterec (a small rapid brook), etc. With the larger streams the word "river" is generally omitted and, therefore, the names of the larger rivers of Slovanic countries, inasmuch as they are of native origin, end in an "-a," that is, they are of the feminine gender. This apparently is refuted by the names Vah, Hron, Ipef, but, in our opinion, these are names of Celtic origin. In eastern Slovakia the river names Poprad and Hornad we regard as Daco-Sarmatian. The name Slovan cannot be the name of a settlement derived from the name of a town, as, for example, Romanus · from the name Roma, because there is no such town or city that could be the foundation of the word Slovan. Therefore, only a river name remains open to us, the name of a larger river, along which for a certain period of time the ancestors of the Slovans could have lived. Of course, the Slovanic name of this great river had to be of the feminine gender and, therefore, issue out of the presuposed river name "Slova," from which, by adding the suffix "-jan," was formed the name Slovan (in Russian: Slavjanin from the older form Slovjanin), which then became a national name in the ancient homeland of the Slovans. The River "Slova" In the national names of the south-Slovanic Slovenes (Slovinci) and the western-Slovanic Slovaks (Slovaci), the little altered ancient name of the Slovans has been preserved to this very day originating long before their departure from the ancient homeland. History tells us that the Slovenes by the end of the sixth century had already penetrated all the way to Pustertal in southern Tyrol and that the Slovaks occupied present-day Moravia and Slovakia before the sixth century. It follows from this that the �SLOVAKIA 37 national name of the Slovans must have originated already long before that time. And since, from the standpoint of linguistics, the name Slovan presupposes a river that was named Slova, we must look for such a river on the territory of the supposed ancient homeland of the Slovans. The region along this river had to be sufficiently large, its climactic conditions advantageous, and it had to spread over a geographical area that would assure sufficient protection against foreign invasions and thereby enable the biological development of the numerically great nation of the ancient Slovans. Comparative philology, Slavistics, as well as archeology and history, have long ago come to the generally accepted conclusion that the ancient homeland of the Slovanic peoples must be sought south of the present settlements of the Lithuanians and to the north of the northern arc of the Carpathians, approximately in the area of the eastern tributaries of the central Wisla and in the western water regions of the river Pripet', a tributary of the central Dnieper. As far as the area of the ancient homeland of the Slovans is concerned, as well as the chronology of the disintegration of the ancient Slovanic national and lingual unity, science has not as yet come to any unified conclusion, because particularly Slovanic scholars are frequently even subconsciously led by the contemporary political aspirations of their nations. Thus, for example, Lehr-Splawinski regards as the land of origin of the Slovans the areas of the Oder and Wisla rivers (vd. "Praslowianie," Biblioteka Studium Slowianskiego, Seria B, Nr. 1, Cracow, 1946), that is, the territory of present-day Poland. Generally the problem of the "land of origin" is very complicated and a more accurate localization of it is practically impossible when chronology is omitted, when the time of the existence of this ancient homeland is not marked out. People regard Denmark with the adjacent regions of northwestern Germany and southern Scandinavia as the ancient homeland of the Germans, but the predecessors of the Germans were not the first inhabitants of this territory and must have had their original homeland somewhere else before their advent into this last German homeland, that is, "last" as far as we know it. And the same holds for the �38 SLOVAKIA Slovans. Even the Trans-Carpathian homeland, whose accurate designation encounters so many difficulties, was not the first homeland of the Slovans. Conversely, however, it is the last homeland known to us and its area was not permanently limited because the Slovans spread and migrated just as the Germans and Celts had done before them. The Wisla and Oder regions are, of course, sufficiently large enough territories on which the nation of the ancient Slovans could have developed, but the non-Slovanic name of the Oder, the Celtic names of some of the tributaries of the Oder and Wisla rivers, and the lack of sufficient proof of the Slovanic origin of the name Wisla, indicate that we cannot here look for the land of origin of the Slovans in which the name Slovan could have originated. Besides this, there is nothing to prove even the possibility of expansion of the eastern Slovans from the Oder-Wisla homeland, which Lehr-Splawinski presupposes. There is no proof that the Oder or the Wisla were ever called Slova or any other name formed from the root "slov-" and, therefore, their water areas do not come into consideration in explaining the name Slovan. But there are also many other reasons why this region canot be considered as the land of origin of the Slovans. On the other hand, in folksongs, which have preserved its ancient name, the Dnieper is also called by the name Slavuta, which evidently comes from the older form Slovuta, because the name of the river could not be derived from the root "slav-" but only from the root "slov-" and Slovuta was changed into Slavuta in the same manner as was Slovjanin into Slavjanin, that is, due to the influence of the word slava. It is generally acknowledged that Dnieper, Dniester, and Don are names of Scythian, that is of Iranian origin. Slavuta as the Slovanic name of the Dnieper is certainly the older appellation, because in ancient times the Slovans they must have given the river a name earlier. Obviously came to the river Dnieper sooner than the Scythians, so they could not accept the Scythian word for a territory which the Scythians had not as yet settled. Under pressure from the Scythians, the Slovans came into the forest terrain along the great river whose Slovanic name is Sia- �SLOVAKIA 39 vuta and of which they Scythian name Dnieper was later circulated generally. Etymology of the Name "Slavuta" The archiac name Slavuta comes from the older form Slovuta which in turn was derived from the ancient Slovanic Slovonta. From the etymological standpoint, we are here concerned with an old adjective form, that is, with an ancient form of participle. From verbs of the type viesf, niesf, etc. (from the old Slovanic vezti, nesti), we have the present-day tongue participles of the feminine gender veduca, nesuca from the older forms vedontja, nesontja. The consonant "-j" in these forms is, of course, of ancient Slovanic origin, but not of the ancient tongue, as is attested to, for example, by the forms mohutny along with mohuci, slovutny, tekuty, etc. From the ancient Slovanic mogti (in Slovak today mocf) came the participle of the masculine gender mogontos, and mogonta in the feminine. Only later, probably when the so-called nominal declension of adjectives originated, when the form dobra became dobraja by the addition of "-ja," did the "-j" get also into the participial forms and the older mogontos became mogontjos, mogonta/mogontja, nesontos/nesontjos, nesonta/nesontja ( and later on, nesontja= nesuca), and so on. With this expansion of participles by a "-j", the form mogontos, mogonta dropped out of the category of participles, that is, it became a straight adjective and was expanded by the adjective suffix "-ny." So came into being the adjective mohutny and then the words mohutnosf, mohutnief. The adjective mohutny was so strongly differentiated with its significance from the appropriate verbal participle that, with the acceptance of Christianity, the Latin omnipotens was translated as vsemohuci and not vsemohutny. The consonant "-t-" in the word mohutny demonstrates the ancient origin of this adjective. The same holds for the adjective slovutny: in old Slovanic we first had slovontos, slovonta and this participle became an adjective with a special significance, that is, it became farther removed from the verb sluti, slovon, sloves (compare the old Czech slouti, slovu, sloves, etc.). The same thing happened here as with the form mogont-: the �40 SLOVAKIA suffix of adjectives was added and we got slovonty (now slovutny). To this day slovutny designates one who has a "sounding" (resounding, booming) name. But even before this meaning developed, the forms slovontos, slovonta had an altogether concrete meaning and meant as much as zvuciaci, zvuciaca (sounding, booming). The ancient Slovanic Slovonta (now Slavuta) meant "zvuciaca" (that is, river or water). The question is: do similar river names really exist? The analogy from German territory is at hand, because there we often come across the name Lauterbach, that is, a sounding or booming brook (Laut = sound, vowel; laut= soundingly, melodiously). From ancient times the Dnieper had the Slovanic appellation Slovonta, that is, a resounding (river), and to this day that part of the Dnieper where there are great rapids (porogi, prahy) is still called Slavuta. In historical times, when a part of the Slovans pushed farther East, from the Slovuta all the way to the river Don, the Scythian name for the river was, of course, accepted by the Slovans, but to this very day its typical epiteton ornans is "tichy" (silent, quiet) ; and they call the Don "tichy" in comparison to the Dnieper (zvuciaci) which is particularly known for its rapids (waterfalls, Zaporozie), which in many spots originally extended several kilometers. Water flowing over rapids made a resounding noise and, so, the river was named a resounding (booming) river (zvuciaca rieka), that is, Slovonta, Slavuta. The river originally could have been named SIova, that is, zvucna (= resounding), and later its name enlarged by the suffix "-uta," which better expressed its original meaning. The little river Neslovka is evidently "nezvucna" (not resounding), that is, quiet, while the Slavecna, a tributary of the Pripef, as well as the names of the type Slawa, Slawica, Slavuc, Slavec, etc., come from the root slov-, from which originally were formed the names of streams whose characteristic property was making a sound. The abstract meaning which we find, for example, in the Slovak word slovutny, is therefore of a secondary origin. The root slov- comes from the ancient kleu-, as Rozwadowski already mentioned, but he incorrectly designated it to mean to pour over, to clean ("oblievaf, cistif"), be- �SLOVAKIA 41 -cause only the meaning "zvucat:" (sound, boom) enables us to explain all the names of streams from the root slov( slav-). The words slava, slovo, slovutny come from a varied degree of the Indo-Euripean root Weu- (comp. the Greek Weos from Wefos, the Slovak slovo; the root Wou-, the "-o-" degree of the root Weu-, is also in the word slava). The predecessors of the Slovans came from the East into the region of the lower flow of the Dnieper before the Scythians and had to name it Slova. This great river in ancient times flowed mostly in a woody terrain and particularly the linden forests stretched to the rapids (prahy= porogi). Kiev itself lies on the territory of the former tribe of Polani, whom Nestor's chronicle already mentions by name. The Polani lived south and south west of Kiev; and the Drevl'ania, that is, inhabitants of forests and woodlands, lived north of them. That is the way it was in the beginning of the historical period of Kievian Russia already in the ninth and tenth centuries A.D. We have already said that the name pofan was the name of a settlement derived from the word pole (field). The words rofa and pole originally designated various kinds of cultivated land: rofa comes from the older form or+lja and is connected with the word or-ati (to plow), that is, orlja (rol'a = orlja) ; it indicates land for plowing so that the word has preserved its original meaning to this very day. On the other hand, pole from the older form pol-jo is connected with the root pol-/pal- (poleti- paliti); originally, therefore, it indicated land that was gained by burning a forest. The Polani near Kiev settled first in the wooded terrain which they cleared for plowland by burning the trees. Similarly even the Polish tribe of Polani in the area of present-day Poznan in Greater Poland acquired its name which later became the national name of the Poles, since the creator of the Polish kingdom was the tribe of Polani. The word Poliak is only a continuation of the name Pofan, just as Slovak is of Slovan. Obviously, the Slovans of the Kiev area did not burn out the woods and forests on the border of the steppe, because they would thereby have come under the subjection of the Scythians. South of Kiev, really south of the Polani, in ancient times there stretched a large forest, which pro- �42 SLOVAKIA tected the Slovans from invasions by the steppe Scythians. This circumstance issues from the analysis of the word Pol'an, but it is also attested to by authors of antiquity who wrote about the enormous linden forests in the region south of Kiev. which we find Topographical names of Pol'ana among the southern Slovans (Croations, Slovenes, Serbs), the western Slovans (Slovaks and Czechs), and in lands where Slovaks originally lived, for example, in Lower Austria - do not give testimony of any Polish colonization, but are only proof of colonization by burning. A thousand years ago, the great tribe of the Lachi lived to the west of Kiev and southeast of the Polani of Poznan. In old Russian their territory is called Ljadskaja zemlja (uncultivated land) . Here we are concerned with the name Lendjan, that is, the inhabitants of land that was uncultivated. At the end of the ninth century, when the Magyars came to Kiev, there they found out about the strong tribe of Lendjani and accepted the word Lend'an, from which the Magyars later developed the form Lengyel to designate the Poles. After the Poles of Greater Poland became stronger, the Lachi first succumbed to the Poles (in the tenth century after the fall of the Great Moravian Empire) and gradually adopted the Polish tongue. The names Pol'ania, Eadzania (abbrev. Lasi) were tribal names used at the end of the ancient Slovanic period. The Desna, Tributary of the Dnieper The Slovans came into the region of the central Dnieper from the south or southeast, as is attested to by a tributary of the Slavuta above Kiev, the Desna. The name of this river could have come only from the predecessors of the present southern Slovans, because only in their language does desna mean "right." According to present geographical customs, we use the expressions "right bank" and "left bank" of a river according to the direction of flow, that is, the direction from the source to the mouth of a stream. In ancient times, however, the custom · was just the opposite of this, because new inhabitants did not come in from the mountains, that is, they did not descend according to the direction of the flow, but just the opposite; in �SLOVAKIA 43 settling a new territory they usually went against the current of great rivers and against the current of their tributaries. So, Desna, even though it means "right," is according to our geographical conceptions "left," that is, the left tributary of the Dnieper-Slavu ta. This means that the predecessors of the Slovans who named the tributary Desna could nohow come into the region of the Desna from the west or the north, but only from the south or southeast. It is only natural that Desna comes from those ancient Slovans who spoke a dialect from which later developed the languages of the southern Slovans (Yugoslavs = Juho , Slaviani), because only they have preserved the adjective desan, desna, desno (in Slovak: pravy, prava, prave). In other words, the predecessors of the present Yugoslavs were settled for a certain time even on the river Desna and only much later, after the Scythians became powerless, did they spread farther to the south all the way to the Black Sea and southwest, and finally occupy t,he Bankans. Therefore, in their ancient homeland the Slovanic tribes were distributed approximately the same as are today the Slovanic nations, of course, on a substantially smaller territory. Another river called Desna is a left tributary of the Bug above Vinica. This is a reliable sign that the pre'.iecessors of the southern Slovans for a certain time did live above the upper Bug. Similarly another Desna is the left tributary of the river Marica in Bulgaria. Apparently, however, this is not a logical appellation; even though in all three cases by the word "right" - that is, Desna - left tributaries are designated, it is self-evident since these river names indicate the direction from which the Slovanic inhabitants that had given them their names had come. And so, the Desnas have an extraordinary meaning in ascertaining the course of Slovanic colonization in ancient times. The name of Desna, the left tributary of the Dnieper above Kiev, demonstrates that the ancient Slovans came to the wooded region of the central Dnieper, against the current, that is, from the south, and already at the time when the Scythians were penetrating from the steppe regions of the southern Don into the steppe regions of the Dnieper. �44 SLOVAKIA According to this, then, we must look for the "real land of origin" of the Slovans along the waste areas of the central Dnieper, which with its enormous area and the ad-vantages of wooded terrain, as well as the climactic conditions of that time afforded especially good conditions so that for long centuries and practically without any warfare the ancient Slovans could develop into a numerically large nation, which later spread to the west, southwest and south, and, finally, to the east and north. The name Dnieper (Dneper) is undoubtedly of Scythian origin. The ancient Slovans, retreating before the pressure of the steppe Scythians, could not have accepted a Scythian name for a river that flowed through a territory which was never inhabited by the Scythians. They must have named this great stream first of all by their own name, that is, with a name of Slovanic origin. The popular and archiac name Slavuta indicates that the name is derived from the lower flow of river and that the predecessors of the Slovans, when they came to the "sounding river with rapids," named it according to this most expressive characteristic with the name Slova, namely, "zvucna" (sounding). This could have happened sometime in the second millenary before Christ, but not later than the beginning of the first millenary before Christ, because, according to most recent excavations near Senec in Slovakia, the Scythians were also in the steppe region of the central Danube already in the fifth and fourth centuries before Christ. From all this it follows that before their arrival into the water region of the Dnieper, the Slovans could not have been called Slovans, since this name is derived from the assumed river name Slova or Slovonta. But the Greeks in the fifth century B.C. did know of a great nation, the Sporoi who lived to the north of the Scythians in forests. Lehr-Splawinski connects the word Sporoi with the Greek "sporaden," according to which it would denote a "sporadically" dispersed nation. Our etymology of the name Sporoi is something else, but we cannot go into a solution of it at this time, because it would lead us too far away from our present subject. The very fact that an ancient Greek source from the �SLOVAKIA 45 fifth century B.C. does not use the name Slovan can indicate that this name was not used much among foreigners at that time, or that the Greeks, for traditional motives, used the older appellation of the Slovans, that is, Sporoi. Finally, it is necessary for us to mention that river names were no longer formed from the root slov- after the name Slovan became the national name of the Slovanic peoples. Of course, the process of forming the ancient Slovanic nation lasted long centuries and during this period some of the tribes emigrated to the west and southwest, and even to the northern arc of the Carpathians. But even these peripherally situated Slovanic tribes had connections with the rest of the ancient Slovans and were really the vanguard of their expansive colonization which could have developed fully only after the departure of the Celts from Central Europe, but particularly after the great German migration from the north to the south when thereby the areas were made free for the penetration of the Slovans to the west, southwest, and south. Conclusions About the Origin of the Name Slovan 1. From the linguistic standpoint, the name Slovan is the name of settlers, formed from a concrete by adding the suffix "-jan." Names from the root slav- are secondary, originating under the influence of the word slava. 2. It is necessary to issue out of the presupposed river name Slova, because in present Slovanic tongues there is no appelative slova, while on the other hand there are many river names derived from the root slov- right on the territory that could have been the "pravlasf" (land of origin) of the Slovans. 3. Of these names, only Slavuta, the original Slovanic name of the Dnieper preserved to this day, enables us to explain the name Slovan, because the form Slavuta from the older form Slovonta ("zvuciaca" - sounding) is only an extended form of the original Slova (zvucna). Only in the water region of the river that bore the name Slova (=Slavuta=Dnieper), could the name Slovan originate, because the predecessors of the Slovans, retreating before the pressure of the Scythians, came into the wooded region of this river. Only in this area were there all the climactic, �46 SLOVAKIA vital, and defensive conditions that enabled the developmen t. of the great nation of the ancient Slovans. 4. According to this, "the first known ancient homeland" (land of origin) of the Slovans in Europe was the area of the central Dnieper ( =Slova), from where the individual Slovanic tribes began to spread to the west, into the water areas of the central Visla which were abandoned by the Celts, and gradually they migrated farther south and southwest. For a certain time their ancient land of origin (pravlasf) extended to the water area of the central Wisla and spread farther. From their "first ancient homeland" to their last ancient homeland, there have passed over a thous-· and years. This calls for many researches before we can write the ancient history of the Slovans by periods. In the water area of the central Dnieper they must have lived not later than the beginning of the first millenary before Christ, where they came there from the southeast, retreating before the pressure of the Iranian Scythians. Before their advent to the area of the river Slova (later, the Dnieper), the predecessors of the Slovans could not have been called Slovans, but had to be called by some other name, as is attested to also by the ancient Greek name Sporoi. We hope that we have succeeded in clarifying the meaning of the presuppose d river name Slova and thereby corrected the hypothesis of Rozwadows ki. Besides that, we have tried to localize the river Slova, regarding this form as Slovanic and the older name of the river Dnieper, whose name is of Iranian, that is, of Scythian origin. The name Dnieper (in Ukrainian Diiipro) was spread only after the fall of the Scythians, when the Slovans of the Kiev area could spread to the south as far as the Black Sea. Only the water area of the Slova (Slavuta, now the Dnieper) could have been the cradle of the name Slovan and of the ancient Slovanic nation which gradually spread from the water area of the Dnieper to the west, southwest, and south, and which, after occupying especially large areas, began gradually to become different nationally and linguistically. The linguistic and national differentati on of the Slovans, however, falls into the historical period and can be traced relatively easily. �SLOVAKIA 47 The Origin of the Name "Slovak" In ancient Slovanic, from the word pole we got the name of Pofanin, who settled it, nom. plural Pofane, just as from the topographical name Praga we got Prazanin, plural Prazane (in old Czech "Prazenin," but plural Praiane). In the fourteenth century began the compensation of the forms in "-an" with forms in "-ak" and this change was completed in the fifteenth century, when Polak replaced Pofan, Prazak-Praz an, etc. At about the same time, the older forms Slovanin, pl. Slovane, were replaced with the forms Slovak, Slovaci. From the viewpoint of internal development of Slovak, it is necessary to recall that the form Slovak is evidently -0f western Slovak origin, which is otherwise understandab le when we consider that the inhabitants of western Slovakia, as well as Moravian Slovakia, that is, the whole of eastern Moravia, were the creators of the Great Moravian Empire in the ninth century. According to the vowel system of words of central Slovakia, today we ought to have Sloviak, Sloviaci, like zemiak-zemi aky against the forms zemak-zemak y of western Slovakia and Moravian Slovakia. In the language of central Slovakia, against the original long "-a" after soft consonants we have "-ia-," for example, the older cara, zar, and others, became ciara, ziar, etc.; but in dialects of western Slovakia we still find cara, zar, etc. And it is a fact that in places of western Slovakia, where the older (long) "a" has been preserved, that is, where people say cara, zar, etc., the forms Slovak, Slovaci have been preserved to this day (for example, in Sebechleby, Hont; in Gombas, Liptov; and places in Orava County). Finally, even Sloviak, Sloviaci of eastern Slovakia point to the fact that these forms originated from the older forms Slovak, Slovaci; this happened sometime in the 14th or 15th century. In the literary language of central Slovakia, which came to be used over 112 years ago instead of Bernolak's Slovak, the forms Slovak-Slova ci are evidently of west Slovakian origin; this is in complete agreement with historical development, because the tribes of western and Moravian Slovakia with the number of their inhabitants, as well �48 SLOVAKIA as historical significance, until the middle of the nineteenth century were the nucleus of the Slovak ethnic. Of all the Slovanic nations, only the Slovaci (Slovaks) and Slovinci (Slovenes) have preserved the name of the ancient Slovanic nation to this day. This very circumstance sufficiently proves that in the period of differentiation of the ancient Slovanic nation into individual Slovanic nations and tongues, the forefathers of the Slovaks and Slovenes preserved their original, that is, ancient Slovanic appellation, while the other Slovans - the Russians, Poles, Serbs, Croatians, Bulgarians, Czechs, etc., gave up their original name of Slovans. That the Slovenes preserved their original name is understandable, because they got to the very edge of the Slovanic world and from the end of the eighth century had foreign rulers. But the Slovaks preserved the original name of the ancient Slovans in their name most probably because they once lived on a territory at least five times as large as present Slovakia and because they were the creators of the first great Slovanic empire on the central Danube (under King Samo, 624-659) and, later, were the creators of the historic Great Moravian Empire that in the ninth century was the mightiest Slovanic state, so that the Slovaks did not have the least motive to abandon the traditional name Slovan from which in the 14th and 15th centuries the present form Slovak developed. Acording to this, the name Slovak contains the original name of all the Slovans and it may be just this clinging of the Slovaks to the original, ancient name that may be the basis of new researches that will clarify the reason why just the Slovaks have so adamantly clung to the ancient name of the Slovans which with its origin extends to their very ancient homeland in the Dnieper area. The findings of historians, archeologists, and ethnographers, and probably the philosophy of the Slovak language, will complement and clarify what cannot be done by pure linguistics which is limited to ascertaining, revealing, and clarifying linguistic facts and linguistic connections. (The Slovak original of this article appeared in "MOST" (The Bridge), a quarterly for Slovak Culture and the organ of the Slovak Writers and Artists Association, Cleveland, Ohio, published by the Rev. John J . Lach, Whiting, Ind.; Vol. ill, No. 1, 1956). � 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 1958, Vol. 8 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 26), March 1958.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 27), June 1958.</li> <li>Issue 3 (No. 28), December 1958.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1958 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 30 SLOVAKIA THE ORIGIN OF "SLOVAN" AND "SLOVAK" Dr. Henrich Bartek The et}'lffiology of the name Slovan has not been thusfar clarified satisfactorily. A more accurate definition of the origin and first homeland of the Slovans (Slavs) would be of extraordinary significance, ,p articularly if it were ipossilble to define more precisely in what area the ancient predecessors of the Slovans acquired their name. Thereiby at lea;st the aJpproximate determination of the time the name Slovan originated could become the b.asis for a more profound knowledge of the ancient history of the Slovanic peoples. The solution of the etymology of the word Slovan is, aibove all else, a linguistic problem and, therefore, we must analyze it first of aH a:ccording to the methods of this discipline, so that the remaining scientific departments, such as archeology, ethnography, and history would only have to support the lingll!istic deductions. Until the present time, in popular scientific, but also in many .scientific treatises, there are circulated many different views aJbout the origin of the name Slovan, some of which have been adhered to for long centuries. Before the thirteenth century, for example, the name Slovan was conected with the word Slava (glory). This etymology found and still finds swpport especially in the Russian form Slavjanin (Slahvyahneen), and its qualifying derivative slavjanskij (s'1a1hvyahnskee), whose root, it is said, confoI'.ms with the root of the word slava (slahvah). In the first half of the nineteenth century, this etymology was poipulari'z ed by the Slovak John Kollar in the poetical composition "Slavy dcera," as well as by his romanticscientific dissertations which he wrote as a professor of Slovanic (,SlaJV) archeology at the University of Vienna. This pqpular etymology was a.nd still is very much favored because it caters to the self-conscio,uisness of the Slovans. Nevertheless, the founder of Slavistics, the Czech scholar Joseph Dobrovsky, and the founder of Slova:nic archeology, the eminent SlaV'hStios savant of Slovwk origin, SLOVAKIA 31 Paul J. SaJ'ari!k, became aware of the untenability of the current explanation of the term Slovan. a:nd concluded that it wrus derived from slovo (1word). Arccortling to the first etymology, the popolar conc-e pt, Slovan would mean "gloriosus," while acco,r ding to the second, it would mean ''v,~rbosus.'' Dolbrovsky and Safarilk correctly deduced it from the root slov in exiplaining the term Slovan, because they probalbly considered the for,m from the r-o ot slav as secondary. But a,g ain,s t their etymology sipeaJks the fact that in the most ancient grou,p of S101Vanic words with the suffix jan, the names of inhaJbitants were formed from names that indioated concrete oibjects. The word slovo, however is a tyipical aJbstract thing and, therefore, cannot be the basis of the term indicating inhaibitants, which become the common national name of the Slorvanic peoples. Many other etymologies orf the name Slovan are not even considered because -o f their .p ha,n tastic nature. In 1-954, the well-1known Polish scholar of Slavistics, Thaddeus LehrSplruwinski, stated in the book which he wrote with Wl. Kuras zkiewicz and F1r. Slawsky (Przeglad i charakterystyka ja;zykow slowianskich): "Whence originated this term is not as yet sufficiently clrurified; most likely at first it indd!cated the peoiple who d,welled near some water (river or lake) that was named Slowa or Slowo (the Polish for Slova, Slovo). This e:,cpression existed at one time in the looguage of the ancient 'Slovanic peoples and related nations, and the suffix -anie ( -enie), w hkh we find in the term Slovanie (Slovienie), normally indicates the dwellers of territories (comp. Wislanie, Podhalanie, Krako· wianie, etc.) . Lehr-Splawinski evidently inclines here, with a reservation, to the ex,pla:nation offered in 1921 by the remarikalble Polish .p hilologist, Joihn Romvadowski (in the Magazine of Phlfo:logical and Lingustical Studies, dedicated to A. Belie), where he expressed the hypothesis that in the ancient Slovanic language there must have existed a river by the name of Slova or Slava, or a lake called Slovo. Rozwadowslci presupposed he was here concerned with the Indo-European root 'kleu- which meant, he said, "to pour 1 32 SLOVAKIA over, to clean" ( oblievat:, cistit:). To support his thesis he presented in his dissertation also these Slovanic names for rivers : Slawa, Slawica, Slavuta, Slavec, N eslovka. Rozwadowski's explanation is ,possibly the lbest from the standpoint of linguisti!cs, because he derives the name Slovan from concrete river names. Nevertheless, in our Olpinion, difficulties arise from the significance of the root slov- ("o!blievaf, cistif), as well as from the circumstance that he did not define according to which assumed river, called Slova, the S:lovans got their name. Bes~des that the names he mentions as coming from the roots slov- and slav- indicate streams of every different characteristics, so that one cannot exiplain them from the meaning of the root kleu/,s lov ("oblievaf, ocistif). At times we are concerned with small streams and rivers which pour over and clean nothing; at other times with a great stream (for example, Slavuta is the Slovanic archaic term of the Dnieper), whose character is i:n deep contrast with the small mountain streams that bear the names derived from the root slov- or slav-. If we should compare the terrain in which they flow, as well as the characteristics of a whole series of b,roOO{s and rirvers which the Slovans called by the name Bystrica, or Bystra, Bystrec, and other similar names, we would easily ascertain that their names generally indicate a most ex;pressive characteristic of these streams, that is, thcir raJpid, that is, "bystry" flow. We cannot claim a similar common characteristic, however, for the streams which haive the name Slawa, Slawica, Slavuta, Neslovka, etc., if we follow Rozwadowski's meaning of the root slov-. At least the common, very expressive characteristic of these streams is not evident according to the etymology proposed by Rozwadowski, because the meaning of the root kleu-/slov- assumed by him does not sufficiently warrant this characteristic property, according to which in the distant past these streams of various kinds could be called according to the names formed from the root slov- or slav.Words With the Roots "Slov- and "Slav-" Slovanic (Slavic) languages, we meet with a the In twofold sound of the national name of the Slovans. They 1 SLOVAKIA 33 are the names formed from the root slov-, as well as those formed from the root slav-, for example: Slowian (Polish), Slovan (Slovak and Czech), and (the Russian) Slavjanin, slavjanskij with the accent on the "-ja-." Slovenec, Slovenka (Slovene); and (in Slovak) Slovak, Slovenka, as well as the name Slovan, the name used up to the present time by the inhabitants near the Irmensky Lake in northern Russia (south of Ladoga Lake, and the name Slovinci, the name used by the adherents of the tribe that lives in the neighborhood of the Polish Kashubi on the coast of the Baltic Sea - all these obviously indicate that they are derived from the root slov-. But even the Russian Slavjanin originated from the older form Slovjanin in which the short -o- was duly changed into an -a- before the accented syllable. This is not uncommon in Russian orthography, where an -a- is used instead of -o- (golova - galava), because in Russian this term from ancient times was connected with the word slava, the root of which is slav-. The very fact that national and tribal names bearing the root slov- have been preserved in the border territories of the present ethnic Slovanic territory should be sufficient reason that it issue out of the root slov-. Names from the root slav- are evidently of a secondary origin. Otherwise, crossing of words from the root slov- and slav- is a current phenomenon in Slovanic languages. This is really due to the influence of! the word slava on words derived from the concept slovo. For example, the word pravoslavie (orthodoxy), as a literal translation of the Greek orthodoxia, should be spelled "pravoslovie" - and instead of pravoslavny we should have the adjective "pravoslovny." Yet, due to the influence of the word slava in all Slovanic tongues, we find words derived only from the stem pravoslav-. So, the Slovak blahoslavif (to bless) - the Polish blagoslawic, and Czech blahoslaviti - has slav- due to this influence, even though correctly it should be "blahoslovif," because even the Russian has blagoslovif from the ecclesiastico-Slovanic blagosloviti, which is a literal translation of the Greek eulogein. All this demonstrates that the root of the word slava has influenced from ancient times the words derived from the root slov- (slovo). The opposite influence, that is, com- 34 SLOVAKIA pensation of the root slav- by means of the root slovcannot be ascertained. Therefore, it is indisputable that the national name of the Slovans (Slavic people) comes from the root slov-; and in those Slovanic languages where we find the root slav- in place of it (for example, the Russian Slavjanin), we can safely say that this is due to phonological development (in Russian and White Russian), or to the influence of the word slava. This conclusion can be complemented with the wealth of material from the Slovanic languages. Here we shall mention only two examples from Slovakia. Topographical names demonstrate that they are derived from the root slov-, for example, Slovany in Turiec County. Here we have the older form of the name Slovak which was replaced by the newer already in the fourteenth century. The name of the community Slovany certainly belongs among the ancient names of Slovak origin and comes from the period when the predecessors of the Slovaks immigrated to Turiec and had to settle among non-Slovaks, probably among the remainder of the Celts. It makes sense then that, in a non-Slovak environment, the ancient Slovaks named their settlement Slovany (phonetically Slovani in the Turiec dialect, because the older "-ja-" after labials was changed here to "-a-'; the genitive is Slovian, appropriately from the older Slovan, where the "-ia-" is used in place of older "-a-" as in ciara from cara, etc.). The adjective of Slovany is also appropriately "sloviansky." Even in Spis County there is a community called Slovinky. So, in topographical names in Slovakia we find only the root slov-, that is, before the advent of the Slovaks to their present territory - before the fifth century - the national name of the Slovans was formed from the root slov-, so that the forms with slav- are obviously altogether newer forms, as we mentioned above. From all this it follows that in solving the etymology of the name Slovan, we must start with the root slov-~, and not with the root slav-. Therefore, the possibility of deriving the national name of the Slovaks from the word slava is completely out of the question. Accepting this view, we then have a realistic basis for the solution of the etymology of the word Slovan. SLOVAKIA 35 The Suffix "-Jan" In the ancient Slovanic tongue names of settlements were formed with the prefix "-jan," for example, pol'an designated an inhabitant of fields. Topographical names in "-any" nicely preserve the original function of the suffix "-jan," for example Brodzany (in the Nitra Valley) originally designated the inhabitants living near a ford (from the word brod there first originated brod+jan and then Brodzany); the name Lipany (for example, in eastern Slovakia, but also elsewhere in Slovanic countries) comes from lip + jan (really from the accusative Lipjany; even today in the dialect of eastern Slovakia it is Lipjani) and designates the inhabitants of a region in linden (basswood) trees, that is, of an area where there were forests of linden trees. According to this it is evident the suffix "-jan" was used to form the names of settlements from concretes, such as: brod, lipa, hora, luh, etc. The second ancient function of the suffix "-jan" was the formation of names of settlements to designate the inhabitants living in the area of some river, for example, the Polish Wislan from Wisljan still designates an inhabitant of the Wisla river region; similarly, the Slovak name Moravan comes from the name of the river Morava, Kysucan from Kysuce, and so on. This means that in the ancient Slovanic tongue the suffix "-jan" was used to create the names of settlers which were derived from concrete names, that is, appellatives, and from topographical names, particularly from the names of rivers. As far as the stem and the significance of the name Slovan is concerned, from the old form Slov + jan, it belongs among ancient names of settlements which were derived from concrete names. Since in the Slovanic languages there is not a trace after the concrete appellatives "slov, slova, slovo," and since the name Slovan is added in old Greek sources already from the sixth century B.C., it must be derived from some topographical name, because with its entire structure the name Slovan belongs to the same type of appellatives as Wislan, Moravan, and the like, that 36 SLOVAKIA is, to names derived from rivers, the names of which belong to the oldest group of topographical names. The names of Slovanic streams are generally of the feminine gender; very often we meet the adjective forms of the appellatives where the word "rieka" (river) or "voda" (water) has been omitted: Bystra, that is, "bystra voda" and Bystrica (a small rapid stream); Byster (a rapid brook) and Bystrec or Bysterec (a small rapid brook), etc. With the larger streams the word "river" is generally omitted and, therefore, the names of the larger rivers of Slovanic countries, inasmuch as they are of native origin, end in an "-a," that is, they are of the feminine gender. This apparently is refuted by the names Vah, Hron, Ipef, but, in our opinion, these are names of Celtic origin. In eastern Slovakia the river names Poprad and Hornad we regard as Daco-Sarmatian. The name Slovan cannot be the name of a settlement derived from the name of a town, as, for example, Romanus · from the name Roma, because there is no such town or city that could be the foundation of the word Slovan. Therefore, only a river name remains open to us, the name of a larger river, along which for a certain period of time the ancestors of the Slovans could have lived. Of course, the Slovanic name of this great river had to be of the feminine gender and, therefore, issue out of the presuposed river name "Slova," from which, by adding the suffix "-jan," was formed the name Slovan (in Russian: Slavjanin from the older form Slovjanin), which then became a national name in the ancient homeland of the Slovans. The River "Slova" In the national names of the south-Slovanic Slovenes (Slovinci) and the western-Slovanic Slovaks (Slovaci), the little altered ancient name of the Slovans has been preserved to this very day originating long before their departure from the ancient homeland. History tells us that the Slovenes by the end of the sixth century had already penetrated all the way to Pustertal in southern Tyrol and that the Slovaks occupied present-day Moravia and Slovakia before the sixth century. It follows from this that the SLOVAKIA 37 national name of the Slovans must have originated already long before that time. And since, from the standpoint of linguistics, the name Slovan presupposes a river that was named Slova, we must look for such a river on the territory of the supposed ancient homeland of the Slovans. The region along this river had to be sufficiently large, its climactic conditions advantageous, and it had to spread over a geographical area that would assure sufficient protection against foreign invasions and thereby enable the biological development of the numerically great nation of the ancient Slovans. Comparative philology, Slavistics, as well as archeology and history, have long ago come to the generally accepted conclusion that the ancient homeland of the Slovanic peoples must be sought south of the present settlements of the Lithuanians and to the north of the northern arc of the Carpathians, approximately in the area of the eastern tributaries of the central Wisla and in the western water regions of the river Pripet', a tributary of the central Dnieper. As far as the area of the ancient homeland of the Slovans is concerned, as well as the chronology of the disintegration of the ancient Slovanic national and lingual unity, science has not as yet come to any unified conclusion, because particularly Slovanic scholars are frequently even subconsciously led by the contemporary political aspirations of their nations. Thus, for example, Lehr-Splawinski regards as the land of origin of the Slovans the areas of the Oder and Wisla rivers (vd. "Praslowianie," Biblioteka Studium Slowianskiego, Seria B, Nr. 1, Cracow, 1946), that is, the territory of present-day Poland. Generally the problem of the "land of origin" is very complicated and a more accurate localization of it is practically impossible when chronology is omitted, when the time of the existence of this ancient homeland is not marked out. People regard Denmark with the adjacent regions of northwestern Germany and southern Scandinavia as the ancient homeland of the Germans, but the predecessors of the Germans were not the first inhabitants of this territory and must have had their original homeland somewhere else before their advent into this last German homeland, that is, "last" as far as we know it. And the same holds for the 38 SLOVAKIA Slovans. Even the Trans-Carpathian homeland, whose accurate designation encounters so many difficulties, was not the first homeland of the Slovans. Conversely, however, it is the last homeland known to us and its area was not permanently limited because the Slovans spread and migrated just as the Germans and Celts had done before them. The Wisla and Oder regions are, of course, sufficiently large enough territories on which the nation of the ancient Slovans could have developed, but the non-Slovanic name of the Oder, the Celtic names of some of the tributaries of the Oder and Wisla rivers, and the lack of sufficient proof of the Slovanic origin of the name Wisla, indicate that we cannot here look for the land of origin of the Slovans in which the name Slovan could have originated. Besides this, there is nothing to prove even the possibility of expansion of the eastern Slovans from the Oder-Wisla homeland, which Lehr-Splawinski presupposes. There is no proof that the Oder or the Wisla were ever called Slova or any other name formed from the root "slov-" and, therefore, their water areas do not come into consideration in explaining the name Slovan. But there are also many other reasons why this region canot be considered as the land of origin of the Slovans. On the other hand, in folksongs, which have preserved its ancient name, the Dnieper is also called by the name Slavuta, which evidently comes from the older form Slovuta, because the name of the river could not be derived from the root "slav-" but only from the root "slov-" and Slovuta was changed into Slavuta in the same manner as was Slovjanin into Slavjanin, that is, due to the influence of the word slava. It is generally acknowledged that Dnieper, Dniester, and Don are names of Scythian, that is of Iranian origin. Slavuta as the Slovanic name of the Dnieper is certainly the older appellation, because in ancient times the Slovans they must have given the river a name earlier. Obviously came to the river Dnieper sooner than the Scythians, so they could not accept the Scythian word for a territory which the Scythians had not as yet settled. Under pressure from the Scythians, the Slovans came into the forest terrain along the great river whose Slovanic name is Sia- SLOVAKIA 39 vuta and of which they Scythian name Dnieper was later circulated generally. Etymology of the Name "Slavuta" The archiac name Slavuta comes from the older form Slovuta which in turn was derived from the ancient Slovanic Slovonta. From the etymological standpoint, we are here concerned with an old adjective form, that is, with an ancient form of participle. From verbs of the type viesf, niesf, etc. (from the old Slovanic vezti, nesti), we have the present-day tongue participles of the feminine gender veduca, nesuca from the older forms vedontja, nesontja. The consonant "-j" in these forms is, of course, of ancient Slovanic origin, but not of the ancient tongue, as is attested to, for example, by the forms mohutny along with mohuci, slovutny, tekuty, etc. From the ancient Slovanic mogti (in Slovak today mocf) came the participle of the masculine gender mogontos, and mogonta in the feminine. Only later, probably when the so-called nominal declension of adjectives originated, when the form dobra became dobraja by the addition of "-ja," did the "-j" get also into the participial forms and the older mogontos became mogontjos, mogonta/mogontja, nesontos/nesontjos, nesonta/nesontja ( and later on, nesontja= nesuca), and so on. With this expansion of participles by a "-j", the form mogontos, mogonta dropped out of the category of participles, that is, it became a straight adjective and was expanded by the adjective suffix "-ny." So came into being the adjective mohutny and then the words mohutnosf, mohutnief. The adjective mohutny was so strongly differentiated with its significance from the appropriate verbal participle that, with the acceptance of Christianity, the Latin omnipotens was translated as vsemohuci and not vsemohutny. The consonant "-t-" in the word mohutny demonstrates the ancient origin of this adjective. The same holds for the adjective slovutny: in old Slovanic we first had slovontos, slovonta and this participle became an adjective with a special significance, that is, it became farther removed from the verb sluti, slovon, sloves (compare the old Czech slouti, slovu, sloves, etc.). The same thing happened here as with the form mogont-: the 40 SLOVAKIA suffix of adjectives was added and we got slovonty (now slovutny). To this day slovutny designates one who has a "sounding" (resounding, booming) name. But even before this meaning developed, the forms slovontos, slovonta had an altogether concrete meaning and meant as much as zvuciaci, zvuciaca (sounding, booming). The ancient Slovanic Slovonta (now Slavuta) meant "zvuciaca" (that is, river or water). The question is: do similar river names really exist? The analogy from German territory is at hand, because there we often come across the name Lauterbach, that is, a sounding or booming brook (Laut = sound, vowel; laut= soundingly, melodiously). From ancient times the Dnieper had the Slovanic appellation Slovonta, that is, a resounding (river), and to this day that part of the Dnieper where there are great rapids (porogi, prahy) is still called Slavuta. In historical times, when a part of the Slovans pushed farther East, from the Slovuta all the way to the river Don, the Scythian name for the river was, of course, accepted by the Slovans, but to this very day its typical epiteton ornans is "tichy" (silent, quiet) ; and they call the Don "tichy" in comparison to the Dnieper (zvuciaci) which is particularly known for its rapids (waterfalls, Zaporozie), which in many spots originally extended several kilometers. Water flowing over rapids made a resounding noise and, so, the river was named a resounding (booming) river (zvuciaca rieka), that is, Slovonta, Slavuta. The river originally could have been named SIova, that is, zvucna (= resounding), and later its name enlarged by the suffix "-uta," which better expressed its original meaning. The little river Neslovka is evidently "nezvucna" (not resounding), that is, quiet, while the Slavecna, a tributary of the Pripef, as well as the names of the type Slawa, Slawica, Slavuc, Slavec, etc., come from the root slov-, from which originally were formed the names of streams whose characteristic property was making a sound. The abstract meaning which we find, for example, in the Slovak word slovutny, is therefore of a secondary origin. The root slov- comes from the ancient kleu-, as Rozwadowski already mentioned, but he incorrectly designated it to mean to pour over, to clean ("oblievaf, cistif"), be- SLOVAKIA 41 -cause only the meaning "zvucat:" (sound, boom) enables us to explain all the names of streams from the root slov( slav-). The words slava, slovo, slovutny come from a varied degree of the Indo-Euripean root Weu- (comp. the Greek Weos from Wefos, the Slovak slovo; the root Wou-, the "-o-" degree of the root Weu-, is also in the word slava). The predecessors of the Slovans came from the East into the region of the lower flow of the Dnieper before the Scythians and had to name it Slova. This great river in ancient times flowed mostly in a woody terrain and particularly the linden forests stretched to the rapids (prahy= porogi). Kiev itself lies on the territory of the former tribe of Polani, whom Nestor's chronicle already mentions by name. The Polani lived south and south west of Kiev; and the Drevl'ania, that is, inhabitants of forests and woodlands, lived north of them. That is the way it was in the beginning of the historical period of Kievian Russia already in the ninth and tenth centuries A.D. We have already said that the name pofan was the name of a settlement derived from the word pole (field). The words rofa and pole originally designated various kinds of cultivated land: rofa comes from the older form or+lja and is connected with the word or-ati (to plow), that is, orlja (rol'a = orlja) ; it indicates land for plowing so that the word has preserved its original meaning to this very day. On the other hand, pole from the older form pol-jo is connected with the root pol-/pal- (poleti- paliti); originally, therefore, it indicated land that was gained by burning a forest. The Polani near Kiev settled first in the wooded terrain which they cleared for plowland by burning the trees. Similarly even the Polish tribe of Polani in the area of present-day Poznan in Greater Poland acquired its name which later became the national name of the Poles, since the creator of the Polish kingdom was the tribe of Polani. The word Poliak is only a continuation of the name Pofan, just as Slovak is of Slovan. Obviously, the Slovans of the Kiev area did not burn out the woods and forests on the border of the steppe, because they would thereby have come under the subjection of the Scythians. South of Kiev, really south of the Polani, in ancient times there stretched a large forest, which pro- 42 SLOVAKIA tected the Slovans from invasions by the steppe Scythians. This circumstance issues from the analysis of the word Pol'an, but it is also attested to by authors of antiquity who wrote about the enormous linden forests in the region south of Kiev. which we find Topographical names of Pol'ana among the southern Slovans (Croations, Slovenes, Serbs), the western Slovans (Slovaks and Czechs), and in lands where Slovaks originally lived, for example, in Lower Austria - do not give testimony of any Polish colonization, but are only proof of colonization by burning. A thousand years ago, the great tribe of the Lachi lived to the west of Kiev and southeast of the Polani of Poznan. In old Russian their territory is called Ljadskaja zemlja (uncultivated land) . Here we are concerned with the name Lendjan, that is, the inhabitants of land that was uncultivated. At the end of the ninth century, when the Magyars came to Kiev, there they found out about the strong tribe of Lendjani and accepted the word Lend'an, from which the Magyars later developed the form Lengyel to designate the Poles. After the Poles of Greater Poland became stronger, the Lachi first succumbed to the Poles (in the tenth century after the fall of the Great Moravian Empire) and gradually adopted the Polish tongue. The names Pol'ania, Eadzania (abbrev. Lasi) were tribal names used at the end of the ancient Slovanic period. The Desna, Tributary of the Dnieper The Slovans came into the region of the central Dnieper from the south or southeast, as is attested to by a tributary of the Slavuta above Kiev, the Desna. The name of this river could have come only from the predecessors of the present southern Slovans, because only in their language does desna mean "right." According to present geographical customs, we use the expressions "right bank" and "left bank" of a river according to the direction of flow, that is, the direction from the source to the mouth of a stream. In ancient times, however, the custom · was just the opposite of this, because new inhabitants did not come in from the mountains, that is, they did not descend according to the direction of the flow, but just the opposite; in SLOVAKIA 43 settling a new territory they usually went against the current of great rivers and against the current of their tributaries. So, Desna, even though it means "right," is according to our geographical conceptions "left," that is, the left tributary of the Dnieper-Slavu ta. This means that the predecessors of the Slovans who named the tributary Desna could nohow come into the region of the Desna from the west or the north, but only from the south or southeast. It is only natural that Desna comes from those ancient Slovans who spoke a dialect from which later developed the languages of the southern Slovans (Yugoslavs = Juho , Slaviani), because only they have preserved the adjective desan, desna, desno (in Slovak: pravy, prava, prave). In other words, the predecessors of the present Yugoslavs were settled for a certain time even on the river Desna and only much later, after the Scythians became powerless, did they spread farther to the south all the way to the Black Sea and southwest, and finally occupy t,he Bankans. Therefore, in their ancient homeland the Slovanic tribes were distributed approximately the same as are today the Slovanic nations, of course, on a substantially smaller territory. Another river called Desna is a left tributary of the Bug above Vinica. This is a reliable sign that the pre'.iecessors of the southern Slovans for a certain time did live above the upper Bug. Similarly another Desna is the left tributary of the river Marica in Bulgaria. Apparently, however, this is not a logical appellation; even though in all three cases by the word "right" - that is, Desna - left tributaries are designated, it is self-evident since these river names indicate the direction from which the Slovanic inhabitants that had given them their names had come. And so, the Desnas have an extraordinary meaning in ascertaining the course of Slovanic colonization in ancient times. The name of Desna, the left tributary of the Dnieper above Kiev, demonstrates that the ancient Slovans came to the wooded region of the central Dnieper, against the current, that is, from the south, and already at the time when the Scythians were penetrating from the steppe regions of the southern Don into the steppe regions of the Dnieper. 44 SLOVAKIA According to this, then, we must look for the "real land of origin" of the Slovans along the waste areas of the central Dnieper, which with its enormous area and the ad-vantages of wooded terrain, as well as the climactic conditions of that time afforded especially good conditions so that for long centuries and practically without any warfare the ancient Slovans could develop into a numerically large nation, which later spread to the west, southwest and south, and, finally, to the east and north. The name Dnieper (Dneper) is undoubtedly of Scythian origin. The ancient Slovans, retreating before the pressure of the steppe Scythians, could not have accepted a Scythian name for a river that flowed through a territory which was never inhabited by the Scythians. They must have named this great stream first of all by their own name, that is, with a name of Slovanic origin. The popular and archiac name Slavuta indicates that the name is derived from the lower flow of river and that the predecessors of the Slovans, when they came to the "sounding river with rapids," named it according to this most expressive characteristic with the name Slova, namely, "zvucna" (sounding). This could have happened sometime in the second millenary before Christ, but not later than the beginning of the first millenary before Christ, because, according to most recent excavations near Senec in Slovakia, the Scythians were also in the steppe region of the central Danube already in the fifth and fourth centuries before Christ. From all this it follows that before their arrival into the water region of the Dnieper, the Slovans could not have been called Slovans, since this name is derived from the assumed river name Slova or Slovonta. But the Greeks in the fifth century B.C. did know of a great nation, the Sporoi who lived to the north of the Scythians in forests. Lehr-Splawinski connects the word Sporoi with the Greek "sporaden," according to which it would denote a "sporadically" dispersed nation. Our etymology of the name Sporoi is something else, but we cannot go into a solution of it at this time, because it would lead us too far away from our present subject. The very fact that an ancient Greek source from the SLOVAKIA 45 fifth century B.C. does not use the name Slovan can indicate that this name was not used much among foreigners at that time, or that the Greeks, for traditional motives, used the older appellation of the Slovans, that is, Sporoi. Finally, it is necessary for us to mention that river names were no longer formed from the root slov- after the name Slovan became the national name of the Slovanic peoples. Of course, the process of forming the ancient Slovanic nation lasted long centuries and during this period some of the tribes emigrated to the west and southwest, and even to the northern arc of the Carpathians. But even these peripherally situated Slovanic tribes had connections with the rest of the ancient Slovans and were really the vanguard of their expansive colonization which could have developed fully only after the departure of the Celts from Central Europe, but particularly after the great German migration from the north to the south when thereby the areas were made free for the penetration of the Slovans to the west, southwest, and south. Conclusions About the Origin of the Name Slovan 1. From the linguistic standpoint, the name Slovan is the name of settlers, formed from a concrete by adding the suffix "-jan." Names from the root slav- are secondary, originating under the influence of the word slava. 2. It is necessary to issue out of the presupposed river name Slova, because in present Slovanic tongues there is no appelative slova, while on the other hand there are many river names derived from the root slov- right on the territory that could have been the "pravlasf" (land of origin) of the Slovans. 3. Of these names, only Slavuta, the original Slovanic name of the Dnieper preserved to this day, enables us to explain the name Slovan, because the form Slavuta from the older form Slovonta ("zvuciaca" - sounding) is only an extended form of the original Slova (zvucna). Only in the water region of the river that bore the name Slova (=Slavuta=Dnieper), could the name Slovan originate, because the predecessors of the Slovans, retreating before the pressure of the Scythians, came into the wooded region of this river. Only in this area were there all the climactic, 46 SLOVAKIA vital, and defensive conditions that enabled the developmen t. of the great nation of the ancient Slovans. 4. According to this, "the first known ancient homeland" (land of origin) of the Slovans in Europe was the area of the central Dnieper ( =Slova), from where the individual Slovanic tribes began to spread to the west, into the water areas of the central Visla which were abandoned by the Celts, and gradually they migrated farther south and southwest. For a certain time their ancient land of origin (pravlasf) extended to the water area of the central Wisla and spread farther. From their "first ancient homeland" to their last ancient homeland, there have passed over a thous-· and years. This calls for many researches before we can write the ancient history of the Slovans by periods. In the water area of the central Dnieper they must have lived not later than the beginning of the first millenary before Christ, where they came there from the southeast, retreating before the pressure of the Iranian Scythians. Before their advent to the area of the river Slova (later, the Dnieper), the predecessors of the Slovans could not have been called Slovans, but had to be called by some other name, as is attested to also by the ancient Greek name Sporoi. We hope that we have succeeded in clarifying the meaning of the presuppose d river name Slova and thereby corrected the hypothesis of Rozwadows ki. Besides that, we have tried to localize the river Slova, regarding this form as Slovanic and the older name of the river Dnieper, whose name is of Iranian, that is, of Scythian origin. The name Dnieper (in Ukrainian Diiipro) was spread only after the fall of the Scythians, when the Slovans of the Kiev area could spread to the south as far as the Black Sea. Only the water area of the Slova (Slavuta, now the Dnieper) could have been the cradle of the name Slovan and of the ancient Slovanic nation which gradually spread from the water area of the Dnieper to the west, southwest, and south, and which, after occupying especially large areas, began gradually to become different nationally and linguistically. The linguistic and national differentati on of the Slovans, however, falls into the historical period and can be traced relatively easily. SLOVAKIA 47 The Origin of the Name "Slovak" In ancient Slovanic, from the word pole we got the name of Pofanin, who settled it, nom. plural Pofane, just as from the topographical name Praga we got Prazanin, plural Prazane (in old Czech "Prazenin," but plural Praiane). In the fourteenth century began the compensation of the forms in "-an" with forms in "-ak" and this change was completed in the fifteenth century, when Polak replaced Pofan, Prazak-Praz an, etc. At about the same time, the older forms Slovanin, pl. Slovane, were replaced with the forms Slovak, Slovaci. From the viewpoint of internal development of Slovak, it is necessary to recall that the form Slovak is evidently -0f western Slovak origin, which is otherwise understandab le when we consider that the inhabitants of western Slovakia, as well as Moravian Slovakia, that is, the whole of eastern Moravia, were the creators of the Great Moravian Empire in the ninth century. According to the vowel system of words of central Slovakia, today we ought to have Sloviak, Sloviaci, like zemiak-zemi aky against the forms zemak-zemak y of western Slovakia and Moravian Slovakia. In the language of central Slovakia, against the original long "-a" after soft consonants we have "-ia-," for example, the older cara, zar, and others, became ciara, ziar, etc.; but in dialects of western Slovakia we still find cara, zar, etc. And it is a fact that in places of western Slovakia, where the older (long) "a" has been preserved, that is, where people say cara, zar, etc., the forms Slovak, Slovaci have been preserved to this day (for example, in Sebechleby, Hont; in Gombas, Liptov; and places in Orava County). Finally, even Sloviak, Sloviaci of eastern Slovakia point to the fact that these forms originated from the older forms Slovak, Slovaci; this happened sometime in the 14th or 15th century. In the literary language of central Slovakia, which came to be used over 112 years ago instead of Bernolak's Slovak, the forms Slovak-Slova ci are evidently of west Slovakian origin; this is in complete agreement with historical development, because the tribes of western and Moravian Slovakia with the number of their inhabitants, as well 48 SLOVAKIA as historical significance, until the middle of the nineteenth century were the nucleus of the Slovak ethnic. Of all the Slovanic nations, only the Slovaci (Slovaks) and Slovinci (Slovenes) have preserved the name of the ancient Slovanic nation to this day. This very circumstance sufficiently proves that in the period of differentiation of the ancient Slovanic nation into individual Slovanic nations and tongues, the forefathers of the Slovaks and Slovenes preserved their original, that is, ancient Slovanic appellation, while the other Slovans - the Russians, Poles, Serbs, Croatians, Bulgarians, Czechs, etc., gave up their original name of Slovans. That the Slovenes preserved their original name is understandable, because they got to the very edge of the Slovanic world and from the end of the eighth century had foreign rulers. But the Slovaks preserved the original name of the ancient Slovans in their name most probably because they once lived on a territory at least five times as large as present Slovakia and because they were the creators of the first great Slovanic empire on the central Danube (under King Samo, 624-659) and, later, were the creators of the historic Great Moravian Empire that in the ninth century was the mightiest Slovanic state, so that the Slovaks did not have the least motive to abandon the traditional name Slovan from which in the 14th and 15th centuries the present form Slovak developed. Acording to this, the name Slovak contains the original name of all the Slovans and it may be just this clinging of the Slovaks to the original, ancient name that may be the basis of new researches that will clarify the reason why just the Slovaks have so adamantly clung to the ancient name of the Slovans which with its origin extends to their very ancient homeland in the Dnieper area. The findings of historians, archeologists, and ethnographers, and probably the philosophy of the Slovak language, will complement and clarify what cannot be done by pure linguistics which is limited to ascertaining, revealing, and clarifying linguistic facts and linguistic connections. (The Slovak original of this article appeared in "MOST" (The Bridge), a quarterly for Slovak Culture and the organ of the Slovak Writers and Artists Association, Cleveland, Ohio, published by the Rev. John J . Lach, Whiting, Ind.; Vol. ill, No. 1, 1956).  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 Origin of "Slovan" and "Slovak" Description An account of the resource Dr. Henrich Bartek Slovakia, Vol. 8, No. 2 (27), June 1958 pp. 30-48 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bartek, Henrich, 1907-1986 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 1958 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/75a909bdd8b0fc868aebe25cba299cc4.pdf 3e17d0710ca1e65e2a73b94d244da73e PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 169 Kirschbaum, Joseph M., "Twenty Years of Czech and Communist Rule in Slovakia," SLovakia, 1965. Levine, Isaac D., Intervention, 1969, Van Rees Press. Oddo, Gilbert L., Slovakia and its People, 1960, Robert Speller and Sons. Pauco, Joseph (ed.), Slovakia, 1966, 1968, 1969, Slovak League of America. Roberts, Adam and Windsor, Philip, Czechoslovakia 1968, 1969, Columbia University Press. Schwartz, Harry, Prague's 200 Days, 1969, Frederick A. Praeger, Inc. Zubek, T. J ., O.F.M., Church of Silence in Slovakia, 1969, J. J . Lach. MAGAZINES Newsweek, Prague Defies the Kremlin, July 29, 1968. Reader's Digest, The Rape of Czechoslovakia, November, 1968. Time, Self-Determination for Czechoslovakia, April 5, 1968; Czechoslovakia-Approaching Total Eclipse, April 6, 1970; Alexander Dubcek's AU Too Human Face, May 18, 1970. PAMPHLETS AND PAPERS Committee on Un-American Activities, Soviet Total War, 1956. Embassy of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Background Notes Department of State, Socialist Republic Background Notes. New York Times, February 10, 1970, Students in Prague Now Know Their Beautiful Dream is Over, by Alvin Shuster. Hrobak, Philip A., Who Betrayed Slovakia to the Reds. THE SLOVAK ARTS IN PERSPECTIVE Marlene B a rt o s It is \from the vantage point of a multi-ethnic democracy such as the United States that Slovak cultural history can best be placed in true perspective. This paper is an attempt to do so. Because Slovak cultural history has so many ramifications that reach deeply in the histories of neighboring nations, this presentation considers only the theatrical and musical arts, and then only in historical delineation. Analyses and evaluations must remain for the future. The earliest recorded report of a theatrical presentation in Slovakia is the performance of a Christmas play in Bratislava in 1439. By the mid-1500's, plays seem to have been regularly presented. The year 1544 to 1545, for example, records the performances of two plays in German; the one entitled Judith, the other, The Five Wise and Unwise Maidens. Similar reports record activity in Bardejov and Kremnica. (Dejiny slovenskej literatury, 1960. History of Slovak Literature.) �170 SLOVAKIA The 17th century marked dramatic development in Latin at Slovak Jesuit schools, with performances of Seneca, Sophocles, Plautus, and Terentius, among others. These plays were also translated into Slovak, Magyar, and German, and presented in the vernacular. The Piarist Fathers were also active, although their productions did not match the splendor of Jesuit productions in polish or costuming. Jesuit presentations were costumed from Vienna and not infrequently from Venice. Piarist productions, however, were more liberal in content, dealing more with worldly issues, and thus contributed notably to Slovak drama. Original plays in Latin were presented at Slovak Protestant institutions. Isaac Caban (1638-1707), rector at Brezno and later professor at the Presov and Levoca lyceums, wrote a cycle of five Latin plays titled Labarum Triumphale Victrici Palladi Fragariae Solenne (Triumphant Standard of Presov's Victorious Minerva). The cycle was presented in 1665 on five successive days and repeated several times by popular demand. Other original Latin plays by other professors-divines soon appeared. One such play, titled Eleazar Constans, was about a man who was steadfast in his faith. It was presented in Bardejov, in 1668, by students on the anniversary of the founding of their school. This was followed, in 1669, by Papinianus Tetragonus , which met with tremendous success. The nature of the play itself reflected the universal European trend of that time. The protagonist was Papinianus Ictus, a Roman jurist who lived from 140 to 212, "a man brave, steadfast, and honorable." He was executed by Roman Emperor Caracalla because he would not condone the Emperor's fratricide. Papinianus was translated into the prevalent vernaculars-Slovak, German, Magyar-and continued in popularity. A most interesting study for a thesis would be a comparison of the play to the tragedies of Shakespeare, who had been dead only fifty years at that time. Titus Andronicus? Julius Ceasar? Timon of Athens? Anthony and Cleopatra? Coriolanus? Shakespeare drew heavily upon Plutarch's Parallel Lives for the factual bases of his tragedies. Plutarch had �SLOVAKIA 171 already been translated into English and had a profound influence upon English literature; Plutarch was integral to the classical scholarship of Slovakia; Plutarch was the cultural denominator common to England and Slovakia and could therefore serve as the prime basis for a comparative study. Thanks to the well-organized records keeping of the religious orders, much information is available to us about theatrical presentations. From 1601 to 1773, the Jesuits staged over 10,000 plays in Hungary, most of them in Slovakia. The themes of the plays dealt with the bible and with oriental and classical history. Slovak was used for the first time in Bratislava in 1628 as the language of a play entitled About the Sacrament of the Altar. Performances were held every evening during the Lenten season, and the response was so great that more than a thousand tickets were sold every day. An original play entitled Apollo Returned Heaven, by Rector Paul ~uhaj, was performed in Slovak at Levoca, Spisska Kapitula, and Skalica. With the growth of a middle class by the early 1700's came a burgeoning interest in the theater, reaching from the nobility, through the middle-class and the working-class, to the peasantry. The center of this activity in Slovakia was Bratislava, which was also the seat of the Hungarian Parliament. Only a short drive by horse-coach from Vienna, Bratislava teemed with the nobility of the Austrian Imperial Court and consequently that of Hungary and visitors from the other monarchies of Europe. They brought to Bratislava theatrical companies from Austria, Poland, Italy, and Germany. Private theaters became the fashion among such noble families as the Erdody, Eszterhazy, and Zichy, which maintained residences in Bratislava. The permanent theater in Bratislava, from 1741 on, was at Rybarska Brana (Fisherman's Gate). A small summer theater was established in 1760. To the sorrow of Slovak culture, the situation among talented performers of that time still exists today. Persons of outstanding talent would move on to the larger cities of Europe-Budapest, Vienna, Munich, Prague-and asswne a culture that was alien, if not politically hostile, to their Slovak background. Although �172 SLOVAKIA their talents were genetically rooted in Slovakia, the theatrical dynasties they frequently founded were completely alienated, both culturally and politically. The Czech theater was enriched by two Slovaks, Paul Kyrmezer of Banska stiavnica, and George Tesak of Mosovce. Both were refugees from the ravages of the Turks, who held strategic fortresses in Slovakia at that time. Kyrmezer was for a time pastor and school director of various churches in Moravia, being dean in Uherske Hradiste from 1576 until his death in 1589. He wrote several plays and dramas in Old Slovak. George Tesak, who died in Prague in 1617, wrote many plays incorporating music and song, which are considered early forms of the operetta. Both Kyrmezer and Tesak are respected by the Czechs as pioneers in Czech theatrical arts. Adaptations of their works were performed as late as 1938 in Prague, Brno, Olomouc, and other Czech and Moravian centers with great success. The theatrical arts moved ahead quickly in full force in Bratislava, Budapest, and Vienna, which, of course, was reflected in smaller, provincial communities. Music, at this time, became compulsory in all intermediate and higher schools. All professional theaters began to present operas and operettas. Music became an indispensible factor in social and cultural life. Artists-actors, singers, musicians, composers, conductors, and directors-were subsidized by the state and community. Indeed, if one did not attend at least two performances a week, one was almost a social outcast. Many Slovak young men, even from the villages, who came to the big cities to study medicine, pharmacy, law, or philosophy, began to devote themselves to music. They ultimately gave up their original ambitions and enrolled in conservatories of music, undoubtedly causing their parents considerable grief. In this sense they were not unlike our modern youth. · Matthew Kamensky, born in sopron in 1734, composed the first op~ra in Polish, Nedza Uszczesliwiona (Poverty Made Fortunate). He died in Warsaw in 1821 as the popular composer Ka:mi~nski. [Jan Fisher, Dejin,y hudby (History �SLOVAKIA 173 of Music), Spolok sv. Vojtecha (Society of St. Adalbert), Trnava, 1933 ) . Slovakia's central location made the country an important crossing point in the musical lives of surrounding countries. Slovakia was close to the Austrian music of Vienna. But there were also strong Magyar influences. Purely from a Slovak and Slavonic standpoint, the Abbey at Budec was the guardian of liturgical music. The abbey fostered the Cyrilo-Methodian Liturgy and produced many outstanding musicians, composers, and teachers. Bratislava is less than 20 miles, across the Danube, from Rohrau in Austria, where Josef Haydn was born. As a composer of world renown, Haydn contributed outstandingly to the development of the symphony. And as such, he was a teacher of the German genius Ludwig van Beethoven, who raised the symphonic form to its greatest development. Both masters knew Bratislava. Beethoven was only 22 years old when he made Vienna his home in 1792. By 1796 he had already personally endeared himself to Bratislava audiences, although his First Symphony was received with mixed reactions, as elsewhere, when it was first performed in 1800. There is a legend that his Moonlight Sonata was inspired by his love for an innkeeper's daughter in the Slovak spa of Piest'any. Beethoven's fame and popularity brought him many requests for his patronage. One such request, which was fulfilled, came from a young student of music, Jozef Koritansky, who went on to Vienna to become one of the most outstanding of opera stars in Europe. The great Franz Schubert also knew Slovakia. As music teacher to a branch of the Eszterhazy family, he lived in the palace at Zeliezovce. Here he composed his famous Ave Maria, supposedly to express his love for one of the Eszterhazy daughters, which is allegedly why the hymn was banned from churches in some parts of Europe. He, too, was a frequent visitor to Bratislava, where he is known to have had many friends . .Vienna as a cultural magnet, and because of its geographical proximity, drew countless numbers of Slovaks over the centuries. Some went specifically to further their studies. Others went merely to seek their fortunes. At the �174 SLOVAKIA outbreak of World War I, there were innumerable thousands of Slovaks in Vienna. Budapest is an interesting example of Magyar acculturation of Slovaks. The first Magyar opera was composed in 1823 by a Slovak, Jozef Chudy, born in Bratislava. The world-famous composer Ernest Dohnany, was born in Banska Bystrica in 1877. The primadona of the Royal Magyar Theater, Maria Sarvasova, was born in Zvolen in 1894. The leading actress Ilona Bednar was born in Banska stiavnica. Prima ballerina Anna suhaj was a Slovak. The leading actors Jan Sklenar, Tomas Jakub, Pavol Rezar, and Jozef Sedlak, as well as the singers Zoltan Kianicka, Andrej Dvoran, and Jan Mastny, all considered Magyar, had Slovak backgrounds. (Dejiny hudby, Trnava, 1933; Javisko, Turc. Sv. Martin, 1940) As Magyar chauvinism grew in intensity, the Slovak theater in the Slovak highlands suffered, from harassment to direct suppression. Slovak audiences, particularly in the villages, delighted in plays that satirized the Magyarization of the small-town Slovak gentry. Since Magyarization was the planned program of the Budapest government, such plays were considered subversive. Suppression stimulated the growth of the Slovak folk theater, and groups of devoted amateurs sustained the Slovak character through long years of political and cultural oppression. The amateur theater became so ingrained a tradition, that it was brought to the United States by early immigrants, where, with the ubiquitous, multi-functional Slovak choir, it became the fund raiser for most of the Slovak churches, schools, and societies. It would be a long list if one were to enumerate the artists who gained fame on the stages of Budapest and Vienna and whose talents stemmed from the highland villages of Slovakia. It would be an extremely short list to enumerate those artists whose Slovak identity was not obliterated by the cultures of their new environments. There are notable examples, however, of artists who should be mentioned because they emerged as Slovaks through the forces that brought about the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and brought into being new states, among them Czecho-Slovakia. �SLOVAKIA 175 It was in 1916, a year before the United States entered World War I and when the Austro-Hungarian Empire was already tottering, that a Slovak artist of high professional caliber appeared on the American stage as a Slovak, perhaps for the first time in history. It was Anica Fabry, primadona of the Royal Opera at Budapest. She presented several concerts in New York City, which were favorably reviewed by such newspapers as The New York Times, The Herald Tribune, and the Journal American, among others. Noteworthy is the fact that in the programs of songs Miss Fabry sang were those of a young Slovak composer, Mikulas Schneider-Trnavsky. Following upon the end of the war and the emergence of the states in Central and East Central Europe, the world was able to know the young, talented Slovaks building careers on the stages of Budapest and Vienna. The handsome young Slovak actor-singer Frantisek Kristof Vesely was brought from Vienna to Prague, where he became a leading star in films. From Budapest there returned such outstanding artists as Andrej Bagar, Hana Melickova, and Jozef Kelo. Bratislava was nationalistically awakening in quick tempo. But it soon appeared that the Czechs wanted the National Theater at Bratislava to be a bridge for politicizing and for influencing a pan-Czech Slovak development. This led to an internal struggle that lasted for years, during which Slovaks were gradually beginning to supplant Czechs m thA Slovak National Theater, particular as authors and playwriters.Outstanding foreign plays were being translated into Slovak and presented on the stage. Many Slovaks, however, were applying their talents to the Czech stage, as actors, singers, directors, and ballet performers. They were exceptionally well paid for their talents, it should be said, to prevent them from complementing the Slovak theaters at Bratislava and Kosice, which were, through their high professional standards, too dangerously competitive for the Czech theater at Prague and Brno. The year 1938 decided in favor of the Slovaks. The theater in Bratislava was already on a high professional level. The still relatively young, 39-year-old idol, Frantisek �176 SLOVAKIA Kristof Vesely, came home to Bratislava from Prague. Opera star Belo Turba Nitrancan returned from Brno. New strength arrived through the return of young Slovaks who had been studying abroad. All enriched the Slovak stage. Into this resurging theatrical environment entered the ambitious and talented young Slovak, Gejza Dusik, who in the course of a few years wrote dozens of operettas, Turecky tabak (Turkish Tobacco), Modra ruza (Blue Rose), Pozar na vlak (Watch Out for the Train), Pod cudzou vlajkou (Under a Foreign Flag), to name the most popular. These were received with so great and wide acclaim that they were almost immediately translated into neighboring languages - German, Magyar, Croat, Bulgar, and others. Theaters were filled to standing-room-on ly whenever Dusik's operettas were performed. The names Mayzes, Cikker, and Suchan are known world-wide as contemporary composers of classical music, symphonic and operatic. Their works are in the repertoire of every major, internationally known symphony orchestra and opera company. Mayzes' Janosik Suite musically recreates the legends of the popular Slovak hero-outlaw, who "took from the rich and gave to the poor." Cikker's operas are regularly performed in Germany and England, particularly one based on Dicken's Christmas Carol. Suchon's opera Krutnava (Vortex), in purely Slovak setting and theme, begins in tragedy and ends in happiness, contrary to traditional operatic structure. Nevertheless, Krutnava has established itself even in Italy, the birthplace and home of opera. As already stated, this presentation considers Slovak theatrical and musical arts only in historical delineation. Although the years 1938 to 1945 constitute, in a sense, Slovak cultural risorgimento, those years and the years following up to our time are still within the current historical perspective. As such, they do not lend themselves even to a superficial evaluation that can be objective. Such evaluation is for the future. What may be said today about this period of Slovak risorgimento is that Bratislava surpassed Vienna in the state of the arts. What must be asked today is, "Quo vadis, Bratislava?" ( Second place - College) � SLOVAKIA 169 Kirschbaum, Joseph M., "Twenty Years of Czech and Communist Rule in Slovakia," SLovakia, 1965. Levine, Isaac D., Intervention, 1969, Van Rees Press. Oddo, Gilbert L., Slovakia and its People, 1960, Robert Speller and Sons. Pauco, Joseph (ed.), Slovakia, 1966, 1968, 1969, Slovak League of America. Roberts, Adam and Windsor, Philip, Czechoslovakia 1968, 1969, Columbia University Press. Schwartz, Harry, Prague's 200 Days, 1969, Frederick A. Praeger, Inc. Zubek, T. J ., O.F.M., Church of Silence in Slovakia, 1969, J. J . Lach. MAGAZINES Newsweek, Prague Defies the Kremlin, July 29, 1968. Reader's Digest, The Rape of Czechoslovakia, November, 1968. Time, Self-Determination for Czechoslovakia, April 5, 1968; Czechoslovakia-Approaching Total Eclipse, April 6, 1970; Alexander Dubcek's AU Too Human Face, May 18, 1970. PAMPHLETS AND PAPERS Committee on Un-American Activities, Soviet Total War, 1956. Embassy of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Background Notes Department of State, Socialist Republic Background Notes. New York Times, February 10, 1970, Students in Prague Now Know Their Beautiful Dream is Over, by Alvin Shuster. Hrobak, Philip A., Who Betrayed Slovakia to the Reds. THE SLOVAK ARTS IN PERSPECTIVE Marlene B a rt o s It is \from the vantage point of a multi-ethnic democracy such as the United States that Slovak cultural history can best be placed in true perspective. This paper is an attempt to do so. Because Slovak cultural history has so many ramifications that reach deeply in the histories of neighboring nations, this presentation considers only the theatrical and musical arts, and then only in historical delineation. Analyses and evaluations must remain for the future. The earliest recorded report of a theatrical presentation in Slovakia is the performance of a Christmas play in Bratislava in 1439. By the mid-1500's, plays seem to have been regularly presented. The year 1544 to 1545, for example, records the performances of two plays in German; the one entitled Judith, the other, The Five Wise and Unwise Maidens. Similar reports record activity in Bardejov and Kremnica. (Dejiny slovenskej literatury, 1960. History of Slovak Literature.) �170 SLOVAKIA The 17th century marked dramatic development in Latin at Slovak Jesuit schools, with performances of Seneca, Sophocles, Plautus, and Terentius, among others. These plays were also translated into Slovak, Magyar, and German, and presented in the vernacular. The Piarist Fathers were also active, although their productions did not match the splendor of Jesuit productions in polish or costuming. Jesuit presentations were costumed from Vienna and not infrequently from Venice. Piarist productions, however, were more liberal in content, dealing more with worldly issues, and thus contributed notably to Slovak drama. Original plays in Latin were presented at Slovak Protestant institutions. Isaac Caban (1638-1707), rector at Brezno and later professor at the Presov and Levoca lyceums, wrote a cycle of five Latin plays titled Labarum Triumphale Victrici Palladi Fragariae Solenne (Triumphant Standard of Presov's Victorious Minerva). The cycle was presented in 1665 on five successive days and repeated several times by popular demand. Other original Latin plays by other professors-divines soon appeared. One such play, titled Eleazar Constans, was about a man who was steadfast in his faith. It was presented in Bardejov, in 1668, by students on the anniversary of the founding of their school. This was followed, in 1669, by Papinianus Tetragonus , which met with tremendous success. The nature of the play itself reflected the universal European trend of that time. The protagonist was Papinianus Ictus, a Roman jurist who lived from 140 to 212, "a man brave, steadfast, and honorable." He was executed by Roman Emperor Caracalla because he would not condone the Emperor's fratricide. Papinianus was translated into the prevalent vernaculars-Slovak, German, Magyar-and continued in popularity. A most interesting study for a thesis would be a comparison of the play to the tragedies of Shakespeare, who had been dead only fifty years at that time. Titus Andronicus? Julius Ceasar? Timon of Athens? Anthony and Cleopatra? Coriolanus? Shakespeare drew heavily upon Plutarch's Parallel Lives for the factual bases of his tragedies. Plutarch had �SLOVAKIA 171 already been translated into English and had a profound influence upon English literature; Plutarch was integral to the classical scholarship of Slovakia; Plutarch was the cultural denominator common to England and Slovakia and could therefore serve as the prime basis for a comparative study. Thanks to the well-organized records keeping of the religious orders, much information is available to us about theatrical presentations. From 1601 to 1773, the Jesuits staged over 10,000 plays in Hungary, most of them in Slovakia. The themes of the plays dealt with the bible and with oriental and classical history. Slovak was used for the first time in Bratislava in 1628 as the language of a play entitled About the Sacrament of the Altar. Performances were held every evening during the Lenten season, and the response was so great that more than a thousand tickets were sold every day. An original play entitled Apollo Returned Heaven, by Rector Paul ~uhaj, was performed in Slovak at Levoca, Spisska Kapitula, and Skalica. With the growth of a middle class by the early 1700's came a burgeoning interest in the theater, reaching from the nobility, through the middle-class and the working-class, to the peasantry. The center of this activity in Slovakia was Bratislava, which was also the seat of the Hungarian Parliament. Only a short drive by horse-coach from Vienna, Bratislava teemed with the nobility of the Austrian Imperial Court and consequently that of Hungary and visitors from the other monarchies of Europe. They brought to Bratislava theatrical companies from Austria, Poland, Italy, and Germany. Private theaters became the fashion among such noble families as the Erdody, Eszterhazy, and Zichy, which maintained residences in Bratislava. The permanent theater in Bratislava, from 1741 on, was at Rybarska Brana (Fisherman's Gate). A small summer theater was established in 1760. To the sorrow of Slovak culture, the situation among talented performers of that time still exists today. Persons of outstanding talent would move on to the larger cities of Europe-Budapest, Vienna, Munich, Prague-and asswne a culture that was alien, if not politically hostile, to their Slovak background. Although �172 SLOVAKIA their talents were genetically rooted in Slovakia, the theatrical dynasties they frequently founded were completely alienated, both culturally and politically. The Czech theater was enriched by two Slovaks, Paul Kyrmezer of Banska stiavnica, and George Tesak of Mosovce. Both were refugees from the ravages of the Turks, who held strategic fortresses in Slovakia at that time. Kyrmezer was for a time pastor and school director of various churches in Moravia, being dean in Uherske Hradiste from 1576 until his death in 1589. He wrote several plays and dramas in Old Slovak. George Tesak, who died in Prague in 1617, wrote many plays incorporating music and song, which are considered early forms of the operetta. Both Kyrmezer and Tesak are respected by the Czechs as pioneers in Czech theatrical arts. Adaptations of their works were performed as late as 1938 in Prague, Brno, Olomouc, and other Czech and Moravian centers with great success. The theatrical arts moved ahead quickly in full force in Bratislava, Budapest, and Vienna, which, of course, was reflected in smaller, provincial communities. Music, at this time, became compulsory in all intermediate and higher schools. All professional theaters began to present operas and operettas. Music became an indispensible factor in social and cultural life. Artists-actors, singers, musicians, composers, conductors, and directors-were subsidized by the state and community. Indeed, if one did not attend at least two performances a week, one was almost a social outcast. Many Slovak young men, even from the villages, who came to the big cities to study medicine, pharmacy, law, or philosophy, began to devote themselves to music. They ultimately gave up their original ambitions and enrolled in conservatories of music, undoubtedly causing their parents considerable grief. In this sense they were not unlike our modern youth. · Matthew Kamensky, born in sopron in 1734, composed the first op~ra in Polish, Nedza Uszczesliwiona (Poverty Made Fortunate). He died in Warsaw in 1821 as the popular composer Ka:mi~nski. [Jan Fisher, Dejin,y hudby (History �SLOVAKIA 173 of Music), Spolok sv. Vojtecha (Society of St. Adalbert), Trnava, 1933 ) . Slovakia's central location made the country an important crossing point in the musical lives of surrounding countries. Slovakia was close to the Austrian music of Vienna. But there were also strong Magyar influences. Purely from a Slovak and Slavonic standpoint, the Abbey at Budec was the guardian of liturgical music. The abbey fostered the Cyrilo-Methodian Liturgy and produced many outstanding musicians, composers, and teachers. Bratislava is less than 20 miles, across the Danube, from Rohrau in Austria, where Josef Haydn was born. As a composer of world renown, Haydn contributed outstandingly to the development of the symphony. And as such, he was a teacher of the German genius Ludwig van Beethoven, who raised the symphonic form to its greatest development. Both masters knew Bratislava. Beethoven was only 22 years old when he made Vienna his home in 1792. By 1796 he had already personally endeared himself to Bratislava audiences, although his First Symphony was received with mixed reactions, as elsewhere, when it was first performed in 1800. There is a legend that his Moonlight Sonata was inspired by his love for an innkeeper's daughter in the Slovak spa of Piest'any. Beethoven's fame and popularity brought him many requests for his patronage. One such request, which was fulfilled, came from a young student of music, Jozef Koritansky, who went on to Vienna to become one of the most outstanding of opera stars in Europe. The great Franz Schubert also knew Slovakia. As music teacher to a branch of the Eszterhazy family, he lived in the palace at Zeliezovce. Here he composed his famous Ave Maria, supposedly to express his love for one of the Eszterhazy daughters, which is allegedly why the hymn was banned from churches in some parts of Europe. He, too, was a frequent visitor to Bratislava, where he is known to have had many friends . .Vienna as a cultural magnet, and because of its geographical proximity, drew countless numbers of Slovaks over the centuries. Some went specifically to further their studies. Others went merely to seek their fortunes. At the �174 SLOVAKIA outbreak of World War I, there were innumerable thousands of Slovaks in Vienna. Budapest is an interesting example of Magyar acculturation of Slovaks. The first Magyar opera was composed in 1823 by a Slovak, Jozef Chudy, born in Bratislava. The world-famous composer Ernest Dohnany, was born in Banska Bystrica in 1877. The primadona of the Royal Magyar Theater, Maria Sarvasova, was born in Zvolen in 1894. The leading actress Ilona Bednar was born in Banska stiavnica. Prima ballerina Anna suhaj was a Slovak. The leading actors Jan Sklenar, Tomas Jakub, Pavol Rezar, and Jozef Sedlak, as well as the singers Zoltan Kianicka, Andrej Dvoran, and Jan Mastny, all considered Magyar, had Slovak backgrounds. (Dejiny hudby, Trnava, 1933; Javisko, Turc. Sv. Martin, 1940) As Magyar chauvinism grew in intensity, the Slovak theater in the Slovak highlands suffered, from harassment to direct suppression. Slovak audiences, particularly in the villages, delighted in plays that satirized the Magyarization of the small-town Slovak gentry. Since Magyarization was the planned program of the Budapest government, such plays were considered subversive. Suppression stimulated the growth of the Slovak folk theater, and groups of devoted amateurs sustained the Slovak character through long years of political and cultural oppression. The amateur theater became so ingrained a tradition, that it was brought to the United States by early immigrants, where, with the ubiquitous, multi-functional Slovak choir, it became the fund raiser for most of the Slovak churches, schools, and societies. It would be a long list if one were to enumerate the artists who gained fame on the stages of Budapest and Vienna and whose talents stemmed from the highland villages of Slovakia. It would be an extremely short list to enumerate those artists whose Slovak identity was not obliterated by the cultures of their new environments. There are notable examples, however, of artists who should be mentioned because they emerged as Slovaks through the forces that brought about the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and brought into being new states, among them Czecho-Slovakia. �SLOVAKIA 175 It was in 1916, a year before the United States entered World War I and when the Austro-Hungarian Empire was already tottering, that a Slovak artist of high professional caliber appeared on the American stage as a Slovak, perhaps for the first time in history. It was Anica Fabry, primadona of the Royal Opera at Budapest. She presented several concerts in New York City, which were favorably reviewed by such newspapers as The New York Times, The Herald Tribune, and the Journal American, among others. Noteworthy is the fact that in the programs of songs Miss Fabry sang were those of a young Slovak composer, Mikulas Schneider-Trnavsky. Following upon the end of the war and the emergence of the states in Central and East Central Europe, the world was able to know the young, talented Slovaks building careers on the stages of Budapest and Vienna. The handsome young Slovak actor-singer Frantisek Kristof Vesely was brought from Vienna to Prague, where he became a leading star in films. From Budapest there returned such outstanding artists as Andrej Bagar, Hana Melickova, and Jozef Kelo. Bratislava was nationalistically awakening in quick tempo. But it soon appeared that the Czechs wanted the National Theater at Bratislava to be a bridge for politicizing and for influencing a pan-Czech Slovak development. This led to an internal struggle that lasted for years, during which Slovaks were gradually beginning to supplant Czechs m thA Slovak National Theater, particular as authors and playwriters.Outstanding foreign plays were being translated into Slovak and presented on the stage. Many Slovaks, however, were applying their talents to the Czech stage, as actors, singers, directors, and ballet performers. They were exceptionally well paid for their talents, it should be said, to prevent them from complementing the Slovak theaters at Bratislava and Kosice, which were, through their high professional standards, too dangerously competitive for the Czech theater at Prague and Brno. The year 1938 decided in favor of the Slovaks. The theater in Bratislava was already on a high professional level. The still relatively young, 39-year-old idol, Frantisek �176 SLOVAKIA Kristof Vesely, came home to Bratislava from Prague. Opera star Belo Turba Nitrancan returned from Brno. New strength arrived through the return of young Slovaks who had been studying abroad. All enriched the Slovak stage. Into this resurging theatrical environment entered the ambitious and talented young Slovak, Gejza Dusik, who in the course of a few years wrote dozens of operettas, Turecky tabak (Turkish Tobacco), Modra ruza (Blue Rose), Pozar na vlak (Watch Out for the Train), Pod cudzou vlajkou (Under a Foreign Flag), to name the most popular. These were received with so great and wide acclaim that they were almost immediately translated into neighboring languages - German, Magyar, Croat, Bulgar, and others. Theaters were filled to standing-room-on ly whenever Dusik's operettas were performed. The names Mayzes, Cikker, and Suchan are known world-wide as contemporary composers of classical music, symphonic and operatic. Their works are in the repertoire of every major, internationally known symphony orchestra and opera company. Mayzes' Janosik Suite musically recreates the legends of the popular Slovak hero-outlaw, who "took from the rich and gave to the poor." Cikker's operas are regularly performed in Germany and England, particularly one based on Dicken's Christmas Carol. Suchon's opera Krutnava (Vortex), in purely Slovak setting and theme, begins in tragedy and ends in happiness, contrary to traditional operatic structure. Nevertheless, Krutnava has established itself even in Italy, the birthplace and home of opera. As already stated, this presentation considers Slovak theatrical and musical arts only in historical delineation. Although the years 1938 to 1945 constitute, in a sense, Slovak cultural risorgimento, those years and the years following up to our time are still within the current historical perspective. As such, they do not lend themselves even to a superficial evaluation that can be objective. Such evaluation is for the future. What may be said today about this period of Slovak risorgimento is that Bratislava surpassed Vienna in the state of the arts. What must be asked today is, "Quo vadis, Bratislava?" ( Second place - College) � 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 1974, Vol. 24 Description An account of the resource Vol. 24 (No. 47), 1974. 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 1974 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 169 Kirschbaum, Joseph M., "Twenty Years of Czech and Communist Rule in Slovakia," SLovakia, 1965. Levine, Isaac D., Intervention, 1969, Van Rees Press. Oddo, Gilbert L., Slovakia and its People, 1960, Robert Speller and Sons. Pauco, Joseph (ed.), Slovakia, 1966, 1968, 1969, Slovak League of America. Roberts, Adam and Windsor, Philip, Czechoslovakia 1968, 1969, Columbia University Press. Schwartz, Harry, Prague's 200 Days, 1969, Frederick A. Praeger, Inc. Zubek, T. J ., O.F.M., Church of Silence in Slovakia, 1969, J. J . Lach. MAGAZINES Newsweek, Prague Defies the Kremlin, July 29, 1968. Reader's Digest, The Rape of Czechoslovakia, November, 1968. Time, Self-Determination for Czechoslovakia, April 5, 1968; Czechoslovakia-Approaching Total Eclipse, April 6, 1970; Alexander Dubcek's AU Too Human Face, May 18, 1970. PAMPHLETS AND PAPERS Committee on Un-American Activities, Soviet Total War, 1956. Embassy of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Background Notes Department of State, Socialist Republic Background Notes. New York Times, February 10, 1970, Students in Prague Now Know Their Beautiful Dream is Over, by Alvin Shuster. Hrobak, Philip A., Who Betrayed Slovakia to the Reds. THE SLOVAK ARTS IN PERSPECTIVE Marlene B a rt o s It is \from the vantage point of a multi-ethnic democracy such as the United States that Slovak cultural history can best be placed in true perspective. This paper is an attempt to do so. Because Slovak cultural history has so many ramifications that reach deeply in the histories of neighboring nations, this presentation considers only the theatrical and musical arts, and then only in historical delineation. Analyses and evaluations must remain for the future. The earliest recorded report of a theatrical presentation in Slovakia is the performance of a Christmas play in Bratislava in 1439. By the mid-1500's, plays seem to have been regularly presented. The year 1544 to 1545, for example, records the performances of two plays in German; the one entitled Judith, the other, The Five Wise and Unwise Maidens. Similar reports record activity in Bardejov and Kremnica. (Dejiny slovenskej literatury, 1960. History of Slovak Literature.) 170 SLOVAKIA The 17th century marked dramatic development in Latin at Slovak Jesuit schools, with performances of Seneca, Sophocles, Plautus, and Terentius, among others. These plays were also translated into Slovak, Magyar, and German, and presented in the vernacular. The Piarist Fathers were also active, although their productions did not match the splendor of Jesuit productions in polish or costuming. Jesuit presentations were costumed from Vienna and not infrequently from Venice. Piarist productions, however, were more liberal in content, dealing more with worldly issues, and thus contributed notably to Slovak drama. Original plays in Latin were presented at Slovak Protestant institutions. Isaac Caban (1638-1707), rector at Brezno and later professor at the Presov and Levoca lyceums, wrote a cycle of five Latin plays titled Labarum Triumphale Victrici Palladi Fragariae Solenne (Triumphant Standard of Presov's Victorious Minerva). The cycle was presented in 1665 on five successive days and repeated several times by popular demand. Other original Latin plays by other professors-divines soon appeared. One such play, titled Eleazar Constans, was about a man who was steadfast in his faith. It was presented in Bardejov, in 1668, by students on the anniversary of the founding of their school. This was followed, in 1669, by Papinianus Tetragonus , which met with tremendous success. The nature of the play itself reflected the universal European trend of that time. The protagonist was Papinianus Ictus, a Roman jurist who lived from 140 to 212, "a man brave, steadfast, and honorable." He was executed by Roman Emperor Caracalla because he would not condone the Emperor's fratricide. Papinianus was translated into the prevalent vernaculars-Slovak, German, Magyar-and continued in popularity. A most interesting study for a thesis would be a comparison of the play to the tragedies of Shakespeare, who had been dead only fifty years at that time. Titus Andronicus? Julius Ceasar? Timon of Athens? Anthony and Cleopatra? Coriolanus? Shakespeare drew heavily upon Plutarch's Parallel Lives for the factual bases of his tragedies. Plutarch had SLOVAKIA 171 already been translated into English and had a profound influence upon English literature; Plutarch was integral to the classical scholarship of Slovakia; Plutarch was the cultural denominator common to England and Slovakia and could therefore serve as the prime basis for a comparative study. Thanks to the well-organized records keeping of the religious orders, much information is available to us about theatrical presentations. From 1601 to 1773, the Jesuits staged over 10,000 plays in Hungary, most of them in Slovakia. The themes of the plays dealt with the bible and with oriental and classical history. Slovak was used for the first time in Bratislava in 1628 as the language of a play entitled About the Sacrament of the Altar. Performances were held every evening during the Lenten season, and the response was so great that more than a thousand tickets were sold every day. An original play entitled Apollo Returned Heaven, by Rector Paul ~uhaj, was performed in Slovak at Levoca, Spisska Kapitula, and Skalica. With the growth of a middle class by the early 1700's came a burgeoning interest in the theater, reaching from the nobility, through the middle-class and the working-class, to the peasantry. The center of this activity in Slovakia was Bratislava, which was also the seat of the Hungarian Parliament. Only a short drive by horse-coach from Vienna, Bratislava teemed with the nobility of the Austrian Imperial Court and consequently that of Hungary and visitors from the other monarchies of Europe. They brought to Bratislava theatrical companies from Austria, Poland, Italy, and Germany. Private theaters became the fashion among such noble families as the Erdody, Eszterhazy, and Zichy, which maintained residences in Bratislava. The permanent theater in Bratislava, from 1741 on, was at Rybarska Brana (Fisherman's Gate). A small summer theater was established in 1760. To the sorrow of Slovak culture, the situation among talented performers of that time still exists today. Persons of outstanding talent would move on to the larger cities of Europe-Budapest, Vienna, Munich, Prague-and asswne a culture that was alien, if not politically hostile, to their Slovak background. Although 172 SLOVAKIA their talents were genetically rooted in Slovakia, the theatrical dynasties they frequently founded were completely alienated, both culturally and politically. The Czech theater was enriched by two Slovaks, Paul Kyrmezer of Banska stiavnica, and George Tesak of Mosovce. Both were refugees from the ravages of the Turks, who held strategic fortresses in Slovakia at that time. Kyrmezer was for a time pastor and school director of various churches in Moravia, being dean in Uherske Hradiste from 1576 until his death in 1589. He wrote several plays and dramas in Old Slovak. George Tesak, who died in Prague in 1617, wrote many plays incorporating music and song, which are considered early forms of the operetta. Both Kyrmezer and Tesak are respected by the Czechs as pioneers in Czech theatrical arts. Adaptations of their works were performed as late as 1938 in Prague, Brno, Olomouc, and other Czech and Moravian centers with great success. The theatrical arts moved ahead quickly in full force in Bratislava, Budapest, and Vienna, which, of course, was reflected in smaller, provincial communities. Music, at this time, became compulsory in all intermediate and higher schools. All professional theaters began to present operas and operettas. Music became an indispensible factor in social and cultural life. Artists-actors, singers, musicians, composers, conductors, and directors-were subsidized by the state and community. Indeed, if one did not attend at least two performances a week, one was almost a social outcast. Many Slovak young men, even from the villages, who came to the big cities to study medicine, pharmacy, law, or philosophy, began to devote themselves to music. They ultimately gave up their original ambitions and enrolled in conservatories of music, undoubtedly causing their parents considerable grief. In this sense they were not unlike our modern youth. · Matthew Kamensky, born in sopron in 1734, composed the first op~ra in Polish, Nedza Uszczesliwiona (Poverty Made Fortunate). He died in Warsaw in 1821 as the popular composer Ka:mi~nski. [Jan Fisher, Dejin,y hudby (History SLOVAKIA 173 of Music), Spolok sv. Vojtecha (Society of St. Adalbert), Trnava, 1933 ) . Slovakia's central location made the country an important crossing point in the musical lives of surrounding countries. Slovakia was close to the Austrian music of Vienna. But there were also strong Magyar influences. Purely from a Slovak and Slavonic standpoint, the Abbey at Budec was the guardian of liturgical music. The abbey fostered the Cyrilo-Methodian Liturgy and produced many outstanding musicians, composers, and teachers. Bratislava is less than 20 miles, across the Danube, from Rohrau in Austria, where Josef Haydn was born. As a composer of world renown, Haydn contributed outstandingly to the development of the symphony. And as such, he was a teacher of the German genius Ludwig van Beethoven, who raised the symphonic form to its greatest development. Both masters knew Bratislava. Beethoven was only 22 years old when he made Vienna his home in 1792. By 1796 he had already personally endeared himself to Bratislava audiences, although his First Symphony was received with mixed reactions, as elsewhere, when it was first performed in 1800. There is a legend that his Moonlight Sonata was inspired by his love for an innkeeper's daughter in the Slovak spa of Piest'any. Beethoven's fame and popularity brought him many requests for his patronage. One such request, which was fulfilled, came from a young student of music, Jozef Koritansky, who went on to Vienna to become one of the most outstanding of opera stars in Europe. The great Franz Schubert also knew Slovakia. As music teacher to a branch of the Eszterhazy family, he lived in the palace at Zeliezovce. Here he composed his famous Ave Maria, supposedly to express his love for one of the Eszterhazy daughters, which is allegedly why the hymn was banned from churches in some parts of Europe. He, too, was a frequent visitor to Bratislava, where he is known to have had many friends . .Vienna as a cultural magnet, and because of its geographical proximity, drew countless numbers of Slovaks over the centuries. Some went specifically to further their studies. Others went merely to seek their fortunes. At the 174 SLOVAKIA outbreak of World War I, there were innumerable thousands of Slovaks in Vienna. Budapest is an interesting example of Magyar acculturation of Slovaks. The first Magyar opera was composed in 1823 by a Slovak, Jozef Chudy, born in Bratislava. The world-famous composer Ernest Dohnany, was born in Banska Bystrica in 1877. The primadona of the Royal Magyar Theater, Maria Sarvasova, was born in Zvolen in 1894. The leading actress Ilona Bednar was born in Banska stiavnica. Prima ballerina Anna suhaj was a Slovak. The leading actors Jan Sklenar, Tomas Jakub, Pavol Rezar, and Jozef Sedlak, as well as the singers Zoltan Kianicka, Andrej Dvoran, and Jan Mastny, all considered Magyar, had Slovak backgrounds. (Dejiny hudby, Trnava, 1933; Javisko, Turc. Sv. Martin, 1940) As Magyar chauvinism grew in intensity, the Slovak theater in the Slovak highlands suffered, from harassment to direct suppression. Slovak audiences, particularly in the villages, delighted in plays that satirized the Magyarization of the small-town Slovak gentry. Since Magyarization was the planned program of the Budapest government, such plays were considered subversive. Suppression stimulated the growth of the Slovak folk theater, and groups of devoted amateurs sustained the Slovak character through long years of political and cultural oppression. The amateur theater became so ingrained a tradition, that it was brought to the United States by early immigrants, where, with the ubiquitous, multi-functional Slovak choir, it became the fund raiser for most of the Slovak churches, schools, and societies. It would be a long list if one were to enumerate the artists who gained fame on the stages of Budapest and Vienna and whose talents stemmed from the highland villages of Slovakia. It would be an extremely short list to enumerate those artists whose Slovak identity was not obliterated by the cultures of their new environments. There are notable examples, however, of artists who should be mentioned because they emerged as Slovaks through the forces that brought about the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and brought into being new states, among them Czecho-Slovakia. SLOVAKIA 175 It was in 1916, a year before the United States entered World War I and when the Austro-Hungarian Empire was already tottering, that a Slovak artist of high professional caliber appeared on the American stage as a Slovak, perhaps for the first time in history. It was Anica Fabry, primadona of the Royal Opera at Budapest. She presented several concerts in New York City, which were favorably reviewed by such newspapers as The New York Times, The Herald Tribune, and the Journal American, among others. Noteworthy is the fact that in the programs of songs Miss Fabry sang were those of a young Slovak composer, Mikulas Schneider-Trnavsky. Following upon the end of the war and the emergence of the states in Central and East Central Europe, the world was able to know the young, talented Slovaks building careers on the stages of Budapest and Vienna. The handsome young Slovak actor-singer Frantisek Kristof Vesely was brought from Vienna to Prague, where he became a leading star in films. From Budapest there returned such outstanding artists as Andrej Bagar, Hana Melickova, and Jozef Kelo. Bratislava was nationalistically awakening in quick tempo. But it soon appeared that the Czechs wanted the National Theater at Bratislava to be a bridge for politicizing and for influencing a pan-Czech Slovak development. This led to an internal struggle that lasted for years, during which Slovaks were gradually beginning to supplant Czechs m thA Slovak National Theater, particular as authors and playwriters.Outstanding foreign plays were being translated into Slovak and presented on the stage. Many Slovaks, however, were applying their talents to the Czech stage, as actors, singers, directors, and ballet performers. They were exceptionally well paid for their talents, it should be said, to prevent them from complementing the Slovak theaters at Bratislava and Kosice, which were, through their high professional standards, too dangerously competitive for the Czech theater at Prague and Brno. The year 1938 decided in favor of the Slovaks. The theater in Bratislava was already on a high professional level. The still relatively young, 39-year-old idol, Frantisek 176 SLOVAKIA Kristof Vesely, came home to Bratislava from Prague. Opera star Belo Turba Nitrancan returned from Brno. New strength arrived through the return of young Slovaks who had been studying abroad. All enriched the Slovak stage. Into this resurging theatrical environment entered the ambitious and talented young Slovak, Gejza Dusik, who in the course of a few years wrote dozens of operettas, Turecky tabak (Turkish Tobacco), Modra ruza (Blue Rose), Pozar na vlak (Watch Out for the Train), Pod cudzou vlajkou (Under a Foreign Flag), to name the most popular. These were received with so great and wide acclaim that they were almost immediately translated into neighboring languages - German, Magyar, Croat, Bulgar, and others. Theaters were filled to standing-room-on ly whenever Dusik's operettas were performed. The names Mayzes, Cikker, and Suchan are known world-wide as contemporary composers of classical music, symphonic and operatic. Their works are in the repertoire of every major, internationally known symphony orchestra and opera company. Mayzes' Janosik Suite musically recreates the legends of the popular Slovak hero-outlaw, who "took from the rich and gave to the poor." Cikker's operas are regularly performed in Germany and England, particularly one based on Dicken's Christmas Carol. Suchon's opera Krutnava (Vortex), in purely Slovak setting and theme, begins in tragedy and ends in happiness, contrary to traditional operatic structure. Nevertheless, Krutnava has established itself even in Italy, the birthplace and home of opera. As already stated, this presentation considers Slovak theatrical and musical arts only in historical delineation. Although the years 1938 to 1945 constitute, in a sense, Slovak cultural risorgimento, those years and the years following up to our time are still within the current historical perspective. As such, they do not lend themselves even to a superficial evaluation that can be objective. Such evaluation is for the future. What may be said today about this period of Slovak risorgimento is that Bratislava surpassed Vienna in the state of the arts. What must be asked today is, "Quo vadis, Bratislava?" ( Second place - College)  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 Slovak Arts in Perspective Description An account of the resource Marlene Bartos Slovakia, Vol. 24 (No. 47), 1974 pp. 169-176 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bartos, Marlene Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1974 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/b7e40668037125cd08284d687b4a5b03.pdf 7d2507fd213c03c36b5e9a765f5bd5c5 PDF Text Text SLO VA KIA Published by the Slovak League of America VOL. VIII DECEMBER, 1958 NO. 3 (28) WHY fflE CZECHS DID NOT FIGHT Dr. John A. Bafa Whatever has been written aibout this subject has practically aliways been fhwored, distorted with excuses, malevolence, derisfon, anger, shame, embitter.moot, and aippeasemen.t, a<Ccording to politi'Cal interest and viewpoint and attempts to coiver up. Moot of the time this smelled of wrong doing, misfortune, a new White Mountain. Never, however, was their any trace of a;clmowledging how and wihy something hruppened and w:ho was to 'blame for its h8lplpening. Dr. John A. Bat'a is a member of the famous Czech shoemakers, who, like so many others who had dared to criticize the ruinous policy of Dr. Edward Benes, even though belatedly, were persecuted by Benes and his followers even in exile. This is a translation of the original Czech article "Proc jsme the journal nebojovali" that was published in "BOHEMIA" Oct. 30, 1957. of Czech Democratic Federalists - 'Dhat was a terrible, historical defeat of our statehood without a fig.ht and the world thinks that we fled from the b8Jttle. What has been written Uip to this time by the Czecho..,SlovaJks about this has only attempted to, excuse or rupologize for the ultimatum of the Western Powers at Munich in 1938: the Western Powers were guilty; the Russians were guilty for not coming to he1p us; Hitler was guHty; etc . And the world keeps on chuckling at our naivite. HumaJnly this is naturaL Everyone would rather pay himself indu'lgently even when he is not altogether certain that he deserves a boot. We have been extremely welltrained to cry about and bewail White Mountain; we can �2 SLOVAKIA ma.Ike a goat 'b leat a!bout it. But this bleating cannot silence our conscience, gnawing at our mind, whielh aSiks quietly: "Whom do you want to fool, ch'lllCikle-head ?" King Mida'S was an example of a man w:ho was afraid to loo'k truth in tlhe face. He had do,nikey ears and an a,stronomicaUy hi,gh hat to cover them. When he gathered enough strength to look at his ears, they disappeared. He was a whole man. Now, if we had the courage of Midas to looik upon realities under the barik o.f truth and related events to otJher examples in the world, perhaps it wolllld daiwn upon us why we did not fight in 1938. It would bec~me apparent that we ourselves were at fault, we the citizens of that lost State, which was the Czecho-;Sfovalk Republic and which we alfowed to collapse. We did not lose the State in October, 1938; we lost it b,efore that time. Octoiber, 1938, was only the date of the thraishilllg we deserved, a'S wa,s perhaps a:lso all that followed it. We did not have an adequate conception regarding nation and state. Somehow we had an idea that the series ad: political fetishes and partisan laJbles, according to which we ran - and still .run - here and there, made a nation of us. We seemed to think - allld still thinlk - that an equal and secret right of ballot and democracy, which we sa;w someplace, but did not understand ;properly amd with it elected irresiponsihly an irresiponsible leader, that this, too, made us a nation. And that our elected leaders wo1u ld at once ,b ecome stateS1II1en and men ,be:cause they wo,re striped ,p ants and acquired a few titles. Because we, the citizens and voters, did not thin1k, catastrophe OiVertook us. We had an idea, but not the knowledge or ,c onviction of what ,was needed to ma;ke a nation of us and a solid, organic unit of our ,state. In the meantime, however, our politicans, diplomats, and statesmen did what they pleased, and ,p articularly did they .run away from responsibilities into dernogogy, lying, and false promises; the interests of the Repulblic and nation were bartered away; obligations and oaths were forgotten, and the Constitution was spat upon; they used their positions to serve their own per,sonal �SLOVAKIA 3 interests and whims and used the nation and state lilke rags. In twenty-five years, the Repulblic was bartered away twice by these paliticams-statesm en with titles and striped pants. First to the Nazis, then to the Communists. In both cases this happened against our will. The caiuse of this is the same as that for our not fightinig in 1938: in responsirble positions we did have persons of the male sex, hut not men. None of us can j:ustify for ourselves o,r before any judicious person the fact that we did not fight. The nation was armed to the teeth; it had an army of a million men, excellently trained and for decades inculcated with love for its nation and filled with a .will to fight and a willingness to sacrifice. And yet, the nation did not fight as it wanted to and knew it had to so that it could preseiwe its freedom and indeipendence which it had eiked out after 300 years of dependence and bondage under which it almost ,p erished. Some of our people get angry when they read or hear the e~ression "ollir nation caipitulated." They come back with the retort that not the nation, but the leaders capitulated. I do not agree. There was only one leader: the president, the ~wpreme commamder of an arnny of a million men, an army splendidly equipped, trained, and ready fo,r war. We elected him directly or indirectly to leadershi!p. We are, therefore, also responsibile for him. To turn away from this responsilbility is senseless or cowardly. JOlhn Masaryk told me in the spring of 1940 that the aJII11bassadors off Fra.nce and Britian litera:Uy dragged Dr. Benes from bed at three o'clock in the morning and forced him to sign the capitulation rby an ultimatum. That started an argument. I could not understamd how a commander of an army of million men could be forced to caipitulation by some two froc'ked uncles and thereiby surrender the army, equipment, and state to enemies and the nation to slavery. John Masaryk retorted that the question did not concern shoes with which I was familiar. I still contended that a statesman could not be forced to do anytjhing. He could be killed, 01Verthrown by a revolution, deposed, kidnapped. �4 SLOVAKIA tortured, that he could cO!IIla:rut suicide, but that he could not be forced. We have an example, I added: Master John Hus. John Masaryk snapped hack that what I was saying sma;ciked af Fascism, that only that ',grazl Mussolini' said that a nation that does not ,s uffer to sacrifice for the independence and freedom of its country is not worthy of it. I told him tlhat was the way I saiw it and that I was convinced that even his father, TGM, would sooner agree in this matter with Mussolini than with him and Benes. From that time on I did not get al()IIl!g with Jo:hn Masaryk and was blac>k1b alled by Benes and his government in London. During the war we wrote each other several times, but, knowing Benes, I knew that he was planning revell!ge. On June 6, 1940, I was placed on the English "Blacklist" - t-o this day I do not know why - with indications that Benes's London "goveTnment" had itis hands in the matter. And after Dr. Benes's v,i sit to the White House, I was also ,p laced on the American "BJadklist" without any investigation. To people in his circle Dr. Benes remarked that I had spoken improperly with him in 193'8. I spoke with him as man to, man. Periha,ps the fact that I told him that he ought to beluwe more liike a man was regarded an improipI'liety. As in 19'38, so I aJlso contend today that we had no right to avoid war when the defense of our independence was concerned - like TGM and Mussolini did, if you want to put it tJhat way. Up to this time, however,. there was always something indistinct that prevented me from writing my view pu'blioly, the view that turned John Masaryk against me. But that indistictn~ has now disappeared due to a strrungely simple cause: in .A!llg1ust, 1957, an Argentine steamer went do!Wil in La Plata and eighty travelers drowned. It sainlk - and then it dawned on me. Lea;ders, caiptains among people, have their honor which they treasure more than life itself. The ca;rptai:n g~ down wi-th his sinlking shi{p. It is the morale of men who understand responsirbility with fatal seriousness a,nd courage. In our nation we had no shlp captains so that we �SLOVAKIA 5 might compare their behavior when disaster strikes the shl,p they are in ohar,ge of. But we did have in oru,r history a series of ca.ptains of the ship of state. And behold, our state captains comprehended the respons,ilbilities and manliness of leadership just as honestly as, those ship captains. The famous "Iron and Gold King," the Czech Pfemysl OtaJkar ]I, offered his life on the eive oif the battle on Moravslke Pole to save the honor of the nation and the army. At that sad time his life was indispensalble to the life of the nation, but he died in battle. He was betrayed by Milota of Dedic, a member of the Benesov clan. The victor Rudolph Habsbur,g had his courageous riva,1 b.umed with honors and scornfully exiled the traitor who had come to pay him homage. And he did not shatter the Ozooh empire as he had threatened. Famous b:lind King John did not run from battle when the French, wiho had called on him for help, fled from the battlefield. He gave the Czechs an example of coUJra:ge and defiance of death in battle with his memoralble utterance: "Let us hope that it will never hruppen that a Czech king shaJll flee f,rom battle!" By his fortitude he prepared the way to the emperor's crown for his .s on Charles ·w. The English cro,w n prince honored him for his braivery and to this very day bears on his coat of arms the three famous feathers of the braive Czech King John. In 193'8, from contacts with our generals, I was convinced that our army was better equipped and trained and possessed a better fighting spirit than Hitler's army. This fact was confirmed in Nureniber,g before the International Court even by Hitler's Chief of Starff, General Halder. He ~aid that his predecessor, General Beclk, resilgned his position in July, 1938, in protest against war with OzechoSlovaJkia which Hitler had planned. General Halder had said that he, lilke the majority of German commanders, was rugainst wa,r even if it wa,s only with independent Olecho~Slovakia. General Beck proclaimed that even such a war would haive boon fatal for Germany. Halder added that, when Beck's resignatio.n did not hruve any effect on Hitler, the German generals planned to overthrow Hitler �6 SLOVAKIA on the eve o:f the war. But the putJsch had to be speedily called off when Dr. Edward Benes crupitulated for CzechoSlorvaJkia. Today wlhen a;li oif this is known, sOlme people will want to reproach and malign me for the indecency of attaclking a dead man. But I do not want to be a wise thinker after the cure. We must rerne:rnlb,er, hrowever, that all we, the peOiple of the Czecho-Slovak ReipU!blic, learned oillly now, all this was 'knoiWil a!OCUTately and in detail by our Suipreme Commander and President, Dr. Edward Benes, already in July, Arugust, and September, 1938, and also by the line of generals, poJiticans, diplomats, and high state officials. In his positiion Benes was bound to know this; he had at his disposal gigantic, highly effective, and costly means to know aibout it. In Paris, in 1939, an officer of the "DelllXieme Bureau" visited me and expressed his amazement over the accuracy of reports of the Czecho-.Slo>vak Intelligence SeTIVice. So, Dr. Ediwa;rd Benes knew that the German generals looked upon war with Czecho-1Slorvalkia as a step that would be fatal to Germany. If, therefore, despite this knowledge Dr. Benes let himself "be forced" to capitulation, he committed treaso!Il. In the solemn oath taken when he assumed the duties of president, the President and Supreme Commander promised solemnly before the nation and Almighty God that he shall seiwe only and exclusively the .s tate and the entire nation. He promised to sacrifice his life, if necessary, and without hesitation erven the life of half the nation in defense of the state and freedom. When Benes was sworn in as President, there were present several huruked leading politicans, soldiers, offi.cialis, diplomats, ministers. Where were all these people when Dr. Benes signed the ca,pituiation and thu~ oommitted perjury and higlh trea,s on? There can be no doubt that they had the duty to prevent such a crupitulation and, if necessary, even to kill or overthrow the man guilty of hi:gh treas()IIl. But what did the .people airound him do? Nothing! And worse. Many of them even escorted him into exile. They bowed profoundly before the man guilty of high �SLOVAKIA 7 treason, adhered to him, supported and helrped him to install himself as exile-president amd to return to our home as .p resident again orf the State he had betrayed to the Communists and "liberated" into CO'Jnmuni.sm. We see that u,p to the present time trnitor Benes is stilJ. honored, glorified, and .p raised by the .v ery same gentlemen as a national hero and martyr. Let us look at these events with the eyes o;f normal people in the wrold, whether they be westerns or easterners. Even i;f they not provolke us from our let:Jhwgy out of reg3!rd for us, they nevertheless think terrible things aJbout us. Let us take any other country, for example, little Finland cramped somewhere in the nor.th and directly under the heel of the most birutal power. Can you im8!gine a Finn singing such a capitulation ond not being cut down the moment he did it? Do not aslk who was sUJpposed to 'kill him. 'Ilhere were hundreds of people who had the manly duty to kill the scoundrel and trMtor, since for decades they were in a po'sision that charged them to do so, even if their manly honor did not. in heaiven's name, will those forces never be awakened that would want to see the entire extent of the deceitful g.a me of the knaive and coward, whom the nation that was pmnlk and lulled to sleep with sociali,S!m placed on the throne of Ozech k,i ngs so that it might b,e betrayed by him? Why does not our exile, as well as our nation at home, walke u,p and use the broom of shame on that band of traitors who must have 'k nown and .stiH know everything that J write about and yet brazenly sing a song of cowardice and treason as if it were our sacred national ~nthem? Let us imagine ho,w diffe.rent it could have been if the nation wouJ.d have - as it should have - rid itself of J3enes's command in time and demonstrated to the world jhow the descendants of the di'Vi.ne worriors know how to fight for thek country. It is .possi1ble that in the end our army would have been beaten, but not before months of terrible fighting. And who can say how many other coun- �8 SLOVAKIA tries would have thrust themselives upon Hitler's army to !finish it already in 1939-19'40 and not in 194'5? The German commander,s should have overthrown Hitler without Benes's capitulation; then World War would not ha-ve happened at all. Ami the Germans without Hitler would have been - as they are today - all of them, not divided, in the western camp. In a fight for its independence, Czecho-SlovaJkia would have gained a blessing, a baptism by fire, and would haive taJken its place among the first states of Europe. It would haJVe finished its fa.rst test of statehood with complete success, a test which •now still awaits us. As it is, instead of being in the forefront as a free nation among the free, our state is an unwilling scamp or against the West and our nation an unwilling scamp or dog's head of <:ommunist imperialism. Well, we know that role the "Psohla,vi'c" (dog's heads) played, and the fate that a,waits them from the Laminge~. We must ma,ke wp our minds as to what we really jWant. Do we want political parties, a party, or State? Do we want a party to whom the State and nation would be a rag, as it is today of the Communist Party? We 'know that a certain grouping of parties led the State and nation into the thraldom of a Nazi protectorate. A grouping of parties, all promotmg socialism, led it into the sla,very of a Communist protectorate. Iif it is not clear to us that the State is aJbove ,p arty and that loyalty to a State stands high albove loya,lty to any party, then there is no sense in thinking and dreaming aJbout any kind of liberation, because in such a case we cannot attain it. That would be a Sisyphean effort, which has already twice disappointed us. As long as we shall elect a leader, we must hold a stricter relation to him than to anyone else. We must afford him the possi!bility to lead and to show himself a man and we must see to it that he also fulfills hls responsibility. ,I f not, we must overthrow or even kill him! After an, are we or are we not the descendants of the glorious warriors pf God, the SOlllS and brothers of the famous Ozecho- SlorvaJk legionnaires? Let us forget political partisanshlip. The ,nation and the State are aJbove any and all parties! � SLO VA KIA Published by the Slovak League of America VOL. VIII DECEMBER, 1958 NO. 3 (28) WHY fflE CZECHS DID NOT FIGHT Dr. John A. Bafa Whatever has been written aibout this subject has practically aliways been fhwored, distorted with excuses, malevolence, derisfon, anger, shame, embitter.moot, and aippeasemen.t, a<Ccording to politi'Cal interest and viewpoint and attempts to coiver up. Moot of the time this smelled of wrong doing, misfortune, a new White Mountain. Never, however, was their any trace of a;clmowledging how and wihy something hruppened and w:ho was to 'blame for its h8lplpening. Dr. John A. Bat'a is a member of the famous Czech shoemakers, who, like so many others who had dared to criticize the ruinous policy of Dr. Edward Benes, even though belatedly, were persecuted by Benes and his followers even in exile. This is a translation of the original Czech article "Proc jsme the journal nebojovali" that was published in "BOHEMIA" Oct. 30, 1957. of Czech Democratic Federalists - 'Dhat was a terrible, historical defeat of our statehood without a fig.ht and the world thinks that we fled from the b8Jttle. What has been written Uip to this time by the Czecho..,SlovaJks about this has only attempted to, excuse or rupologize for the ultimatum of the Western Powers at Munich in 1938: the Western Powers were guilty; the Russians were guilty for not coming to he1p us; Hitler was guHty; etc . And the world keeps on chuckling at our naivite. HumaJnly this is naturaL Everyone would rather pay himself indu'lgently even when he is not altogether certain that he deserves a boot. We have been extremely welltrained to cry about and bewail White Mountain; we can �2 SLOVAKIA ma.Ike a goat 'b leat a!bout it. But this bleating cannot silence our conscience, gnawing at our mind, whielh aSiks quietly: "Whom do you want to fool, ch'lllCikle-head ?" King Mida'S was an example of a man w:ho was afraid to loo'k truth in tlhe face. He had do,nikey ears and an a,stronomicaUy hi,gh hat to cover them. When he gathered enough strength to look at his ears, they disappeared. He was a whole man. Now, if we had the courage of Midas to looik upon realities under the barik o.f truth and related events to otJher examples in the world, perhaps it wolllld daiwn upon us why we did not fight in 1938. It would bec~me apparent that we ourselves were at fault, we the citizens of that lost State, which was the Czecho-;Sfovalk Republic and which we alfowed to collapse. We did not lose the State in October, 1938; we lost it b,efore that time. Octoiber, 1938, was only the date of the thraishilllg we deserved, a'S wa,s perhaps a:lso all that followed it. We did not have an adequate conception regarding nation and state. Somehow we had an idea that the series ad: political fetishes and partisan laJbles, according to which we ran - and still .run - here and there, made a nation of us. We seemed to think - allld still thinlk - that an equal and secret right of ballot and democracy, which we sa;w someplace, but did not understand ;properly amd with it elected irresiponsihly an irresiponsible leader, that this, too, made us a nation. And that our elected leaders wo1u ld at once ,b ecome stateS1II1en and men ,be:cause they wo,re striped ,p ants and acquired a few titles. Because we, the citizens and voters, did not thin1k, catastrophe OiVertook us. We had an idea, but not the knowledge or ,c onviction of what ,was needed to ma;ke a nation of us and a solid, organic unit of our ,state. In the meantime, however, our politicans, diplomats, and statesmen did what they pleased, and ,p articularly did they .run away from responsibilities into dernogogy, lying, and false promises; the interests of the Repulblic and nation were bartered away; obligations and oaths were forgotten, and the Constitution was spat upon; they used their positions to serve their own per,sonal �SLOVAKIA 3 interests and whims and used the nation and state lilke rags. In twenty-five years, the Repulblic was bartered away twice by these paliticams-statesm en with titles and striped pants. First to the Nazis, then to the Communists. In both cases this happened against our will. The caiuse of this is the same as that for our not fightinig in 1938: in responsirble positions we did have persons of the male sex, hut not men. None of us can j:ustify for ourselves o,r before any judicious person the fact that we did not fight. The nation was armed to the teeth; it had an army of a million men, excellently trained and for decades inculcated with love for its nation and filled with a .will to fight and a willingness to sacrifice. And yet, the nation did not fight as it wanted to and knew it had to so that it could preseiwe its freedom and indeipendence which it had eiked out after 300 years of dependence and bondage under which it almost ,p erished. Some of our people get angry when they read or hear the e~ression "ollir nation caipitulated." They come back with the retort that not the nation, but the leaders capitulated. I do not agree. There was only one leader: the president, the ~wpreme commamder of an arnny of a million men, an army splendidly equipped, trained, and ready fo,r war. We elected him directly or indirectly to leadershi!p. We are, therefore, also responsibile for him. To turn away from this responsilbility is senseless or cowardly. JOlhn Masaryk told me in the spring of 1940 that the aJII11bassadors off Fra.nce and Britian litera:Uy dragged Dr. Benes from bed at three o'clock in the morning and forced him to sign the capitulation rby an ultimatum. That started an argument. I could not understamd how a commander of an army of million men could be forced to caipitulation by some two froc'ked uncles and thereiby surrender the army, equipment, and state to enemies and the nation to slavery. John Masaryk retorted that the question did not concern shoes with which I was familiar. I still contended that a statesman could not be forced to do anytjhing. He could be killed, 01Verthrown by a revolution, deposed, kidnapped. �4 SLOVAKIA tortured, that he could cO!IIla:rut suicide, but that he could not be forced. We have an example, I added: Master John Hus. John Masaryk snapped hack that what I was saying sma;ciked af Fascism, that only that ',grazl Mussolini' said that a nation that does not ,s uffer to sacrifice for the independence and freedom of its country is not worthy of it. I told him tlhat was the way I saiw it and that I was convinced that even his father, TGM, would sooner agree in this matter with Mussolini than with him and Benes. From that time on I did not get al()IIl!g with Jo:hn Masaryk and was blac>k1b alled by Benes and his government in London. During the war we wrote each other several times, but, knowing Benes, I knew that he was planning revell!ge. On June 6, 1940, I was placed on the English "Blacklist" - t-o this day I do not know why - with indications that Benes's London "goveTnment" had itis hands in the matter. And after Dr. Benes's v,i sit to the White House, I was also ,p laced on the American "BJadklist" without any investigation. To people in his circle Dr. Benes remarked that I had spoken improperly with him in 193'8. I spoke with him as man to, man. Periha,ps the fact that I told him that he ought to beluwe more liike a man was regarded an improipI'liety. As in 19'38, so I aJlso contend today that we had no right to avoid war when the defense of our independence was concerned - like TGM and Mussolini did, if you want to put it tJhat way. Up to this time, however,. there was always something indistinct that prevented me from writing my view pu'blioly, the view that turned John Masaryk against me. But that indistictn~ has now disappeared due to a strrungely simple cause: in .A!llg1ust, 1957, an Argentine steamer went do!Wil in La Plata and eighty travelers drowned. It sainlk - and then it dawned on me. Lea;ders, caiptains among people, have their honor which they treasure more than life itself. The ca;rptai:n g~ down wi-th his sinlking shi{p. It is the morale of men who understand responsirbility with fatal seriousness a,nd courage. In our nation we had no shlp captains so that we �SLOVAKIA 5 might compare their behavior when disaster strikes the shl,p they are in ohar,ge of. But we did have in oru,r history a series of ca.ptains of the ship of state. And behold, our state captains comprehended the respons,ilbilities and manliness of leadership just as honestly as, those ship captains. The famous "Iron and Gold King," the Czech Pfemysl OtaJkar ]I, offered his life on the eive oif the battle on Moravslke Pole to save the honor of the nation and the army. At that sad time his life was indispensalble to the life of the nation, but he died in battle. He was betrayed by Milota of Dedic, a member of the Benesov clan. The victor Rudolph Habsbur,g had his courageous riva,1 b.umed with honors and scornfully exiled the traitor who had come to pay him homage. And he did not shatter the Ozooh empire as he had threatened. Famous b:lind King John did not run from battle when the French, wiho had called on him for help, fled from the battlefield. He gave the Czechs an example of coUJra:ge and defiance of death in battle with his memoralble utterance: "Let us hope that it will never hruppen that a Czech king shaJll flee f,rom battle!" By his fortitude he prepared the way to the emperor's crown for his .s on Charles ·w. The English cro,w n prince honored him for his braivery and to this very day bears on his coat of arms the three famous feathers of the braive Czech King John. In 193'8, from contacts with our generals, I was convinced that our army was better equipped and trained and possessed a better fighting spirit than Hitler's army. This fact was confirmed in Nureniber,g before the International Court even by Hitler's Chief of Starff, General Halder. He ~aid that his predecessor, General Beclk, resilgned his position in July, 1938, in protest against war with OzechoSlovaJkia which Hitler had planned. General Halder had said that he, lilke the majority of German commanders, was rugainst wa,r even if it wa,s only with independent Olecho~Slovakia. General Beck proclaimed that even such a war would haive boon fatal for Germany. Halder added that, when Beck's resignatio.n did not hruve any effect on Hitler, the German generals planned to overthrow Hitler �6 SLOVAKIA on the eve o:f the war. But the putJsch had to be speedily called off when Dr. Edward Benes crupitulated for CzechoSlorvaJkia. Today wlhen a;li oif this is known, sOlme people will want to reproach and malign me for the indecency of attaclking a dead man. But I do not want to be a wise thinker after the cure. We must rerne:rnlb,er, hrowever, that all we, the peOiple of the Czecho-Slovak ReipU!blic, learned oillly now, all this was 'knoiWil a!OCUTately and in detail by our Suipreme Commander and President, Dr. Edward Benes, already in July, Arugust, and September, 1938, and also by the line of generals, poJiticans, diplomats, and high state officials. In his positiion Benes was bound to know this; he had at his disposal gigantic, highly effective, and costly means to know aibout it. In Paris, in 1939, an officer of the "DelllXieme Bureau" visited me and expressed his amazement over the accuracy of reports of the Czecho-.Slo>vak Intelligence SeTIVice. So, Dr. Ediwa;rd Benes knew that the German generals looked upon war with Czecho-1Slorvalkia as a step that would be fatal to Germany. If, therefore, despite this knowledge Dr. Benes let himself "be forced" to capitulation, he committed treaso!Il. In the solemn oath taken when he assumed the duties of president, the President and Supreme Commander promised solemnly before the nation and Almighty God that he shall seiwe only and exclusively the .s tate and the entire nation. He promised to sacrifice his life, if necessary, and without hesitation erven the life of half the nation in defense of the state and freedom. When Benes was sworn in as President, there were present several huruked leading politicans, soldiers, offi.cialis, diplomats, ministers. Where were all these people when Dr. Benes signed the ca,pituiation and thu~ oommitted perjury and higlh trea,s on? There can be no doubt that they had the duty to prevent such a crupitulation and, if necessary, even to kill or overthrow the man guilty of hi:gh treas()IIl. But what did the .people airound him do? Nothing! And worse. Many of them even escorted him into exile. They bowed profoundly before the man guilty of high �SLOVAKIA 7 treason, adhered to him, supported and helrped him to install himself as exile-president amd to return to our home as .p resident again orf the State he had betrayed to the Communists and "liberated" into CO'Jnmuni.sm. We see that u,p to the present time trnitor Benes is stilJ. honored, glorified, and .p raised by the .v ery same gentlemen as a national hero and martyr. Let us look at these events with the eyes o;f normal people in the wrold, whether they be westerns or easterners. Even i;f they not provolke us from our let:Jhwgy out of reg3!rd for us, they nevertheless think terrible things aJbout us. Let us take any other country, for example, little Finland cramped somewhere in the nor.th and directly under the heel of the most birutal power. Can you im8!gine a Finn singing such a capitulation ond not being cut down the moment he did it? Do not aslk who was sUJpposed to 'kill him. 'Ilhere were hundreds of people who had the manly duty to kill the scoundrel and trMtor, since for decades they were in a po'sision that charged them to do so, even if their manly honor did not. in heaiven's name, will those forces never be awakened that would want to see the entire extent of the deceitful g.a me of the knaive and coward, whom the nation that was pmnlk and lulled to sleep with sociali,S!m placed on the throne of Ozech k,i ngs so that it might b,e betrayed by him? Why does not our exile, as well as our nation at home, walke u,p and use the broom of shame on that band of traitors who must have 'k nown and .stiH know everything that J write about and yet brazenly sing a song of cowardice and treason as if it were our sacred national ~nthem? Let us imagine ho,w diffe.rent it could have been if the nation wouJ.d have - as it should have - rid itself of J3enes's command in time and demonstrated to the world jhow the descendants of the di'Vi.ne worriors know how to fight for thek country. It is .possi1ble that in the end our army would have been beaten, but not before months of terrible fighting. And who can say how many other coun- �8 SLOVAKIA tries would have thrust themselives upon Hitler's army to !finish it already in 1939-19'40 and not in 194'5? The German commander,s should have overthrown Hitler without Benes's capitulation; then World War would not ha-ve happened at all. Ami the Germans without Hitler would have been - as they are today - all of them, not divided, in the western camp. In a fight for its independence, Czecho-SlovaJkia would have gained a blessing, a baptism by fire, and would haive taJken its place among the first states of Europe. It would haJVe finished its fa.rst test of statehood with complete success, a test which •now still awaits us. As it is, instead of being in the forefront as a free nation among the free, our state is an unwilling scamp or against the West and our nation an unwilling scamp or dog's head of <:ommunist imperialism. Well, we know that role the "Psohla,vi'c" (dog's heads) played, and the fate that a,waits them from the Laminge~. We must ma,ke wp our minds as to what we really jWant. Do we want political parties, a party, or State? Do we want a party to whom the State and nation would be a rag, as it is today of the Communist Party? We 'know that a certain grouping of parties led the State and nation into the thraldom of a Nazi protectorate. A grouping of parties, all promotmg socialism, led it into the sla,very of a Communist protectorate. Iif it is not clear to us that the State is aJbove ,p arty and that loyalty to a State stands high albove loya,lty to any party, then there is no sense in thinking and dreaming aJbout any kind of liberation, because in such a case we cannot attain it. That would be a Sisyphean effort, which has already twice disappointed us. As long as we shall elect a leader, we must hold a stricter relation to him than to anyone else. We must afford him the possi!bility to lead and to show himself a man and we must see to it that he also fulfills hls responsibility. ,I f not, we must overthrow or even kill him! After an, are we or are we not the descendants of the glorious warriors pf God, the SOlllS and brothers of the famous Ozecho- SlorvaJk legionnaires? Let us forget political partisanshlip. The ,nation and the State are aJbove any and all parties! � 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 1958, Vol. 8 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 26), March 1958.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 27), June 1958.</li> <li>Issue 3 (No. 28), December 1958.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1958 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 SLO VA KIA Published by the Slovak League of America VOL. VIII DECEMBER, 1958 NO. 3 (28) WHY fflE CZECHS DID NOT FIGHT Dr. John A. Bafa Whatever has been written aibout this subject has practically aliways been fhwored, distorted with excuses, malevolence, derisfon, anger, shame, embitter.moot, and aippeasemen.t, a<Ccording to politi'Cal interest and viewpoint and attempts to coiver up. Moot of the time this smelled of wrong doing, misfortune, a new White Mountain. Never, however, was their any trace of a;clmowledging how and wihy something hruppened and w:ho was to 'blame for its h8lplpening. Dr. John A. Bat'a is a member of the famous Czech shoemakers, who, like so many others who had dared to criticize the ruinous policy of Dr. Edward Benes, even though belatedly, were persecuted by Benes and his followers even in exile. This is a translation of the original Czech article "Proc jsme the journal nebojovali" that was published in "BOHEMIA" Oct. 30, 1957. of Czech Democratic Federalists - 'Dhat was a terrible, historical defeat of our statehood without a fig.ht and the world thinks that we fled from the b8Jttle. What has been written Uip to this time by the Czecho..,SlovaJks about this has only attempted to, excuse or rupologize for the ultimatum of the Western Powers at Munich in 1938: the Western Powers were guilty; the Russians were guilty for not coming to he1p us; Hitler was guHty; etc . And the world keeps on chuckling at our naivite. HumaJnly this is naturaL Everyone would rather pay himself indu'lgently even when he is not altogether certain that he deserves a boot. We have been extremely welltrained to cry about and bewail White Mountain; we can 2 SLOVAKIA ma.Ike a goat 'b leat a!bout it. But this bleating cannot silence our conscience, gnawing at our mind, whielh aSiks quietly: "Whom do you want to fool, ch'lllCikle-head ?" King Mida'S was an example of a man w:ho was afraid to loo'k truth in tlhe face. He had do,nikey ears and an a,stronomicaUy hi,gh hat to cover them. When he gathered enough strength to look at his ears, they disappeared. He was a whole man. Now, if we had the courage of Midas to looik upon realities under the barik o.f truth and related events to otJher examples in the world, perhaps it wolllld daiwn upon us why we did not fight in 1938. It would bec~me apparent that we ourselves were at fault, we the citizens of that lost State, which was the Czecho-;Sfovalk Republic and which we alfowed to collapse. We did not lose the State in October, 1938; we lost it b,efore that time. Octoiber, 1938, was only the date of the thraishilllg we deserved, a'S wa,s perhaps a:lso all that followed it. We did not have an adequate conception regarding nation and state. Somehow we had an idea that the series ad: political fetishes and partisan laJbles, according to which we ran - and still .run - here and there, made a nation of us. We seemed to think - allld still thinlk - that an equal and secret right of ballot and democracy, which we sa;w someplace, but did not understand ;properly amd with it elected irresiponsihly an irresiponsible leader, that this, too, made us a nation. And that our elected leaders wo1u ld at once ,b ecome stateS1II1en and men ,be:cause they wo,re striped ,p ants and acquired a few titles. Because we, the citizens and voters, did not thin1k, catastrophe OiVertook us. We had an idea, but not the knowledge or ,c onviction of what ,was needed to ma;ke a nation of us and a solid, organic unit of our ,state. In the meantime, however, our politicans, diplomats, and statesmen did what they pleased, and ,p articularly did they .run away from responsibilities into dernogogy, lying, and false promises; the interests of the Repulblic and nation were bartered away; obligations and oaths were forgotten, and the Constitution was spat upon; they used their positions to serve their own per,sonal SLOVAKIA 3 interests and whims and used the nation and state lilke rags. In twenty-five years, the Repulblic was bartered away twice by these paliticams-statesm en with titles and striped pants. First to the Nazis, then to the Communists. In both cases this happened against our will. The caiuse of this is the same as that for our not fightinig in 1938: in responsirble positions we did have persons of the male sex, hut not men. None of us can j:ustify for ourselves o,r before any judicious person the fact that we did not fight. The nation was armed to the teeth; it had an army of a million men, excellently trained and for decades inculcated with love for its nation and filled with a .will to fight and a willingness to sacrifice. And yet, the nation did not fight as it wanted to and knew it had to so that it could preseiwe its freedom and indeipendence which it had eiked out after 300 years of dependence and bondage under which it almost ,p erished. Some of our people get angry when they read or hear the e~ression "ollir nation caipitulated." They come back with the retort that not the nation, but the leaders capitulated. I do not agree. There was only one leader: the president, the ~wpreme commamder of an arnny of a million men, an army splendidly equipped, trained, and ready fo,r war. We elected him directly or indirectly to leadershi!p. We are, therefore, also responsibile for him. To turn away from this responsilbility is senseless or cowardly. JOlhn Masaryk told me in the spring of 1940 that the aJII11bassadors off Fra.nce and Britian litera:Uy dragged Dr. Benes from bed at three o'clock in the morning and forced him to sign the capitulation rby an ultimatum. That started an argument. I could not understamd how a commander of an army of million men could be forced to caipitulation by some two froc'ked uncles and thereiby surrender the army, equipment, and state to enemies and the nation to slavery. John Masaryk retorted that the question did not concern shoes with which I was familiar. I still contended that a statesman could not be forced to do anytjhing. He could be killed, 01Verthrown by a revolution, deposed, kidnapped. 4 SLOVAKIA tortured, that he could cO!IIla:rut suicide, but that he could not be forced. We have an example, I added: Master John Hus. John Masaryk snapped hack that what I was saying sma;ciked af Fascism, that only that ',grazl Mussolini' said that a nation that does not ,s uffer to sacrifice for the independence and freedom of its country is not worthy of it. I told him tlhat was the way I saiw it and that I was convinced that even his father, TGM, would sooner agree in this matter with Mussolini than with him and Benes. From that time on I did not get al()IIl!g with Jo:hn Masaryk and was blac>k1b alled by Benes and his government in London. During the war we wrote each other several times, but, knowing Benes, I knew that he was planning revell!ge. On June 6, 1940, I was placed on the English "Blacklist" - t-o this day I do not know why - with indications that Benes's London "goveTnment" had itis hands in the matter. And after Dr. Benes's v,i sit to the White House, I was also ,p laced on the American "BJadklist" without any investigation. To people in his circle Dr. Benes remarked that I had spoken improperly with him in 193'8. I spoke with him as man to, man. Periha,ps the fact that I told him that he ought to beluwe more liike a man was regarded an improipI'liety. As in 19'38, so I aJlso contend today that we had no right to avoid war when the defense of our independence was concerned - like TGM and Mussolini did, if you want to put it tJhat way. Up to this time, however,. there was always something indistinct that prevented me from writing my view pu'blioly, the view that turned John Masaryk against me. But that indistictn~ has now disappeared due to a strrungely simple cause: in .A!llg1ust, 1957, an Argentine steamer went do!Wil in La Plata and eighty travelers drowned. It sainlk - and then it dawned on me. Lea;ders, caiptains among people, have their honor which they treasure more than life itself. The ca;rptai:n g~ down wi-th his sinlking shi{p. It is the morale of men who understand responsirbility with fatal seriousness a,nd courage. In our nation we had no shlp captains so that we SLOVAKIA 5 might compare their behavior when disaster strikes the shl,p they are in ohar,ge of. But we did have in oru,r history a series of ca.ptains of the ship of state. And behold, our state captains comprehended the respons,ilbilities and manliness of leadership just as honestly as, those ship captains. The famous "Iron and Gold King," the Czech Pfemysl OtaJkar ]I, offered his life on the eive oif the battle on Moravslke Pole to save the honor of the nation and the army. At that sad time his life was indispensalble to the life of the nation, but he died in battle. He was betrayed by Milota of Dedic, a member of the Benesov clan. The victor Rudolph Habsbur,g had his courageous riva,1 b.umed with honors and scornfully exiled the traitor who had come to pay him homage. And he did not shatter the Ozooh empire as he had threatened. Famous b:lind King John did not run from battle when the French, wiho had called on him for help, fled from the battlefield. He gave the Czechs an example of coUJra:ge and defiance of death in battle with his memoralble utterance: "Let us hope that it will never hruppen that a Czech king shaJll flee f,rom battle!" By his fortitude he prepared the way to the emperor's crown for his .s on Charles ·w. The English cro,w n prince honored him for his braivery and to this very day bears on his coat of arms the three famous feathers of the braive Czech King John. In 193'8, from contacts with our generals, I was convinced that our army was better equipped and trained and possessed a better fighting spirit than Hitler's army. This fact was confirmed in Nureniber,g before the International Court even by Hitler's Chief of Starff, General Halder. He ~aid that his predecessor, General Beclk, resilgned his position in July, 1938, in protest against war with OzechoSlovaJkia which Hitler had planned. General Halder had said that he, lilke the majority of German commanders, was rugainst wa,r even if it wa,s only with independent Olecho~Slovakia. General Beck proclaimed that even such a war would haive boon fatal for Germany. Halder added that, when Beck's resignatio.n did not hruve any effect on Hitler, the German generals planned to overthrow Hitler 6 SLOVAKIA on the eve o:f the war. But the putJsch had to be speedily called off when Dr. Edward Benes crupitulated for CzechoSlorvaJkia. Today wlhen a;li oif this is known, sOlme people will want to reproach and malign me for the indecency of attaclking a dead man. But I do not want to be a wise thinker after the cure. We must rerne:rnlb,er, hrowever, that all we, the peOiple of the Czecho-Slovak ReipU!blic, learned oillly now, all this was 'knoiWil a!OCUTately and in detail by our Suipreme Commander and President, Dr. Edward Benes, already in July, Arugust, and September, 1938, and also by the line of generals, poJiticans, diplomats, and high state officials. In his positiion Benes was bound to know this; he had at his disposal gigantic, highly effective, and costly means to know aibout it. In Paris, in 1939, an officer of the "DelllXieme Bureau" visited me and expressed his amazement over the accuracy of reports of the Czecho-.Slo>vak Intelligence SeTIVice. So, Dr. Ediwa;rd Benes knew that the German generals looked upon war with Czecho-1Slorvalkia as a step that would be fatal to Germany. If, therefore, despite this knowledge Dr. Benes let himself "be forced" to capitulation, he committed treaso!Il. In the solemn oath taken when he assumed the duties of president, the President and Supreme Commander promised solemnly before the nation and Almighty God that he shall seiwe only and exclusively the .s tate and the entire nation. He promised to sacrifice his life, if necessary, and without hesitation erven the life of half the nation in defense of the state and freedom. When Benes was sworn in as President, there were present several huruked leading politicans, soldiers, offi.cialis, diplomats, ministers. Where were all these people when Dr. Benes signed the ca,pituiation and thu~ oommitted perjury and higlh trea,s on? There can be no doubt that they had the duty to prevent such a crupitulation and, if necessary, even to kill or overthrow the man guilty of hi:gh treas()IIl. But what did the .people airound him do? Nothing! And worse. Many of them even escorted him into exile. They bowed profoundly before the man guilty of high SLOVAKIA 7 treason, adhered to him, supported and helrped him to install himself as exile-president amd to return to our home as .p resident again orf the State he had betrayed to the Communists and "liberated" into CO'Jnmuni.sm. We see that u,p to the present time trnitor Benes is stilJ. honored, glorified, and .p raised by the .v ery same gentlemen as a national hero and martyr. Let us look at these events with the eyes o;f normal people in the wrold, whether they be westerns or easterners. Even i;f they not provolke us from our let:Jhwgy out of reg3!rd for us, they nevertheless think terrible things aJbout us. Let us take any other country, for example, little Finland cramped somewhere in the nor.th and directly under the heel of the most birutal power. Can you im8!gine a Finn singing such a capitulation ond not being cut down the moment he did it? Do not aslk who was sUJpposed to 'kill him. 'Ilhere were hundreds of people who had the manly duty to kill the scoundrel and trMtor, since for decades they were in a po'sision that charged them to do so, even if their manly honor did not. in heaiven's name, will those forces never be awakened that would want to see the entire extent of the deceitful g.a me of the knaive and coward, whom the nation that was pmnlk and lulled to sleep with sociali,S!m placed on the throne of Ozech k,i ngs so that it might b,e betrayed by him? Why does not our exile, as well as our nation at home, walke u,p and use the broom of shame on that band of traitors who must have 'k nown and .stiH know everything that J write about and yet brazenly sing a song of cowardice and treason as if it were our sacred national ~nthem? Let us imagine ho,w diffe.rent it could have been if the nation wouJ.d have - as it should have - rid itself of J3enes's command in time and demonstrated to the world jhow the descendants of the di'Vi.ne worriors know how to fight for thek country. It is .possi1ble that in the end our army would have been beaten, but not before months of terrible fighting. And who can say how many other coun- 8 SLOVAKIA tries would have thrust themselives upon Hitler's army to !finish it already in 1939-19'40 and not in 194'5? The German commander,s should have overthrown Hitler without Benes's capitulation; then World War would not ha-ve happened at all. Ami the Germans without Hitler would have been - as they are today - all of them, not divided, in the western camp. In a fight for its independence, Czecho-SlovaJkia would have gained a blessing, a baptism by fire, and would haive taJken its place among the first states of Europe. It would haJVe finished its fa.rst test of statehood with complete success, a test which •now still awaits us. As it is, instead of being in the forefront as a free nation among the free, our state is an unwilling scamp or against the West and our nation an unwilling scamp or dog's head of <:ommunist imperialism. Well, we know that role the "Psohla,vi'c" (dog's heads) played, and the fate that a,waits them from the Laminge~. We must ma,ke wp our minds as to what we really jWant. Do we want political parties, a party, or State? Do we want a party to whom the State and nation would be a rag, as it is today of the Communist Party? We 'know that a certain grouping of parties led the State and nation into the thraldom of a Nazi protectorate. A grouping of parties, all promotmg socialism, led it into the sla,very of a Communist protectorate. Iif it is not clear to us that the State is aJbove ,p arty and that loyalty to a State stands high albove loya,lty to any party, then there is no sense in thinking and dreaming aJbout any kind of liberation, because in such a case we cannot attain it. That would be a Sisyphean effort, which has already twice disappointed us. As long as we shall elect a leader, we must hold a stricter relation to him than to anyone else. We must afford him the possi!bility to lead and to show himself a man and we must see to it that he also fulfills hls responsibility. ,I f not, we must overthrow or even kill him! After an, are we or are we not the descendants of the glorious warriors pf God, the SOlllS and brothers of the famous Ozecho- SlorvaJk legionnaires? Let us forget political partisanshlip. The ,nation and the State are aJbove any and all parties!  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 Why the Czechs Did Not Fight Description An account of the resource Dr. John A. Baťa Slovakia, Vol. 8, No. 3 (28), December 1958 pp. 1-8 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Baťa, John A. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource December 1958 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/27a23a4d6968a40a1bf4ba992eb69ad3.pdf 5fc2abf9c66d5887ff4803f7b869e5e6 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA REVIEWS 87 ��SLOVAKIA 89 Vojtech Kopcan. Turecke nebezpecenstvo a Slovensko. Bratislava: Veda, 1986. 217 pp. R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Florida This beautifully illustrated work presents an overview of Slovakia's position in the wars between the Turkish Ottomans and the Austrian Habsburgs. For purposes of convenience the author divides this historic conflict into several periods. The first period began with the Ottoman advance through the Balk~ns in the fifteenth century and climaxed with the historic battle of Mohac in 1526. The battle effectively broke the power of the old Hungarian kingdom, and marked the first attempt of the Habsburgs to gain the crown of Saint Stephen. Habsburg efforts were temporarily thwarted by Hungary's last national king Janos Zapolya (whose name is Slovakized by the author to Zapol'sky), but the kingdom was partitioned by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in 1541. At this point the Habsburgs gained western and northern Hungary, and the Slovak counties became a definite buffer against further Ottoman advance. Slovakia was only indirectly influenced by the Turkish wars in the first-mentioned phase, although Kopcan points to this period as a time when many Croats migrated to the Slovak counties. But the period between the partition of 1541 and the peace treaty of Edirne of 1568 entailed dramatic changes: an additional noble exodus from Turkish-occupied Hungary strengthened feudalism in the Slovak lands, and the Turks made increasing inroads into the mountain districts. The resumption of hostilities in the following two decades saw the rise of pro-Habsburg magnates - particularly the Pa.Iffy and Forgach families - who later played key roles in the history of Habsburg Hungary. By the early seventeenth century Transylvania was likewise making an impact on Upper Hungary. The principality's Protestant rulers, paying nominal allegiance to the Ottoman Porte, frequently sought and gained the support of the latter in their struggles against the Habsburgs. The Transylvanian forays brought great devastation to Slovakia, and also saw the transfer of Kosice and �90 SLOVAKIA the eastern Slovak counties to Transylvania's jurisdiction by the Treaty of Linz in 1645. An attempt by Transylvanian elements to shift to the Habsburg orbit in 1663 led directly to the high-tide mark of Turkish advance into Slovakia; the subsequent peace left the southern counties under direct Ottoman control. Habsburg misrule, the greed of Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa , and the ambitions of Transylvanian leader Imre Thokoly are all cited as factors in the campaign culminating in the great siege of Vienna in 1683. Most knowledgeable historians credit the great naval battle of Lepanto in 1571 as the real turning point of Ottoman fortunes, and Kopcan himself alludes to the significance of the event at the beginning of Chapter Four. But for Central Europe, including Slovakia, the breaking of the siege of Vienna was indeed a turning point. The intervention of Poland was decisive in driving the Turks from southern Slovakia and marked the retreat of Transylvanian power in the eastern counties. In keeping with official Czechoslovak historiography, Kopcan treats the liberation of Nave Zamky as a positive event, and, indeed, the book was written to mark the three hundredth anniversary. The results can scarcely be termed "socially progressive:" feudalism was not weakened, Habsburg absolutism was actually strengthened, and the cause of religious toleration received a severe setback. Kopcan's line of reasoning may be found in Chapter Nine, which serves as a kind of "balance sheet" of the Ottoman presence. The occupied ten:itories were viewed primarily as military frontier zones, and the heavy demands imposed upon the government reflected the same purpose. At least the Mohammedan invaders were replaced by rulers less foreign to the Slovaks , and the war shifted considerably further to the south. A number of the weaknesses of the book are scarcely those of the author's making. The complex course of events creates difficulties in distinguishing between one period and the next. The Slovak lands are treated as mere pawns in the struggle between the contesting powers - and this was indeed the case. But although Kopcan occasionally cites the roles of individual Slovak personalities, he might have given the counties greater attention. In large measure this weakness stems from his choice of source materials . Notes are applied liberally at the end of each chapter, �SLOVAKIA 91 and the sources consulted boast of fine studies emanating from numerous countries. But Kopcan might easily have relied more on contemporary Slovak county records. An examination of the Imperial War Archives in Vienna might also have yielded something genuinely original. For advanced students of Slovak history, the Habsburgs, and the Ottoman Empire alike, Turecke nebezpecenstvo presents no great revelations. But Kopcan masterfully ties together several interrelated themes, and the main topic has thus far received little attention in the West. The book may therefore serve as a springboard to more intensive studies of Slovakia's position durng the Turkish wars. Matej Bel: doba-iivot-dielo. Edited by Jan Tibensky. Bratislava: Veda, 1987. 414 pp. Pamatnica z oslav dvojsteho vyrocia Jana Holleho. Edited by Juraj Chovan. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1985 . 472 pp. GERALDJ. SABO John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio Matej Bel is a collection of scholarly papers presented at a conference on Bel (1684-1749) in December, 1983. The Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and the Slovak Society for the History of Science and Technology co-sponsored the conference, which was planned in honor of the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of Matej Bel , an event highlighted in the UNESCO calendar for 1984. Bel was a prominent and talented Slovak scholar in many areas , as well as a Lutheran minister and promoter of Pietism. His role in Slovak and Magyar/Hungarian cultural history is well known in Central European scholarly circles. Regrettably , Bel is virtually unknown outside of them . The format of this volume continues to insure his inaccessibility to a wider scholarly or general audience. Indeed, this volume contrasts sharply and somewhat unfavorably with the memorial book on the Bernolak-Slovak poet Jan Holly. �92 SLOVAKIA The book on Holly was published under the auspices of the Matica slovenska in commemoration of the two hundredth anniversary of Holly's birth as noted by UNESCO in its 1985 calendar. Jan Holly (1785-1849) was a Roman Catholic priest and the outstanding poet of what is known as Bernolak-Slovak. This version of literary Slovak was codified by Anton Bernolak, another Catholic priest, in the late 1780's and early 1790's. Employing this codification, which became the writing form of Catholic Slovaks until sometime in the 1850's, Holly first translated classical poets and later created his own poetry in it. This book includes a chronology of Holly's life and works, written accounts of various celebrations in his honor, scholarly papers from a conference about him, and varia. It is a fitting tribute to a writer long neglected in contemporary Slovakia and but very recently properly heralded. The Holly memorial has some rather distinctive features. The Slovak text is usually followed by English and French summaries of varying length , with shorter Russian and German summaries of everything at the end of the volume. Such linguistic variety makes this book accessible to a very wide audience; this is not a typical Slovak publishing practice. By contrast, the Bel volume is completely in Slovak, with no summaries in any other language. Furthermore , the Holly memorial has sixteen color photographs while the reproductions in the Bel volume are all in black and white. Both books have colored dust jackets, but the Holly book, unlike the Bel volume, has reproduced on the inside cover, front and back, some well-known historic scenes. One is of Bernolak presenting his codification to the Trnava primate and to the Catholic seminarians in Bratislava; the other has the Lutheran pastor and scholar I.:udovit Shir and his followers presenting their codification ideas to Holly. Such elaborate binding was not really necessary but it indicates the degree to which contemporary Slovak cultured society wished to honor Holly. The books were also published in disproportionate numbers: 7,500 Holly books versus only 800 on Bel. Unlike the Bel volume, the Holly book includes indices that enhance its scholarly value. The final contrast is even more striking. The Holly conference was held in 1985 �SLOVAKIA 93 and the memorial book appeared in the same year! The Bel conference took place in 1983 and the papers were not published until 1987. In spite of the publisher's slights, the Bel volume is excellent, as one might expect from its editor, the distinguished historian Jan Tibensky. This collection of papers is divided into six main topic areas among which are distributed forty-four presentations of varying size. The topic areas are: the era, life, and world view of Matej Bel; Bel as a pedagogue; the great counry-wide project of Matej Bel and his attempts at organizing the scholarly life of the Hungarian state; the Notitia and Adparatus as realizations of Matej Bel's country-wide program; the peoples of the old Hungarian state in his writings; and his final message and bequest. In addition to some introductory comments, Jan Tibensky contributed five of the articles; the remaining 39 are primarily by Slovak specialists from many fields. For some strange reason the authors are noted on the bottom of the first page of their articles, and not in the Table of Contents. There is also a laudable wealth of material in the Holly memorial book. One section contains 23 scholarly papers from the conference on Holly, plus introductory and concluding comments by Karol Rosenbaum. Of greatest interest to me in literature and cultural history were the following: Jan Tibensky's paper on the great Moravian and Cyrillomethodian tradition in the writings of Jan Holly; Zdenka Sojkova's discussion of Holly's reception and influence in the Czech lands; Viliam Turcany's consideration of Holly's poetic language; as well as that of Frantisek Straus, and Katarina Habovstiakova's discussion of Holly and BernolakSlovak. The appendices - a select bibliography, a listing of Holly's manuscripts, a name and place index - will be helpful to interested readers. The scholar fortunate enough to obtain copies of both books, especially the smaller Bel volume , will possess an abundance of material on Slovak cultural history of the 18th and 19th, and even of the 20th centuries. Such high-quality books are not often found in Slovak studies. Their respective editors and contributors are to be commended for making two prominent cultural figures more accessible to the Slavic scholarly community. �94 SLOVAKIA Hugolin Gavlovic {1712-1787}. Introduction by Michal Elias. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1987. 17 photographs, 11 pp. GERALDJ. SABO John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio This fotosubor was published in commemoration of the two hundredth anniversary of the death of Hugolin Gavlovic, a Franciscan priest who was a major Slovak writer of the eighteenth century. Michal Elias' introduction is written in a popular, somewhat scholarly style in order to make his comments accessible to a wideranging reading public. Highlighted is Gavlovic's Valaska Skala, an extensive poem of some eighteen thousand verses . Gavlovic and his writings are presented in the context of other Franciscans of his time as well as of those active in the Pruske Franciscan house, not far from Trencin, where Gavlovic wrote many of his works. It is praiseworthy that Matica slovenska has sought to distinguish Gavlovic, none of whose writings have been published accurately or in their entirety - even some very small ones in Slovakia at the present time. Certainly, it adds to his distinction by UNESCO, which incorporated the anniversary of Gavlovic's death into its 1987 calendar. The difficulty is that some of Elias' material is confusing and inaccurate or not as complete as it might have been. Certain writings - Adamowa Promena and Katechyzmus, for example - attributed traditionally to Gavlovic and so noted by Elias - are today no longer believed to have been written by Gavlovic. Just a half year after the publication of this fotosubor, Gizela Slavkovska-Gafrikova published a listing of Gavlovic's writings and a rather detailed biography, more complete and accurate than that of Elias , in "Zivotopisne a bibliograficke otazniky Hugolina Gavlovica," Slovenska literatura , Vol. 34, No. 6, pp. 348-361. It is regrettable that these two specialists could not have collaborated on Gavlovic's biographical data. Then perhaps there would have been expressed at least some reservation about whether Gavlovic was a tutor for the Madocany children near the end of his life; that he was so is still claimed without any real �SLOVAKIA 95 substantiation. Qualifications even in so popularly written a work as Elias' have a definite place. In his citations from Valaska Skala, Elias, like every other modern Slovak editor including Slavkovska-Gafrikova, has a text with a dlien , something that Gavlovic never used in his writings, and in places that certainly do not correspond with modern Slovak usage. Since the autographs of all of Gavlovic's extant writings are preserved at Matica slovenska in Martin, Elias should have consulted these originals before producing the texts in the fotosubor. Even Slavkovska-Gafrikova, in her June, 1987 publication Hugolin Gavlovic Naucenia o Dobrych Mravoch r does no better though she should certainly have been very familiar with the autographs of Gavlovic. Why modern Slovak editors like Elias and Slavkovska-Gafrikova persist in such reproduction of Gavlovic's writings is baffling . Indeed, photographs of various Gavlovic autographs included in the fotosubor are clear evidence that Gavlovic did not use a dlien, and a miikcen only irregularly with a "t" or "n." Whatever the nature of the intended audience, the original text accompanied by a modern rendition is preferable where so little of the autograph(s) is cited. The cover of the fotosubor is a striking watercolor by the outstanding contemporary painter Albin Brunovsky, some of whose paintings and drawings have been on exhibit in various American locations during 1988. The photographs related directly to Gavlovic's life and writings are good and give the reader a reasonable acquaintance with so important a writer. Matica slovenska, and Dr. Elias, are to be commended for their efforts in producing this fotosubor and , hopefully in the future, may correct some of its inadequacies. Dejiny Slovenska, JV, (ad konca 19. star. do roku 1918} Pavel Hapak, et. al. Bratislava: Veda, 1986. 534 pp. MICHAEL J. KOPANIC , JR. University of Akron , Ohio This is the fourth in the series entitled Dejiny Slovenska , which is the most recent multi-volume survey of Slovak history �96 SLOVAKIA to come out of the Slovak Socialist Republic. A group of leading Slovak scholars authored this book which is woven together fairly coherently for a collaborative effort. Volume IV outlines the major trends in Slovak politics, society, culture , and the economy from 1900 until the establishment of the Czecho-Slovak Republic in 1918. The authors also attempt to place Slovak history in the international setting of a Europe on the brink of revolutionary changes . Some of the strongest sections in the book are the summaries of the macroeconomic and microeconomic development of prewar industries, financial institutions, services, and agriculture in Slovakia. Useful tables and statistics are included. Likewise, the authors provide an analysis of each social class and the nationalities (except for the Carpathian Germans). In politics, the authors (especially J. Butvin) stress the disunity of the Slovak parties which prevented a common front to counter the strong Magyarization pressures that accelerated after the passage of the Apponyi Education Acts of 1907. Despite the authors' noteworthy achievements, the volume is not without its shortcomings. In the bibliography there is an obvious neglect of post-World War II Western studies and emigre literature on Slovakia (for example, Hrusovsky, Kirschbaum, Mikula, and others). Emigration to America, and elsewhere, could have been more carefully analyzed, especially its impact on political self-awareness in Slovakia. The wave of emigration, communications with friends and relatives, and the return of Slovaks from America to their homeland gradually raised the national and political consciousness of common folk throughout Slovakia and helped propel the movement to seek an alternative state in association with the Czechs. As in many other studies from contemporary Czechoslovakia, there is a marked emphasis upon Slovak labor history and the influence of the working class both before and during World War I. The authors (especially Pavel Hapak) underline the rising significance of the Slovak Social Democratic Party, the trade unions, and the impact of such organizations as spevokoly (singing societies) in promoting Slovak national awareness and class consciousness. The authors aptly illustrate the nationality con- �SLOVAKIA 97 flicts of Magyar chauvinism among Hungarian Social Democratic leaders. However, the reader must be wary of any tendency to overexaggerate the significance of the workers' movement. As Pavel Hapak points out (p. 258), no more than 6,346 Slovaks belonged to the Slovak Social Democratic organization in Hungary at its peak in 1907. More Slovaks were organizing in larger cities such as Budapest and Vienna, but we still lack detailed studies of these experiences. These pre-war experiences reached a fruition in the latter stages of World War I and resulted in a surge of political and labor activism which is described in the 1917-18 period. As in many other Marxist histories, the authors ascribe too much influence to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 rather than to the March Russian Revolution which marked the beginning of the end for the old regimes of Europe. Despite the concerns of the authors with the lower classes, they do not provide a good sense of what it was like to be a worker, a peasant, or a migratory laborer. Too often the authors stress social history more from an institutional and statistical angle, rather than presenting us with a close-up of what life was really like for the average person in Slovakia. Most obvious is the neglect of the Slovak people's association with their churches, the center of village life. What did Slovak people value most highly in their hierarchy of priorities, and how and why were these values changing? The authors do not tell us. In a book which concentrates on a such narrow period, the authors could have presented a much better portrait of some of the leading personalities in Slovakia such as Pavel Blaho, Andrej Hlinka, or Emanuel Lehocky. Frequently, the reader obtains only a one-dimensional aspect of a person's life, usually his political or labor movement activities. A sense of what the total person was like is missing . Although the book contains a good bibliography of published books and articles and a bibliographic essay, the authors did not footnote their work. Footnotes would have been a useful addition for students of modern Slovak history. The book also lacks maps and a subject index (only a name and place index are included) which should accompany a work of this nature . �98 SLOVAKIA Finally, the authors did not attempt to write any conclusions about the meaning of Slovak history in the period covered. Although such a task is always difficult in a collaborative work, this would have given the study more unity . If there is any common theme which pervades the study, it is the alliance of Magyar financial capital with a noble ruling class which was bent on Magyarizing and exploiting Slovak peasants and blue-collar workers. These criticisms should not discourage one from obtaining the volume. The book is a valuable and useful reference tool for the library of any scholar of Slovak history. Many topics such as literature, labor, economic, and political history are well summarized in a readable style, and the interpretations are more objective than many earlier Marxist studies. This is surely the best available detailed survey of Slovakia in the early twentieth century. Stephan Parak. Die Schweiz und der Slowakische Staat. Bern: Peter Lang (Europaische Hochschulschriften Ill/339), 1987, 308 pp. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM York University, Glendon College Toronto, Canada Once in a while , a pearl is dropped on the lap of scholars. All the necessary ingredients are there: a relatively unknown topic, thorough research, a scholarly approach, the proper use of references, balanced conclusions and a challenge to conventional wisdom. Such is Stephan Parak's study of the political and economic relations between two small states in wartime, Slovakia and Switzerland. It is not necessary to belabour the point that the Slovak Republic does not generally enjoy a good reputation in Western scholarship. Created at a time when Germany was bent on redrawing the map of Central Europe, allied to it in war, involved in the persecution of the Jews and occupied in the end by one of the Allied powers , the Slovak state belonged to the camp of the van- �SLOVAKIA 99 quished and suffered as a result the inevitable consequences of unconditional defeat. This outcome has guided many scholars who see more virtue in triumphalism than in the accurate reconstruction of the past. Whatever may be the merits of the debate whether the Slovak Diet should have proclaimed Slovakia's independence on 14 March 1939, the fact is that on that day a new state appeared on the political map of Europe. Its leaders were determined to use the opportunity not only to safeguard the well-being of the nation , but also to ensure its growth and development. That there was great German pressure in Slovak political life, that the Slovak leaders took decisions contrary to the Christian philosophy of their party, that the Slovak economy fuelled the German war effort were all facts of the political life of this small state next to an expansionist ideological regime; equally true is the fact that this state sought to withstand and diminish some of these pressures and to lead the life of a small country which needs good relations with others to survive and thrive . Parak's study looks at both of these themes in his examination of the relations between Slovakia and Switzerland. The first influenced the question of the diplomatic recognition of Slovakia. It was settled as much by the Swiss interpretation of international law as by Bern's appraisal of the power constellation in Europe in 1939 . The Swiss " tacit recognition" of Slovakia reflected this as did the break of relations in 1945 and the recognition of the renewed state of Czechoslovakia. On the Slovak side, it was clearly most important to achieve the best diplomatic status possible , something which the Swiss were unwilling to grant, especially in wartime. Parak documents and analyzes this question not only thoroughly, but in an intelligent and balanced way. The diplomatic tug-of-war between these two states did not prevent on the other hand important economic and cultural relations. A good part of this study concentrates on the scope and the benefits of these relations to both states. It makes all the more fascinating reading as these relations were being carried out while the rest of Europe was at war. The extent to which Slovakia could exist as an independent state is made quite clear by these relations. The author also devotes an entire chapter on the role of �100 SLOVAKIA Switzerland in the fate of the Slovak Jews. His approach is factual and sensitive. He notes that in 1942, neither the Swiss government, nor the Red Cross lodged a protest against the deportations of Slovak Jews to Poland. Yet Swiss representatives in Slovakia were also very active in protecting Jews who were important for economic and commercial reasons and they intervened with Slovak authorities to see that presidential exceptions were granted to them. After the 1944 revolt the situation was reversed. The meaning of the German Final Solution was then clear; the Swiss government and the Red Cross lodged protects against the deportations. But neither they nor the Slovak government could do anything - even protect those who had been granted presidential exceptions - as the Germans were now in control in Slovakia. Nevertheless many Swiss, including diplomatic representatives, with the support of the Slovak Red Cross and Church circles , were able personally to extend refuge to individual Jews . In the light of this record Parak asks whether the Swiss might have had more success if they had been more active on the official diplomatic level. He concludes: "One is left with the impression that on the Swiss side not all available opportunities were exhausted to save Slovak Jews in the Second World War" (p . 215). In his overall conclusion Parak considers that the relations between these two states, like those of great powers, were determined by national interest as well as by their perception of the international situation. This is an interesting conclusion, not for Switzerland where to most it must seem self-evident, but for Slovakia where a perception still lingers among scholars that its policies and activities were dictated entirely by Berlin. Yet such a challenge to conventional wisdom is the normal outcome of this study. That is not the least of its merits. This is a published doctoral dissertation as required by European universities (in this case the University of Basel) for the obtaining of the degree. Given its excellence, it should be translated into English; it needs very few modifications . Above all , it certainly deserves to be read by as wide a public as possible . �SLOVAKIA 101 Carol Skalnik Leff. National Conflict in Czechoslovakia: The Making and Remaking of a State, 1918-1987. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1988. xi, 304 pp. JAMES FELAK Bloomington, Indiana A persistent theme in the history of Czechoslovakia has been the Slovak quest for autonomy. In her book National Conflict in Czechoslovakia: The Making and Remaking of a State, 1918-1917, Carol Skalnik Leff examines this crucial issue from 1918 to the present. She deals above all with the Slovak question as manifested in the First Czechoslovak Republic and in the Communist state between 1948 and 1968, stressing similarities in how both the democratic and the Communist regimes handled the issue of autonomy. In the interwar democracy as well as the postwar Communist state, Leff sees certain impediments to autonomy. In both states, Czechoslovakia's leaders believed that modernization, not autonomy, would solve the Slovak question. In the First Republic, Masaryk and other Czechoslovak leaders explained Slovak discontent as the product of Hungarian influence and believed that one only had to develop Slovakia culturally in order for the Slovaks to assimilate to a ''Czechoslovak'' nation. The Communist regime saw Slovakia's backwardness as a function of economics. It believed that economic modernization would solve the Slovak question by effecting a zblizenie, a drawing together of Czechs and Slovaks in a comon culture. Both attempts failed. All they did was raise Slovak expectations and produce a more skilled and sophisticated nationalist leadership, better able to articulate Slovak discontent. Another similarity between the two regimes, according to Leff, was the systemic obstacles they presented to autonomy. Although the First Republic's parliamentary system and relative freedom of expression gave the autonomist Slovak People's Party a public and parliamentary podium from which to advocate its autonomist program, the structure of the system guaranteed that autonomist concerns would not be addressed seriously by the �102 SLOVAKIA government. The system of proportional representation, reflected in the so-called Petka, meant that the chances for the opposition to come to power were slim and that the government's main priority was those issues that could potentially affect the viability of the coalition. The government had little incentive to take up disruptive issues advocated only by parties outside the coalition. Although it officially recognized the Slovak nation, Communist Czechoslovakia likewise presented impediments for the Slovak autonomy movement. The liquidation of organized opposition and free expression, an ideological commitment to centralism, and bureaucratic rigidity all had a negative influence on the prospects for Slovak autonomy . Leff ascribes persistent tensions between Czechs and Slovaks to an '' ethos of mutual betrayal''. Because Slovak nationalists had little hope for realizing autonomy under the interwar and post-1948 regimes, they sought to further their aims during times of crisis. Autonomist Slovaks took advantage of the periods when Prague, under fire from without, needed to consolidate its position at home. However, because the Slovaks got autonomy in the wake of the Munich agreement and federation in the wake of the Soviet invasion, many Czechs regarded the Slovaks as doubledealers willing to exploit the republic's troubles and do business with its external enemies for their own selfish ends. This, coupled with a perceived ingratitude on the part of the Slovaks, who seemed not to appreciate the Czech contributions to Slovakia's cultural and economic advancement, led Czechs to accuse Slovaks of betrayal. Many Slovaks, on the other hand, resented what they saw as a string of broken promises and a patronizing attitude toward them on the part of the Czechs. Leff gives a mixed review of the post-1968 federalist Czechoslovakia. She claims it has not fully solved the Slovak question, which remains "deeply, and perhaps irreversibly, woven into the fabric of Czechoslovak politics as usual.'' One might ask whether Slovaks can ever enjoy autonomy in a system that gives the population no control over who its leaders are or what policies those leaders pursue. . There are two drawbacks with Leff' s work that ought to be · pointed out. First, although she correctly mentions that �SLOVAKIA 103 · geopolitical factors played a role in the Czech refusal to grant Slovakia autonomy, she fails to elaborate sufficiently on this important point. Secondly, her use of sociological jargon and attempt to test certain social science theories sometimes tends to obfuscate rather than illuminate the question at hand. These shortcomings aside, Leff has presented a thoughtful analysis of a very complicated problem. Her work is balanced and insightful and she advances a number of valid arguments. Leff has confirmed the fact that it is possible to do worthwbile research on twentieth century Czechoslovakia without a visit to Czech and Slovak archives . Her book is recommended reading for those interested in the Slovak question and Czechoslovakia's history and politics in general. Pavol Petruf. USA a studena vojna (Politika americkeho imperializmu v Europe 1945-1949. Bratislava: Pravda, 1985. 280 pp. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM York University, Glendon College Toronto, Canada One's first impression after reading this book is that the American school of historical revisionism has found a positive echo among Marxist scholars in Eastern Europe. This detailed study of American foreign policy in the immediate post-war years will, therefore, interest readers and students behind the Iron Curtain for whom access to Western scholarship is still restricted. It may also be seen as an indication of an attempt at openness in scholarship, certainly among Slovak Marxist academics, even though the first footnote is to a Soviet source (the Great Soviet Encyclopedia no less), a practice that was de rigueur during the Stalinist years. However, the Western reader will find nothing new and certainly no original interpretation of the origins of the Cold War. Unlike many revisionist historians, Petruf has not produced a study based primarily, if not uniquely, on documentary evidence. Rather, his sources are a mixture of published American �104 SLOVAKIA documents, Soviet and Czech volumes of documents, and Marxist and Western studies. A few American authors are favored and even quoted extensively. Unfortunately there are some liberties with the translations, which does not do credit to the book. But this is a minor problem which is attenuated by the detailed presentation of American foreign policy during the years 1944-1949. Petruf's central thesis is that during the war governing circles in the United States had worked out a strategic plan that would enable the United States to control most of the planet in the postwar world. The United States would use economic, social and political means to establish this hegemony. Their only obstacle was the Soviet Unon, which had come out of the war as a superpower and whose foreign policy was one that emphasized democracy and non-intervention in the internal affairs of a state. Accordingly, American foreign policy became bitterly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist. In the Cold War which ensued the aim of Washington was not only to contain the Soviet Union, but also to hold back the Moscow-led world revolutionary movement which had arisen after the war. The result, according to Petruf, was that ''war - whether as a threat or reality - became firmly anchored in the minds of the people as an inevitable aspect of life in the 20th century .... [But] It did not prevent the growth of the strength ahd international authority of the Soviet Union, the appearance of a world socialist system and the development of the world revolutionary and national liberation movement" (pp. 269-270). In six chapters the author unfolds his thesis by looking at American policy toward Central and Southeastern Europe; the shift from cooperaton to confrontaton between the USA and the USSR; the question of Germany; the Truman Doctrine and the policy of containment; the preparations, essence and goals of the Marshall plan; and the creation of NATO. The discussion in each chapter is thorough , even if presented with a certain slant. Among the main actors the author holds reponsible for the Cold War are Truman, Kennan , Acheson, Byrnes, Forrestal and Churchill. According to Petruf, these men had moved away from Roosevelt's policy of cooperation with the USSR and , backed by American �SLOVAKIA 105 right-wing circles, opted for a hard line policy toward the Soviet Union. The book's main weakness, which disqualifies it as a work of serious scholarship, is not only the author's strident tone towards the United States, but also his adulatory approach to the Soviet Union. Not only is there no criticism of Soviet policy, but Kremlin decisions and actions which did more than just contribute to the unfolding of the Cold War are deliberately ignored. For example , in his discussion of the reasons for the reversal of Czechoslovakia's decision to partake in the discussions on the Marshall Plan, he does not mention that on 9 July 1947 a-Czechoslovak delegation composed of Gottwald , Drtina and Masaryk was in Moscow where Stalin informed them that the Czechoslovak acceptance of the Marshall Plan would be considered as an action hostile to the USSR. Petruf writes: "When in the meantime it became clear that the Marshall Plan was essentially directed at the independence and sovereignty of the participating countries, Czechoslovakia revised its initial decision and withdrew its participation in the Paris discussions" (p . 229) . It is a pity that such a thorough study had to be spoiled because of ideological predilections. Marxist scholars will not convince anyone of the validity of their point of view as long as they continue to be unable to take a broader critical look at the events they examine. June Granatir Alexander. The Immigrant Church and Community: Pittsburgh's Slovak Catholics and Lutherans, 1880-1915. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press , 1987. xxxii , 198 pp. M. MARK STOLARIK The Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies Philadelphia , Pennsylvania In this revised Ph.D. dissertation, June Alexander set out "to bring to light the complex interplay of factors that led to the creation of ethnic parishes in American cities at the turn of the century" (p. xviii). �106 SLOVAKIA The essence of the book is that Roman Catholic Slovaks, while experiencing some local and internal problems while establishing their churches, had basically no quarrels with the local church hierarchy, whereas Lutheran Slovaks experienced major problems with their clerical leaders because the latter tried to impose a new orthodoxy upon their parishioners. To prove her point Alexander focused upon the four Roman Catholic and one Lutheran parish founded by Slovak immigrants in Pittsburgh between 1895 and 1915. She gave a bit of the religious background of the immigrants, told how they established fraternals in the United States and how these , in turn, led in establishing the parishes , and then traced the actual story of each parish to 1915. Meanwhile, she also discussed the rise of lay initiative among Slovak immigrants, their regionalism and nationalism (or lack of it) , and how these kept the various communities divided. Alexander concluded that the story of Slovak immigration to Pittsburgh is one of coming together to form fraternals and parishes. While the immigrants achieved these goals they did so differently, with the Roman Catholics acting rather harmoniously while the Lutherans were rent by dogmatic divisions. The net result was that the five parishes became communities unto themselves, divided ultimately by regionalism , dialectical and religious differences. While this is a competent study of the creation of five immigrant parishes over a twenty year period at the turn of the century , it has serious limitations . Alexander either did not realize (or chose to ignore) that when one studies ethnic parishes , one has to do so within the context of the local church body. For instance, when dealing with Pittsburgh Slovak Roman Catholics , she should have looked at their story within the diocese of Pittsburgh, which is the natural religious boundary of the area, not the borders of the city . Had she done so she might have noticed that two Slovak Roman Catholic parishes within the diocese (St . Anne 's in Homestead , in 1909, and Sts. Cyril and Methodius in McKeesport, in 1922) seceded from the Roman Catholic Church and joined the independent Polish National Catholic Church. Since there were only a half dozen such secessions among Slovak �SLOVAKIA 107 Roman Catholic parishes in the United States at the turn of the century, there had to be plenty of problems between the Roman Catholic Hierarchy and Slovak immigrants in the Pittsburgh diocese. That is why Alexander's characterizaiton of Slovak Catholic immigrant relations with the local Hierarchy as being ones of "assertive deference" rings very false. Furthermore, Alexander makes certain assertions about the Old World experience of Slovaks which rest upon shaky evidence. In denying lay involvement in parish affairs in Slovakia, or OldWorld experiences of fraternalism, she relies too much on the contemporary observations of secular leaders, who were voicing uninformed opinions, or on the questionable memories of eleven informants, some of whom were born in America and others who must have been children when they immigrated here. How could such people possibly know anything about such complicated subjects as lay initiative or lodge creation in Slovakia? Indeed, there is to date no professional history of the various religions in Slovakia, nor has anyone covered the history of fraternal-benefit societies in Slovakia, which, contrary to Alexander's assertions, did exist there and can be traced back to 1460 A .D. Unfortunately, in today's Communist Slovakia those historians who are still allowed to practice their craft cannot write about the Churches (except in a pejorative way), nor can they focus on non-socialist movements. The only scholars who have touched upon these sensitive matters are Timothy L. Smith and his students and Alexander has chosen to either ignore their work, which was based upon solid research in Slovak archives, or she has chosen to disagree with their findings, without any substantial proof to refute them. Thus, while Alexander's book provides us with a glimpse of Slovak parish and community life in turn-of-the-century Pittsburgh , it suffers from too narrow a perspective that ultimately distorts the larger picture of both Slovak and Slovak-American history . �108 SLOVAKIA Kratky slovnik slovenskeho jazyka. Jan Kacala, Maria Pisarcikova et. al. Bratislava: Veda, 1987. 592 pp. JOHN M. KOCHIK Scottsdale, Arizona This invaluable reference work is presented by SA V - the Slovak Academy of Sciences through its I:udovft Stur Linguistics Institute as the second in its series of Slovak language lexicons in a new single-volume. It is intended for the professional as well as for the average user as a source of information about the vocabularly of present-day Slovak, and as it evolved over the past forty years of its socialist development. This single-volume is labeled "short (kratky)/concise (strucny)" in contrast with SA Vs earlier multi-volume dictionary. The first five-volume Dictionary of the Slovak Language (1959-68) has been sold out. The core of the new Slovnik is the more than 500 pages devoted to its A to Z vocabulary numbering more than 50,000 entries. The information derives not only from the 5,000,000 citations available from the SA V Linguistics Institute's card-catalog but also from others collected since the publication of the first academic Slovnik and still more gleaned from belles lettres, special literature, publications, as well as the results of vast research in contemporary Slovak linguistics. The prepifratory material - those pages preceding the A to Z vocabulary - contains two sections: The Basic Principles of Lexicography, and Abbreviations & Symbols. A noteworthy feature of the vocabulary section is the incorporation and domestication of loan-words in what is termed the process of "internationalization'' (p. 11) of the language. To illustrate this flooding process, five words-in-a-row listed (p. 9) are: dzinsy "jeans," blue- , dzip "jeep," dziu-dzicu "jiu-kitsu," dzob "job," dzokej "jockey," horse- . Among others are (here paginated): bonsaj "banzai" miniature-tree /Japanese/ (51), kibic "kibitz," in cards /Yiddish/ (152), zardiniera "giardiniera" wide flower-pot /Italian/ (582). Among the unexpectedly unexplainable omissions is: ukrajinsky ''Ukrainian,'' whereas the following are listed in the text: �SLOVAKIA 109 bielorusky "Bielorussian" (47), estonsky "Estonian" (98), litovsky "Lithuanian" (184), lotyssky "Latvian" (185), polabsky "Polabian" (306) . The Slovnfk is the product of a collaborative effort by SA V's experts mentioned opposite the main title-page. Those who assiduously prepared this long-awaited lexicon can be proud of their achievements. The Slovnik is an invaluable, readable, handy reference work of contemporary Slovak language. Another, the second, step forward in Slovak lexicography. Apart from its precious contents, the book's binding is disappointingly fragile and.'brittle! Ludvik Patera. Alexander Matuska. Praha: Melantrich, 1985, 440 pp . LOUISE B. HAMMER Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana The Slovak literary critic Alexander Matuska (1910-1975) is known to American students of Czech and Slovak literature for his essay on Karel Capek, Clovek proti skaze (1963), which was published in English as Man Against Destruction (1981) , and for his book J.C. Hronsky (1970) published in Bratislava. Matuska's participation in Slovak intellectual and literary life began in the nineteen thirties and continued throughout his life. His Vy brane spisy (1972-1978) were published in four volumes in Bratislava. As one of the leading literary critics in Czechoslovakia, Matuska had an abiding interest in both Slovak and Czech literature, and was cognizant of the connection between national literatures and world literature. The knowledgeable Czech Slovakist Ludvik Patera, who teaches Slovak literature at Charles University, has written the first monograph on Matuska. Patera 's treatise appears as the seventysixth volume in the series Odkazu pokrokovych osobnisti nasi minulosti. The book consists of two main parts: the first (265 pages) contains Patera's well documented and reliable presenta- �110 SLOVAKIA tion of the chronological development of Matuska's life and work; the second presents a selection of Matuska's writings, which have been translated into Czech. Separating these two parts are thirtytwo pages of photographs, which include facsimiles ofMatuska's published work, manuscripts and letters. The totality of Matuska's activity emerges through Patera's method of combining biographical and literary data. Interspersed among the excerpts from Matuska's critical works are quotes from interviews with him that were published in Slovenske pohl'ady in the seventies . Patera skillfully weaves these quotations into his text, and allows the reader to learn of the life experiences that influenced Matuska' s development as a human being and as a literary critic. Patera 's research on Matuska's student years in Prague increases our understanding of the societal forces that had a great impact on young intellectuals during the inter-war period. While enrolled at Charles University , Matuska was associated with the group R10 (along with Jan Kostra, Dobroslav Chrobak, Michal Chorvath and others). This group was known as " The Young Davists, " the name stemming from their journal Dav, to which they actively contributed. During his student days , Matuska was greatly influenced by the ideas of the Czech critic and artist, F .X. Salda. They found common ground on various points. Neither supported the official view of that time, which claimed the existence of a Czechoslovak language with two versions, the Czech version and the Slovak version (pp. 27-28). They agreed that merging the two languages would only weaken and impoverish them both. As various scholars have pointed out, Slovak was at a disadvantage in the linguistic relationship between Czech and Slovak during the inter-war period , since efforts to bring the two languages together habitually led in the direction of Czech, to the detriment of Slovak. The author's enthusiasm for his subject is evident throughout this well written and richly documented book. It is a welcome contribution to the field of literary history and criticism. In addition , Patera's book contains useful bibliographic information on Matuska's work, corrections of errors that appeared in some earlier editions , and an index of names at the end. �SLOVAKIA 111 Il'ja Cicvak. Vyvolavanie slnka. Ottawa, Canada: Spolocnost' priatel'ov slovenskej literatury, 1984. YVONNE GRABOWSKI York University Toronto, Canada This is a very attractively-presented volume. The motto of the book, taken from Plato, illustrates the author's conviction that people strive for ideals which are most often unattainable. The same idea is expressed in the title of the novel - The Summoning of the Sun - and reinforced by an excellent illustration on the title page by Miro Malis, representing a modern day Sisyphus pushing the sun up the mountain. This Platonic view of the world is fundamentally opposed to the Marxist concept of the universe. It is most probably this difference of perception that accounts for the fact that Cicvak now lives and writes in Canada and not in Czechoslovakia. The novel tells us of the attempts made by individuals, and especially the main character James, to evoke the sun, to find a modicum of happiness in a totalitarian, cruel society. And it is a sad comment on this society that when the sun finally appears at the end of the novel, James cannot enjoy the magnificent view because he has died from the effects of a bullet he received during a peaceful political demonstration. However, in Cicvak's novel, life's frustrations are not limited to James. Every character that appears in the book has been affected one way or another, thwarted in his aspirations, mocked in his most sacred beliefs, slandered, unjustly imprisoned or exploited. Only utter opportunists seem to be able to survive somehow in this climate. Cicvak portrays human lives that are spent looking for peace and happiness, unable to successfully accomplish this quest. Fate, circumstances, or other people always intervene to warp human hopes and expectations . Older people know this truth, but the young approach life with great intensity and a naive trust which gets cruelly deceived in the end. Cicvak's novel is more than a story about the suffering of people in Czechoslovakia under Communist rule. It is also a sad �112 SLOVAKIA parable about life's unfulfilled dreams and shattered hopes. In the end it does not matter that the unnamed "statnik" in the novel has been deprived of his lucrative position - the system that produced him will stay on and life will continue essentially as before. This conclusion finds its reinforcement in the previous events of the novel where the injustices that have been committed against the generation of the parents are repeated in the generation of their sons and daughters. Several recurring motifs in the novel reinforce the unity and central idea of the plot. The main one is, of course, the motif of the sun - a potent symbol - which appears only too rarely throughout the story. Time also plays an important part in the book. All through the novel we became intensely aware of its passing, and the passing of history. Loneliness is another strong theme. People closest to the characters are rarely near when needed. Those that are around are incapable of relating totally. This is a sad book, but a very well-written one. It skillfully unites the plot and the imagery to imbue us with the sense of shattered young dreams and impending death. � SLOVAKIA REVIEWS 87 ��SLOVAKIA 89 Vojtech Kopcan. Turecke nebezpecenstvo a Slovensko. Bratislava: Veda, 1986. 217 pp. R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Florida This beautifully illustrated work presents an overview of Slovakia's position in the wars between the Turkish Ottomans and the Austrian Habsburgs. For purposes of convenience the author divides this historic conflict into several periods. The first period began with the Ottoman advance through the Balk~ns in the fifteenth century and climaxed with the historic battle of Mohac in 1526. The battle effectively broke the power of the old Hungarian kingdom, and marked the first attempt of the Habsburgs to gain the crown of Saint Stephen. Habsburg efforts were temporarily thwarted by Hungary's last national king Janos Zapolya (whose name is Slovakized by the author to Zapol'sky), but the kingdom was partitioned by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in 1541. At this point the Habsburgs gained western and northern Hungary, and the Slovak counties became a definite buffer against further Ottoman advance. Slovakia was only indirectly influenced by the Turkish wars in the first-mentioned phase, although Kopcan points to this period as a time when many Croats migrated to the Slovak counties. But the period between the partition of 1541 and the peace treaty of Edirne of 1568 entailed dramatic changes: an additional noble exodus from Turkish-occupied Hungary strengthened feudalism in the Slovak lands, and the Turks made increasing inroads into the mountain districts. The resumption of hostilities in the following two decades saw the rise of pro-Habsburg magnates - particularly the Pa.Iffy and Forgach families - who later played key roles in the history of Habsburg Hungary. By the early seventeenth century Transylvania was likewise making an impact on Upper Hungary. The principality's Protestant rulers, paying nominal allegiance to the Ottoman Porte, frequently sought and gained the support of the latter in their struggles against the Habsburgs. The Transylvanian forays brought great devastation to Slovakia, and also saw the transfer of Kosice and �90 SLOVAKIA the eastern Slovak counties to Transylvania's jurisdiction by the Treaty of Linz in 1645. An attempt by Transylvanian elements to shift to the Habsburg orbit in 1663 led directly to the high-tide mark of Turkish advance into Slovakia; the subsequent peace left the southern counties under direct Ottoman control. Habsburg misrule, the greed of Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa , and the ambitions of Transylvanian leader Imre Thokoly are all cited as factors in the campaign culminating in the great siege of Vienna in 1683. Most knowledgeable historians credit the great naval battle of Lepanto in 1571 as the real turning point of Ottoman fortunes, and Kopcan himself alludes to the significance of the event at the beginning of Chapter Four. But for Central Europe, including Slovakia, the breaking of the siege of Vienna was indeed a turning point. The intervention of Poland was decisive in driving the Turks from southern Slovakia and marked the retreat of Transylvanian power in the eastern counties. In keeping with official Czechoslovak historiography, Kopcan treats the liberation of Nave Zamky as a positive event, and, indeed, the book was written to mark the three hundredth anniversary. The results can scarcely be termed "socially progressive:" feudalism was not weakened, Habsburg absolutism was actually strengthened, and the cause of religious toleration received a severe setback. Kopcan's line of reasoning may be found in Chapter Nine, which serves as a kind of "balance sheet" of the Ottoman presence. The occupied ten:itories were viewed primarily as military frontier zones, and the heavy demands imposed upon the government reflected the same purpose. At least the Mohammedan invaders were replaced by rulers less foreign to the Slovaks , and the war shifted considerably further to the south. A number of the weaknesses of the book are scarcely those of the author's making. The complex course of events creates difficulties in distinguishing between one period and the next. The Slovak lands are treated as mere pawns in the struggle between the contesting powers - and this was indeed the case. But although Kopcan occasionally cites the roles of individual Slovak personalities, he might have given the counties greater attention. In large measure this weakness stems from his choice of source materials . Notes are applied liberally at the end of each chapter, �SLOVAKIA 91 and the sources consulted boast of fine studies emanating from numerous countries. But Kopcan might easily have relied more on contemporary Slovak county records. An examination of the Imperial War Archives in Vienna might also have yielded something genuinely original. For advanced students of Slovak history, the Habsburgs, and the Ottoman Empire alike, Turecke nebezpecenstvo presents no great revelations. But Kopcan masterfully ties together several interrelated themes, and the main topic has thus far received little attention in the West. The book may therefore serve as a springboard to more intensive studies of Slovakia's position durng the Turkish wars. Matej Bel: doba-iivot-dielo. Edited by Jan Tibensky. Bratislava: Veda, 1987. 414 pp. Pamatnica z oslav dvojsteho vyrocia Jana Holleho. Edited by Juraj Chovan. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1985 . 472 pp. GERALDJ. SABO John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio Matej Bel is a collection of scholarly papers presented at a conference on Bel (1684-1749) in December, 1983. The Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and the Slovak Society for the History of Science and Technology co-sponsored the conference, which was planned in honor of the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of Matej Bel , an event highlighted in the UNESCO calendar for 1984. Bel was a prominent and talented Slovak scholar in many areas , as well as a Lutheran minister and promoter of Pietism. His role in Slovak and Magyar/Hungarian cultural history is well known in Central European scholarly circles. Regrettably , Bel is virtually unknown outside of them . The format of this volume continues to insure his inaccessibility to a wider scholarly or general audience. Indeed, this volume contrasts sharply and somewhat unfavorably with the memorial book on the Bernolak-Slovak poet Jan Holly. �92 SLOVAKIA The book on Holly was published under the auspices of the Matica slovenska in commemoration of the two hundredth anniversary of Holly's birth as noted by UNESCO in its 1985 calendar. Jan Holly (1785-1849) was a Roman Catholic priest and the outstanding poet of what is known as Bernolak-Slovak. This version of literary Slovak was codified by Anton Bernolak, another Catholic priest, in the late 1780's and early 1790's. Employing this codification, which became the writing form of Catholic Slovaks until sometime in the 1850's, Holly first translated classical poets and later created his own poetry in it. This book includes a chronology of Holly's life and works, written accounts of various celebrations in his honor, scholarly papers from a conference about him, and varia. It is a fitting tribute to a writer long neglected in contemporary Slovakia and but very recently properly heralded. The Holly memorial has some rather distinctive features. The Slovak text is usually followed by English and French summaries of varying length , with shorter Russian and German summaries of everything at the end of the volume. Such linguistic variety makes this book accessible to a very wide audience; this is not a typical Slovak publishing practice. By contrast, the Bel volume is completely in Slovak, with no summaries in any other language. Furthermore , the Holly memorial has sixteen color photographs while the reproductions in the Bel volume are all in black and white. Both books have colored dust jackets, but the Holly book, unlike the Bel volume, has reproduced on the inside cover, front and back, some well-known historic scenes. One is of Bernolak presenting his codification to the Trnava primate and to the Catholic seminarians in Bratislava; the other has the Lutheran pastor and scholar I.:udovit Shir and his followers presenting their codification ideas to Holly. Such elaborate binding was not really necessary but it indicates the degree to which contemporary Slovak cultured society wished to honor Holly. The books were also published in disproportionate numbers: 7,500 Holly books versus only 800 on Bel. Unlike the Bel volume, the Holly book includes indices that enhance its scholarly value. The final contrast is even more striking. The Holly conference was held in 1985 �SLOVAKIA 93 and the memorial book appeared in the same year! The Bel conference took place in 1983 and the papers were not published until 1987. In spite of the publisher's slights, the Bel volume is excellent, as one might expect from its editor, the distinguished historian Jan Tibensky. This collection of papers is divided into six main topic areas among which are distributed forty-four presentations of varying size. The topic areas are: the era, life, and world view of Matej Bel; Bel as a pedagogue; the great counry-wide project of Matej Bel and his attempts at organizing the scholarly life of the Hungarian state; the Notitia and Adparatus as realizations of Matej Bel's country-wide program; the peoples of the old Hungarian state in his writings; and his final message and bequest. In addition to some introductory comments, Jan Tibensky contributed five of the articles; the remaining 39 are primarily by Slovak specialists from many fields. For some strange reason the authors are noted on the bottom of the first page of their articles, and not in the Table of Contents. There is also a laudable wealth of material in the Holly memorial book. One section contains 23 scholarly papers from the conference on Holly, plus introductory and concluding comments by Karol Rosenbaum. Of greatest interest to me in literature and cultural history were the following: Jan Tibensky's paper on the great Moravian and Cyrillomethodian tradition in the writings of Jan Holly; Zdenka Sojkova's discussion of Holly's reception and influence in the Czech lands; Viliam Turcany's consideration of Holly's poetic language; as well as that of Frantisek Straus, and Katarina Habovstiakova's discussion of Holly and BernolakSlovak. The appendices - a select bibliography, a listing of Holly's manuscripts, a name and place index - will be helpful to interested readers. The scholar fortunate enough to obtain copies of both books, especially the smaller Bel volume , will possess an abundance of material on Slovak cultural history of the 18th and 19th, and even of the 20th centuries. Such high-quality books are not often found in Slovak studies. Their respective editors and contributors are to be commended for making two prominent cultural figures more accessible to the Slavic scholarly community. �94 SLOVAKIA Hugolin Gavlovic {1712-1787}. Introduction by Michal Elias. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1987. 17 photographs, 11 pp. GERALDJ. SABO John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio This fotosubor was published in commemoration of the two hundredth anniversary of the death of Hugolin Gavlovic, a Franciscan priest who was a major Slovak writer of the eighteenth century. Michal Elias' introduction is written in a popular, somewhat scholarly style in order to make his comments accessible to a wideranging reading public. Highlighted is Gavlovic's Valaska Skala, an extensive poem of some eighteen thousand verses . Gavlovic and his writings are presented in the context of other Franciscans of his time as well as of those active in the Pruske Franciscan house, not far from Trencin, where Gavlovic wrote many of his works. It is praiseworthy that Matica slovenska has sought to distinguish Gavlovic, none of whose writings have been published accurately or in their entirety - even some very small ones in Slovakia at the present time. Certainly, it adds to his distinction by UNESCO, which incorporated the anniversary of Gavlovic's death into its 1987 calendar. The difficulty is that some of Elias' material is confusing and inaccurate or not as complete as it might have been. Certain writings - Adamowa Promena and Katechyzmus, for example - attributed traditionally to Gavlovic and so noted by Elias - are today no longer believed to have been written by Gavlovic. Just a half year after the publication of this fotosubor, Gizela Slavkovska-Gafrikova published a listing of Gavlovic's writings and a rather detailed biography, more complete and accurate than that of Elias , in "Zivotopisne a bibliograficke otazniky Hugolina Gavlovica," Slovenska literatura , Vol. 34, No. 6, pp. 348-361. It is regrettable that these two specialists could not have collaborated on Gavlovic's biographical data. Then perhaps there would have been expressed at least some reservation about whether Gavlovic was a tutor for the Madocany children near the end of his life; that he was so is still claimed without any real �SLOVAKIA 95 substantiation. Qualifications even in so popularly written a work as Elias' have a definite place. In his citations from Valaska Skala, Elias, like every other modern Slovak editor including Slavkovska-Gafrikova, has a text with a dlien , something that Gavlovic never used in his writings, and in places that certainly do not correspond with modern Slovak usage. Since the autographs of all of Gavlovic's extant writings are preserved at Matica slovenska in Martin, Elias should have consulted these originals before producing the texts in the fotosubor. Even Slavkovska-Gafrikova, in her June, 1987 publication Hugolin Gavlovic Naucenia o Dobrych Mravoch r does no better though she should certainly have been very familiar with the autographs of Gavlovic. Why modern Slovak editors like Elias and Slavkovska-Gafrikova persist in such reproduction of Gavlovic's writings is baffling . Indeed, photographs of various Gavlovic autographs included in the fotosubor are clear evidence that Gavlovic did not use a dlien, and a miikcen only irregularly with a "t" or "n." Whatever the nature of the intended audience, the original text accompanied by a modern rendition is preferable where so little of the autograph(s) is cited. The cover of the fotosubor is a striking watercolor by the outstanding contemporary painter Albin Brunovsky, some of whose paintings and drawings have been on exhibit in various American locations during 1988. The photographs related directly to Gavlovic's life and writings are good and give the reader a reasonable acquaintance with so important a writer. Matica slovenska, and Dr. Elias, are to be commended for their efforts in producing this fotosubor and , hopefully in the future, may correct some of its inadequacies. Dejiny Slovenska, JV, (ad konca 19. star. do roku 1918} Pavel Hapak, et. al. Bratislava: Veda, 1986. 534 pp. MICHAEL J. KOPANIC , JR. University of Akron , Ohio This is the fourth in the series entitled Dejiny Slovenska , which is the most recent multi-volume survey of Slovak history �96 SLOVAKIA to come out of the Slovak Socialist Republic. A group of leading Slovak scholars authored this book which is woven together fairly coherently for a collaborative effort. Volume IV outlines the major trends in Slovak politics, society, culture , and the economy from 1900 until the establishment of the Czecho-Slovak Republic in 1918. The authors also attempt to place Slovak history in the international setting of a Europe on the brink of revolutionary changes . Some of the strongest sections in the book are the summaries of the macroeconomic and microeconomic development of prewar industries, financial institutions, services, and agriculture in Slovakia. Useful tables and statistics are included. Likewise, the authors provide an analysis of each social class and the nationalities (except for the Carpathian Germans). In politics, the authors (especially J. Butvin) stress the disunity of the Slovak parties which prevented a common front to counter the strong Magyarization pressures that accelerated after the passage of the Apponyi Education Acts of 1907. Despite the authors' noteworthy achievements, the volume is not without its shortcomings. In the bibliography there is an obvious neglect of post-World War II Western studies and emigre literature on Slovakia (for example, Hrusovsky, Kirschbaum, Mikula, and others). Emigration to America, and elsewhere, could have been more carefully analyzed, especially its impact on political self-awareness in Slovakia. The wave of emigration, communications with friends and relatives, and the return of Slovaks from America to their homeland gradually raised the national and political consciousness of common folk throughout Slovakia and helped propel the movement to seek an alternative state in association with the Czechs. As in many other studies from contemporary Czechoslovakia, there is a marked emphasis upon Slovak labor history and the influence of the working class both before and during World War I. The authors (especially Pavel Hapak) underline the rising significance of the Slovak Social Democratic Party, the trade unions, and the impact of such organizations as spevokoly (singing societies) in promoting Slovak national awareness and class consciousness. The authors aptly illustrate the nationality con- �SLOVAKIA 97 flicts of Magyar chauvinism among Hungarian Social Democratic leaders. However, the reader must be wary of any tendency to overexaggerate the significance of the workers' movement. As Pavel Hapak points out (p. 258), no more than 6,346 Slovaks belonged to the Slovak Social Democratic organization in Hungary at its peak in 1907. More Slovaks were organizing in larger cities such as Budapest and Vienna, but we still lack detailed studies of these experiences. These pre-war experiences reached a fruition in the latter stages of World War I and resulted in a surge of political and labor activism which is described in the 1917-18 period. As in many other Marxist histories, the authors ascribe too much influence to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 rather than to the March Russian Revolution which marked the beginning of the end for the old regimes of Europe. Despite the concerns of the authors with the lower classes, they do not provide a good sense of what it was like to be a worker, a peasant, or a migratory laborer. Too often the authors stress social history more from an institutional and statistical angle, rather than presenting us with a close-up of what life was really like for the average person in Slovakia. Most obvious is the neglect of the Slovak people's association with their churches, the center of village life. What did Slovak people value most highly in their hierarchy of priorities, and how and why were these values changing? The authors do not tell us. In a book which concentrates on a such narrow period, the authors could have presented a much better portrait of some of the leading personalities in Slovakia such as Pavel Blaho, Andrej Hlinka, or Emanuel Lehocky. Frequently, the reader obtains only a one-dimensional aspect of a person's life, usually his political or labor movement activities. A sense of what the total person was like is missing . Although the book contains a good bibliography of published books and articles and a bibliographic essay, the authors did not footnote their work. Footnotes would have been a useful addition for students of modern Slovak history. The book also lacks maps and a subject index (only a name and place index are included) which should accompany a work of this nature . �98 SLOVAKIA Finally, the authors did not attempt to write any conclusions about the meaning of Slovak history in the period covered. Although such a task is always difficult in a collaborative work, this would have given the study more unity . If there is any common theme which pervades the study, it is the alliance of Magyar financial capital with a noble ruling class which was bent on Magyarizing and exploiting Slovak peasants and blue-collar workers. These criticisms should not discourage one from obtaining the volume. The book is a valuable and useful reference tool for the library of any scholar of Slovak history. Many topics such as literature, labor, economic, and political history are well summarized in a readable style, and the interpretations are more objective than many earlier Marxist studies. This is surely the best available detailed survey of Slovakia in the early twentieth century. Stephan Parak. Die Schweiz und der Slowakische Staat. Bern: Peter Lang (Europaische Hochschulschriften Ill/339), 1987, 308 pp. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM York University, Glendon College Toronto, Canada Once in a while , a pearl is dropped on the lap of scholars. All the necessary ingredients are there: a relatively unknown topic, thorough research, a scholarly approach, the proper use of references, balanced conclusions and a challenge to conventional wisdom. Such is Stephan Parak's study of the political and economic relations between two small states in wartime, Slovakia and Switzerland. It is not necessary to belabour the point that the Slovak Republic does not generally enjoy a good reputation in Western scholarship. Created at a time when Germany was bent on redrawing the map of Central Europe, allied to it in war, involved in the persecution of the Jews and occupied in the end by one of the Allied powers , the Slovak state belonged to the camp of the van- �SLOVAKIA 99 quished and suffered as a result the inevitable consequences of unconditional defeat. This outcome has guided many scholars who see more virtue in triumphalism than in the accurate reconstruction of the past. Whatever may be the merits of the debate whether the Slovak Diet should have proclaimed Slovakia's independence on 14 March 1939, the fact is that on that day a new state appeared on the political map of Europe. Its leaders were determined to use the opportunity not only to safeguard the well-being of the nation , but also to ensure its growth and development. That there was great German pressure in Slovak political life, that the Slovak leaders took decisions contrary to the Christian philosophy of their party, that the Slovak economy fuelled the German war effort were all facts of the political life of this small state next to an expansionist ideological regime; equally true is the fact that this state sought to withstand and diminish some of these pressures and to lead the life of a small country which needs good relations with others to survive and thrive . Parak's study looks at both of these themes in his examination of the relations between Slovakia and Switzerland. The first influenced the question of the diplomatic recognition of Slovakia. It was settled as much by the Swiss interpretation of international law as by Bern's appraisal of the power constellation in Europe in 1939 . The Swiss " tacit recognition" of Slovakia reflected this as did the break of relations in 1945 and the recognition of the renewed state of Czechoslovakia. On the Slovak side, it was clearly most important to achieve the best diplomatic status possible , something which the Swiss were unwilling to grant, especially in wartime. Parak documents and analyzes this question not only thoroughly, but in an intelligent and balanced way. The diplomatic tug-of-war between these two states did not prevent on the other hand important economic and cultural relations. A good part of this study concentrates on the scope and the benefits of these relations to both states. It makes all the more fascinating reading as these relations were being carried out while the rest of Europe was at war. The extent to which Slovakia could exist as an independent state is made quite clear by these relations. The author also devotes an entire chapter on the role of �100 SLOVAKIA Switzerland in the fate of the Slovak Jews. His approach is factual and sensitive. He notes that in 1942, neither the Swiss government, nor the Red Cross lodged a protest against the deportations of Slovak Jews to Poland. Yet Swiss representatives in Slovakia were also very active in protecting Jews who were important for economic and commercial reasons and they intervened with Slovak authorities to see that presidential exceptions were granted to them. After the 1944 revolt the situation was reversed. The meaning of the German Final Solution was then clear; the Swiss government and the Red Cross lodged protects against the deportations. But neither they nor the Slovak government could do anything - even protect those who had been granted presidential exceptions - as the Germans were now in control in Slovakia. Nevertheless many Swiss, including diplomatic representatives, with the support of the Slovak Red Cross and Church circles , were able personally to extend refuge to individual Jews . In the light of this record Parak asks whether the Swiss might have had more success if they had been more active on the official diplomatic level. He concludes: "One is left with the impression that on the Swiss side not all available opportunities were exhausted to save Slovak Jews in the Second World War" (p . 215). In his overall conclusion Parak considers that the relations between these two states, like those of great powers, were determined by national interest as well as by their perception of the international situation. This is an interesting conclusion, not for Switzerland where to most it must seem self-evident, but for Slovakia where a perception still lingers among scholars that its policies and activities were dictated entirely by Berlin. Yet such a challenge to conventional wisdom is the normal outcome of this study. That is not the least of its merits. This is a published doctoral dissertation as required by European universities (in this case the University of Basel) for the obtaining of the degree. Given its excellence, it should be translated into English; it needs very few modifications . Above all , it certainly deserves to be read by as wide a public as possible . �SLOVAKIA 101 Carol Skalnik Leff. National Conflict in Czechoslovakia: The Making and Remaking of a State, 1918-1987. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1988. xi, 304 pp. JAMES FELAK Bloomington, Indiana A persistent theme in the history of Czechoslovakia has been the Slovak quest for autonomy. In her book National Conflict in Czechoslovakia: The Making and Remaking of a State, 1918-1917, Carol Skalnik Leff examines this crucial issue from 1918 to the present. She deals above all with the Slovak question as manifested in the First Czechoslovak Republic and in the Communist state between 1948 and 1968, stressing similarities in how both the democratic and the Communist regimes handled the issue of autonomy. In the interwar democracy as well as the postwar Communist state, Leff sees certain impediments to autonomy. In both states, Czechoslovakia's leaders believed that modernization, not autonomy, would solve the Slovak question. In the First Republic, Masaryk and other Czechoslovak leaders explained Slovak discontent as the product of Hungarian influence and believed that one only had to develop Slovakia culturally in order for the Slovaks to assimilate to a ''Czechoslovak'' nation. The Communist regime saw Slovakia's backwardness as a function of economics. It believed that economic modernization would solve the Slovak question by effecting a zblizenie, a drawing together of Czechs and Slovaks in a comon culture. Both attempts failed. All they did was raise Slovak expectations and produce a more skilled and sophisticated nationalist leadership, better able to articulate Slovak discontent. Another similarity between the two regimes, according to Leff, was the systemic obstacles they presented to autonomy. Although the First Republic's parliamentary system and relative freedom of expression gave the autonomist Slovak People's Party a public and parliamentary podium from which to advocate its autonomist program, the structure of the system guaranteed that autonomist concerns would not be addressed seriously by the �102 SLOVAKIA government. The system of proportional representation, reflected in the so-called Petka, meant that the chances for the opposition to come to power were slim and that the government's main priority was those issues that could potentially affect the viability of the coalition. The government had little incentive to take up disruptive issues advocated only by parties outside the coalition. Although it officially recognized the Slovak nation, Communist Czechoslovakia likewise presented impediments for the Slovak autonomy movement. The liquidation of organized opposition and free expression, an ideological commitment to centralism, and bureaucratic rigidity all had a negative influence on the prospects for Slovak autonomy . Leff ascribes persistent tensions between Czechs and Slovaks to an '' ethos of mutual betrayal''. Because Slovak nationalists had little hope for realizing autonomy under the interwar and post-1948 regimes, they sought to further their aims during times of crisis. Autonomist Slovaks took advantage of the periods when Prague, under fire from without, needed to consolidate its position at home. However, because the Slovaks got autonomy in the wake of the Munich agreement and federation in the wake of the Soviet invasion, many Czechs regarded the Slovaks as doubledealers willing to exploit the republic's troubles and do business with its external enemies for their own selfish ends. This, coupled with a perceived ingratitude on the part of the Slovaks, who seemed not to appreciate the Czech contributions to Slovakia's cultural and economic advancement, led Czechs to accuse Slovaks of betrayal. Many Slovaks, on the other hand, resented what they saw as a string of broken promises and a patronizing attitude toward them on the part of the Czechs. Leff gives a mixed review of the post-1968 federalist Czechoslovakia. She claims it has not fully solved the Slovak question, which remains "deeply, and perhaps irreversibly, woven into the fabric of Czechoslovak politics as usual.'' One might ask whether Slovaks can ever enjoy autonomy in a system that gives the population no control over who its leaders are or what policies those leaders pursue. . There are two drawbacks with Leff' s work that ought to be · pointed out. First, although she correctly mentions that �SLOVAKIA 103 · geopolitical factors played a role in the Czech refusal to grant Slovakia autonomy, she fails to elaborate sufficiently on this important point. Secondly, her use of sociological jargon and attempt to test certain social science theories sometimes tends to obfuscate rather than illuminate the question at hand. These shortcomings aside, Leff has presented a thoughtful analysis of a very complicated problem. Her work is balanced and insightful and she advances a number of valid arguments. Leff has confirmed the fact that it is possible to do worthwbile research on twentieth century Czechoslovakia without a visit to Czech and Slovak archives . Her book is recommended reading for those interested in the Slovak question and Czechoslovakia's history and politics in general. Pavol Petruf. USA a studena vojna (Politika americkeho imperializmu v Europe 1945-1949. Bratislava: Pravda, 1985. 280 pp. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM York University, Glendon College Toronto, Canada One's first impression after reading this book is that the American school of historical revisionism has found a positive echo among Marxist scholars in Eastern Europe. This detailed study of American foreign policy in the immediate post-war years will, therefore, interest readers and students behind the Iron Curtain for whom access to Western scholarship is still restricted. It may also be seen as an indication of an attempt at openness in scholarship, certainly among Slovak Marxist academics, even though the first footnote is to a Soviet source (the Great Soviet Encyclopedia no less), a practice that was de rigueur during the Stalinist years. However, the Western reader will find nothing new and certainly no original interpretation of the origins of the Cold War. Unlike many revisionist historians, Petruf has not produced a study based primarily, if not uniquely, on documentary evidence. Rather, his sources are a mixture of published American �104 SLOVAKIA documents, Soviet and Czech volumes of documents, and Marxist and Western studies. A few American authors are favored and even quoted extensively. Unfortunately there are some liberties with the translations, which does not do credit to the book. But this is a minor problem which is attenuated by the detailed presentation of American foreign policy during the years 1944-1949. Petruf's central thesis is that during the war governing circles in the United States had worked out a strategic plan that would enable the United States to control most of the planet in the postwar world. The United States would use economic, social and political means to establish this hegemony. Their only obstacle was the Soviet Unon, which had come out of the war as a superpower and whose foreign policy was one that emphasized democracy and non-intervention in the internal affairs of a state. Accordingly, American foreign policy became bitterly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist. In the Cold War which ensued the aim of Washington was not only to contain the Soviet Union, but also to hold back the Moscow-led world revolutionary movement which had arisen after the war. The result, according to Petruf, was that ''war - whether as a threat or reality - became firmly anchored in the minds of the people as an inevitable aspect of life in the 20th century .... [But] It did not prevent the growth of the strength ahd international authority of the Soviet Union, the appearance of a world socialist system and the development of the world revolutionary and national liberation movement" (pp. 269-270). In six chapters the author unfolds his thesis by looking at American policy toward Central and Southeastern Europe; the shift from cooperaton to confrontaton between the USA and the USSR; the question of Germany; the Truman Doctrine and the policy of containment; the preparations, essence and goals of the Marshall plan; and the creation of NATO. The discussion in each chapter is thorough , even if presented with a certain slant. Among the main actors the author holds reponsible for the Cold War are Truman, Kennan , Acheson, Byrnes, Forrestal and Churchill. According to Petruf, these men had moved away from Roosevelt's policy of cooperation with the USSR and , backed by American �SLOVAKIA 105 right-wing circles, opted for a hard line policy toward the Soviet Union. The book's main weakness, which disqualifies it as a work of serious scholarship, is not only the author's strident tone towards the United States, but also his adulatory approach to the Soviet Union. Not only is there no criticism of Soviet policy, but Kremlin decisions and actions which did more than just contribute to the unfolding of the Cold War are deliberately ignored. For example , in his discussion of the reasons for the reversal of Czechoslovakia's decision to partake in the discussions on the Marshall Plan, he does not mention that on 9 July 1947 a-Czechoslovak delegation composed of Gottwald , Drtina and Masaryk was in Moscow where Stalin informed them that the Czechoslovak acceptance of the Marshall Plan would be considered as an action hostile to the USSR. Petruf writes: "When in the meantime it became clear that the Marshall Plan was essentially directed at the independence and sovereignty of the participating countries, Czechoslovakia revised its initial decision and withdrew its participation in the Paris discussions" (p . 229) . It is a pity that such a thorough study had to be spoiled because of ideological predilections. Marxist scholars will not convince anyone of the validity of their point of view as long as they continue to be unable to take a broader critical look at the events they examine. June Granatir Alexander. The Immigrant Church and Community: Pittsburgh's Slovak Catholics and Lutherans, 1880-1915. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press , 1987. xxxii , 198 pp. M. MARK STOLARIK The Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies Philadelphia , Pennsylvania In this revised Ph.D. dissertation, June Alexander set out "to bring to light the complex interplay of factors that led to the creation of ethnic parishes in American cities at the turn of the century" (p. xviii). �106 SLOVAKIA The essence of the book is that Roman Catholic Slovaks, while experiencing some local and internal problems while establishing their churches, had basically no quarrels with the local church hierarchy, whereas Lutheran Slovaks experienced major problems with their clerical leaders because the latter tried to impose a new orthodoxy upon their parishioners. To prove her point Alexander focused upon the four Roman Catholic and one Lutheran parish founded by Slovak immigrants in Pittsburgh between 1895 and 1915. She gave a bit of the religious background of the immigrants, told how they established fraternals in the United States and how these , in turn, led in establishing the parishes , and then traced the actual story of each parish to 1915. Meanwhile, she also discussed the rise of lay initiative among Slovak immigrants, their regionalism and nationalism (or lack of it) , and how these kept the various communities divided. Alexander concluded that the story of Slovak immigration to Pittsburgh is one of coming together to form fraternals and parishes. While the immigrants achieved these goals they did so differently, with the Roman Catholics acting rather harmoniously while the Lutherans were rent by dogmatic divisions. The net result was that the five parishes became communities unto themselves, divided ultimately by regionalism , dialectical and religious differences. While this is a competent study of the creation of five immigrant parishes over a twenty year period at the turn of the century , it has serious limitations . Alexander either did not realize (or chose to ignore) that when one studies ethnic parishes , one has to do so within the context of the local church body. For instance, when dealing with Pittsburgh Slovak Roman Catholics , she should have looked at their story within the diocese of Pittsburgh, which is the natural religious boundary of the area, not the borders of the city . Had she done so she might have noticed that two Slovak Roman Catholic parishes within the diocese (St . Anne 's in Homestead , in 1909, and Sts. Cyril and Methodius in McKeesport, in 1922) seceded from the Roman Catholic Church and joined the independent Polish National Catholic Church. Since there were only a half dozen such secessions among Slovak �SLOVAKIA 107 Roman Catholic parishes in the United States at the turn of the century, there had to be plenty of problems between the Roman Catholic Hierarchy and Slovak immigrants in the Pittsburgh diocese. That is why Alexander's characterizaiton of Slovak Catholic immigrant relations with the local Hierarchy as being ones of "assertive deference" rings very false. Furthermore, Alexander makes certain assertions about the Old World experience of Slovaks which rest upon shaky evidence. In denying lay involvement in parish affairs in Slovakia, or OldWorld experiences of fraternalism, she relies too much on the contemporary observations of secular leaders, who were voicing uninformed opinions, or on the questionable memories of eleven informants, some of whom were born in America and others who must have been children when they immigrated here. How could such people possibly know anything about such complicated subjects as lay initiative or lodge creation in Slovakia? Indeed, there is to date no professional history of the various religions in Slovakia, nor has anyone covered the history of fraternal-benefit societies in Slovakia, which, contrary to Alexander's assertions, did exist there and can be traced back to 1460 A .D. Unfortunately, in today's Communist Slovakia those historians who are still allowed to practice their craft cannot write about the Churches (except in a pejorative way), nor can they focus on non-socialist movements. The only scholars who have touched upon these sensitive matters are Timothy L. Smith and his students and Alexander has chosen to either ignore their work, which was based upon solid research in Slovak archives, or she has chosen to disagree with their findings, without any substantial proof to refute them. Thus, while Alexander's book provides us with a glimpse of Slovak parish and community life in turn-of-the-century Pittsburgh , it suffers from too narrow a perspective that ultimately distorts the larger picture of both Slovak and Slovak-American history . �108 SLOVAKIA Kratky slovnik slovenskeho jazyka. Jan Kacala, Maria Pisarcikova et. al. Bratislava: Veda, 1987. 592 pp. JOHN M. KOCHIK Scottsdale, Arizona This invaluable reference work is presented by SA V - the Slovak Academy of Sciences through its I:udovft Stur Linguistics Institute as the second in its series of Slovak language lexicons in a new single-volume. It is intended for the professional as well as for the average user as a source of information about the vocabularly of present-day Slovak, and as it evolved over the past forty years of its socialist development. This single-volume is labeled "short (kratky)/concise (strucny)" in contrast with SA Vs earlier multi-volume dictionary. The first five-volume Dictionary of the Slovak Language (1959-68) has been sold out. The core of the new Slovnik is the more than 500 pages devoted to its A to Z vocabulary numbering more than 50,000 entries. The information derives not only from the 5,000,000 citations available from the SA V Linguistics Institute's card-catalog but also from others collected since the publication of the first academic Slovnik and still more gleaned from belles lettres, special literature, publications, as well as the results of vast research in contemporary Slovak linguistics. The prepifratory material - those pages preceding the A to Z vocabulary - contains two sections: The Basic Principles of Lexicography, and Abbreviations & Symbols. A noteworthy feature of the vocabulary section is the incorporation and domestication of loan-words in what is termed the process of "internationalization'' (p. 11) of the language. To illustrate this flooding process, five words-in-a-row listed (p. 9) are: dzinsy "jeans," blue- , dzip "jeep," dziu-dzicu "jiu-kitsu," dzob "job," dzokej "jockey," horse- . Among others are (here paginated): bonsaj "banzai" miniature-tree /Japanese/ (51), kibic "kibitz," in cards /Yiddish/ (152), zardiniera "giardiniera" wide flower-pot /Italian/ (582). Among the unexpectedly unexplainable omissions is: ukrajinsky ''Ukrainian,'' whereas the following are listed in the text: �SLOVAKIA 109 bielorusky "Bielorussian" (47), estonsky "Estonian" (98), litovsky "Lithuanian" (184), lotyssky "Latvian" (185), polabsky "Polabian" (306) . The Slovnfk is the product of a collaborative effort by SA V's experts mentioned opposite the main title-page. Those who assiduously prepared this long-awaited lexicon can be proud of their achievements. The Slovnik is an invaluable, readable, handy reference work of contemporary Slovak language. Another, the second, step forward in Slovak lexicography. Apart from its precious contents, the book's binding is disappointingly fragile and.'brittle! Ludvik Patera. Alexander Matuska. Praha: Melantrich, 1985, 440 pp . LOUISE B. HAMMER Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana The Slovak literary critic Alexander Matuska (1910-1975) is known to American students of Czech and Slovak literature for his essay on Karel Capek, Clovek proti skaze (1963), which was published in English as Man Against Destruction (1981) , and for his book J.C. Hronsky (1970) published in Bratislava. Matuska's participation in Slovak intellectual and literary life began in the nineteen thirties and continued throughout his life. His Vy brane spisy (1972-1978) were published in four volumes in Bratislava. As one of the leading literary critics in Czechoslovakia, Matuska had an abiding interest in both Slovak and Czech literature, and was cognizant of the connection between national literatures and world literature. The knowledgeable Czech Slovakist Ludvik Patera, who teaches Slovak literature at Charles University, has written the first monograph on Matuska. Patera 's treatise appears as the seventysixth volume in the series Odkazu pokrokovych osobnisti nasi minulosti. The book consists of two main parts: the first (265 pages) contains Patera's well documented and reliable presenta- �110 SLOVAKIA tion of the chronological development of Matuska's life and work; the second presents a selection of Matuska's writings, which have been translated into Czech. Separating these two parts are thirtytwo pages of photographs, which include facsimiles ofMatuska's published work, manuscripts and letters. The totality of Matuska's activity emerges through Patera's method of combining biographical and literary data. Interspersed among the excerpts from Matuska's critical works are quotes from interviews with him that were published in Slovenske pohl'ady in the seventies . Patera skillfully weaves these quotations into his text, and allows the reader to learn of the life experiences that influenced Matuska' s development as a human being and as a literary critic. Patera 's research on Matuska's student years in Prague increases our understanding of the societal forces that had a great impact on young intellectuals during the inter-war period. While enrolled at Charles University , Matuska was associated with the group R10 (along with Jan Kostra, Dobroslav Chrobak, Michal Chorvath and others). This group was known as " The Young Davists, " the name stemming from their journal Dav, to which they actively contributed. During his student days , Matuska was greatly influenced by the ideas of the Czech critic and artist, F .X. Salda. They found common ground on various points. Neither supported the official view of that time, which claimed the existence of a Czechoslovak language with two versions, the Czech version and the Slovak version (pp. 27-28). They agreed that merging the two languages would only weaken and impoverish them both. As various scholars have pointed out, Slovak was at a disadvantage in the linguistic relationship between Czech and Slovak during the inter-war period , since efforts to bring the two languages together habitually led in the direction of Czech, to the detriment of Slovak. The author's enthusiasm for his subject is evident throughout this well written and richly documented book. It is a welcome contribution to the field of literary history and criticism. In addition , Patera's book contains useful bibliographic information on Matuska's work, corrections of errors that appeared in some earlier editions , and an index of names at the end. �SLOVAKIA 111 Il'ja Cicvak. Vyvolavanie slnka. Ottawa, Canada: Spolocnost' priatel'ov slovenskej literatury, 1984. YVONNE GRABOWSKI York University Toronto, Canada This is a very attractively-presented volume. The motto of the book, taken from Plato, illustrates the author's conviction that people strive for ideals which are most often unattainable. The same idea is expressed in the title of the novel - The Summoning of the Sun - and reinforced by an excellent illustration on the title page by Miro Malis, representing a modern day Sisyphus pushing the sun up the mountain. This Platonic view of the world is fundamentally opposed to the Marxist concept of the universe. It is most probably this difference of perception that accounts for the fact that Cicvak now lives and writes in Canada and not in Czechoslovakia. The novel tells us of the attempts made by individuals, and especially the main character James, to evoke the sun, to find a modicum of happiness in a totalitarian, cruel society. And it is a sad comment on this society that when the sun finally appears at the end of the novel, James cannot enjoy the magnificent view because he has died from the effects of a bullet he received during a peaceful political demonstration. However, in Cicvak's novel, life's frustrations are not limited to James. Every character that appears in the book has been affected one way or another, thwarted in his aspirations, mocked in his most sacred beliefs, slandered, unjustly imprisoned or exploited. Only utter opportunists seem to be able to survive somehow in this climate. Cicvak portrays human lives that are spent looking for peace and happiness, unable to successfully accomplish this quest. Fate, circumstances, or other people always intervene to warp human hopes and expectations . Older people know this truth, but the young approach life with great intensity and a naive trust which gets cruelly deceived in the end. Cicvak's novel is more than a story about the suffering of people in Czechoslovakia under Communist rule. It is also a sad �112 SLOVAKIA parable about life's unfulfilled dreams and shattered hopes. In the end it does not matter that the unnamed "statnik" in the novel has been deprived of his lucrative position - the system that produced him will stay on and life will continue essentially as before. This conclusion finds its reinforcement in the previous events of the novel where the injustices that have been committed against the generation of the parents are repeated in the generation of their sons and daughters. Several recurring motifs in the novel reinforce the unity and central idea of the plot. The main one is, of course, the motif of the sun - a potent symbol - which appears only too rarely throughout the story. Time also plays an important part in the book. All through the novel we became intensely aware of its passing, and the passing of history. Loneliness is another strong theme. People closest to the characters are rarely near when needed. Those that are around are incapable of relating totally. This is a sad book, but a very well-written one. It skillfully unites the plot and the imagery to imbue us with the sense of shattered young dreams and impending death. � 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 1987-88, Vol. 33 Description An account of the resource Vol. 33 (No. 60-61), 1987-88. 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 1987-88 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 REVIEWS 87 SLOVAKIA 89 Vojtech Kopcan. Turecke nebezpecenstvo a Slovensko. Bratislava: Veda, 1986. 217 pp. R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Florida This beautifully illustrated work presents an overview of Slovakia's position in the wars between the Turkish Ottomans and the Austrian Habsburgs. For purposes of convenience the author divides this historic conflict into several periods. The first period began with the Ottoman advance through the Balk~ns in the fifteenth century and climaxed with the historic battle of Mohac in 1526. The battle effectively broke the power of the old Hungarian kingdom, and marked the first attempt of the Habsburgs to gain the crown of Saint Stephen. Habsburg efforts were temporarily thwarted by Hungary's last national king Janos Zapolya (whose name is Slovakized by the author to Zapol'sky), but the kingdom was partitioned by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in 1541. At this point the Habsburgs gained western and northern Hungary, and the Slovak counties became a definite buffer against further Ottoman advance. Slovakia was only indirectly influenced by the Turkish wars in the first-mentioned phase, although Kopcan points to this period as a time when many Croats migrated to the Slovak counties. But the period between the partition of 1541 and the peace treaty of Edirne of 1568 entailed dramatic changes: an additional noble exodus from Turkish-occupied Hungary strengthened feudalism in the Slovak lands, and the Turks made increasing inroads into the mountain districts. The resumption of hostilities in the following two decades saw the rise of pro-Habsburg magnates - particularly the Pa.Iffy and Forgach families - who later played key roles in the history of Habsburg Hungary. By the early seventeenth century Transylvania was likewise making an impact on Upper Hungary. The principality's Protestant rulers, paying nominal allegiance to the Ottoman Porte, frequently sought and gained the support of the latter in their struggles against the Habsburgs. The Transylvanian forays brought great devastation to Slovakia, and also saw the transfer of Kosice and 90 SLOVAKIA the eastern Slovak counties to Transylvania's jurisdiction by the Treaty of Linz in 1645. An attempt by Transylvanian elements to shift to the Habsburg orbit in 1663 led directly to the high-tide mark of Turkish advance into Slovakia; the subsequent peace left the southern counties under direct Ottoman control. Habsburg misrule, the greed of Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa , and the ambitions of Transylvanian leader Imre Thokoly are all cited as factors in the campaign culminating in the great siege of Vienna in 1683. Most knowledgeable historians credit the great naval battle of Lepanto in 1571 as the real turning point of Ottoman fortunes, and Kopcan himself alludes to the significance of the event at the beginning of Chapter Four. But for Central Europe, including Slovakia, the breaking of the siege of Vienna was indeed a turning point. The intervention of Poland was decisive in driving the Turks from southern Slovakia and marked the retreat of Transylvanian power in the eastern counties. In keeping with official Czechoslovak historiography, Kopcan treats the liberation of Nave Zamky as a positive event, and, indeed, the book was written to mark the three hundredth anniversary. The results can scarcely be termed "socially progressive:" feudalism was not weakened, Habsburg absolutism was actually strengthened, and the cause of religious toleration received a severe setback. Kopcan's line of reasoning may be found in Chapter Nine, which serves as a kind of "balance sheet" of the Ottoman presence. The occupied ten:itories were viewed primarily as military frontier zones, and the heavy demands imposed upon the government reflected the same purpose. At least the Mohammedan invaders were replaced by rulers less foreign to the Slovaks , and the war shifted considerably further to the south. A number of the weaknesses of the book are scarcely those of the author's making. The complex course of events creates difficulties in distinguishing between one period and the next. The Slovak lands are treated as mere pawns in the struggle between the contesting powers - and this was indeed the case. But although Kopcan occasionally cites the roles of individual Slovak personalities, he might have given the counties greater attention. In large measure this weakness stems from his choice of source materials . Notes are applied liberally at the end of each chapter, SLOVAKIA 91 and the sources consulted boast of fine studies emanating from numerous countries. But Kopcan might easily have relied more on contemporary Slovak county records. An examination of the Imperial War Archives in Vienna might also have yielded something genuinely original. For advanced students of Slovak history, the Habsburgs, and the Ottoman Empire alike, Turecke nebezpecenstvo presents no great revelations. But Kopcan masterfully ties together several interrelated themes, and the main topic has thus far received little attention in the West. The book may therefore serve as a springboard to more intensive studies of Slovakia's position durng the Turkish wars. Matej Bel: doba-iivot-dielo. Edited by Jan Tibensky. Bratislava: Veda, 1987. 414 pp. Pamatnica z oslav dvojsteho vyrocia Jana Holleho. Edited by Juraj Chovan. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1985 . 472 pp. GERALDJ. SABO John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio Matej Bel is a collection of scholarly papers presented at a conference on Bel (1684-1749) in December, 1983. The Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and the Slovak Society for the History of Science and Technology co-sponsored the conference, which was planned in honor of the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of Matej Bel , an event highlighted in the UNESCO calendar for 1984. Bel was a prominent and talented Slovak scholar in many areas , as well as a Lutheran minister and promoter of Pietism. His role in Slovak and Magyar/Hungarian cultural history is well known in Central European scholarly circles. Regrettably , Bel is virtually unknown outside of them . The format of this volume continues to insure his inaccessibility to a wider scholarly or general audience. Indeed, this volume contrasts sharply and somewhat unfavorably with the memorial book on the Bernolak-Slovak poet Jan Holly. 92 SLOVAKIA The book on Holly was published under the auspices of the Matica slovenska in commemoration of the two hundredth anniversary of Holly's birth as noted by UNESCO in its 1985 calendar. Jan Holly (1785-1849) was a Roman Catholic priest and the outstanding poet of what is known as Bernolak-Slovak. This version of literary Slovak was codified by Anton Bernolak, another Catholic priest, in the late 1780's and early 1790's. Employing this codification, which became the writing form of Catholic Slovaks until sometime in the 1850's, Holly first translated classical poets and later created his own poetry in it. This book includes a chronology of Holly's life and works, written accounts of various celebrations in his honor, scholarly papers from a conference about him, and varia. It is a fitting tribute to a writer long neglected in contemporary Slovakia and but very recently properly heralded. The Holly memorial has some rather distinctive features. The Slovak text is usually followed by English and French summaries of varying length , with shorter Russian and German summaries of everything at the end of the volume. Such linguistic variety makes this book accessible to a very wide audience; this is not a typical Slovak publishing practice. By contrast, the Bel volume is completely in Slovak, with no summaries in any other language. Furthermore , the Holly memorial has sixteen color photographs while the reproductions in the Bel volume are all in black and white. Both books have colored dust jackets, but the Holly book, unlike the Bel volume, has reproduced on the inside cover, front and back, some well-known historic scenes. One is of Bernolak presenting his codification to the Trnava primate and to the Catholic seminarians in Bratislava; the other has the Lutheran pastor and scholar I.:udovit Shir and his followers presenting their codification ideas to Holly. Such elaborate binding was not really necessary but it indicates the degree to which contemporary Slovak cultured society wished to honor Holly. The books were also published in disproportionate numbers: 7,500 Holly books versus only 800 on Bel. Unlike the Bel volume, the Holly book includes indices that enhance its scholarly value. The final contrast is even more striking. The Holly conference was held in 1985 SLOVAKIA 93 and the memorial book appeared in the same year! The Bel conference took place in 1983 and the papers were not published until 1987. In spite of the publisher's slights, the Bel volume is excellent, as one might expect from its editor, the distinguished historian Jan Tibensky. This collection of papers is divided into six main topic areas among which are distributed forty-four presentations of varying size. The topic areas are: the era, life, and world view of Matej Bel; Bel as a pedagogue; the great counry-wide project of Matej Bel and his attempts at organizing the scholarly life of the Hungarian state; the Notitia and Adparatus as realizations of Matej Bel's country-wide program; the peoples of the old Hungarian state in his writings; and his final message and bequest. In addition to some introductory comments, Jan Tibensky contributed five of the articles; the remaining 39 are primarily by Slovak specialists from many fields. For some strange reason the authors are noted on the bottom of the first page of their articles, and not in the Table of Contents. There is also a laudable wealth of material in the Holly memorial book. One section contains 23 scholarly papers from the conference on Holly, plus introductory and concluding comments by Karol Rosenbaum. Of greatest interest to me in literature and cultural history were the following: Jan Tibensky's paper on the great Moravian and Cyrillomethodian tradition in the writings of Jan Holly; Zdenka Sojkova's discussion of Holly's reception and influence in the Czech lands; Viliam Turcany's consideration of Holly's poetic language; as well as that of Frantisek Straus, and Katarina Habovstiakova's discussion of Holly and BernolakSlovak. The appendices - a select bibliography, a listing of Holly's manuscripts, a name and place index - will be helpful to interested readers. The scholar fortunate enough to obtain copies of both books, especially the smaller Bel volume , will possess an abundance of material on Slovak cultural history of the 18th and 19th, and even of the 20th centuries. Such high-quality books are not often found in Slovak studies. Their respective editors and contributors are to be commended for making two prominent cultural figures more accessible to the Slavic scholarly community. 94 SLOVAKIA Hugolin Gavlovic {1712-1787}. Introduction by Michal Elias. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1987. 17 photographs, 11 pp. GERALDJ. SABO John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio This fotosubor was published in commemoration of the two hundredth anniversary of the death of Hugolin Gavlovic, a Franciscan priest who was a major Slovak writer of the eighteenth century. Michal Elias' introduction is written in a popular, somewhat scholarly style in order to make his comments accessible to a wideranging reading public. Highlighted is Gavlovic's Valaska Skala, an extensive poem of some eighteen thousand verses . Gavlovic and his writings are presented in the context of other Franciscans of his time as well as of those active in the Pruske Franciscan house, not far from Trencin, where Gavlovic wrote many of his works. It is praiseworthy that Matica slovenska has sought to distinguish Gavlovic, none of whose writings have been published accurately or in their entirety - even some very small ones in Slovakia at the present time. Certainly, it adds to his distinction by UNESCO, which incorporated the anniversary of Gavlovic's death into its 1987 calendar. The difficulty is that some of Elias' material is confusing and inaccurate or not as complete as it might have been. Certain writings - Adamowa Promena and Katechyzmus, for example - attributed traditionally to Gavlovic and so noted by Elias - are today no longer believed to have been written by Gavlovic. Just a half year after the publication of this fotosubor, Gizela Slavkovska-Gafrikova published a listing of Gavlovic's writings and a rather detailed biography, more complete and accurate than that of Elias , in "Zivotopisne a bibliograficke otazniky Hugolina Gavlovica," Slovenska literatura , Vol. 34, No. 6, pp. 348-361. It is regrettable that these two specialists could not have collaborated on Gavlovic's biographical data. Then perhaps there would have been expressed at least some reservation about whether Gavlovic was a tutor for the Madocany children near the end of his life; that he was so is still claimed without any real SLOVAKIA 95 substantiation. Qualifications even in so popularly written a work as Elias' have a definite place. In his citations from Valaska Skala, Elias, like every other modern Slovak editor including Slavkovska-Gafrikova, has a text with a dlien , something that Gavlovic never used in his writings, and in places that certainly do not correspond with modern Slovak usage. Since the autographs of all of Gavlovic's extant writings are preserved at Matica slovenska in Martin, Elias should have consulted these originals before producing the texts in the fotosubor. Even Slavkovska-Gafrikova, in her June, 1987 publication Hugolin Gavlovic Naucenia o Dobrych Mravoch r does no better though she should certainly have been very familiar with the autographs of Gavlovic. Why modern Slovak editors like Elias and Slavkovska-Gafrikova persist in such reproduction of Gavlovic's writings is baffling . Indeed, photographs of various Gavlovic autographs included in the fotosubor are clear evidence that Gavlovic did not use a dlien, and a miikcen only irregularly with a "t" or "n." Whatever the nature of the intended audience, the original text accompanied by a modern rendition is preferable where so little of the autograph(s) is cited. The cover of the fotosubor is a striking watercolor by the outstanding contemporary painter Albin Brunovsky, some of whose paintings and drawings have been on exhibit in various American locations during 1988. The photographs related directly to Gavlovic's life and writings are good and give the reader a reasonable acquaintance with so important a writer. Matica slovenska, and Dr. Elias, are to be commended for their efforts in producing this fotosubor and , hopefully in the future, may correct some of its inadequacies. Dejiny Slovenska, JV, (ad konca 19. star. do roku 1918} Pavel Hapak, et. al. Bratislava: Veda, 1986. 534 pp. MICHAEL J. KOPANIC , JR. University of Akron , Ohio This is the fourth in the series entitled Dejiny Slovenska , which is the most recent multi-volume survey of Slovak history 96 SLOVAKIA to come out of the Slovak Socialist Republic. A group of leading Slovak scholars authored this book which is woven together fairly coherently for a collaborative effort. Volume IV outlines the major trends in Slovak politics, society, culture , and the economy from 1900 until the establishment of the Czecho-Slovak Republic in 1918. The authors also attempt to place Slovak history in the international setting of a Europe on the brink of revolutionary changes . Some of the strongest sections in the book are the summaries of the macroeconomic and microeconomic development of prewar industries, financial institutions, services, and agriculture in Slovakia. Useful tables and statistics are included. Likewise, the authors provide an analysis of each social class and the nationalities (except for the Carpathian Germans). In politics, the authors (especially J. Butvin) stress the disunity of the Slovak parties which prevented a common front to counter the strong Magyarization pressures that accelerated after the passage of the Apponyi Education Acts of 1907. Despite the authors' noteworthy achievements, the volume is not without its shortcomings. In the bibliography there is an obvious neglect of post-World War II Western studies and emigre literature on Slovakia (for example, Hrusovsky, Kirschbaum, Mikula, and others). Emigration to America, and elsewhere, could have been more carefully analyzed, especially its impact on political self-awareness in Slovakia. The wave of emigration, communications with friends and relatives, and the return of Slovaks from America to their homeland gradually raised the national and political consciousness of common folk throughout Slovakia and helped propel the movement to seek an alternative state in association with the Czechs. As in many other studies from contemporary Czechoslovakia, there is a marked emphasis upon Slovak labor history and the influence of the working class both before and during World War I. The authors (especially Pavel Hapak) underline the rising significance of the Slovak Social Democratic Party, the trade unions, and the impact of such organizations as spevokoly (singing societies) in promoting Slovak national awareness and class consciousness. The authors aptly illustrate the nationality con- SLOVAKIA 97 flicts of Magyar chauvinism among Hungarian Social Democratic leaders. However, the reader must be wary of any tendency to overexaggerate the significance of the workers' movement. As Pavel Hapak points out (p. 258), no more than 6,346 Slovaks belonged to the Slovak Social Democratic organization in Hungary at its peak in 1907. More Slovaks were organizing in larger cities such as Budapest and Vienna, but we still lack detailed studies of these experiences. These pre-war experiences reached a fruition in the latter stages of World War I and resulted in a surge of political and labor activism which is described in the 1917-18 period. As in many other Marxist histories, the authors ascribe too much influence to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 rather than to the March Russian Revolution which marked the beginning of the end for the old regimes of Europe. Despite the concerns of the authors with the lower classes, they do not provide a good sense of what it was like to be a worker, a peasant, or a migratory laborer. Too often the authors stress social history more from an institutional and statistical angle, rather than presenting us with a close-up of what life was really like for the average person in Slovakia. Most obvious is the neglect of the Slovak people's association with their churches, the center of village life. What did Slovak people value most highly in their hierarchy of priorities, and how and why were these values changing? The authors do not tell us. In a book which concentrates on a such narrow period, the authors could have presented a much better portrait of some of the leading personalities in Slovakia such as Pavel Blaho, Andrej Hlinka, or Emanuel Lehocky. Frequently, the reader obtains only a one-dimensional aspect of a person's life, usually his political or labor movement activities. A sense of what the total person was like is missing . Although the book contains a good bibliography of published books and articles and a bibliographic essay, the authors did not footnote their work. Footnotes would have been a useful addition for students of modern Slovak history. The book also lacks maps and a subject index (only a name and place index are included) which should accompany a work of this nature . 98 SLOVAKIA Finally, the authors did not attempt to write any conclusions about the meaning of Slovak history in the period covered. Although such a task is always difficult in a collaborative work, this would have given the study more unity . If there is any common theme which pervades the study, it is the alliance of Magyar financial capital with a noble ruling class which was bent on Magyarizing and exploiting Slovak peasants and blue-collar workers. These criticisms should not discourage one from obtaining the volume. The book is a valuable and useful reference tool for the library of any scholar of Slovak history. Many topics such as literature, labor, economic, and political history are well summarized in a readable style, and the interpretations are more objective than many earlier Marxist studies. This is surely the best available detailed survey of Slovakia in the early twentieth century. Stephan Parak. Die Schweiz und der Slowakische Staat. Bern: Peter Lang (Europaische Hochschulschriften Ill/339), 1987, 308 pp. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM York University, Glendon College Toronto, Canada Once in a while , a pearl is dropped on the lap of scholars. All the necessary ingredients are there: a relatively unknown topic, thorough research, a scholarly approach, the proper use of references, balanced conclusions and a challenge to conventional wisdom. Such is Stephan Parak's study of the political and economic relations between two small states in wartime, Slovakia and Switzerland. It is not necessary to belabour the point that the Slovak Republic does not generally enjoy a good reputation in Western scholarship. Created at a time when Germany was bent on redrawing the map of Central Europe, allied to it in war, involved in the persecution of the Jews and occupied in the end by one of the Allied powers , the Slovak state belonged to the camp of the van- SLOVAKIA 99 quished and suffered as a result the inevitable consequences of unconditional defeat. This outcome has guided many scholars who see more virtue in triumphalism than in the accurate reconstruction of the past. Whatever may be the merits of the debate whether the Slovak Diet should have proclaimed Slovakia's independence on 14 March 1939, the fact is that on that day a new state appeared on the political map of Europe. Its leaders were determined to use the opportunity not only to safeguard the well-being of the nation , but also to ensure its growth and development. That there was great German pressure in Slovak political life, that the Slovak leaders took decisions contrary to the Christian philosophy of their party, that the Slovak economy fuelled the German war effort were all facts of the political life of this small state next to an expansionist ideological regime; equally true is the fact that this state sought to withstand and diminish some of these pressures and to lead the life of a small country which needs good relations with others to survive and thrive . Parak's study looks at both of these themes in his examination of the relations between Slovakia and Switzerland. The first influenced the question of the diplomatic recognition of Slovakia. It was settled as much by the Swiss interpretation of international law as by Bern's appraisal of the power constellation in Europe in 1939 . The Swiss " tacit recognition" of Slovakia reflected this as did the break of relations in 1945 and the recognition of the renewed state of Czechoslovakia. On the Slovak side, it was clearly most important to achieve the best diplomatic status possible , something which the Swiss were unwilling to grant, especially in wartime. Parak documents and analyzes this question not only thoroughly, but in an intelligent and balanced way. The diplomatic tug-of-war between these two states did not prevent on the other hand important economic and cultural relations. A good part of this study concentrates on the scope and the benefits of these relations to both states. It makes all the more fascinating reading as these relations were being carried out while the rest of Europe was at war. The extent to which Slovakia could exist as an independent state is made quite clear by these relations. The author also devotes an entire chapter on the role of 100 SLOVAKIA Switzerland in the fate of the Slovak Jews. His approach is factual and sensitive. He notes that in 1942, neither the Swiss government, nor the Red Cross lodged a protest against the deportations of Slovak Jews to Poland. Yet Swiss representatives in Slovakia were also very active in protecting Jews who were important for economic and commercial reasons and they intervened with Slovak authorities to see that presidential exceptions were granted to them. After the 1944 revolt the situation was reversed. The meaning of the German Final Solution was then clear; the Swiss government and the Red Cross lodged protects against the deportations. But neither they nor the Slovak government could do anything - even protect those who had been granted presidential exceptions - as the Germans were now in control in Slovakia. Nevertheless many Swiss, including diplomatic representatives, with the support of the Slovak Red Cross and Church circles , were able personally to extend refuge to individual Jews . In the light of this record Parak asks whether the Swiss might have had more success if they had been more active on the official diplomatic level. He concludes: "One is left with the impression that on the Swiss side not all available opportunities were exhausted to save Slovak Jews in the Second World War" (p . 215). In his overall conclusion Parak considers that the relations between these two states, like those of great powers, were determined by national interest as well as by their perception of the international situation. This is an interesting conclusion, not for Switzerland where to most it must seem self-evident, but for Slovakia where a perception still lingers among scholars that its policies and activities were dictated entirely by Berlin. Yet such a challenge to conventional wisdom is the normal outcome of this study. That is not the least of its merits. This is a published doctoral dissertation as required by European universities (in this case the University of Basel) for the obtaining of the degree. Given its excellence, it should be translated into English; it needs very few modifications . Above all , it certainly deserves to be read by as wide a public as possible . SLOVAKIA 101 Carol Skalnik Leff. National Conflict in Czechoslovakia: The Making and Remaking of a State, 1918-1987. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1988. xi, 304 pp. JAMES FELAK Bloomington, Indiana A persistent theme in the history of Czechoslovakia has been the Slovak quest for autonomy. In her book National Conflict in Czechoslovakia: The Making and Remaking of a State, 1918-1917, Carol Skalnik Leff examines this crucial issue from 1918 to the present. She deals above all with the Slovak question as manifested in the First Czechoslovak Republic and in the Communist state between 1948 and 1968, stressing similarities in how both the democratic and the Communist regimes handled the issue of autonomy. In the interwar democracy as well as the postwar Communist state, Leff sees certain impediments to autonomy. In both states, Czechoslovakia's leaders believed that modernization, not autonomy, would solve the Slovak question. In the First Republic, Masaryk and other Czechoslovak leaders explained Slovak discontent as the product of Hungarian influence and believed that one only had to develop Slovakia culturally in order for the Slovaks to assimilate to a ''Czechoslovak'' nation. The Communist regime saw Slovakia's backwardness as a function of economics. It believed that economic modernization would solve the Slovak question by effecting a zblizenie, a drawing together of Czechs and Slovaks in a comon culture. Both attempts failed. All they did was raise Slovak expectations and produce a more skilled and sophisticated nationalist leadership, better able to articulate Slovak discontent. Another similarity between the two regimes, according to Leff, was the systemic obstacles they presented to autonomy. Although the First Republic's parliamentary system and relative freedom of expression gave the autonomist Slovak People's Party a public and parliamentary podium from which to advocate its autonomist program, the structure of the system guaranteed that autonomist concerns would not be addressed seriously by the 102 SLOVAKIA government. The system of proportional representation, reflected in the so-called Petka, meant that the chances for the opposition to come to power were slim and that the government's main priority was those issues that could potentially affect the viability of the coalition. The government had little incentive to take up disruptive issues advocated only by parties outside the coalition. Although it officially recognized the Slovak nation, Communist Czechoslovakia likewise presented impediments for the Slovak autonomy movement. The liquidation of organized opposition and free expression, an ideological commitment to centralism, and bureaucratic rigidity all had a negative influence on the prospects for Slovak autonomy . Leff ascribes persistent tensions between Czechs and Slovaks to an '' ethos of mutual betrayal''. Because Slovak nationalists had little hope for realizing autonomy under the interwar and post-1948 regimes, they sought to further their aims during times of crisis. Autonomist Slovaks took advantage of the periods when Prague, under fire from without, needed to consolidate its position at home. However, because the Slovaks got autonomy in the wake of the Munich agreement and federation in the wake of the Soviet invasion, many Czechs regarded the Slovaks as doubledealers willing to exploit the republic's troubles and do business with its external enemies for their own selfish ends. This, coupled with a perceived ingratitude on the part of the Slovaks, who seemed not to appreciate the Czech contributions to Slovakia's cultural and economic advancement, led Czechs to accuse Slovaks of betrayal. Many Slovaks, on the other hand, resented what they saw as a string of broken promises and a patronizing attitude toward them on the part of the Czechs. Leff gives a mixed review of the post-1968 federalist Czechoslovakia. She claims it has not fully solved the Slovak question, which remains "deeply, and perhaps irreversibly, woven into the fabric of Czechoslovak politics as usual.'' One might ask whether Slovaks can ever enjoy autonomy in a system that gives the population no control over who its leaders are or what policies those leaders pursue. . There are two drawbacks with Leff' s work that ought to be · pointed out. First, although she correctly mentions that SLOVAKIA 103 · geopolitical factors played a role in the Czech refusal to grant Slovakia autonomy, she fails to elaborate sufficiently on this important point. Secondly, her use of sociological jargon and attempt to test certain social science theories sometimes tends to obfuscate rather than illuminate the question at hand. These shortcomings aside, Leff has presented a thoughtful analysis of a very complicated problem. Her work is balanced and insightful and she advances a number of valid arguments. Leff has confirmed the fact that it is possible to do worthwbile research on twentieth century Czechoslovakia without a visit to Czech and Slovak archives . Her book is recommended reading for those interested in the Slovak question and Czechoslovakia's history and politics in general. Pavol Petruf. USA a studena vojna (Politika americkeho imperializmu v Europe 1945-1949. Bratislava: Pravda, 1985. 280 pp. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM York University, Glendon College Toronto, Canada One's first impression after reading this book is that the American school of historical revisionism has found a positive echo among Marxist scholars in Eastern Europe. This detailed study of American foreign policy in the immediate post-war years will, therefore, interest readers and students behind the Iron Curtain for whom access to Western scholarship is still restricted. It may also be seen as an indication of an attempt at openness in scholarship, certainly among Slovak Marxist academics, even though the first footnote is to a Soviet source (the Great Soviet Encyclopedia no less), a practice that was de rigueur during the Stalinist years. However, the Western reader will find nothing new and certainly no original interpretation of the origins of the Cold War. Unlike many revisionist historians, Petruf has not produced a study based primarily, if not uniquely, on documentary evidence. Rather, his sources are a mixture of published American 104 SLOVAKIA documents, Soviet and Czech volumes of documents, and Marxist and Western studies. A few American authors are favored and even quoted extensively. Unfortunately there are some liberties with the translations, which does not do credit to the book. But this is a minor problem which is attenuated by the detailed presentation of American foreign policy during the years 1944-1949. Petruf's central thesis is that during the war governing circles in the United States had worked out a strategic plan that would enable the United States to control most of the planet in the postwar world. The United States would use economic, social and political means to establish this hegemony. Their only obstacle was the Soviet Unon, which had come out of the war as a superpower and whose foreign policy was one that emphasized democracy and non-intervention in the internal affairs of a state. Accordingly, American foreign policy became bitterly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist. In the Cold War which ensued the aim of Washington was not only to contain the Soviet Union, but also to hold back the Moscow-led world revolutionary movement which had arisen after the war. The result, according to Petruf, was that ''war - whether as a threat or reality - became firmly anchored in the minds of the people as an inevitable aspect of life in the 20th century .... [But] It did not prevent the growth of the strength ahd international authority of the Soviet Union, the appearance of a world socialist system and the development of the world revolutionary and national liberation movement" (pp. 269-270). In six chapters the author unfolds his thesis by looking at American policy toward Central and Southeastern Europe; the shift from cooperaton to confrontaton between the USA and the USSR; the question of Germany; the Truman Doctrine and the policy of containment; the preparations, essence and goals of the Marshall plan; and the creation of NATO. The discussion in each chapter is thorough , even if presented with a certain slant. Among the main actors the author holds reponsible for the Cold War are Truman, Kennan , Acheson, Byrnes, Forrestal and Churchill. According to Petruf, these men had moved away from Roosevelt's policy of cooperation with the USSR and , backed by American SLOVAKIA 105 right-wing circles, opted for a hard line policy toward the Soviet Union. The book's main weakness, which disqualifies it as a work of serious scholarship, is not only the author's strident tone towards the United States, but also his adulatory approach to the Soviet Union. Not only is there no criticism of Soviet policy, but Kremlin decisions and actions which did more than just contribute to the unfolding of the Cold War are deliberately ignored. For example , in his discussion of the reasons for the reversal of Czechoslovakia's decision to partake in the discussions on the Marshall Plan, he does not mention that on 9 July 1947 a-Czechoslovak delegation composed of Gottwald , Drtina and Masaryk was in Moscow where Stalin informed them that the Czechoslovak acceptance of the Marshall Plan would be considered as an action hostile to the USSR. Petruf writes: "When in the meantime it became clear that the Marshall Plan was essentially directed at the independence and sovereignty of the participating countries, Czechoslovakia revised its initial decision and withdrew its participation in the Paris discussions" (p . 229) . It is a pity that such a thorough study had to be spoiled because of ideological predilections. Marxist scholars will not convince anyone of the validity of their point of view as long as they continue to be unable to take a broader critical look at the events they examine. June Granatir Alexander. The Immigrant Church and Community: Pittsburgh's Slovak Catholics and Lutherans, 1880-1915. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press , 1987. xxxii , 198 pp. M. MARK STOLARIK The Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies Philadelphia , Pennsylvania In this revised Ph.D. dissertation, June Alexander set out "to bring to light the complex interplay of factors that led to the creation of ethnic parishes in American cities at the turn of the century" (p. xviii). 106 SLOVAKIA The essence of the book is that Roman Catholic Slovaks, while experiencing some local and internal problems while establishing their churches, had basically no quarrels with the local church hierarchy, whereas Lutheran Slovaks experienced major problems with their clerical leaders because the latter tried to impose a new orthodoxy upon their parishioners. To prove her point Alexander focused upon the four Roman Catholic and one Lutheran parish founded by Slovak immigrants in Pittsburgh between 1895 and 1915. She gave a bit of the religious background of the immigrants, told how they established fraternals in the United States and how these , in turn, led in establishing the parishes , and then traced the actual story of each parish to 1915. Meanwhile, she also discussed the rise of lay initiative among Slovak immigrants, their regionalism and nationalism (or lack of it) , and how these kept the various communities divided. Alexander concluded that the story of Slovak immigration to Pittsburgh is one of coming together to form fraternals and parishes. While the immigrants achieved these goals they did so differently, with the Roman Catholics acting rather harmoniously while the Lutherans were rent by dogmatic divisions. The net result was that the five parishes became communities unto themselves, divided ultimately by regionalism , dialectical and religious differences. While this is a competent study of the creation of five immigrant parishes over a twenty year period at the turn of the century , it has serious limitations . Alexander either did not realize (or chose to ignore) that when one studies ethnic parishes , one has to do so within the context of the local church body. For instance, when dealing with Pittsburgh Slovak Roman Catholics , she should have looked at their story within the diocese of Pittsburgh, which is the natural religious boundary of the area, not the borders of the city . Had she done so she might have noticed that two Slovak Roman Catholic parishes within the diocese (St . Anne 's in Homestead , in 1909, and Sts. Cyril and Methodius in McKeesport, in 1922) seceded from the Roman Catholic Church and joined the independent Polish National Catholic Church. Since there were only a half dozen such secessions among Slovak SLOVAKIA 107 Roman Catholic parishes in the United States at the turn of the century, there had to be plenty of problems between the Roman Catholic Hierarchy and Slovak immigrants in the Pittsburgh diocese. That is why Alexander's characterizaiton of Slovak Catholic immigrant relations with the local Hierarchy as being ones of "assertive deference" rings very false. Furthermore, Alexander makes certain assertions about the Old World experience of Slovaks which rest upon shaky evidence. In denying lay involvement in parish affairs in Slovakia, or OldWorld experiences of fraternalism, she relies too much on the contemporary observations of secular leaders, who were voicing uninformed opinions, or on the questionable memories of eleven informants, some of whom were born in America and others who must have been children when they immigrated here. How could such people possibly know anything about such complicated subjects as lay initiative or lodge creation in Slovakia? Indeed, there is to date no professional history of the various religions in Slovakia, nor has anyone covered the history of fraternal-benefit societies in Slovakia, which, contrary to Alexander's assertions, did exist there and can be traced back to 1460 A .D. Unfortunately, in today's Communist Slovakia those historians who are still allowed to practice their craft cannot write about the Churches (except in a pejorative way), nor can they focus on non-socialist movements. The only scholars who have touched upon these sensitive matters are Timothy L. Smith and his students and Alexander has chosen to either ignore their work, which was based upon solid research in Slovak archives, or she has chosen to disagree with their findings, without any substantial proof to refute them. Thus, while Alexander's book provides us with a glimpse of Slovak parish and community life in turn-of-the-century Pittsburgh , it suffers from too narrow a perspective that ultimately distorts the larger picture of both Slovak and Slovak-American history . 108 SLOVAKIA Kratky slovnik slovenskeho jazyka. Jan Kacala, Maria Pisarcikova et. al. Bratislava: Veda, 1987. 592 pp. JOHN M. KOCHIK Scottsdale, Arizona This invaluable reference work is presented by SA V - the Slovak Academy of Sciences through its I:udovft Stur Linguistics Institute as the second in its series of Slovak language lexicons in a new single-volume. It is intended for the professional as well as for the average user as a source of information about the vocabularly of present-day Slovak, and as it evolved over the past forty years of its socialist development. This single-volume is labeled "short (kratky)/concise (strucny)" in contrast with SA Vs earlier multi-volume dictionary. The first five-volume Dictionary of the Slovak Language (1959-68) has been sold out. The core of the new Slovnik is the more than 500 pages devoted to its A to Z vocabulary numbering more than 50,000 entries. The information derives not only from the 5,000,000 citations available from the SA V Linguistics Institute's card-catalog but also from others collected since the publication of the first academic Slovnik and still more gleaned from belles lettres, special literature, publications, as well as the results of vast research in contemporary Slovak linguistics. The prepifratory material - those pages preceding the A to Z vocabulary - contains two sections: The Basic Principles of Lexicography, and Abbreviations & Symbols. A noteworthy feature of the vocabulary section is the incorporation and domestication of loan-words in what is termed the process of "internationalization'' (p. 11) of the language. To illustrate this flooding process, five words-in-a-row listed (p. 9) are: dzinsy "jeans," blue- , dzip "jeep," dziu-dzicu "jiu-kitsu," dzob "job," dzokej "jockey," horse- . Among others are (here paginated): bonsaj "banzai" miniature-tree /Japanese/ (51), kibic "kibitz," in cards /Yiddish/ (152), zardiniera "giardiniera" wide flower-pot /Italian/ (582). Among the unexpectedly unexplainable omissions is: ukrajinsky ''Ukrainian,'' whereas the following are listed in the text: SLOVAKIA 109 bielorusky "Bielorussian" (47), estonsky "Estonian" (98), litovsky "Lithuanian" (184), lotyssky "Latvian" (185), polabsky "Polabian" (306) . The Slovnfk is the product of a collaborative effort by SA V's experts mentioned opposite the main title-page. Those who assiduously prepared this long-awaited lexicon can be proud of their achievements. The Slovnik is an invaluable, readable, handy reference work of contemporary Slovak language. Another, the second, step forward in Slovak lexicography. Apart from its precious contents, the book's binding is disappointingly fragile and.'brittle! Ludvik Patera. Alexander Matuska. Praha: Melantrich, 1985, 440 pp . LOUISE B. HAMMER Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana The Slovak literary critic Alexander Matuska (1910-1975) is known to American students of Czech and Slovak literature for his essay on Karel Capek, Clovek proti skaze (1963), which was published in English as Man Against Destruction (1981) , and for his book J.C. Hronsky (1970) published in Bratislava. Matuska's participation in Slovak intellectual and literary life began in the nineteen thirties and continued throughout his life. His Vy brane spisy (1972-1978) were published in four volumes in Bratislava. As one of the leading literary critics in Czechoslovakia, Matuska had an abiding interest in both Slovak and Czech literature, and was cognizant of the connection between national literatures and world literature. The knowledgeable Czech Slovakist Ludvik Patera, who teaches Slovak literature at Charles University, has written the first monograph on Matuska. Patera 's treatise appears as the seventysixth volume in the series Odkazu pokrokovych osobnisti nasi minulosti. The book consists of two main parts: the first (265 pages) contains Patera's well documented and reliable presenta- 110 SLOVAKIA tion of the chronological development of Matuska's life and work; the second presents a selection of Matuska's writings, which have been translated into Czech. Separating these two parts are thirtytwo pages of photographs, which include facsimiles ofMatuska's published work, manuscripts and letters. The totality of Matuska's activity emerges through Patera's method of combining biographical and literary data. Interspersed among the excerpts from Matuska's critical works are quotes from interviews with him that were published in Slovenske pohl'ady in the seventies . Patera skillfully weaves these quotations into his text, and allows the reader to learn of the life experiences that influenced Matuska' s development as a human being and as a literary critic. Patera 's research on Matuska's student years in Prague increases our understanding of the societal forces that had a great impact on young intellectuals during the inter-war period. While enrolled at Charles University , Matuska was associated with the group R10 (along with Jan Kostra, Dobroslav Chrobak, Michal Chorvath and others). This group was known as " The Young Davists, " the name stemming from their journal Dav, to which they actively contributed. During his student days , Matuska was greatly influenced by the ideas of the Czech critic and artist, F .X. Salda. They found common ground on various points. Neither supported the official view of that time, which claimed the existence of a Czechoslovak language with two versions, the Czech version and the Slovak version (pp. 27-28). They agreed that merging the two languages would only weaken and impoverish them both. As various scholars have pointed out, Slovak was at a disadvantage in the linguistic relationship between Czech and Slovak during the inter-war period , since efforts to bring the two languages together habitually led in the direction of Czech, to the detriment of Slovak. The author's enthusiasm for his subject is evident throughout this well written and richly documented book. It is a welcome contribution to the field of literary history and criticism. In addition , Patera's book contains useful bibliographic information on Matuska's work, corrections of errors that appeared in some earlier editions , and an index of names at the end. SLOVAKIA 111 Il'ja Cicvak. Vyvolavanie slnka. Ottawa, Canada: Spolocnost' priatel'ov slovenskej literatury, 1984. YVONNE GRABOWSKI York University Toronto, Canada This is a very attractively-presented volume. The motto of the book, taken from Plato, illustrates the author's conviction that people strive for ideals which are most often unattainable. The same idea is expressed in the title of the novel - The Summoning of the Sun - and reinforced by an excellent illustration on the title page by Miro Malis, representing a modern day Sisyphus pushing the sun up the mountain. This Platonic view of the world is fundamentally opposed to the Marxist concept of the universe. It is most probably this difference of perception that accounts for the fact that Cicvak now lives and writes in Canada and not in Czechoslovakia. The novel tells us of the attempts made by individuals, and especially the main character James, to evoke the sun, to find a modicum of happiness in a totalitarian, cruel society. And it is a sad comment on this society that when the sun finally appears at the end of the novel, James cannot enjoy the magnificent view because he has died from the effects of a bullet he received during a peaceful political demonstration. However, in Cicvak's novel, life's frustrations are not limited to James. Every character that appears in the book has been affected one way or another, thwarted in his aspirations, mocked in his most sacred beliefs, slandered, unjustly imprisoned or exploited. Only utter opportunists seem to be able to survive somehow in this climate. Cicvak portrays human lives that are spent looking for peace and happiness, unable to successfully accomplish this quest. Fate, circumstances, or other people always intervene to warp human hopes and expectations . Older people know this truth, but the young approach life with great intensity and a naive trust which gets cruelly deceived in the end. Cicvak's novel is more than a story about the suffering of people in Czechoslovakia under Communist rule. It is also a sad 112 SLOVAKIA parable about life's unfulfilled dreams and shattered hopes. In the end it does not matter that the unnamed "statnik" in the novel has been deprived of his lucrative position - the system that produced him will stay on and life will continue essentially as before. This conclusion finds its reinforcement in the previous events of the novel where the injustices that have been committed against the generation of the parents are repeated in the generation of their sons and daughters. Several recurring motifs in the novel reinforce the unity and central idea of the plot. The main one is, of course, the motif of the sun - a potent symbol - which appears only too rarely throughout the story. Time also plays an important part in the book. All through the novel we became intensely aware of its passing, and the passing of history. Loneliness is another strong theme. People closest to the characters are rarely near when needed. Those that are around are incapable of relating totally. This is a sad book, but a very well-written one. It skillfully unites the plot and the imagery to imbue us with the sense of shattered young dreams and impending death.  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. 33 (No. 60-61) Description An account of the resource includes:<br /><ul><li>Vojtech Kopčan, <em>Turecké nebezpečenstvo a Slovensko</em> (R. Vladimir Baumgarten), p. 89</li> <li>Ján Tibenský, ed., <em>Matej Bel: doba-život-dielo, and Juraj Chovan, Pamätnica z osláv dvojstého výročia Jána Hollého</em> (Gerald J. Sabo), p. 91</li> <li>Michal Eliáš, <em>Hugolín Gavlovič (1712-1787)</em> (Gerald J. Sabo), p. 94</li> <li>Pavel Hapák, <em>Dejiny Slovenska</em>, IV (Michael J. Kopanic, Jr.), p. 95</li> <li>Stephan Parak, <em>Die Schweiz und der Slowakische Staat</em> (Stanislav J. Kirschbaum), p. 98</li> <li>Carol Skalnik Leff, <em>National Conflict in Czechoslovakia</em> (James Felak), p. 101</li> <li>Pavol Petruf, <em>USA a studená vojna</em> (Stanislav J. Kirschbaum), p. 103</li> <li>June Granatir Alexander, <em>The Immigrant Church and Community: Pittsburgh's Slovak Catholics and Lutherans, 1880-1915</em> (M. Mark Stolarik), p. 105</li> <li>Ján Kačala et. al., <em>Krátky slovník slovenského jazyka</em> (John M. Kochik), p. 108</li> <li>Ludvík Patera, <em>Alexander Matuška</em> (Louise B. Hammer), p. 109</li> <li>Iľja Čičvák. <em>Vyvolávanie slnka</em> (Yvonne Grabowski), p. 111</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Baumgarten, R. Vladimir Felak, James Ramon, 1957- Grabowski, Yvonne, 1929-1989 Hammer, Louise B., 1940- Kirschbaum, Stanislav J., 1942- Kochik, John Michael Kopanic, Michael, Jr Sabo, Gerald J., 1945–2020 Stolarik, M. Mark, 1943- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987-88 LCNAF LCNAF+dates name SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/ddbf521e29430576fb8bfde09cfed516.pdf 3855b9b1cb4cc90365fb67cf483a703b PDF Text Text REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 161 Dejiny Slovenska, II (1526-1848). Vladimir Matula, Jozef Vozar et. al. Bratislava: Veda, 1987. 846 pp. GAVIN LEWIS John Jay College of Criminal Justice The City University of New York This is the second of a six-volume series sponsored by the Slovak Academy of Sciences. The series was conceived and realized in the days when the Marxist orientation of Slovak historical scholarship was taken for granted; and it was intended to provide a detailed, scholarly, and authoritative handbook, superseding all earlier accounts, both "bourgeois" and Marxist, of all aspects of the history of the Slovak land and people from prehistory to the present. The authors of the volume under review have succeeded so well that it should serve its purpose even in the new era that began in 1989. The authors of Volume II, covering the early modern period, have had a particularly difficult task. Their period, running from 1526 to 1848, is both long and complex, including a great many closely interrelated developments. The Turkish conquest and the Habsburg reconquest of much of Hungary; the efforts of the Habsburgs to absorb the Hungarian kingdom into their hereditary territories and the varying responses of the Hungarian nobility to .these efforts; the evolution of serfdom and seigneurialism, urban life and the mining industry; the Reformation and CounterReformation, the Renaissance and Enlightenment; and finally, the complex cultural and social phenomenon of the National Awakening; all these had to be discussed both individually and in their relation to each other. The authors have accomplished this task to an impressive extent. Though the book is of course written from a Marxist viewpoint, the omissions and distortions typical of vulgar Marxism have been avoided. The importance of religious belief, and the leading role of the Catholic and Protestant clergy in early modern Slovak history, are given due weight. The leaders of the National Awakening, though discussed in terms of the Marxist schema, are treated �162 SLOVAKIA as real historical actors and not as mere puppets of the "transition from feudalism to capitalism." Some of the lengthy discussions on topics such as the evolution of prices and wages or the structure of internal trade may seem too detailed to those who are not convinced of the metaphysical importance of such matters, but on the whole the Marxist stress on economic and social themes has led to increased understanding of the development of the Slovak nation. Perhaps the most significant single achievement of this volume is to lay to rest for ever the myth of the pre-nineteenth century Slovaks as a slumbering nation of peasants and shepherds with no elite other than a sprinkling of clergy. The sections dealing with social structure, education and culture, and national development from the sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries make the following facts abundantly clear. 1) The Slovaks had a substantial elite of nobles and townsmen as well as priests and ministers, indeed the secular elite formed the milieu that enabled the clergy to operate. 2) This elite was open to the influences of Renaissance humanism and its descendants, the emerging historical scholarship of the seventeenth century, as well as to the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, and the Baroque. 3) Under these intellectual, cultural, and religious influences, the Slovak elite built up a pre-modern national self-awareness comparable with that of other eastern European nations in the early modern period. This understanding of the early modern Slovak nation is not only of importance in itself, it is also of significance for explaining more recent periods of Slovak history. The National Awakening becomes easier to understand when one realizes that it did not come from nowhere, but was rather a phase - albeit a decisive and innovative one - in a continuing social and cultural development. Likewise, the nineteenth-century development of the awakening acquires a new dimension when one realizes that it took place against the background of the crumbling of the traditional Slovak elite under the onslaught of Magyarization: one of the main tasks of the leaders of the awakening was that of mobilization, to rally what was left of the elite so as to ensure the survival of the nation . The section of the book dealing with the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries - that is the National Awakening itself, �SLOVAKIA 163 the final decades of seigneurialism, and the beginnings of national conflict within the Hungarian state - are in some ways less satisfactory than the earlier sections. Individual chapters are thorough and informative, and there is the same complete coverage of political, social, economic, cultural, and intellectual developments. But there is less sense than in the first half of the book of the interrelatedness of the various developments. In particular, the very detailed discussion of the viewpoints, activities, and disputes of the various leaders of the awakening proceeds to some extent in isolation from the social background. How did the leaders react to the defection of much of the traditional Slovak elite, and how did they mobilize those who were left? To what extent was the National Awakening a response of the nationally "loyal" elite to pressures to Magyarize? In general, what determined individual members of the elite either to Magyarize or to support the awakening? In spite of a number of fascinating glimpses - in particular, the section on the rise of the Slovak intelligentsia and village notables (pp. 579-84) - one gets surprisingly little sense of the National Awakening as a movement apart from its leading personalities . In spite of these criticisms, the book as a whole deserves to be widely read . It provides an excellent guide for students and point of departure for scholars, and can and should be used in this way even under the new order of things in the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic. Appearing as it did in 1987, the volume summarizes the achievements of the era of Marxist domination in the early modern field of Slovak historical scholarship. One must give credit where credit is due, and admit that at least in this field, Slovak Marxist scholars over the last forty years have contributed significantly to their nation's understanding of itself. Viliam Cicaj. Knizna kultura na strednom Slovensku v 16. -18. storoci. Bratislava : Veda, 1985. 133 pp . R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Florida This book outlines the development of literary culture in central Slovakia between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, focus- �164 SLOVAKIA ing on the towns of Banska Bystrica, Banska Stiavnica, and Kremnica. It is divided among an introduction, a quantitative analysis of "private" (non-archival) literature of the region, the thematic structure of such literature, and the relationship of the literary culture of central Slovakia with the later Middle Ages. In the introductory section C:icaj points out that, while other Slovak areas were producing literature in this period, the region of Banska Bystrica-Banska Stiavnica-Kremnica was far more prolific in sheer output. He elaborates on this point in Part One, employing statistical charts very liberally. In addition to publications in the Czech language (used extensively by the Protestants since the Hussite emigration from Bohemia in the Thirty Years' War) and the Central Slovak dialect, there were also numerous publications in Latin and German. Latin was at that time the official language of the Kingdom of Hungary, while the Germans in the central mining towns were using their language to introduce the works of Martin Luther. The period was consequently marked by lively literary interactions between the Protestants of Upper Hungary and Lutheran centers of learning in Germany . In Part Two, where C:icaj discusses the thematic structures of this literary awakening, he reveals several facts which are somewhat surprising and certainly revealing in light of their historical importance. Quite naturally Lutheran theology was the focus of a large percentage of the publications, but works dealing with history, political science, and geography (the last-named social science included books about places as remote as Jamaica and Japan) were also produced. One criticism of Luther offered by Catholic apologists was that, in rerferring to Aristotle as " a dog of a philosopher,'' the father of Protestantiasm disrupted the centuriesold dialogue between Christian and classical (pagan, pre-Christian) civilization. Slovak Lutherans may justifiably exempt themselves from such a charge. Publications emanating from the central Slovak towns represented not only Aristotle and the Greeks, but also Boccaccio, Petrarach, and Italian humanists of the Renaissance period. Such a state of affairs reflects the ecumenical nature of Upper Hungary in this period. Catholics and Lutherans in the central Slovak towns lived together amicably when Habsburg pressure was not applied . �SLOVAKIA 165 Cicaj attempts to elaborate on this point in Part Three, pointing out that the Catholic Erasmus and the Protestant Luther each contributed to a general advancement of education in the face of a feudal order. But here Cicaj falls short of the mark. Having demonstrated that the Central Slovak region was cosmopolitan in the literary sense, he does not follow through by demonstrating its impact on the later Slovak national awakening. Part of the problem here may stem from the very exclusiveness of his study; he might have formulated his conclusions more completely by not simply concentrating on three towns. Even so, he could have integrated this study into the general framework of this period in Slovak and Hungarian history. It was not only the time of the Protestant Reformation; it was also a time when the Turks occupied the middle Danube region (sometimes making incursions into the highlands), and when Transylvanian nobles invaded the area in their struggles against the Habsburgs. Citing contemporary literature regarding the impressions produced by these events might have strengthened the author' s case. Knizna kultura is dry reading, but it is nonetheless a significant contribution to the study of Slovak literary history. The author clearly demonstrates that the Central Slovak region's contribution to literary culture precedes the national awakening, and he makes liberal use of footnotes to support his case. This book is primarily useful for literary historians. Viera Urbancova, Slovenska etnografia v 19. storoci: Vyvoj nazorov na slovensky l'ud. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1987. 436 pp. MAGDA ZELINSKA FERL Los Angeles, California Slovenska etnografia v 19. storoci is an ambitious work which examines the evolution of ethnography in Slovakia, specifically the trends which contributed to the eventual development of a separate discipline during the 19th century. Viera Urbancova' s thesis is that Slovak ethnography as a discipline evolved through stages and was influenced by social and political activities. �166 SLOVAKIA Her work is organized according to the notions which influenced the various stages of the discipline's development, from the backward and irrational view of the folk to the idealized. These notions coincided with the interests of the intelligentia in such causes as the "fight against superstition," which was thought to prevent social progress, the promotion of national self-awareness, the struggle to codify the Slovak language, and the attempts to establish ethnography as an independent discipline. Urbancova points out some practical reasons for interest in the folk. Mass education, according to her, was instituted by capitalists during the period of industrialization for the purpose of developing a better worker and increasing productivity. The folk needed to be re-educated regarding their customs and beliefs which were thought to hamper progress. The first ethnographic work began with the premise that the folk who believed in superstitions should be studied so they could be re-educated and, thereby, elevated to a level where they could contribute to the welfare of the nation . Matej Bel's work, Notitia, is mentioned as important to the ethnographic research of the 19th century. The author also deals with the romantic notion of the folk which, in Slovakia, was influenced by Herder and Hegel's philosophy . The historical past was seen in terms of pride and love for the language: Bernolak' s followers saw it in a Slovak language, while the Lutheran intelligentia beheld it in the language of the Kralice Bible. Kollar and Safarik were important at this time in promoting interest in folk culture, which to them was oral literature. They collected songs, proverbs, and beliefs which pointed to the ancient character of the nation . This state in the development of Slovak ethnography is characterized by the hypothesis, initiated by linguists, that Slavs can trace their culture to Inda-European origins. During the 1840' s and the 1850' s there was wide acceptance of the view that folklore expressions were survivals of ancient culture. Such assumptions contributed to the notion that folklore was dying out and, therefore, needed to be collected and recorded. Gustav, Reuss, a physician, was very influential during this period in promoting the collection of tales. In his historical work concerning the development of regions, how they were populated, �SLOVAKIA 167 how people secured food, etc., he supported his conclusions with information extracted from folk culture, especially local legends. During the period of the 1860' s there was a sentiment to view ethnography from a scientific perspective, promoting a systematic approach to collecting. Pavol Dobsinsky published instructions on how to collect ethnographic materials. His greatest contribution was expanding the collected genres; for example, he called for the inclusion of material culture which he referred to as "prostonarodne poklady" (folk treasures .) He also encouraged a geographical approach to the study of such occupations as lacemakers, boatwrights, and tinkers, and stressed the importance of noting the tools and their use. Lastly, Urbancova points to the trend of increased interest in mythology. The work of the brothers Grimm in Germany contributed to the view that myths are the survivals of ancient rituals and, consequently, Reuss and others believed that myths collected in Slovakia reflected not only old Slovak culture but also Slavic cultures. Folk life was romanticized and looked upon as the basis of the nation's culture which needed to be preserved for future generations. The work of Dobsinsky became very popular and influential. The first part of his Prostondrodne obycaje, zvyky a povery is structured according to the natural life cycle: birth, marriage and death. He describes family, village and commercial life in detail. Unfortunately, the attempt to cover such a large span of time results in a book which has no depth to its analysis or interpretations. One is left feeling that, despite copious notes and an extensive bibliography, the book is somehow incomplete, lacking a clear thesis. However, this is a rather comprehensive work of Slovak ethnographic scholarship concerning the 19th century. Implicitly, it offers an interesting explanation concerning changes in the approach to ethnography which actually relate to the major European trends of the 19th century. �168 SLOVAKIA Narodna svetlica: Vyber dokumentov k dejinam Matice slovenskej. Edited by Michal Elias and Vojtech Sarluska. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1988. 321 pp. JOHN A. BERTA Methodist College Fayetteville, North Carolina Although Narodna svetlica offers nothing new to the professional study of the Matica slovenska, it is of value to the average individual interested in the history of this institution and Slovak culture . The book comes at an opportune time. Slovaks abroad, particularly in the United States and Canada, have a growing interest in Slovak culture, and many perceive the Matica as the primary vehicle for engaging in cultural exchanges. The work is also important for contemporary Slovakia since many Slovaks there have little or no knowledge of the Matica' s history and function. Narodna svetlica is divided into three segments which discuss the Matica's role in a particular period. The first era, 1863-1875, deals with the Matica's beginnings, and the legacy left to Slovak history and culture after its forced closure by the Magyar authorities. The second period, 1919-1954, concerns the task the resurrected Matica sought to fulfill as the ethnic and cultural guardian of the Slovak people. The final segment, 1954 to the present, involves a period when the Matica assumed functions which could equate it to the National Archives and Library of Congress in the United States. The book is a compilation of excerpts from proclamations, the minutes of Matica board meetings and assemblies, articles, books, pamphlets, personal correspondence and photographs which pertain to the evolution of this institution, and the role it has played in the preservation of Slovak culture and ethnicity in Slovakia and abroad. The documents reproduced in each section were selected to impress upon the Slovak reader the importance of the Matica slovenska as a symbol of his/her national identity and culture, and as an active participant in daily Slovak life . The drawback to this otherwise skillfully edited work is that it was published solely in Slovak. Only those with a working �SLOVAKIA 169 knowledge of the language can make use of its wealth of information. The two-page English summary provides the reader with just a hint of what is in the body of the work. If the Matica slovenska could make this and similar publications available in English, it could have an impact on rejuvenating ethnic awareness among those who are on the verge of being assimilated into another culture. Also missing is the wealth of correspondence regarding how Slovaks abroad relate to this symbol of their Slovak heritage. Jan Kmec, Jugoslovensko-slovacke slavisticke veze. Novi Sad: Vojvodjanska akademija nauka i umetnosti, 1987. 549 p. JAN FRYDECKY Burnaby, British Columbia The author of this work traces the relations of the South Slavs with the Slovaks from the time of the early Slavic migrations to Central Europe and the Balkans to the present. He explores the same geographic and topographic names preserved to this day in Yugoslavia and Slovakia. Other proof of close contacts are so called "yugoslavisms" which Pannonian Slavs accepted from the South Slavs and which are preserved in the contemporary Slovak literary language. Further, he refers to the activities of Saints Cyril and Methodius and the Cyrilomethodian culture which originated from direct social and cultural efforts and productive contacts of the forefathers of the Slovaks and the Yugoslavs . Although the author wrote that Pannonian Slavs were very often different from South Slavs, he did not realize that this long separation conditioned also gradual national differences between the forefathers of today's Slovaks and the South Slavs . He used only the term "staroslovansky" contrary to the recognized term starosloviensky After the extinction of Great Moravia and the rise of Hungary, the greatest avenue for cooperation between West and South Slavs was the Catholic Church. In Hungary the Church accepted a group of Czech missionaries and through their contacts and exchange of 11 11 • �170 SLOVAKIA priests, created the possibility for spiritual and cultural communication, which produced cultural, literary and artistic works. The author devotes the third part of his book to the period of Turkish rule in Central Europe (1526-1683). Many refugees from Croat regions came to Bratislava and settled in the southern parts of Slovakia and Moravia. New Yugoslav-Slovak spiritual, cultural and literary relations blossomed. These were strengthened through the Hungarian Catholic center in Trnava, where the Jesuit university accepted Croat students and professors. The fourth part covers the period from the origins of the Protestant lyceum in Bratislava (1615) to the establishment of the Serbian grammar school in Sremski Karlovci (1791) . The lyceum became a center of Yugoslav-Slovak relations from the first half of the 18th century. Many Serbs studied in Bratislava and in other schools in Slovakia, especially when they emigrated from southern and middle Serbia in the Hungarian portion of the Austrian Empire (1690). Also Slovaks started to move to the Vojvodina from the year 1745. As a defense against Catholic presure, and in an effort to build their own cultural institutions and schools, the Serbs needed their own educated people. Many educated Slovaks worked among Serbs for this reason . In the first twenty years of the 19th century a new period in Yugoslav-Slovak relations began. The national revival of both peoples led to greater mutual cooperation. The awakening of national consciousness among the Slavic nations manifested itself as well with the idea of Slavic reciprocity. An association of " Lovers of Slovak Language and Literature" in Pest was also a center of cooperation with Czechs, Croats, Serbs and Russians and a center of research in Slavic languages . In the last part of his work Kmec covers the time from the 1848 revolution to the present. He pays attention to Shir's views, to the differences between Stur and Kollar, to relations between Njegos and Stur, and to Yugoslav motifs and subjects in Slovak literature. Under the pressure of the Hungarian government, Yugoslav-Slovak relations became very strained, and student organizations had to move to Prague . Slovaks from Vojvoina, with the center in Backi Petrovac, became a bridge between Slovaks and Serbs in Hungary. In the period between the two wars of the 20th century, the author �SLOVAKIA 171 mentions Slovak authors in Vojvodina, translators, and some political events. The work of professor Krnec is a solid contribution in the areas of Slavic reciprocity. The author buttressed his work with many footnotes and with the biographies of many authors . While this did not reduce the worth of the work, it unnecessarily widened it and the author deflected from his theme. Serbian-Slovak relations, about which Slovaks and Serbes have written a lot, is compiled in detail, but less attention is paid to Croat-Slovak relations. Incomprehensible to me is why the author presented the number of votes in the elections of 1920, and also why he gives the number of members of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in Slovak towns in the Vojvodina, and also why he lists the names and jobs of some Slovaks, members of the Communist Party, who emigrated to Slovakia. All of this detracts from an otherwise worthy book. Josef Kalvoda, The Genesis of Czechoslovakia. Boulder, Colorado: East European Monographs (Distributed by Columbia University Press), 1986. 673 pp. GREGORY C. FERENCE Salisbury State University Salisbury, Maryland This massive work is certainly a must for anyone interested in the study of the formation of the Czechoslovak state. It is obvious that the author has spent extensive periods of time researching this subject at archives in Austria, Czechoslovakia, and the United States. Kalvoda should be commended for his use of innumerable memoirs, journals, newspapers, and secondary sources published in Czech, English, French, German, Russian, and Slovak. As a result, the author presents a well thought-out and thoroughly synthesized portrayal of the events and people involved in the intensive four year quest for national independence. The author provides great detail concerning this struggle both in Austria-Hungary and abroad in England, France, Russia, and the United States, while accomplishing his goal of examining and evaluating the three theses �172 SLOVAKIA regarding the success of the liberation movement: 1) the work of exiles, 2) the Bolshevik Revolution, and 3) the resistance at home. Kalvoda's book proves all three were factors leading to Czechoslovak independence. Kalvoda definitively characterizes the major personalities involved in the movement to create an independent state, among these Edvard Benes, Josef Diirich, Karel Kramaf, Milan Stefanik, and Tomas G. Masaryk. The author in particular, provides a very provocative description of Masaryk, the "Liberator-President" of Czechoslovakia. Masaryk left Bohemia in 1914 as a relatively insignificant political leader. Despite later assertions that he had a mandate for his mission, in reality Masaryk lacked any significant support at home. Masaryk schemed and plotted to become the leader of the liberation movement, subverting the authority of Diirich, who had been sent abroad to represent Czech interests in foreign capitals . To achieve his goals the ruthless Masaryk worked to destroy the reputations, careers, and influence of others, such as Diirich and Kramaf, when their opinions and activities were contrary to his and those of the Czecho-Slovak National Council . Masaryk thus is shown as an opportunist who, despite his later claims, adroitly changed his ideas and statements when it became politically expedient. In his account of the origins of the Czechoslovak-Bolshevik conflict, Kalvoda reveals that both Masaryk's insistence on the neutrality of the Czecho-Slovak Legions in Russian internal affairs, and his attempts to gain western recogniiton of Lenin almost caused the loss of Allied support for Czechoslovak statehood. The activities of the Legions in Siberia when the local situation dictated an independent course of action in support of anti-Bolshevik forces, although contrary to the orders of Masaryk, ultimately preserved Masaryk's position in the west. It is a bit disappointing that Kalvoda does not analyze more thoroughly events within Slovakia and the role which Sovak emigres, particularly in the United States, played in the creation of the state . Also, his examination of how Ruthenia became part of the republic is almost non-existent. The author's discussion of pre-war Slovak political life in Hungary, mentioning neither the political parties nor the voting irregularities which kept the number �SLOVAKIA 173 of Slovak deputies at a minimum, is highly abbreviated. This commentary seems almost to be an afterthought to Kalvoda's overview of Czech political life in Austria. As well, his treatment of the Masaryk-Pekar controversies, which weighs the first chapter down, is entirely out of proportion to their significance. This book is not for the novice in the history of the Czechs and Slovaks. Without a firm understanding of the past of these two peoples, the reader would quickly become confused. Although Kalvoda ' s narrative provides excellent detail, at times it appears as if he included all material he had found regarding a particular topic, thereby clouding the issue. One such example occurs when Masaryk recommends the Tsarevich as the commander of the Czecho-Slovak Legions (p . 97). It is difficult to believe that Masaryk or any rational person in the modern age would want an elevenor twelve-year-old boy to lead troops. A more discriminating choice of material would have been sufficient in many cases . There are numerous minor factual flaws which should have been caught in the editing process, including the statement that Francis Joseph ruled for 64 years (p. 159); and that an Austrian archduke was a "Grand Duke" (p. 78). In giving his estimates on the number of Slovak and Czech immigrants in the United States, the author relied too heavily upon secondary sources. A quick referral to the documents of the Census Bureau and/or the Department of Labor would have provided a more accurate count. However, the greatest drawback of this work is the overall inattentive editing. This has resulted in missing footnote citations, wrong chapter headings, and numerous errors including transposed as well as missing letters. It appears almost as if no one bothered to proofread this volume. Although a one page "Errata " is included, it also contains errors, and is wholly inadequate. The informed reader can usually correct these mistakes, but it is a slow and tedious task causing the cohesiveness of this work to suffer . Despite these shortcomings, Kalvoda' s book is a welcome addition to the study of Czechoslovak statehood . In the years to come it will remain a fundamental reference source in English for the study of this complex issue. �174 SLOVAKIA Dejiny Slovenska, VI (1945-1960). Michael Baranovsky et. al. Bratislava: Veda, 1988. 549 pp. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM York University, Glendon College Toronto, Canada It would have been difficult to review this volume with any degree of equanimity or detachment even before the events of November and December 1989 which ended the Communist monopoly of power in Czechoslovakia and laid bare the bankruptcy of the ideology, the economic and political system, not to mention the tragedies that it left in its wake. The triumphalist tone, the selfdeluding interpretations of social and individual progress, the everpresent statistics and the cowed reverence to the Soviet Union are characteristics not of scholarship, but of crass political partisanship. The authors divide the history of the period under consideration into two parts. First they look at what is referred to as the national and democratic revolution and its transformation into a socialist one. This is basically a year by year presentation of events from the end of the Second World War to the Communist coup d'Etat in February 1948. In the second part of the book, also chronologically divided, they examine the various aspects involved in building socialism. The volume is filled with statistics on economic development and other indicators of social and cultural activity. The study ends with the proclamation of the achievement of socialism in Czechoslovakia with the Constitution of 1960. The interpretation that is offered follows the line adopted after federalization and Gustav Husak' s accession to the position of Secretary General of the Communist party of Czechoslovakia. The Marxist approach to history and politics is based on the concept of the class struggle. There is no doubt that there was a class struggle in Slovakia in the period under consideration; but it was one that was imposed on that society by those whom Milovan Djilas very quickly identified as members of a new class, the Communist Party, their mentors and their allies. That is not all. The Communists were also bent on changing the social and economic �SLOVAKIA 175 structures of the country; change them they did, but not in the way portrayed. The essays in this volume by historians, members of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, outline their perceptions of how the Communists went about achieving their objectives. In the case of Slovakia, this involved industrialization in order to raise it to the level of the Czech Lands, and the exercise of political power supposedly by the working class during a period which was to pave the way for the establishment of a socialist society. The essays stress particularly the industrialization process, the collectivization of agriculture and the transformation of the political system into a oneparty state . In fact, what the Communists did was to eliminate all political or class opponents, allow Slovakia to be ruled from Prague, set into motion its forced industrialization, establish a political, cultural and economic dictatorship, create privileges for themselves, and rule over a population which they cowed into submission by the extensive use of terror. This is the story that this book does not tell . Equally unsatisfactory is the way the authors deal with some of the problems, often in direct contradiction to their proclaimed principles, which arose from the policies of the Communists. A good example is the way Barnovsky handles what he calls the national question: "The beginning of the industrialization of Slovakia led to the elimination of the existing inequality of the Sovak nation. Despite this positive result, the mutual relations between Czechs and Slovaks were not solved along Leninist principles . .. This reality negatively influenced political life in Slovakia and slowed down the development of socialist relations between the two brotherly nations " (p . 226). No explanation is given for such a conclusion; no analysis of Slovak political life is offered. Indeed there is no indication of the contents of the relations between Czechs and Slovaks, let alone their socialist relations, whatever that means. Jirf St'astny, author of the last chapter, writes in conclusion: " The fifties and sixties were a turning point for Slovak society; it acquired all the characteristics of a society which went through revolutionary changes and built the bases of socialism. However, this does not mean that all of the tasks for the passage from capitalism to socialism were fulfilled " (p. 507) . Given the revolution of 1989, it is more accurate to conclude that probably none of �176 SLOVAKIA the tasks were in fact fulfilled and that the bases of socialism were not laid. It is now also doubtful that socialism, whatever it is supposed to be, can ever be built. The task that Slovak historians face henceforth is to define and analyze exactly what happened and what was built in this period. The answers to these questions will not be found in this volume. Jim and Susan Borchert. Lakewood: The First Hundred Years . Norfolk, VA: The Donning Company for the Lakewood Historical Society, 1989. 191 pp. CAROL TOW ARNICKY Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Every year the eighth graders at Sts. Cyril and Methodius School in Lakewood, Ohio, were given a special job. At Christmastime we were to deliver the small boxes of church collection envelopes and - pro-rated for each family - several wafers each of oplatky for use at the Christmas Eve vilija . I was to deliver to the block of upper Clarence A venue, where nearly every family belonged to "Cyril's." I had a few extra oplatky at my discretion, but it wasn' t nearly enough to suit the grandmothers who demanded more . Sorry, they'd have to get them after Mass on Sunday. I said it politely, of course, but probably somewhat officiously, too . . . . It was a very long time before I realized that most children in America never delivered oplatky door-to-door. Actually, it was a very long time before I wasn't startled to meet an older person who spoke un-accented English. In the Lakewood, Ohio where I grew up, all grandparents came from Slovakia. Lakewood, Ohio, was a place where it was possible, even into the 1960s, to live secure in a world apart . I actually grew up thinking that, no matter what I saw on TV, most people in the word were Slovak-Americans . Imagine my surprise. " Lakewood: The First Hundred Years," the new book by Jim and Susan Borchert prepared for my hometown's centennial last �SLOVAKIA 177 year, accents the feelings of those small islands in the streetcar suburb next to Cleveland. As experts in urban and ethnic life the Borcherts have produced far more than the standard coffee-table picture book. They have explained why things were the way they were . As we used to say, all Lakewood was divided into three parts, and they had hardly anything to do with each other. There was the area along Lake Erie where the rich W ASPs lived (they had fenced off most of the lakefront for themselves) . We had hardly any contact with them. There was "middle Lakewood, " of the middle class, which consisted of marvelous, prosperous housing. (The Borcherts point out that much of it was built from kits supplied by Sears, Roebuck!) Middle Lakewood is where the kids who called us "greenhorns" were from. We had no idea what "greenhorns" were, of course (and they probably didn't, either.) . So we mostly were puzzled, rather than insulted. And then there was home, " Birdtown" and environs. The nickname came from the fact that many of the streets in this oldworld enclave were named for birds - Plover, Quail, Lark, Thrush. The Borcherts say that the people who lived there called it The Village, but I never heard anyone call it that. Perhaps they called it that in Slovak, which most people of my generation never learned. In their book the Borcherts have chosen to focus on each of these parts of Lakewood individually, and the result is a mirror of how it actually was - each group pursuing its destiny pretty much in isolation from the others, mostly coexisting, but never meshing. There were the founders, the captains of industry, who named the streets not only after their family names, but after their children 's first names - the Nicholsons and Wagars and Wintons, and the children named Grace and Clarence and Charles. They carved estates from the wilderness, planted orchards, and lived a life of High Society. One of my favorite pictures in " Lakewood" is that of Marion Campbell, the third Mrs . Alexander Winton, dressed in Native American dress as the lead in " the Seminole," an opera she presented in her back yard! �178 SLOVAKIA There were the middle Lakewoodites, the merchants and the others a couple rungs up the assimilation ladder. And there were the Slovak-Americans, who built their little world around the factories which hired immigrant labor - National Carbon Company, Empire Brass ... Once again, I am impressed at the industriousness and dedication of our ancestors. Starting with nothing, they created a space for themselves. Their frugality was legendary. Sts. Cyril and Methodius Church was paid for in record time, as were its renovations. I can still remember, as a school child, using pencil erasers to remove heel marks from the expensive new linoleum floors put in the school in the 50s. But the story of "Lakewood" also emphasized how fragmented even the "Village" was. In the book the Borcherts quote from the chronicle of Slovaks of Cleveland and Lakewood by Jan Pankuch, a newspaperman and historian. Pankuch came to Lakewood in 1917, so his history drew on the memories of the earliest settlers from around the turn of the century. They came seeking work, built homes to be near it, then founded their churches, their savings and loans, and their clubs. But when I was growing up in Lakewood I knew none of this, and I suspect it was because Jan Pankuch was a Lutheran, who helped found Sts. Peter and Paul Lutheran Church, at the corner of my street, Grace Avenue . Back then - and it's really not so long ago, is it? - the Roman Catholics had nothing to do with the Greek Catholics at St. Gregory' s or the Orthodox or the - heavens! Slovak Calvinists in the little white church. It was a time of suspicion, and because of it, something important was missed. It's why today I can meet someone from Lakewood about my own age but from one of the different " parts," and realize that he/she literally grew up in a different town. Jim and Susan Borchert have done a masterful job of drawing together those separate threads. �SLOVAKIA 179 Abel KraY. Pravidla slovenskej vyslovnosti. 2nd ed. Bratislava: SPN, 1988. 632 pp. LOUISE B. HAMMER Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana The author of PSV is a phonetician at Comenius University in Bratislava, and he has an international reputation for his work in phonetics. This book has now become a standard reference work on Slovak pronunciation. The first edition of PSV was published in 1984. It is an orthoepic codification of Slovak and has been approved by the Orthoepic Commission of the Linguistics Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. PSV sets forth the linguistic norm for spoken Slovak, and is used for teaching standard Slovak pronunciation in the schools in Slovakia, as well as providing guidelines for people who speak professionally, such as broadcasters, singers and actors . English speakers may not be familiar with the role of academies in standardizing languages, since no such institution exists for the English language. In fact, the English language has several national standards, e.g., British English, American English, Australian English. Pronunciation is the least standardized component of English, and these national standards reflect the pronunciation patterns in use by the speakers. In contrast, countries that have academies appoint linguistic commissions whose job is to compile rules, a codification, which show how the language should be used . France and the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic are among the countries that regulate their language usage in this manner . It is not uncommon for an educated speaker of Slovak to speak in a way that does not conform to the rules set forth in the PSV. For example, a native of Bratislava, which is in the Western Slovak dialect area, would probably speak without diphthongs or the rhythmic law, since these features are not found in that dialect area . The speech of such a person would not be an example of "correct' ' Slovak pronunciation from an orthoepic point of view . As Jan Bosak pointed out in his review of the first edition of �180 SLOVAKIA this book, the relationship of orthoepy to phonetics and phonology, as propounded by Abel Kral', was a point of contention between Kral' and some linguists who have other theoretical points of view. 1 Specialists may also disagree about the pronunciations of particular words, and discussions of various points that are raised in this pioneering work will doubtless continue . In the theoretical section of the first part of the book (pp. 11-35), Abel Kral' expands the definition of orthoepy, and compares his orthoepic codification of the spoken language to an orthographic codification of the written language. He is concerned with language cultivation (jazykova kultura) and recognizes that stylistic differences dictate different pronunciation styles. He discusses the high and neutral styles, but not the low, which to him borders on the substandard. What Kral' describes in the book is the neutral style, the public speech of educated people from the Central Slovak dialect area . The neutral style is distinguished from the high style by various features. For linguists, one of the most important is the pronunciation of the [a] as the e in the English word 'set, ' and not as the a in the English 'bat.' The high style is now primarily relegated to use in the classical theatre. The phonetics section of the first part of the book (pp . 37-88) deals with phonetic transcription and with the phonetic classification of the sounds of Slovak and their correct production. The illustrations in this section are excellent visual aids when teaching Slovak pronunciation. The first section of the second part of the book (pp. 89-103) systematically describes the pronunciations of the vowels, diphthongs and consonants of Slovak in combination. This section contains an excellent exposition of voicing assimilation. It is followed by a section on the suprasegmental characteristics of Slovak (pp. 163-189). Then come texts with their phonetic transcription and the author's comments (pp . 191-200). The largest section of the book is taken up by the orthoepic dictionary (pp. 201-626) . The orthographic form of the word appears in boldface, and it is followed by the phonetic transcription. The words that Kral' selected for inclusion are those whose pronunciation cannot be deduced from their written form, or foreign words that may not yet follow the pronunciation rules of Slovak. �SLOVAKIA 181 Masculine nouns that end in obstruents, which are subject to voicing assimilation, are given with both the voiceless and voiced variants. The nominative form is followed, in many instances, by the genitive case form, e.g., baladik - baladi{klg], - {ka]. Other cases are given when appropriate, such as, the genitive plural for some feminine and neuter nouns. PSV has been written with precision and care . It is indispensible to teachers of the Slovak language, and belongs in the library of every Slovak specialist . 1 5/ovenska rec, 51, 1986 No. 6, pp. 371-374. � REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 161 Dejiny Slovenska, II (1526-1848). Vladimir Matula, Jozef Vozar et. al. Bratislava: Veda, 1987. 846 pp. GAVIN LEWIS John Jay College of Criminal Justice The City University of New York This is the second of a six-volume series sponsored by the Slovak Academy of Sciences. The series was conceived and realized in the days when the Marxist orientation of Slovak historical scholarship was taken for granted; and it was intended to provide a detailed, scholarly, and authoritative handbook, superseding all earlier accounts, both "bourgeois" and Marxist, of all aspects of the history of the Slovak land and people from prehistory to the present. The authors of the volume under review have succeeded so well that it should serve its purpose even in the new era that began in 1989. The authors of Volume II, covering the early modern period, have had a particularly difficult task. Their period, running from 1526 to 1848, is both long and complex, including a great many closely interrelated developments. The Turkish conquest and the Habsburg reconquest of much of Hungary; the efforts of the Habsburgs to absorb the Hungarian kingdom into their hereditary territories and the varying responses of the Hungarian nobility to .these efforts; the evolution of serfdom and seigneurialism, urban life and the mining industry; the Reformation and CounterReformation, the Renaissance and Enlightenment; and finally, the complex cultural and social phenomenon of the National Awakening; all these had to be discussed both individually and in their relation to each other. The authors have accomplished this task to an impressive extent. Though the book is of course written from a Marxist viewpoint, the omissions and distortions typical of vulgar Marxism have been avoided. The importance of religious belief, and the leading role of the Catholic and Protestant clergy in early modern Slovak history, are given due weight. The leaders of the National Awakening, though discussed in terms of the Marxist schema, are treated �162 SLOVAKIA as real historical actors and not as mere puppets of the "transition from feudalism to capitalism." Some of the lengthy discussions on topics such as the evolution of prices and wages or the structure of internal trade may seem too detailed to those who are not convinced of the metaphysical importance of such matters, but on the whole the Marxist stress on economic and social themes has led to increased understanding of the development of the Slovak nation. Perhaps the most significant single achievement of this volume is to lay to rest for ever the myth of the pre-nineteenth century Slovaks as a slumbering nation of peasants and shepherds with no elite other than a sprinkling of clergy. The sections dealing with social structure, education and culture, and national development from the sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries make the following facts abundantly clear. 1) The Slovaks had a substantial elite of nobles and townsmen as well as priests and ministers, indeed the secular elite formed the milieu that enabled the clergy to operate. 2) This elite was open to the influences of Renaissance humanism and its descendants, the emerging historical scholarship of the seventeenth century, as well as to the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, and the Baroque. 3) Under these intellectual, cultural, and religious influences, the Slovak elite built up a pre-modern national self-awareness comparable with that of other eastern European nations in the early modern period. This understanding of the early modern Slovak nation is not only of importance in itself, it is also of significance for explaining more recent periods of Slovak history. The National Awakening becomes easier to understand when one realizes that it did not come from nowhere, but was rather a phase - albeit a decisive and innovative one - in a continuing social and cultural development. Likewise, the nineteenth-century development of the awakening acquires a new dimension when one realizes that it took place against the background of the crumbling of the traditional Slovak elite under the onslaught of Magyarization: one of the main tasks of the leaders of the awakening was that of mobilization, to rally what was left of the elite so as to ensure the survival of the nation . The section of the book dealing with the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries - that is the National Awakening itself, �SLOVAKIA 163 the final decades of seigneurialism, and the beginnings of national conflict within the Hungarian state - are in some ways less satisfactory than the earlier sections. Individual chapters are thorough and informative, and there is the same complete coverage of political, social, economic, cultural, and intellectual developments. But there is less sense than in the first half of the book of the interrelatedness of the various developments. In particular, the very detailed discussion of the viewpoints, activities, and disputes of the various leaders of the awakening proceeds to some extent in isolation from the social background. How did the leaders react to the defection of much of the traditional Slovak elite, and how did they mobilize those who were left? To what extent was the National Awakening a response of the nationally "loyal" elite to pressures to Magyarize? In general, what determined individual members of the elite either to Magyarize or to support the awakening? In spite of a number of fascinating glimpses - in particular, the section on the rise of the Slovak intelligentsia and village notables (pp. 579-84) - one gets surprisingly little sense of the National Awakening as a movement apart from its leading personalities . In spite of these criticisms, the book as a whole deserves to be widely read . It provides an excellent guide for students and point of departure for scholars, and can and should be used in this way even under the new order of things in the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic. Appearing as it did in 1987, the volume summarizes the achievements of the era of Marxist domination in the early modern field of Slovak historical scholarship. One must give credit where credit is due, and admit that at least in this field, Slovak Marxist scholars over the last forty years have contributed significantly to their nation's understanding of itself. Viliam Cicaj. Knizna kultura na strednom Slovensku v 16. -18. storoci. Bratislava : Veda, 1985. 133 pp . R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Florida This book outlines the development of literary culture in central Slovakia between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, focus- �164 SLOVAKIA ing on the towns of Banska Bystrica, Banska Stiavnica, and Kremnica. It is divided among an introduction, a quantitative analysis of "private" (non-archival) literature of the region, the thematic structure of such literature, and the relationship of the literary culture of central Slovakia with the later Middle Ages. In the introductory section C:icaj points out that, while other Slovak areas were producing literature in this period, the region of Banska Bystrica-Banska Stiavnica-Kremnica was far more prolific in sheer output. He elaborates on this point in Part One, employing statistical charts very liberally. In addition to publications in the Czech language (used extensively by the Protestants since the Hussite emigration from Bohemia in the Thirty Years' War) and the Central Slovak dialect, there were also numerous publications in Latin and German. Latin was at that time the official language of the Kingdom of Hungary, while the Germans in the central mining towns were using their language to introduce the works of Martin Luther. The period was consequently marked by lively literary interactions between the Protestants of Upper Hungary and Lutheran centers of learning in Germany . In Part Two, where C:icaj discusses the thematic structures of this literary awakening, he reveals several facts which are somewhat surprising and certainly revealing in light of their historical importance. Quite naturally Lutheran theology was the focus of a large percentage of the publications, but works dealing with history, political science, and geography (the last-named social science included books about places as remote as Jamaica and Japan) were also produced. One criticism of Luther offered by Catholic apologists was that, in rerferring to Aristotle as " a dog of a philosopher,'' the father of Protestantiasm disrupted the centuriesold dialogue between Christian and classical (pagan, pre-Christian) civilization. Slovak Lutherans may justifiably exempt themselves from such a charge. Publications emanating from the central Slovak towns represented not only Aristotle and the Greeks, but also Boccaccio, Petrarach, and Italian humanists of the Renaissance period. Such a state of affairs reflects the ecumenical nature of Upper Hungary in this period. Catholics and Lutherans in the central Slovak towns lived together amicably when Habsburg pressure was not applied . �SLOVAKIA 165 Cicaj attempts to elaborate on this point in Part Three, pointing out that the Catholic Erasmus and the Protestant Luther each contributed to a general advancement of education in the face of a feudal order. But here Cicaj falls short of the mark. Having demonstrated that the Central Slovak region was cosmopolitan in the literary sense, he does not follow through by demonstrating its impact on the later Slovak national awakening. Part of the problem here may stem from the very exclusiveness of his study; he might have formulated his conclusions more completely by not simply concentrating on three towns. Even so, he could have integrated this study into the general framework of this period in Slovak and Hungarian history. It was not only the time of the Protestant Reformation; it was also a time when the Turks occupied the middle Danube region (sometimes making incursions into the highlands), and when Transylvanian nobles invaded the area in their struggles against the Habsburgs. Citing contemporary literature regarding the impressions produced by these events might have strengthened the author' s case. Knizna kultura is dry reading, but it is nonetheless a significant contribution to the study of Slovak literary history. The author clearly demonstrates that the Central Slovak region's contribution to literary culture precedes the national awakening, and he makes liberal use of footnotes to support his case. This book is primarily useful for literary historians. Viera Urbancova, Slovenska etnografia v 19. storoci: Vyvoj nazorov na slovensky l'ud. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1987. 436 pp. MAGDA ZELINSKA FERL Los Angeles, California Slovenska etnografia v 19. storoci is an ambitious work which examines the evolution of ethnography in Slovakia, specifically the trends which contributed to the eventual development of a separate discipline during the 19th century. Viera Urbancova' s thesis is that Slovak ethnography as a discipline evolved through stages and was influenced by social and political activities. �166 SLOVAKIA Her work is organized according to the notions which influenced the various stages of the discipline's development, from the backward and irrational view of the folk to the idealized. These notions coincided with the interests of the intelligentia in such causes as the "fight against superstition," which was thought to prevent social progress, the promotion of national self-awareness, the struggle to codify the Slovak language, and the attempts to establish ethnography as an independent discipline. Urbancova points out some practical reasons for interest in the folk. Mass education, according to her, was instituted by capitalists during the period of industrialization for the purpose of developing a better worker and increasing productivity. The folk needed to be re-educated regarding their customs and beliefs which were thought to hamper progress. The first ethnographic work began with the premise that the folk who believed in superstitions should be studied so they could be re-educated and, thereby, elevated to a level where they could contribute to the welfare of the nation . Matej Bel's work, Notitia, is mentioned as important to the ethnographic research of the 19th century. The author also deals with the romantic notion of the folk which, in Slovakia, was influenced by Herder and Hegel's philosophy . The historical past was seen in terms of pride and love for the language: Bernolak' s followers saw it in a Slovak language, while the Lutheran intelligentia beheld it in the language of the Kralice Bible. Kollar and Safarik were important at this time in promoting interest in folk culture, which to them was oral literature. They collected songs, proverbs, and beliefs which pointed to the ancient character of the nation . This state in the development of Slovak ethnography is characterized by the hypothesis, initiated by linguists, that Slavs can trace their culture to Inda-European origins. During the 1840' s and the 1850' s there was wide acceptance of the view that folklore expressions were survivals of ancient culture. Such assumptions contributed to the notion that folklore was dying out and, therefore, needed to be collected and recorded. Gustav, Reuss, a physician, was very influential during this period in promoting the collection of tales. In his historical work concerning the development of regions, how they were populated, �SLOVAKIA 167 how people secured food, etc., he supported his conclusions with information extracted from folk culture, especially local legends. During the period of the 1860' s there was a sentiment to view ethnography from a scientific perspective, promoting a systematic approach to collecting. Pavol Dobsinsky published instructions on how to collect ethnographic materials. His greatest contribution was expanding the collected genres; for example, he called for the inclusion of material culture which he referred to as "prostonarodne poklady" (folk treasures .) He also encouraged a geographical approach to the study of such occupations as lacemakers, boatwrights, and tinkers, and stressed the importance of noting the tools and their use. Lastly, Urbancova points to the trend of increased interest in mythology. The work of the brothers Grimm in Germany contributed to the view that myths are the survivals of ancient rituals and, consequently, Reuss and others believed that myths collected in Slovakia reflected not only old Slovak culture but also Slavic cultures. Folk life was romanticized and looked upon as the basis of the nation's culture which needed to be preserved for future generations. The work of Dobsinsky became very popular and influential. The first part of his Prostondrodne obycaje, zvyky a povery is structured according to the natural life cycle: birth, marriage and death. He describes family, village and commercial life in detail. Unfortunately, the attempt to cover such a large span of time results in a book which has no depth to its analysis or interpretations. One is left feeling that, despite copious notes and an extensive bibliography, the book is somehow incomplete, lacking a clear thesis. However, this is a rather comprehensive work of Slovak ethnographic scholarship concerning the 19th century. Implicitly, it offers an interesting explanation concerning changes in the approach to ethnography which actually relate to the major European trends of the 19th century. �168 SLOVAKIA Narodna svetlica: Vyber dokumentov k dejinam Matice slovenskej. Edited by Michal Elias and Vojtech Sarluska. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1988. 321 pp. JOHN A. BERTA Methodist College Fayetteville, North Carolina Although Narodna svetlica offers nothing new to the professional study of the Matica slovenska, it is of value to the average individual interested in the history of this institution and Slovak culture . The book comes at an opportune time. Slovaks abroad, particularly in the United States and Canada, have a growing interest in Slovak culture, and many perceive the Matica as the primary vehicle for engaging in cultural exchanges. The work is also important for contemporary Slovakia since many Slovaks there have little or no knowledge of the Matica' s history and function. Narodna svetlica is divided into three segments which discuss the Matica's role in a particular period. The first era, 1863-1875, deals with the Matica's beginnings, and the legacy left to Slovak history and culture after its forced closure by the Magyar authorities. The second period, 1919-1954, concerns the task the resurrected Matica sought to fulfill as the ethnic and cultural guardian of the Slovak people. The final segment, 1954 to the present, involves a period when the Matica assumed functions which could equate it to the National Archives and Library of Congress in the United States. The book is a compilation of excerpts from proclamations, the minutes of Matica board meetings and assemblies, articles, books, pamphlets, personal correspondence and photographs which pertain to the evolution of this institution, and the role it has played in the preservation of Slovak culture and ethnicity in Slovakia and abroad. The documents reproduced in each section were selected to impress upon the Slovak reader the importance of the Matica slovenska as a symbol of his/her national identity and culture, and as an active participant in daily Slovak life . The drawback to this otherwise skillfully edited work is that it was published solely in Slovak. Only those with a working �SLOVAKIA 169 knowledge of the language can make use of its wealth of information. The two-page English summary provides the reader with just a hint of what is in the body of the work. If the Matica slovenska could make this and similar publications available in English, it could have an impact on rejuvenating ethnic awareness among those who are on the verge of being assimilated into another culture. Also missing is the wealth of correspondence regarding how Slovaks abroad relate to this symbol of their Slovak heritage. Jan Kmec, Jugoslovensko-slovacke slavisticke veze. Novi Sad: Vojvodjanska akademija nauka i umetnosti, 1987. 549 p. JAN FRYDECKY Burnaby, British Columbia The author of this work traces the relations of the South Slavs with the Slovaks from the time of the early Slavic migrations to Central Europe and the Balkans to the present. He explores the same geographic and topographic names preserved to this day in Yugoslavia and Slovakia. Other proof of close contacts are so called "yugoslavisms" which Pannonian Slavs accepted from the South Slavs and which are preserved in the contemporary Slovak literary language. Further, he refers to the activities of Saints Cyril and Methodius and the Cyrilomethodian culture which originated from direct social and cultural efforts and productive contacts of the forefathers of the Slovaks and the Yugoslavs . Although the author wrote that Pannonian Slavs were very often different from South Slavs, he did not realize that this long separation conditioned also gradual national differences between the forefathers of today's Slovaks and the South Slavs . He used only the term "staroslovansky" contrary to the recognized term starosloviensky After the extinction of Great Moravia and the rise of Hungary, the greatest avenue for cooperation between West and South Slavs was the Catholic Church. In Hungary the Church accepted a group of Czech missionaries and through their contacts and exchange of 11 11 • �170 SLOVAKIA priests, created the possibility for spiritual and cultural communication, which produced cultural, literary and artistic works. The author devotes the third part of his book to the period of Turkish rule in Central Europe (1526-1683). Many refugees from Croat regions came to Bratislava and settled in the southern parts of Slovakia and Moravia. New Yugoslav-Slovak spiritual, cultural and literary relations blossomed. These were strengthened through the Hungarian Catholic center in Trnava, where the Jesuit university accepted Croat students and professors. The fourth part covers the period from the origins of the Protestant lyceum in Bratislava (1615) to the establishment of the Serbian grammar school in Sremski Karlovci (1791) . The lyceum became a center of Yugoslav-Slovak relations from the first half of the 18th century. Many Serbs studied in Bratislava and in other schools in Slovakia, especially when they emigrated from southern and middle Serbia in the Hungarian portion of the Austrian Empire (1690). Also Slovaks started to move to the Vojvodina from the year 1745. As a defense against Catholic presure, and in an effort to build their own cultural institutions and schools, the Serbs needed their own educated people. Many educated Slovaks worked among Serbs for this reason . In the first twenty years of the 19th century a new period in Yugoslav-Slovak relations began. The national revival of both peoples led to greater mutual cooperation. The awakening of national consciousness among the Slavic nations manifested itself as well with the idea of Slavic reciprocity. An association of " Lovers of Slovak Language and Literature" in Pest was also a center of cooperation with Czechs, Croats, Serbs and Russians and a center of research in Slavic languages . In the last part of his work Kmec covers the time from the 1848 revolution to the present. He pays attention to Shir's views, to the differences between Stur and Kollar, to relations between Njegos and Stur, and to Yugoslav motifs and subjects in Slovak literature. Under the pressure of the Hungarian government, Yugoslav-Slovak relations became very strained, and student organizations had to move to Prague . Slovaks from Vojvoina, with the center in Backi Petrovac, became a bridge between Slovaks and Serbs in Hungary. In the period between the two wars of the 20th century, the author �SLOVAKIA 171 mentions Slovak authors in Vojvodina, translators, and some political events. The work of professor Krnec is a solid contribution in the areas of Slavic reciprocity. The author buttressed his work with many footnotes and with the biographies of many authors . While this did not reduce the worth of the work, it unnecessarily widened it and the author deflected from his theme. Serbian-Slovak relations, about which Slovaks and Serbes have written a lot, is compiled in detail, but less attention is paid to Croat-Slovak relations. Incomprehensible to me is why the author presented the number of votes in the elections of 1920, and also why he gives the number of members of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in Slovak towns in the Vojvodina, and also why he lists the names and jobs of some Slovaks, members of the Communist Party, who emigrated to Slovakia. All of this detracts from an otherwise worthy book. Josef Kalvoda, The Genesis of Czechoslovakia. Boulder, Colorado: East European Monographs (Distributed by Columbia University Press), 1986. 673 pp. GREGORY C. FERENCE Salisbury State University Salisbury, Maryland This massive work is certainly a must for anyone interested in the study of the formation of the Czechoslovak state. It is obvious that the author has spent extensive periods of time researching this subject at archives in Austria, Czechoslovakia, and the United States. Kalvoda should be commended for his use of innumerable memoirs, journals, newspapers, and secondary sources published in Czech, English, French, German, Russian, and Slovak. As a result, the author presents a well thought-out and thoroughly synthesized portrayal of the events and people involved in the intensive four year quest for national independence. The author provides great detail concerning this struggle both in Austria-Hungary and abroad in England, France, Russia, and the United States, while accomplishing his goal of examining and evaluating the three theses �172 SLOVAKIA regarding the success of the liberation movement: 1) the work of exiles, 2) the Bolshevik Revolution, and 3) the resistance at home. Kalvoda's book proves all three were factors leading to Czechoslovak independence. Kalvoda definitively characterizes the major personalities involved in the movement to create an independent state, among these Edvard Benes, Josef Diirich, Karel Kramaf, Milan Stefanik, and Tomas G. Masaryk. The author in particular, provides a very provocative description of Masaryk, the "Liberator-President" of Czechoslovakia. Masaryk left Bohemia in 1914 as a relatively insignificant political leader. Despite later assertions that he had a mandate for his mission, in reality Masaryk lacked any significant support at home. Masaryk schemed and plotted to become the leader of the liberation movement, subverting the authority of Diirich, who had been sent abroad to represent Czech interests in foreign capitals . To achieve his goals the ruthless Masaryk worked to destroy the reputations, careers, and influence of others, such as Diirich and Kramaf, when their opinions and activities were contrary to his and those of the Czecho-Slovak National Council . Masaryk thus is shown as an opportunist who, despite his later claims, adroitly changed his ideas and statements when it became politically expedient. In his account of the origins of the Czechoslovak-Bolshevik conflict, Kalvoda reveals that both Masaryk's insistence on the neutrality of the Czecho-Slovak Legions in Russian internal affairs, and his attempts to gain western recogniiton of Lenin almost caused the loss of Allied support for Czechoslovak statehood. The activities of the Legions in Siberia when the local situation dictated an independent course of action in support of anti-Bolshevik forces, although contrary to the orders of Masaryk, ultimately preserved Masaryk's position in the west. It is a bit disappointing that Kalvoda does not analyze more thoroughly events within Slovakia and the role which Sovak emigres, particularly in the United States, played in the creation of the state . Also, his examination of how Ruthenia became part of the republic is almost non-existent. The author's discussion of pre-war Slovak political life in Hungary, mentioning neither the political parties nor the voting irregularities which kept the number �SLOVAKIA 173 of Slovak deputies at a minimum, is highly abbreviated. This commentary seems almost to be an afterthought to Kalvoda's overview of Czech political life in Austria. As well, his treatment of the Masaryk-Pekar controversies, which weighs the first chapter down, is entirely out of proportion to their significance. This book is not for the novice in the history of the Czechs and Slovaks. Without a firm understanding of the past of these two peoples, the reader would quickly become confused. Although Kalvoda ' s narrative provides excellent detail, at times it appears as if he included all material he had found regarding a particular topic, thereby clouding the issue. One such example occurs when Masaryk recommends the Tsarevich as the commander of the Czecho-Slovak Legions (p . 97). It is difficult to believe that Masaryk or any rational person in the modern age would want an elevenor twelve-year-old boy to lead troops. A more discriminating choice of material would have been sufficient in many cases . There are numerous minor factual flaws which should have been caught in the editing process, including the statement that Francis Joseph ruled for 64 years (p. 159); and that an Austrian archduke was a "Grand Duke" (p. 78). In giving his estimates on the number of Slovak and Czech immigrants in the United States, the author relied too heavily upon secondary sources. A quick referral to the documents of the Census Bureau and/or the Department of Labor would have provided a more accurate count. However, the greatest drawback of this work is the overall inattentive editing. This has resulted in missing footnote citations, wrong chapter headings, and numerous errors including transposed as well as missing letters. It appears almost as if no one bothered to proofread this volume. Although a one page "Errata " is included, it also contains errors, and is wholly inadequate. The informed reader can usually correct these mistakes, but it is a slow and tedious task causing the cohesiveness of this work to suffer . Despite these shortcomings, Kalvoda' s book is a welcome addition to the study of Czechoslovak statehood . In the years to come it will remain a fundamental reference source in English for the study of this complex issue. �174 SLOVAKIA Dejiny Slovenska, VI (1945-1960). Michael Baranovsky et. al. Bratislava: Veda, 1988. 549 pp. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM York University, Glendon College Toronto, Canada It would have been difficult to review this volume with any degree of equanimity or detachment even before the events of November and December 1989 which ended the Communist monopoly of power in Czechoslovakia and laid bare the bankruptcy of the ideology, the economic and political system, not to mention the tragedies that it left in its wake. The triumphalist tone, the selfdeluding interpretations of social and individual progress, the everpresent statistics and the cowed reverence to the Soviet Union are characteristics not of scholarship, but of crass political partisanship. The authors divide the history of the period under consideration into two parts. First they look at what is referred to as the national and democratic revolution and its transformation into a socialist one. This is basically a year by year presentation of events from the end of the Second World War to the Communist coup d'Etat in February 1948. In the second part of the book, also chronologically divided, they examine the various aspects involved in building socialism. The volume is filled with statistics on economic development and other indicators of social and cultural activity. The study ends with the proclamation of the achievement of socialism in Czechoslovakia with the Constitution of 1960. The interpretation that is offered follows the line adopted after federalization and Gustav Husak' s accession to the position of Secretary General of the Communist party of Czechoslovakia. The Marxist approach to history and politics is based on the concept of the class struggle. There is no doubt that there was a class struggle in Slovakia in the period under consideration; but it was one that was imposed on that society by those whom Milovan Djilas very quickly identified as members of a new class, the Communist Party, their mentors and their allies. That is not all. The Communists were also bent on changing the social and economic �SLOVAKIA 175 structures of the country; change them they did, but not in the way portrayed. The essays in this volume by historians, members of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, outline their perceptions of how the Communists went about achieving their objectives. In the case of Slovakia, this involved industrialization in order to raise it to the level of the Czech Lands, and the exercise of political power supposedly by the working class during a period which was to pave the way for the establishment of a socialist society. The essays stress particularly the industrialization process, the collectivization of agriculture and the transformation of the political system into a oneparty state . In fact, what the Communists did was to eliminate all political or class opponents, allow Slovakia to be ruled from Prague, set into motion its forced industrialization, establish a political, cultural and economic dictatorship, create privileges for themselves, and rule over a population which they cowed into submission by the extensive use of terror. This is the story that this book does not tell . Equally unsatisfactory is the way the authors deal with some of the problems, often in direct contradiction to their proclaimed principles, which arose from the policies of the Communists. A good example is the way Barnovsky handles what he calls the national question: "The beginning of the industrialization of Slovakia led to the elimination of the existing inequality of the Sovak nation. Despite this positive result, the mutual relations between Czechs and Slovaks were not solved along Leninist principles . .. This reality negatively influenced political life in Slovakia and slowed down the development of socialist relations between the two brotherly nations " (p . 226). No explanation is given for such a conclusion; no analysis of Slovak political life is offered. Indeed there is no indication of the contents of the relations between Czechs and Slovaks, let alone their socialist relations, whatever that means. Jirf St'astny, author of the last chapter, writes in conclusion: " The fifties and sixties were a turning point for Slovak society; it acquired all the characteristics of a society which went through revolutionary changes and built the bases of socialism. However, this does not mean that all of the tasks for the passage from capitalism to socialism were fulfilled " (p. 507) . Given the revolution of 1989, it is more accurate to conclude that probably none of �176 SLOVAKIA the tasks were in fact fulfilled and that the bases of socialism were not laid. It is now also doubtful that socialism, whatever it is supposed to be, can ever be built. The task that Slovak historians face henceforth is to define and analyze exactly what happened and what was built in this period. The answers to these questions will not be found in this volume. Jim and Susan Borchert. Lakewood: The First Hundred Years . Norfolk, VA: The Donning Company for the Lakewood Historical Society, 1989. 191 pp. CAROL TOW ARNICKY Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Every year the eighth graders at Sts. Cyril and Methodius School in Lakewood, Ohio, were given a special job. At Christmastime we were to deliver the small boxes of church collection envelopes and - pro-rated for each family - several wafers each of oplatky for use at the Christmas Eve vilija . I was to deliver to the block of upper Clarence A venue, where nearly every family belonged to "Cyril's." I had a few extra oplatky at my discretion, but it wasn' t nearly enough to suit the grandmothers who demanded more . Sorry, they'd have to get them after Mass on Sunday. I said it politely, of course, but probably somewhat officiously, too . . . . It was a very long time before I realized that most children in America never delivered oplatky door-to-door. Actually, it was a very long time before I wasn't startled to meet an older person who spoke un-accented English. In the Lakewood, Ohio where I grew up, all grandparents came from Slovakia. Lakewood, Ohio, was a place where it was possible, even into the 1960s, to live secure in a world apart . I actually grew up thinking that, no matter what I saw on TV, most people in the word were Slovak-Americans . Imagine my surprise. " Lakewood: The First Hundred Years," the new book by Jim and Susan Borchert prepared for my hometown's centennial last �SLOVAKIA 177 year, accents the feelings of those small islands in the streetcar suburb next to Cleveland. As experts in urban and ethnic life the Borcherts have produced far more than the standard coffee-table picture book. They have explained why things were the way they were . As we used to say, all Lakewood was divided into three parts, and they had hardly anything to do with each other. There was the area along Lake Erie where the rich W ASPs lived (they had fenced off most of the lakefront for themselves) . We had hardly any contact with them. There was "middle Lakewood, " of the middle class, which consisted of marvelous, prosperous housing. (The Borcherts point out that much of it was built from kits supplied by Sears, Roebuck!) Middle Lakewood is where the kids who called us "greenhorns" were from. We had no idea what "greenhorns" were, of course (and they probably didn't, either.) . So we mostly were puzzled, rather than insulted. And then there was home, " Birdtown" and environs. The nickname came from the fact that many of the streets in this oldworld enclave were named for birds - Plover, Quail, Lark, Thrush. The Borcherts say that the people who lived there called it The Village, but I never heard anyone call it that. Perhaps they called it that in Slovak, which most people of my generation never learned. In their book the Borcherts have chosen to focus on each of these parts of Lakewood individually, and the result is a mirror of how it actually was - each group pursuing its destiny pretty much in isolation from the others, mostly coexisting, but never meshing. There were the founders, the captains of industry, who named the streets not only after their family names, but after their children 's first names - the Nicholsons and Wagars and Wintons, and the children named Grace and Clarence and Charles. They carved estates from the wilderness, planted orchards, and lived a life of High Society. One of my favorite pictures in " Lakewood" is that of Marion Campbell, the third Mrs . Alexander Winton, dressed in Native American dress as the lead in " the Seminole," an opera she presented in her back yard! �178 SLOVAKIA There were the middle Lakewoodites, the merchants and the others a couple rungs up the assimilation ladder. And there were the Slovak-Americans, who built their little world around the factories which hired immigrant labor - National Carbon Company, Empire Brass ... Once again, I am impressed at the industriousness and dedication of our ancestors. Starting with nothing, they created a space for themselves. Their frugality was legendary. Sts. Cyril and Methodius Church was paid for in record time, as were its renovations. I can still remember, as a school child, using pencil erasers to remove heel marks from the expensive new linoleum floors put in the school in the 50s. But the story of "Lakewood" also emphasized how fragmented even the "Village" was. In the book the Borcherts quote from the chronicle of Slovaks of Cleveland and Lakewood by Jan Pankuch, a newspaperman and historian. Pankuch came to Lakewood in 1917, so his history drew on the memories of the earliest settlers from around the turn of the century. They came seeking work, built homes to be near it, then founded their churches, their savings and loans, and their clubs. But when I was growing up in Lakewood I knew none of this, and I suspect it was because Jan Pankuch was a Lutheran, who helped found Sts. Peter and Paul Lutheran Church, at the corner of my street, Grace Avenue . Back then - and it's really not so long ago, is it? - the Roman Catholics had nothing to do with the Greek Catholics at St. Gregory' s or the Orthodox or the - heavens! Slovak Calvinists in the little white church. It was a time of suspicion, and because of it, something important was missed. It's why today I can meet someone from Lakewood about my own age but from one of the different " parts," and realize that he/she literally grew up in a different town. Jim and Susan Borchert have done a masterful job of drawing together those separate threads. �SLOVAKIA 179 Abel KraY. Pravidla slovenskej vyslovnosti. 2nd ed. Bratislava: SPN, 1988. 632 pp. LOUISE B. HAMMER Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana The author of PSV is a phonetician at Comenius University in Bratislava, and he has an international reputation for his work in phonetics. This book has now become a standard reference work on Slovak pronunciation. The first edition of PSV was published in 1984. It is an orthoepic codification of Slovak and has been approved by the Orthoepic Commission of the Linguistics Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. PSV sets forth the linguistic norm for spoken Slovak, and is used for teaching standard Slovak pronunciation in the schools in Slovakia, as well as providing guidelines for people who speak professionally, such as broadcasters, singers and actors . English speakers may not be familiar with the role of academies in standardizing languages, since no such institution exists for the English language. In fact, the English language has several national standards, e.g., British English, American English, Australian English. Pronunciation is the least standardized component of English, and these national standards reflect the pronunciation patterns in use by the speakers. In contrast, countries that have academies appoint linguistic commissions whose job is to compile rules, a codification, which show how the language should be used . France and the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic are among the countries that regulate their language usage in this manner . It is not uncommon for an educated speaker of Slovak to speak in a way that does not conform to the rules set forth in the PSV. For example, a native of Bratislava, which is in the Western Slovak dialect area, would probably speak without diphthongs or the rhythmic law, since these features are not found in that dialect area . The speech of such a person would not be an example of "correct' ' Slovak pronunciation from an orthoepic point of view . As Jan Bosak pointed out in his review of the first edition of �180 SLOVAKIA this book, the relationship of orthoepy to phonetics and phonology, as propounded by Abel Kral', was a point of contention between Kral' and some linguists who have other theoretical points of view. 1 Specialists may also disagree about the pronunciations of particular words, and discussions of various points that are raised in this pioneering work will doubtless continue . In the theoretical section of the first part of the book (pp. 11-35), Abel Kral' expands the definition of orthoepy, and compares his orthoepic codification of the spoken language to an orthographic codification of the written language. He is concerned with language cultivation (jazykova kultura) and recognizes that stylistic differences dictate different pronunciation styles. He discusses the high and neutral styles, but not the low, which to him borders on the substandard. What Kral' describes in the book is the neutral style, the public speech of educated people from the Central Slovak dialect area . The neutral style is distinguished from the high style by various features. For linguists, one of the most important is the pronunciation of the [a] as the e in the English word 'set, ' and not as the a in the English 'bat.' The high style is now primarily relegated to use in the classical theatre. The phonetics section of the first part of the book (pp . 37-88) deals with phonetic transcription and with the phonetic classification of the sounds of Slovak and their correct production. The illustrations in this section are excellent visual aids when teaching Slovak pronunciation. The first section of the second part of the book (pp. 89-103) systematically describes the pronunciations of the vowels, diphthongs and consonants of Slovak in combination. This section contains an excellent exposition of voicing assimilation. It is followed by a section on the suprasegmental characteristics of Slovak (pp. 163-189). Then come texts with their phonetic transcription and the author's comments (pp . 191-200). The largest section of the book is taken up by the orthoepic dictionary (pp. 201-626) . The orthographic form of the word appears in boldface, and it is followed by the phonetic transcription. The words that Kral' selected for inclusion are those whose pronunciation cannot be deduced from their written form, or foreign words that may not yet follow the pronunciation rules of Slovak. �SLOVAKIA 181 Masculine nouns that end in obstruents, which are subject to voicing assimilation, are given with both the voiceless and voiced variants. The nominative form is followed, in many instances, by the genitive case form, e.g., baladik - baladi{klg], - {ka]. Other cases are given when appropriate, such as, the genitive plural for some feminine and neuter nouns. PSV has been written with precision and care . It is indispensible to teachers of the Slovak language, and belongs in the library of every Slovak specialist . 1 5/ovenska rec, 51, 1986 No. 6, pp. 371-374. � 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 1989-90, Vol. 34 Description An account of the resource Vol. 34 (No. 62-63), 1989-90. 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 1989-90 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 161 Dejiny Slovenska, II (1526-1848). Vladimir Matula, Jozef Vozar et. al. Bratislava: Veda, 1987. 846 pp. GAVIN LEWIS John Jay College of Criminal Justice The City University of New York This is the second of a six-volume series sponsored by the Slovak Academy of Sciences. The series was conceived and realized in the days when the Marxist orientation of Slovak historical scholarship was taken for granted; and it was intended to provide a detailed, scholarly, and authoritative handbook, superseding all earlier accounts, both "bourgeois" and Marxist, of all aspects of the history of the Slovak land and people from prehistory to the present. The authors of the volume under review have succeeded so well that it should serve its purpose even in the new era that began in 1989. The authors of Volume II, covering the early modern period, have had a particularly difficult task. Their period, running from 1526 to 1848, is both long and complex, including a great many closely interrelated developments. The Turkish conquest and the Habsburg reconquest of much of Hungary; the efforts of the Habsburgs to absorb the Hungarian kingdom into their hereditary territories and the varying responses of the Hungarian nobility to .these efforts; the evolution of serfdom and seigneurialism, urban life and the mining industry; the Reformation and CounterReformation, the Renaissance and Enlightenment; and finally, the complex cultural and social phenomenon of the National Awakening; all these had to be discussed both individually and in their relation to each other. The authors have accomplished this task to an impressive extent. Though the book is of course written from a Marxist viewpoint, the omissions and distortions typical of vulgar Marxism have been avoided. The importance of religious belief, and the leading role of the Catholic and Protestant clergy in early modern Slovak history, are given due weight. The leaders of the National Awakening, though discussed in terms of the Marxist schema, are treated 162 SLOVAKIA as real historical actors and not as mere puppets of the "transition from feudalism to capitalism." Some of the lengthy discussions on topics such as the evolution of prices and wages or the structure of internal trade may seem too detailed to those who are not convinced of the metaphysical importance of such matters, but on the whole the Marxist stress on economic and social themes has led to increased understanding of the development of the Slovak nation. Perhaps the most significant single achievement of this volume is to lay to rest for ever the myth of the pre-nineteenth century Slovaks as a slumbering nation of peasants and shepherds with no elite other than a sprinkling of clergy. The sections dealing with social structure, education and culture, and national development from the sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries make the following facts abundantly clear. 1) The Slovaks had a substantial elite of nobles and townsmen as well as priests and ministers, indeed the secular elite formed the milieu that enabled the clergy to operate. 2) This elite was open to the influences of Renaissance humanism and its descendants, the emerging historical scholarship of the seventeenth century, as well as to the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, and the Baroque. 3) Under these intellectual, cultural, and religious influences, the Slovak elite built up a pre-modern national self-awareness comparable with that of other eastern European nations in the early modern period. This understanding of the early modern Slovak nation is not only of importance in itself, it is also of significance for explaining more recent periods of Slovak history. The National Awakening becomes easier to understand when one realizes that it did not come from nowhere, but was rather a phase - albeit a decisive and innovative one - in a continuing social and cultural development. Likewise, the nineteenth-century development of the awakening acquires a new dimension when one realizes that it took place against the background of the crumbling of the traditional Slovak elite under the onslaught of Magyarization: one of the main tasks of the leaders of the awakening was that of mobilization, to rally what was left of the elite so as to ensure the survival of the nation . The section of the book dealing with the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries - that is the National Awakening itself, SLOVAKIA 163 the final decades of seigneurialism, and the beginnings of national conflict within the Hungarian state - are in some ways less satisfactory than the earlier sections. Individual chapters are thorough and informative, and there is the same complete coverage of political, social, economic, cultural, and intellectual developments. But there is less sense than in the first half of the book of the interrelatedness of the various developments. In particular, the very detailed discussion of the viewpoints, activities, and disputes of the various leaders of the awakening proceeds to some extent in isolation from the social background. How did the leaders react to the defection of much of the traditional Slovak elite, and how did they mobilize those who were left? To what extent was the National Awakening a response of the nationally "loyal" elite to pressures to Magyarize? In general, what determined individual members of the elite either to Magyarize or to support the awakening? In spite of a number of fascinating glimpses - in particular, the section on the rise of the Slovak intelligentsia and village notables (pp. 579-84) - one gets surprisingly little sense of the National Awakening as a movement apart from its leading personalities . In spite of these criticisms, the book as a whole deserves to be widely read . It provides an excellent guide for students and point of departure for scholars, and can and should be used in this way even under the new order of things in the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic. Appearing as it did in 1987, the volume summarizes the achievements of the era of Marxist domination in the early modern field of Slovak historical scholarship. One must give credit where credit is due, and admit that at least in this field, Slovak Marxist scholars over the last forty years have contributed significantly to their nation's understanding of itself. Viliam Cicaj. Knizna kultura na strednom Slovensku v 16. -18. storoci. Bratislava : Veda, 1985. 133 pp . R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Florida This book outlines the development of literary culture in central Slovakia between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, focus- 164 SLOVAKIA ing on the towns of Banska Bystrica, Banska Stiavnica, and Kremnica. It is divided among an introduction, a quantitative analysis of "private" (non-archival) literature of the region, the thematic structure of such literature, and the relationship of the literary culture of central Slovakia with the later Middle Ages. In the introductory section C:icaj points out that, while other Slovak areas were producing literature in this period, the region of Banska Bystrica-Banska Stiavnica-Kremnica was far more prolific in sheer output. He elaborates on this point in Part One, employing statistical charts very liberally. In addition to publications in the Czech language (used extensively by the Protestants since the Hussite emigration from Bohemia in the Thirty Years' War) and the Central Slovak dialect, there were also numerous publications in Latin and German. Latin was at that time the official language of the Kingdom of Hungary, while the Germans in the central mining towns were using their language to introduce the works of Martin Luther. The period was consequently marked by lively literary interactions between the Protestants of Upper Hungary and Lutheran centers of learning in Germany . In Part Two, where C:icaj discusses the thematic structures of this literary awakening, he reveals several facts which are somewhat surprising and certainly revealing in light of their historical importance. Quite naturally Lutheran theology was the focus of a large percentage of the publications, but works dealing with history, political science, and geography (the last-named social science included books about places as remote as Jamaica and Japan) were also produced. One criticism of Luther offered by Catholic apologists was that, in rerferring to Aristotle as " a dog of a philosopher,'' the father of Protestantiasm disrupted the centuriesold dialogue between Christian and classical (pagan, pre-Christian) civilization. Slovak Lutherans may justifiably exempt themselves from such a charge. Publications emanating from the central Slovak towns represented not only Aristotle and the Greeks, but also Boccaccio, Petrarach, and Italian humanists of the Renaissance period. Such a state of affairs reflects the ecumenical nature of Upper Hungary in this period. Catholics and Lutherans in the central Slovak towns lived together amicably when Habsburg pressure was not applied . SLOVAKIA 165 Cicaj attempts to elaborate on this point in Part Three, pointing out that the Catholic Erasmus and the Protestant Luther each contributed to a general advancement of education in the face of a feudal order. But here Cicaj falls short of the mark. Having demonstrated that the Central Slovak region was cosmopolitan in the literary sense, he does not follow through by demonstrating its impact on the later Slovak national awakening. Part of the problem here may stem from the very exclusiveness of his study; he might have formulated his conclusions more completely by not simply concentrating on three towns. Even so, he could have integrated this study into the general framework of this period in Slovak and Hungarian history. It was not only the time of the Protestant Reformation; it was also a time when the Turks occupied the middle Danube region (sometimes making incursions into the highlands), and when Transylvanian nobles invaded the area in their struggles against the Habsburgs. Citing contemporary literature regarding the impressions produced by these events might have strengthened the author' s case. Knizna kultura is dry reading, but it is nonetheless a significant contribution to the study of Slovak literary history. The author clearly demonstrates that the Central Slovak region's contribution to literary culture precedes the national awakening, and he makes liberal use of footnotes to support his case. This book is primarily useful for literary historians. Viera Urbancova, Slovenska etnografia v 19. storoci: Vyvoj nazorov na slovensky l'ud. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1987. 436 pp. MAGDA ZELINSKA FERL Los Angeles, California Slovenska etnografia v 19. storoci is an ambitious work which examines the evolution of ethnography in Slovakia, specifically the trends which contributed to the eventual development of a separate discipline during the 19th century. Viera Urbancova' s thesis is that Slovak ethnography as a discipline evolved through stages and was influenced by social and political activities. 166 SLOVAKIA Her work is organized according to the notions which influenced the various stages of the discipline's development, from the backward and irrational view of the folk to the idealized. These notions coincided with the interests of the intelligentia in such causes as the "fight against superstition," which was thought to prevent social progress, the promotion of national self-awareness, the struggle to codify the Slovak language, and the attempts to establish ethnography as an independent discipline. Urbancova points out some practical reasons for interest in the folk. Mass education, according to her, was instituted by capitalists during the period of industrialization for the purpose of developing a better worker and increasing productivity. The folk needed to be re-educated regarding their customs and beliefs which were thought to hamper progress. The first ethnographic work began with the premise that the folk who believed in superstitions should be studied so they could be re-educated and, thereby, elevated to a level where they could contribute to the welfare of the nation . Matej Bel's work, Notitia, is mentioned as important to the ethnographic research of the 19th century. The author also deals with the romantic notion of the folk which, in Slovakia, was influenced by Herder and Hegel's philosophy . The historical past was seen in terms of pride and love for the language: Bernolak' s followers saw it in a Slovak language, while the Lutheran intelligentia beheld it in the language of the Kralice Bible. Kollar and Safarik were important at this time in promoting interest in folk culture, which to them was oral literature. They collected songs, proverbs, and beliefs which pointed to the ancient character of the nation . This state in the development of Slovak ethnography is characterized by the hypothesis, initiated by linguists, that Slavs can trace their culture to Inda-European origins. During the 1840' s and the 1850' s there was wide acceptance of the view that folklore expressions were survivals of ancient culture. Such assumptions contributed to the notion that folklore was dying out and, therefore, needed to be collected and recorded. Gustav, Reuss, a physician, was very influential during this period in promoting the collection of tales. In his historical work concerning the development of regions, how they were populated, SLOVAKIA 167 how people secured food, etc., he supported his conclusions with information extracted from folk culture, especially local legends. During the period of the 1860' s there was a sentiment to view ethnography from a scientific perspective, promoting a systematic approach to collecting. Pavol Dobsinsky published instructions on how to collect ethnographic materials. His greatest contribution was expanding the collected genres; for example, he called for the inclusion of material culture which he referred to as "prostonarodne poklady" (folk treasures .) He also encouraged a geographical approach to the study of such occupations as lacemakers, boatwrights, and tinkers, and stressed the importance of noting the tools and their use. Lastly, Urbancova points to the trend of increased interest in mythology. The work of the brothers Grimm in Germany contributed to the view that myths are the survivals of ancient rituals and, consequently, Reuss and others believed that myths collected in Slovakia reflected not only old Slovak culture but also Slavic cultures. Folk life was romanticized and looked upon as the basis of the nation's culture which needed to be preserved for future generations. The work of Dobsinsky became very popular and influential. The first part of his Prostondrodne obycaje, zvyky a povery is structured according to the natural life cycle: birth, marriage and death. He describes family, village and commercial life in detail. Unfortunately, the attempt to cover such a large span of time results in a book which has no depth to its analysis or interpretations. One is left feeling that, despite copious notes and an extensive bibliography, the book is somehow incomplete, lacking a clear thesis. However, this is a rather comprehensive work of Slovak ethnographic scholarship concerning the 19th century. Implicitly, it offers an interesting explanation concerning changes in the approach to ethnography which actually relate to the major European trends of the 19th century. 168 SLOVAKIA Narodna svetlica: Vyber dokumentov k dejinam Matice slovenskej. Edited by Michal Elias and Vojtech Sarluska. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1988. 321 pp. JOHN A. BERTA Methodist College Fayetteville, North Carolina Although Narodna svetlica offers nothing new to the professional study of the Matica slovenska, it is of value to the average individual interested in the history of this institution and Slovak culture . The book comes at an opportune time. Slovaks abroad, particularly in the United States and Canada, have a growing interest in Slovak culture, and many perceive the Matica as the primary vehicle for engaging in cultural exchanges. The work is also important for contemporary Slovakia since many Slovaks there have little or no knowledge of the Matica' s history and function. Narodna svetlica is divided into three segments which discuss the Matica's role in a particular period. The first era, 1863-1875, deals with the Matica's beginnings, and the legacy left to Slovak history and culture after its forced closure by the Magyar authorities. The second period, 1919-1954, concerns the task the resurrected Matica sought to fulfill as the ethnic and cultural guardian of the Slovak people. The final segment, 1954 to the present, involves a period when the Matica assumed functions which could equate it to the National Archives and Library of Congress in the United States. The book is a compilation of excerpts from proclamations, the minutes of Matica board meetings and assemblies, articles, books, pamphlets, personal correspondence and photographs which pertain to the evolution of this institution, and the role it has played in the preservation of Slovak culture and ethnicity in Slovakia and abroad. The documents reproduced in each section were selected to impress upon the Slovak reader the importance of the Matica slovenska as a symbol of his/her national identity and culture, and as an active participant in daily Slovak life . The drawback to this otherwise skillfully edited work is that it was published solely in Slovak. Only those with a working SLOVAKIA 169 knowledge of the language can make use of its wealth of information. The two-page English summary provides the reader with just a hint of what is in the body of the work. If the Matica slovenska could make this and similar publications available in English, it could have an impact on rejuvenating ethnic awareness among those who are on the verge of being assimilated into another culture. Also missing is the wealth of correspondence regarding how Slovaks abroad relate to this symbol of their Slovak heritage. Jan Kmec, Jugoslovensko-slovacke slavisticke veze. Novi Sad: Vojvodjanska akademija nauka i umetnosti, 1987. 549 p. JAN FRYDECKY Burnaby, British Columbia The author of this work traces the relations of the South Slavs with the Slovaks from the time of the early Slavic migrations to Central Europe and the Balkans to the present. He explores the same geographic and topographic names preserved to this day in Yugoslavia and Slovakia. Other proof of close contacts are so called "yugoslavisms" which Pannonian Slavs accepted from the South Slavs and which are preserved in the contemporary Slovak literary language. Further, he refers to the activities of Saints Cyril and Methodius and the Cyrilomethodian culture which originated from direct social and cultural efforts and productive contacts of the forefathers of the Slovaks and the Yugoslavs . Although the author wrote that Pannonian Slavs were very often different from South Slavs, he did not realize that this long separation conditioned also gradual national differences between the forefathers of today's Slovaks and the South Slavs . He used only the term "staroslovansky" contrary to the recognized term starosloviensky After the extinction of Great Moravia and the rise of Hungary, the greatest avenue for cooperation between West and South Slavs was the Catholic Church. In Hungary the Church accepted a group of Czech missionaries and through their contacts and exchange of 11 11 • 170 SLOVAKIA priests, created the possibility for spiritual and cultural communication, which produced cultural, literary and artistic works. The author devotes the third part of his book to the period of Turkish rule in Central Europe (1526-1683). Many refugees from Croat regions came to Bratislava and settled in the southern parts of Slovakia and Moravia. New Yugoslav-Slovak spiritual, cultural and literary relations blossomed. These were strengthened through the Hungarian Catholic center in Trnava, where the Jesuit university accepted Croat students and professors. The fourth part covers the period from the origins of the Protestant lyceum in Bratislava (1615) to the establishment of the Serbian grammar school in Sremski Karlovci (1791) . The lyceum became a center of Yugoslav-Slovak relations from the first half of the 18th century. Many Serbs studied in Bratislava and in other schools in Slovakia, especially when they emigrated from southern and middle Serbia in the Hungarian portion of the Austrian Empire (1690). Also Slovaks started to move to the Vojvodina from the year 1745. As a defense against Catholic presure, and in an effort to build their own cultural institutions and schools, the Serbs needed their own educated people. Many educated Slovaks worked among Serbs for this reason . In the first twenty years of the 19th century a new period in Yugoslav-Slovak relations began. The national revival of both peoples led to greater mutual cooperation. The awakening of national consciousness among the Slavic nations manifested itself as well with the idea of Slavic reciprocity. An association of " Lovers of Slovak Language and Literature" in Pest was also a center of cooperation with Czechs, Croats, Serbs and Russians and a center of research in Slavic languages . In the last part of his work Kmec covers the time from the 1848 revolution to the present. He pays attention to Shir's views, to the differences between Stur and Kollar, to relations between Njegos and Stur, and to Yugoslav motifs and subjects in Slovak literature. Under the pressure of the Hungarian government, Yugoslav-Slovak relations became very strained, and student organizations had to move to Prague . Slovaks from Vojvoina, with the center in Backi Petrovac, became a bridge between Slovaks and Serbs in Hungary. In the period between the two wars of the 20th century, the author SLOVAKIA 171 mentions Slovak authors in Vojvodina, translators, and some political events. The work of professor Krnec is a solid contribution in the areas of Slavic reciprocity. The author buttressed his work with many footnotes and with the biographies of many authors . While this did not reduce the worth of the work, it unnecessarily widened it and the author deflected from his theme. Serbian-Slovak relations, about which Slovaks and Serbes have written a lot, is compiled in detail, but less attention is paid to Croat-Slovak relations. Incomprehensible to me is why the author presented the number of votes in the elections of 1920, and also why he gives the number of members of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in Slovak towns in the Vojvodina, and also why he lists the names and jobs of some Slovaks, members of the Communist Party, who emigrated to Slovakia. All of this detracts from an otherwise worthy book. Josef Kalvoda, The Genesis of Czechoslovakia. Boulder, Colorado: East European Monographs (Distributed by Columbia University Press), 1986. 673 pp. GREGORY C. FERENCE Salisbury State University Salisbury, Maryland This massive work is certainly a must for anyone interested in the study of the formation of the Czechoslovak state. It is obvious that the author has spent extensive periods of time researching this subject at archives in Austria, Czechoslovakia, and the United States. Kalvoda should be commended for his use of innumerable memoirs, journals, newspapers, and secondary sources published in Czech, English, French, German, Russian, and Slovak. As a result, the author presents a well thought-out and thoroughly synthesized portrayal of the events and people involved in the intensive four year quest for national independence. The author provides great detail concerning this struggle both in Austria-Hungary and abroad in England, France, Russia, and the United States, while accomplishing his goal of examining and evaluating the three theses 172 SLOVAKIA regarding the success of the liberation movement: 1) the work of exiles, 2) the Bolshevik Revolution, and 3) the resistance at home. Kalvoda's book proves all three were factors leading to Czechoslovak independence. Kalvoda definitively characterizes the major personalities involved in the movement to create an independent state, among these Edvard Benes, Josef Diirich, Karel Kramaf, Milan Stefanik, and Tomas G. Masaryk. The author in particular, provides a very provocative description of Masaryk, the "Liberator-President" of Czechoslovakia. Masaryk left Bohemia in 1914 as a relatively insignificant political leader. Despite later assertions that he had a mandate for his mission, in reality Masaryk lacked any significant support at home. Masaryk schemed and plotted to become the leader of the liberation movement, subverting the authority of Diirich, who had been sent abroad to represent Czech interests in foreign capitals . To achieve his goals the ruthless Masaryk worked to destroy the reputations, careers, and influence of others, such as Diirich and Kramaf, when their opinions and activities were contrary to his and those of the Czecho-Slovak National Council . Masaryk thus is shown as an opportunist who, despite his later claims, adroitly changed his ideas and statements when it became politically expedient. In his account of the origins of the Czechoslovak-Bolshevik conflict, Kalvoda reveals that both Masaryk's insistence on the neutrality of the Czecho-Slovak Legions in Russian internal affairs, and his attempts to gain western recogniiton of Lenin almost caused the loss of Allied support for Czechoslovak statehood. The activities of the Legions in Siberia when the local situation dictated an independent course of action in support of anti-Bolshevik forces, although contrary to the orders of Masaryk, ultimately preserved Masaryk's position in the west. It is a bit disappointing that Kalvoda does not analyze more thoroughly events within Slovakia and the role which Sovak emigres, particularly in the United States, played in the creation of the state . Also, his examination of how Ruthenia became part of the republic is almost non-existent. The author's discussion of pre-war Slovak political life in Hungary, mentioning neither the political parties nor the voting irregularities which kept the number SLOVAKIA 173 of Slovak deputies at a minimum, is highly abbreviated. This commentary seems almost to be an afterthought to Kalvoda's overview of Czech political life in Austria. As well, his treatment of the Masaryk-Pekar controversies, which weighs the first chapter down, is entirely out of proportion to their significance. This book is not for the novice in the history of the Czechs and Slovaks. Without a firm understanding of the past of these two peoples, the reader would quickly become confused. Although Kalvoda ' s narrative provides excellent detail, at times it appears as if he included all material he had found regarding a particular topic, thereby clouding the issue. One such example occurs when Masaryk recommends the Tsarevich as the commander of the Czecho-Slovak Legions (p . 97). It is difficult to believe that Masaryk or any rational person in the modern age would want an elevenor twelve-year-old boy to lead troops. A more discriminating choice of material would have been sufficient in many cases . There are numerous minor factual flaws which should have been caught in the editing process, including the statement that Francis Joseph ruled for 64 years (p. 159); and that an Austrian archduke was a "Grand Duke" (p. 78). In giving his estimates on the number of Slovak and Czech immigrants in the United States, the author relied too heavily upon secondary sources. A quick referral to the documents of the Census Bureau and/or the Department of Labor would have provided a more accurate count. However, the greatest drawback of this work is the overall inattentive editing. This has resulted in missing footnote citations, wrong chapter headings, and numerous errors including transposed as well as missing letters. It appears almost as if no one bothered to proofread this volume. Although a one page "Errata " is included, it also contains errors, and is wholly inadequate. The informed reader can usually correct these mistakes, but it is a slow and tedious task causing the cohesiveness of this work to suffer . Despite these shortcomings, Kalvoda' s book is a welcome addition to the study of Czechoslovak statehood . In the years to come it will remain a fundamental reference source in English for the study of this complex issue. 174 SLOVAKIA Dejiny Slovenska, VI (1945-1960). Michael Baranovsky et. al. Bratislava: Veda, 1988. 549 pp. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM York University, Glendon College Toronto, Canada It would have been difficult to review this volume with any degree of equanimity or detachment even before the events of November and December 1989 which ended the Communist monopoly of power in Czechoslovakia and laid bare the bankruptcy of the ideology, the economic and political system, not to mention the tragedies that it left in its wake. The triumphalist tone, the selfdeluding interpretations of social and individual progress, the everpresent statistics and the cowed reverence to the Soviet Union are characteristics not of scholarship, but of crass political partisanship. The authors divide the history of the period under consideration into two parts. First they look at what is referred to as the national and democratic revolution and its transformation into a socialist one. This is basically a year by year presentation of events from the end of the Second World War to the Communist coup d'Etat in February 1948. In the second part of the book, also chronologically divided, they examine the various aspects involved in building socialism. The volume is filled with statistics on economic development and other indicators of social and cultural activity. The study ends with the proclamation of the achievement of socialism in Czechoslovakia with the Constitution of 1960. The interpretation that is offered follows the line adopted after federalization and Gustav Husak' s accession to the position of Secretary General of the Communist party of Czechoslovakia. The Marxist approach to history and politics is based on the concept of the class struggle. There is no doubt that there was a class struggle in Slovakia in the period under consideration; but it was one that was imposed on that society by those whom Milovan Djilas very quickly identified as members of a new class, the Communist Party, their mentors and their allies. That is not all. The Communists were also bent on changing the social and economic SLOVAKIA 175 structures of the country; change them they did, but not in the way portrayed. The essays in this volume by historians, members of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, outline their perceptions of how the Communists went about achieving their objectives. In the case of Slovakia, this involved industrialization in order to raise it to the level of the Czech Lands, and the exercise of political power supposedly by the working class during a period which was to pave the way for the establishment of a socialist society. The essays stress particularly the industrialization process, the collectivization of agriculture and the transformation of the political system into a oneparty state . In fact, what the Communists did was to eliminate all political or class opponents, allow Slovakia to be ruled from Prague, set into motion its forced industrialization, establish a political, cultural and economic dictatorship, create privileges for themselves, and rule over a population which they cowed into submission by the extensive use of terror. This is the story that this book does not tell . Equally unsatisfactory is the way the authors deal with some of the problems, often in direct contradiction to their proclaimed principles, which arose from the policies of the Communists. A good example is the way Barnovsky handles what he calls the national question: "The beginning of the industrialization of Slovakia led to the elimination of the existing inequality of the Sovak nation. Despite this positive result, the mutual relations between Czechs and Slovaks were not solved along Leninist principles . .. This reality negatively influenced political life in Slovakia and slowed down the development of socialist relations between the two brotherly nations " (p . 226). No explanation is given for such a conclusion; no analysis of Slovak political life is offered. Indeed there is no indication of the contents of the relations between Czechs and Slovaks, let alone their socialist relations, whatever that means. Jirf St'astny, author of the last chapter, writes in conclusion: " The fifties and sixties were a turning point for Slovak society; it acquired all the characteristics of a society which went through revolutionary changes and built the bases of socialism. However, this does not mean that all of the tasks for the passage from capitalism to socialism were fulfilled " (p. 507) . Given the revolution of 1989, it is more accurate to conclude that probably none of 176 SLOVAKIA the tasks were in fact fulfilled and that the bases of socialism were not laid. It is now also doubtful that socialism, whatever it is supposed to be, can ever be built. The task that Slovak historians face henceforth is to define and analyze exactly what happened and what was built in this period. The answers to these questions will not be found in this volume. Jim and Susan Borchert. Lakewood: The First Hundred Years . Norfolk, VA: The Donning Company for the Lakewood Historical Society, 1989. 191 pp. CAROL TOW ARNICKY Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Every year the eighth graders at Sts. Cyril and Methodius School in Lakewood, Ohio, were given a special job. At Christmastime we were to deliver the small boxes of church collection envelopes and - pro-rated for each family - several wafers each of oplatky for use at the Christmas Eve vilija . I was to deliver to the block of upper Clarence A venue, where nearly every family belonged to "Cyril's." I had a few extra oplatky at my discretion, but it wasn' t nearly enough to suit the grandmothers who demanded more . Sorry, they'd have to get them after Mass on Sunday. I said it politely, of course, but probably somewhat officiously, too . . . . It was a very long time before I realized that most children in America never delivered oplatky door-to-door. Actually, it was a very long time before I wasn't startled to meet an older person who spoke un-accented English. In the Lakewood, Ohio where I grew up, all grandparents came from Slovakia. Lakewood, Ohio, was a place where it was possible, even into the 1960s, to live secure in a world apart . I actually grew up thinking that, no matter what I saw on TV, most people in the word were Slovak-Americans . Imagine my surprise. " Lakewood: The First Hundred Years," the new book by Jim and Susan Borchert prepared for my hometown's centennial last SLOVAKIA 177 year, accents the feelings of those small islands in the streetcar suburb next to Cleveland. As experts in urban and ethnic life the Borcherts have produced far more than the standard coffee-table picture book. They have explained why things were the way they were . As we used to say, all Lakewood was divided into three parts, and they had hardly anything to do with each other. There was the area along Lake Erie where the rich W ASPs lived (they had fenced off most of the lakefront for themselves) . We had hardly any contact with them. There was "middle Lakewood, " of the middle class, which consisted of marvelous, prosperous housing. (The Borcherts point out that much of it was built from kits supplied by Sears, Roebuck!) Middle Lakewood is where the kids who called us "greenhorns" were from. We had no idea what "greenhorns" were, of course (and they probably didn't, either.) . So we mostly were puzzled, rather than insulted. And then there was home, " Birdtown" and environs. The nickname came from the fact that many of the streets in this oldworld enclave were named for birds - Plover, Quail, Lark, Thrush. The Borcherts say that the people who lived there called it The Village, but I never heard anyone call it that. Perhaps they called it that in Slovak, which most people of my generation never learned. In their book the Borcherts have chosen to focus on each of these parts of Lakewood individually, and the result is a mirror of how it actually was - each group pursuing its destiny pretty much in isolation from the others, mostly coexisting, but never meshing. There were the founders, the captains of industry, who named the streets not only after their family names, but after their children 's first names - the Nicholsons and Wagars and Wintons, and the children named Grace and Clarence and Charles. They carved estates from the wilderness, planted orchards, and lived a life of High Society. One of my favorite pictures in " Lakewood" is that of Marion Campbell, the third Mrs . Alexander Winton, dressed in Native American dress as the lead in " the Seminole," an opera she presented in her back yard! 178 SLOVAKIA There were the middle Lakewoodites, the merchants and the others a couple rungs up the assimilation ladder. And there were the Slovak-Americans, who built their little world around the factories which hired immigrant labor - National Carbon Company, Empire Brass ... Once again, I am impressed at the industriousness and dedication of our ancestors. Starting with nothing, they created a space for themselves. Their frugality was legendary. Sts. Cyril and Methodius Church was paid for in record time, as were its renovations. I can still remember, as a school child, using pencil erasers to remove heel marks from the expensive new linoleum floors put in the school in the 50s. But the story of "Lakewood" also emphasized how fragmented even the "Village" was. In the book the Borcherts quote from the chronicle of Slovaks of Cleveland and Lakewood by Jan Pankuch, a newspaperman and historian. Pankuch came to Lakewood in 1917, so his history drew on the memories of the earliest settlers from around the turn of the century. They came seeking work, built homes to be near it, then founded their churches, their savings and loans, and their clubs. But when I was growing up in Lakewood I knew none of this, and I suspect it was because Jan Pankuch was a Lutheran, who helped found Sts. Peter and Paul Lutheran Church, at the corner of my street, Grace Avenue . Back then - and it's really not so long ago, is it? - the Roman Catholics had nothing to do with the Greek Catholics at St. Gregory' s or the Orthodox or the - heavens! Slovak Calvinists in the little white church. It was a time of suspicion, and because of it, something important was missed. It's why today I can meet someone from Lakewood about my own age but from one of the different " parts," and realize that he/she literally grew up in a different town. Jim and Susan Borchert have done a masterful job of drawing together those separate threads. SLOVAKIA 179 Abel KraY. Pravidla slovenskej vyslovnosti. 2nd ed. Bratislava: SPN, 1988. 632 pp. LOUISE B. HAMMER Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana The author of PSV is a phonetician at Comenius University in Bratislava, and he has an international reputation for his work in phonetics. This book has now become a standard reference work on Slovak pronunciation. The first edition of PSV was published in 1984. It is an orthoepic codification of Slovak and has been approved by the Orthoepic Commission of the Linguistics Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. PSV sets forth the linguistic norm for spoken Slovak, and is used for teaching standard Slovak pronunciation in the schools in Slovakia, as well as providing guidelines for people who speak professionally, such as broadcasters, singers and actors . English speakers may not be familiar with the role of academies in standardizing languages, since no such institution exists for the English language. In fact, the English language has several national standards, e.g., British English, American English, Australian English. Pronunciation is the least standardized component of English, and these national standards reflect the pronunciation patterns in use by the speakers. In contrast, countries that have academies appoint linguistic commissions whose job is to compile rules, a codification, which show how the language should be used . France and the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic are among the countries that regulate their language usage in this manner . It is not uncommon for an educated speaker of Slovak to speak in a way that does not conform to the rules set forth in the PSV. For example, a native of Bratislava, which is in the Western Slovak dialect area, would probably speak without diphthongs or the rhythmic law, since these features are not found in that dialect area . The speech of such a person would not be an example of "correct' ' Slovak pronunciation from an orthoepic point of view . As Jan Bosak pointed out in his review of the first edition of 180 SLOVAKIA this book, the relationship of orthoepy to phonetics and phonology, as propounded by Abel Kral', was a point of contention between Kral' and some linguists who have other theoretical points of view. 1 Specialists may also disagree about the pronunciations of particular words, and discussions of various points that are raised in this pioneering work will doubtless continue . In the theoretical section of the first part of the book (pp. 11-35), Abel Kral' expands the definition of orthoepy, and compares his orthoepic codification of the spoken language to an orthographic codification of the written language. He is concerned with language cultivation (jazykova kultura) and recognizes that stylistic differences dictate different pronunciation styles. He discusses the high and neutral styles, but not the low, which to him borders on the substandard. What Kral' describes in the book is the neutral style, the public speech of educated people from the Central Slovak dialect area . The neutral style is distinguished from the high style by various features. For linguists, one of the most important is the pronunciation of the [a] as the e in the English word 'set, ' and not as the a in the English 'bat.' The high style is now primarily relegated to use in the classical theatre. The phonetics section of the first part of the book (pp . 37-88) deals with phonetic transcription and with the phonetic classification of the sounds of Slovak and their correct production. The illustrations in this section are excellent visual aids when teaching Slovak pronunciation. The first section of the second part of the book (pp. 89-103) systematically describes the pronunciations of the vowels, diphthongs and consonants of Slovak in combination. This section contains an excellent exposition of voicing assimilation. It is followed by a section on the suprasegmental characteristics of Slovak (pp. 163-189). Then come texts with their phonetic transcription and the author's comments (pp . 191-200). The largest section of the book is taken up by the orthoepic dictionary (pp. 201-626) . The orthographic form of the word appears in boldface, and it is followed by the phonetic transcription. The words that Kral' selected for inclusion are those whose pronunciation cannot be deduced from their written form, or foreign words that may not yet follow the pronunciation rules of Slovak. SLOVAKIA 181 Masculine nouns that end in obstruents, which are subject to voicing assimilation, are given with both the voiceless and voiced variants. The nominative form is followed, in many instances, by the genitive case form, e.g., baladik - baladi{klg], - {ka]. Other cases are given when appropriate, such as, the genitive plural for some feminine and neuter nouns. PSV has been written with precision and care . It is indispensible to teachers of the Slovak language, and belongs in the library of every Slovak specialist . 1 5/ovenska rec, 51, 1986 No. 6, pp. 371-374.  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. 34 (No. 62-63) Description An account of the resource includes:<br /><ul><li>Vladimír Matula, Jozef Vozár et al., Dejiny Slovenska, II (1526-1848) (Gavin Lewis), p. 161</li> <li>Viliam Čičaj, Knižná kultúra na strednom Slovensku v 16.-18. storočí (R. Vladimir Baumgarten), p. 163</li> <li>Viera Urbancová, Slovenská etnografia v 19. storočí: Vývoj názorov na slovenský ľud (Magda Zelinska Ferl), p. 165</li> <li>Michal Eliáš and Vojtech Šarluška, ed., Národná svetlica: Výber dokumentov k dejinám Matice slovenskej (John A. Berta), p. 168</li> <li>Jan Kmeč, Jugoslovensko-slovačke slavističke veze (Ján Frýdecký), p. 169</li> <li>Josef Kalvoda, The Genesis of Czechoslovakia (Gregory C. Ference), p. 171</li> <li>Michael Baranovský et. al., Dejiny Slovenska, VI (1945-1960) (Stanislav J. Kirschbaum), p. 174</li> <li>Jim and Susan Borchert, Lakewood: The First Hundred Year (Carol Towarnicky), p. 176</li> <li>Ábel Kráľ, Pravidlá slovenskej výslovnosti (Louise B. Hammer), p. 179</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Baumgarten, R. Vladimir Berta, John A. Ference, Gregory Curtis, 1957- Frýdecký, Ján Hammer, Louise B., 1940- Kirschbaum, Stanislav J., 1942- Lewis, Gavin E.H., 1943-2019 Towarnicky, Carol Zelinska Ferl, Magda Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1989-90 LCNAF name SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/818242efd611985542705ab776577ba8.pdf a3b0dfe3e642679f62f9c236dd991acd PDF Text Text REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 125 Hugolfn Gavlovic . Valaska Skala . Edited with a commentary by Gerald J. Sabo, and a linguistic commentary by Cubomir Durovic . Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers, 1987 (1988). 730 pp. JAN F. FRYDECKY Burnaby, British Columbia Hugolfn Gavlovic is one of the most important authors of the older Slovak literature. He was born in Cami Dunajec (in Poland) in 1712, grew up in northern Orava and lived in the Povazie region. In 1733 he was ordained a Franciscan priest and he died in 1787 in Horovce. Gavlovic's "Valaska skola" was finished in 1755. It is the largest work of the older Slovak literature, not only in length, but also because of its artistic value. It is a treasure of practical wisdom in which the author instructs the reader about all that interests him and what he needs in life. The author covers not only personal problems and private life, but also addresses public problems. It is in fact a didactic poem and Sabo has made an exact transcription of almost 18,000 lines with 27 illustrations. "Valaska skola" consists of an introduction in verses, then the main body of the poems in 22 "noty" (parts) and finally a two part "Konec": "On Death" and "On Judgement" . Every note begins with a shepherd's song about some biblical event of the Old Testament. Because 18th century society was very interested in sheepherding, every event was for the author a reason to think about the life of shepherds and peasants. Every note after a shepherd's song contains 59 moral exhortations. Durovic's excellent study (pp . 655-730) pays attention to the language of "V alaska skola". The real use and interest of this edition is linguistic. A previous edition by Michal Resetka (1830-31) left out some lines and transcribed the spelling into Bernolak's codification and so he ruined the rhymes and the whole construction of the work. The second edition by Rudolf Krajcovic (1971) presented the work as a literary monument of Slovak cultural history. His edition was substantially abbreviated. �126 SLOVAKIA Durovic shows that Gavlovic's language is half-way between the work of Pavel Dolefal's "Grammatica Slavico-Bohemica" (1746) and Anton Bernolak's "Gramatica slavica" (1790). The publishing of Gavlovic's "Shepherd's School" has enormous importance for Slovak cultural history of the 18th century. It was a precursor of Anton Bernolak's "Dissertatio philologico-critica de litteris Slavorum" (1787), which signaled the beginning of the codification of the Slovak language. Gavlovic's work was published on the occasion of the bicentennial of two important events in Slovak cultural history of the 18th century: the death of Hugolfn Gavlovic, and the publishing of the work of Anton bernolak. Gerald J. Sabo and I.:'ubomfr Durovic have contributed greatly to explaining the cultural history of Slovakia in the 18th century. Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations, Vols. I and 2, edited by Max Domarus. Waucondia, Illinois: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 1990 and 1992. 611 pp. and 1367 pp. BRIAN L. VILLA University of Ottawa In 1945 the Allies were preparing to mete out severe justice, not just to Nazi Party members but to all Germans, arguing that they were guilty by complicity, by reason of having all heard Hitler's clearly articulated murderous program. This argument, which seemed persuasive in its day, is now something of an embarassment to historians, for it could also be turned against all the Western leaders who, after all, also had acces to Hitler's speeches and yet for many years indulged in appeasing him. For that matter, when Stalin made his pact with Hitler, he knew as much or more than the German public did of Hitler's intentions. There was another flaw in the argumentation and this was that Hitler mixed veiled threats and bombastic verbal terrorism with mild-sounding musings about peace and esctatic smiling at babies. �SLOVAKIA 127 Germans, and foreign observers , were thus faced with the problem of sorting out which was the real Hitler, and which was not. Yearning for a better world after the horrors of World War I, not suprisingly the hearts of this generation were ruled by wishful thinking. The consequences of Hitler's programme did not stand starkly revealed until May of 1945, as the world gazed on the lunar landscape of German cities. Most had failed miserably to perceive what his program entailed. But we will never be able to judge properly this issue of the public perception and misperception until we have a complete collection of all of Hitler's recorded utterances, public and private. Any selection prejudges the issue a bit. While the work by Max Domarus , of which the first two volumes in English translation are now in print, is a magnificentlycrafted and documented collection, it is still a selection and a number of speeches are represented only by a single sentence. Still, this is likely to be the most ambitious compilation we are likely to see in our lifetime. Accompanied by solid historical narrative and commentary, carefully documented and well-edited, this is an invaluable tool for the study of the Nazi era. Distateful as it is to put Hitler's speeches up upon the shelves of institutions devoted to truth, this is a mandatory purchase for almost any better library. Certainly it is necessary reading for those who would study the mad delusion of a nation, not to say of a generation. The picture that emerges in Domarus' masterful collection and skillful aditing is that of Hitler as a skilled concert-master calling upon the positive and the negative in his audience, blending, twisting, distorting, so that what had ever been true and false was imposible even to remember. A particularly notworthy revelation of these volumes is the brilliance with which Hitler's staff employed his time. Appearing here and there in a dizzying schedule, building a complex riddle, he climbed to power by purposefully confusing his audience. There is obviously a good book to be written about his handlers, his working staff, and how well they created the monster that eventually escaped so completely from their control. Such a study, as must almost any study of Hitler, will gain immeasurably from a careful study of this indispensable source. �128 SLOVAKIA Jozef Jablonicky. Povstanie bez legiend. Bratislava: Obzor, 1990. 357 pp. STANISLA V J. KIRSCHBAUM York University Those who are interested in a detailed account of the 1944 revolt in Slovakia will find this book useful. It is well-documented and well-writen. Furthermore, the author loses no opportunity to contradict in detail various interpretations that were published during Gustav Husak's regime. It is a valuable addition to Slovak historiography. However, the significance of Jozef Jablonicky" s book lies not so much in the history of what the Communist regime and Marxist historians dubbed the "Slovak National Uprising", as in the reasons why yet another book on those events was published, especially after the fall of Communism in 1989. In fact, this book belongs to the Communist period; it is in its own way a reflection of it. That it was published when freedom of the press was restored merely helps to underline this very fact. As the publishers indicate in the foreword: "The author does not deny that in today's changed social and political conditions, he would formulate many things differently, more openly and more directly; however, he preferred to publish his work as it had been written, under conditions when the opportunity for scientific discussion was replaced by police interrogations" (p. 7). Jablonicky is one of the scholars of the 1960s who published histories of the 1944 events (for example, Z ilegality do povstania, 1969; there are also memoirs, Husak's in particular, and edited volumes) in response to the distorted accounts of the 1950s. However, his writings, like most from the Communist period were hampered either by restricted access to documents, by censorship, or by both. When Husak came to power in 1969, in the footsteps of his predecessors, but also perhaps because he had been the object of earlier falsification himself, he began to alter the historical record, or put simply to falsify history. Jablonicky found that once again he �SLOVAKIA 129 had to set the record straight, a task for which he paid a personal pnce. He became a 'persona non grata' under Husak, was expelled from the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciencies in 1974, and from 1976 on was subjected to police harassment, or, as he put it, "primitive persecution". Even though his manuscripts were confiscated, he continued to write and to do research on the topic of the 1944 events. In 1984 the Husak regime published the fivevolume series Dejiny Slovenskeho narodneho povstania. As Jablonicky writes: "I considered it my professional responsibility to counter this literature critically. However, I also tried not to repeat my own errors and defects which are to be found in my earlier works" (p. 9) . His response began to appear in "samizdat" in 1988; this volume is that response. There is one theme that this study does not examine, namely the importance of the 1944 events in Slovak history. There is no doubt that they had far-reaching consequences for the Slovak nation . Jablonicky tells us how they happened, but not why. Nor does he explain their ultimate consequences. One can understand why they were celebrated under Communism: they gave the regime some sort of legitimacy. But that regime has now disappeared, as has the outcome which the 1944 revolt produced: the common state with the Czechs. This begs the question of their role and importance even more than before. For the moment, Jablonicky has chosen to eschew such questions. Yet as a professional historian, now able to express himself freely, he should accept the fact that he has a responsibility greater than that of merely chronicling these events. Others will no doubt tackle these questions; were Jablonicky also to do so, the history of the 1944 events might yet be written without any legends. �130 SLOVAKIA Bohus Chnoupek, A Breaking of Seals: The French Resistance in Slovakia. New York: Pergammon Press, 1988. XI-97 pp. R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Florida This short work deals with a little-known aspect of Slovak and World War II history. French prisoners-of-war, escaping from camps in Germany and Hungary, made their way to Slovakia and were sheltered by the Slovak Resistance. Led by Lieutenant Georges Barazar de Lannurien, these Frenchmen fought as part of the Stefanik Brigade in the uprising of 1944. The Stefanik Brigade was under Soviet partisan command, while the Czechoslovak General Staff in Banska Bystrica insisted that the French be subordinate to its own command structure. De Lannurien's unit was able to exploit this jurisdictional dispute, gain concessions from both sides, and assure for itself a measure of operational independence. The French partisans were instrumental in thwarting the German drive on Strecno in September 1944 and aided in the recapture of Janeva Lehota. After the German suppresion of the uprising in October, de Lannurien's Frenchmen - along with Slovak soldiers and Soviet partisans - retreated into the Tatras and continued resisting as guerrillas. They were joyfully greeted by advancing Soviet forces in February 1945 and were at last permitted to return home. The author's narrative is supplemented by the accounts of partisans who remembered the Frenchmen. The introduction mentions that the author was appointed Czechoslovak Ambassador to the Soviet Union and became Czechoslovak Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1971. As a Husak"s appointee, Chnoupek rather naturally treats the Slovak National Rising as a popular event. Correspondingly, the Slovak Republic is labelled as a "fascist state". Supporters of the Tiso regime maintain that the president-priest never signed any death warrants. Chnoupek, however, alludes to death sentences being passed in absentia on deserters from the Eastern front. �SLOVAKIA 131 Yet Chiioupek inadvertedly extends some credit to the Slovak state in the case of Ga~par Maco. Maco refused to heed his call-up orders for the Slovak Army in September 1939, proceeded to France, and served in the Czechoslovak Legion within the French Army. After France's military collapse in 1940, Maco returned to Slovakia and was arrested. The author admits that Maco's youth and frank confession were taken as "mitigating circumstances" (p. 49), and he was given only a six-month sentence. Moreover, he was released one month early for health reasons. Such leniency would not have been forthcoming in the Reichsprotectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, which was under direct Nazi domination. Despite the author's diplomatic backround, his narrative is written in a plain, even folksy style. Interactions between French and Slovak partisans are treated as frequently humorous and occasionally poignant. Especially noteworthy is the description of Christmas Eve 1944, when Slovak partisans invited their French comrades to join them in celebration. This invitation was practical as well as idealistic: The French had captured a herd of sheep from a retreating Hungarian detachment, and now had meat to spare. The Frenchmen were asked to sing the Marseillaise; they did so to the acoustical backround of Soviet artillery, as the front was drawing near. Unknown to them, on the previous day in liberated Paris, General de Gaulle approved de Lannurien's promotion. Given the author's ideological affiliation, it is sometimes easy to forget that Slovak Communists were themselves dissidents during the Novotny years, when many aspects of the Slovak uprising were considered taboo topics. Chnoupek's research was given only the briefest coverage in the newspapers for the tenth anniversary of the uprising. Years later, while laying a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Warrior at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, he was warmly greeted by French veterans of the Slovak partisan struggle. It was then that Chnoupek decided to continue his work and affect a "breaking of seals". The work is the author's own contribution to improved East-West relations. But Chnoupek nontheless conforms to the historiographical standards of Husak's Czechoslovakia, characterized by glaring omis- �132 SLOVAKIA sions of anything potentially embarrassing. Soviet partisan commander Peter Velitchko is depicted in an altogether favorable light, notwithstanding the fact that his rash actions brought full-scale German intervention, caused the rising to be launched prematurely, and thus resulted in tragic consequences. Soviet historians describe this occurance as unfortunate, but they have yet to account for their country's role in it. In post-Husak Czechoslovakia, a more genuine "breaking of seals" regarding topics concerning the 1944 revolt is at last possible. Proces s dr. J. Tisom: Spomienky obialobcu Antona Raslu a obhajcu Ernesta Zabkayho. Edited by Jan Smolec. Bratislava: Tatrapress, 1990. 254 pp. JAMES R. FELAK University of Washington Concomitant with the current revival of national feelings in Slovakia is a reevaluation of those figures from the Slovak past who were either ignored or vilified during the communist era. Most noteworthy among such figures is Jozef Tiso, the president of the wartime Slovak Republic who was executed as a war criminal in 1947. Process dr. J. Tisom, Spomienky obialobcu Antona Raslu a obhajcu Ernesta Zabkayho, is an important contribution to that reevaluation. The book consists of the memoirs of Anton Rasla, one of the prosecutors at Tiso's trial, and Ernest Zabkay, Tiso's chief defense attorney. In addition to the reminiscences of these men, the book includes excerpts from their concluding speeches at Tiso's trial , as well as the text of the trial's verdict. In Zabkay's testimony, two important assertions dominate - that Tiso did not receive a fair trial and that Tiso was not guilty as charged. In support of his first assertion, Zabkay cites the political nature of the trial , the open bias agains Tiso of the presiding judge, Igor Daxner, the denial of certain documentation to the defense, and the harassment of defense lawyers by the police, prompting one �SLOVAKIA 133 defender to resign. In Tiso's defense, Zabkay portrays him as a victim of circumstances who could not withstand the irresistible pressure from Nazi Germany nor control her allies in the radical wing of his own party, who either did not know about or was unable to prevent the atrocities commited under his regime, and whose close relations with Hitler's Germany were a matter of necessity, the only way to preserve his small nation from a Hungarian or German occupation. Rasla, who believes that Tiso was indeed guilty of war crimes, nevertheless has sharp words for Daxner and for the prosecution's approach during the trial. Against Rasla's recommendation that the prosecution limit its attention to Tiso's wartime collaboration with Hitler and his role in the crimes against humanity, the prosecution pursued a number of dubious charges, for example, that Tiso supported the interests of Horthyite Hungary. Such charges helped damage the trial's credibility in the eyes of the Slovak public. Proces s dr. J. Tisom leaves us with some important considerations for a reevaluation of Tiso. First, the historian must be careful to distinguish between the moral responsibility and the legal responsisbility of his subject, keeping both in mind but avoiding the conflation of the two that one so often finds in issues concerning war crimes. Second, there is a need to exonerate Tiso where exoneration is due, that is, to avoid reading his wartime collaboration with the Nazis back into the prewar past. For example, it is both untrue and unjust to charge Tiso, as his prosecutors did, with deliberately seeking the destruction of the First Czechoslovak Republic in accordance with Nazi plans in the years preceding the Munich Agreement. Third, there is a need to condemn Tiso where condemnation is due - as the head of a state that deported tens of thousands of Jews to the Third Reich, who gave a violently anti-Semitic speech at the height of the Holocaust, who was one of only sixteen people to receive Nazi Germany's highest decoration, and who, in a case of perverse moral reasoning, professed that Slovakia was fighting on Hitler's side in the Second World War for the "honor of the Slovak nation". �134 SLOVAKIA Owing to the emotions and political pressures of the immediate post-war period, Jozef Tiso did not receive a fair trial. A reevaluation of his trial and his place in Slovak history is long overdue, and the memoirs of Rasla and Zabkay are a welcome step in this direction. Nevertheless, given the current nationalist passions in Slovakia, an objective evaluation of Tiso in his native land may be difficult to realize for some time to come. Athanasius B. Pekar, OSBM, The History of the Church in Carpathian Rus'. New York: East European Monographs, Distributed by Columbia University Press, 1992. Lii - 296pp. KEITH P. DYRUD Concordia College St. Paul, Minnesota This book was originally published in Ukrainian in 1967. It was translated by Marta Skorupsky as part of a series of "Classics of Carpatho-Rusyn Scholarship" coordinated by Patricia A. Krafcik and Paul Robert Magocsi. The History of the Church in Carpathian Rus' is primarily an ecclesiastical history, but it also provides enough political and social context to allow a secular historian to place the· work in the more familiar secular framework. Pekar focused his attention on the Greek Catholic Church in Sub-Carpathian Rus' (Northeastern Hungary until 1918). His study began with the "union" movement which culminated with the Union of Uzhorod in 1646. Pekar gave even coverage to each period, bringing it up to the post-World War II era with a final chapter: "In the Immigration" which examined the history of the Greek Catholic Church in the United States. The author had acces to special collections not readily available to secular scholars, especially, the Archivum Secretum Vatican um (Secret Archive of the Vatican). He has treated those sources with a proper historian's respect so that other historians may feel confident �SLOVAKIA 135 in citing his work, but he also approached his topic with an obvious Vatican perspective or bias. Pekar was very critical of the Slovaks. This bias is curious and revealing. The Slovaks have a long history of cooperating with the Rusyns as they jointly resisted Magyarization. It is true that some contemporary Slovaks in the 1960s pressured Rusyns in Eastern Slovakia to identify with the Slovak national movement, but contemporary everits should not distort a historian's analysis of past cooperation. Pekar suggested that the Vatican was constantly fighting to protect the Uniate Church. These attempts were only partially successful in both Hungary and in America. In both places the Latin Church won considerable advantages over the Uniate Church. In his discussion of the Greek Catholic Church in America with its many defections, Pekar was critical of the American bishops for demanding a single rite, the Hungarian government for resisting Leo XIII's efforts to unite the Galician and Sub-Carpathian Rusyns into a single diocese in America, and the leaders of the Greek Catholic Union for resisting the guidance of Rome as the Vatican demanded changes in the Greek Catholic rite. The people, whom Pekar viewed as sheep, reacted against any affront to their rite, and the Greek Catholic Union provided them with the organization necessary to stand up to the forces that would deprive them of those traditions. Pekar's treatment of the actors as villains and heroes , accounts for the greatest weakness of his work. The Vatican was not always the hero. This reviewer would suggest that the Vatican compliantly yielded to Latin Church interest at the expense of the Uniate Church in both Hungary and in America. Pekar also treated the Rusyns as sheep in need of a shepherd. Such an attitude has been traditional with Rome, but it shows disregard for people and democratic principles, and occasionally turns heroes into villians. �136 SLOVAKIA Volodymyr Fedynysynec', Our Peaceful Rusyn Way: Two Essays. Presov: Rusinska Obroda, 1992. 110 pp. PATRICIA A. KRAFCIK Evergreen State College Olympia, Washington Our Peaceful Rusyn Way is a slim volume containing two lenghty essays by Subcarpathian poet and writer Volodymir Fedynysynec'. These essays reflect the author's perception of the current status of the Rusyn national revival in Europe, particularly in Transcarpathian Ukraine. The first, "Be a Rusyn So That Rusyns Will Survive", describes the enormous impact of the scholarly work of Dr. Paul R. Magocsi and the First World Congress of Rusyns (March 1991) on Rusyn historical awareness and revival. Fedynysynec' calls this essay his "objective and subjective notes and reflections" on both the congress and a scholarly seminar on Rusyns held in Uzhorod prior to the congress. In the second, "I am a Rusyn, My Son is a Rusyn: Some Social and Literary Dreams of a Rusyn Writer", Fedynysynec' discusses the significance of the nineteenthcentury Rusyn national awakener, Alexander Duchnovic, and why the creation of a new standard literary language is the key to the survival of Rusyns as a people. Fedynysynec' was born in 1943 and raised in the Rusynspeaking Carpathian mountain village of Repynne in the central region of Subcarpathian Rus', a former autonomous region of Czechoslovakia forcibly annexed to the Ukrainian SSR by Stalin in 1945. He was subsequently acculturated as an Ukrainian after the Soviet regime officialy declared all Rusyns in the region to be Ukrainians. Graduating with a degree in Ukrainian language and literature from Uzhorod State University in 1966, he worked as a journalist and also as a researcher at the Museum of Ethnography in Uzhorod. He has been a member of the Union of Writers of Ukraine since 1983. Until recently he was a member of the executive board of the Society of Subcarpathian Rusyns, established in Uzhorod in �SLOVAKIA 137 1990, and was founding editor of the organization's weekly newspaper, Podkarpatska Rus'. Fedynysynec' has also published several volumes of poetry in Ukrainian. To appreciate fully the value of Fedynysynec's inspiration and insights, the reader should understand that the Rusyn movement in Central Europe (Poland's Lemko Region, Eastern Slovakia's Presov Region, Transcarpathian Ukraine, and former Yugoslavia's historic Backa Region) is genuine and flourishing. The nineteenth-century process of national awakening and struggle which led to the formation of sovereign Central European states was, in the Rusyns' case, impeded by many factors. Only now are significant elements of that process occurring among the Rusyns, such as the establishment of a standard literary language, the publication of literature and historical texts, and public recognition of Rusyns as a distinct people. These are all addressed in Fedynysynec's essays. In approaching these essays, one ought to remember that Fedynysynec' is first and foremost a poet who experienced psychological and national repression under the totalitarian Soviet regime. Although known as a Ukrainian writer and poet, he never lost an elemental awareness of his Rusyn identity. This theme resonates ecstatically throughout the two essays: "I am a Rusyn ! We are Rusyns! And we will be Rusyns forever!", "And I don't have to look around me at those who will whisper curses at me. I can even shout above the Beskyds: I am a Rusyn!" Although informative, the essays are clearly not intended as historical or scholarly treatises. Fedynysynec' speaks rather with the passionate voice of an inspired poet and the vigor of an enlightened Rusyn patriot. His prose sometimes verges on stream-of-consciousness and his view of history occasionally borders on the romantic, such as his insistence that "Rusynism is two thousand years old". In the wake of the Gorbachev era, which he acknowledges as a fresh and liberating age, he recognizes a first-time opportunity to speak out on such forbidden subjects as national roots and pride: "Rusyn feelings have made their presence known ... like a kind of whirling sea within shores that were too narrow." What readers might lose in strictly historical fact, they gain through his psycho- �138 SLOVAKIA logical and emotional insight into the reality of a people who were held under a curse of silence for the past 45 years. The floodgates have opened and Fedynysynec's essays seem to pour forth expressing all the vitality of the Rusyn national movement. Fedynysynec' wrote his essays in Ukrainian (he has begun writing seriously in Rusyn only in the past two years). They appear here in the Presov Region Rusyn dialect and in Slovak and English translations. The book is neatly formated , with only a few minor misprints, and is the first publication of Rusfnska Obroda (The Rusyn Renaissance Society) based in Presov . The volume of contemporary literature on Rusyns is growing. Students of Slavic and ethnic studies can only hope that Rusfnska Obroda and other publishing enterprises will undertake to make Rusyn literature available both in the original language and in English translation to reach as wide an audience as possible. Norma Rudinsky, Incipient Feminists: Women Writers in the Slovak National Revival. Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers, 19'Jl. 285pp, and That Alluring Land: Slovak Stories by Timrava. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992. XVI-320 pp. MARIA FURIMSKY-LACKOV A Ottawa, Canada These two recently-published books by Norma L. Rudinsky are very welcome for several reasons: apart from dealing with topics which complement each other, both books provide a rare opportunity to read works of Slovak literature in probably the best translations available in the English language. Both describe the interesting place of Slovak women in the national movement at the tum of the 19th century and, most importantly, both fill a gap, at least partially, in the field of Slavic scholarship in North America. The first book is part history and part anthology. According to Rudinsky, it was initialy intended to be only an introduction for the second book, consisting of a translation of six stories by Slovak �SLOVAKIA 139 writer Bozena Slancikova, who published her prose fiction under the pen name Timrava. However, it became a close study of journal articles, letters and poetry showing nationalism and feminism among the Slovaks in Austria-Hungary. The desperate position of Slovak women is traced here in three parts and six chapters. The first part deals with "Woman As Inspiration" in poetic works of Slovak male writers Jan Kollar, Jan Holy, Janko Kraf and Andrej Sladkovic, among others. The second part, titled "Women As Help", describes Slovak women as founders of women's nationalist organizations and magazines, and in the third part "Women As Women" they are depicted as incipient feminist writers of the turn of the century. Heroines of Elena Soltesova, the schoolteacher spinsters of Cudmila Podjavorinska and Timrava's fighting and agonizing female characters are proud and obstinate, consumed by hopeless love and passion. They are compared by Rudinsky to the reform heroins of English and American novelists, such as Jane Austin. Especially interesting is the Appendix of 123 poems in Slovak, formerly scattered in short-lived journals or manuscripts, and collected by Marianna Prfdavkova-Minarikova of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. These poems range from a moralistic hymn in 1798 exhorting young ladies to beware of seducers, to several poems in the 1860s and 1870s equating the nation with a human lover and resolving to became a mystical bride of the nation. Available biographical data of Slovak poets, though many are still not fully indentified, are given in English. Two long essays advocating women's education are translated in full from Slovak into English and frequent comparision is made to Czech, Croatian and Magyar nationalist movements. At the end of the book is a thorough index and useful bibliography. Incipient Feminists is a very carefully-edited book with only a few misprints: e. g. the word "interesting" has an "m" in it (second line of preface); "Klastor pod Zvievom", (p. 40), should be " ... Znievom", and some diacritical marks are missing, e.g. on "zvlasr'' (p. 128). The actual names of the "two small towns in southeast Slovakia" where Timrava lived her whole life and which appear in her more than fifty stories and novellas, may also be of interest to �140 SLOVAKIA the readers. They are Polichno and Abelova. The same applies to Terezia Medvecka Vansova who "lived most of her life in a small town in southern Slovakia" (p. 89). This small town was and still is just a little village of a few hundred people and is called Rimavska Pfla. In Vansova's works it is called simply Pila, Pila pri Tisovci, or Pila v Gemeri. Here she lived from 1882 to 1911 and wrote most of her variety of sketches, tales, biographical pieces, memoirs and several plays. As well, she published there her journal for Slovak women called "Dennica". The second book, consisting of Rudinsky's excellent English translations of six of Timrava's Slovak stories written at the tum of the century, shows remarkably strong female characters desiring to assert their rights against many unfavourable odds. In "The Assistant Teacher" (from the Diary of a Young Lady)", written in 1896, Timrava deals with the financial and social necessity of a good marriage. In the second story titled "Battle" and written in 1900, the heroine rebels against the necessity of a marriage of convenience, albeit still only inwardly. This and other similar stories of rebellion placed Timrava among Slovak critical realists. The third story, "That Alluring Land", from 1907 depicts how the power of money and property takes control of human lives. This story also represents the true reason why many Slovaks emigrated to North America: not to search for instant wealth, but to avoid unemployment, political repression, famine and other basic afflictions in Austria-Hungary at the tum of the century. Mothers usually stayed home to take care of their children and the existing household. In 1911 Timrava wrote "No Joy at All" about the effect that the materialistic obsession with property can have on a family and how it could interfere with the love of two people. The backward village life that existed into the twentieth century in Slovakia is well depicted in "The fapak Clan" written in 1914. The living conditions of fapak's family are depicted probably more darkly than existed in reality in most village families at that time, but Timrava wanted to point out that such extremities existed indeed. The last story of the book "Great War Heroes", written around 1918, is Timrava's antiwar novella, which shows how unjust all wars are. It shows, not �SLOVAKIA 141 only the men as the false "heroes", but also the women and how they become corrupted by the war. This story is Timrava's condemnation of World War One. All six stories depict Slovak women in transition: from obedience without questioning, to clearly understood and expressed rebellion. Timrava's stories depict the castes and culture and the way of life of one segment of Slovak society at the tum of the century, with all its irony and tough realism, making her work invaluable for those who are interested in Slovakia and its past. Jan Simko, English-Slovak Dictionary. Waucondia, Illinois and Senica, Slovakia: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers and RESS spol. s.r.o., 1991. 1443 pp . LOUISE B. HAMMER Indiana University The arrival of Jan Simko's English-Slovak Dictionary in bookstores in the summer of 1991 was a happy event. This dictionary was first published in Slovakia in 1967, and was reissued there in 1968 and 1971. It has been unavailable since that last printing sold out. It has now been published with corrections, but without additions . The physical quality of this book is excellent. It is hardbound, and small enough to handle comfortably . Each page has two columns and the print is large and easy to read. Since the intended user of the dictionary is a native speaker of Slovak, the introductory remarks are in Slovak, as are the abbreviations. The English entry or headword appears in large bold face type flush left to the margin of the collumn. It is followed by a phonetic transcription in square brackets, then the Slovak equivalents are listed. All main entries appear in a single alphabetical list in strict sequence of spelling. English words are written in italic type. The English-speaking user of the dictionary will not need to refer to the phonetic transcriptions of the English entries in order to learn their pronunciations, but it is �142 SLOVAKIA interesting to note that although British pronunciation is used as a basic one, both the British and the American versions are given when they differ markedly, e.g., "tomato" (p. 1250). When different words are used in American and British English for commonplace terms, both are given in this dictionary, e.g. "elevator" (p. 318) and "lift" (p. 648) vffah. These are just two examples of the thoroughness and careful scholarship that characterize this dictionary. If the entry word is used in more than one grammatical form or category (if it belongs to more than one part-of-speech), the entry is clustered or nested so that the usage is designated in the following way: the boldface numeral 1 is followed by the appropriate part-ofspeech in smaller typeface, the primary and secondary meanings are given, and this process continues for the other parts-of-speech. For example, if the first usage is a noun (podstatne meno, abbreviated podst.), and the second as a verb (sloveso, abbreviated s1. or nepravidelne sloveso, abbreviated n. s1., which means an English irregular verb), it would appear in the following way: break [breik] 1. podst. 1. zlomenie, zlomenina 2. trhlina, puklina, etc. 2. n. sl. to~ 1. (po)lamaf (sa), zlomif (sa), rozbif (sa) etc. On the stylistic level, words may be designated as colloquial (hovorove, which is abbreviated as hovor.), e.g. that's great! to je skvele, dobre; slang (slangove, which is abbreviated slg.), e.g., American slang, buck dolar, bookish (knitne); poetic and archaic (basnicke and zastarane'); and dialectal. In this book, dialectal refers to dialects of English, e. g. American, Scottish or Irish. One of the most important features of this dictionary is the wealth of commonly used and idiomatic phrases that it contains. These phrases are placed after the basic definitions, and are designated by a boldface centered dot, e.g. • at the back of one's mind, v podvedomf (p. 41); • hungry as a hunter, hladnf ako vllc (p. 556); • a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, Jepsf vrabec v hrsti ako holub na streche (p. 108); • this argument does not hold water, tento argument neobstojf, je nelogickf (al. nespravny, nedosledny) (p. 540). The inclusion of many prepositional phrases in the examples is a valuable aid to students of the Slovak language �SLOVAKIA 143 who frequently make errors in choosing the proper prepositions and cases, e.g. at reduced prices, za znfiene ceny (p. 990); to climb up a ladder, ( vy)liezt'po rebn1w (p. 1313) and many , many more . Dr. Simko's dictionary is a solid scholarly work, which has been compiled in accordance with modem lexicographical principles. It is a valuable resource for both specialists and students. This dictionary should be added to the reference sections of our libraries, and to the collections of our Slovak organizations. �� REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 125 Hugolfn Gavlovic . Valaska Skala . Edited with a commentary by Gerald J. Sabo, and a linguistic commentary by Cubomir Durovic . Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers, 1987 (1988). 730 pp. JAN F. FRYDECKY Burnaby, British Columbia Hugolfn Gavlovic is one of the most important authors of the older Slovak literature. He was born in Cami Dunajec (in Poland) in 1712, grew up in northern Orava and lived in the Povazie region. In 1733 he was ordained a Franciscan priest and he died in 1787 in Horovce. Gavlovic's "Valaska skola" was finished in 1755. It is the largest work of the older Slovak literature, not only in length, but also because of its artistic value. It is a treasure of practical wisdom in which the author instructs the reader about all that interests him and what he needs in life. The author covers not only personal problems and private life, but also addresses public problems. It is in fact a didactic poem and Sabo has made an exact transcription of almost 18,000 lines with 27 illustrations. "Valaska skola" consists of an introduction in verses, then the main body of the poems in 22 "noty" (parts) and finally a two part "Konec": "On Death" and "On Judgement" . Every note begins with a shepherd's song about some biblical event of the Old Testament. Because 18th century society was very interested in sheepherding, every event was for the author a reason to think about the life of shepherds and peasants. Every note after a shepherd's song contains 59 moral exhortations. Durovic's excellent study (pp . 655-730) pays attention to the language of "V alaska skola". The real use and interest of this edition is linguistic. A previous edition by Michal Resetka (1830-31) left out some lines and transcribed the spelling into Bernolak's codification and so he ruined the rhymes and the whole construction of the work. The second edition by Rudolf Krajcovic (1971) presented the work as a literary monument of Slovak cultural history. His edition was substantially abbreviated. �126 SLOVAKIA Durovic shows that Gavlovic's language is half-way between the work of Pavel Dolefal's "Grammatica Slavico-Bohemica" (1746) and Anton Bernolak's "Gramatica slavica" (1790). The publishing of Gavlovic's "Shepherd's School" has enormous importance for Slovak cultural history of the 18th century. It was a precursor of Anton Bernolak's "Dissertatio philologico-critica de litteris Slavorum" (1787), which signaled the beginning of the codification of the Slovak language. Gavlovic's work was published on the occasion of the bicentennial of two important events in Slovak cultural history of the 18th century: the death of Hugolfn Gavlovic, and the publishing of the work of Anton bernolak. Gerald J. Sabo and I.:'ubomfr Durovic have contributed greatly to explaining the cultural history of Slovakia in the 18th century. Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations, Vols. I and 2, edited by Max Domarus. Waucondia, Illinois: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 1990 and 1992. 611 pp. and 1367 pp. BRIAN L. VILLA University of Ottawa In 1945 the Allies were preparing to mete out severe justice, not just to Nazi Party members but to all Germans, arguing that they were guilty by complicity, by reason of having all heard Hitler's clearly articulated murderous program. This argument, which seemed persuasive in its day, is now something of an embarassment to historians, for it could also be turned against all the Western leaders who, after all, also had acces to Hitler's speeches and yet for many years indulged in appeasing him. For that matter, when Stalin made his pact with Hitler, he knew as much or more than the German public did of Hitler's intentions. There was another flaw in the argumentation and this was that Hitler mixed veiled threats and bombastic verbal terrorism with mild-sounding musings about peace and esctatic smiling at babies. �SLOVAKIA 127 Germans, and foreign observers , were thus faced with the problem of sorting out which was the real Hitler, and which was not. Yearning for a better world after the horrors of World War I, not suprisingly the hearts of this generation were ruled by wishful thinking. The consequences of Hitler's programme did not stand starkly revealed until May of 1945, as the world gazed on the lunar landscape of German cities. Most had failed miserably to perceive what his program entailed. But we will never be able to judge properly this issue of the public perception and misperception until we have a complete collection of all of Hitler's recorded utterances, public and private. Any selection prejudges the issue a bit. While the work by Max Domarus , of which the first two volumes in English translation are now in print, is a magnificentlycrafted and documented collection, it is still a selection and a number of speeches are represented only by a single sentence. Still, this is likely to be the most ambitious compilation we are likely to see in our lifetime. Accompanied by solid historical narrative and commentary, carefully documented and well-edited, this is an invaluable tool for the study of the Nazi era. Distateful as it is to put Hitler's speeches up upon the shelves of institutions devoted to truth, this is a mandatory purchase for almost any better library. Certainly it is necessary reading for those who would study the mad delusion of a nation, not to say of a generation. The picture that emerges in Domarus' masterful collection and skillful aditing is that of Hitler as a skilled concert-master calling upon the positive and the negative in his audience, blending, twisting, distorting, so that what had ever been true and false was imposible even to remember. A particularly notworthy revelation of these volumes is the brilliance with which Hitler's staff employed his time. Appearing here and there in a dizzying schedule, building a complex riddle, he climbed to power by purposefully confusing his audience. There is obviously a good book to be written about his handlers, his working staff, and how well they created the monster that eventually escaped so completely from their control. Such a study, as must almost any study of Hitler, will gain immeasurably from a careful study of this indispensable source. �128 SLOVAKIA Jozef Jablonicky. Povstanie bez legiend. Bratislava: Obzor, 1990. 357 pp. STANISLA V J. KIRSCHBAUM York University Those who are interested in a detailed account of the 1944 revolt in Slovakia will find this book useful. It is well-documented and well-writen. Furthermore, the author loses no opportunity to contradict in detail various interpretations that were published during Gustav Husak's regime. It is a valuable addition to Slovak historiography. However, the significance of Jozef Jablonicky" s book lies not so much in the history of what the Communist regime and Marxist historians dubbed the "Slovak National Uprising", as in the reasons why yet another book on those events was published, especially after the fall of Communism in 1989. In fact, this book belongs to the Communist period; it is in its own way a reflection of it. That it was published when freedom of the press was restored merely helps to underline this very fact. As the publishers indicate in the foreword: "The author does not deny that in today's changed social and political conditions, he would formulate many things differently, more openly and more directly; however, he preferred to publish his work as it had been written, under conditions when the opportunity for scientific discussion was replaced by police interrogations" (p. 7). Jablonicky is one of the scholars of the 1960s who published histories of the 1944 events (for example, Z ilegality do povstania, 1969; there are also memoirs, Husak's in particular, and edited volumes) in response to the distorted accounts of the 1950s. However, his writings, like most from the Communist period were hampered either by restricted access to documents, by censorship, or by both. When Husak came to power in 1969, in the footsteps of his predecessors, but also perhaps because he had been the object of earlier falsification himself, he began to alter the historical record, or put simply to falsify history. Jablonicky found that once again he �SLOVAKIA 129 had to set the record straight, a task for which he paid a personal pnce. He became a 'persona non grata' under Husak, was expelled from the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciencies in 1974, and from 1976 on was subjected to police harassment, or, as he put it, "primitive persecution". Even though his manuscripts were confiscated, he continued to write and to do research on the topic of the 1944 events. In 1984 the Husak regime published the fivevolume series Dejiny Slovenskeho narodneho povstania. As Jablonicky writes: "I considered it my professional responsibility to counter this literature critically. However, I also tried not to repeat my own errors and defects which are to be found in my earlier works" (p. 9) . His response began to appear in "samizdat" in 1988; this volume is that response. There is one theme that this study does not examine, namely the importance of the 1944 events in Slovak history. There is no doubt that they had far-reaching consequences for the Slovak nation . Jablonicky tells us how they happened, but not why. Nor does he explain their ultimate consequences. One can understand why they were celebrated under Communism: they gave the regime some sort of legitimacy. But that regime has now disappeared, as has the outcome which the 1944 revolt produced: the common state with the Czechs. This begs the question of their role and importance even more than before. For the moment, Jablonicky has chosen to eschew such questions. Yet as a professional historian, now able to express himself freely, he should accept the fact that he has a responsibility greater than that of merely chronicling these events. Others will no doubt tackle these questions; were Jablonicky also to do so, the history of the 1944 events might yet be written without any legends. �130 SLOVAKIA Bohus Chnoupek, A Breaking of Seals: The French Resistance in Slovakia. New York: Pergammon Press, 1988. XI-97 pp. R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Florida This short work deals with a little-known aspect of Slovak and World War II history. French prisoners-of-war, escaping from camps in Germany and Hungary, made their way to Slovakia and were sheltered by the Slovak Resistance. Led by Lieutenant Georges Barazar de Lannurien, these Frenchmen fought as part of the Stefanik Brigade in the uprising of 1944. The Stefanik Brigade was under Soviet partisan command, while the Czechoslovak General Staff in Banska Bystrica insisted that the French be subordinate to its own command structure. De Lannurien's unit was able to exploit this jurisdictional dispute, gain concessions from both sides, and assure for itself a measure of operational independence. The French partisans were instrumental in thwarting the German drive on Strecno in September 1944 and aided in the recapture of Janeva Lehota. After the German suppresion of the uprising in October, de Lannurien's Frenchmen - along with Slovak soldiers and Soviet partisans - retreated into the Tatras and continued resisting as guerrillas. They were joyfully greeted by advancing Soviet forces in February 1945 and were at last permitted to return home. The author's narrative is supplemented by the accounts of partisans who remembered the Frenchmen. The introduction mentions that the author was appointed Czechoslovak Ambassador to the Soviet Union and became Czechoslovak Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1971. As a Husak"s appointee, Chnoupek rather naturally treats the Slovak National Rising as a popular event. Correspondingly, the Slovak Republic is labelled as a "fascist state". Supporters of the Tiso regime maintain that the president-priest never signed any death warrants. Chnoupek, however, alludes to death sentences being passed in absentia on deserters from the Eastern front. �SLOVAKIA 131 Yet Chiioupek inadvertedly extends some credit to the Slovak state in the case of Ga~par Maco. Maco refused to heed his call-up orders for the Slovak Army in September 1939, proceeded to France, and served in the Czechoslovak Legion within the French Army. After France's military collapse in 1940, Maco returned to Slovakia and was arrested. The author admits that Maco's youth and frank confession were taken as "mitigating circumstances" (p. 49), and he was given only a six-month sentence. Moreover, he was released one month early for health reasons. Such leniency would not have been forthcoming in the Reichsprotectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, which was under direct Nazi domination. Despite the author's diplomatic backround, his narrative is written in a plain, even folksy style. Interactions between French and Slovak partisans are treated as frequently humorous and occasionally poignant. Especially noteworthy is the description of Christmas Eve 1944, when Slovak partisans invited their French comrades to join them in celebration. This invitation was practical as well as idealistic: The French had captured a herd of sheep from a retreating Hungarian detachment, and now had meat to spare. The Frenchmen were asked to sing the Marseillaise; they did so to the acoustical backround of Soviet artillery, as the front was drawing near. Unknown to them, on the previous day in liberated Paris, General de Gaulle approved de Lannurien's promotion. Given the author's ideological affiliation, it is sometimes easy to forget that Slovak Communists were themselves dissidents during the Novotny years, when many aspects of the Slovak uprising were considered taboo topics. Chnoupek's research was given only the briefest coverage in the newspapers for the tenth anniversary of the uprising. Years later, while laying a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Warrior at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, he was warmly greeted by French veterans of the Slovak partisan struggle. It was then that Chnoupek decided to continue his work and affect a "breaking of seals". The work is the author's own contribution to improved East-West relations. But Chnoupek nontheless conforms to the historiographical standards of Husak's Czechoslovakia, characterized by glaring omis- �132 SLOVAKIA sions of anything potentially embarrassing. Soviet partisan commander Peter Velitchko is depicted in an altogether favorable light, notwithstanding the fact that his rash actions brought full-scale German intervention, caused the rising to be launched prematurely, and thus resulted in tragic consequences. Soviet historians describe this occurance as unfortunate, but they have yet to account for their country's role in it. In post-Husak Czechoslovakia, a more genuine "breaking of seals" regarding topics concerning the 1944 revolt is at last possible. Proces s dr. J. Tisom: Spomienky obialobcu Antona Raslu a obhajcu Ernesta Zabkayho. Edited by Jan Smolec. Bratislava: Tatrapress, 1990. 254 pp. JAMES R. FELAK University of Washington Concomitant with the current revival of national feelings in Slovakia is a reevaluation of those figures from the Slovak past who were either ignored or vilified during the communist era. Most noteworthy among such figures is Jozef Tiso, the president of the wartime Slovak Republic who was executed as a war criminal in 1947. Process dr. J. Tisom, Spomienky obialobcu Antona Raslu a obhajcu Ernesta Zabkayho, is an important contribution to that reevaluation. The book consists of the memoirs of Anton Rasla, one of the prosecutors at Tiso's trial, and Ernest Zabkay, Tiso's chief defense attorney. In addition to the reminiscences of these men, the book includes excerpts from their concluding speeches at Tiso's trial , as well as the text of the trial's verdict. In Zabkay's testimony, two important assertions dominate - that Tiso did not receive a fair trial and that Tiso was not guilty as charged. In support of his first assertion, Zabkay cites the political nature of the trial , the open bias agains Tiso of the presiding judge, Igor Daxner, the denial of certain documentation to the defense, and the harassment of defense lawyers by the police, prompting one �SLOVAKIA 133 defender to resign. In Tiso's defense, Zabkay portrays him as a victim of circumstances who could not withstand the irresistible pressure from Nazi Germany nor control her allies in the radical wing of his own party, who either did not know about or was unable to prevent the atrocities commited under his regime, and whose close relations with Hitler's Germany were a matter of necessity, the only way to preserve his small nation from a Hungarian or German occupation. Rasla, who believes that Tiso was indeed guilty of war crimes, nevertheless has sharp words for Daxner and for the prosecution's approach during the trial. Against Rasla's recommendation that the prosecution limit its attention to Tiso's wartime collaboration with Hitler and his role in the crimes against humanity, the prosecution pursued a number of dubious charges, for example, that Tiso supported the interests of Horthyite Hungary. Such charges helped damage the trial's credibility in the eyes of the Slovak public. Proces s dr. J. Tisom leaves us with some important considerations for a reevaluation of Tiso. First, the historian must be careful to distinguish between the moral responsibility and the legal responsisbility of his subject, keeping both in mind but avoiding the conflation of the two that one so often finds in issues concerning war crimes. Second, there is a need to exonerate Tiso where exoneration is due, that is, to avoid reading his wartime collaboration with the Nazis back into the prewar past. For example, it is both untrue and unjust to charge Tiso, as his prosecutors did, with deliberately seeking the destruction of the First Czechoslovak Republic in accordance with Nazi plans in the years preceding the Munich Agreement. Third, there is a need to condemn Tiso where condemnation is due - as the head of a state that deported tens of thousands of Jews to the Third Reich, who gave a violently anti-Semitic speech at the height of the Holocaust, who was one of only sixteen people to receive Nazi Germany's highest decoration, and who, in a case of perverse moral reasoning, professed that Slovakia was fighting on Hitler's side in the Second World War for the "honor of the Slovak nation". �134 SLOVAKIA Owing to the emotions and political pressures of the immediate post-war period, Jozef Tiso did not receive a fair trial. A reevaluation of his trial and his place in Slovak history is long overdue, and the memoirs of Rasla and Zabkay are a welcome step in this direction. Nevertheless, given the current nationalist passions in Slovakia, an objective evaluation of Tiso in his native land may be difficult to realize for some time to come. Athanasius B. Pekar, OSBM, The History of the Church in Carpathian Rus'. New York: East European Monographs, Distributed by Columbia University Press, 1992. Lii - 296pp. KEITH P. DYRUD Concordia College St. Paul, Minnesota This book was originally published in Ukrainian in 1967. It was translated by Marta Skorupsky as part of a series of "Classics of Carpatho-Rusyn Scholarship" coordinated by Patricia A. Krafcik and Paul Robert Magocsi. The History of the Church in Carpathian Rus' is primarily an ecclesiastical history, but it also provides enough political and social context to allow a secular historian to place the· work in the more familiar secular framework. Pekar focused his attention on the Greek Catholic Church in Sub-Carpathian Rus' (Northeastern Hungary until 1918). His study began with the "union" movement which culminated with the Union of Uzhorod in 1646. Pekar gave even coverage to each period, bringing it up to the post-World War II era with a final chapter: "In the Immigration" which examined the history of the Greek Catholic Church in the United States. The author had acces to special collections not readily available to secular scholars, especially, the Archivum Secretum Vatican um (Secret Archive of the Vatican). He has treated those sources with a proper historian's respect so that other historians may feel confident �SLOVAKIA 135 in citing his work, but he also approached his topic with an obvious Vatican perspective or bias. Pekar was very critical of the Slovaks. This bias is curious and revealing. The Slovaks have a long history of cooperating with the Rusyns as they jointly resisted Magyarization. It is true that some contemporary Slovaks in the 1960s pressured Rusyns in Eastern Slovakia to identify with the Slovak national movement, but contemporary everits should not distort a historian's analysis of past cooperation. Pekar suggested that the Vatican was constantly fighting to protect the Uniate Church. These attempts were only partially successful in both Hungary and in America. In both places the Latin Church won considerable advantages over the Uniate Church. In his discussion of the Greek Catholic Church in America with its many defections, Pekar was critical of the American bishops for demanding a single rite, the Hungarian government for resisting Leo XIII's efforts to unite the Galician and Sub-Carpathian Rusyns into a single diocese in America, and the leaders of the Greek Catholic Union for resisting the guidance of Rome as the Vatican demanded changes in the Greek Catholic rite. The people, whom Pekar viewed as sheep, reacted against any affront to their rite, and the Greek Catholic Union provided them with the organization necessary to stand up to the forces that would deprive them of those traditions. Pekar's treatment of the actors as villains and heroes , accounts for the greatest weakness of his work. The Vatican was not always the hero. This reviewer would suggest that the Vatican compliantly yielded to Latin Church interest at the expense of the Uniate Church in both Hungary and in America. Pekar also treated the Rusyns as sheep in need of a shepherd. Such an attitude has been traditional with Rome, but it shows disregard for people and democratic principles, and occasionally turns heroes into villians. �136 SLOVAKIA Volodymyr Fedynysynec', Our Peaceful Rusyn Way: Two Essays. Presov: Rusinska Obroda, 1992. 110 pp. PATRICIA A. KRAFCIK Evergreen State College Olympia, Washington Our Peaceful Rusyn Way is a slim volume containing two lenghty essays by Subcarpathian poet and writer Volodymir Fedynysynec'. These essays reflect the author's perception of the current status of the Rusyn national revival in Europe, particularly in Transcarpathian Ukraine. The first, "Be a Rusyn So That Rusyns Will Survive", describes the enormous impact of the scholarly work of Dr. Paul R. Magocsi and the First World Congress of Rusyns (March 1991) on Rusyn historical awareness and revival. Fedynysynec' calls this essay his "objective and subjective notes and reflections" on both the congress and a scholarly seminar on Rusyns held in Uzhorod prior to the congress. In the second, "I am a Rusyn, My Son is a Rusyn: Some Social and Literary Dreams of a Rusyn Writer", Fedynysynec' discusses the significance of the nineteenthcentury Rusyn national awakener, Alexander Duchnovic, and why the creation of a new standard literary language is the key to the survival of Rusyns as a people. Fedynysynec' was born in 1943 and raised in the Rusynspeaking Carpathian mountain village of Repynne in the central region of Subcarpathian Rus', a former autonomous region of Czechoslovakia forcibly annexed to the Ukrainian SSR by Stalin in 1945. He was subsequently acculturated as an Ukrainian after the Soviet regime officialy declared all Rusyns in the region to be Ukrainians. Graduating with a degree in Ukrainian language and literature from Uzhorod State University in 1966, he worked as a journalist and also as a researcher at the Museum of Ethnography in Uzhorod. He has been a member of the Union of Writers of Ukraine since 1983. Until recently he was a member of the executive board of the Society of Subcarpathian Rusyns, established in Uzhorod in �SLOVAKIA 137 1990, and was founding editor of the organization's weekly newspaper, Podkarpatska Rus'. Fedynysynec' has also published several volumes of poetry in Ukrainian. To appreciate fully the value of Fedynysynec's inspiration and insights, the reader should understand that the Rusyn movement in Central Europe (Poland's Lemko Region, Eastern Slovakia's Presov Region, Transcarpathian Ukraine, and former Yugoslavia's historic Backa Region) is genuine and flourishing. The nineteenth-century process of national awakening and struggle which led to the formation of sovereign Central European states was, in the Rusyns' case, impeded by many factors. Only now are significant elements of that process occurring among the Rusyns, such as the establishment of a standard literary language, the publication of literature and historical texts, and public recognition of Rusyns as a distinct people. These are all addressed in Fedynysynec's essays. In approaching these essays, one ought to remember that Fedynysynec' is first and foremost a poet who experienced psychological and national repression under the totalitarian Soviet regime. Although known as a Ukrainian writer and poet, he never lost an elemental awareness of his Rusyn identity. This theme resonates ecstatically throughout the two essays: "I am a Rusyn ! We are Rusyns! And we will be Rusyns forever!", "And I don't have to look around me at those who will whisper curses at me. I can even shout above the Beskyds: I am a Rusyn!" Although informative, the essays are clearly not intended as historical or scholarly treatises. Fedynysynec' speaks rather with the passionate voice of an inspired poet and the vigor of an enlightened Rusyn patriot. His prose sometimes verges on stream-of-consciousness and his view of history occasionally borders on the romantic, such as his insistence that "Rusynism is two thousand years old". In the wake of the Gorbachev era, which he acknowledges as a fresh and liberating age, he recognizes a first-time opportunity to speak out on such forbidden subjects as national roots and pride: "Rusyn feelings have made their presence known ... like a kind of whirling sea within shores that were too narrow." What readers might lose in strictly historical fact, they gain through his psycho- �138 SLOVAKIA logical and emotional insight into the reality of a people who were held under a curse of silence for the past 45 years. The floodgates have opened and Fedynysynec's essays seem to pour forth expressing all the vitality of the Rusyn national movement. Fedynysynec' wrote his essays in Ukrainian (he has begun writing seriously in Rusyn only in the past two years). They appear here in the Presov Region Rusyn dialect and in Slovak and English translations. The book is neatly formated , with only a few minor misprints, and is the first publication of Rusfnska Obroda (The Rusyn Renaissance Society) based in Presov . The volume of contemporary literature on Rusyns is growing. Students of Slavic and ethnic studies can only hope that Rusfnska Obroda and other publishing enterprises will undertake to make Rusyn literature available both in the original language and in English translation to reach as wide an audience as possible. Norma Rudinsky, Incipient Feminists: Women Writers in the Slovak National Revival. Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers, 19'Jl. 285pp, and That Alluring Land: Slovak Stories by Timrava. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992. XVI-320 pp. MARIA FURIMSKY-LACKOV A Ottawa, Canada These two recently-published books by Norma L. Rudinsky are very welcome for several reasons: apart from dealing with topics which complement each other, both books provide a rare opportunity to read works of Slovak literature in probably the best translations available in the English language. Both describe the interesting place of Slovak women in the national movement at the tum of the 19th century and, most importantly, both fill a gap, at least partially, in the field of Slavic scholarship in North America. The first book is part history and part anthology. According to Rudinsky, it was initialy intended to be only an introduction for the second book, consisting of a translation of six stories by Slovak �SLOVAKIA 139 writer Bozena Slancikova, who published her prose fiction under the pen name Timrava. However, it became a close study of journal articles, letters and poetry showing nationalism and feminism among the Slovaks in Austria-Hungary. The desperate position of Slovak women is traced here in three parts and six chapters. The first part deals with "Woman As Inspiration" in poetic works of Slovak male writers Jan Kollar, Jan Holy, Janko Kraf and Andrej Sladkovic, among others. The second part, titled "Women As Help", describes Slovak women as founders of women's nationalist organizations and magazines, and in the third part "Women As Women" they are depicted as incipient feminist writers of the turn of the century. Heroines of Elena Soltesova, the schoolteacher spinsters of Cudmila Podjavorinska and Timrava's fighting and agonizing female characters are proud and obstinate, consumed by hopeless love and passion. They are compared by Rudinsky to the reform heroins of English and American novelists, such as Jane Austin. Especially interesting is the Appendix of 123 poems in Slovak, formerly scattered in short-lived journals or manuscripts, and collected by Marianna Prfdavkova-Minarikova of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. These poems range from a moralistic hymn in 1798 exhorting young ladies to beware of seducers, to several poems in the 1860s and 1870s equating the nation with a human lover and resolving to became a mystical bride of the nation. Available biographical data of Slovak poets, though many are still not fully indentified, are given in English. Two long essays advocating women's education are translated in full from Slovak into English and frequent comparision is made to Czech, Croatian and Magyar nationalist movements. At the end of the book is a thorough index and useful bibliography. Incipient Feminists is a very carefully-edited book with only a few misprints: e. g. the word "interesting" has an "m" in it (second line of preface); "Klastor pod Zvievom", (p. 40), should be " ... Znievom", and some diacritical marks are missing, e.g. on "zvlasr'' (p. 128). The actual names of the "two small towns in southeast Slovakia" where Timrava lived her whole life and which appear in her more than fifty stories and novellas, may also be of interest to �140 SLOVAKIA the readers. They are Polichno and Abelova. The same applies to Terezia Medvecka Vansova who "lived most of her life in a small town in southern Slovakia" (p. 89). This small town was and still is just a little village of a few hundred people and is called Rimavska Pfla. In Vansova's works it is called simply Pila, Pila pri Tisovci, or Pila v Gemeri. Here she lived from 1882 to 1911 and wrote most of her variety of sketches, tales, biographical pieces, memoirs and several plays. As well, she published there her journal for Slovak women called "Dennica". The second book, consisting of Rudinsky's excellent English translations of six of Timrava's Slovak stories written at the tum of the century, shows remarkably strong female characters desiring to assert their rights against many unfavourable odds. In "The Assistant Teacher" (from the Diary of a Young Lady)", written in 1896, Timrava deals with the financial and social necessity of a good marriage. In the second story titled "Battle" and written in 1900, the heroine rebels against the necessity of a marriage of convenience, albeit still only inwardly. This and other similar stories of rebellion placed Timrava among Slovak critical realists. The third story, "That Alluring Land", from 1907 depicts how the power of money and property takes control of human lives. This story also represents the true reason why many Slovaks emigrated to North America: not to search for instant wealth, but to avoid unemployment, political repression, famine and other basic afflictions in Austria-Hungary at the tum of the century. Mothers usually stayed home to take care of their children and the existing household. In 1911 Timrava wrote "No Joy at All" about the effect that the materialistic obsession with property can have on a family and how it could interfere with the love of two people. The backward village life that existed into the twentieth century in Slovakia is well depicted in "The fapak Clan" written in 1914. The living conditions of fapak's family are depicted probably more darkly than existed in reality in most village families at that time, but Timrava wanted to point out that such extremities existed indeed. The last story of the book "Great War Heroes", written around 1918, is Timrava's antiwar novella, which shows how unjust all wars are. It shows, not �SLOVAKIA 141 only the men as the false "heroes", but also the women and how they become corrupted by the war. This story is Timrava's condemnation of World War One. All six stories depict Slovak women in transition: from obedience without questioning, to clearly understood and expressed rebellion. Timrava's stories depict the castes and culture and the way of life of one segment of Slovak society at the tum of the century, with all its irony and tough realism, making her work invaluable for those who are interested in Slovakia and its past. Jan Simko, English-Slovak Dictionary. Waucondia, Illinois and Senica, Slovakia: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers and RESS spol. s.r.o., 1991. 1443 pp . LOUISE B. HAMMER Indiana University The arrival of Jan Simko's English-Slovak Dictionary in bookstores in the summer of 1991 was a happy event. This dictionary was first published in Slovakia in 1967, and was reissued there in 1968 and 1971. It has been unavailable since that last printing sold out. It has now been published with corrections, but without additions . The physical quality of this book is excellent. It is hardbound, and small enough to handle comfortably . Each page has two columns and the print is large and easy to read. Since the intended user of the dictionary is a native speaker of Slovak, the introductory remarks are in Slovak, as are the abbreviations. The English entry or headword appears in large bold face type flush left to the margin of the collumn. It is followed by a phonetic transcription in square brackets, then the Slovak equivalents are listed. All main entries appear in a single alphabetical list in strict sequence of spelling. English words are written in italic type. The English-speaking user of the dictionary will not need to refer to the phonetic transcriptions of the English entries in order to learn their pronunciations, but it is �142 SLOVAKIA interesting to note that although British pronunciation is used as a basic one, both the British and the American versions are given when they differ markedly, e.g., "tomato" (p. 1250). When different words are used in American and British English for commonplace terms, both are given in this dictionary, e.g. "elevator" (p. 318) and "lift" (p. 648) vffah. These are just two examples of the thoroughness and careful scholarship that characterize this dictionary. If the entry word is used in more than one grammatical form or category (if it belongs to more than one part-of-speech), the entry is clustered or nested so that the usage is designated in the following way: the boldface numeral 1 is followed by the appropriate part-ofspeech in smaller typeface, the primary and secondary meanings are given, and this process continues for the other parts-of-speech. For example, if the first usage is a noun (podstatne meno, abbreviated podst.), and the second as a verb (sloveso, abbreviated s1. or nepravidelne sloveso, abbreviated n. s1., which means an English irregular verb), it would appear in the following way: break [breik] 1. podst. 1. zlomenie, zlomenina 2. trhlina, puklina, etc. 2. n. sl. to~ 1. (po)lamaf (sa), zlomif (sa), rozbif (sa) etc. On the stylistic level, words may be designated as colloquial (hovorove, which is abbreviated as hovor.), e.g. that's great! to je skvele, dobre; slang (slangove, which is abbreviated slg.), e.g., American slang, buck dolar, bookish (knitne); poetic and archaic (basnicke and zastarane'); and dialectal. In this book, dialectal refers to dialects of English, e. g. American, Scottish or Irish. One of the most important features of this dictionary is the wealth of commonly used and idiomatic phrases that it contains. These phrases are placed after the basic definitions, and are designated by a boldface centered dot, e.g. • at the back of one's mind, v podvedomf (p. 41); • hungry as a hunter, hladnf ako vllc (p. 556); • a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, Jepsf vrabec v hrsti ako holub na streche (p. 108); • this argument does not hold water, tento argument neobstojf, je nelogickf (al. nespravny, nedosledny) (p. 540). The inclusion of many prepositional phrases in the examples is a valuable aid to students of the Slovak language �SLOVAKIA 143 who frequently make errors in choosing the proper prepositions and cases, e.g. at reduced prices, za znfiene ceny (p. 990); to climb up a ladder, ( vy)liezt'po rebn1w (p. 1313) and many , many more . Dr. Simko's dictionary is a solid scholarly work, which has been compiled in accordance with modem lexicographical principles. It is a valuable resource for both specialists and students. This dictionary should be added to the reference sections of our libraries, and to the collections of our Slovak organizations. �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1991-92, Vol. 35 Description An account of the resource Vol. 35 (No. 64-65), 1991-92. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Slovak League of America Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available 1991-92 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 125 Hugolfn Gavlovic . Valaska Skala . Edited with a commentary by Gerald J. Sabo, and a linguistic commentary by Cubomir Durovic . Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers, 1987 (1988). 730 pp. JAN F. FRYDECKY Burnaby, British Columbia Hugolfn Gavlovic is one of the most important authors of the older Slovak literature. He was born in Cami Dunajec (in Poland) in 1712, grew up in northern Orava and lived in the Povazie region. In 1733 he was ordained a Franciscan priest and he died in 1787 in Horovce. Gavlovic's "Valaska skola" was finished in 1755. It is the largest work of the older Slovak literature, not only in length, but also because of its artistic value. It is a treasure of practical wisdom in which the author instructs the reader about all that interests him and what he needs in life. The author covers not only personal problems and private life, but also addresses public problems. It is in fact a didactic poem and Sabo has made an exact transcription of almost 18,000 lines with 27 illustrations. "Valaska skola" consists of an introduction in verses, then the main body of the poems in 22 "noty" (parts) and finally a two part "Konec": "On Death" and "On Judgement" . Every note begins with a shepherd's song about some biblical event of the Old Testament. Because 18th century society was very interested in sheepherding, every event was for the author a reason to think about the life of shepherds and peasants. Every note after a shepherd's song contains 59 moral exhortations. Durovic's excellent study (pp . 655-730) pays attention to the language of "V alaska skola". The real use and interest of this edition is linguistic. A previous edition by Michal Resetka (1830-31) left out some lines and transcribed the spelling into Bernolak's codification and so he ruined the rhymes and the whole construction of the work. The second edition by Rudolf Krajcovic (1971) presented the work as a literary monument of Slovak cultural history. His edition was substantially abbreviated. 126 SLOVAKIA Durovic shows that Gavlovic's language is half-way between the work of Pavel Dolefal's "Grammatica Slavico-Bohemica" (1746) and Anton Bernolak's "Gramatica slavica" (1790). The publishing of Gavlovic's "Shepherd's School" has enormous importance for Slovak cultural history of the 18th century. It was a precursor of Anton Bernolak's "Dissertatio philologico-critica de litteris Slavorum" (1787), which signaled the beginning of the codification of the Slovak language. Gavlovic's work was published on the occasion of the bicentennial of two important events in Slovak cultural history of the 18th century: the death of Hugolfn Gavlovic, and the publishing of the work of Anton bernolak. Gerald J. Sabo and I.:'ubomfr Durovic have contributed greatly to explaining the cultural history of Slovakia in the 18th century. Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations, Vols. I and 2, edited by Max Domarus. Waucondia, Illinois: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 1990 and 1992. 611 pp. and 1367 pp. BRIAN L. VILLA University of Ottawa In 1945 the Allies were preparing to mete out severe justice, not just to Nazi Party members but to all Germans, arguing that they were guilty by complicity, by reason of having all heard Hitler's clearly articulated murderous program. This argument, which seemed persuasive in its day, is now something of an embarassment to historians, for it could also be turned against all the Western leaders who, after all, also had acces to Hitler's speeches and yet for many years indulged in appeasing him. For that matter, when Stalin made his pact with Hitler, he knew as much or more than the German public did of Hitler's intentions. There was another flaw in the argumentation and this was that Hitler mixed veiled threats and bombastic verbal terrorism with mild-sounding musings about peace and esctatic smiling at babies. SLOVAKIA 127 Germans, and foreign observers , were thus faced with the problem of sorting out which was the real Hitler, and which was not. Yearning for a better world after the horrors of World War I, not suprisingly the hearts of this generation were ruled by wishful thinking. The consequences of Hitler's programme did not stand starkly revealed until May of 1945, as the world gazed on the lunar landscape of German cities. Most had failed miserably to perceive what his program entailed. But we will never be able to judge properly this issue of the public perception and misperception until we have a complete collection of all of Hitler's recorded utterances, public and private. Any selection prejudges the issue a bit. While the work by Max Domarus , of which the first two volumes in English translation are now in print, is a magnificentlycrafted and documented collection, it is still a selection and a number of speeches are represented only by a single sentence. Still, this is likely to be the most ambitious compilation we are likely to see in our lifetime. Accompanied by solid historical narrative and commentary, carefully documented and well-edited, this is an invaluable tool for the study of the Nazi era. Distateful as it is to put Hitler's speeches up upon the shelves of institutions devoted to truth, this is a mandatory purchase for almost any better library. Certainly it is necessary reading for those who would study the mad delusion of a nation, not to say of a generation. The picture that emerges in Domarus' masterful collection and skillful aditing is that of Hitler as a skilled concert-master calling upon the positive and the negative in his audience, blending, twisting, distorting, so that what had ever been true and false was imposible even to remember. A particularly notworthy revelation of these volumes is the brilliance with which Hitler's staff employed his time. Appearing here and there in a dizzying schedule, building a complex riddle, he climbed to power by purposefully confusing his audience. There is obviously a good book to be written about his handlers, his working staff, and how well they created the monster that eventually escaped so completely from their control. Such a study, as must almost any study of Hitler, will gain immeasurably from a careful study of this indispensable source. 128 SLOVAKIA Jozef Jablonicky. Povstanie bez legiend. Bratislava: Obzor, 1990. 357 pp. STANISLA V J. KIRSCHBAUM York University Those who are interested in a detailed account of the 1944 revolt in Slovakia will find this book useful. It is well-documented and well-writen. Furthermore, the author loses no opportunity to contradict in detail various interpretations that were published during Gustav Husak's regime. It is a valuable addition to Slovak historiography. However, the significance of Jozef Jablonicky" s book lies not so much in the history of what the Communist regime and Marxist historians dubbed the "Slovak National Uprising", as in the reasons why yet another book on those events was published, especially after the fall of Communism in 1989. In fact, this book belongs to the Communist period; it is in its own way a reflection of it. That it was published when freedom of the press was restored merely helps to underline this very fact. As the publishers indicate in the foreword: "The author does not deny that in today's changed social and political conditions, he would formulate many things differently, more openly and more directly; however, he preferred to publish his work as it had been written, under conditions when the opportunity for scientific discussion was replaced by police interrogations" (p. 7). Jablonicky is one of the scholars of the 1960s who published histories of the 1944 events (for example, Z ilegality do povstania, 1969; there are also memoirs, Husak's in particular, and edited volumes) in response to the distorted accounts of the 1950s. However, his writings, like most from the Communist period were hampered either by restricted access to documents, by censorship, or by both. When Husak came to power in 1969, in the footsteps of his predecessors, but also perhaps because he had been the object of earlier falsification himself, he began to alter the historical record, or put simply to falsify history. Jablonicky found that once again he SLOVAKIA 129 had to set the record straight, a task for which he paid a personal pnce. He became a 'persona non grata' under Husak, was expelled from the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciencies in 1974, and from 1976 on was subjected to police harassment, or, as he put it, "primitive persecution". Even though his manuscripts were confiscated, he continued to write and to do research on the topic of the 1944 events. In 1984 the Husak regime published the fivevolume series Dejiny Slovenskeho narodneho povstania. As Jablonicky writes: "I considered it my professional responsibility to counter this literature critically. However, I also tried not to repeat my own errors and defects which are to be found in my earlier works" (p. 9) . His response began to appear in "samizdat" in 1988; this volume is that response. There is one theme that this study does not examine, namely the importance of the 1944 events in Slovak history. There is no doubt that they had far-reaching consequences for the Slovak nation . Jablonicky tells us how they happened, but not why. Nor does he explain their ultimate consequences. One can understand why they were celebrated under Communism: they gave the regime some sort of legitimacy. But that regime has now disappeared, as has the outcome which the 1944 revolt produced: the common state with the Czechs. This begs the question of their role and importance even more than before. For the moment, Jablonicky has chosen to eschew such questions. Yet as a professional historian, now able to express himself freely, he should accept the fact that he has a responsibility greater than that of merely chronicling these events. Others will no doubt tackle these questions; were Jablonicky also to do so, the history of the 1944 events might yet be written without any legends. 130 SLOVAKIA Bohus Chnoupek, A Breaking of Seals: The French Resistance in Slovakia. New York: Pergammon Press, 1988. XI-97 pp. R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Florida This short work deals with a little-known aspect of Slovak and World War II history. French prisoners-of-war, escaping from camps in Germany and Hungary, made their way to Slovakia and were sheltered by the Slovak Resistance. Led by Lieutenant Georges Barazar de Lannurien, these Frenchmen fought as part of the Stefanik Brigade in the uprising of 1944. The Stefanik Brigade was under Soviet partisan command, while the Czechoslovak General Staff in Banska Bystrica insisted that the French be subordinate to its own command structure. De Lannurien's unit was able to exploit this jurisdictional dispute, gain concessions from both sides, and assure for itself a measure of operational independence. The French partisans were instrumental in thwarting the German drive on Strecno in September 1944 and aided in the recapture of Janeva Lehota. After the German suppresion of the uprising in October, de Lannurien's Frenchmen - along with Slovak soldiers and Soviet partisans - retreated into the Tatras and continued resisting as guerrillas. They were joyfully greeted by advancing Soviet forces in February 1945 and were at last permitted to return home. The author's narrative is supplemented by the accounts of partisans who remembered the Frenchmen. The introduction mentions that the author was appointed Czechoslovak Ambassador to the Soviet Union and became Czechoslovak Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1971. As a Husak"s appointee, Chnoupek rather naturally treats the Slovak National Rising as a popular event. Correspondingly, the Slovak Republic is labelled as a "fascist state". Supporters of the Tiso regime maintain that the president-priest never signed any death warrants. Chnoupek, however, alludes to death sentences being passed in absentia on deserters from the Eastern front. SLOVAKIA 131 Yet Chiioupek inadvertedly extends some credit to the Slovak state in the case of Ga~par Maco. Maco refused to heed his call-up orders for the Slovak Army in September 1939, proceeded to France, and served in the Czechoslovak Legion within the French Army. After France's military collapse in 1940, Maco returned to Slovakia and was arrested. The author admits that Maco's youth and frank confession were taken as "mitigating circumstances" (p. 49), and he was given only a six-month sentence. Moreover, he was released one month early for health reasons. Such leniency would not have been forthcoming in the Reichsprotectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, which was under direct Nazi domination. Despite the author's diplomatic backround, his narrative is written in a plain, even folksy style. Interactions between French and Slovak partisans are treated as frequently humorous and occasionally poignant. Especially noteworthy is the description of Christmas Eve 1944, when Slovak partisans invited their French comrades to join them in celebration. This invitation was practical as well as idealistic: The French had captured a herd of sheep from a retreating Hungarian detachment, and now had meat to spare. The Frenchmen were asked to sing the Marseillaise; they did so to the acoustical backround of Soviet artillery, as the front was drawing near. Unknown to them, on the previous day in liberated Paris, General de Gaulle approved de Lannurien's promotion. Given the author's ideological affiliation, it is sometimes easy to forget that Slovak Communists were themselves dissidents during the Novotny years, when many aspects of the Slovak uprising were considered taboo topics. Chnoupek's research was given only the briefest coverage in the newspapers for the tenth anniversary of the uprising. Years later, while laying a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Warrior at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, he was warmly greeted by French veterans of the Slovak partisan struggle. It was then that Chnoupek decided to continue his work and affect a "breaking of seals". The work is the author's own contribution to improved East-West relations. But Chnoupek nontheless conforms to the historiographical standards of Husak's Czechoslovakia, characterized by glaring omis- 132 SLOVAKIA sions of anything potentially embarrassing. Soviet partisan commander Peter Velitchko is depicted in an altogether favorable light, notwithstanding the fact that his rash actions brought full-scale German intervention, caused the rising to be launched prematurely, and thus resulted in tragic consequences. Soviet historians describe this occurance as unfortunate, but they have yet to account for their country's role in it. In post-Husak Czechoslovakia, a more genuine "breaking of seals" regarding topics concerning the 1944 revolt is at last possible. Proces s dr. J. Tisom: Spomienky obialobcu Antona Raslu a obhajcu Ernesta Zabkayho. Edited by Jan Smolec. Bratislava: Tatrapress, 1990. 254 pp. JAMES R. FELAK University of Washington Concomitant with the current revival of national feelings in Slovakia is a reevaluation of those figures from the Slovak past who were either ignored or vilified during the communist era. Most noteworthy among such figures is Jozef Tiso, the president of the wartime Slovak Republic who was executed as a war criminal in 1947. Process dr. J. Tisom, Spomienky obialobcu Antona Raslu a obhajcu Ernesta Zabkayho, is an important contribution to that reevaluation. The book consists of the memoirs of Anton Rasla, one of the prosecutors at Tiso's trial, and Ernest Zabkay, Tiso's chief defense attorney. In addition to the reminiscences of these men, the book includes excerpts from their concluding speeches at Tiso's trial , as well as the text of the trial's verdict. In Zabkay's testimony, two important assertions dominate - that Tiso did not receive a fair trial and that Tiso was not guilty as charged. In support of his first assertion, Zabkay cites the political nature of the trial , the open bias agains Tiso of the presiding judge, Igor Daxner, the denial of certain documentation to the defense, and the harassment of defense lawyers by the police, prompting one SLOVAKIA 133 defender to resign. In Tiso's defense, Zabkay portrays him as a victim of circumstances who could not withstand the irresistible pressure from Nazi Germany nor control her allies in the radical wing of his own party, who either did not know about or was unable to prevent the atrocities commited under his regime, and whose close relations with Hitler's Germany were a matter of necessity, the only way to preserve his small nation from a Hungarian or German occupation. Rasla, who believes that Tiso was indeed guilty of war crimes, nevertheless has sharp words for Daxner and for the prosecution's approach during the trial. Against Rasla's recommendation that the prosecution limit its attention to Tiso's wartime collaboration with Hitler and his role in the crimes against humanity, the prosecution pursued a number of dubious charges, for example, that Tiso supported the interests of Horthyite Hungary. Such charges helped damage the trial's credibility in the eyes of the Slovak public. Proces s dr. J. Tisom leaves us with some important considerations for a reevaluation of Tiso. First, the historian must be careful to distinguish between the moral responsibility and the legal responsisbility of his subject, keeping both in mind but avoiding the conflation of the two that one so often finds in issues concerning war crimes. Second, there is a need to exonerate Tiso where exoneration is due, that is, to avoid reading his wartime collaboration with the Nazis back into the prewar past. For example, it is both untrue and unjust to charge Tiso, as his prosecutors did, with deliberately seeking the destruction of the First Czechoslovak Republic in accordance with Nazi plans in the years preceding the Munich Agreement. Third, there is a need to condemn Tiso where condemnation is due - as the head of a state that deported tens of thousands of Jews to the Third Reich, who gave a violently anti-Semitic speech at the height of the Holocaust, who was one of only sixteen people to receive Nazi Germany's highest decoration, and who, in a case of perverse moral reasoning, professed that Slovakia was fighting on Hitler's side in the Second World War for the "honor of the Slovak nation". 134 SLOVAKIA Owing to the emotions and political pressures of the immediate post-war period, Jozef Tiso did not receive a fair trial. A reevaluation of his trial and his place in Slovak history is long overdue, and the memoirs of Rasla and Zabkay are a welcome step in this direction. Nevertheless, given the current nationalist passions in Slovakia, an objective evaluation of Tiso in his native land may be difficult to realize for some time to come. Athanasius B. Pekar, OSBM, The History of the Church in Carpathian Rus'. New York: East European Monographs, Distributed by Columbia University Press, 1992. Lii - 296pp. KEITH P. DYRUD Concordia College St. Paul, Minnesota This book was originally published in Ukrainian in 1967. It was translated by Marta Skorupsky as part of a series of "Classics of Carpatho-Rusyn Scholarship" coordinated by Patricia A. Krafcik and Paul Robert Magocsi. The History of the Church in Carpathian Rus' is primarily an ecclesiastical history, but it also provides enough political and social context to allow a secular historian to place the· work in the more familiar secular framework. Pekar focused his attention on the Greek Catholic Church in Sub-Carpathian Rus' (Northeastern Hungary until 1918). His study began with the "union" movement which culminated with the Union of Uzhorod in 1646. Pekar gave even coverage to each period, bringing it up to the post-World War II era with a final chapter: "In the Immigration" which examined the history of the Greek Catholic Church in the United States. The author had acces to special collections not readily available to secular scholars, especially, the Archivum Secretum Vatican um (Secret Archive of the Vatican). He has treated those sources with a proper historian's respect so that other historians may feel confident SLOVAKIA 135 in citing his work, but he also approached his topic with an obvious Vatican perspective or bias. Pekar was very critical of the Slovaks. This bias is curious and revealing. The Slovaks have a long history of cooperating with the Rusyns as they jointly resisted Magyarization. It is true that some contemporary Slovaks in the 1960s pressured Rusyns in Eastern Slovakia to identify with the Slovak national movement, but contemporary everits should not distort a historian's analysis of past cooperation. Pekar suggested that the Vatican was constantly fighting to protect the Uniate Church. These attempts were only partially successful in both Hungary and in America. In both places the Latin Church won considerable advantages over the Uniate Church. In his discussion of the Greek Catholic Church in America with its many defections, Pekar was critical of the American bishops for demanding a single rite, the Hungarian government for resisting Leo XIII's efforts to unite the Galician and Sub-Carpathian Rusyns into a single diocese in America, and the leaders of the Greek Catholic Union for resisting the guidance of Rome as the Vatican demanded changes in the Greek Catholic rite. The people, whom Pekar viewed as sheep, reacted against any affront to their rite, and the Greek Catholic Union provided them with the organization necessary to stand up to the forces that would deprive them of those traditions. Pekar's treatment of the actors as villains and heroes , accounts for the greatest weakness of his work. The Vatican was not always the hero. This reviewer would suggest that the Vatican compliantly yielded to Latin Church interest at the expense of the Uniate Church in both Hungary and in America. Pekar also treated the Rusyns as sheep in need of a shepherd. Such an attitude has been traditional with Rome, but it shows disregard for people and democratic principles, and occasionally turns heroes into villians. 136 SLOVAKIA Volodymyr Fedynysynec', Our Peaceful Rusyn Way: Two Essays. Presov: Rusinska Obroda, 1992. 110 pp. PATRICIA A. KRAFCIK Evergreen State College Olympia, Washington Our Peaceful Rusyn Way is a slim volume containing two lenghty essays by Subcarpathian poet and writer Volodymir Fedynysynec'. These essays reflect the author's perception of the current status of the Rusyn national revival in Europe, particularly in Transcarpathian Ukraine. The first, "Be a Rusyn So That Rusyns Will Survive", describes the enormous impact of the scholarly work of Dr. Paul R. Magocsi and the First World Congress of Rusyns (March 1991) on Rusyn historical awareness and revival. Fedynysynec' calls this essay his "objective and subjective notes and reflections" on both the congress and a scholarly seminar on Rusyns held in Uzhorod prior to the congress. In the second, "I am a Rusyn, My Son is a Rusyn: Some Social and Literary Dreams of a Rusyn Writer", Fedynysynec' discusses the significance of the nineteenthcentury Rusyn national awakener, Alexander Duchnovic, and why the creation of a new standard literary language is the key to the survival of Rusyns as a people. Fedynysynec' was born in 1943 and raised in the Rusynspeaking Carpathian mountain village of Repynne in the central region of Subcarpathian Rus', a former autonomous region of Czechoslovakia forcibly annexed to the Ukrainian SSR by Stalin in 1945. He was subsequently acculturated as an Ukrainian after the Soviet regime officialy declared all Rusyns in the region to be Ukrainians. Graduating with a degree in Ukrainian language and literature from Uzhorod State University in 1966, he worked as a journalist and also as a researcher at the Museum of Ethnography in Uzhorod. He has been a member of the Union of Writers of Ukraine since 1983. Until recently he was a member of the executive board of the Society of Subcarpathian Rusyns, established in Uzhorod in SLOVAKIA 137 1990, and was founding editor of the organization's weekly newspaper, Podkarpatska Rus'. Fedynysynec' has also published several volumes of poetry in Ukrainian. To appreciate fully the value of Fedynysynec's inspiration and insights, the reader should understand that the Rusyn movement in Central Europe (Poland's Lemko Region, Eastern Slovakia's Presov Region, Transcarpathian Ukraine, and former Yugoslavia's historic Backa Region) is genuine and flourishing. The nineteenth-century process of national awakening and struggle which led to the formation of sovereign Central European states was, in the Rusyns' case, impeded by many factors. Only now are significant elements of that process occurring among the Rusyns, such as the establishment of a standard literary language, the publication of literature and historical texts, and public recognition of Rusyns as a distinct people. These are all addressed in Fedynysynec's essays. In approaching these essays, one ought to remember that Fedynysynec' is first and foremost a poet who experienced psychological and national repression under the totalitarian Soviet regime. Although known as a Ukrainian writer and poet, he never lost an elemental awareness of his Rusyn identity. This theme resonates ecstatically throughout the two essays: "I am a Rusyn ! We are Rusyns! And we will be Rusyns forever!", "And I don't have to look around me at those who will whisper curses at me. I can even shout above the Beskyds: I am a Rusyn!" Although informative, the essays are clearly not intended as historical or scholarly treatises. Fedynysynec' speaks rather with the passionate voice of an inspired poet and the vigor of an enlightened Rusyn patriot. His prose sometimes verges on stream-of-consciousness and his view of history occasionally borders on the romantic, such as his insistence that "Rusynism is two thousand years old". In the wake of the Gorbachev era, which he acknowledges as a fresh and liberating age, he recognizes a first-time opportunity to speak out on such forbidden subjects as national roots and pride: "Rusyn feelings have made their presence known ... like a kind of whirling sea within shores that were too narrow." What readers might lose in strictly historical fact, they gain through his psycho- 138 SLOVAKIA logical and emotional insight into the reality of a people who were held under a curse of silence for the past 45 years. The floodgates have opened and Fedynysynec's essays seem to pour forth expressing all the vitality of the Rusyn national movement. Fedynysynec' wrote his essays in Ukrainian (he has begun writing seriously in Rusyn only in the past two years). They appear here in the Presov Region Rusyn dialect and in Slovak and English translations. The book is neatly formated , with only a few minor misprints, and is the first publication of Rusfnska Obroda (The Rusyn Renaissance Society) based in Presov . The volume of contemporary literature on Rusyns is growing. Students of Slavic and ethnic studies can only hope that Rusfnska Obroda and other publishing enterprises will undertake to make Rusyn literature available both in the original language and in English translation to reach as wide an audience as possible. Norma Rudinsky, Incipient Feminists: Women Writers in the Slovak National Revival. Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers, 19'Jl. 285pp, and That Alluring Land: Slovak Stories by Timrava. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992. XVI-320 pp. MARIA FURIMSKY-LACKOV A Ottawa, Canada These two recently-published books by Norma L. Rudinsky are very welcome for several reasons: apart from dealing with topics which complement each other, both books provide a rare opportunity to read works of Slovak literature in probably the best translations available in the English language. Both describe the interesting place of Slovak women in the national movement at the tum of the 19th century and, most importantly, both fill a gap, at least partially, in the field of Slavic scholarship in North America. The first book is part history and part anthology. According to Rudinsky, it was initialy intended to be only an introduction for the second book, consisting of a translation of six stories by Slovak SLOVAKIA 139 writer Bozena Slancikova, who published her prose fiction under the pen name Timrava. However, it became a close study of journal articles, letters and poetry showing nationalism and feminism among the Slovaks in Austria-Hungary. The desperate position of Slovak women is traced here in three parts and six chapters. The first part deals with "Woman As Inspiration" in poetic works of Slovak male writers Jan Kollar, Jan Holy, Janko Kraf and Andrej Sladkovic, among others. The second part, titled "Women As Help", describes Slovak women as founders of women's nationalist organizations and magazines, and in the third part "Women As Women" they are depicted as incipient feminist writers of the turn of the century. Heroines of Elena Soltesova, the schoolteacher spinsters of Cudmila Podjavorinska and Timrava's fighting and agonizing female characters are proud and obstinate, consumed by hopeless love and passion. They are compared by Rudinsky to the reform heroins of English and American novelists, such as Jane Austin. Especially interesting is the Appendix of 123 poems in Slovak, formerly scattered in short-lived journals or manuscripts, and collected by Marianna Prfdavkova-Minarikova of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. These poems range from a moralistic hymn in 1798 exhorting young ladies to beware of seducers, to several poems in the 1860s and 1870s equating the nation with a human lover and resolving to became a mystical bride of the nation. Available biographical data of Slovak poets, though many are still not fully indentified, are given in English. Two long essays advocating women's education are translated in full from Slovak into English and frequent comparision is made to Czech, Croatian and Magyar nationalist movements. At the end of the book is a thorough index and useful bibliography. Incipient Feminists is a very carefully-edited book with only a few misprints: e. g. the word "interesting" has an "m" in it (second line of preface); "Klastor pod Zvievom", (p. 40), should be " ... Znievom", and some diacritical marks are missing, e.g. on "zvlasr'' (p. 128). The actual names of the "two small towns in southeast Slovakia" where Timrava lived her whole life and which appear in her more than fifty stories and novellas, may also be of interest to 140 SLOVAKIA the readers. They are Polichno and Abelova. The same applies to Terezia Medvecka Vansova who "lived most of her life in a small town in southern Slovakia" (p. 89). This small town was and still is just a little village of a few hundred people and is called Rimavska Pfla. In Vansova's works it is called simply Pila, Pila pri Tisovci, or Pila v Gemeri. Here she lived from 1882 to 1911 and wrote most of her variety of sketches, tales, biographical pieces, memoirs and several plays. As well, she published there her journal for Slovak women called "Dennica". The second book, consisting of Rudinsky's excellent English translations of six of Timrava's Slovak stories written at the tum of the century, shows remarkably strong female characters desiring to assert their rights against many unfavourable odds. In "The Assistant Teacher" (from the Diary of a Young Lady)", written in 1896, Timrava deals with the financial and social necessity of a good marriage. In the second story titled "Battle" and written in 1900, the heroine rebels against the necessity of a marriage of convenience, albeit still only inwardly. This and other similar stories of rebellion placed Timrava among Slovak critical realists. The third story, "That Alluring Land", from 1907 depicts how the power of money and property takes control of human lives. This story also represents the true reason why many Slovaks emigrated to North America: not to search for instant wealth, but to avoid unemployment, political repression, famine and other basic afflictions in Austria-Hungary at the tum of the century. Mothers usually stayed home to take care of their children and the existing household. In 1911 Timrava wrote "No Joy at All" about the effect that the materialistic obsession with property can have on a family and how it could interfere with the love of two people. The backward village life that existed into the twentieth century in Slovakia is well depicted in "The fapak Clan" written in 1914. The living conditions of fapak's family are depicted probably more darkly than existed in reality in most village families at that time, but Timrava wanted to point out that such extremities existed indeed. The last story of the book "Great War Heroes", written around 1918, is Timrava's antiwar novella, which shows how unjust all wars are. It shows, not SLOVAKIA 141 only the men as the false "heroes", but also the women and how they become corrupted by the war. This story is Timrava's condemnation of World War One. All six stories depict Slovak women in transition: from obedience without questioning, to clearly understood and expressed rebellion. Timrava's stories depict the castes and culture and the way of life of one segment of Slovak society at the tum of the century, with all its irony and tough realism, making her work invaluable for those who are interested in Slovakia and its past. Jan Simko, English-Slovak Dictionary. Waucondia, Illinois and Senica, Slovakia: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers and RESS spol. s.r.o., 1991. 1443 pp . LOUISE B. HAMMER Indiana University The arrival of Jan Simko's English-Slovak Dictionary in bookstores in the summer of 1991 was a happy event. This dictionary was first published in Slovakia in 1967, and was reissued there in 1968 and 1971. It has been unavailable since that last printing sold out. It has now been published with corrections, but without additions . The physical quality of this book is excellent. It is hardbound, and small enough to handle comfortably . Each page has two columns and the print is large and easy to read. Since the intended user of the dictionary is a native speaker of Slovak, the introductory remarks are in Slovak, as are the abbreviations. The English entry or headword appears in large bold face type flush left to the margin of the collumn. It is followed by a phonetic transcription in square brackets, then the Slovak equivalents are listed. All main entries appear in a single alphabetical list in strict sequence of spelling. English words are written in italic type. The English-speaking user of the dictionary will not need to refer to the phonetic transcriptions of the English entries in order to learn their pronunciations, but it is 142 SLOVAKIA interesting to note that although British pronunciation is used as a basic one, both the British and the American versions are given when they differ markedly, e.g., "tomato" (p. 1250). When different words are used in American and British English for commonplace terms, both are given in this dictionary, e.g. "elevator" (p. 318) and "lift" (p. 648) vffah. These are just two examples of the thoroughness and careful scholarship that characterize this dictionary. If the entry word is used in more than one grammatical form or category (if it belongs to more than one part-of-speech), the entry is clustered or nested so that the usage is designated in the following way: the boldface numeral 1 is followed by the appropriate part-ofspeech in smaller typeface, the primary and secondary meanings are given, and this process continues for the other parts-of-speech. For example, if the first usage is a noun (podstatne meno, abbreviated podst.), and the second as a verb (sloveso, abbreviated s1. or nepravidelne sloveso, abbreviated n. s1., which means an English irregular verb), it would appear in the following way: break [breik] 1. podst. 1. zlomenie, zlomenina 2. trhlina, puklina, etc. 2. n. sl. to~ 1. (po)lamaf (sa), zlomif (sa), rozbif (sa) etc. On the stylistic level, words may be designated as colloquial (hovorove, which is abbreviated as hovor.), e.g. that's great! to je skvele, dobre; slang (slangove, which is abbreviated slg.), e.g., American slang, buck dolar, bookish (knitne); poetic and archaic (basnicke and zastarane'); and dialectal. In this book, dialectal refers to dialects of English, e. g. American, Scottish or Irish. One of the most important features of this dictionary is the wealth of commonly used and idiomatic phrases that it contains. These phrases are placed after the basic definitions, and are designated by a boldface centered dot, e.g. • at the back of one's mind, v podvedomf (p. 41); • hungry as a hunter, hladnf ako vllc (p. 556); • a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, Jepsf vrabec v hrsti ako holub na streche (p. 108); • this argument does not hold water, tento argument neobstojf, je nelogickf (al. nespravny, nedosledny) (p. 540). The inclusion of many prepositional phrases in the examples is a valuable aid to students of the Slovak language SLOVAKIA 143 who frequently make errors in choosing the proper prepositions and cases, e.g. at reduced prices, za znfiene ceny (p. 990); to climb up a ladder, ( vy)liezt'po rebn1w (p. 1313) and many , many more . Dr. Simko's dictionary is a solid scholarly work, which has been compiled in accordance with modem lexicographical principles. It is a valuable resource for both specialists and students. This dictionary should be added to the reference sections of our libraries, and to the collections of our Slovak organizations.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Book Reviews, Slovakia, Vol. 35 (No. 64-65) Description An account of the resource includes:<br /><ul><li>Hugolín Gavlocič, Valaská Škola (Ján F. Frýdecký), p. 125</li> <li>Max Domarus, ed., Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations (Brian L. Villa), p. 126</li> <li>Jozef Jablonický, Povstanie bez legiend (Stanislav J. Kirschbaum), p. 128</li> <li>Bohuš Chňoupek, A Breaking of Seals: The French Resistance in Slovakia (R. Vladimir Baumgarten), p. 130</li> <li>Jan Smolec, ed., Proces s dr. J. Tisom: Spomienky obžalobcu Antona Rašlu a obhajcu Ernesta Žabkayho (James R. Felak), p. 132</li> <li>Athanasius B. Pekar, OSBM, The History of the Church in Carpathian Rus' (Keith P. Dyrud), p. 134</li> <li>Volodymyr Fedynysynec, Our Peaceful Rusyn Way: Two Essays (Patricia A. Krafcik), p. 136</li> <li>Norma Rudinsky, Incipient Feminists: Women Writers in the Slovak National Revival, and That Alluring Land: Slovak Stories by Timrava (Mária Furimsky-Lacková), p. 138</li> <li>Ján Šimko, English-Slovak Dictionary (Louise B. Hammer), p. 141</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Baumgarten, R. Vladimir Dyrud, Keith P. 1940- Felak, James Ramon, 1957- Frýdecký, Ján Furimsky-Lackova, Maria, 1943- Hammer, Louise B., 1940- Kirschbaum, Stanislav J., 1942- Krafcik, Patricia Ann, 1949- Villa, Brian L. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1991-92 LCNAF LCNAF+dates name SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/4653fcdcf869d030fcb7bdc00a736285.pdf 4593de865f9ba5d2f75a228dac130ad5 PDF Text Text REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 119 Paul Robert Magocsi (with cartographic design by Geoffrey J. Matthews). Historical Atlas of East Central Europe. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1995, 218 pages. GEORGE J. DEMKO Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire The Historical Atlas of East Central Europe is a truly outstanding and valuable book. The combination of professionally and accurately rendered maps, and the accompanying text that is written with authority, accuracy and clarity represent a rich source of information on an important part of the world. The atlas is comprised of 50 sections, each with maps (in color) and related explanatory text. The themes are varied and arranged chronologically starting from A.D. 400 to the present. The final section incorporates the most recent political changes that have occurred in the region. The themes begin with the geographic zones and continue with subjects such as ecclesiastical jurisdiction, population and migrations to recent industrial development. Some of the themes are quite innovative and useful such as "Education and Culture through the 18th Century" and "Ethnolinguistic Distribution in 1900". There are also 28 tables containing quite valuable information on such topics as the estimated deaths of Jews in the region by 1945, and the size of Catholic and Orthodox populations in East Central Europe in 1900. For bibliophiles there is also an excellent bibliography with an especially useful and rare list of atlases and maps relevant to the region. There are, of course, some issues with which one might quibble. For example, the region is very broadly defined as "the lands between the linguistic frontier of the German and Italianspeaking peoples on the west and the political boundaries of the former Soviet Union on the east. The north-south parameters are the Baltic and Mediterranean seas" (P. XI) . These boundaries �120 SLOVAKIA were defined by the editors of the series to which this volume belongs (a multivolume History of East Central Europe published by the University of Washington Press). The author has expanded on the original boundaries to include the eastern part of Germany, Bavaria, Austria, northeastern Italy, historic Poland, Lithuania, Western Ukraine, Moldova and western Anatolia in Turkey! Certainly the author has erred on the conservative side by using such an inclusive and extensive set of bounding definitions. Given the fact that there are almost as many definitions of East Central Europe as there are "specialists" on the region, and that any defined region would have many important interactions with surrounding areas, the decision is an excellent one providing a very comprehensive perspective on an illdefined region, or rather a region on which a consensus would be extraordinarily difficult to achieve. It is also possible to argue for themes that are important but omitted. For example, the omission of a section on emigration from this important region to the US and Canada (as well as other countries) is regrettable. This topic would have been particularly interesting for the Slovak and Polish areas. Also, the map of geographic zones is really a map of physiographic zones. A map of the "socio/cultural/linguistic regions" of the East Central Europe would have been much more useful and very interesting. In sum, Magocsi's Historical Atlas of East Central Europe is a wonderful and fascinating addition to our educational sources on one of the most troubled and dynamic parts of the world. The cartography is first-rate, and attention to detail is commendable. Anyone, scholar, politican, or interested layperson should add this volume to his/her bookshelf. It is valuable, useful, visually pleasing and reasonably priced. �SLOVAKIA 121 Anton Spiesz. Dejiny Slovenska na ceste k sebauvedomeniu. Bratislava: Perfekt, 1992. Pp. 195. Gregory C. Ference Salisbury State University Salisbury, Maryland The late Anton Spiesz wrote a large number of books prior to the volume under review, most of which concentrated on economic history. Dejiny Slovenska na ceste k sebauvedomeniu, however, cannot be counted among this genre. Although economics play a prominent role in this book, it is best characterized as a historical survey of Slovakia. As such the first part of the title would have sufficed; na ceste k sebauvedomeniu misleads the reader, who is hard pressed to find anything about Slovak national awareness prior to chapter six where Spiesz introduced the issue of nationalism. Even though he began the story 200,000 years ago with the first evidence of humans on Slovak territory, the author quickly traversed the millennia. Evidently Spiesz started to write hi s book before the demise of Communism, as at times Marxist rhetoric appears in the study. In an apparent attempt to correct this problem, the author revised the text in several sections to distance himself from this outdated verbiage. Rather than soften the issue, however, it caused the book to become unwieldy in places. Although Spiesz intended it as a general overview of Slovak history, the book assumed too much. Spiesz sometimes failed to properly introduce people, or to explain events or documents, such as the Zilina Agreement of 1938, only mentioning them. Another fault was the author's penchant for lists, whether they were of animals in ancient Slovakia, manufactured goods from the mid-nineteenth century, or pedagogists. �122 SLOVAKIA The book also suffers from some major errors regarding dates. For example, Hungary proclaimed its independence in March 1849, not in 1848, Ladislav the Posthumous acceded to the throne in 1444 rather than in 1453, and the American Slovak organizations of Zivena and the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union were founded in 1891 and 1892, not in 1894 and 1890 as Spiesz noted. Furthermore, in his treatment of the impact of Slovaks in the United States on politics, Spiesz incorrectly stated that both men and women enjoyed equal rights and the franchise before the First World War, and he over emphasized the establishment and role of socialist organizations among American Slovaks. The last chapters are Spiesz's best, providing balanced coverage on how the Communists subverted the political system and the Slovaks in their takeover of Czechoslovakia. He also exploded the Communist myth that the Slovak National Uprising was one of the greatest moments in Slovak history. In the latter instance, the author painted a very brutal picture in which countless innocent people were murdered by the insurgents. Spiesz could have finished his volume on a high note, b~t his final chapter, "From the Building of Socialism to its Bankruptcy," destroyed the seemingly solid effort found in its several preceding sections. Claiming that a historian cannot write effectively and objectively about events unless a period of at least thirty years has elapsed, he merely gave a thumbnail sketch of the period from 1960 to 1989 which included the tumultuous events of the "Prague Spring" and the "Velvet Revolution." An attack on Gustav Husak undeservedly received the most coverage in this four-page chapter. Here, Spiesz appeared to place himself on a soapbox in an attempt to further disavow his connections with the former regime. The author might instead have covered the fast-paced events after 1989 through the date of publication in order to give the reader a sense of closure. �SLOVAKIA 123 Finally, the book has no index which, though not unusual for European publications, would in this case have been indispensable, since Spiesz covered so much in so few pages. On the whole, this book would be appropriate only for someone with at least a rudimentary knowledge of Slovak history. Richard Marsina a kolektfv. Slovenske dejiny. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1993, 334 pp. R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Rorida This works represents the first general attempt since the collapse of the communist system in 1989 to reevaluate the history of the Slovak people. As such, it offers surprisingly little that is new or original. Indeed, were it not for the fact that Slovenske dejiny condemns the excesses of communist dictatorship, many of its conclusions would be politicaly acceptable to the deceased Husak regime. The early portion of the book deals with events and developments from which various schools ot thought concerning Slovak historiography have traditionally drawn common conclusions: Slovakia was settled by man since the dawn of history, the Slovaks retained a sense of identity in the Hungarian kingdom, there were embryonic tendencies towards statehood in earlier times, and so on. A subtle change of interpretation may be found in the treatment of the national awakening, specifically concerning the leaders of the 1848 revolution. Earlier Marxist interpretation of the 1848 events portrayed Cudovft Stur and his colleagues as conterrevolutionaries for siding with the Habsburgs against the Hungarians. Later, Slovak historiography during Alexander Dubcek' s tenure as First Secretary of the Slovak �124 SLOVAKIA Communist Party reversed this trend, portraying the Slovak leaders as socially progressive figures. This interpretation was continued throughout the Husak regime. Slovenske dejiny, by contrast, depicts the Slovak leaders in a strictly national rather than a social context. The work concedes that they initially attempted to cooperate with Hungarian leader Lajos Kossuth on questions of social reform, but indicates that a breakdown of relations occured concerning Hungary's national question. One significant, and, in retrospect, surprising change of interpretation concerns the circumstances surrounding the Czecho-Slovak merger of 1918. Communist historiography traditionally regarded the merger as a "bourgeois swindle", in which the Slovak people were treated as colonial subjects until the victory of the working class under Communist leadership rectified relations between two nationalities. Given the pressures of Magyarization at the turn of the century, however, Slovenske dejiny treats pro-Czech sentiment as a positive force. The activities of T. G. Masaryk and the Czecho-Slovak emigres, the exploits of the Czechoslovak Legion on foreign battlefields, and even the career of the extreme Czechophile Vavro Srobar are all cast in a heroic light. No mention is made of the previously lauded Slovak Soviet Republic which was founded on the bayonets of Bela Kun's Hungarian Red Army. This work conveys the impression that, if Czecho-Slovak union in 1918 was not the best of all possible worlds, it was at least a step in the right direction. Slovenske dejiny is critical of Czech centralism in the interwar period, but regards the cultural emancipation of the Slovaks and their economic advancement as positive features. Honorable mention is given to Milan Hodfa's appointment as the first Slovak prime minister of Czechoslovakia. His career might have been given more attention. In spite of a long history of personal opportunism, Hodfa's ideas concerning Central European federalism are still worth studying today. �SLOVAKIA 125 While the work hails the attainment of Slovak autonomy in 1938, subsequent developments are portrayed as negative. Advocates of the rehabilitation of Monsignor Jozef Tiso are particularly bound to be disappointed: the Slovak Republic continues to be regarded as a Nazi puppet state, and the deportation of the Jews is treated in the same simplistic manner, which does not inquire deeper into the divisions of policy among Slovak leaders themselves. The 1944 uprising, correspondingly, is still regarded as a heroic event, notwithstanding the surrounding circumstances or tragic consequences. Surprisingly little attention is given to subsequent developments, perhaps out of sense of caution. It must be noted that, although the book was published in 1993, it was prepared during the previous year, at a time when many Czechs and Slovaks still hoped to maintain a federal republic. It reflects history written during a time of transition, and all the limitations found therein. This work's most revealing feature is a lack of vindictive malice towards the Czechs, a phenomenon which helped assure that the "Velvet Divorce" would not become another Balkanstyle bloodbath. A more comprehensive history, however, remains to be written. Katarina Sultajerova. Compiled by. Najstarsie rody na Slovensku, Martin: Slovenska genealogicko-heraldicka spolocnosr pri Matici slovenskej, 1994, 128 pp. DUNCAN B. GARDINER Lakewood, Ohio This collection of articles is essentialy a scholarly primer of the earliest documented Slovak aristocracy. It consists of papers delivered at the October, 1993 Symposium on the Oldest Line- �126 SLOVAKIA ages in Slovakia, which was co-sponsored by the State Regional Archives in Bratislava, the Archives Section of the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, and by the Slovak Ministries of Culture and the Interior. Jozef Novak, author of the two-volume Rodove erby na Slovensku ( 1986), wrote the preface and the lead article "Genealogia ako historicka disciplfna" , which discuses the importance of genealogy in understanding the early history of Slovakia. He recommends making heraldy and genealogy more valuable to historians by broadening genealogical studies to the geographic spread of a family over time, to the bibliography of published literature on a lineage, and to biographies of prominent individuals in the family. Novak also emphasises the importance of thorough source documentation. Roman Zelenay, the late State Secretary of the Slovak Ministry of Culture, wrote "Genealogicke met6dy vfskumu najstarsfch rodov". He discussed traditional Slovak naming customs dating to the Great Moravian period, showing that despite the lack of surnames, it is possible to establish genealogical betwe~n individuals by analyzing the system by which first names were given. The Battle of Mohacs ( 1526) disrupted the Slovak social order and this earlier naming system with it, a fact which makes post-Mohacs genealogies based on onomastics quite different. Milan Majtan, historian and author of Nazvy obcf na Slovensku za ostatnfch 200 rokov (1972), discusses the historical development of personal and family names in Slovakia in "Vfvin JXJmemivania osob na Slovensku", giving examples of proto-Slavic, pre-Christian and Christian naming traditions. Majtan cites copious examples from a range of early manuscript sources. In "Struktura sl'achty na Slovensku v 9 . - 13. storoci'', Richard Marsina relates that the upper aristocracy in Slovakia consisted of Magyars and Magyarized Slovaks. Therefore, the �SLOVAKIA 127 genealogist and historian must look to the lesser nobility within each of the old countries to study the prominent Slovak lineages. Vincent Mucska's "Anonymovo dielo ako genealogickf pramen'""' takes a critical look at the twelfth-century "gesta". He dismisses it as a source of concrete historic or genealogical fact. "Panovnicka dynastia v JO. - 11. storocl" by Ladislav Vrtel' chronicles in some detail the families of the two sons of Takson, a granson of Arpad, the first Magyar leader, showing their quite different fates. Nine more articles, written by wel-known historians, deal with the earliest aristocratic families of individual counties: Saris and Uz by Ferdinand Ulicny; Spis by Ivan Chalupecky; Turiec, Liptov and Orava by Jan Benko; Trencfn by Richard Marsina; Bratislava by Vincent Sedlak; Nitra by Jan Lukacka; Zvolen by Maria Durk ova; and Malohont by Leon Sokolovsky. Each article is in Slovak with a short summary in English or, in several cases, German. The English summaries are readable, but the number of typographical and gramatical errors show that a native English-speaking editor was needed. Short biographies of the authors would have been most useful. The articles are based both on original research and the literature in the field in a number of languages: Polish, German, French, Hungarian, Latin. The Genealogical-Heraldic Society has single-handedly placed Slovakia on the genealogical map by publishing the Hlas, a twice-yearly journal of genealogy and heraldry and by organizing local genealogy groups, not only in Martin, but also in Bratislava, Kosice, and Trencfn. The founding of this society is connected with the fact that the authors of the Slovenskf biografickf slovmk (6 vols., Matica slovenska, 1986 - 1994), aware that the 19th-century Slovak intelligentsia was related by a complex series of intermarriages, have wanted to investigate �128 SLOVAKIA their genealogies for some time. This volume is an admirable contribution to that effort. Dejiny SJXJlocnosti Jeiisovej na Slovensku: 1561 - 1988. Emil Krapka, S. J. and Vojtech Mikula, S. J. - editors: Cambridge, Ontario: Dobra kniha, 1990, 526 pp. and 24 pp. of color illustrations. GERALD J. SABO, S. J. John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio This is a historical survey of the Jesuits and their activities in the Slovak area, part of the 1990 celebration of the Society of Jesus on the 450th anniversary of its papal approval. As noted on the bibliographic page, this monograph was prepared between the fall of 1986 and that of 198 8, before the so-called "Velvet Revolution" of November 1989. Its two editors and eight authors have presented much interesting material to a Slovak-reading public which lacked substantive, accurate information on a religious order important in Slovak history and culture since the sixteenth century. In the main body are a good number of black and white illustrations, supplemented with sixty-four color ones for Slovakia and ten related to Slovak Jesuit activity in Canada. This extensive history is probably unique among such writing, and given the circumstances under which it was realised, all those involved deserve much praise and gratitude. The monograph is divided into five major parts. The first four comprise the Jesuits' history from 1561 with their first establishment in Tmava and on through 1988. The first part of the history covers the time period through 1615, the second, through the suppression of the Jesuit order in 1773, the third, the �SLOVAKIA 129 order's suppression and its effect in the Slovak portion of the Hungarian Kingdom, and the fourth, the context of the Society's universal restoration and its work among Slovaks at home and beyond from 1853 through 1988. The second and fourth parts together comprise two-thirds of the entire work. A major part usually begins with the larger European and Church background in which the Slovak events arose and evolved, and then Slovakrelated material is divided according to geographical locations and pastoral/apostolic activity. The fifth and final part of this history includes a chronological summary of important events among Jesuits of this area, an explanation of religious and Jesuit terminology, a substantial bibliography on the Society at large and in the Slovak area, name and place indexes, and summaries in Slovak, English, German, French, and Magyar. Twice in this history, Jesuits suffered dramatically at the hands of civil authorities. In 1773, Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa was finally impelled to supress legally the Society of Jesus in her realm from fear that if she did not do so, her daughter Marie Antoinette would not be allowed to marry the future French King, Louis XVI. Louis was a Bourbon, member of a royal family that strove mightily to eradicate throughout their European and foreign realms that "least" Society of Jesus for its greater loyalty to Church than state. Yet the Jesuits came back and thrived, just as they do today after their far more brutal suppression and persecution under the Communists between April, 1950 and the revolution of November, 1989. At present, Slovakia is a democratic, sovereign country, and publications such as the Dejiny need to showcase its role in European history and culture. Yet certain features of the Dejiny significantly limit its valuable effect and should be remedied. Prepared for a wide-ranging public conversant in Slovak, this work would also be of great interest to many others, whether general readers or scholars, who do not read Slovak, yet for �130 SLOVAKIA whom the summaries in languages other then Slovak are woefully inadequate. For this much wider audience, the Dejiny should be translated into English, the current lingua franca. Further, the lack of any documentation in notes is a serious limitation, yet nowadays such material could be collected within a reasonable time. This data is needed to provide crucial scholarship about Jesuits in Slovak territory and beyond which is available nowhere else. The activities of these Jesuits, mostly Slovak yet also of other nationalities, have remained hidden from appreciation even in Jesuit publications. For instance, in English-language studies of the Jesuits, the activities and influence of the universities in Trnava and Kosice - cities often disguised behind their German or Magyar names - are briefly mentioned, if that. No mention at all is made of the Slovak Benedikt Szollosi, compiler of the first Catholic hymnal Cantus catholici with songs in Latin and "Cultural Slovak". No more fortunate has been the Slovak Martin Szentivanyi, whose varied writings, encyclopedic studies, and very able directorship of the Trnava University press contributed significantly to Slovak history, culture, and language development. Also unknown among English readers is the Slovak Samuel Timon, whose writings made him a pioneer in scholarly Slovak historiography. Nor is Jesuit history in Slovak territory better known in other Western languages. For instance, nearly fourty years ago the Magyar Jesuit Laszl6 Lukacs wrote in German about the Jesuit Antonio Possevino's papal mission to establish a network of seminaries and schools in northern Europe in the late sixteenth century, but nothing was said about any Slovak area plans or effects. The Dejiny, though, discusses Posse vino's mission and its effects in re-establishing Jesuits there, as well as many other points not found outside of Slovaklanguage publications. Yet how is a general reader or scholar to appreciate the important Jesuit role and contributions to Slovak �SLOVAKIA 131 history, culture, and society, if he is unable to read this history, or is even unaware that it exists? Clearly, the Dejiny cannot remain a hidden Slovak treasure. Indeed, the Slovak Jesuits have an obligation to make the Dejiny with proper documentation known and accessible to a non-Slovak-reading public. They must present themselves before the world and not simply in the Slovak heart of Europe. Otherwise, a part of Slovakia, its culture, history, people, and achievements will remain concealed behind a language that few in today's world will bother to learn even for reading. James Ramon Felak. "At the Price of the Republic." Hlinka's Slovak People's Party,1929-1938. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1994, xiv & 263 p. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM York University, Glendon College Czechoslovakia is a state that broke up twice in its seventyfour year history: the fust time it was under the pressure of international events and on the eve of a world war, the second in the aftermath of democratic elections. The fust break-up has been mired in controversy, due not only to the circumstances surrounding it, but above all to the responsibility that is often ascribed to the Slovak People's Party (SPP) for bringing about that outcome. James Felak's study looks at this party, in particular during the decade that precedes the fust break-up. There are very few studies of Slovak politics in the first Czechoslovak Republic (CSR), fewer still that offer an in depth examination of the role and policies of the main parties that influenced and shaped inter-war Slovak political life. The handful of monographs that have been written on Slovakia in the first �132 SLOVAKIA CSR, or indeed on the first CSR itself, have generally looked at how the "Slovak question" has contributed to, been responsible for, or unable to prevent its break-up. It would not be inaccurate to say that most take a position for (the Czechoslovak and Marxist approach) or against (the nationalist Slovak approach) the first CSR; very few seek to examine the question from the dynamics of Czech-Slovak relations as did Carol Skalnik Leff in National Conflict in Czechoslovakia. The Making and Remaking of a State, 1918-1987 (1988), or from the challenges a multinational state faces when dealing with its constituent nations and national minorities. Felak's study fills some of the gaps in our knowledge of Slovak inter-war political life, but, regretfully, it does little to advance our understanding of it. Of the seven chapters that present the Hlinka Slovak People's Party, five offer a relatively detailed examination of its policies for the decade that begins with the Depression. The first chapter presents a rapid and, unfortunately, superficial overview of Slovak nationalism until 1929 whereas the second outlines in detail the party's ideology and programme. The remaining chapters are divided according to certain events that mark a change of fortune or direction for the party. The author looks in depth at some of the more important ones, such as the Tuka affair of 1929, the 1929 and 1935 elections, the 1931 Slovak orthography dispute, the 1933 Pribina celebrations, the different party congresses, in particular the Youth Congress of 1932 and that of 1936, and the 1938 Pittsburgh Pact celebration, all of which marked Slovak political life. Equally useful and interesting are his descriptions of the SPP platform at different times and the relations with other Czech and Slovak political parties and formations. As for the various leading personalities, Andrej Hlinka, Vojtech Tuka, Karol Sidor, and Jozef Tiso, among others, the author seeks to give a sense of their role and importance in the development of SPP policies. In sum, most of the �SLOVAKIA 133 book offers a detailed examination of the role of the SPP in an important decade in Slovak political life and is in this respect a contribution to the existing literature. The main problem with this study lies in its approach to the subject. This is due not only to too great a reliance on certain earlier studies, but above all to the indiscriminate use of police reports as authoritative sources of political analysis. In fairness to the author, he makes an attempt to present a balanced approach on the "Slovak question". Yet the language he uses clearly indicates that he identifies with and accepts generally the interpretations of those authors who have a Czechoslovak view ?f Slovak history, a view that is mostly negative toward the Slovaks and uncritically favourable toward Czechoslovakia. For example he refers to Slovakia as "relatively underdeveloped, politically, economically, socially, culturally, and nationally" (p. 17) or describes Hlinka as having a "parochial, clerical mentality that resembled that of a Slovak peasant." (p. 25) In addition, like earlier authors, his examination of Prague policies toward Slovakia and toward the SPP, is at best cursory and certainly not critical. On occasion one gets the feeling from his presentation that there was a specific Prague-SPP dynamic, yet there is little analysis of the reasons for and the consequences of Prague policies, only of the SPP reactions and actions. For example, Prague exercized censorship on the SPP press to such an extent that in 1938, when the government was considering the possibility of a coaliton with the SPP, one of that party's conditions was the lifting of that censorship. Equally problematic is the reliance on police reports as a research source. The fact that the Prague government felt it necessary to have police spies within the SPP is in itself a fact worth examining, not to say anything of the accuracy of these reports. The emphasis that Felak places on factional struggles within the SPP comes mostly from these reports. That the police �134 SLOVAKIA spies reported such struggles is not in the least bit surprising; it was in the government's interest to be able to neutralize an opposition party that Pelak on many occasions describes as the most important one in Slovakia. Also, there is nothing surprising about factional differences; this is a fact of life in political parties in all democratic states. But in this case, the factionalism represented the dilemmas the SPP faced in its twin objectives: the autonomy of Slovakia and the integrity and security of Czechoslovakia. The failure of Prague to have understood this and to have dealt with it adequately was paid, in the end, "at the price of the republic." For all its richness about the SPP, Felak's examination of its policies is nevertheless incomplete; on the other hand, it has the merit of provoking additional questions and showing the way for further study. Hope Dies Last, The Autobiogra]Xly of Alexander Dubcek. Edited and translated by Jin Hochman. New York: Kodansha America, Inc., 1993. 354 pp. ROBERT K. EV ANSON Uni versify of Missouri Kansas City The automobile accident of September 1, 1992, which led to Alexander Dubcek's death nine weeks later, robbed Slovakia of one of its most distinguished political leaders. Whether Dubcek could have played a vital role in shaping the politics of an independent Slovakia will never be known. What is certain, and what we are reminded of in this fascinating autobiography excellently edited and translated by Jin Hochman - is that he did establish for himself a place of lasting historical importance. �SLOVAKIA 135 It seems necessary to say this because, as Dubcek himself was aware, there is insufficient appreciation among many of today's young Slovaks and Czechs of what he and his fellow "reform Communists" attempted to do in the 1960s. It remains for historians to sort out the difficult issue of just how much impact the Prague Spring had on the subsequent course of Czechoslovak politics that ended ultimately in the demise of the country's neo-Stalinist regime twenty-one years later, but clearly the impact was significant.The Prague Spring, which Dubcek more than anyone else helped to shape, set an example for democratic aspirations that resurfaced in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s. It also was an obvious model for some of Gorbachev's policies in -the 1980s. The Soviet suppression of the reform movement also created deep wounds of alienation among Czechs and Slovaks towards the USSR and the post-1968 regime that never healed. Ironically, both Dubcek and the Soviets were correct in their 1968 dialogue, Dubcek in warning the Soviets of the need to better understand how many Czechs and Slovaks viewed the old regime as an unnatural entity, and the Soviets in recognizing the degree to which Dubcek's reform movement threatened the very foundations of Leninist rule in Eastern Europe. Dubcek's autobiography begins appropriately with his early years, and an examination of that period of his life teaches us a great deal about why he acted as he did in his maturity. It is difficult not to admire the man, and this book, which is not egregiously self-serving, merely strengthens that attitude. Several aspects of character and personality come to mind - decency, courage, political shrewdness, and a trust and idealism that were at once his greatest strengths and his greatest weaknesses. We find him as a teenager in Kirghizia defending young Muslims against bullying by his fellow Czechs and Slovaks, and after World War Two pressing relentlessly for the release from the Soviet Gulag of a physician who had treated the injured Dubcek �136 SLOVAKIA during the Uprising; it was a small moral step to his passionate commitment to the complete rehabilitation of all political prisoners in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s. In 1952, in the wake of the Shinsky trial and at the height of the terror, he cast aside a Soviet-censored version of a speech and instead delivered a ringing eulogy at the funeral of fellow Communist Karol Smidke, who had been a victim of the persecution. He stood up for the reforms in the face of immense Soviet pressure throughout 1968, acted honorably after his abduction to Moscow following the Soviet and allied invasion, refused to take the safety of exile because he thought his proper place was with his people, and sent off a stream of letters of protest long after his removal from power at considerable personal risk. Dubcek also was a very clever and careful political tactician. Some of the most fascinating passages in his book concern the way he built alliances in his ultimately successful effort to bring down Communist Party First Secretary Antonin Novotny in 1967. I would like to have read even more details about conversations he had with various political figures in this process, as well as about the way he blunted Novotny's efforts to consign him to political oblivion in 1962, but there still is plenty to captivate anyone with a taste for Prague-style Kremlinology. The period of the early 1960s is especially interesting in this book, because Dubcek discusses the first signs of the movement against neo-Stalinism and Prague centralism, including his election over Novotny's opposition to the position of Slovak Communist Party First Secretary in April, 1963. This event represented a stinging defeat for Novotny, because Dubcek already had established himself as the leading advocate for sweeping rehabilitation of the victims of the purges of so-called "Slovak bourgeois nationalists" in the early 1950s. As such, he had become the major opponent of Prague centralism in the Party leadership. �SLOVAKIA 137 While Dubcek was never foolhardy, he could be surprisingly bold. An interesting illustration of this was his successful ploy with Jin Hendrych, the number two man in the Party hierarchy in 1967 and, until then, a staunch Novotny loyalist. Sensing that Hendrych was beginning to vacillate in his commitment to Novotny, Dubcek walked into his office that late November and said that Novotny's days as First Secretary clearly were numbered, and that Hendrych might consider getting on the bandwagon or he too would fall. As an added enticement, he invited the startled Hendrych to consider whether he would like Novotny's job as First Secretary! The amusing climax of this story is that shortly thereafter, Leonid Brezhnev came to Prague to assess Novotny's prospects and naturally sought out Hendrych's opinion. Reportedly, Brezhnev barely got inside the door when Hendrych told him he was "willing" to serve as First Secretary. While Hendrych never got the chance - Dubcek succeeded Novotny - his abandonment of Novotny may have persuaded Brezhnev of the futility of a rescue operation. The most painful reading in this book is the period of the mounting Soviet hostility to the Prague Spring and the ultimate invasion and subsequent period of "normalization." It is impossible not to become angry all over again when one reads of the treatment Dubcek and his comrades received at the hands of their Soviet kidnappers, as well as the incredible pettiness and maliciousness of their successors in Prague and Bratislava. While Dubcek does not cast a great deal of new light on the events of 1968, he minces no words in assessing various political figures and spares no criticism of his worst tormentors. Thus we learn that Soviet Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin was as cold in private as in public and capable of extreme rudeness. He and his Soviet comrades are rightly dismissed by Dubcek as "gangsters" and "thugs." Novotny is confirmed as hopelessly ignorant of Slovak affairs, as well as contemptuous toward Slovak national �138 SLOVAKIA feelings, one of the keys to his ultimate demise. Dubcek also brands Vasil Bifak, Alois Indra, and the other conspirators of 1968 as "traitors." No one comes across worse, however, than Gustav Husak, who presided over the restoration of neo-Stalinism in Czechoslovakia. His shabby treatment of Dubcek after 1968, despite Dubcek's pivotal role in bringing about his political resurrection, is a sad counter to the courage he displayed when fighting for his own rehabilitation in the early 1960s. Despite the claims that he "protected" the ousted reformers from "hardliners" in the Party, Husak comes across here as a man incapable of normal feelings and as a complete opportunist. Naturally Dubcek was bitter about Husak, but the tone of his evaluations of Husak and other political figures is in fact measured and convincing. No discussion of Dubcek's political career would be complete without addressing his failure to discern the danger of a Soviet invasion in 1968. Part of the answer may lie in his family background. He was born in 1921 to a pair of committed socialists who were so enamored of the Soviet experiment that they were willing to relocate to Central Asia to help build a new society. At the same time, his parents had the good sense to return to Czechoslovakia when the dangers of remaining in the Soviet Union became obvious. Nonetheless, Dubcek never abandoned the socialist idealism he inherited from them. While he certainly understood the evils of Stalinism and the incompatibility of the Soviet-type system with Czech and Slovak traditions, he had a blind spot that served him poorly in 1968. Specifically, despite all the Soviet expressions of alarm about what he and his fellow reformers were doing, he could not bring himself to believe the USSR would intervene. There is no question Dubcek had evolved into a democrat and was aware of what he was doing. He writes that the Action Program put forth by Party reformers in 1968 "was a plan for a gradual return to �SLOVAKIA 139 the concept of democratic socialism ... " He acknowledges that his regime was rejecting various aspects of Leninism - he believed that the Communist Party could win popular support in competitive elections, once it had embraced democracy, and thus he downplayed the Soviet concern that his reforms were jeopardizing "the leading role of the party." At the same time, he knew he had to avoid making any references to multi-party democracy for fear of alarming them unnecessarily. He also believed that "socialism could function better in a market-oriented environment, with significant elements of private enterprise." He writes that of course he recalled what happened to Hungary in 1956, but he had made clear to the Soviets his determination that Czechoslovakia would remain loyal to its Soviet bloc allies, so the situations were not comparable. Perhaps it was due to his conviction that what he and his colleagues were doing would benefit socialism by strengthening the Communist Party's legitimacy among the people, and by bringing the country closer to the original ideals of socialism, that he could not believe that the Soviet leadership would not, however reluctantly, allow him to proceed. (In a postscript, Jiff Hochman notes Dubcek's inclination to believe in people's good intentions.) In fairness, it is difficult to fault Dubcek very much had he opted for concessions, it seems unlikely that the Soviet leadership would have accepted anything short of a complete abandonment of the democratization process to which he had committed his country. Still, his discussion of how he assessed the Soviet mindset at the time is not entirely satisfactory. Alexander Dubcek's autobiography is a thoughtful and wellwritten account of the life of a man of extraordinary moral and political qualities. It is indispensable reading for anyone with an interest in the Czechoslovak political experience. �140 SLOVAKIA Paul Robert Magocsi. The Rusyns of Slovakia: An Historical Survey. New York: East European Monographs, Distributed by Columbia University Press, 1993, x, 185 pp., Maps, Notes, Bibliography, Index. KEITH P. DYRUD Concordia College St. Paul,MN The Rusyns of Slovakia: An Historical Survey is essentially a revision of an earlier work by Prof. Magocsi, The RusynUkrainians of Czechoslovakia: An Historical Survey (Vienna, 1981 ). But there is an additional twist to this revision. The "Preface" says: ''This volume is a translation of an introductory historical survey published in the newly codified Rusyn literary language as well as in Slovak by the Rusyn Renaissance Society in Presov." Prof. Magocsi played a leading role in the formation of the national movement that spawned the Rusyn Renaissance Society and the First World Congress of Rusyns that sponsored the codification of the Rusyn literary language. The professor, however, is modest. His name does not once appear in the text in connection with that activity; however, he is pictured with other leaders of the First World Congress of Rusyns (122). The contents of the book should be familiar to those have read the author's earlier works. Magocsi traces the Rusyns' history from their first settlement in eastern Slovakia to the present. He partially assumes and partially attempts to demonstrate that the Rusyns of eastern Slovakia form a distinct nationality. Magocsi documents the cooperation that existed between the Rusyns and the Slovaks while they were dominated by Hungary prior to 1914, but he is critical of the "slovakization" of the Rusyns between the world wars, and he also identifies the �SLOVAKIA 141 Ukrainian movement as a threat to the Rusyn national identity that the book clearly endorses. During the inter-war yars slovakization was a greater threat to the Rusyns than "ukrainianization", but after the Second World War, official government support for the Ukrainian identity led to a decline of any national consciousness. Many Rusyns identified themselves as Slovaks to avoid the Ukrainian label. After the "Velvet Revolution" of November 1989, the Rusyns in the Presov region were again free to publicly promote their own national identity as separate from either Slovak or Ukrainian. In this effort, the Rusyns received support from both the Prague and the Bratislava governments. Magocsi suggests that this support for the Rusyns harkens back to "the historical friendship and attention on the part of Czechs and Slovaks toward their Rusyn brethren ... " (126). It could also suggest that the number of people identifying themselves as Rusyns is now very small and the Rusyn movement is not likely to become a major competitor to the Slovak identity in eastern Slovakia. In fact the major problem with Prof. Magocsi 's interpretation of the Rusyn movement in estem Slovakia is his confidence that the small number of Rusyns can develop a national identity. He is dissatisfied with the 1991 census figures that identify fewer than 33,000 "Rusnak/Russian/Rusyn/Ukrainian" people in the Presov region, with just under 17,000 of them unambiguously identifying themselves as "Rusyn" ( 126). According to Magocsi, that number could potentially be as high as 130 000 (2 - 3). Many readers of Magocsi's first book: The Shaping of a National Identity: Subcarpathian Rus', 1848 - 1948 (Cambridge, Mass., 1978) were persuaded by his convincing argument that the Rusyns in Subcarpathia did, at least, "shape" a national identity during the inter-war years. But in that era, he was dealing with a larger critical mass of Rusyns. In eastern Slovakia, that critical mass does not seem to exist. With the Slovaks claiming �142 SLOVAKIA most of those 130,000 potential Rusyns, and the Ukrainians competing for the rest, it does not seem likely that the critical mass will develop. In the meantime, those who do identify themselves as Rusyns can read their history in their own "newly codified language". And those who identify themselves as Slovaks can also read the translation in their language just as Rusyns in North America can read it in English. Ukraine and Ukrainians throughout the World: A Demographic and Sociological Guide to the Homeland and Its Diaspora. Edited by Ann Lencyk Pawliczko. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press for the Shevchenko Scientific Society, 1994, xxxvi, 508 pp. PAUL R. MAGOCSI University of Toronto The goal of this volume is to provide brief factual data on Ukrainians wherever they may live in the world. The newlyindependent country of Ukraine has within its borders only 64 percent of the estimated 58.7 million inhabitants who inhabit various parts of the globe. Therefore, a history or description of the Ukrainian people as a whole must be concerned with many other places than Ukraine. This book in fact deals primarily with the estimated 21.2 million Ukrainians living outside Ukraine. The approach is comprehensive, with an effort to say something about communities, however small they may be, in places like Luxembourg, Ireland, Tunisia and New Zealand as well as in the more known countries of Ukrainian immigrant settlement like the United States, Canada, and Australia. �SLOVAKIA 143 The editor, Ann Lencyk Pawliczko, felt the need to trace the political and cultural history of Ukraine (pp. 37 - 84), which is the least satisfactory portion of this otherwise encyclopedic compendium. The rest of the volume consists of entries by 28 authors on the various countries where Ukrainians live. Each entry begins with a general overview of a specific country followed by a history of its Ukrainian community. Many entries include statistical charts and each ends with a list of further readings. Slovak readers will likely be interested in the entry called "Ukrainian-Ruthenians in the Slovak Republic", written by Vasyl Markus (pp. 157 - 166). While the author recognizes the enormous cultural achievements made by the Ukrainians in Slovakia after World War II, he does not attribute the achievements to the favorable policies of the former Czechoslovak Communist government that lavished extensive funding on the group, but rather to the efforts of the local Ukrainian-oriented intelligentsia. He claimes that the official census figures (30,800 Rusyns and Ukrainians in 1991) are far below the 110,000 to 120,000 that supposedly live in northeastern Slovakia. Markus argues the statistical discrepancy exists because of manipulation by Slovak census takers and a policy of "denationalization" carried out by both the former Communist and post-1989 governments in Slovakia. He does not mention the real reason for the numerical differences. Since the 1950s thousands of "Ukrainians-Ruthenians" voluntarily opted to identify as Slovaks in protest against Communist government decrees that banned the Rusyn national identity and required people to call themselves Ukrainian. The author also indirectly blames Slovak governments for responding favorably since 1989 to the Rusyn national revival and for allowing people in the 1991 census to identify with the Rusyn nationality (16,937 Rusyns as opposed to 13,847 Ukrainians) and with the Rusyn language (49,099 Rusyn speakers as opposed to 9,480 Ukrainian speakers) - the latter �144 SLOVAKIA figures are not provided by Markus. The otherwise democratic policies of present-day Slovakia are described as promoting "political Ruthenianism" a phenomenon that is "influenced by outside anti-Ukrainian forces" and that is intent on de-Ukrainianizing the local population. Fortunately, the rest of this volume maintains a less biased tone in describing Ukrainian communities in other countries. Nina Trnka: Slovak-English I English-Slovak Dictionary, N. Y., Hippocrene Books, 1992, 360 pp. JOHN M. KOCHIK Scottsdale, Anizona Any contribution to the field of Slovak reference materials is always welcome. Attempts at popularization are encouradged only to the extent that a work demonstrates quality. Standards, of course, should always be high to reflect the expertise of the _ contributor. The backcover boasts "You are holding the only SlovakEnglish/English-Slovak Dictionary available in North America". What about Smejkalova et al.? The book is intended for "students and travelers", and claims to be "concise". For all its advertising pretense, its format is disappointing. It looks like a thesis. It lacks an Introduction which it sorely needs for efficient use. It omits a separating page (175) between the two major divisions for facile access, wherein an appropriate blank page or second title page would suffice. Pronunciation (pages i through iii) is confusing. The list of consonants is incomplete, not accounting for - among others important palatals d', I, ii, ( used in too many words to be ignored. As immediate as page one, there is no knowing how ''t~' �SLOVAKIA 145 in "akost' must be pronounced according to her presentation. Questions arise as to "studi'ia" (123) and "studna" (353 - see "well")? Why then "anP' (2) gives [a-nyi], or "odev" (71) [odyef]? How then distinguish cited "Javica" (44) from un-cited "/avica" - "left hand"? Equating long "6" with "6" in Pronunciation is erroneous, being that the latter "6" is diphotong [.u.o]. The remarks in Pronunciation are unclear and inadequate. The uninitiated will render Slovak pronunciation ludicrous. Examples provided are ambiguous for articulation of varietes of vowel "a", because speakers of American-English are inconsistent in their renditions of "a" in cited forms "ma-ma, fast, rat, grass, pad". To present digraph "ch" as aspirated [kh] in "khaki" (sic!) is not true for the guttural [)c]. And, to state that Slovak "r' is approximated by labial untrilled "r' of "red" - bellies the trilled "r' performed by the tongue. Transcription in Pronunciation is defective, since the symbols given are arbitrary, not in accord either with the conventions of Slovak texts or even the International Phonetic System. A hard look at the symbols presented defies logic. Examples follow. Since Standard Slovak (i. e. spisovna slovencina) utilizes digraph "dz" as the phone in medzi and other words - to employ "dz' as a symbol for English pronunciation of th [b] of "they" is incomprehensible! In like manner, use of [s] for [0] of "thank" produces comic theatrical effect as in [Sank you] for [Sank you]! Moreover, to present the nasal-guttural -ng [ri] of "long" as underlined [g] can be misinterpreted into a humorous exagerated liaison of oft-quoted misquoted "LoNGJsland" with defined [NGJ]. �146 SLOVAKIA Further examination into the deficiencies given in Pronunciation would require a complete revision after careful editing. So far only the unavoidable pitfalls have been critiqued. Editorial work appears lax or nonexistent as evidenced by "thruth" (sic! page ii), presumably "truth". And, "heith" (sic! page 158) following vyska and page 244, apparently meant to be "height"). In both citings of "heith", consistency seems to demonstrate persistent misspelling. There is an unexpected thrust from V (350) into W (351) without a notification-heading W. As for word-selection, it might be hoped that high-frequency was a criterion for efficiency. On the contrary, superfluous are words among others like "elephant" (222), "volcano" (350), "yacht" (358), "zebra" (359) - scarcely indigenous to Slovakia! Yet the word kamzik (36?) "chamois" (198?) indigenous to the Tatras finds no listing in either section. Why "warden" (351) is given makes one wonder of its sociological implications. Why is "warrant" (351) so important to find place here? Surely one expects utilitarian vocabulary in such a work. As for semantics, a first-hand impression might be that if several meanings are provided without explanation or definition - an indiscriminate interchange might be possible. Not so for automat (3) "slot-machine, snack-bar, machine-gun". Thus also for "minister" (268) "minister, vyslanec, duchovnf" mean different things. Each having a distinct, specific meaning. It is most unlikely that "students and travelers" will discern clearly which term fits which circumstance. Cross-references are not provided for necessary clarification. See "warm" (351) ...srdecnf... for which neither "cordial" (206?) nor "sincerely" (315) are given on expected pages in parentheses. In similar manner, aktiv (1) "meeting, gathering" makes no reference or distinction from "meeting" (266) schodza, stretnutie. �SLOVAKIA 147 Perusal of the text will result in startling revelations. For instance, pronunciation of odJXJr (72) gives [od-por], whereas in fact it is [ot-por], a morphophonetic alternation called regressive assimilation. Where the voiced d automatically becomes unvoiced/devoiced t, in harmony with unvoiced p which sets the condition for the process. The same phenomenon occurs in other instances like odstup (72) to [ot-stup], bezplatny (6) to [bes-platnee], modlitba and prosba for "prayer" (289) not given in the text as [mod-lit-ba] and [proz-ba]. Interesting to note is that word-final voiced consonants are given as de-voiced as in smrad (116) [smrat]. However, no account has been made of v as a semi-vowel [IJ.] in such words as pravda (92) [prau.da], rovno (105) [rouno], domov (18) [domo.1J.]; instead, Czech ussage [domof] (18) is presented. Two outstanding examples given: [svatba] (125) for svadba and ['strukh] (101) for pstruh are unintelligible. For all the effort involved in the production of this Dictionary, it is unfortunate that it should fall short of the desired quality expected. In spite of the good intentions of the contributor, the end result is full of inconsistencies and inadequacies. � REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 119 Paul Robert Magocsi (with cartographic design by Geoffrey J. Matthews). Historical Atlas of East Central Europe. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1995, 218 pages. GEORGE J. DEMKO Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire The Historical Atlas of East Central Europe is a truly outstanding and valuable book. The combination of professionally and accurately rendered maps, and the accompanying text that is written with authority, accuracy and clarity represent a rich source of information on an important part of the world. The atlas is comprised of 50 sections, each with maps (in color) and related explanatory text. The themes are varied and arranged chronologically starting from A.D. 400 to the present. The final section incorporates the most recent political changes that have occurred in the region. The themes begin with the geographic zones and continue with subjects such as ecclesiastical jurisdiction, population and migrations to recent industrial development. Some of the themes are quite innovative and useful such as "Education and Culture through the 18th Century" and "Ethnolinguistic Distribution in 1900". There are also 28 tables containing quite valuable information on such topics as the estimated deaths of Jews in the region by 1945, and the size of Catholic and Orthodox populations in East Central Europe in 1900. For bibliophiles there is also an excellent bibliography with an especially useful and rare list of atlases and maps relevant to the region. There are, of course, some issues with which one might quibble. For example, the region is very broadly defined as "the lands between the linguistic frontier of the German and Italianspeaking peoples on the west and the political boundaries of the former Soviet Union on the east. The north-south parameters are the Baltic and Mediterranean seas" (P. XI) . These boundaries �120 SLOVAKIA were defined by the editors of the series to which this volume belongs (a multivolume History of East Central Europe published by the University of Washington Press). The author has expanded on the original boundaries to include the eastern part of Germany, Bavaria, Austria, northeastern Italy, historic Poland, Lithuania, Western Ukraine, Moldova and western Anatolia in Turkey! Certainly the author has erred on the conservative side by using such an inclusive and extensive set of bounding definitions. Given the fact that there are almost as many definitions of East Central Europe as there are "specialists" on the region, and that any defined region would have many important interactions with surrounding areas, the decision is an excellent one providing a very comprehensive perspective on an illdefined region, or rather a region on which a consensus would be extraordinarily difficult to achieve. It is also possible to argue for themes that are important but omitted. For example, the omission of a section on emigration from this important region to the US and Canada (as well as other countries) is regrettable. This topic would have been particularly interesting for the Slovak and Polish areas. Also, the map of geographic zones is really a map of physiographic zones. A map of the "socio/cultural/linguistic regions" of the East Central Europe would have been much more useful and very interesting. In sum, Magocsi's Historical Atlas of East Central Europe is a wonderful and fascinating addition to our educational sources on one of the most troubled and dynamic parts of the world. The cartography is first-rate, and attention to detail is commendable. Anyone, scholar, politican, or interested layperson should add this volume to his/her bookshelf. It is valuable, useful, visually pleasing and reasonably priced. �SLOVAKIA 121 Anton Spiesz. Dejiny Slovenska na ceste k sebauvedomeniu. Bratislava: Perfekt, 1992. Pp. 195. Gregory C. Ference Salisbury State University Salisbury, Maryland The late Anton Spiesz wrote a large number of books prior to the volume under review, most of which concentrated on economic history. Dejiny Slovenska na ceste k sebauvedomeniu, however, cannot be counted among this genre. Although economics play a prominent role in this book, it is best characterized as a historical survey of Slovakia. As such the first part of the title would have sufficed; na ceste k sebauvedomeniu misleads the reader, who is hard pressed to find anything about Slovak national awareness prior to chapter six where Spiesz introduced the issue of nationalism. Even though he began the story 200,000 years ago with the first evidence of humans on Slovak territory, the author quickly traversed the millennia. Evidently Spiesz started to write hi s book before the demise of Communism, as at times Marxist rhetoric appears in the study. In an apparent attempt to correct this problem, the author revised the text in several sections to distance himself from this outdated verbiage. Rather than soften the issue, however, it caused the book to become unwieldy in places. Although Spiesz intended it as a general overview of Slovak history, the book assumed too much. Spiesz sometimes failed to properly introduce people, or to explain events or documents, such as the Zilina Agreement of 1938, only mentioning them. Another fault was the author's penchant for lists, whether they were of animals in ancient Slovakia, manufactured goods from the mid-nineteenth century, or pedagogists. �122 SLOVAKIA The book also suffers from some major errors regarding dates. For example, Hungary proclaimed its independence in March 1849, not in 1848, Ladislav the Posthumous acceded to the throne in 1444 rather than in 1453, and the American Slovak organizations of Zivena and the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union were founded in 1891 and 1892, not in 1894 and 1890 as Spiesz noted. Furthermore, in his treatment of the impact of Slovaks in the United States on politics, Spiesz incorrectly stated that both men and women enjoyed equal rights and the franchise before the First World War, and he over emphasized the establishment and role of socialist organizations among American Slovaks. The last chapters are Spiesz's best, providing balanced coverage on how the Communists subverted the political system and the Slovaks in their takeover of Czechoslovakia. He also exploded the Communist myth that the Slovak National Uprising was one of the greatest moments in Slovak history. In the latter instance, the author painted a very brutal picture in which countless innocent people were murdered by the insurgents. Spiesz could have finished his volume on a high note, b~t his final chapter, "From the Building of Socialism to its Bankruptcy," destroyed the seemingly solid effort found in its several preceding sections. Claiming that a historian cannot write effectively and objectively about events unless a period of at least thirty years has elapsed, he merely gave a thumbnail sketch of the period from 1960 to 1989 which included the tumultuous events of the "Prague Spring" and the "Velvet Revolution." An attack on Gustav Husak undeservedly received the most coverage in this four-page chapter. Here, Spiesz appeared to place himself on a soapbox in an attempt to further disavow his connections with the former regime. The author might instead have covered the fast-paced events after 1989 through the date of publication in order to give the reader a sense of closure. �SLOVAKIA 123 Finally, the book has no index which, though not unusual for European publications, would in this case have been indispensable, since Spiesz covered so much in so few pages. On the whole, this book would be appropriate only for someone with at least a rudimentary knowledge of Slovak history. Richard Marsina a kolektfv. Slovenske dejiny. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1993, 334 pp. R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Rorida This works represents the first general attempt since the collapse of the communist system in 1989 to reevaluate the history of the Slovak people. As such, it offers surprisingly little that is new or original. Indeed, were it not for the fact that Slovenske dejiny condemns the excesses of communist dictatorship, many of its conclusions would be politicaly acceptable to the deceased Husak regime. The early portion of the book deals with events and developments from which various schools ot thought concerning Slovak historiography have traditionally drawn common conclusions: Slovakia was settled by man since the dawn of history, the Slovaks retained a sense of identity in the Hungarian kingdom, there were embryonic tendencies towards statehood in earlier times, and so on. A subtle change of interpretation may be found in the treatment of the national awakening, specifically concerning the leaders of the 1848 revolution. Earlier Marxist interpretation of the 1848 events portrayed Cudovft Stur and his colleagues as conterrevolutionaries for siding with the Habsburgs against the Hungarians. Later, Slovak historiography during Alexander Dubcek' s tenure as First Secretary of the Slovak �124 SLOVAKIA Communist Party reversed this trend, portraying the Slovak leaders as socially progressive figures. This interpretation was continued throughout the Husak regime. Slovenske dejiny, by contrast, depicts the Slovak leaders in a strictly national rather than a social context. The work concedes that they initially attempted to cooperate with Hungarian leader Lajos Kossuth on questions of social reform, but indicates that a breakdown of relations occured concerning Hungary's national question. One significant, and, in retrospect, surprising change of interpretation concerns the circumstances surrounding the Czecho-Slovak merger of 1918. Communist historiography traditionally regarded the merger as a "bourgeois swindle", in which the Slovak people were treated as colonial subjects until the victory of the working class under Communist leadership rectified relations between two nationalities. Given the pressures of Magyarization at the turn of the century, however, Slovenske dejiny treats pro-Czech sentiment as a positive force. The activities of T. G. Masaryk and the Czecho-Slovak emigres, the exploits of the Czechoslovak Legion on foreign battlefields, and even the career of the extreme Czechophile Vavro Srobar are all cast in a heroic light. No mention is made of the previously lauded Slovak Soviet Republic which was founded on the bayonets of Bela Kun's Hungarian Red Army. This work conveys the impression that, if Czecho-Slovak union in 1918 was not the best of all possible worlds, it was at least a step in the right direction. Slovenske dejiny is critical of Czech centralism in the interwar period, but regards the cultural emancipation of the Slovaks and their economic advancement as positive features. Honorable mention is given to Milan Hodfa's appointment as the first Slovak prime minister of Czechoslovakia. His career might have been given more attention. In spite of a long history of personal opportunism, Hodfa's ideas concerning Central European federalism are still worth studying today. �SLOVAKIA 125 While the work hails the attainment of Slovak autonomy in 1938, subsequent developments are portrayed as negative. Advocates of the rehabilitation of Monsignor Jozef Tiso are particularly bound to be disappointed: the Slovak Republic continues to be regarded as a Nazi puppet state, and the deportation of the Jews is treated in the same simplistic manner, which does not inquire deeper into the divisions of policy among Slovak leaders themselves. The 1944 uprising, correspondingly, is still regarded as a heroic event, notwithstanding the surrounding circumstances or tragic consequences. Surprisingly little attention is given to subsequent developments, perhaps out of sense of caution. It must be noted that, although the book was published in 1993, it was prepared during the previous year, at a time when many Czechs and Slovaks still hoped to maintain a federal republic. It reflects history written during a time of transition, and all the limitations found therein. This work's most revealing feature is a lack of vindictive malice towards the Czechs, a phenomenon which helped assure that the "Velvet Divorce" would not become another Balkanstyle bloodbath. A more comprehensive history, however, remains to be written. Katarina Sultajerova. Compiled by. Najstarsie rody na Slovensku, Martin: Slovenska genealogicko-heraldicka spolocnosr pri Matici slovenskej, 1994, 128 pp. DUNCAN B. GARDINER Lakewood, Ohio This collection of articles is essentialy a scholarly primer of the earliest documented Slovak aristocracy. It consists of papers delivered at the October, 1993 Symposium on the Oldest Line- �126 SLOVAKIA ages in Slovakia, which was co-sponsored by the State Regional Archives in Bratislava, the Archives Section of the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, and by the Slovak Ministries of Culture and the Interior. Jozef Novak, author of the two-volume Rodove erby na Slovensku ( 1986), wrote the preface and the lead article "Genealogia ako historicka disciplfna" , which discuses the importance of genealogy in understanding the early history of Slovakia. He recommends making heraldy and genealogy more valuable to historians by broadening genealogical studies to the geographic spread of a family over time, to the bibliography of published literature on a lineage, and to biographies of prominent individuals in the family. Novak also emphasises the importance of thorough source documentation. Roman Zelenay, the late State Secretary of the Slovak Ministry of Culture, wrote "Genealogicke met6dy vfskumu najstarsfch rodov". He discussed traditional Slovak naming customs dating to the Great Moravian period, showing that despite the lack of surnames, it is possible to establish genealogical betwe~n individuals by analyzing the system by which first names were given. The Battle of Mohacs ( 1526) disrupted the Slovak social order and this earlier naming system with it, a fact which makes post-Mohacs genealogies based on onomastics quite different. Milan Majtan, historian and author of Nazvy obcf na Slovensku za ostatnfch 200 rokov (1972), discusses the historical development of personal and family names in Slovakia in "Vfvin JXJmemivania osob na Slovensku", giving examples of proto-Slavic, pre-Christian and Christian naming traditions. Majtan cites copious examples from a range of early manuscript sources. In "Struktura sl'achty na Slovensku v 9 . - 13. storoci'', Richard Marsina relates that the upper aristocracy in Slovakia consisted of Magyars and Magyarized Slovaks. Therefore, the �SLOVAKIA 127 genealogist and historian must look to the lesser nobility within each of the old countries to study the prominent Slovak lineages. Vincent Mucska's "Anonymovo dielo ako genealogickf pramen'""' takes a critical look at the twelfth-century "gesta". He dismisses it as a source of concrete historic or genealogical fact. "Panovnicka dynastia v JO. - 11. storocl" by Ladislav Vrtel' chronicles in some detail the families of the two sons of Takson, a granson of Arpad, the first Magyar leader, showing their quite different fates. Nine more articles, written by wel-known historians, deal with the earliest aristocratic families of individual counties: Saris and Uz by Ferdinand Ulicny; Spis by Ivan Chalupecky; Turiec, Liptov and Orava by Jan Benko; Trencfn by Richard Marsina; Bratislava by Vincent Sedlak; Nitra by Jan Lukacka; Zvolen by Maria Durk ova; and Malohont by Leon Sokolovsky. Each article is in Slovak with a short summary in English or, in several cases, German. The English summaries are readable, but the number of typographical and gramatical errors show that a native English-speaking editor was needed. Short biographies of the authors would have been most useful. The articles are based both on original research and the literature in the field in a number of languages: Polish, German, French, Hungarian, Latin. The Genealogical-Heraldic Society has single-handedly placed Slovakia on the genealogical map by publishing the Hlas, a twice-yearly journal of genealogy and heraldry and by organizing local genealogy groups, not only in Martin, but also in Bratislava, Kosice, and Trencfn. The founding of this society is connected with the fact that the authors of the Slovenskf biografickf slovmk (6 vols., Matica slovenska, 1986 - 1994), aware that the 19th-century Slovak intelligentsia was related by a complex series of intermarriages, have wanted to investigate �128 SLOVAKIA their genealogies for some time. This volume is an admirable contribution to that effort. Dejiny SJXJlocnosti Jeiisovej na Slovensku: 1561 - 1988. Emil Krapka, S. J. and Vojtech Mikula, S. J. - editors: Cambridge, Ontario: Dobra kniha, 1990, 526 pp. and 24 pp. of color illustrations. GERALD J. SABO, S. J. John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio This is a historical survey of the Jesuits and their activities in the Slovak area, part of the 1990 celebration of the Society of Jesus on the 450th anniversary of its papal approval. As noted on the bibliographic page, this monograph was prepared between the fall of 1986 and that of 198 8, before the so-called "Velvet Revolution" of November 1989. Its two editors and eight authors have presented much interesting material to a Slovak-reading public which lacked substantive, accurate information on a religious order important in Slovak history and culture since the sixteenth century. In the main body are a good number of black and white illustrations, supplemented with sixty-four color ones for Slovakia and ten related to Slovak Jesuit activity in Canada. This extensive history is probably unique among such writing, and given the circumstances under which it was realised, all those involved deserve much praise and gratitude. The monograph is divided into five major parts. The first four comprise the Jesuits' history from 1561 with their first establishment in Tmava and on through 1988. The first part of the history covers the time period through 1615, the second, through the suppression of the Jesuit order in 1773, the third, the �SLOVAKIA 129 order's suppression and its effect in the Slovak portion of the Hungarian Kingdom, and the fourth, the context of the Society's universal restoration and its work among Slovaks at home and beyond from 1853 through 1988. The second and fourth parts together comprise two-thirds of the entire work. A major part usually begins with the larger European and Church background in which the Slovak events arose and evolved, and then Slovakrelated material is divided according to geographical locations and pastoral/apostolic activity. The fifth and final part of this history includes a chronological summary of important events among Jesuits of this area, an explanation of religious and Jesuit terminology, a substantial bibliography on the Society at large and in the Slovak area, name and place indexes, and summaries in Slovak, English, German, French, and Magyar. Twice in this history, Jesuits suffered dramatically at the hands of civil authorities. In 1773, Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa was finally impelled to supress legally the Society of Jesus in her realm from fear that if she did not do so, her daughter Marie Antoinette would not be allowed to marry the future French King, Louis XVI. Louis was a Bourbon, member of a royal family that strove mightily to eradicate throughout their European and foreign realms that "least" Society of Jesus for its greater loyalty to Church than state. Yet the Jesuits came back and thrived, just as they do today after their far more brutal suppression and persecution under the Communists between April, 1950 and the revolution of November, 1989. At present, Slovakia is a democratic, sovereign country, and publications such as the Dejiny need to showcase its role in European history and culture. Yet certain features of the Dejiny significantly limit its valuable effect and should be remedied. Prepared for a wide-ranging public conversant in Slovak, this work would also be of great interest to many others, whether general readers or scholars, who do not read Slovak, yet for �130 SLOVAKIA whom the summaries in languages other then Slovak are woefully inadequate. For this much wider audience, the Dejiny should be translated into English, the current lingua franca. Further, the lack of any documentation in notes is a serious limitation, yet nowadays such material could be collected within a reasonable time. This data is needed to provide crucial scholarship about Jesuits in Slovak territory and beyond which is available nowhere else. The activities of these Jesuits, mostly Slovak yet also of other nationalities, have remained hidden from appreciation even in Jesuit publications. For instance, in English-language studies of the Jesuits, the activities and influence of the universities in Trnava and Kosice - cities often disguised behind their German or Magyar names - are briefly mentioned, if that. No mention at all is made of the Slovak Benedikt Szollosi, compiler of the first Catholic hymnal Cantus catholici with songs in Latin and "Cultural Slovak". No more fortunate has been the Slovak Martin Szentivanyi, whose varied writings, encyclopedic studies, and very able directorship of the Trnava University press contributed significantly to Slovak history, culture, and language development. Also unknown among English readers is the Slovak Samuel Timon, whose writings made him a pioneer in scholarly Slovak historiography. Nor is Jesuit history in Slovak territory better known in other Western languages. For instance, nearly fourty years ago the Magyar Jesuit Laszl6 Lukacs wrote in German about the Jesuit Antonio Possevino's papal mission to establish a network of seminaries and schools in northern Europe in the late sixteenth century, but nothing was said about any Slovak area plans or effects. The Dejiny, though, discusses Posse vino's mission and its effects in re-establishing Jesuits there, as well as many other points not found outside of Slovaklanguage publications. Yet how is a general reader or scholar to appreciate the important Jesuit role and contributions to Slovak �SLOVAKIA 131 history, culture, and society, if he is unable to read this history, or is even unaware that it exists? Clearly, the Dejiny cannot remain a hidden Slovak treasure. Indeed, the Slovak Jesuits have an obligation to make the Dejiny with proper documentation known and accessible to a non-Slovak-reading public. They must present themselves before the world and not simply in the Slovak heart of Europe. Otherwise, a part of Slovakia, its culture, history, people, and achievements will remain concealed behind a language that few in today's world will bother to learn even for reading. James Ramon Felak. "At the Price of the Republic." Hlinka's Slovak People's Party,1929-1938. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1994, xiv & 263 p. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM York University, Glendon College Czechoslovakia is a state that broke up twice in its seventyfour year history: the fust time it was under the pressure of international events and on the eve of a world war, the second in the aftermath of democratic elections. The fust break-up has been mired in controversy, due not only to the circumstances surrounding it, but above all to the responsibility that is often ascribed to the Slovak People's Party (SPP) for bringing about that outcome. James Felak's study looks at this party, in particular during the decade that precedes the fust break-up. There are very few studies of Slovak politics in the first Czechoslovak Republic (CSR), fewer still that offer an in depth examination of the role and policies of the main parties that influenced and shaped inter-war Slovak political life. The handful of monographs that have been written on Slovakia in the first �132 SLOVAKIA CSR, or indeed on the first CSR itself, have generally looked at how the "Slovak question" has contributed to, been responsible for, or unable to prevent its break-up. It would not be inaccurate to say that most take a position for (the Czechoslovak and Marxist approach) or against (the nationalist Slovak approach) the first CSR; very few seek to examine the question from the dynamics of Czech-Slovak relations as did Carol Skalnik Leff in National Conflict in Czechoslovakia. The Making and Remaking of a State, 1918-1987 (1988), or from the challenges a multinational state faces when dealing with its constituent nations and national minorities. Felak's study fills some of the gaps in our knowledge of Slovak inter-war political life, but, regretfully, it does little to advance our understanding of it. Of the seven chapters that present the Hlinka Slovak People's Party, five offer a relatively detailed examination of its policies for the decade that begins with the Depression. The first chapter presents a rapid and, unfortunately, superficial overview of Slovak nationalism until 1929 whereas the second outlines in detail the party's ideology and programme. The remaining chapters are divided according to certain events that mark a change of fortune or direction for the party. The author looks in depth at some of the more important ones, such as the Tuka affair of 1929, the 1929 and 1935 elections, the 1931 Slovak orthography dispute, the 1933 Pribina celebrations, the different party congresses, in particular the Youth Congress of 1932 and that of 1936, and the 1938 Pittsburgh Pact celebration, all of which marked Slovak political life. Equally useful and interesting are his descriptions of the SPP platform at different times and the relations with other Czech and Slovak political parties and formations. As for the various leading personalities, Andrej Hlinka, Vojtech Tuka, Karol Sidor, and Jozef Tiso, among others, the author seeks to give a sense of their role and importance in the development of SPP policies. In sum, most of the �SLOVAKIA 133 book offers a detailed examination of the role of the SPP in an important decade in Slovak political life and is in this respect a contribution to the existing literature. The main problem with this study lies in its approach to the subject. This is due not only to too great a reliance on certain earlier studies, but above all to the indiscriminate use of police reports as authoritative sources of political analysis. In fairness to the author, he makes an attempt to present a balanced approach on the "Slovak question". Yet the language he uses clearly indicates that he identifies with and accepts generally the interpretations of those authors who have a Czechoslovak view ?f Slovak history, a view that is mostly negative toward the Slovaks and uncritically favourable toward Czechoslovakia. For example he refers to Slovakia as "relatively underdeveloped, politically, economically, socially, culturally, and nationally" (p. 17) or describes Hlinka as having a "parochial, clerical mentality that resembled that of a Slovak peasant." (p. 25) In addition, like earlier authors, his examination of Prague policies toward Slovakia and toward the SPP, is at best cursory and certainly not critical. On occasion one gets the feeling from his presentation that there was a specific Prague-SPP dynamic, yet there is little analysis of the reasons for and the consequences of Prague policies, only of the SPP reactions and actions. For example, Prague exercized censorship on the SPP press to such an extent that in 1938, when the government was considering the possibility of a coaliton with the SPP, one of that party's conditions was the lifting of that censorship. Equally problematic is the reliance on police reports as a research source. The fact that the Prague government felt it necessary to have police spies within the SPP is in itself a fact worth examining, not to say anything of the accuracy of these reports. The emphasis that Felak places on factional struggles within the SPP comes mostly from these reports. That the police �134 SLOVAKIA spies reported such struggles is not in the least bit surprising; it was in the government's interest to be able to neutralize an opposition party that Pelak on many occasions describes as the most important one in Slovakia. Also, there is nothing surprising about factional differences; this is a fact of life in political parties in all democratic states. But in this case, the factionalism represented the dilemmas the SPP faced in its twin objectives: the autonomy of Slovakia and the integrity and security of Czechoslovakia. The failure of Prague to have understood this and to have dealt with it adequately was paid, in the end, "at the price of the republic." For all its richness about the SPP, Felak's examination of its policies is nevertheless incomplete; on the other hand, it has the merit of provoking additional questions and showing the way for further study. Hope Dies Last, The Autobiogra]Xly of Alexander Dubcek. Edited and translated by Jin Hochman. New York: Kodansha America, Inc., 1993. 354 pp. ROBERT K. EV ANSON Uni versify of Missouri Kansas City The automobile accident of September 1, 1992, which led to Alexander Dubcek's death nine weeks later, robbed Slovakia of one of its most distinguished political leaders. Whether Dubcek could have played a vital role in shaping the politics of an independent Slovakia will never be known. What is certain, and what we are reminded of in this fascinating autobiography excellently edited and translated by Jin Hochman - is that he did establish for himself a place of lasting historical importance. �SLOVAKIA 135 It seems necessary to say this because, as Dubcek himself was aware, there is insufficient appreciation among many of today's young Slovaks and Czechs of what he and his fellow "reform Communists" attempted to do in the 1960s. It remains for historians to sort out the difficult issue of just how much impact the Prague Spring had on the subsequent course of Czechoslovak politics that ended ultimately in the demise of the country's neo-Stalinist regime twenty-one years later, but clearly the impact was significant.The Prague Spring, which Dubcek more than anyone else helped to shape, set an example for democratic aspirations that resurfaced in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s. It also was an obvious model for some of Gorbachev's policies in -the 1980s. The Soviet suppression of the reform movement also created deep wounds of alienation among Czechs and Slovaks towards the USSR and the post-1968 regime that never healed. Ironically, both Dubcek and the Soviets were correct in their 1968 dialogue, Dubcek in warning the Soviets of the need to better understand how many Czechs and Slovaks viewed the old regime as an unnatural entity, and the Soviets in recognizing the degree to which Dubcek's reform movement threatened the very foundations of Leninist rule in Eastern Europe. Dubcek's autobiography begins appropriately with his early years, and an examination of that period of his life teaches us a great deal about why he acted as he did in his maturity. It is difficult not to admire the man, and this book, which is not egregiously self-serving, merely strengthens that attitude. Several aspects of character and personality come to mind - decency, courage, political shrewdness, and a trust and idealism that were at once his greatest strengths and his greatest weaknesses. We find him as a teenager in Kirghizia defending young Muslims against bullying by his fellow Czechs and Slovaks, and after World War Two pressing relentlessly for the release from the Soviet Gulag of a physician who had treated the injured Dubcek �136 SLOVAKIA during the Uprising; it was a small moral step to his passionate commitment to the complete rehabilitation of all political prisoners in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s. In 1952, in the wake of the Shinsky trial and at the height of the terror, he cast aside a Soviet-censored version of a speech and instead delivered a ringing eulogy at the funeral of fellow Communist Karol Smidke, who had been a victim of the persecution. He stood up for the reforms in the face of immense Soviet pressure throughout 1968, acted honorably after his abduction to Moscow following the Soviet and allied invasion, refused to take the safety of exile because he thought his proper place was with his people, and sent off a stream of letters of protest long after his removal from power at considerable personal risk. Dubcek also was a very clever and careful political tactician. Some of the most fascinating passages in his book concern the way he built alliances in his ultimately successful effort to bring down Communist Party First Secretary Antonin Novotny in 1967. I would like to have read even more details about conversations he had with various political figures in this process, as well as about the way he blunted Novotny's efforts to consign him to political oblivion in 1962, but there still is plenty to captivate anyone with a taste for Prague-style Kremlinology. The period of the early 1960s is especially interesting in this book, because Dubcek discusses the first signs of the movement against neo-Stalinism and Prague centralism, including his election over Novotny's opposition to the position of Slovak Communist Party First Secretary in April, 1963. This event represented a stinging defeat for Novotny, because Dubcek already had established himself as the leading advocate for sweeping rehabilitation of the victims of the purges of so-called "Slovak bourgeois nationalists" in the early 1950s. As such, he had become the major opponent of Prague centralism in the Party leadership. �SLOVAKIA 137 While Dubcek was never foolhardy, he could be surprisingly bold. An interesting illustration of this was his successful ploy with Jin Hendrych, the number two man in the Party hierarchy in 1967 and, until then, a staunch Novotny loyalist. Sensing that Hendrych was beginning to vacillate in his commitment to Novotny, Dubcek walked into his office that late November and said that Novotny's days as First Secretary clearly were numbered, and that Hendrych might consider getting on the bandwagon or he too would fall. As an added enticement, he invited the startled Hendrych to consider whether he would like Novotny's job as First Secretary! The amusing climax of this story is that shortly thereafter, Leonid Brezhnev came to Prague to assess Novotny's prospects and naturally sought out Hendrych's opinion. Reportedly, Brezhnev barely got inside the door when Hendrych told him he was "willing" to serve as First Secretary. While Hendrych never got the chance - Dubcek succeeded Novotny - his abandonment of Novotny may have persuaded Brezhnev of the futility of a rescue operation. The most painful reading in this book is the period of the mounting Soviet hostility to the Prague Spring and the ultimate invasion and subsequent period of "normalization." It is impossible not to become angry all over again when one reads of the treatment Dubcek and his comrades received at the hands of their Soviet kidnappers, as well as the incredible pettiness and maliciousness of their successors in Prague and Bratislava. While Dubcek does not cast a great deal of new light on the events of 1968, he minces no words in assessing various political figures and spares no criticism of his worst tormentors. Thus we learn that Soviet Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin was as cold in private as in public and capable of extreme rudeness. He and his Soviet comrades are rightly dismissed by Dubcek as "gangsters" and "thugs." Novotny is confirmed as hopelessly ignorant of Slovak affairs, as well as contemptuous toward Slovak national �138 SLOVAKIA feelings, one of the keys to his ultimate demise. Dubcek also brands Vasil Bifak, Alois Indra, and the other conspirators of 1968 as "traitors." No one comes across worse, however, than Gustav Husak, who presided over the restoration of neo-Stalinism in Czechoslovakia. His shabby treatment of Dubcek after 1968, despite Dubcek's pivotal role in bringing about his political resurrection, is a sad counter to the courage he displayed when fighting for his own rehabilitation in the early 1960s. Despite the claims that he "protected" the ousted reformers from "hardliners" in the Party, Husak comes across here as a man incapable of normal feelings and as a complete opportunist. Naturally Dubcek was bitter about Husak, but the tone of his evaluations of Husak and other political figures is in fact measured and convincing. No discussion of Dubcek's political career would be complete without addressing his failure to discern the danger of a Soviet invasion in 1968. Part of the answer may lie in his family background. He was born in 1921 to a pair of committed socialists who were so enamored of the Soviet experiment that they were willing to relocate to Central Asia to help build a new society. At the same time, his parents had the good sense to return to Czechoslovakia when the dangers of remaining in the Soviet Union became obvious. Nonetheless, Dubcek never abandoned the socialist idealism he inherited from them. While he certainly understood the evils of Stalinism and the incompatibility of the Soviet-type system with Czech and Slovak traditions, he had a blind spot that served him poorly in 1968. Specifically, despite all the Soviet expressions of alarm about what he and his fellow reformers were doing, he could not bring himself to believe the USSR would intervene. There is no question Dubcek had evolved into a democrat and was aware of what he was doing. He writes that the Action Program put forth by Party reformers in 1968 "was a plan for a gradual return to �SLOVAKIA 139 the concept of democratic socialism ... " He acknowledges that his regime was rejecting various aspects of Leninism - he believed that the Communist Party could win popular support in competitive elections, once it had embraced democracy, and thus he downplayed the Soviet concern that his reforms were jeopardizing "the leading role of the party." At the same time, he knew he had to avoid making any references to multi-party democracy for fear of alarming them unnecessarily. He also believed that "socialism could function better in a market-oriented environment, with significant elements of private enterprise." He writes that of course he recalled what happened to Hungary in 1956, but he had made clear to the Soviets his determination that Czechoslovakia would remain loyal to its Soviet bloc allies, so the situations were not comparable. Perhaps it was due to his conviction that what he and his colleagues were doing would benefit socialism by strengthening the Communist Party's legitimacy among the people, and by bringing the country closer to the original ideals of socialism, that he could not believe that the Soviet leadership would not, however reluctantly, allow him to proceed. (In a postscript, Jiff Hochman notes Dubcek's inclination to believe in people's good intentions.) In fairness, it is difficult to fault Dubcek very much had he opted for concessions, it seems unlikely that the Soviet leadership would have accepted anything short of a complete abandonment of the democratization process to which he had committed his country. Still, his discussion of how he assessed the Soviet mindset at the time is not entirely satisfactory. Alexander Dubcek's autobiography is a thoughtful and wellwritten account of the life of a man of extraordinary moral and political qualities. It is indispensable reading for anyone with an interest in the Czechoslovak political experience. �140 SLOVAKIA Paul Robert Magocsi. The Rusyns of Slovakia: An Historical Survey. New York: East European Monographs, Distributed by Columbia University Press, 1993, x, 185 pp., Maps, Notes, Bibliography, Index. KEITH P. DYRUD Concordia College St. Paul,MN The Rusyns of Slovakia: An Historical Survey is essentially a revision of an earlier work by Prof. Magocsi, The RusynUkrainians of Czechoslovakia: An Historical Survey (Vienna, 1981 ). But there is an additional twist to this revision. The "Preface" says: ''This volume is a translation of an introductory historical survey published in the newly codified Rusyn literary language as well as in Slovak by the Rusyn Renaissance Society in Presov." Prof. Magocsi played a leading role in the formation of the national movement that spawned the Rusyn Renaissance Society and the First World Congress of Rusyns that sponsored the codification of the Rusyn literary language. The professor, however, is modest. His name does not once appear in the text in connection with that activity; however, he is pictured with other leaders of the First World Congress of Rusyns (122). The contents of the book should be familiar to those have read the author's earlier works. Magocsi traces the Rusyns' history from their first settlement in eastern Slovakia to the present. He partially assumes and partially attempts to demonstrate that the Rusyns of eastern Slovakia form a distinct nationality. Magocsi documents the cooperation that existed between the Rusyns and the Slovaks while they were dominated by Hungary prior to 1914, but he is critical of the "slovakization" of the Rusyns between the world wars, and he also identifies the �SLOVAKIA 141 Ukrainian movement as a threat to the Rusyn national identity that the book clearly endorses. During the inter-war yars slovakization was a greater threat to the Rusyns than "ukrainianization", but after the Second World War, official government support for the Ukrainian identity led to a decline of any national consciousness. Many Rusyns identified themselves as Slovaks to avoid the Ukrainian label. After the "Velvet Revolution" of November 1989, the Rusyns in the Presov region were again free to publicly promote their own national identity as separate from either Slovak or Ukrainian. In this effort, the Rusyns received support from both the Prague and the Bratislava governments. Magocsi suggests that this support for the Rusyns harkens back to "the historical friendship and attention on the part of Czechs and Slovaks toward their Rusyn brethren ... " (126). It could also suggest that the number of people identifying themselves as Rusyns is now very small and the Rusyn movement is not likely to become a major competitor to the Slovak identity in eastern Slovakia. In fact the major problem with Prof. Magocsi 's interpretation of the Rusyn movement in estem Slovakia is his confidence that the small number of Rusyns can develop a national identity. He is dissatisfied with the 1991 census figures that identify fewer than 33,000 "Rusnak/Russian/Rusyn/Ukrainian" people in the Presov region, with just under 17,000 of them unambiguously identifying themselves as "Rusyn" ( 126). According to Magocsi, that number could potentially be as high as 130 000 (2 - 3). Many readers of Magocsi's first book: The Shaping of a National Identity: Subcarpathian Rus', 1848 - 1948 (Cambridge, Mass., 1978) were persuaded by his convincing argument that the Rusyns in Subcarpathia did, at least, "shape" a national identity during the inter-war years. But in that era, he was dealing with a larger critical mass of Rusyns. In eastern Slovakia, that critical mass does not seem to exist. With the Slovaks claiming �142 SLOVAKIA most of those 130,000 potential Rusyns, and the Ukrainians competing for the rest, it does not seem likely that the critical mass will develop. In the meantime, those who do identify themselves as Rusyns can read their history in their own "newly codified language". And those who identify themselves as Slovaks can also read the translation in their language just as Rusyns in North America can read it in English. Ukraine and Ukrainians throughout the World: A Demographic and Sociological Guide to the Homeland and Its Diaspora. Edited by Ann Lencyk Pawliczko. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press for the Shevchenko Scientific Society, 1994, xxxvi, 508 pp. PAUL R. MAGOCSI University of Toronto The goal of this volume is to provide brief factual data on Ukrainians wherever they may live in the world. The newlyindependent country of Ukraine has within its borders only 64 percent of the estimated 58.7 million inhabitants who inhabit various parts of the globe. Therefore, a history or description of the Ukrainian people as a whole must be concerned with many other places than Ukraine. This book in fact deals primarily with the estimated 21.2 million Ukrainians living outside Ukraine. The approach is comprehensive, with an effort to say something about communities, however small they may be, in places like Luxembourg, Ireland, Tunisia and New Zealand as well as in the more known countries of Ukrainian immigrant settlement like the United States, Canada, and Australia. �SLOVAKIA 143 The editor, Ann Lencyk Pawliczko, felt the need to trace the political and cultural history of Ukraine (pp. 37 - 84), which is the least satisfactory portion of this otherwise encyclopedic compendium. The rest of the volume consists of entries by 28 authors on the various countries where Ukrainians live. Each entry begins with a general overview of a specific country followed by a history of its Ukrainian community. Many entries include statistical charts and each ends with a list of further readings. Slovak readers will likely be interested in the entry called "Ukrainian-Ruthenians in the Slovak Republic", written by Vasyl Markus (pp. 157 - 166). While the author recognizes the enormous cultural achievements made by the Ukrainians in Slovakia after World War II, he does not attribute the achievements to the favorable policies of the former Czechoslovak Communist government that lavished extensive funding on the group, but rather to the efforts of the local Ukrainian-oriented intelligentsia. He claimes that the official census figures (30,800 Rusyns and Ukrainians in 1991) are far below the 110,000 to 120,000 that supposedly live in northeastern Slovakia. Markus argues the statistical discrepancy exists because of manipulation by Slovak census takers and a policy of "denationalization" carried out by both the former Communist and post-1989 governments in Slovakia. He does not mention the real reason for the numerical differences. Since the 1950s thousands of "Ukrainians-Ruthenians" voluntarily opted to identify as Slovaks in protest against Communist government decrees that banned the Rusyn national identity and required people to call themselves Ukrainian. The author also indirectly blames Slovak governments for responding favorably since 1989 to the Rusyn national revival and for allowing people in the 1991 census to identify with the Rusyn nationality (16,937 Rusyns as opposed to 13,847 Ukrainians) and with the Rusyn language (49,099 Rusyn speakers as opposed to 9,480 Ukrainian speakers) - the latter �144 SLOVAKIA figures are not provided by Markus. The otherwise democratic policies of present-day Slovakia are described as promoting "political Ruthenianism" a phenomenon that is "influenced by outside anti-Ukrainian forces" and that is intent on de-Ukrainianizing the local population. Fortunately, the rest of this volume maintains a less biased tone in describing Ukrainian communities in other countries. Nina Trnka: Slovak-English I English-Slovak Dictionary, N. Y., Hippocrene Books, 1992, 360 pp. JOHN M. KOCHIK Scottsdale, Anizona Any contribution to the field of Slovak reference materials is always welcome. Attempts at popularization are encouradged only to the extent that a work demonstrates quality. Standards, of course, should always be high to reflect the expertise of the _ contributor. The backcover boasts "You are holding the only SlovakEnglish/English-Slovak Dictionary available in North America". What about Smejkalova et al.? The book is intended for "students and travelers", and claims to be "concise". For all its advertising pretense, its format is disappointing. It looks like a thesis. It lacks an Introduction which it sorely needs for efficient use. It omits a separating page (175) between the two major divisions for facile access, wherein an appropriate blank page or second title page would suffice. Pronunciation (pages i through iii) is confusing. The list of consonants is incomplete, not accounting for - among others important palatals d', I, ii, ( used in too many words to be ignored. As immediate as page one, there is no knowing how ''t~' �SLOVAKIA 145 in "akost' must be pronounced according to her presentation. Questions arise as to "studi'ia" (123) and "studna" (353 - see "well")? Why then "anP' (2) gives [a-nyi], or "odev" (71) [odyef]? How then distinguish cited "Javica" (44) from un-cited "/avica" - "left hand"? Equating long "6" with "6" in Pronunciation is erroneous, being that the latter "6" is diphotong [.u.o]. The remarks in Pronunciation are unclear and inadequate. The uninitiated will render Slovak pronunciation ludicrous. Examples provided are ambiguous for articulation of varietes of vowel "a", because speakers of American-English are inconsistent in their renditions of "a" in cited forms "ma-ma, fast, rat, grass, pad". To present digraph "ch" as aspirated [kh] in "khaki" (sic!) is not true for the guttural [)c]. And, to state that Slovak "r' is approximated by labial untrilled "r' of "red" - bellies the trilled "r' performed by the tongue. Transcription in Pronunciation is defective, since the symbols given are arbitrary, not in accord either with the conventions of Slovak texts or even the International Phonetic System. A hard look at the symbols presented defies logic. Examples follow. Since Standard Slovak (i. e. spisovna slovencina) utilizes digraph "dz" as the phone in medzi and other words - to employ "dz' as a symbol for English pronunciation of th [b] of "they" is incomprehensible! In like manner, use of [s] for [0] of "thank" produces comic theatrical effect as in [Sank you] for [Sank you]! Moreover, to present the nasal-guttural -ng [ri] of "long" as underlined [g] can be misinterpreted into a humorous exagerated liaison of oft-quoted misquoted "LoNGJsland" with defined [NGJ]. �146 SLOVAKIA Further examination into the deficiencies given in Pronunciation would require a complete revision after careful editing. So far only the unavoidable pitfalls have been critiqued. Editorial work appears lax or nonexistent as evidenced by "thruth" (sic! page ii), presumably "truth". And, "heith" (sic! page 158) following vyska and page 244, apparently meant to be "height"). In both citings of "heith", consistency seems to demonstrate persistent misspelling. There is an unexpected thrust from V (350) into W (351) without a notification-heading W. As for word-selection, it might be hoped that high-frequency was a criterion for efficiency. On the contrary, superfluous are words among others like "elephant" (222), "volcano" (350), "yacht" (358), "zebra" (359) - scarcely indigenous to Slovakia! Yet the word kamzik (36?) "chamois" (198?) indigenous to the Tatras finds no listing in either section. Why "warden" (351) is given makes one wonder of its sociological implications. Why is "warrant" (351) so important to find place here? Surely one expects utilitarian vocabulary in such a work. As for semantics, a first-hand impression might be that if several meanings are provided without explanation or definition - an indiscriminate interchange might be possible. Not so for automat (3) "slot-machine, snack-bar, machine-gun". Thus also for "minister" (268) "minister, vyslanec, duchovnf" mean different things. Each having a distinct, specific meaning. It is most unlikely that "students and travelers" will discern clearly which term fits which circumstance. Cross-references are not provided for necessary clarification. See "warm" (351) ...srdecnf... for which neither "cordial" (206?) nor "sincerely" (315) are given on expected pages in parentheses. In similar manner, aktiv (1) "meeting, gathering" makes no reference or distinction from "meeting" (266) schodza, stretnutie. �SLOVAKIA 147 Perusal of the text will result in startling revelations. For instance, pronunciation of odJXJr (72) gives [od-por], whereas in fact it is [ot-por], a morphophonetic alternation called regressive assimilation. Where the voiced d automatically becomes unvoiced/devoiced t, in harmony with unvoiced p which sets the condition for the process. The same phenomenon occurs in other instances like odstup (72) to [ot-stup], bezplatny (6) to [bes-platnee], modlitba and prosba for "prayer" (289) not given in the text as [mod-lit-ba] and [proz-ba]. Interesting to note is that word-final voiced consonants are given as de-voiced as in smrad (116) [smrat]. However, no account has been made of v as a semi-vowel [IJ.] in such words as pravda (92) [prau.da], rovno (105) [rouno], domov (18) [domo.1J.]; instead, Czech ussage [domof] (18) is presented. Two outstanding examples given: [svatba] (125) for svadba and ['strukh] (101) for pstruh are unintelligible. For all the effort involved in the production of this Dictionary, it is unfortunate that it should fall short of the desired quality expected. In spite of the good intentions of the contributor, the end result is full of inconsistencies and inadequacies. � 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 1998, Vol. 36 Description An account of the resource Vol. 36 (No. 66-67), 1998. 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 1998 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 119 Paul Robert Magocsi (with cartographic design by Geoffrey J. Matthews). Historical Atlas of East Central Europe. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1995, 218 pages. GEORGE J. DEMKO Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire The Historical Atlas of East Central Europe is a truly outstanding and valuable book. The combination of professionally and accurately rendered maps, and the accompanying text that is written with authority, accuracy and clarity represent a rich source of information on an important part of the world. The atlas is comprised of 50 sections, each with maps (in color) and related explanatory text. The themes are varied and arranged chronologically starting from A.D. 400 to the present. The final section incorporates the most recent political changes that have occurred in the region. The themes begin with the geographic zones and continue with subjects such as ecclesiastical jurisdiction, population and migrations to recent industrial development. Some of the themes are quite innovative and useful such as "Education and Culture through the 18th Century" and "Ethnolinguistic Distribution in 1900". There are also 28 tables containing quite valuable information on such topics as the estimated deaths of Jews in the region by 1945, and the size of Catholic and Orthodox populations in East Central Europe in 1900. For bibliophiles there is also an excellent bibliography with an especially useful and rare list of atlases and maps relevant to the region. There are, of course, some issues with which one might quibble. For example, the region is very broadly defined as "the lands between the linguistic frontier of the German and Italianspeaking peoples on the west and the political boundaries of the former Soviet Union on the east. The north-south parameters are the Baltic and Mediterranean seas" (P. XI) . These boundaries 120 SLOVAKIA were defined by the editors of the series to which this volume belongs (a multivolume History of East Central Europe published by the University of Washington Press). The author has expanded on the original boundaries to include the eastern part of Germany, Bavaria, Austria, northeastern Italy, historic Poland, Lithuania, Western Ukraine, Moldova and western Anatolia in Turkey! Certainly the author has erred on the conservative side by using such an inclusive and extensive set of bounding definitions. Given the fact that there are almost as many definitions of East Central Europe as there are "specialists" on the region, and that any defined region would have many important interactions with surrounding areas, the decision is an excellent one providing a very comprehensive perspective on an illdefined region, or rather a region on which a consensus would be extraordinarily difficult to achieve. It is also possible to argue for themes that are important but omitted. For example, the omission of a section on emigration from this important region to the US and Canada (as well as other countries) is regrettable. This topic would have been particularly interesting for the Slovak and Polish areas. Also, the map of geographic zones is really a map of physiographic zones. A map of the "socio/cultural/linguistic regions" of the East Central Europe would have been much more useful and very interesting. In sum, Magocsi's Historical Atlas of East Central Europe is a wonderful and fascinating addition to our educational sources on one of the most troubled and dynamic parts of the world. The cartography is first-rate, and attention to detail is commendable. Anyone, scholar, politican, or interested layperson should add this volume to his/her bookshelf. It is valuable, useful, visually pleasing and reasonably priced. SLOVAKIA 121 Anton Spiesz. Dejiny Slovenska na ceste k sebauvedomeniu. Bratislava: Perfekt, 1992. Pp. 195. Gregory C. Ference Salisbury State University Salisbury, Maryland The late Anton Spiesz wrote a large number of books prior to the volume under review, most of which concentrated on economic history. Dejiny Slovenska na ceste k sebauvedomeniu, however, cannot be counted among this genre. Although economics play a prominent role in this book, it is best characterized as a historical survey of Slovakia. As such the first part of the title would have sufficed; na ceste k sebauvedomeniu misleads the reader, who is hard pressed to find anything about Slovak national awareness prior to chapter six where Spiesz introduced the issue of nationalism. Even though he began the story 200,000 years ago with the first evidence of humans on Slovak territory, the author quickly traversed the millennia. Evidently Spiesz started to write hi s book before the demise of Communism, as at times Marxist rhetoric appears in the study. In an apparent attempt to correct this problem, the author revised the text in several sections to distance himself from this outdated verbiage. Rather than soften the issue, however, it caused the book to become unwieldy in places. Although Spiesz intended it as a general overview of Slovak history, the book assumed too much. Spiesz sometimes failed to properly introduce people, or to explain events or documents, such as the Zilina Agreement of 1938, only mentioning them. Another fault was the author's penchant for lists, whether they were of animals in ancient Slovakia, manufactured goods from the mid-nineteenth century, or pedagogists. 122 SLOVAKIA The book also suffers from some major errors regarding dates. For example, Hungary proclaimed its independence in March 1849, not in 1848, Ladislav the Posthumous acceded to the throne in 1444 rather than in 1453, and the American Slovak organizations of Zivena and the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union were founded in 1891 and 1892, not in 1894 and 1890 as Spiesz noted. Furthermore, in his treatment of the impact of Slovaks in the United States on politics, Spiesz incorrectly stated that both men and women enjoyed equal rights and the franchise before the First World War, and he over emphasized the establishment and role of socialist organizations among American Slovaks. The last chapters are Spiesz's best, providing balanced coverage on how the Communists subverted the political system and the Slovaks in their takeover of Czechoslovakia. He also exploded the Communist myth that the Slovak National Uprising was one of the greatest moments in Slovak history. In the latter instance, the author painted a very brutal picture in which countless innocent people were murdered by the insurgents. Spiesz could have finished his volume on a high note, b~t his final chapter, "From the Building of Socialism to its Bankruptcy," destroyed the seemingly solid effort found in its several preceding sections. Claiming that a historian cannot write effectively and objectively about events unless a period of at least thirty years has elapsed, he merely gave a thumbnail sketch of the period from 1960 to 1989 which included the tumultuous events of the "Prague Spring" and the "Velvet Revolution." An attack on Gustav Husak undeservedly received the most coverage in this four-page chapter. Here, Spiesz appeared to place himself on a soapbox in an attempt to further disavow his connections with the former regime. The author might instead have covered the fast-paced events after 1989 through the date of publication in order to give the reader a sense of closure. SLOVAKIA 123 Finally, the book has no index which, though not unusual for European publications, would in this case have been indispensable, since Spiesz covered so much in so few pages. On the whole, this book would be appropriate only for someone with at least a rudimentary knowledge of Slovak history. Richard Marsina a kolektfv. Slovenske dejiny. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1993, 334 pp. R. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Rorida This works represents the first general attempt since the collapse of the communist system in 1989 to reevaluate the history of the Slovak people. As such, it offers surprisingly little that is new or original. Indeed, were it not for the fact that Slovenske dejiny condemns the excesses of communist dictatorship, many of its conclusions would be politicaly acceptable to the deceased Husak regime. The early portion of the book deals with events and developments from which various schools ot thought concerning Slovak historiography have traditionally drawn common conclusions: Slovakia was settled by man since the dawn of history, the Slovaks retained a sense of identity in the Hungarian kingdom, there were embryonic tendencies towards statehood in earlier times, and so on. A subtle change of interpretation may be found in the treatment of the national awakening, specifically concerning the leaders of the 1848 revolution. Earlier Marxist interpretation of the 1848 events portrayed Cudovft Stur and his colleagues as conterrevolutionaries for siding with the Habsburgs against the Hungarians. Later, Slovak historiography during Alexander Dubcek' s tenure as First Secretary of the Slovak 124 SLOVAKIA Communist Party reversed this trend, portraying the Slovak leaders as socially progressive figures. This interpretation was continued throughout the Husak regime. Slovenske dejiny, by contrast, depicts the Slovak leaders in a strictly national rather than a social context. The work concedes that they initially attempted to cooperate with Hungarian leader Lajos Kossuth on questions of social reform, but indicates that a breakdown of relations occured concerning Hungary's national question. One significant, and, in retrospect, surprising change of interpretation concerns the circumstances surrounding the Czecho-Slovak merger of 1918. Communist historiography traditionally regarded the merger as a "bourgeois swindle", in which the Slovak people were treated as colonial subjects until the victory of the working class under Communist leadership rectified relations between two nationalities. Given the pressures of Magyarization at the turn of the century, however, Slovenske dejiny treats pro-Czech sentiment as a positive force. The activities of T. G. Masaryk and the Czecho-Slovak emigres, the exploits of the Czechoslovak Legion on foreign battlefields, and even the career of the extreme Czechophile Vavro Srobar are all cast in a heroic light. No mention is made of the previously lauded Slovak Soviet Republic which was founded on the bayonets of Bela Kun's Hungarian Red Army. This work conveys the impression that, if Czecho-Slovak union in 1918 was not the best of all possible worlds, it was at least a step in the right direction. Slovenske dejiny is critical of Czech centralism in the interwar period, but regards the cultural emancipation of the Slovaks and their economic advancement as positive features. Honorable mention is given to Milan Hodfa's appointment as the first Slovak prime minister of Czechoslovakia. His career might have been given more attention. In spite of a long history of personal opportunism, Hodfa's ideas concerning Central European federalism are still worth studying today. SLOVAKIA 125 While the work hails the attainment of Slovak autonomy in 1938, subsequent developments are portrayed as negative. Advocates of the rehabilitation of Monsignor Jozef Tiso are particularly bound to be disappointed: the Slovak Republic continues to be regarded as a Nazi puppet state, and the deportation of the Jews is treated in the same simplistic manner, which does not inquire deeper into the divisions of policy among Slovak leaders themselves. The 1944 uprising, correspondingly, is still regarded as a heroic event, notwithstanding the surrounding circumstances or tragic consequences. Surprisingly little attention is given to subsequent developments, perhaps out of sense of caution. It must be noted that, although the book was published in 1993, it was prepared during the previous year, at a time when many Czechs and Slovaks still hoped to maintain a federal republic. It reflects history written during a time of transition, and all the limitations found therein. This work's most revealing feature is a lack of vindictive malice towards the Czechs, a phenomenon which helped assure that the "Velvet Divorce" would not become another Balkanstyle bloodbath. A more comprehensive history, however, remains to be written. Katarina Sultajerova. Compiled by. Najstarsie rody na Slovensku, Martin: Slovenska genealogicko-heraldicka spolocnosr pri Matici slovenskej, 1994, 128 pp. DUNCAN B. GARDINER Lakewood, Ohio This collection of articles is essentialy a scholarly primer of the earliest documented Slovak aristocracy. It consists of papers delivered at the October, 1993 Symposium on the Oldest Line- 126 SLOVAKIA ages in Slovakia, which was co-sponsored by the State Regional Archives in Bratislava, the Archives Section of the Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, and by the Slovak Ministries of Culture and the Interior. Jozef Novak, author of the two-volume Rodove erby na Slovensku ( 1986), wrote the preface and the lead article "Genealogia ako historicka disciplfna" , which discuses the importance of genealogy in understanding the early history of Slovakia. He recommends making heraldy and genealogy more valuable to historians by broadening genealogical studies to the geographic spread of a family over time, to the bibliography of published literature on a lineage, and to biographies of prominent individuals in the family. Novak also emphasises the importance of thorough source documentation. Roman Zelenay, the late State Secretary of the Slovak Ministry of Culture, wrote "Genealogicke met6dy vfskumu najstarsfch rodov". He discussed traditional Slovak naming customs dating to the Great Moravian period, showing that despite the lack of surnames, it is possible to establish genealogical betwe~n individuals by analyzing the system by which first names were given. The Battle of Mohacs ( 1526) disrupted the Slovak social order and this earlier naming system with it, a fact which makes post-Mohacs genealogies based on onomastics quite different. Milan Majtan, historian and author of Nazvy obcf na Slovensku za ostatnfch 200 rokov (1972), discusses the historical development of personal and family names in Slovakia in "Vfvin JXJmemivania osob na Slovensku", giving examples of proto-Slavic, pre-Christian and Christian naming traditions. Majtan cites copious examples from a range of early manuscript sources. In "Struktura sl'achty na Slovensku v 9 . - 13. storoci'', Richard Marsina relates that the upper aristocracy in Slovakia consisted of Magyars and Magyarized Slovaks. Therefore, the SLOVAKIA 127 genealogist and historian must look to the lesser nobility within each of the old countries to study the prominent Slovak lineages. Vincent Mucska's "Anonymovo dielo ako genealogickf pramen'""' takes a critical look at the twelfth-century "gesta". He dismisses it as a source of concrete historic or genealogical fact. "Panovnicka dynastia v JO. - 11. storocl" by Ladislav Vrtel' chronicles in some detail the families of the two sons of Takson, a granson of Arpad, the first Magyar leader, showing their quite different fates. Nine more articles, written by wel-known historians, deal with the earliest aristocratic families of individual counties: Saris and Uz by Ferdinand Ulicny; Spis by Ivan Chalupecky; Turiec, Liptov and Orava by Jan Benko; Trencfn by Richard Marsina; Bratislava by Vincent Sedlak; Nitra by Jan Lukacka; Zvolen by Maria Durk ova; and Malohont by Leon Sokolovsky. Each article is in Slovak with a short summary in English or, in several cases, German. The English summaries are readable, but the number of typographical and gramatical errors show that a native English-speaking editor was needed. Short biographies of the authors would have been most useful. The articles are based both on original research and the literature in the field in a number of languages: Polish, German, French, Hungarian, Latin. The Genealogical-Heraldic Society has single-handedly placed Slovakia on the genealogical map by publishing the Hlas, a twice-yearly journal of genealogy and heraldry and by organizing local genealogy groups, not only in Martin, but also in Bratislava, Kosice, and Trencfn. The founding of this society is connected with the fact that the authors of the Slovenskf biografickf slovmk (6 vols., Matica slovenska, 1986 - 1994), aware that the 19th-century Slovak intelligentsia was related by a complex series of intermarriages, have wanted to investigate 128 SLOVAKIA their genealogies for some time. This volume is an admirable contribution to that effort. Dejiny SJXJlocnosti Jeiisovej na Slovensku: 1561 - 1988. Emil Krapka, S. J. and Vojtech Mikula, S. J. - editors: Cambridge, Ontario: Dobra kniha, 1990, 526 pp. and 24 pp. of color illustrations. GERALD J. SABO, S. J. John Carroll University University Heights, Ohio This is a historical survey of the Jesuits and their activities in the Slovak area, part of the 1990 celebration of the Society of Jesus on the 450th anniversary of its papal approval. As noted on the bibliographic page, this monograph was prepared between the fall of 1986 and that of 198 8, before the so-called "Velvet Revolution" of November 1989. Its two editors and eight authors have presented much interesting material to a Slovak-reading public which lacked substantive, accurate information on a religious order important in Slovak history and culture since the sixteenth century. In the main body are a good number of black and white illustrations, supplemented with sixty-four color ones for Slovakia and ten related to Slovak Jesuit activity in Canada. This extensive history is probably unique among such writing, and given the circumstances under which it was realised, all those involved deserve much praise and gratitude. The monograph is divided into five major parts. The first four comprise the Jesuits' history from 1561 with their first establishment in Tmava and on through 1988. The first part of the history covers the time period through 1615, the second, through the suppression of the Jesuit order in 1773, the third, the SLOVAKIA 129 order's suppression and its effect in the Slovak portion of the Hungarian Kingdom, and the fourth, the context of the Society's universal restoration and its work among Slovaks at home and beyond from 1853 through 1988. The second and fourth parts together comprise two-thirds of the entire work. A major part usually begins with the larger European and Church background in which the Slovak events arose and evolved, and then Slovakrelated material is divided according to geographical locations and pastoral/apostolic activity. The fifth and final part of this history includes a chronological summary of important events among Jesuits of this area, an explanation of religious and Jesuit terminology, a substantial bibliography on the Society at large and in the Slovak area, name and place indexes, and summaries in Slovak, English, German, French, and Magyar. Twice in this history, Jesuits suffered dramatically at the hands of civil authorities. In 1773, Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa was finally impelled to supress legally the Society of Jesus in her realm from fear that if she did not do so, her daughter Marie Antoinette would not be allowed to marry the future French King, Louis XVI. Louis was a Bourbon, member of a royal family that strove mightily to eradicate throughout their European and foreign realms that "least" Society of Jesus for its greater loyalty to Church than state. Yet the Jesuits came back and thrived, just as they do today after their far more brutal suppression and persecution under the Communists between April, 1950 and the revolution of November, 1989. At present, Slovakia is a democratic, sovereign country, and publications such as the Dejiny need to showcase its role in European history and culture. Yet certain features of the Dejiny significantly limit its valuable effect and should be remedied. Prepared for a wide-ranging public conversant in Slovak, this work would also be of great interest to many others, whether general readers or scholars, who do not read Slovak, yet for 130 SLOVAKIA whom the summaries in languages other then Slovak are woefully inadequate. For this much wider audience, the Dejiny should be translated into English, the current lingua franca. Further, the lack of any documentation in notes is a serious limitation, yet nowadays such material could be collected within a reasonable time. This data is needed to provide crucial scholarship about Jesuits in Slovak territory and beyond which is available nowhere else. The activities of these Jesuits, mostly Slovak yet also of other nationalities, have remained hidden from appreciation even in Jesuit publications. For instance, in English-language studies of the Jesuits, the activities and influence of the universities in Trnava and Kosice - cities often disguised behind their German or Magyar names - are briefly mentioned, if that. No mention at all is made of the Slovak Benedikt Szollosi, compiler of the first Catholic hymnal Cantus catholici with songs in Latin and "Cultural Slovak". No more fortunate has been the Slovak Martin Szentivanyi, whose varied writings, encyclopedic studies, and very able directorship of the Trnava University press contributed significantly to Slovak history, culture, and language development. Also unknown among English readers is the Slovak Samuel Timon, whose writings made him a pioneer in scholarly Slovak historiography. Nor is Jesuit history in Slovak territory better known in other Western languages. For instance, nearly fourty years ago the Magyar Jesuit Laszl6 Lukacs wrote in German about the Jesuit Antonio Possevino's papal mission to establish a network of seminaries and schools in northern Europe in the late sixteenth century, but nothing was said about any Slovak area plans or effects. The Dejiny, though, discusses Posse vino's mission and its effects in re-establishing Jesuits there, as well as many other points not found outside of Slovaklanguage publications. Yet how is a general reader or scholar to appreciate the important Jesuit role and contributions to Slovak SLOVAKIA 131 history, culture, and society, if he is unable to read this history, or is even unaware that it exists? Clearly, the Dejiny cannot remain a hidden Slovak treasure. Indeed, the Slovak Jesuits have an obligation to make the Dejiny with proper documentation known and accessible to a non-Slovak-reading public. They must present themselves before the world and not simply in the Slovak heart of Europe. Otherwise, a part of Slovakia, its culture, history, people, and achievements will remain concealed behind a language that few in today's world will bother to learn even for reading. James Ramon Felak. "At the Price of the Republic." Hlinka's Slovak People's Party,1929-1938. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1994, xiv & 263 p. STANISLAV J. KIRSCHBAUM York University, Glendon College Czechoslovakia is a state that broke up twice in its seventyfour year history: the fust time it was under the pressure of international events and on the eve of a world war, the second in the aftermath of democratic elections. The fust break-up has been mired in controversy, due not only to the circumstances surrounding it, but above all to the responsibility that is often ascribed to the Slovak People's Party (SPP) for bringing about that outcome. James Felak's study looks at this party, in particular during the decade that precedes the fust break-up. There are very few studies of Slovak politics in the first Czechoslovak Republic (CSR), fewer still that offer an in depth examination of the role and policies of the main parties that influenced and shaped inter-war Slovak political life. The handful of monographs that have been written on Slovakia in the first 132 SLOVAKIA CSR, or indeed on the first CSR itself, have generally looked at how the "Slovak question" has contributed to, been responsible for, or unable to prevent its break-up. It would not be inaccurate to say that most take a position for (the Czechoslovak and Marxist approach) or against (the nationalist Slovak approach) the first CSR; very few seek to examine the question from the dynamics of Czech-Slovak relations as did Carol Skalnik Leff in National Conflict in Czechoslovakia. The Making and Remaking of a State, 1918-1987 (1988), or from the challenges a multinational state faces when dealing with its constituent nations and national minorities. Felak's study fills some of the gaps in our knowledge of Slovak inter-war political life, but, regretfully, it does little to advance our understanding of it. Of the seven chapters that present the Hlinka Slovak People's Party, five offer a relatively detailed examination of its policies for the decade that begins with the Depression. The first chapter presents a rapid and, unfortunately, superficial overview of Slovak nationalism until 1929 whereas the second outlines in detail the party's ideology and programme. The remaining chapters are divided according to certain events that mark a change of fortune or direction for the party. The author looks in depth at some of the more important ones, such as the Tuka affair of 1929, the 1929 and 1935 elections, the 1931 Slovak orthography dispute, the 1933 Pribina celebrations, the different party congresses, in particular the Youth Congress of 1932 and that of 1936, and the 1938 Pittsburgh Pact celebration, all of which marked Slovak political life. Equally useful and interesting are his descriptions of the SPP platform at different times and the relations with other Czech and Slovak political parties and formations. As for the various leading personalities, Andrej Hlinka, Vojtech Tuka, Karol Sidor, and Jozef Tiso, among others, the author seeks to give a sense of their role and importance in the development of SPP policies. In sum, most of the SLOVAKIA 133 book offers a detailed examination of the role of the SPP in an important decade in Slovak political life and is in this respect a contribution to the existing literature. The main problem with this study lies in its approach to the subject. This is due not only to too great a reliance on certain earlier studies, but above all to the indiscriminate use of police reports as authoritative sources of political analysis. In fairness to the author, he makes an attempt to present a balanced approach on the "Slovak question". Yet the language he uses clearly indicates that he identifies with and accepts generally the interpretations of those authors who have a Czechoslovak view ?f Slovak history, a view that is mostly negative toward the Slovaks and uncritically favourable toward Czechoslovakia. For example he refers to Slovakia as "relatively underdeveloped, politically, economically, socially, culturally, and nationally" (p. 17) or describes Hlinka as having a "parochial, clerical mentality that resembled that of a Slovak peasant." (p. 25) In addition, like earlier authors, his examination of Prague policies toward Slovakia and toward the SPP, is at best cursory and certainly not critical. On occasion one gets the feeling from his presentation that there was a specific Prague-SPP dynamic, yet there is little analysis of the reasons for and the consequences of Prague policies, only of the SPP reactions and actions. For example, Prague exercized censorship on the SPP press to such an extent that in 1938, when the government was considering the possibility of a coaliton with the SPP, one of that party's conditions was the lifting of that censorship. Equally problematic is the reliance on police reports as a research source. The fact that the Prague government felt it necessary to have police spies within the SPP is in itself a fact worth examining, not to say anything of the accuracy of these reports. The emphasis that Felak places on factional struggles within the SPP comes mostly from these reports. That the police 134 SLOVAKIA spies reported such struggles is not in the least bit surprising; it was in the government's interest to be able to neutralize an opposition party that Pelak on many occasions describes as the most important one in Slovakia. Also, there is nothing surprising about factional differences; this is a fact of life in political parties in all democratic states. But in this case, the factionalism represented the dilemmas the SPP faced in its twin objectives: the autonomy of Slovakia and the integrity and security of Czechoslovakia. The failure of Prague to have understood this and to have dealt with it adequately was paid, in the end, "at the price of the republic." For all its richness about the SPP, Felak's examination of its policies is nevertheless incomplete; on the other hand, it has the merit of provoking additional questions and showing the way for further study. Hope Dies Last, The Autobiogra]Xly of Alexander Dubcek. Edited and translated by Jin Hochman. New York: Kodansha America, Inc., 1993. 354 pp. ROBERT K. EV ANSON Uni versify of Missouri Kansas City The automobile accident of September 1, 1992, which led to Alexander Dubcek's death nine weeks later, robbed Slovakia of one of its most distinguished political leaders. Whether Dubcek could have played a vital role in shaping the politics of an independent Slovakia will never be known. What is certain, and what we are reminded of in this fascinating autobiography excellently edited and translated by Jin Hochman - is that he did establish for himself a place of lasting historical importance. SLOVAKIA 135 It seems necessary to say this because, as Dubcek himself was aware, there is insufficient appreciation among many of today's young Slovaks and Czechs of what he and his fellow "reform Communists" attempted to do in the 1960s. It remains for historians to sort out the difficult issue of just how much impact the Prague Spring had on the subsequent course of Czechoslovak politics that ended ultimately in the demise of the country's neo-Stalinist regime twenty-one years later, but clearly the impact was significant.The Prague Spring, which Dubcek more than anyone else helped to shape, set an example for democratic aspirations that resurfaced in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s. It also was an obvious model for some of Gorbachev's policies in -the 1980s. The Soviet suppression of the reform movement also created deep wounds of alienation among Czechs and Slovaks towards the USSR and the post-1968 regime that never healed. Ironically, both Dubcek and the Soviets were correct in their 1968 dialogue, Dubcek in warning the Soviets of the need to better understand how many Czechs and Slovaks viewed the old regime as an unnatural entity, and the Soviets in recognizing the degree to which Dubcek's reform movement threatened the very foundations of Leninist rule in Eastern Europe. Dubcek's autobiography begins appropriately with his early years, and an examination of that period of his life teaches us a great deal about why he acted as he did in his maturity. It is difficult not to admire the man, and this book, which is not egregiously self-serving, merely strengthens that attitude. Several aspects of character and personality come to mind - decency, courage, political shrewdness, and a trust and idealism that were at once his greatest strengths and his greatest weaknesses. We find him as a teenager in Kirghizia defending young Muslims against bullying by his fellow Czechs and Slovaks, and after World War Two pressing relentlessly for the release from the Soviet Gulag of a physician who had treated the injured Dubcek 136 SLOVAKIA during the Uprising; it was a small moral step to his passionate commitment to the complete rehabilitation of all political prisoners in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s. In 1952, in the wake of the Shinsky trial and at the height of the terror, he cast aside a Soviet-censored version of a speech and instead delivered a ringing eulogy at the funeral of fellow Communist Karol Smidke, who had been a victim of the persecution. He stood up for the reforms in the face of immense Soviet pressure throughout 1968, acted honorably after his abduction to Moscow following the Soviet and allied invasion, refused to take the safety of exile because he thought his proper place was with his people, and sent off a stream of letters of protest long after his removal from power at considerable personal risk. Dubcek also was a very clever and careful political tactician. Some of the most fascinating passages in his book concern the way he built alliances in his ultimately successful effort to bring down Communist Party First Secretary Antonin Novotny in 1967. I would like to have read even more details about conversations he had with various political figures in this process, as well as about the way he blunted Novotny's efforts to consign him to political oblivion in 1962, but there still is plenty to captivate anyone with a taste for Prague-style Kremlinology. The period of the early 1960s is especially interesting in this book, because Dubcek discusses the first signs of the movement against neo-Stalinism and Prague centralism, including his election over Novotny's opposition to the position of Slovak Communist Party First Secretary in April, 1963. This event represented a stinging defeat for Novotny, because Dubcek already had established himself as the leading advocate for sweeping rehabilitation of the victims of the purges of so-called "Slovak bourgeois nationalists" in the early 1950s. As such, he had become the major opponent of Prague centralism in the Party leadership. SLOVAKIA 137 While Dubcek was never foolhardy, he could be surprisingly bold. An interesting illustration of this was his successful ploy with Jin Hendrych, the number two man in the Party hierarchy in 1967 and, until then, a staunch Novotny loyalist. Sensing that Hendrych was beginning to vacillate in his commitment to Novotny, Dubcek walked into his office that late November and said that Novotny's days as First Secretary clearly were numbered, and that Hendrych might consider getting on the bandwagon or he too would fall. As an added enticement, he invited the startled Hendrych to consider whether he would like Novotny's job as First Secretary! The amusing climax of this story is that shortly thereafter, Leonid Brezhnev came to Prague to assess Novotny's prospects and naturally sought out Hendrych's opinion. Reportedly, Brezhnev barely got inside the door when Hendrych told him he was "willing" to serve as First Secretary. While Hendrych never got the chance - Dubcek succeeded Novotny - his abandonment of Novotny may have persuaded Brezhnev of the futility of a rescue operation. The most painful reading in this book is the period of the mounting Soviet hostility to the Prague Spring and the ultimate invasion and subsequent period of "normalization." It is impossible not to become angry all over again when one reads of the treatment Dubcek and his comrades received at the hands of their Soviet kidnappers, as well as the incredible pettiness and maliciousness of their successors in Prague and Bratislava. While Dubcek does not cast a great deal of new light on the events of 1968, he minces no words in assessing various political figures and spares no criticism of his worst tormentors. Thus we learn that Soviet Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin was as cold in private as in public and capable of extreme rudeness. He and his Soviet comrades are rightly dismissed by Dubcek as "gangsters" and "thugs." Novotny is confirmed as hopelessly ignorant of Slovak affairs, as well as contemptuous toward Slovak national 138 SLOVAKIA feelings, one of the keys to his ultimate demise. Dubcek also brands Vasil Bifak, Alois Indra, and the other conspirators of 1968 as "traitors." No one comes across worse, however, than Gustav Husak, who presided over the restoration of neo-Stalinism in Czechoslovakia. His shabby treatment of Dubcek after 1968, despite Dubcek's pivotal role in bringing about his political resurrection, is a sad counter to the courage he displayed when fighting for his own rehabilitation in the early 1960s. Despite the claims that he "protected" the ousted reformers from "hardliners" in the Party, Husak comes across here as a man incapable of normal feelings and as a complete opportunist. Naturally Dubcek was bitter about Husak, but the tone of his evaluations of Husak and other political figures is in fact measured and convincing. No discussion of Dubcek's political career would be complete without addressing his failure to discern the danger of a Soviet invasion in 1968. Part of the answer may lie in his family background. He was born in 1921 to a pair of committed socialists who were so enamored of the Soviet experiment that they were willing to relocate to Central Asia to help build a new society. At the same time, his parents had the good sense to return to Czechoslovakia when the dangers of remaining in the Soviet Union became obvious. Nonetheless, Dubcek never abandoned the socialist idealism he inherited from them. While he certainly understood the evils of Stalinism and the incompatibility of the Soviet-type system with Czech and Slovak traditions, he had a blind spot that served him poorly in 1968. Specifically, despite all the Soviet expressions of alarm about what he and his fellow reformers were doing, he could not bring himself to believe the USSR would intervene. There is no question Dubcek had evolved into a democrat and was aware of what he was doing. He writes that the Action Program put forth by Party reformers in 1968 "was a plan for a gradual return to SLOVAKIA 139 the concept of democratic socialism ... " He acknowledges that his regime was rejecting various aspects of Leninism - he believed that the Communist Party could win popular support in competitive elections, once it had embraced democracy, and thus he downplayed the Soviet concern that his reforms were jeopardizing "the leading role of the party." At the same time, he knew he had to avoid making any references to multi-party democracy for fear of alarming them unnecessarily. He also believed that "socialism could function better in a market-oriented environment, with significant elements of private enterprise." He writes that of course he recalled what happened to Hungary in 1956, but he had made clear to the Soviets his determination that Czechoslovakia would remain loyal to its Soviet bloc allies, so the situations were not comparable. Perhaps it was due to his conviction that what he and his colleagues were doing would benefit socialism by strengthening the Communist Party's legitimacy among the people, and by bringing the country closer to the original ideals of socialism, that he could not believe that the Soviet leadership would not, however reluctantly, allow him to proceed. (In a postscript, Jiff Hochman notes Dubcek's inclination to believe in people's good intentions.) In fairness, it is difficult to fault Dubcek very much had he opted for concessions, it seems unlikely that the Soviet leadership would have accepted anything short of a complete abandonment of the democratization process to which he had committed his country. Still, his discussion of how he assessed the Soviet mindset at the time is not entirely satisfactory. Alexander Dubcek's autobiography is a thoughtful and wellwritten account of the life of a man of extraordinary moral and political qualities. It is indispensable reading for anyone with an interest in the Czechoslovak political experience. 140 SLOVAKIA Paul Robert Magocsi. The Rusyns of Slovakia: An Historical Survey. New York: East European Monographs, Distributed by Columbia University Press, 1993, x, 185 pp., Maps, Notes, Bibliography, Index. KEITH P. DYRUD Concordia College St. Paul,MN The Rusyns of Slovakia: An Historical Survey is essentially a revision of an earlier work by Prof. Magocsi, The RusynUkrainians of Czechoslovakia: An Historical Survey (Vienna, 1981 ). But there is an additional twist to this revision. The "Preface" says: ''This volume is a translation of an introductory historical survey published in the newly codified Rusyn literary language as well as in Slovak by the Rusyn Renaissance Society in Presov." Prof. Magocsi played a leading role in the formation of the national movement that spawned the Rusyn Renaissance Society and the First World Congress of Rusyns that sponsored the codification of the Rusyn literary language. The professor, however, is modest. His name does not once appear in the text in connection with that activity; however, he is pictured with other leaders of the First World Congress of Rusyns (122). The contents of the book should be familiar to those have read the author's earlier works. Magocsi traces the Rusyns' history from their first settlement in eastern Slovakia to the present. He partially assumes and partially attempts to demonstrate that the Rusyns of eastern Slovakia form a distinct nationality. Magocsi documents the cooperation that existed between the Rusyns and the Slovaks while they were dominated by Hungary prior to 1914, but he is critical of the "slovakization" of the Rusyns between the world wars, and he also identifies the SLOVAKIA 141 Ukrainian movement as a threat to the Rusyn national identity that the book clearly endorses. During the inter-war yars slovakization was a greater threat to the Rusyns than "ukrainianization", but after the Second World War, official government support for the Ukrainian identity led to a decline of any national consciousness. Many Rusyns identified themselves as Slovaks to avoid the Ukrainian label. After the "Velvet Revolution" of November 1989, the Rusyns in the Presov region were again free to publicly promote their own national identity as separate from either Slovak or Ukrainian. In this effort, the Rusyns received support from both the Prague and the Bratislava governments. Magocsi suggests that this support for the Rusyns harkens back to "the historical friendship and attention on the part of Czechs and Slovaks toward their Rusyn brethren ... " (126). It could also suggest that the number of people identifying themselves as Rusyns is now very small and the Rusyn movement is not likely to become a major competitor to the Slovak identity in eastern Slovakia. In fact the major problem with Prof. Magocsi 's interpretation of the Rusyn movement in estem Slovakia is his confidence that the small number of Rusyns can develop a national identity. He is dissatisfied with the 1991 census figures that identify fewer than 33,000 "Rusnak/Russian/Rusyn/Ukrainian" people in the Presov region, with just under 17,000 of them unambiguously identifying themselves as "Rusyn" ( 126). According to Magocsi, that number could potentially be as high as 130 000 (2 - 3). Many readers of Magocsi's first book: The Shaping of a National Identity: Subcarpathian Rus', 1848 - 1948 (Cambridge, Mass., 1978) were persuaded by his convincing argument that the Rusyns in Subcarpathia did, at least, "shape" a national identity during the inter-war years. But in that era, he was dealing with a larger critical mass of Rusyns. In eastern Slovakia, that critical mass does not seem to exist. With the Slovaks claiming 142 SLOVAKIA most of those 130,000 potential Rusyns, and the Ukrainians competing for the rest, it does not seem likely that the critical mass will develop. In the meantime, those who do identify themselves as Rusyns can read their history in their own "newly codified language". And those who identify themselves as Slovaks can also read the translation in their language just as Rusyns in North America can read it in English. Ukraine and Ukrainians throughout the World: A Demographic and Sociological Guide to the Homeland and Its Diaspora. Edited by Ann Lencyk Pawliczko. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press for the Shevchenko Scientific Society, 1994, xxxvi, 508 pp. PAUL R. MAGOCSI University of Toronto The goal of this volume is to provide brief factual data on Ukrainians wherever they may live in the world. The newlyindependent country of Ukraine has within its borders only 64 percent of the estimated 58.7 million inhabitants who inhabit various parts of the globe. Therefore, a history or description of the Ukrainian people as a whole must be concerned with many other places than Ukraine. This book in fact deals primarily with the estimated 21.2 million Ukrainians living outside Ukraine. The approach is comprehensive, with an effort to say something about communities, however small they may be, in places like Luxembourg, Ireland, Tunisia and New Zealand as well as in the more known countries of Ukrainian immigrant settlement like the United States, Canada, and Australia. SLOVAKIA 143 The editor, Ann Lencyk Pawliczko, felt the need to trace the political and cultural history of Ukraine (pp. 37 - 84), which is the least satisfactory portion of this otherwise encyclopedic compendium. The rest of the volume consists of entries by 28 authors on the various countries where Ukrainians live. Each entry begins with a general overview of a specific country followed by a history of its Ukrainian community. Many entries include statistical charts and each ends with a list of further readings. Slovak readers will likely be interested in the entry called "Ukrainian-Ruthenians in the Slovak Republic", written by Vasyl Markus (pp. 157 - 166). While the author recognizes the enormous cultural achievements made by the Ukrainians in Slovakia after World War II, he does not attribute the achievements to the favorable policies of the former Czechoslovak Communist government that lavished extensive funding on the group, but rather to the efforts of the local Ukrainian-oriented intelligentsia. He claimes that the official census figures (30,800 Rusyns and Ukrainians in 1991) are far below the 110,000 to 120,000 that supposedly live in northeastern Slovakia. Markus argues the statistical discrepancy exists because of manipulation by Slovak census takers and a policy of "denationalization" carried out by both the former Communist and post-1989 governments in Slovakia. He does not mention the real reason for the numerical differences. Since the 1950s thousands of "Ukrainians-Ruthenians" voluntarily opted to identify as Slovaks in protest against Communist government decrees that banned the Rusyn national identity and required people to call themselves Ukrainian. The author also indirectly blames Slovak governments for responding favorably since 1989 to the Rusyn national revival and for allowing people in the 1991 census to identify with the Rusyn nationality (16,937 Rusyns as opposed to 13,847 Ukrainians) and with the Rusyn language (49,099 Rusyn speakers as opposed to 9,480 Ukrainian speakers) - the latter 144 SLOVAKIA figures are not provided by Markus. The otherwise democratic policies of present-day Slovakia are described as promoting "political Ruthenianism" a phenomenon that is "influenced by outside anti-Ukrainian forces" and that is intent on de-Ukrainianizing the local population. Fortunately, the rest of this volume maintains a less biased tone in describing Ukrainian communities in other countries. Nina Trnka: Slovak-English I English-Slovak Dictionary, N. Y., Hippocrene Books, 1992, 360 pp. JOHN M. KOCHIK Scottsdale, Anizona Any contribution to the field of Slovak reference materials is always welcome. Attempts at popularization are encouradged only to the extent that a work demonstrates quality. Standards, of course, should always be high to reflect the expertise of the _ contributor. The backcover boasts "You are holding the only SlovakEnglish/English-Slovak Dictionary available in North America". What about Smejkalova et al.? The book is intended for "students and travelers", and claims to be "concise". For all its advertising pretense, its format is disappointing. It looks like a thesis. It lacks an Introduction which it sorely needs for efficient use. It omits a separating page (175) between the two major divisions for facile access, wherein an appropriate blank page or second title page would suffice. Pronunciation (pages i through iii) is confusing. The list of consonants is incomplete, not accounting for - among others important palatals d', I, ii, ( used in too many words to be ignored. As immediate as page one, there is no knowing how ''t~' SLOVAKIA 145 in "akost' must be pronounced according to her presentation. Questions arise as to "studi'ia" (123) and "studna" (353 - see "well")? Why then "anP' (2) gives [a-nyi], or "odev" (71) [odyef]? How then distinguish cited "Javica" (44) from un-cited "/avica" - "left hand"? Equating long "6" with "6" in Pronunciation is erroneous, being that the latter "6" is diphotong [.u.o]. The remarks in Pronunciation are unclear and inadequate. The uninitiated will render Slovak pronunciation ludicrous. Examples provided are ambiguous for articulation of varietes of vowel "a", because speakers of American-English are inconsistent in their renditions of "a" in cited forms "ma-ma, fast, rat, grass, pad". To present digraph "ch" as aspirated [kh] in "khaki" (sic!) is not true for the guttural [)c]. And, to state that Slovak "r' is approximated by labial untrilled "r' of "red" - bellies the trilled "r' performed by the tongue. Transcription in Pronunciation is defective, since the symbols given are arbitrary, not in accord either with the conventions of Slovak texts or even the International Phonetic System. A hard look at the symbols presented defies logic. Examples follow. Since Standard Slovak (i. e. spisovna slovencina) utilizes digraph "dz" as the phone in medzi and other words - to employ "dz' as a symbol for English pronunciation of th [b] of "they" is incomprehensible! In like manner, use of [s] for [0] of "thank" produces comic theatrical effect as in [Sank you] for [Sank you]! Moreover, to present the nasal-guttural -ng [ri] of "long" as underlined [g] can be misinterpreted into a humorous exagerated liaison of oft-quoted misquoted "LoNGJsland" with defined [NGJ]. 146 SLOVAKIA Further examination into the deficiencies given in Pronunciation would require a complete revision after careful editing. So far only the unavoidable pitfalls have been critiqued. Editorial work appears lax or nonexistent as evidenced by "thruth" (sic! page ii), presumably "truth". And, "heith" (sic! page 158) following vyska and page 244, apparently meant to be "height"). In both citings of "heith", consistency seems to demonstrate persistent misspelling. There is an unexpected thrust from V (350) into W (351) without a notification-heading W. As for word-selection, it might be hoped that high-frequency was a criterion for efficiency. On the contrary, superfluous are words among others like "elephant" (222), "volcano" (350), "yacht" (358), "zebra" (359) - scarcely indigenous to Slovakia! Yet the word kamzik (36?) "chamois" (198?) indigenous to the Tatras finds no listing in either section. Why "warden" (351) is given makes one wonder of its sociological implications. Why is "warrant" (351) so important to find place here? Surely one expects utilitarian vocabulary in such a work. As for semantics, a first-hand impression might be that if several meanings are provided without explanation or definition - an indiscriminate interchange might be possible. Not so for automat (3) "slot-machine, snack-bar, machine-gun". Thus also for "minister" (268) "minister, vyslanec, duchovnf" mean different things. Each having a distinct, specific meaning. It is most unlikely that "students and travelers" will discern clearly which term fits which circumstance. Cross-references are not provided for necessary clarification. See "warm" (351) ...srdecnf... for which neither "cordial" (206?) nor "sincerely" (315) are given on expected pages in parentheses. In similar manner, aktiv (1) "meeting, gathering" makes no reference or distinction from "meeting" (266) schodza, stretnutie. SLOVAKIA 147 Perusal of the text will result in startling revelations. For instance, pronunciation of odJXJr (72) gives [od-por], whereas in fact it is [ot-por], a morphophonetic alternation called regressive assimilation. Where the voiced d automatically becomes unvoiced/devoiced t, in harmony with unvoiced p which sets the condition for the process. The same phenomenon occurs in other instances like odstup (72) to [ot-stup], bezplatny (6) to [bes-platnee], modlitba and prosba for "prayer" (289) not given in the text as [mod-lit-ba] and [proz-ba]. Interesting to note is that word-final voiced consonants are given as de-voiced as in smrad (116) [smrat]. However, no account has been made of v as a semi-vowel [IJ.] in such words as pravda (92) [prau.da], rovno (105) [rouno], domov (18) [domo.1J.]; instead, Czech ussage [domof] (18) is presented. Two outstanding examples given: [svatba] (125) for svadba and ['strukh] (101) for pstruh are unintelligible. For all the effort involved in the production of this Dictionary, it is unfortunate that it should fall short of the desired quality expected. In spite of the good intentions of the contributor, the end result is full of inconsistencies and inadequacies.  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. 36 (No. 66-67) Description An account of the resource includes:<br /><ul><li>Paul Robert Magocsi, Historical Atlas of East Central Europe (George J. Demko), p. 119</li> <li>Anton Špiesz, Dejiny Slovenska na cesta k sebauvedomeniu (Gregory C. Ference), p. 121</li> <li>Richard Marsina a kolektív, Slovenské dejiny (R. Vladimír Baumgarten), p. 123</li> <li>Katarína Šultajerová, comp., Najstaršie rody na Slovensku (Duncan B. Gardiner), p. 125</li> <li>Emil Krapka and Vojtech Mikula, eds., Dejiny Spoločnosti Ježišovej na Slovensku: 1561-1988 (Gerald J. Sabo), p. 128</li> <li>James Ramon Felak, "At the Price of the Republic." Hlinka' s Slovak People's Party, 1929-1938 (Stanislav J. Kirschbaum), p. 131</li> <li>Jiří Hochman, ed., Hope Dies Last: The Autobiography of Alexander Dubček (Robert K. Evanson), p. 134</li> <li>Paul Robert Magocsi, The Rusyns of Slovakia: An Historical Survey (Keith P. Dyrud), p. 140</li> <li>Ann Lensyk Pawliczko, ed., Ukraine and Ukrainians throughout the World: A Demographic and Sociological Guide to the Homeland and Its Disapora (Paul R. Magocsi), p. 142</li> <li>Nina Trnka, Slovak-English/English-Slovak Dictionary (John M. Kochik), p. 144</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Baumgarten, R. Vladimir Demko, George J., 1933- Dyrud, Keith P. 1940- Evanson, Robert Kent, 1944- Ference, Gregory Curtis, 1957- Gardiner, Duncan B., 1940- Kirschbaum, Stanislav J., 1942- Kochik, John Michael Magocsi, Paul Robert, 1945- Sabo, Gerald J., 1945–2020 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1998 LCNAF LCNAF+dates name SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/05dfafdd202334bbd4ae128be709e595.pdf 3cff60302ef100432f5cf13ff2767e89 PDF Text Text REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 201 Stephen L. Crane, Survivor From An Unknown War: The Life of lsakjan Narzikul. Upland, PA.: Diane Publishing, 1999, 333pp. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Florida One of the most fundamental dilemmas confronting politically conscious individuals in East Central Europe during World War II was that of choosing between two evils: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. For the peoples of Soviet Central Asia, the choice was deceptively simple. They had never suffered under German domination , whereas Stalin's regime had abolished many aspects of their traditional way of life. Consequently, a Turkistani battalion served as part of the German Army and later the Nazi SS . The experiences of a Turkistani officer, Is.ikjan Narzikul, is the subject of the present work . lsakjan Nar1.ikul's boyhood offered every indication he would become a model Soviet citizen. Notwithstanding the Communist doctrine of international solidarity, at the military academy of Tashkent (predominately Russian in composition), Isakjan was treated as a member of a despised, dark-skinned minority. Yet he performed well , and was commissioned a lieutenant m the Red Army. During the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Isakjan was stationed in the Baltic territories, where he was captured. At this time a number of German military officers broke with Nazi racial ideology. They felt that, in order for Germany to win the war in the East, it was necessary to rally the Soviet peoples in a popular struggle against the Stalinist Soviet Union. Among the �202 SLOVAKJA various organizations sponsored in Berlin was the National Turkistani Unity Committee. Isakjan Narzikul became an adherent, and subseq uentl y an officer in the Turkistani battalion . This unit admitted and concealed the religious identity of Turkistan's Jewish co-nationals . Ironically, then , under Turkistani auspices, Jews served in the SS. The Turkistanis aided the Germans in the suppression of the Warsaw uprising in the summer of 1944. They conducted themselves with far less brutality toward s the civilians than did the Germans, although they were not averse to a certain amount of looting. From there they were transferred to Slovakia. The author did not mention that Slovakia experienced a full-fledged uprising in the autumn of 1944; he merely stated that the area was characterized by "partisan activity ." The Slovak National Uprising was formally crushed when the Germans captured the rebel center of Hanska Bystrica late in October. The Turkistanis did not arrive until December. Given the loot that they had acquired in Warsaw, and Slovakia's relative prosperity, it was initially an idyllic intervention . Isakjan's life underwent a dramatic change when his superior officer (who had a Ru ssian partisan girlfriend) decided to change sides once again. Only a few officers, including lsakjan, were consulted; the rank and file were shanghaied into the partisan movement. The Soviet officer who received them gave them the name Chapajcv group. It is worth noting here that a Chapajcv Brigade of partisans had previously been outstandingly active tn the Slovak uprising. The Turkistani gro up was largely decimated in a German ambush; Isakjan gathered together the survivors . He commanded a curious group of partisans, whose objectives did not include �SLOVAKIA 203 destroying railways , cutting communication wires, or ambushing German troops . Isakjan was concerned that its members simply survive. Eventually, they returned fire when the Germans fired upon them. But Isakjan 's most noteworthy accomplishment was winning the goodwill of the Slovak people. He maintained strict discipline over his unit in the village it occupied, punished an attempted rape, and was scrupulous in matters of requisition . Ultimately, he married a Slovak woman and overcame the distrust of his future father-in-law. After the war Isakjan became a Czechoslovak citizen. He was popular with the local Slovaks, who helped thwart Soviet efforts to deport him back to Turkistan . Eventually, however, Isakjan had to nee Czechoslovakia. He ultimately made his way to Philadelphia, where he worked hard and experienced a measure of success. He came to the attention of a local doctor, whose nephew , Stephen Crane, authored the present work . Survivor from an Unknown War suffers from several weaknesses . Crane is not a professional historian . He repeatedly refers to the Soviet intelligence/secret police apparatus as the KGB. During World War IL Soviet state security was referred to as the NKVD; KGB was not adopted as an acronym until 1964 . The book's index is virtually worthless. having numerous inaccuracies in page citations . In at least one instance it refers the reader to a blank page' Finally, when compared with other foreign groups which participated in the Slovak uprising (Frenchmen, Yugoslavs, Russians and Ukrainians) and non-Slovak nati vc groups (Jews and Roma), the participation or the Turkistanis was at best peripheral. None of this, however, detracts from Crane's poignant portrayal of a man who maintained his moral integrity under extremely adverse circumstances . The book also re11ccts favourably on the �204 SLOVAKJA Slovak people's sense of fair-play and hospitality during a particularly painful period in their hi story. Konstantin V. Lifanov, Jazyk duxovnoj literatury slovackich kato/ikov 16-18 vv. i kodifikacija A. Berno/aka. Moscow: Izdatel'stvo Moskovskogo universiteta, 2000, I I 8pp . MARTIN VOTRUBA University of Pittsburgh During the early years of communism in the J95(fs, Slovak linguists - agreeing with their former Czech professors - wrote that literary Slovak was first codified in the 1780s by Anton Bernolak, a priest and zcman (lower nobleman) from Orava County. According to them, the written norm before Bernolak had been literary Czech, with varying degrees of regional Slovak influences. While insightful works about the development of the Slovak language as such had already been published by then , only limited research into its written norms prior to Bernolak was actually carried out earlier, or after that, and the assertions from the 1950s have been repeated since. Detailed analyses of the norms and standards did not reappear until the 1990s. Interestingly , they were done by linguists outside Slovakia: [ubomfr Durovic at the University of Lund, Sweden ; Mark Lauersdorf at Luther University, Iowa: and Konstantin Lifanov, at the M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University , Russia. In February of 2001 Moscow University published Lifanov ' s book on the language of Slovak Catholic ecclesiastical literature from the l 6th through the 18th centuries. During two decades of �SLOVAKJA 205 research in Slovak archives and libraries , Lifanov analyzed both printed and written texts that originated before Bernolak. Lifanov concluded that, contrary to earlier assumptions, Slovak authors have used a written standard separate from the written standard of Prague since the 16th century. The Kingdom of Bohemia, with its large Czech population , was part of the Holy Roman Empire, and as such was among the first areas in Central Europe to pick up on new trends from the West, including writing in the local vernacular instead of in Latin. The written standard that developed in Prag ue served as an influential model in the establishment of Polish writing, and was adopted outright by the Slovaks in the Kingdom of Hungary to the east of Bohemia in the 14th century. At that time Czech was closer to Slovak than it is now . However, prompted by the spread of Luther's reforms m the Kingdom of Hungary after the 1530s, the need to publish in the vernacular, rather than in Latin, grew and ongoing changes m the Czech written standard gradually ceased to be picked up by Slovak writers. They began to rely on their own traditions , first in religious writing, and later in administrative texts as well. The changes in the written standard involved both a retention of grammatical features originally adopted from Czech, which had become obsolete in the written standard of Prague, and an establishment of Slovak features in many instances where the two languages differed. By the 1610s a systematic written standard was in place in Slovakia, which was never used in Moravia or Bohemia. It was respected by authors regardless of their religious affiliation Catholic, or Lutheran. While Slovak linguists in the 1950s said that their written language had been subdivided into western, central and eastern varieties, Lifanov demonstrated that Slovak �SLOVAKIA 206 authors in the Kingdom of Hungary respected a single literary standard , which mainly relied on western Slovak features. According to Lifanov, Bcrnolak 's " manual of style" from the l 780s was not a new standardization , but a description and adjustment of the Slovak written standard that had been in place since the early 17th century. Only the Lutheran ecclesiastical writin g and poetry (but not many of their other texts) took a different path during the counter-Reformation , when their persec ution peaked . But the Lutherans did not use the contemporary Prague written standard either. Rather, they reverted to the archaic style of a Protestant translation of the Bible published in Moravia in the 1590s, whose lang uage had already been o bsolete for one or two ce nturies at the time of its publication . During empress Maria Theresa's re ig n in the 18th century, the close adherence to th e language of that tran slatio n of the Bible in their ' hig h literature' became an article of faith and religious survival for the Lutherans. Tradition made their descendants partial to the o bsolete style fo r several decades after emperor Joseph ll 's Edict of Toleration of 1781. Czec h and Slovak lin guists in the 20th century ge nerally reviewed only old high literature, and hig h literature was mos tl y written by the Lutheran intelligentsia. Moreover, Slovak and Czech have many common features. and the academics Czech and later their Slovak disciples - first took all the features that did not differ from Czech to be Czech, including in the vast num ber of instances when the features were the same in Slovak. To illustrate the approach in a theo retical example, if the features m a text were one-third Czech, one-third the same in Czech and Slovak , and one-third Slovak, the whole text would be seen as two-thirds, i.e. " in principle" Czech, rather than as two-third s �207 SLOVAKIA Slovak, or as open to both interpretations and subject to further analysis. Yet another reason for misidentification was that, by comparison to modem Slovak, west Slovak features, which used to be the main source of the Slovak written standard, are ofte n closer to Czech. That increased the like lihood that 20th-ce ntury linguists, not familiar with regional varieties of Slovak, dismissive of the possibility of their employment in the old written standard , or not s ufficiently th orough, would no t take account of them. It is worth noting that, although his research may no t converge with Lifanov 's, Durovic showed in a recent paper th at there indeed was a concept of a written standard before Bernolak 's manual of style. Bcmo lak drew o n a grammar book pub lished in Bratislava in the 1740s by Lutheran Pas tor Pavel Do lezal, who chastised his contemporaries for writing in their 18th century lang uage instead of using the archaic Biblical style. According to Lifanov, the pre-existin g Slovak written standard was established so well that even those who welcomed Bcrnolak 's manual of style often just appeared to respect it where Bcmolak 's codification agreed with the existing norm , but adhered to the traditional standard where Bcrnolak di verged from it. To sum up. Lifanov ·s research shows that the Slovaks ado pted the ir written norm from Prague in the 14th ce ntury. Slovak and Czech writing bifurcated after the 1530s, when the Slovaks began to ignore ongoing changes in Prag ue , and introduced Slovak innovations. A Slovak written standard had developed by the 1610s. Except for a reversal to an arc haic style limited to hi g h literature by Lutheran authors in the 18th and earl y 19th centuries, that written standard was used through its major reform by [udovft Stur in the middle of the 19th ce ntury. � REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 201 Stephen L. Crane, Survivor From An Unknown War: The Life of lsakjan Narzikul. Upland, PA.: Diane Publishing, 1999, 333pp. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Florida One of the most fundamental dilemmas confronting politically conscious individuals in East Central Europe during World War II was that of choosing between two evils: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. For the peoples of Soviet Central Asia, the choice was deceptively simple. They had never suffered under German domination , whereas Stalin's regime had abolished many aspects of their traditional way of life. Consequently, a Turkistani battalion served as part of the German Army and later the Nazi SS . The experiences of a Turkistani officer, Is.ikjan Narzikul, is the subject of the present work . lsakjan Nar1.ikul's boyhood offered every indication he would become a model Soviet citizen. Notwithstanding the Communist doctrine of international solidarity, at the military academy of Tashkent (predominately Russian in composition), Isakjan was treated as a member of a despised, dark-skinned minority. Yet he performed well , and was commissioned a lieutenant m the Red Army. During the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Isakjan was stationed in the Baltic territories, where he was captured. At this time a number of German military officers broke with Nazi racial ideology. They felt that, in order for Germany to win the war in the East, it was necessary to rally the Soviet peoples in a popular struggle against the Stalinist Soviet Union. Among the �202 SLOVAKJA various organizations sponsored in Berlin was the National Turkistani Unity Committee. Isakjan Narzikul became an adherent, and subseq uentl y an officer in the Turkistani battalion . This unit admitted and concealed the religious identity of Turkistan's Jewish co-nationals . Ironically, then , under Turkistani auspices, Jews served in the SS. The Turkistanis aided the Germans in the suppression of the Warsaw uprising in the summer of 1944. They conducted themselves with far less brutality toward s the civilians than did the Germans, although they were not averse to a certain amount of looting. From there they were transferred to Slovakia. The author did not mention that Slovakia experienced a full-fledged uprising in the autumn of 1944; he merely stated that the area was characterized by "partisan activity ." The Slovak National Uprising was formally crushed when the Germans captured the rebel center of Hanska Bystrica late in October. The Turkistanis did not arrive until December. Given the loot that they had acquired in Warsaw, and Slovakia's relative prosperity, it was initially an idyllic intervention . Isakjan's life underwent a dramatic change when his superior officer (who had a Ru ssian partisan girlfriend) decided to change sides once again. Only a few officers, including lsakjan, were consulted; the rank and file were shanghaied into the partisan movement. The Soviet officer who received them gave them the name Chapajcv group. It is worth noting here that a Chapajcv Brigade of partisans had previously been outstandingly active tn the Slovak uprising. The Turkistani gro up was largely decimated in a German ambush; Isakjan gathered together the survivors . He commanded a curious group of partisans, whose objectives did not include �SLOVAKIA 203 destroying railways , cutting communication wires, or ambushing German troops . Isakjan was concerned that its members simply survive. Eventually, they returned fire when the Germans fired upon them. But Isakjan 's most noteworthy accomplishment was winning the goodwill of the Slovak people. He maintained strict discipline over his unit in the village it occupied, punished an attempted rape, and was scrupulous in matters of requisition . Ultimately, he married a Slovak woman and overcame the distrust of his future father-in-law. After the war Isakjan became a Czechoslovak citizen. He was popular with the local Slovaks, who helped thwart Soviet efforts to deport him back to Turkistan . Eventually, however, Isakjan had to nee Czechoslovakia. He ultimately made his way to Philadelphia, where he worked hard and experienced a measure of success. He came to the attention of a local doctor, whose nephew , Stephen Crane, authored the present work . Survivor from an Unknown War suffers from several weaknesses . Crane is not a professional historian . He repeatedly refers to the Soviet intelligence/secret police apparatus as the KGB. During World War IL Soviet state security was referred to as the NKVD; KGB was not adopted as an acronym until 1964 . The book's index is virtually worthless. having numerous inaccuracies in page citations . In at least one instance it refers the reader to a blank page' Finally, when compared with other foreign groups which participated in the Slovak uprising (Frenchmen, Yugoslavs, Russians and Ukrainians) and non-Slovak nati vc groups (Jews and Roma), the participation or the Turkistanis was at best peripheral. None of this, however, detracts from Crane's poignant portrayal of a man who maintained his moral integrity under extremely adverse circumstances . The book also re11ccts favourably on the �204 SLOVAKJA Slovak people's sense of fair-play and hospitality during a particularly painful period in their hi story. Konstantin V. Lifanov, Jazyk duxovnoj literatury slovackich kato/ikov 16-18 vv. i kodifikacija A. Berno/aka. Moscow: Izdatel'stvo Moskovskogo universiteta, 2000, I I 8pp . MARTIN VOTRUBA University of Pittsburgh During the early years of communism in the J95(fs, Slovak linguists - agreeing with their former Czech professors - wrote that literary Slovak was first codified in the 1780s by Anton Bernolak, a priest and zcman (lower nobleman) from Orava County. According to them, the written norm before Bernolak had been literary Czech, with varying degrees of regional Slovak influences. While insightful works about the development of the Slovak language as such had already been published by then , only limited research into its written norms prior to Bernolak was actually carried out earlier, or after that, and the assertions from the 1950s have been repeated since. Detailed analyses of the norms and standards did not reappear until the 1990s. Interestingly , they were done by linguists outside Slovakia: [ubomfr Durovic at the University of Lund, Sweden ; Mark Lauersdorf at Luther University, Iowa: and Konstantin Lifanov, at the M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University , Russia. In February of 2001 Moscow University published Lifanov ' s book on the language of Slovak Catholic ecclesiastical literature from the l 6th through the 18th centuries. During two decades of �SLOVAKJA 205 research in Slovak archives and libraries , Lifanov analyzed both printed and written texts that originated before Bernolak. Lifanov concluded that, contrary to earlier assumptions, Slovak authors have used a written standard separate from the written standard of Prague since the 16th century. The Kingdom of Bohemia, with its large Czech population , was part of the Holy Roman Empire, and as such was among the first areas in Central Europe to pick up on new trends from the West, including writing in the local vernacular instead of in Latin. The written standard that developed in Prag ue served as an influential model in the establishment of Polish writing, and was adopted outright by the Slovaks in the Kingdom of Hungary to the east of Bohemia in the 14th century. At that time Czech was closer to Slovak than it is now . However, prompted by the spread of Luther's reforms m the Kingdom of Hungary after the 1530s, the need to publish in the vernacular, rather than in Latin, grew and ongoing changes m the Czech written standard gradually ceased to be picked up by Slovak writers. They began to rely on their own traditions , first in religious writing, and later in administrative texts as well. The changes in the written standard involved both a retention of grammatical features originally adopted from Czech, which had become obsolete in the written standard of Prague, and an establishment of Slovak features in many instances where the two languages differed. By the 1610s a systematic written standard was in place in Slovakia, which was never used in Moravia or Bohemia. It was respected by authors regardless of their religious affiliation Catholic, or Lutheran. While Slovak linguists in the 1950s said that their written language had been subdivided into western, central and eastern varieties, Lifanov demonstrated that Slovak �SLOVAKIA 206 authors in the Kingdom of Hungary respected a single literary standard , which mainly relied on western Slovak features. According to Lifanov, Bcrnolak 's " manual of style" from the l 780s was not a new standardization , but a description and adjustment of the Slovak written standard that had been in place since the early 17th century. Only the Lutheran ecclesiastical writin g and poetry (but not many of their other texts) took a different path during the counter-Reformation , when their persec ution peaked . But the Lutherans did not use the contemporary Prague written standard either. Rather, they reverted to the archaic style of a Protestant translation of the Bible published in Moravia in the 1590s, whose lang uage had already been o bsolete for one or two ce nturies at the time of its publication . During empress Maria Theresa's re ig n in the 18th century, the close adherence to th e language of that tran slatio n of the Bible in their ' hig h literature' became an article of faith and religious survival for the Lutherans. Tradition made their descendants partial to the o bsolete style fo r several decades after emperor Joseph ll 's Edict of Toleration of 1781. Czec h and Slovak lin guists in the 20th century ge nerally reviewed only old high literature, and hig h literature was mos tl y written by the Lutheran intelligentsia. Moreover, Slovak and Czech have many common features. and the academics Czech and later their Slovak disciples - first took all the features that did not differ from Czech to be Czech, including in the vast num ber of instances when the features were the same in Slovak. To illustrate the approach in a theo retical example, if the features m a text were one-third Czech, one-third the same in Czech and Slovak , and one-third Slovak, the whole text would be seen as two-thirds, i.e. " in principle" Czech, rather than as two-third s �207 SLOVAKIA Slovak, or as open to both interpretations and subject to further analysis. Yet another reason for misidentification was that, by comparison to modem Slovak, west Slovak features, which used to be the main source of the Slovak written standard, are ofte n closer to Czech. That increased the like lihood that 20th-ce ntury linguists, not familiar with regional varieties of Slovak, dismissive of the possibility of their employment in the old written standard , or not s ufficiently th orough, would no t take account of them. It is worth noting that, although his research may no t converge with Lifanov 's, Durovic showed in a recent paper th at there indeed was a concept of a written standard before Bernolak 's manual of style. Bcmo lak drew o n a grammar book pub lished in Bratislava in the 1740s by Lutheran Pas tor Pavel Do lezal, who chastised his contemporaries for writing in their 18th century lang uage instead of using the archaic Biblical style. According to Lifanov, the pre-existin g Slovak written standard was established so well that even those who welcomed Bcrnolak 's manual of style often just appeared to respect it where Bcmolak 's codification agreed with the existing norm , but adhered to the traditional standard where Bcrnolak di verged from it. To sum up. Lifanov ·s research shows that the Slovaks ado pted the ir written norm from Prague in the 14th ce ntury. Slovak and Czech writing bifurcated after the 1530s, when the Slovaks began to ignore ongoing changes in Prag ue , and introduced Slovak innovations. A Slovak written standard had developed by the 1610s. Except for a reversal to an arc haic style limited to hi g h literature by Lutheran authors in the 18th and earl y 19th centuries, that written standard was used through its major reform by [udovft Stur in the middle of the 19th ce ntury. � 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 2003, Vol. 37 Description An account of the resource Vol. 37 (No. 68-69), 2003. 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 2003 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 201 Stephen L. Crane, Survivor From An Unknown War: The Life of lsakjan Narzikul. Upland, PA.: Diane Publishing, 1999, 333pp. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tallahassee, Florida One of the most fundamental dilemmas confronting politically conscious individuals in East Central Europe during World War II was that of choosing between two evils: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. For the peoples of Soviet Central Asia, the choice was deceptively simple. They had never suffered under German domination , whereas Stalin's regime had abolished many aspects of their traditional way of life. Consequently, a Turkistani battalion served as part of the German Army and later the Nazi SS . The experiences of a Turkistani officer, Is.ikjan Narzikul, is the subject of the present work . lsakjan Nar1.ikul's boyhood offered every indication he would become a model Soviet citizen. Notwithstanding the Communist doctrine of international solidarity, at the military academy of Tashkent (predominately Russian in composition), Isakjan was treated as a member of a despised, dark-skinned minority. Yet he performed well , and was commissioned a lieutenant m the Red Army. During the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Isakjan was stationed in the Baltic territories, where he was captured. At this time a number of German military officers broke with Nazi racial ideology. They felt that, in order for Germany to win the war in the East, it was necessary to rally the Soviet peoples in a popular struggle against the Stalinist Soviet Union. Among the 202 SLOVAKJA various organizations sponsored in Berlin was the National Turkistani Unity Committee. Isakjan Narzikul became an adherent, and subseq uentl y an officer in the Turkistani battalion . This unit admitted and concealed the religious identity of Turkistan's Jewish co-nationals . Ironically, then , under Turkistani auspices, Jews served in the SS. The Turkistanis aided the Germans in the suppression of the Warsaw uprising in the summer of 1944. They conducted themselves with far less brutality toward s the civilians than did the Germans, although they were not averse to a certain amount of looting. From there they were transferred to Slovakia. The author did not mention that Slovakia experienced a full-fledged uprising in the autumn of 1944; he merely stated that the area was characterized by "partisan activity ." The Slovak National Uprising was formally crushed when the Germans captured the rebel center of Hanska Bystrica late in October. The Turkistanis did not arrive until December. Given the loot that they had acquired in Warsaw, and Slovakia's relative prosperity, it was initially an idyllic intervention . Isakjan's life underwent a dramatic change when his superior officer (who had a Ru ssian partisan girlfriend) decided to change sides once again. Only a few officers, including lsakjan, were consulted; the rank and file were shanghaied into the partisan movement. The Soviet officer who received them gave them the name Chapajcv group. It is worth noting here that a Chapajcv Brigade of partisans had previously been outstandingly active tn the Slovak uprising. The Turkistani gro up was largely decimated in a German ambush; Isakjan gathered together the survivors . He commanded a curious group of partisans, whose objectives did not include SLOVAKIA 203 destroying railways , cutting communication wires, or ambushing German troops . Isakjan was concerned that its members simply survive. Eventually, they returned fire when the Germans fired upon them. But Isakjan 's most noteworthy accomplishment was winning the goodwill of the Slovak people. He maintained strict discipline over his unit in the village it occupied, punished an attempted rape, and was scrupulous in matters of requisition . Ultimately, he married a Slovak woman and overcame the distrust of his future father-in-law. After the war Isakjan became a Czechoslovak citizen. He was popular with the local Slovaks, who helped thwart Soviet efforts to deport him back to Turkistan . Eventually, however, Isakjan had to nee Czechoslovakia. He ultimately made his way to Philadelphia, where he worked hard and experienced a measure of success. He came to the attention of a local doctor, whose nephew , Stephen Crane, authored the present work . Survivor from an Unknown War suffers from several weaknesses . Crane is not a professional historian . He repeatedly refers to the Soviet intelligence/secret police apparatus as the KGB. During World War IL Soviet state security was referred to as the NKVD; KGB was not adopted as an acronym until 1964 . The book's index is virtually worthless. having numerous inaccuracies in page citations . In at least one instance it refers the reader to a blank page' Finally, when compared with other foreign groups which participated in the Slovak uprising (Frenchmen, Yugoslavs, Russians and Ukrainians) and non-Slovak nati vc groups (Jews and Roma), the participation or the Turkistanis was at best peripheral. None of this, however, detracts from Crane's poignant portrayal of a man who maintained his moral integrity under extremely adverse circumstances . The book also re11ccts favourably on the 204 SLOVAKJA Slovak people's sense of fair-play and hospitality during a particularly painful period in their hi story. Konstantin V. Lifanov, Jazyk duxovnoj literatury slovackich kato/ikov 16-18 vv. i kodifikacija A. Berno/aka. Moscow: Izdatel'stvo Moskovskogo universiteta, 2000, I I 8pp . MARTIN VOTRUBA University of Pittsburgh During the early years of communism in the J95(fs, Slovak linguists - agreeing with their former Czech professors - wrote that literary Slovak was first codified in the 1780s by Anton Bernolak, a priest and zcman (lower nobleman) from Orava County. According to them, the written norm before Bernolak had been literary Czech, with varying degrees of regional Slovak influences. While insightful works about the development of the Slovak language as such had already been published by then , only limited research into its written norms prior to Bernolak was actually carried out earlier, or after that, and the assertions from the 1950s have been repeated since. Detailed analyses of the norms and standards did not reappear until the 1990s. Interestingly , they were done by linguists outside Slovakia: [ubomfr Durovic at the University of Lund, Sweden ; Mark Lauersdorf at Luther University, Iowa: and Konstantin Lifanov, at the M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University , Russia. In February of 2001 Moscow University published Lifanov ' s book on the language of Slovak Catholic ecclesiastical literature from the l 6th through the 18th centuries. During two decades of SLOVAKJA 205 research in Slovak archives and libraries , Lifanov analyzed both printed and written texts that originated before Bernolak. Lifanov concluded that, contrary to earlier assumptions, Slovak authors have used a written standard separate from the written standard of Prague since the 16th century. The Kingdom of Bohemia, with its large Czech population , was part of the Holy Roman Empire, and as such was among the first areas in Central Europe to pick up on new trends from the West, including writing in the local vernacular instead of in Latin. The written standard that developed in Prag ue served as an influential model in the establishment of Polish writing, and was adopted outright by the Slovaks in the Kingdom of Hungary to the east of Bohemia in the 14th century. At that time Czech was closer to Slovak than it is now . However, prompted by the spread of Luther's reforms m the Kingdom of Hungary after the 1530s, the need to publish in the vernacular, rather than in Latin, grew and ongoing changes m the Czech written standard gradually ceased to be picked up by Slovak writers. They began to rely on their own traditions , first in religious writing, and later in administrative texts as well. The changes in the written standard involved both a retention of grammatical features originally adopted from Czech, which had become obsolete in the written standard of Prague, and an establishment of Slovak features in many instances where the two languages differed. By the 1610s a systematic written standard was in place in Slovakia, which was never used in Moravia or Bohemia. It was respected by authors regardless of their religious affiliation Catholic, or Lutheran. While Slovak linguists in the 1950s said that their written language had been subdivided into western, central and eastern varieties, Lifanov demonstrated that Slovak SLOVAKIA 206 authors in the Kingdom of Hungary respected a single literary standard , which mainly relied on western Slovak features. According to Lifanov, Bcrnolak 's " manual of style" from the l 780s was not a new standardization , but a description and adjustment of the Slovak written standard that had been in place since the early 17th century. Only the Lutheran ecclesiastical writin g and poetry (but not many of their other texts) took a different path during the counter-Reformation , when their persec ution peaked . But the Lutherans did not use the contemporary Prague written standard either. Rather, they reverted to the archaic style of a Protestant translation of the Bible published in Moravia in the 1590s, whose lang uage had already been o bsolete for one or two ce nturies at the time of its publication . During empress Maria Theresa's re ig n in the 18th century, the close adherence to th e language of that tran slatio n of the Bible in their ' hig h literature' became an article of faith and religious survival for the Lutherans. Tradition made their descendants partial to the o bsolete style fo r several decades after emperor Joseph ll 's Edict of Toleration of 1781. Czec h and Slovak lin guists in the 20th century ge nerally reviewed only old high literature, and hig h literature was mos tl y written by the Lutheran intelligentsia. Moreover, Slovak and Czech have many common features. and the academics Czech and later their Slovak disciples - first took all the features that did not differ from Czech to be Czech, including in the vast num ber of instances when the features were the same in Slovak. To illustrate the approach in a theo retical example, if the features m a text were one-third Czech, one-third the same in Czech and Slovak , and one-third Slovak, the whole text would be seen as two-thirds, i.e. " in principle" Czech, rather than as two-third s 207 SLOVAKIA Slovak, or as open to both interpretations and subject to further analysis. Yet another reason for misidentification was that, by comparison to modem Slovak, west Slovak features, which used to be the main source of the Slovak written standard, are ofte n closer to Czech. That increased the like lihood that 20th-ce ntury linguists, not familiar with regional varieties of Slovak, dismissive of the possibility of their employment in the old written standard , or not s ufficiently th orough, would no t take account of them. It is worth noting that, although his research may no t converge with Lifanov 's, Durovic showed in a recent paper th at there indeed was a concept of a written standard before Bernolak 's manual of style. Bcmo lak drew o n a grammar book pub lished in Bratislava in the 1740s by Lutheran Pas tor Pavel Do lezal, who chastised his contemporaries for writing in their 18th century lang uage instead of using the archaic Biblical style. According to Lifanov, the pre-existin g Slovak written standard was established so well that even those who welcomed Bcrnolak 's manual of style often just appeared to respect it where Bcmolak 's codification agreed with the existing norm , but adhered to the traditional standard where Bcrnolak di verged from it. To sum up. Lifanov ·s research shows that the Slovaks ado pted the ir written norm from Prague in the 14th ce ntury. Slovak and Czech writing bifurcated after the 1530s, when the Slovaks began to ignore ongoing changes in Prag ue , and introduced Slovak innovations. A Slovak written standard had developed by the 1610s. Except for a reversal to an arc haic style limited to hi g h literature by Lutheran authors in the 18th and earl y 19th centuries, that written standard was used through its major reform by [udovft Stur in the middle of the 19th ce ntury.  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. 37 (No. 68-69) Description An account of the resource includes:<br /><ul><li>Stephen L. Crane, Survivor From An Unknown War: The Life of Isakjan Narzikul (Vladimír Baumgarten), p. 201</li> <li>Konstantin V. Lifanov, Jazyk duxovnoj literatury slovackich katolikov 16-18 vv. i kodifikacija A. Bernolaka (Martin Votruba), p. 204</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Baumgarten, R. Vladimir Votruba, Martin Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2003 LCNAF name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/97f290def9af350f5ad4fc7dd03ad4de.pdf c3aa70b314f854d471adec54478ee33d PDF Text Text REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 149 Peter Ze nuc h, M edzi vychodom a zapadom: Byzantsko-slovan- ska tradfcia, kultura a j azyk na vychodnom Slovensku. Brati slava: Veda , 2002. 286 pp., notes, bibliograph y, summari es in German and Ru ss ian. ROB ERT A. ORR Uni versity of Ottawa Thi s book provides va luabl e in sig hts, from severa l ang les, into a co mparati ve ly neglected area of Slavic studies: the place of Eastern Slovakia as an area straddling the di v ide between Eastern and Western Slavdom , which has cha nged hands severa l times in the course of its hi story. Although, as Zenuch shows in numerous pl aces (starting from the first page of the introducti o n), Easte rn Slovakia is generall y pl aced firmly o n the W estern side of the divide from lin- •• gui stic , cultural, and hi storical points of view (often being cited as part of Slavia Latina, Slavia Romana), it also saw the development of a homegrow n Church Slavonic tradition, a sort of " Slovak Church Slavonic", w ith a ll that it e ntail s, e.g., poor know ledge of Church Slavonic itse lf ( 127); in stances of hype rcorrection ( 168); and the gradual e merge nce of errors in re nditi o ns of so ngs, mak ing the m g radually less comprehensibl e to the laity over time (237-238). Zenuch 's book beg in s with a detailed tabl e of contents, followed by an introduc tion consisting of di sc uss ion s of approaches to the iss ue from the point of view of literature and hi sto ry, re li g io n and culture, and the hi storica l and lin g ui stic conditions. He then presents hi s major arg ume nts in e ight unnumbe red chapters , dealing roughly with hi storica l and c ultural developments in Eastern Slovakia and the Union of Uzhorod ( 1646), which broug ht the area w ithin the Uni ate C hurc h, under the authority of Rome, in the same way as the Uni o n of Brest ( 1596) did for Wes tern Ukraine; the Cyrillomethodian traditi o n in Eastern Slovakia, and that of St. Demetrius of Sa lonika; �SLOVAKIA 150 the ro le of para litu rg ica l so ng in th e Byza ntin o-S lav ic ri te; the la ng uage of se lected Cy rilli c ma nu sc ript s; th e interpre tat io n of certa in lin g ui sti c phe no me na in se lec ted manu sc ripts, whi ch he treats in co nsiderabl e detail ; and C hurch S lavoni c in Eastern S lovak ia , providing a fa irl y deta il ed ling ui stic ana lys is, es pec ia ll y of the lex icon. So urces are ex te ns ive ly referenced (23 prim ary so urces and 265 bibli ographi ca l ite ms, mostl y in Slova k, Ru ss ia n, a nd Ukra ini an, wi th some ite ms in Eng li sh, Hun gari an, etc.), w hi ch at times becomes rather cumberso me , w ith the foo tn otes (666) takin g up more than ha lf a page in pl aces. S urpris in g ly. in view of its titl e, the book offers o nl y a fa irl y bri ef di sc uss io n of the period before the Uni o n of Uzhorod (the " Byzantsko" in the titl e sound s vague ly a nac hro ni stic), jumping ra pidl y to 1646 (59-60). In view of its impo rtance, perh aps the Uni o n of Uzhorod could have been incorporated into th e actu a l titl e of the boo k (... Vychodne Slovensko po prijatf Uihorodskej unie, pe rhaps?). As me nti oned above, several Sl av ic c ultures are in contact within or c lose to Eas te rn S lova kia , and Zen o uc h di sc usses the lin g ui sti c aspects of such contacts in some deta il. In ma ny instances lang uage and re li g ion were intertw ined, and much of the no menc lature refl ec ts thi s situ ati o n, w ith te rm s suc h as Rusnak . Rusyn, Slovak, Slovj ak, e tc. be in g utili sed to de no te di ffe re nces in lang uage and re li g io n ( 126; as he puts it, e .g ., "every Gree k Ca th o li c was ta ke n fo r a Ru sy n" ( I 32)) . Vag ue aware ness of thi s co mpl ex ity has spread o uts ide the immedi ate area, with the genera ll y kn ow n Latin term Rut- heni ("Ruthe ni an") hav ing both re li g io us and ling ui sti c connotati ons. Eve n the ultim ate ly ephe mera l "s in g le Czec hos lovak" peopl e fig ure in some of the treatments ( 196- 197). Zeno uch c ites exampl es of such interconnecti o ns as , e .g., Sl ovak- U kraini an ( 137) , as we ll as lex ica l ite ms fro m ne ig hbo urin g lang uages, so metimes c itin g the same ite m in severa l la ng uages, e .g ., prikaza iie, etc .. ( 179). He makes sk ilful use of the tex ts of vari o us songs, w ith di sc uss io ns of vari o us types of song, and how to di sting ui sh the m to illustrate hi s po ints (e.g., 11 0 fn . 269), o ne of which ( 0 vyhnanf A dama i Evy z raja; 172-173) is �SLOVAKIA 151 eve n desc ribed as "s love nsko-po l's ko- ru sin sko[m ]" . He provides the Ni cene C reed in both Cy rilli c and Ro man, with stresses marked , to illustrate pro nunc iati o n (223 -224). Ze i\ o uc h deserves co mme nd ati o n fo r severa l passages a nd hi s treatment of sma ll points of deta il , e.g., hi s ex pl anati o n of drevo ( 173 fn . 498). He offe rs an excell e nt o utline of the earl y hi sto ry of Eastern Sl ovaki a (27, pass im), a nd definiti o ns of term s suc h as ca th olicos (33); sluienie (79); akatist (82), etc. On a re lated leve l, he offers useful di sc uss io ns of etymologies, e.g., S lovak Tabor ( 147). The interaction of c ultures and c hang ing borde rs in Easte rn Slovaki a meant , amo ng othe r thin gs, that a large number of la ng uages and orthographi es were used . Ze i\o uc h consiste ntl y c ites a ll mate ri a l in its ori g in a l orthograph y and fo nts, even ex te ndin g to, e.g ., c iting Russ ian refere nces in pre-Revolution orthograph y (e.g ., 59-60 ; 127), and Hun gari an orthograph y ( 196). In a text of suc h compl ex ity it is pe rhaps inev itabl e th at th e re sho uld be so me mi sprints, a lth o ug h tho se have bee n ke pt to a minimum , e.g., Atrni (54); Kovard vnvourro.X1f, ( 154) liturg ig ue (71 fn . 186 ); MaTep111.nb1 (93) sho uld be MaTep111a.nb1 as it is in the bibliograph y (w hy MaTepia.nbl in the footnotes o n pp 95-98?); Ukr. Ye.noBiK ( 169); 111c.neAOBH111e (276). In additi o n to its intrin sic inte rest, the refo re, Easte rn Slovak ia presents an exce lle nt example of an area whe re lang uages, c ultures, and re li g io n show so me degree of overl ap, and as suc h deserves to be better kn own to the scho larl y world at large. It is to be ho ped that thi s book will be translated into Engli sh. The fac t th at the most substanti a l criti c ism in vo lves the ac tua l titl e of the boo k is an indi cati o n of its va lue, both fo r hi sto ri ans and ling ui sts. �152 SLOVAKIA Mari a n Hronsky, The Struggle for Slovakia and the Treaty of Trianon 1918- 1920. Martin Styan, trans lator. Brati slava: Veda, 200 1, 407 pp., illustration s, bibliography, index . GREGORY C. FERENCE Salisbury Univers ity Mari an Hron sky, an hi storian of World War I Slovakia and the early years of the Czecho-Slovak Republic , has written an excellent book . This is a tran slation of hi s 1998 work of the same title , although the Engl ish-language version is more academic. A lthough the Treaty of Trianon dea lt with the dismantlin g of large sections of greater Hungary into its surrounding neighbors after World War One, Hron sky focused on the events leadi ng up to the treaty and their effects upon Slovakia. This detailed study beg ins with an hi storiographic lesson in the Introduction where the author claims that today many people in Slovakia are unaware of the Trianon Treaty despite more attention being paid to it since the fa ll of Communism. A lthough over e ight decades have passed s ince the treaty was signed, Hron sky notes correctly that it still causes intense emotiona l feelings in Hungary and is crucial to understanding Slovak-Hungarian relation s today, especiall y since the treaty left over 700,000 Hun garian s (Magyars ) in Czecho-Slovakia and over 500,000 current ly in S lovakia. With regards to the time frame unde r investigation, the author later stated , also quite correctly, "The Hungarians had never devoted so much attention to Slovakia as in thi s period (p. 11 0)." The treaty naturall y separated Slovakia from Hungary and attached it to the Czech Lands, but for the first time , it also delineated recogni zed boundaries for Slovakia. In the process, the a uthor took notice of so me interesting twists, such as the CzechoSlovak army havin g fought its only real war during World War I, and the Hungarian s having coined the term " Little Entente" for the diplomatic cooperation of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Romania after �SLOVAKIA 153 the war. The Hun garian s mourned the signin g of the treaty while it was hardly noticed by the average Slovak. Hron sky divided the book into six major sections: l. The End of the Kingdom of Hungary on the Political Scene; II. Power Vacuum in Slovaki a; Ill. The Struggle for Slovakia; IV . The War Between the Czecho-Slovak Republic and the Hun garian Soviet Republic ; V. The Peace Talks; and, VI. The Peace Treaty with Hun gary . In each section , there are numerou s sub-chapters that make the reading of thi s den se, fact-driven volume eas ier to negot iate. Much to hi s credit, Hronsky co nsulted numerou s archives , secondary so urces, and new spapers to present a very complete story. As with most tran slated works, thi s book could have used better proofreadin g. There are occasional subj ect-verb di sagreements, mi sspellings, tran slations of only some titles, wrong description s such as referrin g to Jan Smuts as a Briti sh general, and using a Slovak title to a book written by the Hungarian Oskar Jasz i. One defect, typica l of books published in Central Europe, is an index of perso nal names only, thu s limitin g its usefulness . The numerous photographs (including some very interestin g ones such as the pen used in the signin g of the treaty), drawin gs, and political cartoons are unfortunate ly blurry. They , along with proclamations and other items that should be read , are difficult to view. Another problem concerns maps. Due to the deta il ed leve l of descriptions of various battles and boundary negotiations and delin eat ion s, more and better quality maps should have been included. Perhaps the most bothersome aspect of the book, starting on page 100 and continuing many times over the next thirty pages or so, is that the " Rumanian s" or so me variation of thi s word keep appearing in the middl e of sentences or take the places of other words , makin g reading at times incomprehensi ble, or even absurd. Despite these shortcoming, which are for the most part trivial and annoying , thi s book is required reading for anyone interested in the end of the First World War, the collapse of Austria-Hungary, the ri se of the Czecho-Slovak state, the early post-war period in Central Europe, and the Treaty of Trianon itself. Hronsky has done a great �SLOVAKIA 154 serv ice by all owi ng fo r the translation of hi s book, whi ch otherwi se wo uld have had a very limited readership. Jni o k apitanovi Janovi Nalepkovi. Edited by Jozef Nalepka. Spi sska Nova Yes: Po lygrafia, 2002. 172 pp. , illustrations. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tall ahassee, Florida T horo ugh the co urse of military hi story the reader peri odi ca ll y encounters individu als who see med destined to become men of the pen, but who instead became men of the sword. Such was the case of Jan Nale pka. He was a poet by vocati on and a teacher by profess ion, and yet became a co mpetent military comm ander. Called up fo r military service by the Sl ova k Re public durin g World War II, Nalepka fo ught with di stincti on on both sides. Li ke many S lovaks sent to the Eastern Front, he deserted , and then fo ught alongs ide Sov iet parti sans in the Pripet Marches of Belaru s and northern Ukraine . Thi s biographi ca l study, edi ted by hi s brother, includes sampl es of Nalepka ' s wartime correspo nde nce, and the acco unts of peopl e who remembered him - teachers, students, fe ll ow soldi ers and Soviet military comm anders. One influenti a l fig ure d uring Na le pka ' s fo rm ati ve years in primary school in Spi ss ka Nova Yes was hi s teac her Jozef Miko laj, a Czec hos lovak Legionnaire of the First World War rece ntl y returned from long years of travel. He foun d Jan to have a provocat ive sense of humor and a mi sc hiev ious di spos ition, yet he exce ll ed academi ca ll y. Miko laj was parti cul arl y impressed with Jan' s kn ow ledge of the poets of the Slovak Nati onal Rev iva l, and his being inspired by the fo lk songs of hi s mother. Youn g Nalepka re mained precoc ious after enterin g teac her's college in 193 1. A confere nce of young teachers in Ko morna Lehotka (Jul y 1933) was visited by Czec hos lovak pres ide nt T. G. M asaryk. T he pres ide nt viewed the educati o nal system as a means of moul d in g youn g Slovaks in a "Czec hos lovak" �SLOVAKIA 155 spirit. But Nalepka remarked to hi s fri e nd Vladimfr Clementis that Slovak students were capable of c ulti vating the ir ow n sp irit. Na lepka was a nation a li st, but he was a lso a lefti st. In February of 1939 he began organizing c landest ine e le me nts aga in st the governing Slovak People' s Party - one month before the latter ass umed the leadership of a separate Slovak state . Ye t the events of March 1939 included a Hungari a n invas ion in the so utheast. Called up for military serv ice, Nalepka participated willingly in th e brief borde r war. He saw no contradiction between thi s action and hi s own idea ls. Latte r th at year, Slovakia's military alliance with Nazi Germany dictated hi s parti c ipation in the Poli sh ca mpai g n. Na le pk a, by now a lie ute nant, fought with di stinction on the northern s ide of the Carpathi ans. He was decorated by General Fe rdinand Catlos, Slovakia's Mini ster of Nationa l Defence. The war against Soviet Ru ss ia proved problemati ca l. Slovakia had te ritorial g rievances with Hungary and Pol a nd , but none w ith the Ru ss ians. Moreover, Na le pka had already beco me a li e nated by the arrogance of the nati ve Carpatho-Germans in Eastern Slovakia, who had the ir own Nazi organization. Finaly, like many Slovak so ldi ers, he was horified by Na zi atroc iti es in the occupied te rritori es. He clandestinely e ntered into contact with Soviet parti sans and eventually deserted to the m, takin g hi s men with him . Soviet parti san commander (and Red Army ge nera l) A. N. Saburov found Na le pka to be a competent subordin ate, who retained command of the Slovaks. The nature of partisan warfare in the swamps dictated that Na le pka freque ntl y travelled on horseback , carry ing an a utom atic weapon. A photograph of thi s legendary pose later in spired an equestrian sc ulpture of him by Anna Ki sakova. Thi s activity also contributed to hi s demi se. Captain Jan Nalepka was killed in an encounter with a German patrol outside the village of Ovruc o n the ni g ht of Nove mber 17 , 1943. Thi s study contains a weakness commo n to publi caation s about a " hometown boy" . It prese nts certa in fac ts in pass in g, presupposing the audi e nce is already familiar w ith the m. Whil e thi s may work for �SLOV AKIA 156 know ledgeable S lovaks, it leaves fo reigners in the dar k on key parti cul ars. Indeed , its greatest weekness lies not in what is sa id but what is left un said. Na le pk a's surv ivin g co mrades na med the ir parti sa n bri gade afte r him . The Captain Jan Nalepka Bri gade was later parasc huted back into Slovaki a to parti c ipate in the autumn 1944 upri sin g. Compared to other uni ts whi ch the Sov iets ex ported , and whic h large ly e ngaged in loot in g and pill ag in g, the Na lepka Bri gade conducted itse lf in a n exe mpl ary fas hi on. Together w ith the 2 nd Czec hoslovak Paratroo pe rs, it shares c redit fo r the capture of th e strateg ic vill age of Ja ln a in the Hron Ri ver va ll ey on Oc tobe r 10- 12. This acti on was the las t vic tory of the insurge nts in S lovakia dur ing the upris ing. A wartime fe ll ow-officer, Samue l S imonov ic, states that Jan Nalepk a was not a Communi st (p. 111 ). He di ed at a conve ni e nt time , whic h e na bl ed him to beco me a lege nd in the postwar co mmuni st era. Hi s peasant pare nts were rece ived with hono ur in the Sov ie t Union at me mo rial servi ces dedic ated to the captain. Yet one may questi on what fa te would have had in store fo r him had he li ved longer. A " w ise guy" mi ght be given a wide berth by hi s teac hers on the me rit of hi s acade mi c exce ll e nce, but not by a tota litari a n reg im e. His equ all y precoc ious fr ie nd V ladimfr C le me ntis went on to become Czec hos lovak ia's fo reig n mini ste r, but ultim ate ly e nded on the gall ows. In sofa r as the c urre nt Slovak Re public has adopted the Slovak Nati onal Upri sing rathe r than Jozef Ti so ' s Slovaki a as its lodestone, Captain Jan Nalepk a re mains a worthy subject of stud y. Hi s life cuts across the ideo log ica l lines th at later di vided the East and West du ring the Co ld War. Hi s c haracter serves to de bunk a certain stereotype of S lova ks as be in g subservie nt to a uth ority. Thi s book is a positi ve contributi on to wartime Slovak hi story. �SLOVAKIA 157 Zo ltan G . Mes ko, The S ilent Conspiracy: A Communist M odel of Political Cleansing at the Slovak Uni versity in B ratislava after the Second W orld War. Boulder, CO : East Europea n Monographs, 2003, ix- l 42pp., map, illustrati ons, notes, bibliography. L.P. HINTERB UCHNER Rye, New York When I read the orig inal Slova k vers ion "Zaml cane sprisahanie" by Dr. Zo ltan G. Mes ko in 1999, I was moved by the vivid descripti on of the eve nts th at befe ll th e medi ca l co mmunity in Slovaki a during and after World W ar II , th ro ugh the " liberation" by th e Soviets and after the illega l take-over by the Communi sts of Czec hoslovaki a in 1948. I knew many of the principal actors in the ensuin g dram a but I was not full y aware of wh at tran spired at the Medi cal School in Brati slava where I graduated the same year th at D r. Mes ko started hi s studi es. M y opini o n abo ut thi s book the n was th at it represented an important hi stori ca l testimo ny about the insane and destructi ve influence of the communi st regime on the professors and students of two medi ca l sc hool s, one in Brati slava the other in Kos ice. The poorly-trained new ph ys ici ans, who se credenti als had to be primaril y political , in ev itabl y led to inadequ ate and inferi or hea lth care fo r the nation. Th e publication in 2003 of the improved and enh anced Engli sh version of thi s work , "The S il ent Conspi racy," marks a fittin g completi on of the author' s doc umentati o n of th at peri od , based on hi s personal observati ons, interviews of th e principals and of witnesses, and the detailed research of avail able records. I read th e Eng li sh and the Slovak versio ns s ide-by-s ide and reli ved the angui sh th at the parti c ipants of thi s drama must have felt in those times. I was aga in moved by th e author' s personal remini sce nces of the "good o ld days" with hi s fa mil y, before registering to stud y medi c ine. I mu st co nfess that the Eng li sh vers io n he ld my �SLOVAKIA 158 close attention more than the Slovak one. It is a page-turner; and one is reluctant to lay the book down. There is a bri ef but very informative acco unt of the hi storica l background of the Slovak nation by professor Mark Sto larik, an improvement over the Slovak vers ion. The rest of the book is more an inte rpre tation of the Slovak edition than a verbatim tran slat ion . The res ult is th at the E ng li sh is fluent , easy to read a nd de finitely much be tte r than most Slovak publications in Eng li sh, despite occas ion a l ling ui stic errors and inaccuracies, no ne of them s ubsta nti a l. Regrettably , not a ll of the illustrati o ns from the S lovak edition appear in the En g li sh o ne . Dr. Mesko recently in for med me that the first draft was written in Eng li sh. The strength of thi s work is in the detailed acco unt of the persecu ti o n, humili at io n, torture and incarceratio n of those who , because of their re li g ious back ground or personal integrity , did not join in worshiping comm uni sm, the Soviet Union a nd its murdere r-in-chi ef Stalin. Some victim s disappeared without any trace , othe rs perished in the uranium mines of the western Czec h la nd s and many spent years in prison and did hard labor. The a uthor li sts names and dates and provides documented description s of these terrible tran sgres sion s. Dr. Mesko ' s book is an importa nt co ntributi o n to the post-war hi story of the Slovak nat ion . It has the immediacy of an eyew itness report. To those w ho do not read Slovak , it pro vides a window o n events large ly unknown to Eng li sh readers. It provides a hi storic a l g limpse of how eve nts in Slovakia in the 1940 's separated the "good g uys" who would not betray their re li g iou s and mora l principl es, from vac ill ators , weak lin gs, thieve s, torturers a nd murderers, all without any moral scruples. The book a lso describes how politi ca l opportunists stabbed the ir intellectually an d professio na ll y s upe rior colleagues in the back . It demon strates how po liti ca l a nd party affiliations rep laced merit in the grad ing of stude nts and in di spe ns ing the most desired positions and jobs to " politically correct" applicants. It show s how the absence �SLOVAKIA 159 of party affili ati on re nde red outstandin g professors and teac he rs vulnerable a nd subj ec t to chic anery. lt record s the establi shm e nt of a Chair of Marxi s m-Le nini sm a t th e M ed ica l School for th e reeducation of the faculty and of the student body. Dr. Mesko also doc ume nts the large ly unknown attempt of the Communists to meddl e with the curriculum in the Medical School. They recruited a cadre of yo ungsters from workers ' bac kground s who had very littl e education , se nt them to spec ial classes in the Medical School a nd graduated them as " physicians," a di saster waiting to happen. This e ffort apparentl y failed a nd eventu all y faded away. No further information about these "graduates" is avai labl e. Finall y, the book illustrates why the re was friction between Catholics and Lutherans in th e Medical Schoo l, a nd rev is its that old probl e m between Czechs and Slova ks, name ly the di sc redited idea of a " Czechoslovak nation " propagated by Edvard Be nes a nd T .G. Masaryk and their cohorts. Researche rs and seri ous students of the hi story of Central Europe will find a rich resource for their work in this boo k. Readers who are of Slovak origin, but not proficient in that la nguage, will be nefi t from the English version which provides a g limpse of soc ietal forces that shaped the dest in y of Slovakia a nd its evo lution toward s independe nce. Mari a Dziakova- Bi:ihmova, Dusa na dlani: Spomienky od Kosfc do New Yorku. Edited by Michal Kri sko and Be rnarda Jenc fkov a- Fabrici . Presov , Mic hal Vasko, 2004, 151 pp. Illustrati ons M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa This autobiography, compl eted by ' Mari a Dziakova-Bi:imova in August of 1989, just before the collapse of Communism in Czechoslovakia, nea tl y summ arizes the tri als and tribul ation s of Slovak �160 SLOVAKIA intellectuals during and after World War II . Born in 1910 in a vill age near Kosice, she was the e ldest of three daughters of a poor peasant family. Nevertheless, her parents recogni zed her extraord in ary intelli gence and they skrimped and saved in order to send her to the " realgy mn as ium" for g irl s a nd then to the Faculty of Medicine at Comenius Uni vers ity in Bratislava. She grad uated with her degree in 1934 and began her practice in Kosice. Between 1938 and 1944 Dr. Bohmova (s he marri ed Dr. Emanuel Bohm in 194 1) li ved in Magyar occ upi ed Kosice and later Budapest, he lpin g her politically-activist hu sband defend the Slovak comm unity agai nst forced Magyarization. Meanwhile, she tried to continue her med ical practice, with vary in g success. As the Second World War drew to a c lose, she and her hu sband managed to return to S lovak ia, survived the pass ing of the Ru ss ian front, and re-established themselves in Bratislava in 1945. While she worked for the State In sti tute for Hea lth , her hu sband became Commi ss ioner of Health for Slovakia and Deputy Speaker of the Federal Assembly in Prague . After the Communist takeover of Czechoslovaki a in 1948 Emanuel Bohm fl ed to the west and she jo ined him in Lo ndo n a littl e later. They spe nt the nex t four years working as manu al laboure rs until the United States allowed them to e nter as immi grants in 195 2. Since Maria had to flee Czechoslovakia without any of her diplomas, a nd they co uld not easi ly be mailed to her during the Stalinist l 950's, she had to start over as an intern in the USA. By 1956 she had passed all of he r medical exa ms and sett led into a career in medic ine at the Kin gsbrook Jewi sh Medical Center in New York, and retired as Assistant Director of Medicine in 1975 . Maria and Emanuel active ly participated in Slovak inte ll ectu al a nd political life in New York for the second half of the twentieth century. She a nd he r hu sband took a leading role in the Slovak-American Cultural Center of New York , the Limbora dancing group , the General Mi Ian Rast is lav Stefanik Award , and the an nu al SlovakAmerican Ball at New York ' s Athletic C lub. They also participated in the founding of the Slovak World Co ngress in 1970, of which her �SLOVAKIA 161 husband became a vice-president. The book is a pleasure to read . Maria had a talent for writing and, at one point, she even recon structed a letter that she wrote on behalf of her illiterate mother in the eastern Slovak dialect to an uncle who had emigrated to the United States before World War I. She used the same di alect, and the same uncle ' s name (who had long since disappeared), when she wrote to her sister in Kosice, imploring her to try to mail the diplomas that she had to leave behind when she fled Communist Czechoslovakia. Thi s subterfuge worked because the Czech postal officials in Prague, who were in charge of censoring the mai l, were apparently confounded by thi s dialect and allowed the letter through. Maria eventually received her diplomas, but only after she had to once again prove her medical acumen by pass ing very rigorous American exams. In spite of her trial s and tribulations, Maria Dziakova-Bohmova did not become bitter. Instead , she was thankful to the United States for having given her the chance to start a new life in the New World. She returned for visits to Czechoslovakia in 1969 and 1978 and noticed how her younger sisters had prematurely aged and how so many of her colleagues from the " realgymnasium" and the university had also either aged or died in thi s "socialist paradise." She and her hu sband visited free Czechoslovakia in 1990; he died at the end of the year and was buried in the national cemetery in Martin . After Maria died in 1999, her remains were interred beside him. Thus, Slovakia recognized the achievements of these two extraordinary indi vi dual s. We should be grateful to Bernharda Jencfkova-Fabrici , executrix of her will, for having gathered together Maria's memoirs, for having persuaded Michal Krisko to edit them, and for havi ng arranged for Michal Vasko to publish them. The book is well-worth reading, both for a glimpse at the evolution of the Slovak inte lli genti a in the first Czechoslovak Republic , and for the harsh consequences that awaited those members who refused to sub mit to the Communist takeover of their homeland and who fled into exi le. �SLOVAKIA 162 Karen Henderson, Slovakia: The Escape from fnvisibihty. London and New York: Routledge, 2002, xviii-140 pp., map, notes, bibliography, index. JURAJ HOCMAN Carleton University A few years ago Slovakia suffered from a rather negative image of radical nationalism, especiall y in the West. One reason was that foreign scholars were rare in the region and Slovak history remained invisible. In 1987 a young scholar from England was given an unexpected opportunity to spend a couple of months in Bratislava, the country's capital. Attracted by both Slovakia 's past and present, Karen Henderson gradua ll y became more in volved in Slovak affairs. The author' s knowledge of the evolution of Slovak society through the centuries enabled her to reach a new perspective. Meanwhile, she also witnessed the country ' s political development after its establishment as a sovereign state on January 1st, 1993, its first appearance on the international scene and its chi ldhood illnesses as well. Henderson ' s book then documents the steps taken by the new Slovak government after the elections of September 1998 that were designed to improve the country's democratic performance, and that eventually led to its significantly changed image abroad. The author of the book , a senior lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the University of Leicester in the U.K. , took a balanced look at the Slovak Republic while concentrati ng on four areas of its evolution . In the first part she focused on the Slovaks in the Kingdom of Hungary and on the pre-war Czechoslovak Republic . She succes sfully demonstrated her familiarity with the main trends that formed and influenced the mentality of Slovak soc iety exposed to the processes of forced " Magyarisation" that took place after the Austro-H un garian Comprom ise of 1867. She also hi ghlighted the processes of "Czechoslovakism" that marked the relation- �SLOVAKIA 163 ship between the Slovaks and Czechs before the Second Wor ld W ar with traces of di stru st o n o ne side and suspi c ion o n the other. In co ntras t to the preva ilin g traditi o na l approaches to Slova ki a that have been influe nced by ste reotypes impl a nted into Sl ovak hi sto ry, the auth or shows a re markabl e e mpathy fo r the way the Slovaks saw the mse lves in the fo rmer states of whi ch they had been a part for ce nturi es (the Hun gari an Kin gdo m), o r fo r decades (Czec hos lo va kia) . He nde rso n attributes the fa ilures shared by Slovaks w ith the ir partners o bj ecti ve ly and fa irl y. Slovaks are seen as the vic tim s in relati o n to the two main determina nts above. O n the other hand , Henderson, who knows the terra in of Ce nt ra l a nd East Euro pe and its non-linear a nd some tim e e ni gmati c h is to ry as we ll , a lso de mo nstrates an ability to ide ntify the mo me nts and events in whi ch Slo vak fa ilures and ruptures happe ned due to the ir indec is ive ness, bi ases , ambi g uiti es, un willin g ness o r pass ivity in copin g w ith e me rg in g situation s (e.g. the Slovak Republi c 1939-1 945). In the second part o f the boo k He nde rson dea ls w ith inde pe ndent Slo vaki a after January I'', 1993 . She foc uses o n the governme nts of Prime Mini sters Vladim fr Mec iar a nd Mikul as Dzurinda, whil e notin g a sharp co ntrast betwee n the two. The parli ame ntary e lection s he ld in Septe mbe r o f 1998 made a substanti a l difference in the eyes of Western governme nts and public audi e nces . A detail ed pi cture of what had preceded the fa ll of Mec iar ' s governme nt may be of interest to those who are not fa mili ar w ith the intern a l deve lo pme nt of Slovak soc iety and who want to better know the reasons fo r the fa ilure o f Mec iar' s po lic ies. For those who know it we ll , it is a re minde r and summ ary of what was prev io usly published and broadcast in the print and e lectroni c medi a. However, the a utho r ' s a im was to foc us o n the shi ft in mode rn Slovak hi story th at a ll owed the state and soc iety to escape its in visibility, and thi s is what undo ubtedl y deserves recogniti o n. The last parts of th e book are dedi cated to Slovak ia ' s re lati o nship with the world fro m 19 18 to the present. In spite of the auth or 's overa ll pe rspec ti ve regardin g Slovaki a after th e pe ri od 1989- 1993, �SLOVAKIA 164 one could agree with her view th at " The Slovak Republic has not been particul arl y stable po liticall y, but as a state it has not been fundamentall y instable either" (p. 129). This may be also be perceived as the bottom level of Slovak statehood and the capability of the Slovak Republic to survive as a modern state that was initi all y questioned both dipl o matica ll y and publicl y at the beg innin g of its ex istence. Neve rtheless, the se nsiti ve reader may also find so me sub-themes and situation s described in the book that require furth er di scuss ion or a better nu anced approach (for example, so me aspects of the iss ues of ethnic minorities, the political culture and so on). Henderson 's footnotes and bibliography illustrate that the author used a wide variety of sources, from skeptical critics to pass ion ate apologists of Slovak hi story. She tried to steer a middle co urse between them and used books and schol arl y articles , as well as documents of Slovak academi c institution s and reports of non-governmental organi zation s as her principal sources . She also used re levant documents and reports iss ued by international or supran ational organization s regardin g Slovaki a ' s developme nt and progress (The World Bank, NATO, The European Union , etc.). O verall , Henderson did a good job. In my opinion Henderson ' s book successfull y refl ec ts a positive shi ft in the perception of Slovakia from the outside, and in bringing a pos itive picture to larger audi ences. In the last fe w decades Slovak society has been portrayed by both academi cs and public ists selecti vely and negati ve ly, large ly due to extern a l factors th at affec ted Slovak hi story. From now on , the question of whether the positi ve image of the country will be sustained will depend upon Slovaki a's willingness and capability to remain on track and avoid any detours from its democratic deve lopment. �SLOVAKIA 165 The Slovak Republic: A Decade of Independence (I 993-2002). Edited by M. Mark Stolarik. Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy -Carducci Publi shers, 2004, xiv-168 pp. tables, charts, graphs, notes, map, index. CAROL SKALNIK LEFF University of Illinois, Urbana-Champai gn Durin g the interwar Czechoslovak Re public, several volumes were published employing a format that could be described as " progress reports," in which responsible government officials of the time outlined the state of the field in key iss ue areas. This current volume, desc ribed as Slovakia's " first ' white paper, "' performs much the same function for the first decade of the independent state. In many cases, the " ten years after" vantage point is rather artificial , but in this case it is especially appropriate and the findin gs will have more than transitory value, because this is a decade framed by the successful passage from nascent state to me mbership in the European Union and NATO. Scholars interested in Slovakia' s " rehabilitation" from seco nd tier to new EU member will find thi s decade of continuin g relevance. And if there is an occasional celebratory note in the di scussion, it is understandabl e in the context of the decade ' s achievement of European integration. M . Mark Stolarik, who in his function as Chairholder in Slovak Hi story and Culture at the University of Ottawa, also co-organized the conference on which the published work is based, provides introductory thumbnail sketches of the arguments in eac h of the main contributions, and annotations of the text on politics, to clarify and update the discussion. The core articles that follow, dealing successively with politi cs, economic s, soc ial policy , culture and international relations, are the presentations of Rudolf Schuster, Slovakia' s first elected pres ident, and e ight high-rankin g and quite prominent Slovak government officials, cabinet ministers and state secretaries. Each contribution rece ives a response from the North American side, �SLOVAKIA 166 ei the r from Canadian offic ia ls who have worked o n -and who disc uss--cooperati ve projects with Slovakia, or from a scho lar specia li zi ng in Slovakia. In addition to the detailed po li cy overviews discussed below, I fo und two addit io na l pieces particularly interesting: the exc ha nge o n c ultural po li cy be twee n th e n- Culture Mini ster Mil an Kn azko and Martin Votruba, director of the Slovak Studies program at the University of Pittsburg h and the di sc uss ion of hum an ri ghts and ethni c re lation s by Pa l Csaky, an important Slovak Hun garia n po liti cian and Deputy Prime Minister, and Paul Magocs i of the University of Toronto, whose experti se o n the minoriti es of the reg ion in fo rmed hi s ge nera li zed critique of th e Jacobin-inspired view of state hi story through the prism of the dom in ant nati o na lity in many European countries . The compe ndium is sketchi est on the politics, devoting suffic ient time for orientation but no in-de pth a na lys is, which in thi s case makes sense in severa l ways, not least because the po liti cs of transiti o n has alread y been ex haustive ly ana lyzed in ex istin g sc ho larl y work. The iss ue areas covered are a no ther matter. Muc h less informati o n cover in g po lic y is readily ava il abl e in existing work , so thi s is exceedin g ly useful gro und to cover. Most chapters are e nri c hed with some unex pected inform ation a l treas ures, since the poli cy profil es are de ta il ed and spec ific rathe r th an vag ue or genera li zed , and the re are a multitude of useful tabl es and charts that e ncode co mparati ve and tim e series data on fo re ig n debt a nd in vestme nt , e mpl oy me nt , mino rity ed ucation , li fe expectancy and so o n. While not inte nded as a reference work, the anth o logy the refore atta in s so methin g of th at status; o nce read, it can be sto red to hand for speci fi c refere nce on a range of subjects. Our library doesn ' t have thi s book yet, but it soon wi ll. �SLOVAKIA 167 Thomas J. Shelley , Slovak s on the Hudson: Most Holy Trinity Church , Yonkers, & Th e Slovak Catholics of the Archdiocese of New York, 1894 -2000. Washin gton , D.C. : The Catholic University of America Press, 2002. xv-273pp., maps, illustrati o ns, bibliography , index. DANIEL F. T ANZONE Passaic, New Jersey Slovaks on the Hudson, by the noted church hi storian Thomas J. Shelley, adds an important chapter to the hi story of the American Catholic Church. While the city of Yonkers, New York, with a population of just under 200,000 cannot be compared with the metropoli ses of Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland or Pittsburgh, it is, in fact , a microcosm of bi g city Catholicism. The city's nineteen Catholic parishe s, including tho se serving the Slovak s, Italian s, Hun garia ns and most recently the Portugese, along with two of the Byza ntine rite , contributed to the gro wth of Catholic life in the community. Catholics would soo n become major players in the city 's soc ial , educational, cultural and political life. While thi s book tell s the story of Slovak settlement in the river town of Yonke rs startin g in the l 880's, it also presents a picture of the city's political establi shment and its reaction to the grow in g immigrant population. Most of these newcomers hailed from the Catholic nation s of central and southern Europe. Slovaks, along with other Slavic peoples, found work in the city's vast mill structure, and had the opportunity to make a new life for themselves and their families. While the local " Nativi sts" often resented and mi sunderstood these immigrants and their ways, the WASP establishment gradually accepted them into the fabric of c ity life. Indeed , by 1903 a Slovak immigrant was elected to Yonkers city govern ment. Like other immigrant gro ups, the Slovaks clung to their language and faith tradition s. First they esta bli shed loca l fraternal -benefit �168 SLOVAKIA societies, which became affiliated with the national bodies in the 1890's. Yonkers had the first women 's lodge in New York State ( 1892), which became branch 2 of the First Catholic Slovak Ladies ' Association. Its other Slovak fraternals gave birth to Most Holy Trinity Church, which traced its roots to 1891 when laymen petitioned the local bishop for permission to establish a pari sh. The local parish church was very important to the laity, both as a place of worship and as a social gathering place. The parishioners married and raised their children in the shadow of the church steeple in the Hollow section of Yonkers. Most Holy Trinity afforded its people the opportunity to pass on the language, culture and traditions of their ancestral homeland. The clergy and religious, especially the sisters of Cyril and Methodius , who staffed the parish school, taught the children the Slovak language and traditions . Slovaks on the Hudson never forgot the plight of their brethren along the Danube, Yah, Hron and Torysa rivers. Indeed, the clergy and leaders of the Yonkers community played an important ro le in the establishment of Czecho-Slovakia following the col lapse of the Dual Monarchy of A ustria-Hungary . One of the pastors of Most Holy Trinity was actually offered a cabinet post in the newly-established Czecho-Slovakia in 1919. Throughout the long winter of communist domination of their ancestral homeland, the Slovaks of Yonkers never gave up hope of seeing their countrymen freed from this alien ideology and they rejoiced when Slovakia achieved its independence on January I, 1993. Thomas J. Shelley has provided the reader with a wonderful opportunity to view the life of the Slovak immigrant community within the context of big city li fe. It is a fascinating story, warts and all, of the Church in America. It is al so an important contribution to American history because the Slovaks are rapidly assimilating and moving to the suburbs while Yonkers is receiving ever more and newer immigrants. It is a welcome addition to the story of so many American ethnic groups who make up o ur ever-expanding multicultural society. �SLOVAKIA 169 June Granatir Alexander, Ethnic Pride, American Patriotism: Slovaks and Other Immigrants in the lnterwar Era. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004, xiv-278 p.p., illustrations, notes, index. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa The purpose of this book is to explore group-generated activities among Slovak-Americans in the inter-war period of American history and to see if such activities fit into recent "whiteness" studies by professional American historians. Alexander' s theme is that in the 1920's and 1930's both first and second-generation American Slovaks "were haunted by the stigma of inferiority inflicted by American society." (P.12). They sought to overcome this stigma by purchasing Liberty Bonds during the Great War and War Bonds during the Second World War. Meanwhile, they engaged in patriotic marches, carrying both the American and Slovak flags in the two wars, they staged large "S lovak Days" in the I 920's and 1930's in order to show off their ethnicity while stressing their Americanness and they openly supported FDR's New Deal legislation in order to help their pioneers and their fraternal-benefit societies to survive the ravages of the Great Depression. In order to prove her thesis Alexander dug deeply into both archival and printed sources. She studied the records of several large fraternal-benefit societies, the correspondence of their officers, and a wide range of Slovak-American newspapers. She also read widely in American history. Alexander concluded that Slovak-American identity did not arise from their growing "whiteness" in a racist American society, as some American historians had postulated of other ethnic groups, but rather from their nationality (ethnicity). Indeed, she also saw no generational or even class cleavage among American Slovaks, who perceived of themselves as overwhelmingly "working class" and united in their �170 SLOVAKIA efforts to win acceptance as one of the " newcomer" peoples to the United States. Al exander's book will , no doubt, win many acco lades from those profess ional A meri can hi stori ans who write hi story fo r themselves. She is very much a part of the so-call ed "di scourse" school whi ch uses social hi story in order to probe into questi ons of " whiteness," class, identity, celebrations, ass imilati on and so on. These hi stori ans deri ve great pleasure in proving or dispro ving eac h other 's theori es and show in g off their erudition . By so doin g, however, th ey c ut them selves off from the general public , which is hun gry for tradi tional , narrati ve, hi story . As a result, a second group of hi stori ans fill s thi s public hunger, and they are contemptu ously di smi ssed as " popul ar" hi stori ans by the academi cs mention ed above. On the other hand , the " popul ar" hi stori ans sell hundreds of thou sand s of copies of the ir books while the academic histori ans are delighted if they can sell a thou sand. While several hundred uni versity libraries will , no doubt, purchase a copy of thi s book, I have a feeling th at the Slovak-American community will hardl y notice it, whi ch is a pity. � REVIEWS ��SLOVAKIA 149 Peter Ze nuc h, M edzi vychodom a zapadom: Byzantsko-slovan- ska tradfcia, kultura a j azyk na vychodnom Slovensku. Brati slava: Veda , 2002. 286 pp., notes, bibliograph y, summari es in German and Ru ss ian. ROB ERT A. ORR Uni versity of Ottawa Thi s book provides va luabl e in sig hts, from severa l ang les, into a co mparati ve ly neglected area of Slavic studies: the place of Eastern Slovakia as an area straddling the di v ide between Eastern and Western Slavdom , which has cha nged hands severa l times in the course of its hi story. Although, as Zenuch shows in numerous pl aces (starting from the first page of the introducti o n), Easte rn Slovakia is generall y pl aced firmly o n the W estern side of the divide from lin- •• gui stic , cultural, and hi storical points of view (often being cited as part of Slavia Latina, Slavia Romana), it also saw the development of a homegrow n Church Slavonic tradition, a sort of " Slovak Church Slavonic", w ith a ll that it e ntail s, e.g., poor know ledge of Church Slavonic itse lf ( 127); in stances of hype rcorrection ( 168); and the gradual e merge nce of errors in re nditi o ns of so ngs, mak ing the m g radually less comprehensibl e to the laity over time (237-238). Zenuch 's book beg in s with a detailed tabl e of contents, followed by an introduc tion consisting of di sc uss ion s of approaches to the iss ue from the point of view of literature and hi sto ry, re li g io n and culture, and the hi storica l and lin g ui stic conditions. He then presents hi s major arg ume nts in e ight unnumbe red chapters , dealing roughly with hi storica l and c ultural developments in Eastern Slovakia and the Union of Uzhorod ( 1646), which broug ht the area w ithin the Uni ate C hurc h, under the authority of Rome, in the same way as the Uni o n of Brest ( 1596) did for Wes tern Ukraine; the Cyrillomethodian traditi o n in Eastern Slovakia, and that of St. Demetrius of Sa lonika; �SLOVAKIA 150 the ro le of para litu rg ica l so ng in th e Byza ntin o-S lav ic ri te; the la ng uage of se lected Cy rilli c ma nu sc ript s; th e interpre tat io n of certa in lin g ui sti c phe no me na in se lec ted manu sc ripts, whi ch he treats in co nsiderabl e detail ; and C hurch S lavoni c in Eastern S lovak ia , providing a fa irl y deta il ed ling ui stic ana lys is, es pec ia ll y of the lex icon. So urces are ex te ns ive ly referenced (23 prim ary so urces and 265 bibli ographi ca l ite ms, mostl y in Slova k, Ru ss ia n, a nd Ukra ini an, wi th some ite ms in Eng li sh, Hun gari an, etc.), w hi ch at times becomes rather cumberso me , w ith the foo tn otes (666) takin g up more than ha lf a page in pl aces. S urpris in g ly. in view of its titl e, the book offers o nl y a fa irl y bri ef di sc uss io n of the period before the Uni o n of Uzhorod (the " Byzantsko" in the titl e sound s vague ly a nac hro ni stic), jumping ra pidl y to 1646 (59-60). In view of its impo rtance, perh aps the Uni o n of Uzhorod could have been incorporated into th e actu a l titl e of the boo k (... Vychodne Slovensko po prijatf Uihorodskej unie, pe rhaps?). As me nti oned above, several Sl av ic c ultures are in contact within or c lose to Eas te rn S lova kia , and Zen o uc h di sc usses the lin g ui sti c aspects of such contacts in some deta il. In ma ny instances lang uage and re li g ion were intertw ined, and much of the no menc lature refl ec ts thi s situ ati o n, w ith te rm s suc h as Rusnak . Rusyn, Slovak, Slovj ak, e tc. be in g utili sed to de no te di ffe re nces in lang uage and re li g io n ( 126; as he puts it, e .g ., "every Gree k Ca th o li c was ta ke n fo r a Ru sy n" ( I 32)) . Vag ue aware ness of thi s co mpl ex ity has spread o uts ide the immedi ate area, with the genera ll y kn ow n Latin term Rut- heni ("Ruthe ni an") hav ing both re li g io us and ling ui sti c connotati ons. Eve n the ultim ate ly ephe mera l "s in g le Czec hos lovak" peopl e fig ure in some of the treatments ( 196- 197). Zeno uch c ites exampl es of such interconnecti o ns as , e .g., Sl ovak- U kraini an ( 137) , as we ll as lex ica l ite ms fro m ne ig hbo urin g lang uages, so metimes c itin g the same ite m in severa l la ng uages, e .g ., prikaza iie, etc .. ( 179). He makes sk ilful use of the tex ts of vari o us songs, w ith di sc uss io ns of vari o us types of song, and how to di sting ui sh the m to illustrate hi s po ints (e.g., 11 0 fn . 269), o ne of which ( 0 vyhnanf A dama i Evy z raja; 172-173) is �SLOVAKIA 151 eve n desc ribed as "s love nsko-po l's ko- ru sin sko[m ]" . He provides the Ni cene C reed in both Cy rilli c and Ro man, with stresses marked , to illustrate pro nunc iati o n (223 -224). Ze i\ o uc h deserves co mme nd ati o n fo r severa l passages a nd hi s treatment of sma ll points of deta il , e.g., hi s ex pl anati o n of drevo ( 173 fn . 498). He offe rs an excell e nt o utline of the earl y hi sto ry of Eastern Sl ovaki a (27, pass im), a nd definiti o ns of term s suc h as ca th olicos (33); sluienie (79); akatist (82), etc. On a re lated leve l, he offers useful di sc uss io ns of etymologies, e.g., S lovak Tabor ( 147). The interaction of c ultures and c hang ing borde rs in Easte rn Slovaki a meant , amo ng othe r thin gs, that a large number of la ng uages and orthographi es were used . Ze i\o uc h consiste ntl y c ites a ll mate ri a l in its ori g in a l orthograph y and fo nts, even ex te ndin g to, e.g ., c iting Russ ian refere nces in pre-Revolution orthograph y (e.g ., 59-60 ; 127), and Hun gari an orthograph y ( 196). In a text of suc h compl ex ity it is pe rhaps inev itabl e th at th e re sho uld be so me mi sprints, a lth o ug h tho se have bee n ke pt to a minimum , e.g., Atrni (54); Kovard vnvourro.X1f, ( 154) liturg ig ue (71 fn . 186 ); MaTep111.nb1 (93) sho uld be MaTep111a.nb1 as it is in the bibliograph y (w hy MaTepia.nbl in the footnotes o n pp 95-98?); Ukr. Ye.noBiK ( 169); 111c.neAOBH111e (276). In additi o n to its intrin sic inte rest, the refo re, Easte rn Slovak ia presents an exce lle nt example of an area whe re lang uages, c ultures, and re li g io n show so me degree of overl ap, and as suc h deserves to be better kn own to the scho larl y world at large. It is to be ho ped that thi s book will be translated into Engli sh. The fac t th at the most substanti a l criti c ism in vo lves the ac tua l titl e of the boo k is an indi cati o n of its va lue, both fo r hi sto ri ans and ling ui sts. �152 SLOVAKIA Mari a n Hronsky, The Struggle for Slovakia and the Treaty of Trianon 1918- 1920. Martin Styan, trans lator. Brati slava: Veda, 200 1, 407 pp., illustration s, bibliography, index . GREGORY C. FERENCE Salisbury Univers ity Mari an Hron sky, an hi storian of World War I Slovakia and the early years of the Czecho-Slovak Republic , has written an excellent book . This is a tran slation of hi s 1998 work of the same title , although the Engl ish-language version is more academic. A lthough the Treaty of Trianon dea lt with the dismantlin g of large sections of greater Hungary into its surrounding neighbors after World War One, Hron sky focused on the events leadi ng up to the treaty and their effects upon Slovakia. This detailed study beg ins with an hi storiographic lesson in the Introduction where the author claims that today many people in Slovakia are unaware of the Trianon Treaty despite more attention being paid to it since the fa ll of Communism. A lthough over e ight decades have passed s ince the treaty was signed, Hron sky notes correctly that it still causes intense emotiona l feelings in Hungary and is crucial to understanding Slovak-Hungarian relation s today, especiall y since the treaty left over 700,000 Hun garian s (Magyars ) in Czecho-Slovakia and over 500,000 current ly in S lovakia. With regards to the time frame unde r investigation, the author later stated , also quite correctly, "The Hungarians had never devoted so much attention to Slovakia as in thi s period (p. 11 0)." The treaty naturall y separated Slovakia from Hungary and attached it to the Czech Lands, but for the first time , it also delineated recogni zed boundaries for Slovakia. In the process, the a uthor took notice of so me interesting twists, such as the CzechoSlovak army havin g fought its only real war during World War I, and the Hungarian s having coined the term " Little Entente" for the diplomatic cooperation of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Romania after �SLOVAKIA 153 the war. The Hun garian s mourned the signin g of the treaty while it was hardly noticed by the average Slovak. Hron sky divided the book into six major sections: l. The End of the Kingdom of Hungary on the Political Scene; II. Power Vacuum in Slovaki a; Ill. The Struggle for Slovakia; IV . The War Between the Czecho-Slovak Republic and the Hun garian Soviet Republic ; V. The Peace Talks; and, VI. The Peace Treaty with Hun gary . In each section , there are numerou s sub-chapters that make the reading of thi s den se, fact-driven volume eas ier to negot iate. Much to hi s credit, Hronsky co nsulted numerou s archives , secondary so urces, and new spapers to present a very complete story. As with most tran slated works, thi s book could have used better proofreadin g. There are occasional subj ect-verb di sagreements, mi sspellings, tran slations of only some titles, wrong description s such as referrin g to Jan Smuts as a Briti sh general, and using a Slovak title to a book written by the Hungarian Oskar Jasz i. One defect, typica l of books published in Central Europe, is an index of perso nal names only, thu s limitin g its usefulness . The numerous photographs (including some very interestin g ones such as the pen used in the signin g of the treaty), drawin gs, and political cartoons are unfortunate ly blurry. They , along with proclamations and other items that should be read , are difficult to view. Another problem concerns maps. Due to the deta il ed leve l of descriptions of various battles and boundary negotiations and delin eat ion s, more and better quality maps should have been included. Perhaps the most bothersome aspect of the book, starting on page 100 and continuing many times over the next thirty pages or so, is that the " Rumanian s" or so me variation of thi s word keep appearing in the middl e of sentences or take the places of other words , makin g reading at times incomprehensi ble, or even absurd. Despite these shortcoming, which are for the most part trivial and annoying , thi s book is required reading for anyone interested in the end of the First World War, the collapse of Austria-Hungary, the ri se of the Czecho-Slovak state, the early post-war period in Central Europe, and the Treaty of Trianon itself. Hronsky has done a great �SLOVAKIA 154 serv ice by all owi ng fo r the translation of hi s book, whi ch otherwi se wo uld have had a very limited readership. Jni o k apitanovi Janovi Nalepkovi. Edited by Jozef Nalepka. Spi sska Nova Yes: Po lygrafia, 2002. 172 pp. , illustrations. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tall ahassee, Florida T horo ugh the co urse of military hi story the reader peri odi ca ll y encounters individu als who see med destined to become men of the pen, but who instead became men of the sword. Such was the case of Jan Nale pka. He was a poet by vocati on and a teacher by profess ion, and yet became a co mpetent military comm ander. Called up fo r military service by the Sl ova k Re public durin g World War II, Nalepka fo ught with di stincti on on both sides. Li ke many S lovaks sent to the Eastern Front, he deserted , and then fo ught alongs ide Sov iet parti sans in the Pripet Marches of Belaru s and northern Ukraine . Thi s biographi ca l study, edi ted by hi s brother, includes sampl es of Nalepka ' s wartime correspo nde nce, and the acco unts of peopl e who remembered him - teachers, students, fe ll ow soldi ers and Soviet military comm anders. One influenti a l fig ure d uring Na le pka ' s fo rm ati ve years in primary school in Spi ss ka Nova Yes was hi s teac her Jozef Miko laj, a Czec hos lovak Legionnaire of the First World War rece ntl y returned from long years of travel. He foun d Jan to have a provocat ive sense of humor and a mi sc hiev ious di spos ition, yet he exce ll ed academi ca ll y. Miko laj was parti cul arl y impressed with Jan' s kn ow ledge of the poets of the Slovak Nati onal Rev iva l, and his being inspired by the fo lk songs of hi s mother. Youn g Nalepka re mained precoc ious after enterin g teac her's college in 193 1. A confere nce of young teachers in Ko morna Lehotka (Jul y 1933) was visited by Czec hos lovak pres ide nt T. G. M asaryk. T he pres ide nt viewed the educati o nal system as a means of moul d in g youn g Slovaks in a "Czec hos lovak" �SLOVAKIA 155 spirit. But Nalepka remarked to hi s fri e nd Vladimfr Clementis that Slovak students were capable of c ulti vating the ir ow n sp irit. Na lepka was a nation a li st, but he was a lso a lefti st. In February of 1939 he began organizing c landest ine e le me nts aga in st the governing Slovak People' s Party - one month before the latter ass umed the leadership of a separate Slovak state . Ye t the events of March 1939 included a Hungari a n invas ion in the so utheast. Called up for military serv ice, Nalepka participated willingly in th e brief borde r war. He saw no contradiction between thi s action and hi s own idea ls. Latte r th at year, Slovakia's military alliance with Nazi Germany dictated hi s parti c ipation in the Poli sh ca mpai g n. Na le pk a, by now a lie ute nant, fought with di stinction on the northern s ide of the Carpathi ans. He was decorated by General Fe rdinand Catlos, Slovakia's Mini ster of Nationa l Defence. The war against Soviet Ru ss ia proved problemati ca l. Slovakia had te ritorial g rievances with Hungary and Pol a nd , but none w ith the Ru ss ians. Moreover, Na le pka had already beco me a li e nated by the arrogance of the nati ve Carpatho-Germans in Eastern Slovakia, who had the ir own Nazi organization. Finaly, like many Slovak so ldi ers, he was horified by Na zi atroc iti es in the occupied te rritori es. He clandestinely e ntered into contact with Soviet parti sans and eventually deserted to the m, takin g hi s men with him . Soviet parti san commander (and Red Army ge nera l) A. N. Saburov found Na le pka to be a competent subordin ate, who retained command of the Slovaks. The nature of partisan warfare in the swamps dictated that Na le pka freque ntl y travelled on horseback , carry ing an a utom atic weapon. A photograph of thi s legendary pose later in spired an equestrian sc ulpture of him by Anna Ki sakova. Thi s activity also contributed to hi s demi se. Captain Jan Nalepka was killed in an encounter with a German patrol outside the village of Ovruc o n the ni g ht of Nove mber 17 , 1943. Thi s study contains a weakness commo n to publi caation s about a " hometown boy" . It prese nts certa in fac ts in pass in g, presupposing the audi e nce is already familiar w ith the m. Whil e thi s may work for �SLOV AKIA 156 know ledgeable S lovaks, it leaves fo reigners in the dar k on key parti cul ars. Indeed , its greatest weekness lies not in what is sa id but what is left un said. Na le pk a's surv ivin g co mrades na med the ir parti sa n bri gade afte r him . The Captain Jan Nalepka Bri gade was later parasc huted back into Slovaki a to parti c ipate in the autumn 1944 upri sin g. Compared to other uni ts whi ch the Sov iets ex ported , and whic h large ly e ngaged in loot in g and pill ag in g, the Na lepka Bri gade conducted itse lf in a n exe mpl ary fas hi on. Together w ith the 2 nd Czec hoslovak Paratroo pe rs, it shares c redit fo r the capture of th e strateg ic vill age of Ja ln a in the Hron Ri ver va ll ey on Oc tobe r 10- 12. This acti on was the las t vic tory of the insurge nts in S lovakia dur ing the upris ing. A wartime fe ll ow-officer, Samue l S imonov ic, states that Jan Nalepk a was not a Communi st (p. 111 ). He di ed at a conve ni e nt time , whic h e na bl ed him to beco me a lege nd in the postwar co mmuni st era. Hi s peasant pare nts were rece ived with hono ur in the Sov ie t Union at me mo rial servi ces dedic ated to the captain. Yet one may questi on what fa te would have had in store fo r him had he li ved longer. A " w ise guy" mi ght be given a wide berth by hi s teac hers on the me rit of hi s acade mi c exce ll e nce, but not by a tota litari a n reg im e. His equ all y precoc ious fr ie nd V ladimfr C le me ntis went on to become Czec hos lovak ia's fo reig n mini ste r, but ultim ate ly e nded on the gall ows. In sofa r as the c urre nt Slovak Re public has adopted the Slovak Nati onal Upri sing rathe r than Jozef Ti so ' s Slovaki a as its lodestone, Captain Jan Nalepk a re mains a worthy subject of stud y. Hi s life cuts across the ideo log ica l lines th at later di vided the East and West du ring the Co ld War. Hi s c haracter serves to de bunk a certain stereotype of S lova ks as be in g subservie nt to a uth ority. Thi s book is a positi ve contributi on to wartime Slovak hi story. �SLOVAKIA 157 Zo ltan G . Mes ko, The S ilent Conspiracy: A Communist M odel of Political Cleansing at the Slovak Uni versity in B ratislava after the Second W orld War. Boulder, CO : East Europea n Monographs, 2003, ix- l 42pp., map, illustrati ons, notes, bibliography. L.P. HINTERB UCHNER Rye, New York When I read the orig inal Slova k vers ion "Zaml cane sprisahanie" by Dr. Zo ltan G. Mes ko in 1999, I was moved by the vivid descripti on of the eve nts th at befe ll th e medi ca l co mmunity in Slovaki a during and after World W ar II , th ro ugh the " liberation" by th e Soviets and after the illega l take-over by the Communi sts of Czec hoslovaki a in 1948. I knew many of the principal actors in the ensuin g dram a but I was not full y aware of wh at tran spired at the Medi cal School in Brati slava where I graduated the same year th at D r. Mes ko started hi s studi es. M y opini o n abo ut thi s book the n was th at it represented an important hi stori ca l testimo ny about the insane and destructi ve influence of the communi st regime on the professors and students of two medi ca l sc hool s, one in Brati slava the other in Kos ice. The poorly-trained new ph ys ici ans, who se credenti als had to be primaril y political , in ev itabl y led to inadequ ate and inferi or hea lth care fo r the nation. Th e publication in 2003 of the improved and enh anced Engli sh version of thi s work , "The S il ent Conspi racy," marks a fittin g completi on of the author' s doc umentati o n of th at peri od , based on hi s personal observati ons, interviews of th e principals and of witnesses, and the detailed research of avail able records. I read th e Eng li sh and the Slovak versio ns s ide-by-s ide and reli ved the angui sh th at the parti c ipants of thi s drama must have felt in those times. I was aga in moved by th e author' s personal remini sce nces of the "good o ld days" with hi s fa mil y, before registering to stud y medi c ine. I mu st co nfess that the Eng li sh vers io n he ld my �SLOVAKIA 158 close attention more than the Slovak one. It is a page-turner; and one is reluctant to lay the book down. There is a bri ef but very informative acco unt of the hi storica l background of the Slovak nation by professor Mark Sto larik, an improvement over the Slovak vers ion. The rest of the book is more an inte rpre tation of the Slovak edition than a verbatim tran slat ion . The res ult is th at the E ng li sh is fluent , easy to read a nd de finitely much be tte r than most Slovak publications in Eng li sh, despite occas ion a l ling ui stic errors and inaccuracies, no ne of them s ubsta nti a l. Regrettably , not a ll of the illustrati o ns from the S lovak edition appear in the En g li sh o ne . Dr. Mesko recently in for med me that the first draft was written in Eng li sh. The strength of thi s work is in the detailed acco unt of the persecu ti o n, humili at io n, torture and incarceratio n of those who , because of their re li g ious back ground or personal integrity , did not join in worshiping comm uni sm, the Soviet Union a nd its murdere r-in-chi ef Stalin. Some victim s disappeared without any trace , othe rs perished in the uranium mines of the western Czec h la nd s and many spent years in prison and did hard labor. The a uthor li sts names and dates and provides documented description s of these terrible tran sgres sion s. Dr. Mesko ' s book is an importa nt co ntributi o n to the post-war hi story of the Slovak nat ion . It has the immediacy of an eyew itness report. To those w ho do not read Slovak , it pro vides a window o n events large ly unknown to Eng li sh readers. It provides a hi storic a l g limpse of how eve nts in Slovakia in the 1940 's separated the "good g uys" who would not betray their re li g iou s and mora l principl es, from vac ill ators , weak lin gs, thieve s, torturers a nd murderers, all without any moral scruples. The book a lso describes how politi ca l opportunists stabbed the ir intellectually an d professio na ll y s upe rior colleagues in the back . It demon strates how po liti ca l a nd party affiliations rep laced merit in the grad ing of stude nts and in di spe ns ing the most desired positions and jobs to " politically correct" applicants. It show s how the absence �SLOVAKIA 159 of party affili ati on re nde red outstandin g professors and teac he rs vulnerable a nd subj ec t to chic anery. lt record s the establi shm e nt of a Chair of Marxi s m-Le nini sm a t th e M ed ica l School for th e reeducation of the faculty and of the student body. Dr. Mesko also doc ume nts the large ly unknown attempt of the Communists to meddl e with the curriculum in the Medical School. They recruited a cadre of yo ungsters from workers ' bac kground s who had very littl e education , se nt them to spec ial classes in the Medical School a nd graduated them as " physicians," a di saster waiting to happen. This e ffort apparentl y failed a nd eventu all y faded away. No further information about these "graduates" is avai labl e. Finall y, the book illustrates why the re was friction between Catholics and Lutherans in th e Medical Schoo l, a nd rev is its that old probl e m between Czechs and Slova ks, name ly the di sc redited idea of a " Czechoslovak nation " propagated by Edvard Be nes a nd T .G. Masaryk and their cohorts. Researche rs and seri ous students of the hi story of Central Europe will find a rich resource for their work in this boo k. Readers who are of Slovak origin, but not proficient in that la nguage, will be nefi t from the English version which provides a g limpse of soc ietal forces that shaped the dest in y of Slovakia a nd its evo lution toward s independe nce. Mari a Dziakova- Bi:ihmova, Dusa na dlani: Spomienky od Kosfc do New Yorku. Edited by Michal Kri sko and Be rnarda Jenc fkov a- Fabrici . Presov , Mic hal Vasko, 2004, 151 pp. Illustrati ons M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa This autobiography, compl eted by ' Mari a Dziakova-Bi:imova in August of 1989, just before the collapse of Communism in Czechoslovakia, nea tl y summ arizes the tri als and tribul ation s of Slovak �160 SLOVAKIA intellectuals during and after World War II . Born in 1910 in a vill age near Kosice, she was the e ldest of three daughters of a poor peasant family. Nevertheless, her parents recogni zed her extraord in ary intelli gence and they skrimped and saved in order to send her to the " realgy mn as ium" for g irl s a nd then to the Faculty of Medicine at Comenius Uni vers ity in Bratislava. She grad uated with her degree in 1934 and began her practice in Kosice. Between 1938 and 1944 Dr. Bohmova (s he marri ed Dr. Emanuel Bohm in 194 1) li ved in Magyar occ upi ed Kosice and later Budapest, he lpin g her politically-activist hu sband defend the Slovak comm unity agai nst forced Magyarization. Meanwhile, she tried to continue her med ical practice, with vary in g success. As the Second World War drew to a c lose, she and her hu sband managed to return to S lovak ia, survived the pass ing of the Ru ss ian front, and re-established themselves in Bratislava in 1945. While she worked for the State In sti tute for Hea lth , her hu sband became Commi ss ioner of Health for Slovakia and Deputy Speaker of the Federal Assembly in Prague . After the Communist takeover of Czechoslovaki a in 1948 Emanuel Bohm fl ed to the west and she jo ined him in Lo ndo n a littl e later. They spe nt the nex t four years working as manu al laboure rs until the United States allowed them to e nter as immi grants in 195 2. Since Maria had to flee Czechoslovakia without any of her diplomas, a nd they co uld not easi ly be mailed to her during the Stalinist l 950's, she had to start over as an intern in the USA. By 1956 she had passed all of he r medical exa ms and sett led into a career in medic ine at the Kin gsbrook Jewi sh Medical Center in New York, and retired as Assistant Director of Medicine in 1975 . Maria and Emanuel active ly participated in Slovak inte ll ectu al a nd political life in New York for the second half of the twentieth century. She a nd he r hu sband took a leading role in the Slovak-American Cultural Center of New York , the Limbora dancing group , the General Mi Ian Rast is lav Stefanik Award , and the an nu al SlovakAmerican Ball at New York ' s Athletic C lub. They also participated in the founding of the Slovak World Co ngress in 1970, of which her �SLOVAKIA 161 husband became a vice-president. The book is a pleasure to read . Maria had a talent for writing and, at one point, she even recon structed a letter that she wrote on behalf of her illiterate mother in the eastern Slovak dialect to an uncle who had emigrated to the United States before World War I. She used the same di alect, and the same uncle ' s name (who had long since disappeared), when she wrote to her sister in Kosice, imploring her to try to mail the diplomas that she had to leave behind when she fled Communist Czechoslovakia. Thi s subterfuge worked because the Czech postal officials in Prague, who were in charge of censoring the mai l, were apparently confounded by thi s dialect and allowed the letter through. Maria eventually received her diplomas, but only after she had to once again prove her medical acumen by pass ing very rigorous American exams. In spite of her trial s and tribulations, Maria Dziakova-Bohmova did not become bitter. Instead , she was thankful to the United States for having given her the chance to start a new life in the New World. She returned for visits to Czechoslovakia in 1969 and 1978 and noticed how her younger sisters had prematurely aged and how so many of her colleagues from the " realgymnasium" and the university had also either aged or died in thi s "socialist paradise." She and her hu sband visited free Czechoslovakia in 1990; he died at the end of the year and was buried in the national cemetery in Martin . After Maria died in 1999, her remains were interred beside him. Thus, Slovakia recognized the achievements of these two extraordinary indi vi dual s. We should be grateful to Bernharda Jencfkova-Fabrici , executrix of her will, for having gathered together Maria's memoirs, for having persuaded Michal Krisko to edit them, and for havi ng arranged for Michal Vasko to publish them. The book is well-worth reading, both for a glimpse at the evolution of the Slovak inte lli genti a in the first Czechoslovak Republic , and for the harsh consequences that awaited those members who refused to sub mit to the Communist takeover of their homeland and who fled into exi le. �SLOVAKIA 162 Karen Henderson, Slovakia: The Escape from fnvisibihty. London and New York: Routledge, 2002, xviii-140 pp., map, notes, bibliography, index. JURAJ HOCMAN Carleton University A few years ago Slovakia suffered from a rather negative image of radical nationalism, especiall y in the West. One reason was that foreign scholars were rare in the region and Slovak history remained invisible. In 1987 a young scholar from England was given an unexpected opportunity to spend a couple of months in Bratislava, the country's capital. Attracted by both Slovakia 's past and present, Karen Henderson gradua ll y became more in volved in Slovak affairs. The author' s knowledge of the evolution of Slovak society through the centuries enabled her to reach a new perspective. Meanwhile, she also witnessed the country ' s political development after its establishment as a sovereign state on January 1st, 1993, its first appearance on the international scene and its chi ldhood illnesses as well. Henderson ' s book then documents the steps taken by the new Slovak government after the elections of September 1998 that were designed to improve the country's democratic performance, and that eventually led to its significantly changed image abroad. The author of the book , a senior lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the University of Leicester in the U.K. , took a balanced look at the Slovak Republic while concentrati ng on four areas of its evolution . In the first part she focused on the Slovaks in the Kingdom of Hungary and on the pre-war Czechoslovak Republic . She succes sfully demonstrated her familiarity with the main trends that formed and influenced the mentality of Slovak soc iety exposed to the processes of forced " Magyarisation" that took place after the Austro-H un garian Comprom ise of 1867. She also hi ghlighted the processes of "Czechoslovakism" that marked the relation- �SLOVAKIA 163 ship between the Slovaks and Czechs before the Second Wor ld W ar with traces of di stru st o n o ne side and suspi c ion o n the other. In co ntras t to the preva ilin g traditi o na l approaches to Slova ki a that have been influe nced by ste reotypes impl a nted into Sl ovak hi sto ry, the auth or shows a re markabl e e mpathy fo r the way the Slovaks saw the mse lves in the fo rmer states of whi ch they had been a part for ce nturi es (the Hun gari an Kin gdo m), o r fo r decades (Czec hos lo va kia) . He nde rso n attributes the fa ilures shared by Slovaks w ith the ir partners o bj ecti ve ly and fa irl y. Slovaks are seen as the vic tim s in relati o n to the two main determina nts above. O n the other hand , Henderson, who knows the terra in of Ce nt ra l a nd East Euro pe and its non-linear a nd some tim e e ni gmati c h is to ry as we ll , a lso de mo nstrates an ability to ide ntify the mo me nts and events in whi ch Slo vak fa ilures and ruptures happe ned due to the ir indec is ive ness, bi ases , ambi g uiti es, un willin g ness o r pass ivity in copin g w ith e me rg in g situation s (e.g. the Slovak Republi c 1939-1 945). In the second part o f the boo k He nde rson dea ls w ith inde pe ndent Slo vaki a after January I'', 1993 . She foc uses o n the governme nts of Prime Mini sters Vladim fr Mec iar a nd Mikul as Dzurinda, whil e notin g a sharp co ntrast betwee n the two. The parli ame ntary e lection s he ld in Septe mbe r o f 1998 made a substanti a l difference in the eyes of Western governme nts and public audi e nces . A detail ed pi cture of what had preceded the fa ll of Mec iar ' s governme nt may be of interest to those who are not fa mili ar w ith the intern a l deve lo pme nt of Slovak soc iety and who want to better know the reasons fo r the fa ilure o f Mec iar' s po lic ies. For those who know it we ll , it is a re minde r and summ ary of what was prev io usly published and broadcast in the print and e lectroni c medi a. However, the a utho r ' s a im was to foc us o n the shi ft in mode rn Slovak hi story th at a ll owed the state and soc iety to escape its in visibility, and thi s is what undo ubtedl y deserves recogniti o n. The last parts of th e book are dedi cated to Slovak ia ' s re lati o nship with the world fro m 19 18 to the present. In spite of the auth or 's overa ll pe rspec ti ve regardin g Slovaki a after th e pe ri od 1989- 1993, �SLOVAKIA 164 one could agree with her view th at " The Slovak Republic has not been particul arl y stable po liticall y, but as a state it has not been fundamentall y instable either" (p. 129). This may be also be perceived as the bottom level of Slovak statehood and the capability of the Slovak Republic to survive as a modern state that was initi all y questioned both dipl o matica ll y and publicl y at the beg innin g of its ex istence. Neve rtheless, the se nsiti ve reader may also find so me sub-themes and situation s described in the book that require furth er di scuss ion or a better nu anced approach (for example, so me aspects of the iss ues of ethnic minorities, the political culture and so on). Henderson 's footnotes and bibliography illustrate that the author used a wide variety of sources, from skeptical critics to pass ion ate apologists of Slovak hi story. She tried to steer a middle co urse between them and used books and schol arl y articles , as well as documents of Slovak academi c institution s and reports of non-governmental organi zation s as her principal sources . She also used re levant documents and reports iss ued by international or supran ational organization s regardin g Slovaki a ' s developme nt and progress (The World Bank, NATO, The European Union , etc.). O verall , Henderson did a good job. In my opinion Henderson ' s book successfull y refl ec ts a positive shi ft in the perception of Slovakia from the outside, and in bringing a pos itive picture to larger audi ences. In the last fe w decades Slovak society has been portrayed by both academi cs and public ists selecti vely and negati ve ly, large ly due to extern a l factors th at affec ted Slovak hi story. From now on , the question of whether the positi ve image of the country will be sustained will depend upon Slovaki a's willingness and capability to remain on track and avoid any detours from its democratic deve lopment. �SLOVAKIA 165 The Slovak Republic: A Decade of Independence (I 993-2002). Edited by M. Mark Stolarik. Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy -Carducci Publi shers, 2004, xiv-168 pp. tables, charts, graphs, notes, map, index. CAROL SKALNIK LEFF University of Illinois, Urbana-Champai gn Durin g the interwar Czechoslovak Re public, several volumes were published employing a format that could be described as " progress reports," in which responsible government officials of the time outlined the state of the field in key iss ue areas. This current volume, desc ribed as Slovakia's " first ' white paper, "' performs much the same function for the first decade of the independent state. In many cases, the " ten years after" vantage point is rather artificial , but in this case it is especially appropriate and the findin gs will have more than transitory value, because this is a decade framed by the successful passage from nascent state to me mbership in the European Union and NATO. Scholars interested in Slovakia' s " rehabilitation" from seco nd tier to new EU member will find thi s decade of continuin g relevance. And if there is an occasional celebratory note in the di scussion, it is understandabl e in the context of the decade ' s achievement of European integration. M . Mark Stolarik, who in his function as Chairholder in Slovak Hi story and Culture at the University of Ottawa, also co-organized the conference on which the published work is based, provides introductory thumbnail sketches of the arguments in eac h of the main contributions, and annotations of the text on politics, to clarify and update the discussion. The core articles that follow, dealing successively with politi cs, economic s, soc ial policy , culture and international relations, are the presentations of Rudolf Schuster, Slovakia' s first elected pres ident, and e ight high-rankin g and quite prominent Slovak government officials, cabinet ministers and state secretaries. Each contribution rece ives a response from the North American side, �SLOVAKIA 166 ei the r from Canadian offic ia ls who have worked o n -and who disc uss--cooperati ve projects with Slovakia, or from a scho lar specia li zi ng in Slovakia. In addition to the detailed po li cy overviews discussed below, I fo und two addit io na l pieces particularly interesting: the exc ha nge o n c ultural po li cy be twee n th e n- Culture Mini ster Mil an Kn azko and Martin Votruba, director of the Slovak Studies program at the University of Pittsburg h and the di sc uss ion of hum an ri ghts and ethni c re lation s by Pa l Csaky, an important Slovak Hun garia n po liti cian and Deputy Prime Minister, and Paul Magocs i of the University of Toronto, whose experti se o n the minoriti es of the reg ion in fo rmed hi s ge nera li zed critique of th e Jacobin-inspired view of state hi story through the prism of the dom in ant nati o na lity in many European countries . The compe ndium is sketchi est on the politics, devoting suffic ient time for orientation but no in-de pth a na lys is, which in thi s case makes sense in severa l ways, not least because the po liti cs of transiti o n has alread y been ex haustive ly ana lyzed in ex istin g sc ho larl y work. The iss ue areas covered are a no ther matter. Muc h less informati o n cover in g po lic y is readily ava il abl e in existing work , so thi s is exceedin g ly useful gro und to cover. Most chapters are e nri c hed with some unex pected inform ation a l treas ures, since the poli cy profil es are de ta il ed and spec ific rathe r th an vag ue or genera li zed , and the re are a multitude of useful tabl es and charts that e ncode co mparati ve and tim e series data on fo re ig n debt a nd in vestme nt , e mpl oy me nt , mino rity ed ucation , li fe expectancy and so o n. While not inte nded as a reference work, the anth o logy the refore atta in s so methin g of th at status; o nce read, it can be sto red to hand for speci fi c refere nce on a range of subjects. Our library doesn ' t have thi s book yet, but it soon wi ll. �SLOVAKIA 167 Thomas J. Shelley , Slovak s on the Hudson: Most Holy Trinity Church , Yonkers, & Th e Slovak Catholics of the Archdiocese of New York, 1894 -2000. Washin gton , D.C. : The Catholic University of America Press, 2002. xv-273pp., maps, illustrati o ns, bibliography , index. DANIEL F. T ANZONE Passaic, New Jersey Slovaks on the Hudson, by the noted church hi storian Thomas J. Shelley, adds an important chapter to the hi story of the American Catholic Church. While the city of Yonkers, New York, with a population of just under 200,000 cannot be compared with the metropoli ses of Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland or Pittsburgh, it is, in fact , a microcosm of bi g city Catholicism. The city's nineteen Catholic parishe s, including tho se serving the Slovak s, Italian s, Hun garia ns and most recently the Portugese, along with two of the Byza ntine rite , contributed to the gro wth of Catholic life in the community. Catholics would soo n become major players in the city 's soc ial , educational, cultural and political life. While thi s book tell s the story of Slovak settlement in the river town of Yonke rs startin g in the l 880's, it also presents a picture of the city's political establi shment and its reaction to the grow in g immigrant population. Most of these newcomers hailed from the Catholic nation s of central and southern Europe. Slovaks, along with other Slavic peoples, found work in the city's vast mill structure, and had the opportunity to make a new life for themselves and their families. While the local " Nativi sts" often resented and mi sunderstood these immigrants and their ways, the WASP establishment gradually accepted them into the fabric of c ity life. Indeed , by 1903 a Slovak immigrant was elected to Yonkers city govern ment. Like other immigrant gro ups, the Slovaks clung to their language and faith tradition s. First they esta bli shed loca l fraternal -benefit �168 SLOVAKIA societies, which became affiliated with the national bodies in the 1890's. Yonkers had the first women 's lodge in New York State ( 1892), which became branch 2 of the First Catholic Slovak Ladies ' Association. Its other Slovak fraternals gave birth to Most Holy Trinity Church, which traced its roots to 1891 when laymen petitioned the local bishop for permission to establish a pari sh. The local parish church was very important to the laity, both as a place of worship and as a social gathering place. The parishioners married and raised their children in the shadow of the church steeple in the Hollow section of Yonkers. Most Holy Trinity afforded its people the opportunity to pass on the language, culture and traditions of their ancestral homeland. The clergy and religious, especially the sisters of Cyril and Methodius , who staffed the parish school, taught the children the Slovak language and traditions . Slovaks on the Hudson never forgot the plight of their brethren along the Danube, Yah, Hron and Torysa rivers. Indeed, the clergy and leaders of the Yonkers community played an important ro le in the establishment of Czecho-Slovakia following the col lapse of the Dual Monarchy of A ustria-Hungary . One of the pastors of Most Holy Trinity was actually offered a cabinet post in the newly-established Czecho-Slovakia in 1919. Throughout the long winter of communist domination of their ancestral homeland, the Slovaks of Yonkers never gave up hope of seeing their countrymen freed from this alien ideology and they rejoiced when Slovakia achieved its independence on January I, 1993. Thomas J. Shelley has provided the reader with a wonderful opportunity to view the life of the Slovak immigrant community within the context of big city li fe. It is a fascinating story, warts and all, of the Church in America. It is al so an important contribution to American history because the Slovaks are rapidly assimilating and moving to the suburbs while Yonkers is receiving ever more and newer immigrants. It is a welcome addition to the story of so many American ethnic groups who make up o ur ever-expanding multicultural society. �SLOVAKIA 169 June Granatir Alexander, Ethnic Pride, American Patriotism: Slovaks and Other Immigrants in the lnterwar Era. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004, xiv-278 p.p., illustrations, notes, index. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa The purpose of this book is to explore group-generated activities among Slovak-Americans in the inter-war period of American history and to see if such activities fit into recent "whiteness" studies by professional American historians. Alexander' s theme is that in the 1920's and 1930's both first and second-generation American Slovaks "were haunted by the stigma of inferiority inflicted by American society." (P.12). They sought to overcome this stigma by purchasing Liberty Bonds during the Great War and War Bonds during the Second World War. Meanwhile, they engaged in patriotic marches, carrying both the American and Slovak flags in the two wars, they staged large "S lovak Days" in the I 920's and 1930's in order to show off their ethnicity while stressing their Americanness and they openly supported FDR's New Deal legislation in order to help their pioneers and their fraternal-benefit societies to survive the ravages of the Great Depression. In order to prove her thesis Alexander dug deeply into both archival and printed sources. She studied the records of several large fraternal-benefit societies, the correspondence of their officers, and a wide range of Slovak-American newspapers. She also read widely in American history. Alexander concluded that Slovak-American identity did not arise from their growing "whiteness" in a racist American society, as some American historians had postulated of other ethnic groups, but rather from their nationality (ethnicity). Indeed, she also saw no generational or even class cleavage among American Slovaks, who perceived of themselves as overwhelmingly "working class" and united in their �170 SLOVAKIA efforts to win acceptance as one of the " newcomer" peoples to the United States. Al exander's book will , no doubt, win many acco lades from those profess ional A meri can hi stori ans who write hi story fo r themselves. She is very much a part of the so-call ed "di scourse" school whi ch uses social hi story in order to probe into questi ons of " whiteness," class, identity, celebrations, ass imilati on and so on. These hi stori ans deri ve great pleasure in proving or dispro ving eac h other 's theori es and show in g off their erudition . By so doin g, however, th ey c ut them selves off from the general public , which is hun gry for tradi tional , narrati ve, hi story . As a result, a second group of hi stori ans fill s thi s public hunger, and they are contemptu ously di smi ssed as " popul ar" hi stori ans by the academi cs mention ed above. On the other hand , the " popul ar" hi stori ans sell hundreds of thou sand s of copies of the ir books while the academic histori ans are delighted if they can sell a thou sand. While several hundred uni versity libraries will , no doubt, purchase a copy of thi s book, I have a feeling th at the Slovak-American community will hardl y notice it, whi ch is a pity. � 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 2005, Vol. 38 Description An account of the resource Vol. 38 (No. 70-71), 2005. 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 2005 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 149 Peter Ze nuc h, M edzi vychodom a zapadom: Byzantsko-slovan- ska tradfcia, kultura a j azyk na vychodnom Slovensku. Brati slava: Veda , 2002. 286 pp., notes, bibliograph y, summari es in German and Ru ss ian. ROB ERT A. ORR Uni versity of Ottawa Thi s book provides va luabl e in sig hts, from severa l ang les, into a co mparati ve ly neglected area of Slavic studies: the place of Eastern Slovakia as an area straddling the di v ide between Eastern and Western Slavdom , which has cha nged hands severa l times in the course of its hi story. Although, as Zenuch shows in numerous pl aces (starting from the first page of the introducti o n), Easte rn Slovakia is generall y pl aced firmly o n the W estern side of the divide from lin- •• gui stic , cultural, and hi storical points of view (often being cited as part of Slavia Latina, Slavia Romana), it also saw the development of a homegrow n Church Slavonic tradition, a sort of " Slovak Church Slavonic", w ith a ll that it e ntail s, e.g., poor know ledge of Church Slavonic itse lf ( 127); in stances of hype rcorrection ( 168); and the gradual e merge nce of errors in re nditi o ns of so ngs, mak ing the m g radually less comprehensibl e to the laity over time (237-238). Zenuch 's book beg in s with a detailed tabl e of contents, followed by an introduc tion consisting of di sc uss ion s of approaches to the iss ue from the point of view of literature and hi sto ry, re li g io n and culture, and the hi storica l and lin g ui stic conditions. He then presents hi s major arg ume nts in e ight unnumbe red chapters , dealing roughly with hi storica l and c ultural developments in Eastern Slovakia and the Union of Uzhorod ( 1646), which broug ht the area w ithin the Uni ate C hurc h, under the authority of Rome, in the same way as the Uni o n of Brest ( 1596) did for Wes tern Ukraine; the Cyrillomethodian traditi o n in Eastern Slovakia, and that of St. Demetrius of Sa lonika; SLOVAKIA 150 the ro le of para litu rg ica l so ng in th e Byza ntin o-S lav ic ri te; the la ng uage of se lected Cy rilli c ma nu sc ript s; th e interpre tat io n of certa in lin g ui sti c phe no me na in se lec ted manu sc ripts, whi ch he treats in co nsiderabl e detail ; and C hurch S lavoni c in Eastern S lovak ia , providing a fa irl y deta il ed ling ui stic ana lys is, es pec ia ll y of the lex icon. So urces are ex te ns ive ly referenced (23 prim ary so urces and 265 bibli ographi ca l ite ms, mostl y in Slova k, Ru ss ia n, a nd Ukra ini an, wi th some ite ms in Eng li sh, Hun gari an, etc.), w hi ch at times becomes rather cumberso me , w ith the foo tn otes (666) takin g up more than ha lf a page in pl aces. S urpris in g ly. in view of its titl e, the book offers o nl y a fa irl y bri ef di sc uss io n of the period before the Uni o n of Uzhorod (the " Byzantsko" in the titl e sound s vague ly a nac hro ni stic), jumping ra pidl y to 1646 (59-60). In view of its impo rtance, perh aps the Uni o n of Uzhorod could have been incorporated into th e actu a l titl e of the boo k (... Vychodne Slovensko po prijatf Uihorodskej unie, pe rhaps?). As me nti oned above, several Sl av ic c ultures are in contact within or c lose to Eas te rn S lova kia , and Zen o uc h di sc usses the lin g ui sti c aspects of such contacts in some deta il. In ma ny instances lang uage and re li g ion were intertw ined, and much of the no menc lature refl ec ts thi s situ ati o n, w ith te rm s suc h as Rusnak . Rusyn, Slovak, Slovj ak, e tc. be in g utili sed to de no te di ffe re nces in lang uage and re li g io n ( 126; as he puts it, e .g ., "every Gree k Ca th o li c was ta ke n fo r a Ru sy n" ( I 32)) . Vag ue aware ness of thi s co mpl ex ity has spread o uts ide the immedi ate area, with the genera ll y kn ow n Latin term Rut- heni ("Ruthe ni an") hav ing both re li g io us and ling ui sti c connotati ons. Eve n the ultim ate ly ephe mera l "s in g le Czec hos lovak" peopl e fig ure in some of the treatments ( 196- 197). Zeno uch c ites exampl es of such interconnecti o ns as , e .g., Sl ovak- U kraini an ( 137) , as we ll as lex ica l ite ms fro m ne ig hbo urin g lang uages, so metimes c itin g the same ite m in severa l la ng uages, e .g ., prikaza iie, etc .. ( 179). He makes sk ilful use of the tex ts of vari o us songs, w ith di sc uss io ns of vari o us types of song, and how to di sting ui sh the m to illustrate hi s po ints (e.g., 11 0 fn . 269), o ne of which ( 0 vyhnanf A dama i Evy z raja; 172-173) is SLOVAKIA 151 eve n desc ribed as "s love nsko-po l's ko- ru sin sko[m ]" . He provides the Ni cene C reed in both Cy rilli c and Ro man, with stresses marked , to illustrate pro nunc iati o n (223 -224). Ze i\ o uc h deserves co mme nd ati o n fo r severa l passages a nd hi s treatment of sma ll points of deta il , e.g., hi s ex pl anati o n of drevo ( 173 fn . 498). He offe rs an excell e nt o utline of the earl y hi sto ry of Eastern Sl ovaki a (27, pass im), a nd definiti o ns of term s suc h as ca th olicos (33); sluienie (79); akatist (82), etc. On a re lated leve l, he offers useful di sc uss io ns of etymologies, e.g., S lovak Tabor ( 147). The interaction of c ultures and c hang ing borde rs in Easte rn Slovaki a meant , amo ng othe r thin gs, that a large number of la ng uages and orthographi es were used . Ze i\o uc h consiste ntl y c ites a ll mate ri a l in its ori g in a l orthograph y and fo nts, even ex te ndin g to, e.g ., c iting Russ ian refere nces in pre-Revolution orthograph y (e.g ., 59-60 ; 127), and Hun gari an orthograph y ( 196). In a text of suc h compl ex ity it is pe rhaps inev itabl e th at th e re sho uld be so me mi sprints, a lth o ug h tho se have bee n ke pt to a minimum , e.g., Atrni (54); Kovard vnvourro.X1f, ( 154) liturg ig ue (71 fn . 186 ); MaTep111.nb1 (93) sho uld be MaTep111a.nb1 as it is in the bibliograph y (w hy MaTepia.nbl in the footnotes o n pp 95-98?); Ukr. Ye.noBiK ( 169); 111c.neAOBH111e (276). In additi o n to its intrin sic inte rest, the refo re, Easte rn Slovak ia presents an exce lle nt example of an area whe re lang uages, c ultures, and re li g io n show so me degree of overl ap, and as suc h deserves to be better kn own to the scho larl y world at large. It is to be ho ped that thi s book will be translated into Engli sh. The fac t th at the most substanti a l criti c ism in vo lves the ac tua l titl e of the boo k is an indi cati o n of its va lue, both fo r hi sto ri ans and ling ui sts. 152 SLOVAKIA Mari a n Hronsky, The Struggle for Slovakia and the Treaty of Trianon 1918- 1920. Martin Styan, trans lator. Brati slava: Veda, 200 1, 407 pp., illustration s, bibliography, index . GREGORY C. FERENCE Salisbury Univers ity Mari an Hron sky, an hi storian of World War I Slovakia and the early years of the Czecho-Slovak Republic , has written an excellent book . This is a tran slation of hi s 1998 work of the same title , although the Engl ish-language version is more academic. A lthough the Treaty of Trianon dea lt with the dismantlin g of large sections of greater Hungary into its surrounding neighbors after World War One, Hron sky focused on the events leadi ng up to the treaty and their effects upon Slovakia. This detailed study beg ins with an hi storiographic lesson in the Introduction where the author claims that today many people in Slovakia are unaware of the Trianon Treaty despite more attention being paid to it since the fa ll of Communism. A lthough over e ight decades have passed s ince the treaty was signed, Hron sky notes correctly that it still causes intense emotiona l feelings in Hungary and is crucial to understanding Slovak-Hungarian relation s today, especiall y since the treaty left over 700,000 Hun garian s (Magyars ) in Czecho-Slovakia and over 500,000 current ly in S lovakia. With regards to the time frame unde r investigation, the author later stated , also quite correctly, "The Hungarians had never devoted so much attention to Slovakia as in thi s period (p. 11 0)." The treaty naturall y separated Slovakia from Hungary and attached it to the Czech Lands, but for the first time , it also delineated recogni zed boundaries for Slovakia. In the process, the a uthor took notice of so me interesting twists, such as the CzechoSlovak army havin g fought its only real war during World War I, and the Hungarian s having coined the term " Little Entente" for the diplomatic cooperation of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Romania after SLOVAKIA 153 the war. The Hun garian s mourned the signin g of the treaty while it was hardly noticed by the average Slovak. Hron sky divided the book into six major sections: l. The End of the Kingdom of Hungary on the Political Scene; II. Power Vacuum in Slovaki a; Ill. The Struggle for Slovakia; IV . The War Between the Czecho-Slovak Republic and the Hun garian Soviet Republic ; V. The Peace Talks; and, VI. The Peace Treaty with Hun gary . In each section , there are numerou s sub-chapters that make the reading of thi s den se, fact-driven volume eas ier to negot iate. Much to hi s credit, Hronsky co nsulted numerou s archives , secondary so urces, and new spapers to present a very complete story. As with most tran slated works, thi s book could have used better proofreadin g. There are occasional subj ect-verb di sagreements, mi sspellings, tran slations of only some titles, wrong description s such as referrin g to Jan Smuts as a Briti sh general, and using a Slovak title to a book written by the Hungarian Oskar Jasz i. One defect, typica l of books published in Central Europe, is an index of perso nal names only, thu s limitin g its usefulness . The numerous photographs (including some very interestin g ones such as the pen used in the signin g of the treaty), drawin gs, and political cartoons are unfortunate ly blurry. They , along with proclamations and other items that should be read , are difficult to view. Another problem concerns maps. Due to the deta il ed leve l of descriptions of various battles and boundary negotiations and delin eat ion s, more and better quality maps should have been included. Perhaps the most bothersome aspect of the book, starting on page 100 and continuing many times over the next thirty pages or so, is that the " Rumanian s" or so me variation of thi s word keep appearing in the middl e of sentences or take the places of other words , makin g reading at times incomprehensi ble, or even absurd. Despite these shortcoming, which are for the most part trivial and annoying , thi s book is required reading for anyone interested in the end of the First World War, the collapse of Austria-Hungary, the ri se of the Czecho-Slovak state, the early post-war period in Central Europe, and the Treaty of Trianon itself. Hronsky has done a great SLOVAKIA 154 serv ice by all owi ng fo r the translation of hi s book, whi ch otherwi se wo uld have had a very limited readership. Jni o k apitanovi Janovi Nalepkovi. Edited by Jozef Nalepka. Spi sska Nova Yes: Po lygrafia, 2002. 172 pp. , illustrations. VLADIMIR BAUMGARTEN Tall ahassee, Florida T horo ugh the co urse of military hi story the reader peri odi ca ll y encounters individu als who see med destined to become men of the pen, but who instead became men of the sword. Such was the case of Jan Nale pka. He was a poet by vocati on and a teacher by profess ion, and yet became a co mpetent military comm ander. Called up fo r military service by the Sl ova k Re public durin g World War II, Nalepka fo ught with di stincti on on both sides. Li ke many S lovaks sent to the Eastern Front, he deserted , and then fo ught alongs ide Sov iet parti sans in the Pripet Marches of Belaru s and northern Ukraine . Thi s biographi ca l study, edi ted by hi s brother, includes sampl es of Nalepka ' s wartime correspo nde nce, and the acco unts of peopl e who remembered him - teachers, students, fe ll ow soldi ers and Soviet military comm anders. One influenti a l fig ure d uring Na le pka ' s fo rm ati ve years in primary school in Spi ss ka Nova Yes was hi s teac her Jozef Miko laj, a Czec hos lovak Legionnaire of the First World War rece ntl y returned from long years of travel. He foun d Jan to have a provocat ive sense of humor and a mi sc hiev ious di spos ition, yet he exce ll ed academi ca ll y. Miko laj was parti cul arl y impressed with Jan' s kn ow ledge of the poets of the Slovak Nati onal Rev iva l, and his being inspired by the fo lk songs of hi s mother. Youn g Nalepka re mained precoc ious after enterin g teac her's college in 193 1. A confere nce of young teachers in Ko morna Lehotka (Jul y 1933) was visited by Czec hos lovak pres ide nt T. G. M asaryk. T he pres ide nt viewed the educati o nal system as a means of moul d in g youn g Slovaks in a "Czec hos lovak" SLOVAKIA 155 spirit. But Nalepka remarked to hi s fri e nd Vladimfr Clementis that Slovak students were capable of c ulti vating the ir ow n sp irit. Na lepka was a nation a li st, but he was a lso a lefti st. In February of 1939 he began organizing c landest ine e le me nts aga in st the governing Slovak People' s Party - one month before the latter ass umed the leadership of a separate Slovak state . Ye t the events of March 1939 included a Hungari a n invas ion in the so utheast. Called up for military serv ice, Nalepka participated willingly in th e brief borde r war. He saw no contradiction between thi s action and hi s own idea ls. Latte r th at year, Slovakia's military alliance with Nazi Germany dictated hi s parti c ipation in the Poli sh ca mpai g n. Na le pk a, by now a lie ute nant, fought with di stinction on the northern s ide of the Carpathi ans. He was decorated by General Fe rdinand Catlos, Slovakia's Mini ster of Nationa l Defence. The war against Soviet Ru ss ia proved problemati ca l. Slovakia had te ritorial g rievances with Hungary and Pol a nd , but none w ith the Ru ss ians. Moreover, Na le pka had already beco me a li e nated by the arrogance of the nati ve Carpatho-Germans in Eastern Slovakia, who had the ir own Nazi organization. Finaly, like many Slovak so ldi ers, he was horified by Na zi atroc iti es in the occupied te rritori es. He clandestinely e ntered into contact with Soviet parti sans and eventually deserted to the m, takin g hi s men with him . Soviet parti san commander (and Red Army ge nera l) A. N. Saburov found Na le pka to be a competent subordin ate, who retained command of the Slovaks. The nature of partisan warfare in the swamps dictated that Na le pka freque ntl y travelled on horseback , carry ing an a utom atic weapon. A photograph of thi s legendary pose later in spired an equestrian sc ulpture of him by Anna Ki sakova. Thi s activity also contributed to hi s demi se. Captain Jan Nalepka was killed in an encounter with a German patrol outside the village of Ovruc o n the ni g ht of Nove mber 17 , 1943. Thi s study contains a weakness commo n to publi caation s about a " hometown boy" . It prese nts certa in fac ts in pass in g, presupposing the audi e nce is already familiar w ith the m. Whil e thi s may work for SLOV AKIA 156 know ledgeable S lovaks, it leaves fo reigners in the dar k on key parti cul ars. Indeed , its greatest weekness lies not in what is sa id but what is left un said. Na le pk a's surv ivin g co mrades na med the ir parti sa n bri gade afte r him . The Captain Jan Nalepka Bri gade was later parasc huted back into Slovaki a to parti c ipate in the autumn 1944 upri sin g. Compared to other uni ts whi ch the Sov iets ex ported , and whic h large ly e ngaged in loot in g and pill ag in g, the Na lepka Bri gade conducted itse lf in a n exe mpl ary fas hi on. Together w ith the 2 nd Czec hoslovak Paratroo pe rs, it shares c redit fo r the capture of th e strateg ic vill age of Ja ln a in the Hron Ri ver va ll ey on Oc tobe r 10- 12. This acti on was the las t vic tory of the insurge nts in S lovakia dur ing the upris ing. A wartime fe ll ow-officer, Samue l S imonov ic, states that Jan Nalepk a was not a Communi st (p. 111 ). He di ed at a conve ni e nt time , whic h e na bl ed him to beco me a lege nd in the postwar co mmuni st era. Hi s peasant pare nts were rece ived with hono ur in the Sov ie t Union at me mo rial servi ces dedic ated to the captain. Yet one may questi on what fa te would have had in store fo r him had he li ved longer. A " w ise guy" mi ght be given a wide berth by hi s teac hers on the me rit of hi s acade mi c exce ll e nce, but not by a tota litari a n reg im e. His equ all y precoc ious fr ie nd V ladimfr C le me ntis went on to become Czec hos lovak ia's fo reig n mini ste r, but ultim ate ly e nded on the gall ows. In sofa r as the c urre nt Slovak Re public has adopted the Slovak Nati onal Upri sing rathe r than Jozef Ti so ' s Slovaki a as its lodestone, Captain Jan Nalepk a re mains a worthy subject of stud y. Hi s life cuts across the ideo log ica l lines th at later di vided the East and West du ring the Co ld War. Hi s c haracter serves to de bunk a certain stereotype of S lova ks as be in g subservie nt to a uth ority. Thi s book is a positi ve contributi on to wartime Slovak hi story. SLOVAKIA 157 Zo ltan G . Mes ko, The S ilent Conspiracy: A Communist M odel of Political Cleansing at the Slovak Uni versity in B ratislava after the Second W orld War. Boulder, CO : East Europea n Monographs, 2003, ix- l 42pp., map, illustrati ons, notes, bibliography. L.P. HINTERB UCHNER Rye, New York When I read the orig inal Slova k vers ion "Zaml cane sprisahanie" by Dr. Zo ltan G. Mes ko in 1999, I was moved by the vivid descripti on of the eve nts th at befe ll th e medi ca l co mmunity in Slovaki a during and after World W ar II , th ro ugh the " liberation" by th e Soviets and after the illega l take-over by the Communi sts of Czec hoslovaki a in 1948. I knew many of the principal actors in the ensuin g dram a but I was not full y aware of wh at tran spired at the Medi cal School in Brati slava where I graduated the same year th at D r. Mes ko started hi s studi es. M y opini o n abo ut thi s book the n was th at it represented an important hi stori ca l testimo ny about the insane and destructi ve influence of the communi st regime on the professors and students of two medi ca l sc hool s, one in Brati slava the other in Kos ice. The poorly-trained new ph ys ici ans, who se credenti als had to be primaril y political , in ev itabl y led to inadequ ate and inferi or hea lth care fo r the nation. Th e publication in 2003 of the improved and enh anced Engli sh version of thi s work , "The S il ent Conspi racy," marks a fittin g completi on of the author' s doc umentati o n of th at peri od , based on hi s personal observati ons, interviews of th e principals and of witnesses, and the detailed research of avail able records. I read th e Eng li sh and the Slovak versio ns s ide-by-s ide and reli ved the angui sh th at the parti c ipants of thi s drama must have felt in those times. I was aga in moved by th e author' s personal remini sce nces of the "good o ld days" with hi s fa mil y, before registering to stud y medi c ine. I mu st co nfess that the Eng li sh vers io n he ld my SLOVAKIA 158 close attention more than the Slovak one. It is a page-turner; and one is reluctant to lay the book down. There is a bri ef but very informative acco unt of the hi storica l background of the Slovak nation by professor Mark Sto larik, an improvement over the Slovak vers ion. The rest of the book is more an inte rpre tation of the Slovak edition than a verbatim tran slat ion . The res ult is th at the E ng li sh is fluent , easy to read a nd de finitely much be tte r than most Slovak publications in Eng li sh, despite occas ion a l ling ui stic errors and inaccuracies, no ne of them s ubsta nti a l. Regrettably , not a ll of the illustrati o ns from the S lovak edition appear in the En g li sh o ne . Dr. Mesko recently in for med me that the first draft was written in Eng li sh. The strength of thi s work is in the detailed acco unt of the persecu ti o n, humili at io n, torture and incarceratio n of those who , because of their re li g ious back ground or personal integrity , did not join in worshiping comm uni sm, the Soviet Union a nd its murdere r-in-chi ef Stalin. Some victim s disappeared without any trace , othe rs perished in the uranium mines of the western Czec h la nd s and many spent years in prison and did hard labor. The a uthor li sts names and dates and provides documented description s of these terrible tran sgres sion s. Dr. Mesko ' s book is an importa nt co ntributi o n to the post-war hi story of the Slovak nat ion . It has the immediacy of an eyew itness report. To those w ho do not read Slovak , it pro vides a window o n events large ly unknown to Eng li sh readers. It provides a hi storic a l g limpse of how eve nts in Slovakia in the 1940 's separated the "good g uys" who would not betray their re li g iou s and mora l principl es, from vac ill ators , weak lin gs, thieve s, torturers a nd murderers, all without any moral scruples. The book a lso describes how politi ca l opportunists stabbed the ir intellectually an d professio na ll y s upe rior colleagues in the back . It demon strates how po liti ca l a nd party affiliations rep laced merit in the grad ing of stude nts and in di spe ns ing the most desired positions and jobs to " politically correct" applicants. It show s how the absence SLOVAKIA 159 of party affili ati on re nde red outstandin g professors and teac he rs vulnerable a nd subj ec t to chic anery. lt record s the establi shm e nt of a Chair of Marxi s m-Le nini sm a t th e M ed ica l School for th e reeducation of the faculty and of the student body. Dr. Mesko also doc ume nts the large ly unknown attempt of the Communists to meddl e with the curriculum in the Medical School. They recruited a cadre of yo ungsters from workers ' bac kground s who had very littl e education , se nt them to spec ial classes in the Medical School a nd graduated them as " physicians," a di saster waiting to happen. This e ffort apparentl y failed a nd eventu all y faded away. No further information about these "graduates" is avai labl e. Finall y, the book illustrates why the re was friction between Catholics and Lutherans in th e Medical Schoo l, a nd rev is its that old probl e m between Czechs and Slova ks, name ly the di sc redited idea of a " Czechoslovak nation " propagated by Edvard Be nes a nd T .G. Masaryk and their cohorts. Researche rs and seri ous students of the hi story of Central Europe will find a rich resource for their work in this boo k. Readers who are of Slovak origin, but not proficient in that la nguage, will be nefi t from the English version which provides a g limpse of soc ietal forces that shaped the dest in y of Slovakia a nd its evo lution toward s independe nce. Mari a Dziakova- Bi:ihmova, Dusa na dlani: Spomienky od Kosfc do New Yorku. Edited by Michal Kri sko and Be rnarda Jenc fkov a- Fabrici . Presov , Mic hal Vasko, 2004, 151 pp. Illustrati ons M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa This autobiography, compl eted by ' Mari a Dziakova-Bi:imova in August of 1989, just before the collapse of Communism in Czechoslovakia, nea tl y summ arizes the tri als and tribul ation s of Slovak 160 SLOVAKIA intellectuals during and after World War II . Born in 1910 in a vill age near Kosice, she was the e ldest of three daughters of a poor peasant family. Nevertheless, her parents recogni zed her extraord in ary intelli gence and they skrimped and saved in order to send her to the " realgy mn as ium" for g irl s a nd then to the Faculty of Medicine at Comenius Uni vers ity in Bratislava. She grad uated with her degree in 1934 and began her practice in Kosice. Between 1938 and 1944 Dr. Bohmova (s he marri ed Dr. Emanuel Bohm in 194 1) li ved in Magyar occ upi ed Kosice and later Budapest, he lpin g her politically-activist hu sband defend the Slovak comm unity agai nst forced Magyarization. Meanwhile, she tried to continue her med ical practice, with vary in g success. As the Second World War drew to a c lose, she and her hu sband managed to return to S lovak ia, survived the pass ing of the Ru ss ian front, and re-established themselves in Bratislava in 1945. While she worked for the State In sti tute for Hea lth , her hu sband became Commi ss ioner of Health for Slovakia and Deputy Speaker of the Federal Assembly in Prague . After the Communist takeover of Czechoslovaki a in 1948 Emanuel Bohm fl ed to the west and she jo ined him in Lo ndo n a littl e later. They spe nt the nex t four years working as manu al laboure rs until the United States allowed them to e nter as immi grants in 195 2. Since Maria had to flee Czechoslovakia without any of her diplomas, a nd they co uld not easi ly be mailed to her during the Stalinist l 950's, she had to start over as an intern in the USA. By 1956 she had passed all of he r medical exa ms and sett led into a career in medic ine at the Kin gsbrook Jewi sh Medical Center in New York, and retired as Assistant Director of Medicine in 1975 . Maria and Emanuel active ly participated in Slovak inte ll ectu al a nd political life in New York for the second half of the twentieth century. She a nd he r hu sband took a leading role in the Slovak-American Cultural Center of New York , the Limbora dancing group , the General Mi Ian Rast is lav Stefanik Award , and the an nu al SlovakAmerican Ball at New York ' s Athletic C lub. They also participated in the founding of the Slovak World Co ngress in 1970, of which her SLOVAKIA 161 husband became a vice-president. The book is a pleasure to read . Maria had a talent for writing and, at one point, she even recon structed a letter that she wrote on behalf of her illiterate mother in the eastern Slovak dialect to an uncle who had emigrated to the United States before World War I. She used the same di alect, and the same uncle ' s name (who had long since disappeared), when she wrote to her sister in Kosice, imploring her to try to mail the diplomas that she had to leave behind when she fled Communist Czechoslovakia. Thi s subterfuge worked because the Czech postal officials in Prague, who were in charge of censoring the mai l, were apparently confounded by thi s dialect and allowed the letter through. Maria eventually received her diplomas, but only after she had to once again prove her medical acumen by pass ing very rigorous American exams. In spite of her trial s and tribulations, Maria Dziakova-Bohmova did not become bitter. Instead , she was thankful to the United States for having given her the chance to start a new life in the New World. She returned for visits to Czechoslovakia in 1969 and 1978 and noticed how her younger sisters had prematurely aged and how so many of her colleagues from the " realgymnasium" and the university had also either aged or died in thi s "socialist paradise." She and her hu sband visited free Czechoslovakia in 1990; he died at the end of the year and was buried in the national cemetery in Martin . After Maria died in 1999, her remains were interred beside him. Thus, Slovakia recognized the achievements of these two extraordinary indi vi dual s. We should be grateful to Bernharda Jencfkova-Fabrici , executrix of her will, for having gathered together Maria's memoirs, for having persuaded Michal Krisko to edit them, and for havi ng arranged for Michal Vasko to publish them. The book is well-worth reading, both for a glimpse at the evolution of the Slovak inte lli genti a in the first Czechoslovak Republic , and for the harsh consequences that awaited those members who refused to sub mit to the Communist takeover of their homeland and who fled into exi le. SLOVAKIA 162 Karen Henderson, Slovakia: The Escape from fnvisibihty. London and New York: Routledge, 2002, xviii-140 pp., map, notes, bibliography, index. JURAJ HOCMAN Carleton University A few years ago Slovakia suffered from a rather negative image of radical nationalism, especiall y in the West. One reason was that foreign scholars were rare in the region and Slovak history remained invisible. In 1987 a young scholar from England was given an unexpected opportunity to spend a couple of months in Bratislava, the country's capital. Attracted by both Slovakia 's past and present, Karen Henderson gradua ll y became more in volved in Slovak affairs. The author' s knowledge of the evolution of Slovak society through the centuries enabled her to reach a new perspective. Meanwhile, she also witnessed the country ' s political development after its establishment as a sovereign state on January 1st, 1993, its first appearance on the international scene and its chi ldhood illnesses as well. Henderson ' s book then documents the steps taken by the new Slovak government after the elections of September 1998 that were designed to improve the country's democratic performance, and that eventually led to its significantly changed image abroad. The author of the book , a senior lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the University of Leicester in the U.K. , took a balanced look at the Slovak Republic while concentrati ng on four areas of its evolution . In the first part she focused on the Slovaks in the Kingdom of Hungary and on the pre-war Czechoslovak Republic . She succes sfully demonstrated her familiarity with the main trends that formed and influenced the mentality of Slovak soc iety exposed to the processes of forced " Magyarisation" that took place after the Austro-H un garian Comprom ise of 1867. She also hi ghlighted the processes of "Czechoslovakism" that marked the relation- SLOVAKIA 163 ship between the Slovaks and Czechs before the Second Wor ld W ar with traces of di stru st o n o ne side and suspi c ion o n the other. In co ntras t to the preva ilin g traditi o na l approaches to Slova ki a that have been influe nced by ste reotypes impl a nted into Sl ovak hi sto ry, the auth or shows a re markabl e e mpathy fo r the way the Slovaks saw the mse lves in the fo rmer states of whi ch they had been a part for ce nturi es (the Hun gari an Kin gdo m), o r fo r decades (Czec hos lo va kia) . He nde rso n attributes the fa ilures shared by Slovaks w ith the ir partners o bj ecti ve ly and fa irl y. Slovaks are seen as the vic tim s in relati o n to the two main determina nts above. O n the other hand , Henderson, who knows the terra in of Ce nt ra l a nd East Euro pe and its non-linear a nd some tim e e ni gmati c h is to ry as we ll , a lso de mo nstrates an ability to ide ntify the mo me nts and events in whi ch Slo vak fa ilures and ruptures happe ned due to the ir indec is ive ness, bi ases , ambi g uiti es, un willin g ness o r pass ivity in copin g w ith e me rg in g situation s (e.g. the Slovak Republi c 1939-1 945). In the second part o f the boo k He nde rson dea ls w ith inde pe ndent Slo vaki a after January I'', 1993 . She foc uses o n the governme nts of Prime Mini sters Vladim fr Mec iar a nd Mikul as Dzurinda, whil e notin g a sharp co ntrast betwee n the two. The parli ame ntary e lection s he ld in Septe mbe r o f 1998 made a substanti a l difference in the eyes of Western governme nts and public audi e nces . A detail ed pi cture of what had preceded the fa ll of Mec iar ' s governme nt may be of interest to those who are not fa mili ar w ith the intern a l deve lo pme nt of Slovak soc iety and who want to better know the reasons fo r the fa ilure o f Mec iar' s po lic ies. For those who know it we ll , it is a re minde r and summ ary of what was prev io usly published and broadcast in the print and e lectroni c medi a. However, the a utho r ' s a im was to foc us o n the shi ft in mode rn Slovak hi story th at a ll owed the state and soc iety to escape its in visibility, and thi s is what undo ubtedl y deserves recogniti o n. The last parts of th e book are dedi cated to Slovak ia ' s re lati o nship with the world fro m 19 18 to the present. In spite of the auth or 's overa ll pe rspec ti ve regardin g Slovaki a after th e pe ri od 1989- 1993, SLOVAKIA 164 one could agree with her view th at " The Slovak Republic has not been particul arl y stable po liticall y, but as a state it has not been fundamentall y instable either" (p. 129). This may be also be perceived as the bottom level of Slovak statehood and the capability of the Slovak Republic to survive as a modern state that was initi all y questioned both dipl o matica ll y and publicl y at the beg innin g of its ex istence. Neve rtheless, the se nsiti ve reader may also find so me sub-themes and situation s described in the book that require furth er di scuss ion or a better nu anced approach (for example, so me aspects of the iss ues of ethnic minorities, the political culture and so on). Henderson 's footnotes and bibliography illustrate that the author used a wide variety of sources, from skeptical critics to pass ion ate apologists of Slovak hi story. She tried to steer a middle co urse between them and used books and schol arl y articles , as well as documents of Slovak academi c institution s and reports of non-governmental organi zation s as her principal sources . She also used re levant documents and reports iss ued by international or supran ational organization s regardin g Slovaki a ' s developme nt and progress (The World Bank, NATO, The European Union , etc.). O verall , Henderson did a good job. In my opinion Henderson ' s book successfull y refl ec ts a positive shi ft in the perception of Slovakia from the outside, and in bringing a pos itive picture to larger audi ences. In the last fe w decades Slovak society has been portrayed by both academi cs and public ists selecti vely and negati ve ly, large ly due to extern a l factors th at affec ted Slovak hi story. From now on , the question of whether the positi ve image of the country will be sustained will depend upon Slovaki a's willingness and capability to remain on track and avoid any detours from its democratic deve lopment. SLOVAKIA 165 The Slovak Republic: A Decade of Independence (I 993-2002). Edited by M. Mark Stolarik. Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy -Carducci Publi shers, 2004, xiv-168 pp. tables, charts, graphs, notes, map, index. CAROL SKALNIK LEFF University of Illinois, Urbana-Champai gn Durin g the interwar Czechoslovak Re public, several volumes were published employing a format that could be described as " progress reports," in which responsible government officials of the time outlined the state of the field in key iss ue areas. This current volume, desc ribed as Slovakia's " first ' white paper, "' performs much the same function for the first decade of the independent state. In many cases, the " ten years after" vantage point is rather artificial , but in this case it is especially appropriate and the findin gs will have more than transitory value, because this is a decade framed by the successful passage from nascent state to me mbership in the European Union and NATO. Scholars interested in Slovakia' s " rehabilitation" from seco nd tier to new EU member will find thi s decade of continuin g relevance. And if there is an occasional celebratory note in the di scussion, it is understandabl e in the context of the decade ' s achievement of European integration. M . Mark Stolarik, who in his function as Chairholder in Slovak Hi story and Culture at the University of Ottawa, also co-organized the conference on which the published work is based, provides introductory thumbnail sketches of the arguments in eac h of the main contributions, and annotations of the text on politics, to clarify and update the discussion. The core articles that follow, dealing successively with politi cs, economic s, soc ial policy , culture and international relations, are the presentations of Rudolf Schuster, Slovakia' s first elected pres ident, and e ight high-rankin g and quite prominent Slovak government officials, cabinet ministers and state secretaries. Each contribution rece ives a response from the North American side, SLOVAKIA 166 ei the r from Canadian offic ia ls who have worked o n -and who disc uss--cooperati ve projects with Slovakia, or from a scho lar specia li zi ng in Slovakia. In addition to the detailed po li cy overviews discussed below, I fo und two addit io na l pieces particularly interesting: the exc ha nge o n c ultural po li cy be twee n th e n- Culture Mini ster Mil an Kn azko and Martin Votruba, director of the Slovak Studies program at the University of Pittsburg h and the di sc uss ion of hum an ri ghts and ethni c re lation s by Pa l Csaky, an important Slovak Hun garia n po liti cian and Deputy Prime Minister, and Paul Magocs i of the University of Toronto, whose experti se o n the minoriti es of the reg ion in fo rmed hi s ge nera li zed critique of th e Jacobin-inspired view of state hi story through the prism of the dom in ant nati o na lity in many European countries . The compe ndium is sketchi est on the politics, devoting suffic ient time for orientation but no in-de pth a na lys is, which in thi s case makes sense in severa l ways, not least because the po liti cs of transiti o n has alread y been ex haustive ly ana lyzed in ex istin g sc ho larl y work. The iss ue areas covered are a no ther matter. Muc h less informati o n cover in g po lic y is readily ava il abl e in existing work , so thi s is exceedin g ly useful gro und to cover. Most chapters are e nri c hed with some unex pected inform ation a l treas ures, since the poli cy profil es are de ta il ed and spec ific rathe r th an vag ue or genera li zed , and the re are a multitude of useful tabl es and charts that e ncode co mparati ve and tim e series data on fo re ig n debt a nd in vestme nt , e mpl oy me nt , mino rity ed ucation , li fe expectancy and so o n. While not inte nded as a reference work, the anth o logy the refore atta in s so methin g of th at status; o nce read, it can be sto red to hand for speci fi c refere nce on a range of subjects. Our library doesn ' t have thi s book yet, but it soon wi ll. SLOVAKIA 167 Thomas J. Shelley , Slovak s on the Hudson: Most Holy Trinity Church , Yonkers, & Th e Slovak Catholics of the Archdiocese of New York, 1894 -2000. Washin gton , D.C. : The Catholic University of America Press, 2002. xv-273pp., maps, illustrati o ns, bibliography , index. DANIEL F. T ANZONE Passaic, New Jersey Slovaks on the Hudson, by the noted church hi storian Thomas J. Shelley, adds an important chapter to the hi story of the American Catholic Church. While the city of Yonkers, New York, with a population of just under 200,000 cannot be compared with the metropoli ses of Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland or Pittsburgh, it is, in fact , a microcosm of bi g city Catholicism. The city's nineteen Catholic parishe s, including tho se serving the Slovak s, Italian s, Hun garia ns and most recently the Portugese, along with two of the Byza ntine rite , contributed to the gro wth of Catholic life in the community. Catholics would soo n become major players in the city 's soc ial , educational, cultural and political life. While thi s book tell s the story of Slovak settlement in the river town of Yonke rs startin g in the l 880's, it also presents a picture of the city's political establi shment and its reaction to the grow in g immigrant population. Most of these newcomers hailed from the Catholic nation s of central and southern Europe. Slovaks, along with other Slavic peoples, found work in the city's vast mill structure, and had the opportunity to make a new life for themselves and their families. While the local " Nativi sts" often resented and mi sunderstood these immigrants and their ways, the WASP establishment gradually accepted them into the fabric of c ity life. Indeed , by 1903 a Slovak immigrant was elected to Yonkers city govern ment. Like other immigrant gro ups, the Slovaks clung to their language and faith tradition s. First they esta bli shed loca l fraternal -benefit 168 SLOVAKIA societies, which became affiliated with the national bodies in the 1890's. Yonkers had the first women 's lodge in New York State ( 1892), which became branch 2 of the First Catholic Slovak Ladies ' Association. Its other Slovak fraternals gave birth to Most Holy Trinity Church, which traced its roots to 1891 when laymen petitioned the local bishop for permission to establish a pari sh. The local parish church was very important to the laity, both as a place of worship and as a social gathering place. The parishioners married and raised their children in the shadow of the church steeple in the Hollow section of Yonkers. Most Holy Trinity afforded its people the opportunity to pass on the language, culture and traditions of their ancestral homeland. The clergy and religious, especially the sisters of Cyril and Methodius , who staffed the parish school, taught the children the Slovak language and traditions . Slovaks on the Hudson never forgot the plight of their brethren along the Danube, Yah, Hron and Torysa rivers. Indeed, the clergy and leaders of the Yonkers community played an important ro le in the establishment of Czecho-Slovakia following the col lapse of the Dual Monarchy of A ustria-Hungary . One of the pastors of Most Holy Trinity was actually offered a cabinet post in the newly-established Czecho-Slovakia in 1919. Throughout the long winter of communist domination of their ancestral homeland, the Slovaks of Yonkers never gave up hope of seeing their countrymen freed from this alien ideology and they rejoiced when Slovakia achieved its independence on January I, 1993. Thomas J. Shelley has provided the reader with a wonderful opportunity to view the life of the Slovak immigrant community within the context of big city li fe. It is a fascinating story, warts and all, of the Church in America. It is al so an important contribution to American history because the Slovaks are rapidly assimilating and moving to the suburbs while Yonkers is receiving ever more and newer immigrants. It is a welcome addition to the story of so many American ethnic groups who make up o ur ever-expanding multicultural society. SLOVAKIA 169 June Granatir Alexander, Ethnic Pride, American Patriotism: Slovaks and Other Immigrants in the lnterwar Era. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004, xiv-278 p.p., illustrations, notes, index. M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa The purpose of this book is to explore group-generated activities among Slovak-Americans in the inter-war period of American history and to see if such activities fit into recent "whiteness" studies by professional American historians. Alexander' s theme is that in the 1920's and 1930's both first and second-generation American Slovaks "were haunted by the stigma of inferiority inflicted by American society." (P.12). They sought to overcome this stigma by purchasing Liberty Bonds during the Great War and War Bonds during the Second World War. Meanwhile, they engaged in patriotic marches, carrying both the American and Slovak flags in the two wars, they staged large "S lovak Days" in the I 920's and 1930's in order to show off their ethnicity while stressing their Americanness and they openly supported FDR's New Deal legislation in order to help their pioneers and their fraternal-benefit societies to survive the ravages of the Great Depression. In order to prove her thesis Alexander dug deeply into both archival and printed sources. She studied the records of several large fraternal-benefit societies, the correspondence of their officers, and a wide range of Slovak-American newspapers. She also read widely in American history. Alexander concluded that Slovak-American identity did not arise from their growing "whiteness" in a racist American society, as some American historians had postulated of other ethnic groups, but rather from their nationality (ethnicity). Indeed, she also saw no generational or even class cleavage among American Slovaks, who perceived of themselves as overwhelmingly "working class" and united in their 170 SLOVAKIA efforts to win acceptance as one of the " newcomer" peoples to the United States. Al exander's book will , no doubt, win many acco lades from those profess ional A meri can hi stori ans who write hi story fo r themselves. She is very much a part of the so-call ed "di scourse" school whi ch uses social hi story in order to probe into questi ons of " whiteness," class, identity, celebrations, ass imilati on and so on. These hi stori ans deri ve great pleasure in proving or dispro ving eac h other 's theori es and show in g off their erudition . By so doin g, however, th ey c ut them selves off from the general public , which is hun gry for tradi tional , narrati ve, hi story . As a result, a second group of hi stori ans fill s thi s public hunger, and they are contemptu ously di smi ssed as " popul ar" hi stori ans by the academi cs mention ed above. On the other hand , the " popul ar" hi stori ans sell hundreds of thou sand s of copies of the ir books while the academic histori ans are delighted if they can sell a thou sand. While several hundred uni versity libraries will , no doubt, purchase a copy of thi s book, I have a feeling th at the Slovak-American community will hardl y notice it, whi ch is a pity.  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. 38 (No. 70-71) Description An account of the resource includes:<br /><ul><li>Peter Žeňuch, Medzi východom a západom: Byzantsko-slovanská tradícia, kultúra a jazyk na východnom Slovensku (Robert A. Orr), p. 149</li> <li>Marián Kronský, The Struggle for Slovakia and the Treaty of Trianon 1918-1920 (Gregory C. Ference), p. 152</li> <li>Jozef Nálepka, ed., Ini o kapitánovi Jánovi Nálepkovi (Vladimír Baumgarten), p. 154</li> <li>Zoltan G. Meško, The Silent Conspiracy: A Communist Model of Political Cleansing at the Slovak University in Bratislava after the Second World War (L.P. Hinterbuchner), p. 157</li> <li>Mária Dziaková-Böhmová, Michal Kriško and Bernarda Jenčíková-Fabrici, eds., Duša na dlani: Spomienky od Košíc do New Yorku (M. Mark Stolarik), p. 159</li> <li>Karen Hendrson, Slovakia: The Escape from Invisibility (Juraj Hocman), p. 162</li> <li>M. Mark Stolarik, ed., The Slovak Republic: A Decade of Independence (1993-2002) (Carol Skalnik Leff), p. 165</li> <li>Thomas J. Shelley, Slovaks on the Hudson: Most Holy Trinity Church, Yonkers, &amp; The Slovak Catholics of the Archdiocese of New York, 1894-2000 (Daniel F. Tanzone), p. 167</li> <li>June Granatir Alexander, Ethnic Pride, American Patriotism: Slovaks and Other Immigrants in the Interwar Era (M. Mark Stolarik), p. 169</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Baumgarten, R. Vladimir Ference, Gregory Curtis, 1957- Hinterbuchner, L. P., 1922-2009 Hocman, Juraj Leff, Carol Skalnik, 1947- Orr, Robert, 1957- Stolarik, M. Mark, 1943- Tanzone, Daniel F. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005 LCNAF name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/a274d5d6aa7367cd3ddb2e5703fa8992.pdf 6b45fe4cee5511188e2c849bd33571f7 PDF Text Text 36 SLOVAKIA SLOVAK PARTISAN COMMANDERS IN WORLD WAR TI: THE CASE OF JOSEF TROJAN R. Vladimir Baumgarten The Slovak resistance movement, which opposed the Nazis and the Government of the Slovak Repub lic in World War II, was sharply divided into two different and, oftentimes, conflicting orientations. One of them was both pro-Western and pro-Czech. Its adherents were most strongly represented by officers of the Slovak Army. In February of 1944 a group of four dissident lieutenant colonels Jan Golian, Mikulas Ferjencfk, Mirko Yesel and Dezider Kiss-Kalina-established contact with the Czechoslovak Government-in-Ex ile in London. Go lian was designated by the London government to head the uprising, which eventually took place in Aug ust of that year. These officers were unashamed to announce that they wanted a restoration of Czechoslovakia as it had been before the Munich accord of 1938. 1 It never occurred to them that, perhaps many Slovaks were fighting for something different - not the least of which was their recognition as a disti nct nation . The Communists, who represented the other orientation, had taken thi s difference into account. The Slovak Communist Party began its own resistance after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Initiall y, it did not favor the restoration of Czechoslovakia. Although opposed to the Nazis and the domestic regime of priest-president Jozef Tiso, the Communists were inclined toward s either a separate Slovak state or the incorporation of Slovakia as a republic of the Soviet Union. 2 Thi s position changed after the London government concluded a treaty of alliance with the Soviet Union 1 Mikulas Ferjencfk, "The Slovak ational Uprising and Mission to the USS R," in Lewis M. White, ed. , On All Fronts: Czechoslovaks in World War II Part II (Washington and New York, 1995), p.231. 2 Gustav Hu sak, "O vyvoji a situac ii na Slovensku" Svedectvi XV (58 ), I 979, pp. 377-378. �SLOVAKIA 37 late in 1943. 3 The Soviet Union favored the restoration of Czechoslovakia, a position that the Slovak Communists now had to take into acco unt. Henceforth the Communists, who made up half of the membership of the underground Slovak National Council, did likewise. It was intended, however, that the mistakes of the past would be avoided , and that Slovakia would play a greater role in the resur4 rected Czechoslovak state. By thi s time the Communists had assumed a predominant role in another resistance element which had begun to emerge. Since 1942, political di ssidents, military deserters, Jews fearing deportation, and escaped prisoners-of-war from France, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia had taken refuge in the mountains of Slovakia. They formed the first parti san units in the country. By late summer of 1944 they were reinforced by Soviet partisans parachuted into the country. The latter, consisting of hardened veterans of the war on the Eastern Front, brought the war home to Slovakia. Their activities encouraged German military intervention in the country, causing the Slovak National Upri sing to be launched under premature circumstances .5 3 For detailed descriptions of the Soviet-Czechoslovak agreeme nt, see Edvard Benes, Memoirs (London, I 954 ), pp. I 68- I 96 and Edward Taborsky, President Edward Benes Between &1st and West 1938-/948 (Stanford , I98 I), pp. 159- 174. 4 "The Christmas Agreement of 1943 ," in Joseph Mikus, Slovakia: A Political History 19 18- 1955 (Mil waukee, 1963), Appendi x VI, pp.346-347. 5 These Soviet partisans were commanded by Captain Pyotr Alexeyevitch Yelitchko. They commenced blowing up tun ne ls and bridges, and massac ring members of the German ethnic community in the minin g tow ns of ce ntral Slovaki a. Their ac ti vity culmin ated in the massacre o f members of a German military mi ss ion pass ing throu gh the country. Thi s military miss ion was ori ginally dispatched to Romani a to keep the latter in the war on the Axi s side. Since the Antonesc u regime had been overthrow n, its efforts were futile. As the German military mission passed through Slovakia, its members were intercepted in the vicinity of Turciansky Svaty Martin by Ye litchko's partisans, disg uised as Slovak soldiers. They convinced the Germans th at a bridge further ahead had been destroyed, and that they sho uld be escorted to the barracks for their own protection. It was Ye litchko 's intention that the Germans should be disarmed at the barrac ks and then sent to Partisan Headquarters in Kiev; if this fa iled , they would be exec uted. Lieutenant Colone l Emj l Perko, garrison commander at Turciansky Svaty Martin and a member of the Slovak National Council , feared for the li ves of the members of this German mili tary mission. He was inclined to treat them as guests until the Military Center in Banska Bystrica took them off his hand s. But Perk o's subordin ate, Li eutenant Cyril Ku chta, was more inc lined to �38 SLOVAKIA Throughout the course of the 1944 uprisi ng , relations between the Army and the partisans were oftentimes strai ned. To coordinate military action between the two bodies, a War Council was established. Yet the War Council became meaningless when individual partisan commanders either acted according to their own will or on orders from Partisan Headquarters in Kiev . Initiall y, the partisans were commanded by the Slovak Communist Karo l Smidke; later, the command passed to Soviet Colonel Aleksei N. Asmolov. A comparison of photographs taken of Asmolov is revealing. He arrived in Slovakia as a clean-cut regular Soviet officer; he soon grew a beard and wore a fur cap. Asmolov advised the Slovak military to adapt to the partisan method of warfare. In practice, this would involve breaking down units into smaller size, where they could be absorbed and taken over by the Communists. Relations between the military and the partisans became so tense that, during one meeting of the War Council, Golian (by now promoted to brigadier-general by the London government) referred to the partisans as "Enemy No. I ."6 A fact which is oftentimes overlooked is that not all partisans were Communists . This holds true for three particularly significant commanders: Jan Nalepka, Viliam Zingor and Josef Trojan. The fates of these individuals and the manner in which postwar jurisprudence and historiography came to grips with them merits study. The case of Trojan is particularly interesting for a number of reasons and, therefore, merits special attention. Josef Trojan was of Czech origin. He was born on March 28 , 1906, in Horni Hermanice, in Moravia. The son of a farmer, Trojan married Stanislava Novakova, who bore him three sons and two daughters. One of the daughters, Zdenka Trojanova (194 7-), eventually became a scientist of some di stinction. Trojan's formal education was limited. He attended grade school and agricultural high school in his native village, The latter provided him with enough expertise to work as administrator of the monastery estates in Nova Rise (19261931). Thereafter he was employed by the Bata shoe works, which transferred him to Slovakia. Trojan served as manager in Zlfn (1931follow Yelitchko's orders, and Kuchta was the officer in charge on the fateful ni ght of August 27-28. For an account of what fo llowed, see Jozef Jablonicky, Po vstanie bez Jegiend (Bratislava, 1990), pp.170-173. 6 Ferjenc(k, p.229. �SLOVAKIA 39 1932), Trebic (1932-1934 ), Hostavice (I 934-1938), Os Iany and Simovany during the war years. The Bata shoe works can justifiably boast of having been one of the finest Industries of the First Czechoslovak Republic . Interwar Czechoslovakia had no shortage of flaws, not the least of which was an official denial of Slovak nationality. But the state was sociall y progressive. Although decidedly anti-Bolshevik, the government of the First Republic was by no means hostile to organized labor. Tomas Bata, founder of the shoe works, was a self-made man who appears to have believed that wealth has a certain social function . The workers of the Bata industry enjoyed a comprehensive profit sharing plan, and lower level management was elective. The corporation was considered a model for progressive capitalism in the years between the two world wars. In his capacity as a manager, Trojan brought a number of Czechs into Slovakia. These naturally supported the Slovak National Uprisi ng, which offered a prelude to the liberation of their own nation . They enjoyed a certain liberty to join the Slovak insurgents that their kin in the "Reichsprotectorat" of Bohemia and Moravia were denied : not only were the latter subject to execution by the Nazis if they were caught attempting to cross over, but their families were jeopardized as hostages as well. 7 Trojan began his participation in the uprising as part of partisan group Pavel, which was headquartered in the rebel center of Banska Bystrica. Initially, the command center focused on the north, encouraging partisan activity at Zarnovice, on the Polish border, and even di spatching partisans across the border to establish contact with the Polish resistance. 8 But the situation in the south attained a certain precedence. The significance of this area during the uprisi ng should not be underestimated. Elsewhere in Slovakia, where insurgents had to give up ground, they had mountain ranges to fall back upon, which shielded the central core around Banska Bystrica. The open valleys of the southern lowlands, by contrast, offered a soft underbelly favoring the German advance. A certain amount of local sympathy 7 Karol Fremal , "The Czechs in the Resistance Movement in Slovakia", in Jan Stanislav, et. al. , We Were Not Alone (Banska Bystrica), 1994), pp.21-23 . 8 Documents pertaining to the command structure of Partisan Group Pavel. Archfv Muzea SNP,Fond IV , prir. cfs: 49/76. Pages are unnumbered. �40 SLOVAKIA also favored the Germans. In the so uthwest, an ominous new front was opened by the actions of SS Regiment Schill. Its bloodless takeover of the Nitra garrison, which numbered 2,000, was a major blow to the insurgent cause. The garrison commander, Major Smigovsky, was also a friend of the Schill commander, Obersturmfiihrer Klotz, having served with the latter on the Eastern Front. Henceforth Nitra became a supply center for the Nazi advance on Banska Bystrica. SS Regiment Schill became the most outstanding German military unit in Slovakia, ultimately capturing Banska Bystrica. It was composed largely of noncommissioned officer candidates, and had been assembled within 24 hours among Germans in the Reichsprotectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. These yo un g men were conesquently highly motivated.9 The command of partisan group Pavel di spatched Trojan southward to organize a new partisan detachment in the upper Nitra valley. He commanded approximately 150 men . 10 Troj an made contact with some of hi s Czech associates, and also recruited shoe workers of Batbvany, in southwestern Slovakia. On several occasions the Nitra Brigade held up the drive of SS Regiment Schil l in its advance towards Banska Bystrica. Colonel Ferjencfk, one of the military leaders of the upri sing, later noted that, after the fal l of Turciansky Svaty Martin around September 20, most active cooperation between the partisans and the regular military was terminated. An exception was provided by Trojan's group. 11 Enjoying the benefits of a more enlightened variety of capitalism before the war, these shoe workers were immune to Communi st attempts to recruit them. Although Trojan was not a Communist, he was not adverse to recruiting partisans of Communist or leftist sy mpathies. This particularly held true of a group of Bulgarian exchange students residing in Slovakia. Throughout the interwar period, many Balkan students of 9 Anonymous, "The Waffen SS and the Crushing of the Slovak Military Mutiny" Siegrunen: The Waffen SS in Historical Perspective Volume 5, No.6, undated, pp. 29-30 . Contributors to thi s journal consist large ly of the sons of Waffen SS officers who draw extensively from fam il y papers. 10 Document pertai ning to the history of Partisan Group Pavel , with spec ific reference to Captain Trojan and the struggle in the upper Nitra va lley . Archfv Muzea SNP, Fond IV, prir. cfs: 5 26/75, p.22. 11 Ferjencik, p.228. �SLOVAKIA 41 the mundane sciences (medicine, engineering, etc.) went for their education to the more advanced universities in Czechoslovakia. Most of them studied in Prague or Brno, in the Czech lands. In November 1939, the Nazi rulers of the Reichsprotectorate of Bohemia and Moravia shut down the Czech universities following a student protest. Most of the Bulgarians consequently transferred to Slovak (previously Comenius) Uni ve rsity in Bratislava. At the beginning of the 1940s, their numbers were estimated as between 500 and 600. 12 The life of the average Slovak university student at this time was anything but luxurious, and the Bulgarians received negligible stipends and lived in substandard housing. There was an officially sanctioned Bulgarian student society named after Georgii Rakovski , one of the national awakeners of the nineteenth century. It was nationalist and right-wing in political orientation. Yet a number of students organized their own underground association called B.O.N.S.S. (Bulharsky vseobecny narodny zvaz). Their acknowleged leader was Stojan Panov Stojanov, a student of mechanical engineering. At the time of the outbreak of the Slovak National Uprising, Bulgaria changed sides in the wake of the advance of the Soviet military. Even after the German capture of Banska Bystrica (October 27), many of the Bulgarians in Slovakia were willing to support the struggle. The bulk of these Bulgarians, under the leadership of Stojanov, was received into the Nitra Brigade on December 20. Unfortunately , the Nitra Brigade was in a particularly exposed position. Most partisan units had fallen back into the Tatras, where the terrain made their elimination by the German military more difficult than those fighting further to the south. The Nitra Brigade operated in an area where the Hron River valley stood just above the lowlands. On February 13-14, 1945, the Germans struck a decisive blow against the Nitra Brigade in the vicinity of the village of Orovnice. Stojanov and most of his followers were killed. Ten of them were captured and dispatched to Nazi concentration camps. Two among this group survived Dachau , but were too physically debilitated to last long afterwards. Two other Bulgarians man aged to escape the massac re 12 V. Valev , "Bulharskf vysokoskolaci na Slovensku", p.4 and Valerian Bys tricky, "Bulhari v SNP", p. l in Archfv Muzea SNP,Fond IV , prir. cfs: 29/71. Hereafter articles and documents from this collection shall be referred to as SNP Muzeum archives/Bulgarian collecti on. �42 SLOVAKIA and joined the advancing Red Army, although both were killed in action before the end of the war. 13 Josef Trojan had particularly sentimental feelings for these Bulgarian students. It was in thi s spirit that, on February 7, 1946, he submitted a literary contribution entitled "S lavonic Peace." He stresssed the Pan-Slav nature of the struggle, and praised the Red Army. 14 Yet Trojan had a falling out with the incoming Communist government. It was perhaps less a matter of opposition to the government than it was his previous track record, plus the political atmosphere prevailing in Czechoslovakia at this time. At this point the leadership of the Czechoslovak Communist Party requires mention. The chairman of the party was Klement Gottwald, who had spent the war years in Moscow. Those Communists who had done so generally served as wi lling executors of Soviet policy. Yet others had spent the war years in prison or had served in the resistance movements in their native countries. Although they too wished to construct socialism, they wished to do so according to conditions in their native lands. Following Yugoslavia's split with the Kremlin in June ofl 948, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered a massive purge of these nationali st elements throughout East Central Europe. Zionism was now targeted as an enemy ideology as well. Although both the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia had endorsed the creation of Israel , when the British began to depart from Palestine, the Soviets began courting the Arabs. Moreover, Stalin had always held a personal distrust of Jews since the time of his conflict with the so-called "Old Bolsheviks," many of whom were Jewish. This realignment was particularly felt in Czechoslovakia, where many of the Jews who had survived the holocaust of World War II joined the Communist Party. The Secretary General of the Party, Rudolf Stansky , was himself Jewish, although he had never considered himself a Jew or a Czech or anything other than a Communist. He had also spent the war years in the Soviet Union. As the Czechoslovak Communi st Party took on an increasingly militant approach to domestic 13 List of Bulgarians killed in Slovakia 1944-45 , in SNP Muzeum arch ives/Bulgarian collection, pp.1-2. 14 Jozef Trojan , "S lovansky mier" (February 7, I946), in SNP Muzeum archives/Bulgarian collection, p.5. �SLOVAKIA 43 affairs, Slansky ordered a wholesale inqui sition against suspected di ssidents. He created a machine of police terror which ultimately destroyed him as well. As those who were arrested were tortured to name other"conspirators," Slanskfs name became prominent. In the subsequent purge which followed , thousand s of innocent lives were destroyed. 15 Josef Trojan was arrested in Prague on the night of December 22, 1949 on the personal orders of Rudolf Slansky. He was charged with having collaborated with the Gestapo. Although Slansky was himself swept away not long afterwards, the machinery of repression had already been set in motion. Among its victims were Gustav Husak and other Slovak Communi st leaders of the 1944 upri sing, who received long terms of impri sonment. Even the death of Stalin early in 1953 did not halt the trend . Trojan was hanged on December 29th of that year. 16 A comparison of the fate of Trojan with those of the other two previously mentioned commanders reveal s a marked contrast, and more than just a few ironies. Jan Nalepka, unlike Trojan, was an intellectual. A poet and a teacher, he was noted for a mischievous disposition as a youth , and he retained hi s precociousness after having entered teachers' college in 1931. A conference of young teac hers in Komorna Lhotka (July 1933) was addressed by Czechoslovak president T . G. Masary k. The latter viewed the educational system as a means of molding young Slovaks into a "Czechoslovak" spirit. But, Nalepka whispered to hi s friend Vladimir Clementis that Slovak students were capable of cultivating their own spirits. 17 Clementis eventually became Czechoslovakia's foreign minister, and likew ise went to the gallows as a result of the "S lansky Affair." Nalepka was a lefti st, but also a nation alist. In February 1939, he began organizing clandestine elements against the governing Slovak People's Party-one month before the latter ass umed the leadership of 15 For the most comprehensive study of what has come to be known as the "Shi nsky Affair," see Jiri Pelikan, ed., The Czechoslovak Political Trials 1950-/ 954. The Suppressed Report of the Dubcek Government 's Commission of Inquiry, 1968 (London, 197 I). 16 Jozef Jablonicky, "Krute osudy ," in Vladimir Babni c, ed. , Na se povstanie (Banska Bystrica, I999), p. I00. 17 Jozef Nalepka, ed. , Jni kapit:foovi J:inovi N:ilepkovi (Spisska Nova Yes, 2002), p.28. �44 SLOVAKIA a se parate Slovak state. Yet the events of March 1939 inc luded a Hungari an invasion of eastern Slovakia. Called up fo r military service, Nalepka participated willingly in the brief border war. He saw no contradiction between thi s action and hi s ow n ideals. Later that year, Slovakia's military alliance with Nazi Germany dictated participati on in the Polish campaign. Nalepka, by then a lieutenant, fou ght with distinction on the northern side of the Carpathi ans. He was decorated by General Ferdinand Catlos, Slovakia's Minister of Defense. The war against Soviet Russia proved more problematic fo r Slovak soldiers. Slovaki a had territori al grievances with Hungary and Poland , but none with the Russians. Nalepka was ass igned to the soca ll ed "Security" Di visio n, whi ch was di spatched to the Pripet Marshes in northern Ukra ine and Be laru s fo r police duties against Soviet partisa ns. 18 He entered into c landes tine co ntact with these parti sans and eventu ally deserted to them, taking hi s men with him. The nature of parti san warfare in the swamps dictated th at Nalepka frequently travelled on horsebac k, carrying an automati c weapon. A photograph of this legend ary pose later inspired a plastic equestri an sc ulpture of him by Slovak sc ulptor Ann a Ki sakova . Nalepka's acti vity also contributed to hi s demj se. He was blled in an encounter with a German patro l outside the vill age of Ovruc on the ni ght of November 17, 1943. Co nsequentl y, Na lepka was un available to partic ipate in the Slovak National Uprising. But hi s survi ving comrades named their parti san brigade after him . The Captain Jan Nalepka Brigade was later parac huted back into Slovak ia to participate in the upri sing. Compared with other units which the Soviets ex ported, and which 18 Sold iers of the Security Division became, by Nazi standards, tota ll y corrupted by fra terni zation with local Ukrainians. Sov iet mili tary mobilization in the early part of the war had carried many yo un g men away. Others were forc ibly recruited by the Germans for labor services in th e Re ich. G ive n a shortage of domestic manpower, Ukra inian wome n rece ived th e Slovak sold iers willingly, if not enthusias ti call y. There was widespread venereal di sease among the Slovaks. Civilian hunger prompted a brisk trade in an exc lusive ly fe male commodity fo r rati ons, to the particul ar profit of Slovak warrant officers in charge of stores. As ide fro m all that, boredom drove many sold iers to alcohol ism. Slovak officers were re luctant to bring charges on such misdemeanors and began covering the m up, because men on punishment were removed from their co mmand without replacement. See Mark W. A. Axworthy, Axis Slovakia: Hitler's Slavic Wedge 1938- 1945 (Bays ide, New York, 2002), p. 148. �SLOVAKIA 45 largely engaged in looting, the Nalepka Brigade conducted itself in an exemplary manner. Together with the 2nd Czechoslovak Paratroopers, it shares credit for the capture of the strategic village of Jalna in the Hron River valley on October 10-12, 1944. This action was the last victory of the insurgents in Slovakia during the up• 19 n• smg. Nalepka died at a convenient time, which enabled him to become a legend in the postwar Communist era. Hi s peasant parents were received with honor in the Soviet Union at memorial services dedicated to the captain. His popularity survived the collapse of the Communist system in East Central Europe. Streets in various Slovak communities are still named after him. Being an established folk hero has its privileges. Viliam Zingor, like Nalepka, was an army deserter. Called up for service on the Eastern Front, he instead took to the mountains in the vicinity of Turciansky Svaty Martin. He was the brother of a nationally renowned hunter. Bohus Zingor was well known among forest rangers, a fact which was of considerable help to his fugitive brother. When Viliam Zingor took to hiding on the Podstranie Mountain, he was befriended and sheltered by forest ranger Ladislav Frimmel. The Zingor brothers and Frimmel organized a network to aid other fugitives. A significant member of this group was Vladimir Iershov, a Slovak professor of Ru ssian extraction. Iershov's area of specialty was escaped Soviet prisoners of war who had made their way to the Slovak highlands. These included people of Russian , Ukrainian, Georgian and Armenian nationalities.2° They played a key role in the overall partisan movement during the events of autumn 1944. By March of 1944, Viliam Zingor commanded a significant number of partisans in the vicinity of the Podstranie Mountain. In August, membership was estimated at roughly 100 men. Later that month the group was reinforced by Soviet partisans commanded by Captain Pyotr Alekseyevitch Velitchko, who had parachuted into 19 Ibid, p.292. Prior to the collapse of the Soviet Un ion, participants in the Slovak National Uprising from the various republics were acknow ledged and honored simply as citizens of the Soviet Union. At the time of the 60th anniversary in Hanska Bystrica, a number of ambassadors of now sovereign republics participated in the celebrations. The participation of their citizens was duly acknow ledged by the Muzeum SNP, leading to a dramatic increase of nations listed as having contributed to the uprising. 20 �46 SLOVAKIA Slovakia. On August 25 - four days before the formal commencement of the upri sing - Zingor was made commander of the M. R. Stefanik Brigade. This partisan brigade was named after the Slovak member of the founding fathers of Czechoslovakia, who held the rank of brigadier-general in the army of France during the First World War. It was so named in part because of a large number of French members. Earlier in the war, French soldiers who had escaped from prisoner of war camps in Germany made their way eastward. It was their intention to reac h neutral Turkey , from whence they could board ships and make their way back to the Allied side. Most of these Frenchmen were recaptured or interned in either Slovakia or Hungary. The Slovak underground arranged their escape and transfer to the mountains around Turciansky Svaty Martin , where they were absorbed into the partisan movement. These Frenchmen enjoyed a certain independence of command under Lieutenant Georges Barazar de Lannurien. During the opening weeks of the uprising, they halted the German advance in the vicinity of Strecno. 21 Viliam Zingor supported the Democratic Party of Jozef Lettrich (a member of the Slovak National Council during the upri sing) in the years immediately following the war. Consequently, he opposed the incoming Communist government. Mutual antagonism intensified after the Communists consolidated power in February of 1948 . By now the state had recourse against Zingor. It alleged that he and several wartime associates had established a subversive organization. This body was said to be inspired by the "Anglo-American imperialists," now enemies of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia's protector. Zingor and his associates were accused of agitating among the trade union s. It was further alleged that they had disbursed various funds for this purpose. They were put on trial on October 12-2 1, 1950, 21 For an English-language acco unt of the French participation in Slovakia, see Bohus Chnoupek, A Breaking of Seals: The French Resistance in Slovakia (Oxford and New York, 1988). Chnoupek was a Slovak journalist who first publicized the French role at the time of the tenth anniversary of the upri sing. Later, he became Czechoslovakia's foreign minister under the Husak regime. For the most comprehensive work on the subject, see Dusan Halaj et. al., Francuzi v Slovenskom narodnom povstanf (Banska Bystrica, 2003). �SLOVAKIA 47 were found guilty, and were sentenced to death .22 Zingor was executed the following year. Viliam Zingor's rehabilitation came about as a result of the democratic reforms temporarily effected in Czechoslovakia in 1968. At the beginning of that year Slovak Communist Party leader Alexander Dubcek assumed the leadership of the Czechoslovak Communist Party . The way was paved for the redress of many outstanding grievances. Relatives of the defendants in the Zingor trial maintained that allegations concerning the disbursement of funds for illegal purposes were the invention of "agents provocateurs" in the service of State Security. It may be argued that the reviewing court was more generous than just in its evaluation. The hostility of the defendants to the Communist regime was an unquestionable fact. Yet, insofar as no network of conspiratorial activity actually existed, the district court of Banska Bystrica formally overturned the verdicts on April 29, 1968. 23 Czechoslovakia's democratic reforms , popularly known as the "Prague Spring," were abruptly terminated in August of that year. The Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries invaded and occupied Czechoslovakia. Within a year Dubcek was forced out of his position as Party Secretary and replaced by Gustav Husak. A one-time Slovak nationalist and former political prisoner, Husak now acknowledged Soviet hegemony as an unavoidable fact and urged his countrymen to do likewise. He thus became the enforcer of Soviet policy in that hapless land . But the status of the Slovaks underwent a revision formally acting in their favor . Czechoslovakia was federalized into two republics - one Czech and the other Slovak although both were subject to a common Communi st Party . Most significantly, the official attitude towards the Slovak Nation al Upri22 Copies of documents pertainin g to both the prosecution of and the verdi ct on the state's case against Zingor may be found in the archives of the Museum of the Slovak National Uprising in Banska Bystrica. For the prosecution , see Odpi s zaloby rok 1950 in Archfv Muzea SNP, Fond IV , prir. cfs: 576/9 1, pp. 1-20. For the verdict , see Rozsudok rok 1950, Archiv Muzea SNP, Fond IV, prir. cfs : 575/96, pp. I - 15. 23 Documents pertaining to th e review of the case of the state versus Z ingor and associates may be found in the archives of the Museum of the Slovak National Uprising in Banska Bystri ca. For the formal verdict, see Rozsudok rok 1968 in Archfv Muzea SNP, Fond IV, prir. cfs: 5 76/9 1, pp.1 -33 . For the rehabilitati on, see Uznesenie rok 1968 in Archfv Muzea SN P, Fond IV, prir. cfs : 5 76/91 , pp. 1- 10. �48 SLOVAKIA sing changed. Previously vilified, it was now hailed as a cornerstone in relations between the two nationalities. Consequently, Zingor's rehabilitation was permitted to stand, and he began receiving honorable mention in officially sanctioned historical publications. The fact that he had aided escaped Soviet P.O.W.S made him less than objectionable to Czechoslovakia's overlords. Josef Trojan had to wai t another generation before receiving honorable mention in Slovak history books. Ironically, his memory is treated more charitably by Slovak historians such as Jozef Jablonicky than it is among his own Czech people. Trojan's case was reviewed following the collapse of the Communist system in the Velvet Revolution of autumn 1989. He was exonerated on the charge of having collaborated with the Gestapo, and his death penalty was overturned. But a conviction and prison sentence remained in force on the grounds that Trojan "organized murder," in this case hav ing executed members of his own partisan unit. Trojan 's case raises an interesting legal question. Under common maritime law, a captain on an isolated ship has virtually unlimited authority to execute insubordinates. To what extent does this apply to a partisan commander in an insurgent situation, in a country where the successor government disavows the sovereignty of the previous one? Czech historian Jan Rychlik has asserted that, according to a law promulgated on May 8, 1946, acts committed between September 30, 1938 and October 28,1945, which normally would be considered crimes, were not punishable if they contributed to the liberation of the Czech and Slovak peoples. Internal military ordinances permitted the commander to use force (including the use of firearms) under field conditions in which subordinate soldiers refu sed to fulfill orders. The question of the application of these legal norms, however, remained contingent upon the decision of an individual court. 24 A Slovak partisan who knew Trojan both before and after the war concurs with the revised verdict. Jan Kulhan began the war as a Slovak soldier di spatched to the Eastern Front. Like many others, he changed sides, becoming a member of the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps commanded by General Ludvik Svoboda. He was di spatched 24 Law of May 8, 1946 (No. 11 5/ 1946) from Collection of Laws, Official Law Gazette. Information provided by Jan Rychlfk, to whom the present author expresses his gratitude. �SLOVAKIA 49 ahead of the front on a mission to destroy German-held oil wells in southern Poland. Kulhan's recollection of Trojan remains a lively and coherent one. According to Kulhan , Trojan actually joined the Communist Party after the war. At this time he was noted as a stern manager, going so far as to insist that employees show up for work. Kulhan asserted that the charge of having collaborated with the Gestapo was a fabrication. Trojan's honeymoon with the Czechoslovak Communist Party was a brief one, and his disillusionment placed him on a collision course. Kulhan also conceded that, given his professional background, Trojan's partisans were perhaps the best shod in the Slovak National Uprising. But several friends of Kulhan's sister were among the partisans who were executed. Kulhan maintain s that Trojan acted wrongfully in this matter. 25 At the time of the writing of this essay, the Czech judicial system maintains an enigmatic silence concerning Trojan, although his case is again open for review. Meanwhile, Slovak historians and octogenarian veterans of World War II alike look forward to the rehabilitation of a man who, although born a Czech , enjoys a certain reputation as a Slovak hero. Yet, judging from the opinion of Kulhan , not all octogenarians agree. It remains for the Czech judicial system to give a complete account of the execution of partisans by Trojan, and the state's case against him. 25 Telephone interview with John Kulhan, August I0 , 2005. Mr. Kulhan is today a U.S. citizen and is currently a nominee fo r the Pres identi al Medal of Freedom. � 36 SLOVAKIA SLOVAK PARTISAN COMMANDERS IN WORLD WAR TI: THE CASE OF JOSEF TROJAN R. Vladimir Baumgarten The Slovak resistance movement, which opposed the Nazis and the Government of the Slovak Repub lic in World War II, was sharply divided into two different and, oftentimes, conflicting orientations. One of them was both pro-Western and pro-Czech. Its adherents were most strongly represented by officers of the Slovak Army. In February of 1944 a group of four dissident lieutenant colonels Jan Golian, Mikulas Ferjencfk, Mirko Yesel and Dezider Kiss-Kalina-established contact with the Czechoslovak Government-in-Ex ile in London. Go lian was designated by the London government to head the uprising, which eventually took place in Aug ust of that year. These officers were unashamed to announce that they wanted a restoration of Czechoslovakia as it had been before the Munich accord of 1938. 1 It never occurred to them that, perhaps many Slovaks were fighting for something different - not the least of which was their recognition as a disti nct nation . The Communists, who represented the other orientation, had taken thi s difference into account. The Slovak Communist Party began its own resistance after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Initiall y, it did not favor the restoration of Czechoslovakia. Although opposed to the Nazis and the domestic regime of priest-president Jozef Tiso, the Communists were inclined toward s either a separate Slovak state or the incorporation of Slovakia as a republic of the Soviet Union. 2 Thi s position changed after the London government concluded a treaty of alliance with the Soviet Union 1 Mikulas Ferjencfk, "The Slovak ational Uprising and Mission to the USS R," in Lewis M. White, ed. , On All Fronts: Czechoslovaks in World War II Part II (Washington and New York, 1995), p.231. 2 Gustav Hu sak, "O vyvoji a situac ii na Slovensku" Svedectvi XV (58 ), I 979, pp. 377-378. �SLOVAKIA 37 late in 1943. 3 The Soviet Union favored the restoration of Czechoslovakia, a position that the Slovak Communists now had to take into acco unt. Henceforth the Communists, who made up half of the membership of the underground Slovak National Council, did likewise. It was intended, however, that the mistakes of the past would be avoided , and that Slovakia would play a greater role in the resur4 rected Czechoslovak state. By thi s time the Communists had assumed a predominant role in another resistance element which had begun to emerge. Since 1942, political di ssidents, military deserters, Jews fearing deportation, and escaped prisoners-of-war from France, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia had taken refuge in the mountains of Slovakia. They formed the first parti san units in the country. By late summer of 1944 they were reinforced by Soviet partisans parachuted into the country. The latter, consisting of hardened veterans of the war on the Eastern Front, brought the war home to Slovakia. Their activities encouraged German military intervention in the country, causing the Slovak National Upri sing to be launched under premature circumstances .5 3 For detailed descriptions of the Soviet-Czechoslovak agreeme nt, see Edvard Benes, Memoirs (London, I 954 ), pp. I 68- I 96 and Edward Taborsky, President Edward Benes Between &1st and West 1938-/948 (Stanford , I98 I), pp. 159- 174. 4 "The Christmas Agreement of 1943 ," in Joseph Mikus, Slovakia: A Political History 19 18- 1955 (Mil waukee, 1963), Appendi x VI, pp.346-347. 5 These Soviet partisans were commanded by Captain Pyotr Alexeyevitch Yelitchko. They commenced blowing up tun ne ls and bridges, and massac ring members of the German ethnic community in the minin g tow ns of ce ntral Slovaki a. Their ac ti vity culmin ated in the massacre o f members of a German military mi ss ion pass ing throu gh the country. Thi s military miss ion was ori ginally dispatched to Romani a to keep the latter in the war on the Axi s side. Since the Antonesc u regime had been overthrow n, its efforts were futile. As the German military mission passed through Slovakia, its members were intercepted in the vicinity of Turciansky Svaty Martin by Ye litchko's partisans, disg uised as Slovak soldiers. They convinced the Germans th at a bridge further ahead had been destroyed, and that they sho uld be escorted to the barracks for their own protection. It was Ye litchko 's intention that the Germans should be disarmed at the barrac ks and then sent to Partisan Headquarters in Kiev; if this fa iled , they would be exec uted. Lieutenant Colone l Emj l Perko, garrison commander at Turciansky Svaty Martin and a member of the Slovak National Council , feared for the li ves of the members of this German mili tary mission. He was inclined to treat them as guests until the Military Center in Banska Bystrica took them off his hand s. But Perk o's subordin ate, Li eutenant Cyril Ku chta, was more inc lined to �38 SLOVAKIA Throughout the course of the 1944 uprisi ng , relations between the Army and the partisans were oftentimes strai ned. To coordinate military action between the two bodies, a War Council was established. Yet the War Council became meaningless when individual partisan commanders either acted according to their own will or on orders from Partisan Headquarters in Kiev . Initiall y, the partisans were commanded by the Slovak Communist Karo l Smidke; later, the command passed to Soviet Colonel Aleksei N. Asmolov. A comparison of photographs taken of Asmolov is revealing. He arrived in Slovakia as a clean-cut regular Soviet officer; he soon grew a beard and wore a fur cap. Asmolov advised the Slovak military to adapt to the partisan method of warfare. In practice, this would involve breaking down units into smaller size, where they could be absorbed and taken over by the Communists. Relations between the military and the partisans became so tense that, during one meeting of the War Council, Golian (by now promoted to brigadier-general by the London government) referred to the partisans as "Enemy No. I ."6 A fact which is oftentimes overlooked is that not all partisans were Communists . This holds true for three particularly significant commanders: Jan Nalepka, Viliam Zingor and Josef Trojan. The fates of these individuals and the manner in which postwar jurisprudence and historiography came to grips with them merits study. The case of Trojan is particularly interesting for a number of reasons and, therefore, merits special attention. Josef Trojan was of Czech origin. He was born on March 28 , 1906, in Horni Hermanice, in Moravia. The son of a farmer, Trojan married Stanislava Novakova, who bore him three sons and two daughters. One of the daughters, Zdenka Trojanova (194 7-), eventually became a scientist of some di stinction. Trojan's formal education was limited. He attended grade school and agricultural high school in his native village, The latter provided him with enough expertise to work as administrator of the monastery estates in Nova Rise (19261931). Thereafter he was employed by the Bata shoe works, which transferred him to Slovakia. Trojan served as manager in Zlfn (1931follow Yelitchko's orders, and Kuchta was the officer in charge on the fateful ni ght of August 27-28. For an account of what fo llowed, see Jozef Jablonicky, Po vstanie bez Jegiend (Bratislava, 1990), pp.170-173. 6 Ferjenc(k, p.229. �SLOVAKIA 39 1932), Trebic (1932-1934 ), Hostavice (I 934-1938), Os Iany and Simovany during the war years. The Bata shoe works can justifiably boast of having been one of the finest Industries of the First Czechoslovak Republic . Interwar Czechoslovakia had no shortage of flaws, not the least of which was an official denial of Slovak nationality. But the state was sociall y progressive. Although decidedly anti-Bolshevik, the government of the First Republic was by no means hostile to organized labor. Tomas Bata, founder of the shoe works, was a self-made man who appears to have believed that wealth has a certain social function . The workers of the Bata industry enjoyed a comprehensive profit sharing plan, and lower level management was elective. The corporation was considered a model for progressive capitalism in the years between the two world wars. In his capacity as a manager, Trojan brought a number of Czechs into Slovakia. These naturally supported the Slovak National Uprisi ng, which offered a prelude to the liberation of their own nation . They enjoyed a certain liberty to join the Slovak insurgents that their kin in the "Reichsprotectorat" of Bohemia and Moravia were denied : not only were the latter subject to execution by the Nazis if they were caught attempting to cross over, but their families were jeopardized as hostages as well. 7 Trojan began his participation in the uprising as part of partisan group Pavel, which was headquartered in the rebel center of Banska Bystrica. Initially, the command center focused on the north, encouraging partisan activity at Zarnovice, on the Polish border, and even di spatching partisans across the border to establish contact with the Polish resistance. 8 But the situation in the south attained a certain precedence. The significance of this area during the uprisi ng should not be underestimated. Elsewhere in Slovakia, where insurgents had to give up ground, they had mountain ranges to fall back upon, which shielded the central core around Banska Bystrica. The open valleys of the southern lowlands, by contrast, offered a soft underbelly favoring the German advance. A certain amount of local sympathy 7 Karol Fremal , "The Czechs in the Resistance Movement in Slovakia", in Jan Stanislav, et. al. , We Were Not Alone (Banska Bystrica), 1994), pp.21-23 . 8 Documents pertaining to the command structure of Partisan Group Pavel. Archfv Muzea SNP,Fond IV , prir. cfs: 49/76. Pages are unnumbered. �40 SLOVAKIA also favored the Germans. In the so uthwest, an ominous new front was opened by the actions of SS Regiment Schill. Its bloodless takeover of the Nitra garrison, which numbered 2,000, was a major blow to the insurgent cause. The garrison commander, Major Smigovsky, was also a friend of the Schill commander, Obersturmfiihrer Klotz, having served with the latter on the Eastern Front. Henceforth Nitra became a supply center for the Nazi advance on Banska Bystrica. SS Regiment Schill became the most outstanding German military unit in Slovakia, ultimately capturing Banska Bystrica. It was composed largely of noncommissioned officer candidates, and had been assembled within 24 hours among Germans in the Reichsprotectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. These yo un g men were conesquently highly motivated.9 The command of partisan group Pavel di spatched Trojan southward to organize a new partisan detachment in the upper Nitra valley. He commanded approximately 150 men . 10 Troj an made contact with some of hi s Czech associates, and also recruited shoe workers of Batbvany, in southwestern Slovakia. On several occasions the Nitra Brigade held up the drive of SS Regiment Schil l in its advance towards Banska Bystrica. Colonel Ferjencfk, one of the military leaders of the upri sing, later noted that, after the fal l of Turciansky Svaty Martin around September 20, most active cooperation between the partisans and the regular military was terminated. An exception was provided by Trojan's group. 11 Enjoying the benefits of a more enlightened variety of capitalism before the war, these shoe workers were immune to Communi st attempts to recruit them. Although Trojan was not a Communist, he was not adverse to recruiting partisans of Communist or leftist sy mpathies. This particularly held true of a group of Bulgarian exchange students residing in Slovakia. Throughout the interwar period, many Balkan students of 9 Anonymous, "The Waffen SS and the Crushing of the Slovak Military Mutiny" Siegrunen: The Waffen SS in Historical Perspective Volume 5, No.6, undated, pp. 29-30 . Contributors to thi s journal consist large ly of the sons of Waffen SS officers who draw extensively from fam il y papers. 10 Document pertai ning to the history of Partisan Group Pavel , with spec ific reference to Captain Trojan and the struggle in the upper Nitra va lley . Archfv Muzea SNP, Fond IV, prir. cfs: 5 26/75, p.22. 11 Ferjencik, p.228. �SLOVAKIA 41 the mundane sciences (medicine, engineering, etc.) went for their education to the more advanced universities in Czechoslovakia. Most of them studied in Prague or Brno, in the Czech lands. In November 1939, the Nazi rulers of the Reichsprotectorate of Bohemia and Moravia shut down the Czech universities following a student protest. Most of the Bulgarians consequently transferred to Slovak (previously Comenius) Uni ve rsity in Bratislava. At the beginning of the 1940s, their numbers were estimated as between 500 and 600. 12 The life of the average Slovak university student at this time was anything but luxurious, and the Bulgarians received negligible stipends and lived in substandard housing. There was an officially sanctioned Bulgarian student society named after Georgii Rakovski , one of the national awakeners of the nineteenth century. It was nationalist and right-wing in political orientation. Yet a number of students organized their own underground association called B.O.N.S.S. (Bulharsky vseobecny narodny zvaz). Their acknowleged leader was Stojan Panov Stojanov, a student of mechanical engineering. At the time of the outbreak of the Slovak National Uprising, Bulgaria changed sides in the wake of the advance of the Soviet military. Even after the German capture of Banska Bystrica (October 27), many of the Bulgarians in Slovakia were willing to support the struggle. The bulk of these Bulgarians, under the leadership of Stojanov, was received into the Nitra Brigade on December 20. Unfortunately , the Nitra Brigade was in a particularly exposed position. Most partisan units had fallen back into the Tatras, where the terrain made their elimination by the German military more difficult than those fighting further to the south. The Nitra Brigade operated in an area where the Hron River valley stood just above the lowlands. On February 13-14, 1945, the Germans struck a decisive blow against the Nitra Brigade in the vicinity of the village of Orovnice. Stojanov and most of his followers were killed. Ten of them were captured and dispatched to Nazi concentration camps. Two among this group survived Dachau , but were too physically debilitated to last long afterwards. Two other Bulgarians man aged to escape the massac re 12 V. Valev , "Bulharskf vysokoskolaci na Slovensku", p.4 and Valerian Bys tricky, "Bulhari v SNP", p. l in Archfv Muzea SNP,Fond IV , prir. cfs: 29/71. Hereafter articles and documents from this collection shall be referred to as SNP Muzeum archives/Bulgarian collecti on. �42 SLOVAKIA and joined the advancing Red Army, although both were killed in action before the end of the war. 13 Josef Trojan had particularly sentimental feelings for these Bulgarian students. It was in thi s spirit that, on February 7, 1946, he submitted a literary contribution entitled "S lavonic Peace." He stresssed the Pan-Slav nature of the struggle, and praised the Red Army. 14 Yet Trojan had a falling out with the incoming Communist government. It was perhaps less a matter of opposition to the government than it was his previous track record, plus the political atmosphere prevailing in Czechoslovakia at this time. At this point the leadership of the Czechoslovak Communist Party requires mention. The chairman of the party was Klement Gottwald, who had spent the war years in Moscow. Those Communists who had done so generally served as wi lling executors of Soviet policy. Yet others had spent the war years in prison or had served in the resistance movements in their native countries. Although they too wished to construct socialism, they wished to do so according to conditions in their native lands. Following Yugoslavia's split with the Kremlin in June ofl 948, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered a massive purge of these nationali st elements throughout East Central Europe. Zionism was now targeted as an enemy ideology as well. Although both the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia had endorsed the creation of Israel , when the British began to depart from Palestine, the Soviets began courting the Arabs. Moreover, Stalin had always held a personal distrust of Jews since the time of his conflict with the so-called "Old Bolsheviks," many of whom were Jewish. This realignment was particularly felt in Czechoslovakia, where many of the Jews who had survived the holocaust of World War II joined the Communist Party. The Secretary General of the Party, Rudolf Stansky , was himself Jewish, although he had never considered himself a Jew or a Czech or anything other than a Communist. He had also spent the war years in the Soviet Union. As the Czechoslovak Communi st Party took on an increasingly militant approach to domestic 13 List of Bulgarians killed in Slovakia 1944-45 , in SNP Muzeum arch ives/Bulgarian collection, pp.1-2. 14 Jozef Trojan , "S lovansky mier" (February 7, I946), in SNP Muzeum archives/Bulgarian collection, p.5. �SLOVAKIA 43 affairs, Slansky ordered a wholesale inqui sition against suspected di ssidents. He created a machine of police terror which ultimately destroyed him as well. As those who were arrested were tortured to name other"conspirators," Slanskfs name became prominent. In the subsequent purge which followed , thousand s of innocent lives were destroyed. 15 Josef Trojan was arrested in Prague on the night of December 22, 1949 on the personal orders of Rudolf Slansky. He was charged with having collaborated with the Gestapo. Although Slansky was himself swept away not long afterwards, the machinery of repression had already been set in motion. Among its victims were Gustav Husak and other Slovak Communi st leaders of the 1944 upri sing, who received long terms of impri sonment. Even the death of Stalin early in 1953 did not halt the trend . Trojan was hanged on December 29th of that year. 16 A comparison of the fate of Trojan with those of the other two previously mentioned commanders reveal s a marked contrast, and more than just a few ironies. Jan Nalepka, unlike Trojan, was an intellectual. A poet and a teacher, he was noted for a mischievous disposition as a youth , and he retained hi s precociousness after having entered teachers' college in 1931. A conference of young teac hers in Komorna Lhotka (July 1933) was addressed by Czechoslovak president T . G. Masary k. The latter viewed the educational system as a means of molding young Slovaks into a "Czechoslovak" spirit. But, Nalepka whispered to hi s friend Vladimir Clementis that Slovak students were capable of cultivating their own spirits. 17 Clementis eventually became Czechoslovakia's foreign minister, and likew ise went to the gallows as a result of the "S lansky Affair." Nalepka was a lefti st, but also a nation alist. In February 1939, he began organizing clandestine elements against the governing Slovak People's Party-one month before the latter ass umed the leadership of 15 For the most comprehensive study of what has come to be known as the "Shi nsky Affair," see Jiri Pelikan, ed., The Czechoslovak Political Trials 1950-/ 954. The Suppressed Report of the Dubcek Government 's Commission of Inquiry, 1968 (London, 197 I). 16 Jozef Jablonicky, "Krute osudy ," in Vladimir Babni c, ed. , Na se povstanie (Banska Bystrica, I999), p. I00. 17 Jozef Nalepka, ed. , Jni kapit:foovi J:inovi N:ilepkovi (Spisska Nova Yes, 2002), p.28. �44 SLOVAKIA a se parate Slovak state. Yet the events of March 1939 inc luded a Hungari an invasion of eastern Slovakia. Called up fo r military service, Nalepka participated willingly in the brief border war. He saw no contradiction between thi s action and hi s ow n ideals. Later that year, Slovakia's military alliance with Nazi Germany dictated participati on in the Polish campaign. Nalepka, by then a lieutenant, fou ght with distinction on the northern side of the Carpathi ans. He was decorated by General Ferdinand Catlos, Slovakia's Minister of Defense. The war against Soviet Russia proved more problematic fo r Slovak soldiers. Slovaki a had territori al grievances with Hungary and Poland , but none with the Russians. Nalepka was ass igned to the soca ll ed "Security" Di visio n, whi ch was di spatched to the Pripet Marshes in northern Ukra ine and Be laru s fo r police duties against Soviet partisa ns. 18 He entered into c landes tine co ntact with these parti sans and eventu ally deserted to them, taking hi s men with him. The nature of parti san warfare in the swamps dictated th at Nalepka frequently travelled on horsebac k, carrying an automati c weapon. A photograph of this legend ary pose later inspired a plastic equestri an sc ulpture of him by Slovak sc ulptor Ann a Ki sakova . Nalepka's acti vity also contributed to hi s demj se. He was blled in an encounter with a German patro l outside the vill age of Ovruc on the ni ght of November 17, 1943. Co nsequentl y, Na lepka was un available to partic ipate in the Slovak National Uprising. But hi s survi ving comrades named their parti san brigade after him . The Captain Jan Nalepka Brigade was later parac huted back into Slovak ia to participate in the upri sing. Compared with other units which the Soviets ex ported, and which 18 Sold iers of the Security Division became, by Nazi standards, tota ll y corrupted by fra terni zation with local Ukrainians. Sov iet mili tary mobilization in the early part of the war had carried many yo un g men away. Others were forc ibly recruited by the Germans for labor services in th e Re ich. G ive n a shortage of domestic manpower, Ukra inian wome n rece ived th e Slovak sold iers willingly, if not enthusias ti call y. There was widespread venereal di sease among the Slovaks. Civilian hunger prompted a brisk trade in an exc lusive ly fe male commodity fo r rati ons, to the particul ar profit of Slovak warrant officers in charge of stores. As ide fro m all that, boredom drove many sold iers to alcohol ism. Slovak officers were re luctant to bring charges on such misdemeanors and began covering the m up, because men on punishment were removed from their co mmand without replacement. See Mark W. A. Axworthy, Axis Slovakia: Hitler's Slavic Wedge 1938- 1945 (Bays ide, New York, 2002), p. 148. �SLOVAKIA 45 largely engaged in looting, the Nalepka Brigade conducted itself in an exemplary manner. Together with the 2nd Czechoslovak Paratroopers, it shares credit for the capture of the strategic village of Jalna in the Hron River valley on October 10-12, 1944. This action was the last victory of the insurgents in Slovakia during the up• 19 n• smg. Nalepka died at a convenient time, which enabled him to become a legend in the postwar Communist era. Hi s peasant parents were received with honor in the Soviet Union at memorial services dedicated to the captain. His popularity survived the collapse of the Communist system in East Central Europe. Streets in various Slovak communities are still named after him. Being an established folk hero has its privileges. Viliam Zingor, like Nalepka, was an army deserter. Called up for service on the Eastern Front, he instead took to the mountains in the vicinity of Turciansky Svaty Martin. He was the brother of a nationally renowned hunter. Bohus Zingor was well known among forest rangers, a fact which was of considerable help to his fugitive brother. When Viliam Zingor took to hiding on the Podstranie Mountain, he was befriended and sheltered by forest ranger Ladislav Frimmel. The Zingor brothers and Frimmel organized a network to aid other fugitives. A significant member of this group was Vladimir Iershov, a Slovak professor of Ru ssian extraction. Iershov's area of specialty was escaped Soviet prisoners of war who had made their way to the Slovak highlands. These included people of Russian , Ukrainian, Georgian and Armenian nationalities.2° They played a key role in the overall partisan movement during the events of autumn 1944. By March of 1944, Viliam Zingor commanded a significant number of partisans in the vicinity of the Podstranie Mountain. In August, membership was estimated at roughly 100 men. Later that month the group was reinforced by Soviet partisans commanded by Captain Pyotr Alekseyevitch Velitchko, who had parachuted into 19 Ibid, p.292. Prior to the collapse of the Soviet Un ion, participants in the Slovak National Uprising from the various republics were acknow ledged and honored simply as citizens of the Soviet Union. At the time of the 60th anniversary in Hanska Bystrica, a number of ambassadors of now sovereign republics participated in the celebrations. The participation of their citizens was duly acknow ledged by the Muzeum SNP, leading to a dramatic increase of nations listed as having contributed to the uprising. 20 �46 SLOVAKIA Slovakia. On August 25 - four days before the formal commencement of the upri sing - Zingor was made commander of the M. R. Stefanik Brigade. This partisan brigade was named after the Slovak member of the founding fathers of Czechoslovakia, who held the rank of brigadier-general in the army of France during the First World War. It was so named in part because of a large number of French members. Earlier in the war, French soldiers who had escaped from prisoner of war camps in Germany made their way eastward. It was their intention to reac h neutral Turkey , from whence they could board ships and make their way back to the Allied side. Most of these Frenchmen were recaptured or interned in either Slovakia or Hungary. The Slovak underground arranged their escape and transfer to the mountains around Turciansky Svaty Martin , where they were absorbed into the partisan movement. These Frenchmen enjoyed a certain independence of command under Lieutenant Georges Barazar de Lannurien. During the opening weeks of the uprising, they halted the German advance in the vicinity of Strecno. 21 Viliam Zingor supported the Democratic Party of Jozef Lettrich (a member of the Slovak National Council during the upri sing) in the years immediately following the war. Consequently, he opposed the incoming Communist government. Mutual antagonism intensified after the Communists consolidated power in February of 1948 . By now the state had recourse against Zingor. It alleged that he and several wartime associates had established a subversive organization. This body was said to be inspired by the "Anglo-American imperialists," now enemies of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia's protector. Zingor and his associates were accused of agitating among the trade union s. It was further alleged that they had disbursed various funds for this purpose. They were put on trial on October 12-2 1, 1950, 21 For an English-language acco unt of the French participation in Slovakia, see Bohus Chnoupek, A Breaking of Seals: The French Resistance in Slovakia (Oxford and New York, 1988). Chnoupek was a Slovak journalist who first publicized the French role at the time of the tenth anniversary of the upri sing. Later, he became Czechoslovakia's foreign minister under the Husak regime. For the most comprehensive work on the subject, see Dusan Halaj et. al., Francuzi v Slovenskom narodnom povstanf (Banska Bystrica, 2003). �SLOVAKIA 47 were found guilty, and were sentenced to death .22 Zingor was executed the following year. Viliam Zingor's rehabilitation came about as a result of the democratic reforms temporarily effected in Czechoslovakia in 1968. At the beginning of that year Slovak Communist Party leader Alexander Dubcek assumed the leadership of the Czechoslovak Communist Party . The way was paved for the redress of many outstanding grievances. Relatives of the defendants in the Zingor trial maintained that allegations concerning the disbursement of funds for illegal purposes were the invention of "agents provocateurs" in the service of State Security. It may be argued that the reviewing court was more generous than just in its evaluation. The hostility of the defendants to the Communist regime was an unquestionable fact. Yet, insofar as no network of conspiratorial activity actually existed, the district court of Banska Bystrica formally overturned the verdicts on April 29, 1968. 23 Czechoslovakia's democratic reforms , popularly known as the "Prague Spring," were abruptly terminated in August of that year. The Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries invaded and occupied Czechoslovakia. Within a year Dubcek was forced out of his position as Party Secretary and replaced by Gustav Husak. A one-time Slovak nationalist and former political prisoner, Husak now acknowledged Soviet hegemony as an unavoidable fact and urged his countrymen to do likewise. He thus became the enforcer of Soviet policy in that hapless land . But the status of the Slovaks underwent a revision formally acting in their favor . Czechoslovakia was federalized into two republics - one Czech and the other Slovak although both were subject to a common Communi st Party . Most significantly, the official attitude towards the Slovak Nation al Upri22 Copies of documents pertainin g to both the prosecution of and the verdi ct on the state's case against Zingor may be found in the archives of the Museum of the Slovak National Uprising in Banska Bystrica. For the prosecution , see Odpi s zaloby rok 1950 in Archfv Muzea SNP, Fond IV , prir. cfs: 576/9 1, pp. 1-20. For the verdict , see Rozsudok rok 1950, Archiv Muzea SNP, Fond IV, prir. cfs : 575/96, pp. I - 15. 23 Documents pertaining to th e review of the case of the state versus Z ingor and associates may be found in the archives of the Museum of the Slovak National Uprising in Banska Bystri ca. For the formal verdict, see Rozsudok rok 1968 in Archfv Muzea SNP, Fond IV, prir. cfs: 5 76/9 1, pp.1 -33 . For the rehabilitati on, see Uznesenie rok 1968 in Archfv Muzea SN P, Fond IV, prir. cfs : 5 76/91 , pp. 1- 10. �48 SLOVAKIA sing changed. Previously vilified, it was now hailed as a cornerstone in relations between the two nationalities. Consequently, Zingor's rehabilitation was permitted to stand, and he began receiving honorable mention in officially sanctioned historical publications. The fact that he had aided escaped Soviet P.O.W.S made him less than objectionable to Czechoslovakia's overlords. Josef Trojan had to wai t another generation before receiving honorable mention in Slovak history books. Ironically, his memory is treated more charitably by Slovak historians such as Jozef Jablonicky than it is among his own Czech people. Trojan's case was reviewed following the collapse of the Communist system in the Velvet Revolution of autumn 1989. He was exonerated on the charge of having collaborated with the Gestapo, and his death penalty was overturned. But a conviction and prison sentence remained in force on the grounds that Trojan "organized murder," in this case hav ing executed members of his own partisan unit. Trojan 's case raises an interesting legal question. Under common maritime law, a captain on an isolated ship has virtually unlimited authority to execute insubordinates. To what extent does this apply to a partisan commander in an insurgent situation, in a country where the successor government disavows the sovereignty of the previous one? Czech historian Jan Rychlik has asserted that, according to a law promulgated on May 8, 1946, acts committed between September 30, 1938 and October 28,1945, which normally would be considered crimes, were not punishable if they contributed to the liberation of the Czech and Slovak peoples. Internal military ordinances permitted the commander to use force (including the use of firearms) under field conditions in which subordinate soldiers refu sed to fulfill orders. The question of the application of these legal norms, however, remained contingent upon the decision of an individual court. 24 A Slovak partisan who knew Trojan both before and after the war concurs with the revised verdict. Jan Kulhan began the war as a Slovak soldier di spatched to the Eastern Front. Like many others, he changed sides, becoming a member of the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps commanded by General Ludvik Svoboda. He was di spatched 24 Law of May 8, 1946 (No. 11 5/ 1946) from Collection of Laws, Official Law Gazette. Information provided by Jan Rychlfk, to whom the present author expresses his gratitude. �SLOVAKIA 49 ahead of the front on a mission to destroy German-held oil wells in southern Poland. Kulhan's recollection of Trojan remains a lively and coherent one. According to Kulhan , Trojan actually joined the Communist Party after the war. At this time he was noted as a stern manager, going so far as to insist that employees show up for work. Kulhan asserted that the charge of having collaborated with the Gestapo was a fabrication. Trojan's honeymoon with the Czechoslovak Communist Party was a brief one, and his disillusionment placed him on a collision course. Kulhan also conceded that, given his professional background, Trojan's partisans were perhaps the best shod in the Slovak National Uprising. But several friends of Kulhan's sister were among the partisans who were executed. Kulhan maintain s that Trojan acted wrongfully in this matter. 25 At the time of the writing of this essay, the Czech judicial system maintains an enigmatic silence concerning Trojan, although his case is again open for review. Meanwhile, Slovak historians and octogenarian veterans of World War II alike look forward to the rehabilitation of a man who, although born a Czech , enjoys a certain reputation as a Slovak hero. Yet, judging from the opinion of Kulhan , not all octogenarians agree. It remains for the Czech judicial system to give a complete account of the execution of partisans by Trojan, and the state's case against him. 25 Telephone interview with John Kulhan, August I0 , 2005. Mr. Kulhan is today a U.S. citizen and is currently a nominee fo r the Pres identi al Medal of Freedom. � 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 2007, Vol. 39 Description An account of the resource Vol. 39 (No. 72-73), 2007. 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 2007 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 36 SLOVAKIA SLOVAK PARTISAN COMMANDERS IN WORLD WAR TI: THE CASE OF JOSEF TROJAN R. Vladimir Baumgarten The Slovak resistance movement, which opposed the Nazis and the Government of the Slovak Repub lic in World War II, was sharply divided into two different and, oftentimes, conflicting orientations. One of them was both pro-Western and pro-Czech. Its adherents were most strongly represented by officers of the Slovak Army. In February of 1944 a group of four dissident lieutenant colonels Jan Golian, Mikulas Ferjencfk, Mirko Yesel and Dezider Kiss-Kalina-established contact with the Czechoslovak Government-in-Ex ile in London. Go lian was designated by the London government to head the uprising, which eventually took place in Aug ust of that year. These officers were unashamed to announce that they wanted a restoration of Czechoslovakia as it had been before the Munich accord of 1938. 1 It never occurred to them that, perhaps many Slovaks were fighting for something different - not the least of which was their recognition as a disti nct nation . The Communists, who represented the other orientation, had taken thi s difference into account. The Slovak Communist Party began its own resistance after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Initiall y, it did not favor the restoration of Czechoslovakia. Although opposed to the Nazis and the domestic regime of priest-president Jozef Tiso, the Communists were inclined toward s either a separate Slovak state or the incorporation of Slovakia as a republic of the Soviet Union. 2 Thi s position changed after the London government concluded a treaty of alliance with the Soviet Union 1 Mikulas Ferjencfk, "The Slovak ational Uprising and Mission to the USS R," in Lewis M. White, ed. , On All Fronts: Czechoslovaks in World War II Part II (Washington and New York, 1995), p.231. 2 Gustav Hu sak, "O vyvoji a situac ii na Slovensku" Svedectvi XV (58 ), I 979, pp. 377-378. SLOVAKIA 37 late in 1943. 3 The Soviet Union favored the restoration of Czechoslovakia, a position that the Slovak Communists now had to take into acco unt. Henceforth the Communists, who made up half of the membership of the underground Slovak National Council, did likewise. It was intended, however, that the mistakes of the past would be avoided , and that Slovakia would play a greater role in the resur4 rected Czechoslovak state. By thi s time the Communists had assumed a predominant role in another resistance element which had begun to emerge. Since 1942, political di ssidents, military deserters, Jews fearing deportation, and escaped prisoners-of-war from France, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia had taken refuge in the mountains of Slovakia. They formed the first parti san units in the country. By late summer of 1944 they were reinforced by Soviet partisans parachuted into the country. The latter, consisting of hardened veterans of the war on the Eastern Front, brought the war home to Slovakia. Their activities encouraged German military intervention in the country, causing the Slovak National Upri sing to be launched under premature circumstances .5 3 For detailed descriptions of the Soviet-Czechoslovak agreeme nt, see Edvard Benes, Memoirs (London, I 954 ), pp. I 68- I 96 and Edward Taborsky, President Edward Benes Between &1st and West 1938-/948 (Stanford , I98 I), pp. 159- 174. 4 "The Christmas Agreement of 1943 ," in Joseph Mikus, Slovakia: A Political History 19 18- 1955 (Mil waukee, 1963), Appendi x VI, pp.346-347. 5 These Soviet partisans were commanded by Captain Pyotr Alexeyevitch Yelitchko. They commenced blowing up tun ne ls and bridges, and massac ring members of the German ethnic community in the minin g tow ns of ce ntral Slovaki a. Their ac ti vity culmin ated in the massacre o f members of a German military mi ss ion pass ing throu gh the country. Thi s military miss ion was ori ginally dispatched to Romani a to keep the latter in the war on the Axi s side. Since the Antonesc u regime had been overthrow n, its efforts were futile. As the German military mission passed through Slovakia, its members were intercepted in the vicinity of Turciansky Svaty Martin by Ye litchko's partisans, disg uised as Slovak soldiers. They convinced the Germans th at a bridge further ahead had been destroyed, and that they sho uld be escorted to the barracks for their own protection. It was Ye litchko 's intention that the Germans should be disarmed at the barrac ks and then sent to Partisan Headquarters in Kiev; if this fa iled , they would be exec uted. Lieutenant Colone l Emj l Perko, garrison commander at Turciansky Svaty Martin and a member of the Slovak National Council , feared for the li ves of the members of this German mili tary mission. He was inclined to treat them as guests until the Military Center in Banska Bystrica took them off his hand s. But Perk o's subordin ate, Li eutenant Cyril Ku chta, was more inc lined to 38 SLOVAKIA Throughout the course of the 1944 uprisi ng , relations between the Army and the partisans were oftentimes strai ned. To coordinate military action between the two bodies, a War Council was established. Yet the War Council became meaningless when individual partisan commanders either acted according to their own will or on orders from Partisan Headquarters in Kiev . Initiall y, the partisans were commanded by the Slovak Communist Karo l Smidke; later, the command passed to Soviet Colonel Aleksei N. Asmolov. A comparison of photographs taken of Asmolov is revealing. He arrived in Slovakia as a clean-cut regular Soviet officer; he soon grew a beard and wore a fur cap. Asmolov advised the Slovak military to adapt to the partisan method of warfare. In practice, this would involve breaking down units into smaller size, where they could be absorbed and taken over by the Communists. Relations between the military and the partisans became so tense that, during one meeting of the War Council, Golian (by now promoted to brigadier-general by the London government) referred to the partisans as "Enemy No. I ."6 A fact which is oftentimes overlooked is that not all partisans were Communists . This holds true for three particularly significant commanders: Jan Nalepka, Viliam Zingor and Josef Trojan. The fates of these individuals and the manner in which postwar jurisprudence and historiography came to grips with them merits study. The case of Trojan is particularly interesting for a number of reasons and, therefore, merits special attention. Josef Trojan was of Czech origin. He was born on March 28 , 1906, in Horni Hermanice, in Moravia. The son of a farmer, Trojan married Stanislava Novakova, who bore him three sons and two daughters. One of the daughters, Zdenka Trojanova (194 7-), eventually became a scientist of some di stinction. Trojan's formal education was limited. He attended grade school and agricultural high school in his native village, The latter provided him with enough expertise to work as administrator of the monastery estates in Nova Rise (19261931). Thereafter he was employed by the Bata shoe works, which transferred him to Slovakia. Trojan served as manager in Zlfn (1931follow Yelitchko's orders, and Kuchta was the officer in charge on the fateful ni ght of August 27-28. For an account of what fo llowed, see Jozef Jablonicky, Po vstanie bez Jegiend (Bratislava, 1990), pp.170-173. 6 Ferjenc(k, p.229. SLOVAKIA 39 1932), Trebic (1932-1934 ), Hostavice (I 934-1938), Os Iany and Simovany during the war years. The Bata shoe works can justifiably boast of having been one of the finest Industries of the First Czechoslovak Republic . Interwar Czechoslovakia had no shortage of flaws, not the least of which was an official denial of Slovak nationality. But the state was sociall y progressive. Although decidedly anti-Bolshevik, the government of the First Republic was by no means hostile to organized labor. Tomas Bata, founder of the shoe works, was a self-made man who appears to have believed that wealth has a certain social function . The workers of the Bata industry enjoyed a comprehensive profit sharing plan, and lower level management was elective. The corporation was considered a model for progressive capitalism in the years between the two world wars. In his capacity as a manager, Trojan brought a number of Czechs into Slovakia. These naturally supported the Slovak National Uprisi ng, which offered a prelude to the liberation of their own nation . They enjoyed a certain liberty to join the Slovak insurgents that their kin in the "Reichsprotectorat" of Bohemia and Moravia were denied : not only were the latter subject to execution by the Nazis if they were caught attempting to cross over, but their families were jeopardized as hostages as well. 7 Trojan began his participation in the uprising as part of partisan group Pavel, which was headquartered in the rebel center of Banska Bystrica. Initially, the command center focused on the north, encouraging partisan activity at Zarnovice, on the Polish border, and even di spatching partisans across the border to establish contact with the Polish resistance. 8 But the situation in the south attained a certain precedence. The significance of this area during the uprisi ng should not be underestimated. Elsewhere in Slovakia, where insurgents had to give up ground, they had mountain ranges to fall back upon, which shielded the central core around Banska Bystrica. The open valleys of the southern lowlands, by contrast, offered a soft underbelly favoring the German advance. A certain amount of local sympathy 7 Karol Fremal , "The Czechs in the Resistance Movement in Slovakia", in Jan Stanislav, et. al. , We Were Not Alone (Banska Bystrica), 1994), pp.21-23 . 8 Documents pertaining to the command structure of Partisan Group Pavel. Archfv Muzea SNP,Fond IV , prir. cfs: 49/76. Pages are unnumbered. 40 SLOVAKIA also favored the Germans. In the so uthwest, an ominous new front was opened by the actions of SS Regiment Schill. Its bloodless takeover of the Nitra garrison, which numbered 2,000, was a major blow to the insurgent cause. The garrison commander, Major Smigovsky, was also a friend of the Schill commander, Obersturmfiihrer Klotz, having served with the latter on the Eastern Front. Henceforth Nitra became a supply center for the Nazi advance on Banska Bystrica. SS Regiment Schill became the most outstanding German military unit in Slovakia, ultimately capturing Banska Bystrica. It was composed largely of noncommissioned officer candidates, and had been assembled within 24 hours among Germans in the Reichsprotectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. These yo un g men were conesquently highly motivated.9 The command of partisan group Pavel di spatched Trojan southward to organize a new partisan detachment in the upper Nitra valley. He commanded approximately 150 men . 10 Troj an made contact with some of hi s Czech associates, and also recruited shoe workers of Batbvany, in southwestern Slovakia. On several occasions the Nitra Brigade held up the drive of SS Regiment Schil l in its advance towards Banska Bystrica. Colonel Ferjencfk, one of the military leaders of the upri sing, later noted that, after the fal l of Turciansky Svaty Martin around September 20, most active cooperation between the partisans and the regular military was terminated. An exception was provided by Trojan's group. 11 Enjoying the benefits of a more enlightened variety of capitalism before the war, these shoe workers were immune to Communi st attempts to recruit them. Although Trojan was not a Communist, he was not adverse to recruiting partisans of Communist or leftist sy mpathies. This particularly held true of a group of Bulgarian exchange students residing in Slovakia. Throughout the interwar period, many Balkan students of 9 Anonymous, "The Waffen SS and the Crushing of the Slovak Military Mutiny" Siegrunen: The Waffen SS in Historical Perspective Volume 5, No.6, undated, pp. 29-30 . Contributors to thi s journal consist large ly of the sons of Waffen SS officers who draw extensively from fam il y papers. 10 Document pertai ning to the history of Partisan Group Pavel , with spec ific reference to Captain Trojan and the struggle in the upper Nitra va lley . Archfv Muzea SNP, Fond IV, prir. cfs: 5 26/75, p.22. 11 Ferjencik, p.228. SLOVAKIA 41 the mundane sciences (medicine, engineering, etc.) went for their education to the more advanced universities in Czechoslovakia. Most of them studied in Prague or Brno, in the Czech lands. In November 1939, the Nazi rulers of the Reichsprotectorate of Bohemia and Moravia shut down the Czech universities following a student protest. Most of the Bulgarians consequently transferred to Slovak (previously Comenius) Uni ve rsity in Bratislava. At the beginning of the 1940s, their numbers were estimated as between 500 and 600. 12 The life of the average Slovak university student at this time was anything but luxurious, and the Bulgarians received negligible stipends and lived in substandard housing. There was an officially sanctioned Bulgarian student society named after Georgii Rakovski , one of the national awakeners of the nineteenth century. It was nationalist and right-wing in political orientation. Yet a number of students organized their own underground association called B.O.N.S.S. (Bulharsky vseobecny narodny zvaz). Their acknowleged leader was Stojan Panov Stojanov, a student of mechanical engineering. At the time of the outbreak of the Slovak National Uprising, Bulgaria changed sides in the wake of the advance of the Soviet military. Even after the German capture of Banska Bystrica (October 27), many of the Bulgarians in Slovakia were willing to support the struggle. The bulk of these Bulgarians, under the leadership of Stojanov, was received into the Nitra Brigade on December 20. Unfortunately , the Nitra Brigade was in a particularly exposed position. Most partisan units had fallen back into the Tatras, where the terrain made their elimination by the German military more difficult than those fighting further to the south. The Nitra Brigade operated in an area where the Hron River valley stood just above the lowlands. On February 13-14, 1945, the Germans struck a decisive blow against the Nitra Brigade in the vicinity of the village of Orovnice. Stojanov and most of his followers were killed. Ten of them were captured and dispatched to Nazi concentration camps. Two among this group survived Dachau , but were too physically debilitated to last long afterwards. Two other Bulgarians man aged to escape the massac re 12 V. Valev , "Bulharskf vysokoskolaci na Slovensku", p.4 and Valerian Bys tricky, "Bulhari v SNP", p. l in Archfv Muzea SNP,Fond IV , prir. cfs: 29/71. Hereafter articles and documents from this collection shall be referred to as SNP Muzeum archives/Bulgarian collecti on. 42 SLOVAKIA and joined the advancing Red Army, although both were killed in action before the end of the war. 13 Josef Trojan had particularly sentimental feelings for these Bulgarian students. It was in thi s spirit that, on February 7, 1946, he submitted a literary contribution entitled "S lavonic Peace." He stresssed the Pan-Slav nature of the struggle, and praised the Red Army. 14 Yet Trojan had a falling out with the incoming Communist government. It was perhaps less a matter of opposition to the government than it was his previous track record, plus the political atmosphere prevailing in Czechoslovakia at this time. At this point the leadership of the Czechoslovak Communist Party requires mention. The chairman of the party was Klement Gottwald, who had spent the war years in Moscow. Those Communists who had done so generally served as wi lling executors of Soviet policy. Yet others had spent the war years in prison or had served in the resistance movements in their native countries. Although they too wished to construct socialism, they wished to do so according to conditions in their native lands. Following Yugoslavia's split with the Kremlin in June ofl 948, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered a massive purge of these nationali st elements throughout East Central Europe. Zionism was now targeted as an enemy ideology as well. Although both the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia had endorsed the creation of Israel , when the British began to depart from Palestine, the Soviets began courting the Arabs. Moreover, Stalin had always held a personal distrust of Jews since the time of his conflict with the so-called "Old Bolsheviks," many of whom were Jewish. This realignment was particularly felt in Czechoslovakia, where many of the Jews who had survived the holocaust of World War II joined the Communist Party. The Secretary General of the Party, Rudolf Stansky , was himself Jewish, although he had never considered himself a Jew or a Czech or anything other than a Communist. He had also spent the war years in the Soviet Union. As the Czechoslovak Communi st Party took on an increasingly militant approach to domestic 13 List of Bulgarians killed in Slovakia 1944-45 , in SNP Muzeum arch ives/Bulgarian collection, pp.1-2. 14 Jozef Trojan , "S lovansky mier" (February 7, I946), in SNP Muzeum archives/Bulgarian collection, p.5. SLOVAKIA 43 affairs, Slansky ordered a wholesale inqui sition against suspected di ssidents. He created a machine of police terror which ultimately destroyed him as well. As those who were arrested were tortured to name other"conspirators," Slanskfs name became prominent. In the subsequent purge which followed , thousand s of innocent lives were destroyed. 15 Josef Trojan was arrested in Prague on the night of December 22, 1949 on the personal orders of Rudolf Slansky. He was charged with having collaborated with the Gestapo. Although Slansky was himself swept away not long afterwards, the machinery of repression had already been set in motion. Among its victims were Gustav Husak and other Slovak Communi st leaders of the 1944 upri sing, who received long terms of impri sonment. Even the death of Stalin early in 1953 did not halt the trend . Trojan was hanged on December 29th of that year. 16 A comparison of the fate of Trojan with those of the other two previously mentioned commanders reveal s a marked contrast, and more than just a few ironies. Jan Nalepka, unlike Trojan, was an intellectual. A poet and a teacher, he was noted for a mischievous disposition as a youth , and he retained hi s precociousness after having entered teachers' college in 1931. A conference of young teac hers in Komorna Lhotka (July 1933) was addressed by Czechoslovak president T . G. Masary k. The latter viewed the educational system as a means of molding young Slovaks into a "Czechoslovak" spirit. But, Nalepka whispered to hi s friend Vladimir Clementis that Slovak students were capable of cultivating their own spirits. 17 Clementis eventually became Czechoslovakia's foreign minister, and likew ise went to the gallows as a result of the "S lansky Affair." Nalepka was a lefti st, but also a nation alist. In February 1939, he began organizing clandestine elements against the governing Slovak People's Party-one month before the latter ass umed the leadership of 15 For the most comprehensive study of what has come to be known as the "Shi nsky Affair," see Jiri Pelikan, ed., The Czechoslovak Political Trials 1950-/ 954. The Suppressed Report of the Dubcek Government 's Commission of Inquiry, 1968 (London, 197 I). 16 Jozef Jablonicky, "Krute osudy ," in Vladimir Babni c, ed. , Na se povstanie (Banska Bystrica, I999), p. I00. 17 Jozef Nalepka, ed. , Jni kapit:foovi J:inovi N:ilepkovi (Spisska Nova Yes, 2002), p.28. 44 SLOVAKIA a se parate Slovak state. Yet the events of March 1939 inc luded a Hungari an invasion of eastern Slovakia. Called up fo r military service, Nalepka participated willingly in the brief border war. He saw no contradiction between thi s action and hi s ow n ideals. Later that year, Slovakia's military alliance with Nazi Germany dictated participati on in the Polish campaign. Nalepka, by then a lieutenant, fou ght with distinction on the northern side of the Carpathi ans. He was decorated by General Ferdinand Catlos, Slovakia's Minister of Defense. The war against Soviet Russia proved more problematic fo r Slovak soldiers. Slovaki a had territori al grievances with Hungary and Poland , but none with the Russians. Nalepka was ass igned to the soca ll ed "Security" Di visio n, whi ch was di spatched to the Pripet Marshes in northern Ukra ine and Be laru s fo r police duties against Soviet partisa ns. 18 He entered into c landes tine co ntact with these parti sans and eventu ally deserted to them, taking hi s men with him. The nature of parti san warfare in the swamps dictated th at Nalepka frequently travelled on horsebac k, carrying an automati c weapon. A photograph of this legend ary pose later inspired a plastic equestri an sc ulpture of him by Slovak sc ulptor Ann a Ki sakova . Nalepka's acti vity also contributed to hi s demj se. He was blled in an encounter with a German patro l outside the vill age of Ovruc on the ni ght of November 17, 1943. Co nsequentl y, Na lepka was un available to partic ipate in the Slovak National Uprising. But hi s survi ving comrades named their parti san brigade after him . The Captain Jan Nalepka Brigade was later parac huted back into Slovak ia to participate in the upri sing. Compared with other units which the Soviets ex ported, and which 18 Sold iers of the Security Division became, by Nazi standards, tota ll y corrupted by fra terni zation with local Ukrainians. Sov iet mili tary mobilization in the early part of the war had carried many yo un g men away. Others were forc ibly recruited by the Germans for labor services in th e Re ich. G ive n a shortage of domestic manpower, Ukra inian wome n rece ived th e Slovak sold iers willingly, if not enthusias ti call y. There was widespread venereal di sease among the Slovaks. Civilian hunger prompted a brisk trade in an exc lusive ly fe male commodity fo r rati ons, to the particul ar profit of Slovak warrant officers in charge of stores. As ide fro m all that, boredom drove many sold iers to alcohol ism. Slovak officers were re luctant to bring charges on such misdemeanors and began covering the m up, because men on punishment were removed from their co mmand without replacement. See Mark W. A. Axworthy, Axis Slovakia: Hitler's Slavic Wedge 1938- 1945 (Bays ide, New York, 2002), p. 148. SLOVAKIA 45 largely engaged in looting, the Nalepka Brigade conducted itself in an exemplary manner. Together with the 2nd Czechoslovak Paratroopers, it shares credit for the capture of the strategic village of Jalna in the Hron River valley on October 10-12, 1944. This action was the last victory of the insurgents in Slovakia during the up• 19 n• smg. Nalepka died at a convenient time, which enabled him to become a legend in the postwar Communist era. Hi s peasant parents were received with honor in the Soviet Union at memorial services dedicated to the captain. His popularity survived the collapse of the Communist system in East Central Europe. Streets in various Slovak communities are still named after him. Being an established folk hero has its privileges. Viliam Zingor, like Nalepka, was an army deserter. Called up for service on the Eastern Front, he instead took to the mountains in the vicinity of Turciansky Svaty Martin. He was the brother of a nationally renowned hunter. Bohus Zingor was well known among forest rangers, a fact which was of considerable help to his fugitive brother. When Viliam Zingor took to hiding on the Podstranie Mountain, he was befriended and sheltered by forest ranger Ladislav Frimmel. The Zingor brothers and Frimmel organized a network to aid other fugitives. A significant member of this group was Vladimir Iershov, a Slovak professor of Ru ssian extraction. Iershov's area of specialty was escaped Soviet prisoners of war who had made their way to the Slovak highlands. These included people of Russian , Ukrainian, Georgian and Armenian nationalities.2° They played a key role in the overall partisan movement during the events of autumn 1944. By March of 1944, Viliam Zingor commanded a significant number of partisans in the vicinity of the Podstranie Mountain. In August, membership was estimated at roughly 100 men. Later that month the group was reinforced by Soviet partisans commanded by Captain Pyotr Alekseyevitch Velitchko, who had parachuted into 19 Ibid, p.292. Prior to the collapse of the Soviet Un ion, participants in the Slovak National Uprising from the various republics were acknow ledged and honored simply as citizens of the Soviet Union. At the time of the 60th anniversary in Hanska Bystrica, a number of ambassadors of now sovereign republics participated in the celebrations. The participation of their citizens was duly acknow ledged by the Muzeum SNP, leading to a dramatic increase of nations listed as having contributed to the uprising. 20 46 SLOVAKIA Slovakia. On August 25 - four days before the formal commencement of the upri sing - Zingor was made commander of the M. R. Stefanik Brigade. This partisan brigade was named after the Slovak member of the founding fathers of Czechoslovakia, who held the rank of brigadier-general in the army of France during the First World War. It was so named in part because of a large number of French members. Earlier in the war, French soldiers who had escaped from prisoner of war camps in Germany made their way eastward. It was their intention to reac h neutral Turkey , from whence they could board ships and make their way back to the Allied side. Most of these Frenchmen were recaptured or interned in either Slovakia or Hungary. The Slovak underground arranged their escape and transfer to the mountains around Turciansky Svaty Martin , where they were absorbed into the partisan movement. These Frenchmen enjoyed a certain independence of command under Lieutenant Georges Barazar de Lannurien. During the opening weeks of the uprising, they halted the German advance in the vicinity of Strecno. 21 Viliam Zingor supported the Democratic Party of Jozef Lettrich (a member of the Slovak National Council during the upri sing) in the years immediately following the war. Consequently, he opposed the incoming Communist government. Mutual antagonism intensified after the Communists consolidated power in February of 1948 . By now the state had recourse against Zingor. It alleged that he and several wartime associates had established a subversive organization. This body was said to be inspired by the "Anglo-American imperialists," now enemies of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia's protector. Zingor and his associates were accused of agitating among the trade union s. It was further alleged that they had disbursed various funds for this purpose. They were put on trial on October 12-2 1, 1950, 21 For an English-language acco unt of the French participation in Slovakia, see Bohus Chnoupek, A Breaking of Seals: The French Resistance in Slovakia (Oxford and New York, 1988). Chnoupek was a Slovak journalist who first publicized the French role at the time of the tenth anniversary of the upri sing. Later, he became Czechoslovakia's foreign minister under the Husak regime. For the most comprehensive work on the subject, see Dusan Halaj et. al., Francuzi v Slovenskom narodnom povstanf (Banska Bystrica, 2003). SLOVAKIA 47 were found guilty, and were sentenced to death .22 Zingor was executed the following year. Viliam Zingor's rehabilitation came about as a result of the democratic reforms temporarily effected in Czechoslovakia in 1968. At the beginning of that year Slovak Communist Party leader Alexander Dubcek assumed the leadership of the Czechoslovak Communist Party . The way was paved for the redress of many outstanding grievances. Relatives of the defendants in the Zingor trial maintained that allegations concerning the disbursement of funds for illegal purposes were the invention of "agents provocateurs" in the service of State Security. It may be argued that the reviewing court was more generous than just in its evaluation. The hostility of the defendants to the Communist regime was an unquestionable fact. Yet, insofar as no network of conspiratorial activity actually existed, the district court of Banska Bystrica formally overturned the verdicts on April 29, 1968. 23 Czechoslovakia's democratic reforms , popularly known as the "Prague Spring," were abruptly terminated in August of that year. The Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries invaded and occupied Czechoslovakia. Within a year Dubcek was forced out of his position as Party Secretary and replaced by Gustav Husak. A one-time Slovak nationalist and former political prisoner, Husak now acknowledged Soviet hegemony as an unavoidable fact and urged his countrymen to do likewise. He thus became the enforcer of Soviet policy in that hapless land . But the status of the Slovaks underwent a revision formally acting in their favor . Czechoslovakia was federalized into two republics - one Czech and the other Slovak although both were subject to a common Communi st Party . Most significantly, the official attitude towards the Slovak Nation al Upri22 Copies of documents pertainin g to both the prosecution of and the verdi ct on the state's case against Zingor may be found in the archives of the Museum of the Slovak National Uprising in Banska Bystrica. For the prosecution , see Odpi s zaloby rok 1950 in Archfv Muzea SNP, Fond IV , prir. cfs: 576/9 1, pp. 1-20. For the verdict , see Rozsudok rok 1950, Archiv Muzea SNP, Fond IV, prir. cfs : 575/96, pp. I - 15. 23 Documents pertaining to th e review of the case of the state versus Z ingor and associates may be found in the archives of the Museum of the Slovak National Uprising in Banska Bystri ca. For the formal verdict, see Rozsudok rok 1968 in Archfv Muzea SNP, Fond IV, prir. cfs: 5 76/9 1, pp.1 -33 . For the rehabilitati on, see Uznesenie rok 1968 in Archfv Muzea SN P, Fond IV, prir. cfs : 5 76/91 , pp. 1- 10. 48 SLOVAKIA sing changed. Previously vilified, it was now hailed as a cornerstone in relations between the two nationalities. Consequently, Zingor's rehabilitation was permitted to stand, and he began receiving honorable mention in officially sanctioned historical publications. The fact that he had aided escaped Soviet P.O.W.S made him less than objectionable to Czechoslovakia's overlords. Josef Trojan had to wai t another generation before receiving honorable mention in Slovak history books. Ironically, his memory is treated more charitably by Slovak historians such as Jozef Jablonicky than it is among his own Czech people. Trojan's case was reviewed following the collapse of the Communist system in the Velvet Revolution of autumn 1989. He was exonerated on the charge of having collaborated with the Gestapo, and his death penalty was overturned. But a conviction and prison sentence remained in force on the grounds that Trojan "organized murder," in this case hav ing executed members of his own partisan unit. Trojan 's case raises an interesting legal question. Under common maritime law, a captain on an isolated ship has virtually unlimited authority to execute insubordinates. To what extent does this apply to a partisan commander in an insurgent situation, in a country where the successor government disavows the sovereignty of the previous one? Czech historian Jan Rychlik has asserted that, according to a law promulgated on May 8, 1946, acts committed between September 30, 1938 and October 28,1945, which normally would be considered crimes, were not punishable if they contributed to the liberation of the Czech and Slovak peoples. Internal military ordinances permitted the commander to use force (including the use of firearms) under field conditions in which subordinate soldiers refu sed to fulfill orders. The question of the application of these legal norms, however, remained contingent upon the decision of an individual court. 24 A Slovak partisan who knew Trojan both before and after the war concurs with the revised verdict. Jan Kulhan began the war as a Slovak soldier di spatched to the Eastern Front. Like many others, he changed sides, becoming a member of the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps commanded by General Ludvik Svoboda. He was di spatched 24 Law of May 8, 1946 (No. 11 5/ 1946) from Collection of Laws, Official Law Gazette. Information provided by Jan Rychlfk, to whom the present author expresses his gratitude. SLOVAKIA 49 ahead of the front on a mission to destroy German-held oil wells in southern Poland. Kulhan's recollection of Trojan remains a lively and coherent one. According to Kulhan , Trojan actually joined the Communist Party after the war. At this time he was noted as a stern manager, going so far as to insist that employees show up for work. Kulhan asserted that the charge of having collaborated with the Gestapo was a fabrication. Trojan's honeymoon with the Czechoslovak Communist Party was a brief one, and his disillusionment placed him on a collision course. Kulhan also conceded that, given his professional background, Trojan's partisans were perhaps the best shod in the Slovak National Uprising. But several friends of Kulhan's sister were among the partisans who were executed. Kulhan maintain s that Trojan acted wrongfully in this matter. 25 At the time of the writing of this essay, the Czech judicial system maintains an enigmatic silence concerning Trojan, although his case is again open for review. Meanwhile, Slovak historians and octogenarian veterans of World War II alike look forward to the rehabilitation of a man who, although born a Czech , enjoys a certain reputation as a Slovak hero. Yet, judging from the opinion of Kulhan , not all octogenarians agree. It remains for the Czech judicial system to give a complete account of the execution of partisans by Trojan, and the state's case against him. 25 Telephone interview with John Kulhan, August I0 , 2005. Mr. Kulhan is today a U.S. citizen and is currently a nominee fo r the Pres identi al Medal of Freedom.  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 Slovak Partisan Commanders in World War II: The Case of Josef Trojan Description An account of the resource R. Vladimír Baumgarten Slovakia, Vol. 39 (No. 72-73), 2007 pp. 36-49 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Baumgarten, R. Vladimir Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/b532f2a1e78204582b3aab2458820e9e.pdf d29ab35a9185a585aee78369094a60db PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA-2017 133 SIBERIA: A SLOVAK TALE (A story based upon the life of the author's grandfather, Jan Janosko) R. Vladimir Baumgarten Jozef Zeleny, most recently an employee of United States Steel, headquartered in Homestead, Pennsylvania, decided that he no longer wished to live . This puzzled people, after it was all over. By Slovak-American standards, Jozef Zeleny was by no means a failure. Granted his wife had died, but six out of ten of his children had survived and landed on their feet. They were all responsible and functional adults. Yet, Jozef Zeleny wanted to die. He contacted a relative in the town of Monongahela, located on a river of that name and the border of Virginia. He intended to march from there, up and across the ridge line, and disappear into a snowstorm. Hypothermia is a benevolent death. After a while, you no longer feel the cold. You begin to feel warm and sensuous . You want to lie down and sleep. You go to sleep. Then you die. Why did Jozef Zeleny want to die? To answer this question, we must look into his background . It involved a drama which originated a full generation earlier. *** Jozef Zeleny was born near Svidnik, in northeastern Slovakia. Seven generations of his ancestors had served in the military as Hungarian Hussars. Zeleny began his adult life in this hereditary occupation. He was admitted to the Ludovika Military Academy in Budapest and graduated with the rank of sub-lieutenant on the eve of the Great War. In August of 1914 he was dispatched to the Eastern Front. Here he became infected with the spirit of Slovak nationalism , which resented Hungarian domination. Many Czechs and Slovaks in the Austro-Hungarian Army either deserted or were captured by the Russian army. In this way Zeleny became a member of the Czechoslovak Legion. �134 SLOVAKIA-2017 The Czechoslovak Legion in Russia was a curious organization. Colonies of Czechs and Slovaks had existed in Russia since the 19 th century. After the outbreak of the war, Czechs and Slovaks in Russia were allowed to organize themselves into a military unit called the Druiina, which served as an auxiliary to the Russian Army. Originally, the Drui ina engaged in reconnaissance and infiltration of Slavic units in the Austro-Hungarian army. As it demonstrated its competence, the Druiina, grew, with more captured Slavic prisoners. In March of 1917 revolution erupted in Petrograd and on March 15 th Tsar Nicholas II abdicated and a Provisional Government replaced him. Most Czech and Slovak Legionnaires disliked Tsarist rule and initially welcomed the Russian Revolution. They had chafed under the restrictions imposed upon them by the Tsarist government and looked forward to more freedom of action. Zeleny participated in the Czechoslovak Legion's baptism of fire at the battle of Zborov on July 2, 1917. Zborov (Zboriv in Ukrainian), is a village in the Carpathian foothills of western Ukraine, then part of the Austrian province of Galicia. In its vicinity, two fortified Austrian positions, Galish and Kalish, guarded the approaches to the city of Lviv (Lemberg, Lvov). Two Finnish Regiments of the Russian Army were ordered to effect a pincers movement around Galish. The Legionnaires were supposed to move in after the Finns. However, the Czechs and Slovaks were impatient for action and moved ahead of the Finns. Their opponents were largely Czechs or Bosnian Serbs, who were poorly-motivated. While the Russian command hesitated in the southern sector, the Legionnaires, led by Captain Radola Gajda, stormed the hills overlooking the battlefield. This breakthrough resulted in the capture of 62 Austro-Hungarian officers, 3,150 soldiers, 20 pieces of arti llery and 40 machine guns. Russian General Selichev then declared, "Czech eagles led Russian chickens ." After this victory, the Russian Provisional Government recognized the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia as an independent army, answerable to the Czechoslovak National Council in Paris, led by T.G. Masaryk, Milan R. Stefanik and Edvard Benes. However, the Provisional Government was toppled by a military coup in Petrograd, led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin on November 7, 1917. Since the incoming Bolshevik government wanted peace with Germany in order to create a communist state in Russia, it inherited a large number �SLOVAKIA-2017 135 of Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war, many of whom were armed and roaming the countryside. The Czechoslovak Legionnaires were among them, and continued to support the Western Allies. On the other hand, many German and Hungarian prisoners of war had joined the newly-established Red Guards. They now controlled large areas of Siberia. On May 15, 1918, an incident occurred in Russia which had international ramifications. At the railway station in Chelyabinsk, in the Ural Mountains, a train carrying Czechoslovak Legionnaires drew alongside a train bearing repatriated Hungarian p.o.w. ' s headed in the opposite direction. The Bolsheviks had made peace with the Germans and Austro-Hungarians in December of 1917 and had agreed to repatriate each other's p.o.w.'s. As the trains passed each other, a shouting match ensued and one of the Hungarians hurled a lead pipe and fractured a Czech soldier's skull. The well-armed Legionnaires pulled the culprit off the train and hanged him on the spot. The local Soviet government demanded an inquiry and arrested three Czechoslovak officers who attended the inquiry. As soon as their comrades heard of this incident, they stormed the jail, freed their officers, and seized control of the town. In Moscow, Commissar of War Leon Trotsky, ordered that any armed Czechoslovak soldiers found along the Trans-Siberian Railway were to be shot on the spot. This was probably Trotsky ' s biggest mistake. Relieved of the necessity of negotiating with the Bolsheviks, the Legionnaires seized control of the Trans-Siberian railroad and blasted their way east all the way to Vladivostok on the Pacific. For eighteen months this army without a country controlled the world ' s largest land mass. *** And so, Lieutenant Zeleny found himself in Siberia. It was a huge land of contrasts and contradictions. Covered in snow and frost during the long winter, it became a field of flowers in the summer. The land was rich in natural resources. Much of the timber was cut and the minerals were mined by convict labor. Tens of thousands of Russian men and women , convicted of crimes ranging from murder to petty theft or even simple vagrancy, had been deported there. Siberia boasted a penal system operated at a profit. On the other hand, Siberia also contained many Russians who had moved there in �136 SLOVAKIA-2017 search of land and greater liberty. It was a land of unlimited opportunity for those who were able to withstand its rigors. Peasants in Siberia became accustomed to thinking and acting more independently than their kinsmen in European Russia. This would have fateful consequences for the White side during the Russian Civil War. Although there were theaters and other forms of amusement in Omsk, Irkutsk and Vladivostok, the chief form of recreation in Siberia was the consumption of vodka. Harbing, a city the Russians built in Manchuria, on a stretch of land they obtained as a concession from China, boasted a distillery that produced thirty million gallons of vodka per year. Other distilleries in Siberia soon equaled this production . As in many frontier cultures, Siberia was more inclined to dispense alcohol than education. In the late 1880's the American journalist George Kennan observe that in each settlement, there were thirty saloons for every school. Jozef Zeleny liked to drink. He acclimatized to the local culture. He managed to digest kumis (fermented mare ' s milk), and cultivated a genuine fondness for another fermented beverage made of juice derived from reindeer antlers. But, serious drinking involved vodka. For this reason he visited a certain tavern in Omsk in the summer of 1918. There he was attracted to a very striking, brown-eyed blonde. As a rule, women did not frequent taverns unless they were prostitutes. Something in her bearing suggested that she was not. Jozef left her alone. Three days later he encountered her in the local park. She was walking a dog on a leash. It was said to be a Jack Russel , although it had the face of a Pit Bull. Suddenly, two larger unleashed dogs appeared . They bore down upon the little guy. Jozef seized a fallen tree branch and rushed into the fray. The little guy was way ahead of him. Roaring like a lion, he plunged forward and hit one of the bigger dogs with his head, causing it to bowl over. Meanwhile, Jozef hit to other dog with his switch. Both bigger dogs ran off. Man and small dog stood triumphantly on the field of battle. The blonde woman laughed delightedly. "Bravo! " she exclaimmed. "You were both magnificent." Jozef looked at her with narrowed eyes. "I saw you in the tavern a few days ago. I see that you are some kind of lady. You have no business in a place like that. Why did you go there?" �SLOVAKIA-2017 137 "Because I was waiting for someone to tell me that, instead of trying to pick me up. I need a friend ... and some help." Jozef was stunned by her answer. This is how he met Ludmilla Suslova. She was a schoolteacher. Her father worked for the Directorate, which claimed to be the government of Siberia. The Directorate consisted of Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries and was opposed to the Bolsheviks in Moscow. The Directorate enjoyed the patronage of the Czechoslovak Legion. Ludmilla's husband had recently abandoned her. Their small house was in need of repair. She needed a good man around the house and Jozef qualified. She told him that he could move in rent-free if he maintained the house. He was amenable to such an arrangement because he currently occupied a tepluska, one of the railway boxcars attached to an armored train, along with other Legionnaires. A comer was set aside for games of cards or chess, but there was no privacy. Jozef and Ludmilla did not bond immediately. He was intimidated by her beauty. He initially bonded with her dog Yasha. He was useless as a watchdog since he barked only at other animals. This sad-eyed canine brought great joy to Jozef s life. Ultimately, nature took its course between Jozef and Ludmilla. One day, when working together in the house, their bodies pressed against each other. Mutually-suppressed desire spontaneously exploded. They did not even make it into the bedroom. Thereafter, they lived as man and wife. *** Both the Western Allies and Japan had long been seeking an excuse to intervene in Russia against the Bolsheviks. Now they had one. In the summer of 1918 they recognized the Czechoslovak Legionnaires as co-belligerents against Germany and Austria-Hungary and could justify landing troops in Siberia under the pretext of rendering aid to their allies. However, the paradigm shifted in the autumn months. The Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary disintegrated in October and on the 28 th the newly-created Czechoslovak Republic emerged. Now the Legionnaires lost interest in fighting the Bolsheviks and just wanted to go home. Furthermore, on November 15 1\ just after the armistice which ended the Great War, the Directory in Omsk was toppled by a �138 SLOVAKIA-2017 military coup. A certain Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak, who just two weeks earlier had been living in a cheap Tokyo hotel, claimed the title of Supreme Commander of all Russia. He was unequal to the task. Although personally honest and well-intentioned, Kolchak had little control over his subordinates, most of whom were thieves and bandits in the pay of the Japanese, and who committed various war crimes against the civilian population. About six months after Kolchak assumed power, just as the black flies and mosquitos in Siberia began to reassert themselves, Captain (yes, he had been promoted) Zeleny had a revealing experience. He passed through a barnyard in which wounded Russian soldiers lay in the hay. The insects attacked the pus oozing from their wounds. Distressed by what he saw, Zeleny approached an elegantlydressed White Russian officer, who was speaking in French to a lady on his arm. "These men are in bad shape!" Jozef exclaimed. "You should help them out!" "Please don ' t talk about things like that," the officer replied . "You' II upset the lady." When Jozef related the incident to Ludmilla, he declared "A regime built upon this kind of shit cannot survive." Ludmilla agreed. Yet, for a time, given the backing of the Western Allies and Japan, it looked as if Kolchak might win. On March 6, 1919, he launched a 700-mile offensive in the Urals that stretched from the forests of fir in the north to the steppes below Oren berg in the south. His armies reached Ufa, halfway between the Urals and the Volga. Here the Whites were met by the Army of Turkestan, as well as the I 51, 4 th and 8 th Red Armies, led by General Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze. Frunze was incapacitated by an artillery concussion while advancing on Ufa, but his subordinate, Vasily lvanovich Chapayev, in command of the 25 th Rifle Regiment, pressed ahead. Chapayev was already a legend among the Reds. As a partisan commander the previous year, he had tangled with the Czechoslovak Legionnaires in the Urals. He had since gone to Moscow for advanced military training. He then returned to the Urals front as a regular field commander. Chapayed was himself wounded in the storming of the city, but the Reds prevailed and captured Ufa on June 81\ Now the way was open for the Reds to cross the Urals. Kolchak's government, to say nothing of the Czechoslovak Legionnaires, prepared to evacuate Omsk. "Marry me," Jozef urged �SLOVAKIA-2017 139 Ludmilla. "As an officer's wife, you can return with me to our new country of Czechoslovakia. It will be a good place to live." Ludmilla shook her head sadly. "You Western Slavs can carry your country with you. It is different with us Russians. I can never be at home in another place, regardless of who rules it or how." And so, Jozef and Ludmilla parted ways. Omsk fell to the Red Army on November 14 th . Ludmilla was killed when a stray artillery shell hit her house. A Russian who fled the country later informed Jozef of her death. He never ceased to grieve for her. Happily, Yasha survived and found another home. While evacuating Siberia in 1919, the Czechs and Slovaks kept the best trains for themselves. An exasperated Kolchak cabled his erstwhile subordinate in eastern Siberia, the Kozak atman Grigorii Semyonov, urging him to halt the Czechoslovak trains at all cost. The Legionnaires intercepted the cable and then blocked Kolchak ' s trains at Irkutsk. The desperate Kolchak then abdicated as Supreme Commander of Russia and threw himself on the mercy of the Allies, who now included Czechoslovakia. The previous year the Legionnaires had captured Kazan on the Volga, where they found the tsarist gold reserves . They now negotiated with the Bolsheviks for free rite of passage in return for the gold reserves and the Bolsheviks eagerly accepted. As Kolchak's train, containing cocaine but not much else, reached Irkutsk on January 15, 1920, the Legionnaire guards abandoned him. The city council of Irkutsk then arrested Kolchak. The council consisted of Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries. However, Bolsheviks were also in town. Lenin wanted Kolchak brought to Moscow to stand trial. However, one of Kolchak's commanders tried to rescue him and, when the city council heard of this, it executed Kolchak by firing squad on February 7, 1920 and dumped his body into a hole in the ice on the river Angara. By the end of 1920 the last of the Czechoslovak Legionnaires withdrew by sea from Vladivostok. British and American ships transported them to either Vancouver in Canada or San Francisco in the USA . They then crossed both countries by rail and were shipped to Europe across the Atlantic. Most of them returned to the newlycreated Czechoslovakia. A few decided to remain in the USA. One of them was Jozef Zeleny. *** �140 SLOVAKIA-2017 Jozef had relatives in the Pittsburgh area. The found him employment in the local steel mill. Due to his education and service in the military, Jozko (his pet name) soon became a foreman . He also took an interest in the Slovak community and joined one of their fraternal-benefit societies . Slovak organizations in the Pittsburgh region had played a role in the creation of Czechoslovakia. In 1918 T.G. Masaryk, head of the Czecho-Slovak liberation movement, visited the Mecca of American Slovaks to seek a mandate for the union of the Czechs and Slovaks in a future Czecho-Slovakia because the Slovaks back home were not free to speak their minds. His visit attracted large crowds, including South Slavs. His negotiations with the Slovaks on May 29-31 were quite tempestuous, but led to the signing of the Pittsburgh Agreement, which promised the Slovaks their own Diet, administration, courts, schools and the use of their own language. In other words, home-rule. Unfortunately, when Masaryk returned to the new Czechoslovakia, he first forgot and later repudiated the Pittsburgh Agreement, which led to a breakdown of relations between the Czechs and the Slovaks in the first Czechoslovak Republic. The steel towns of the greater Pittsburgh area were also populated by Carpatho-Rusyns from Hungary. In eastern Slovakia the distinction between Slovak and Rusyn remains somewhat nebulous. Indeed, Jozko qualified as a "Rusnak" (the popular term for Rusyn). Following the lead of the Slovaks, many joined fraternal organizations, which not only provided benefits to workers but published newspapers as well. Through these institutions the Rusyns acquired political awareness . One of their organizations was the Greek Catholic Union headquartered in the Homestead-Munhall district. Another was the United Societies of America, based in McKeesport, which contained both Greek Catholi c and Orthodox members. On July 23 , 1918, they merged to form the American National Council of UhroRusyns. They resolved to join Czechoslovakia in exchange for territorial autonomy. As in the case of the Slovaks, the Prague government decided that they were not ready for autonomy. During the course of his participation in the politics of the fraternals, Jozko bonded with the president of his lodge. Th is individual, Ivan Kosko, some twenty years Zeleny's senior, was personally affable but was hopelessly corrupt. He had been dipping into the treas- �SLOVAKIA-2017 141 ury for some time. He knew he would get caught sooner or later if he did not put the money back. Yet Kosko had a certain bargaining collateral. It consisted of a fifteen year-old daughter who was living back in the Old Country in Kosice with an aunt. This dark haired, wind-swept lass was comely to behold. Kosko showed Jozef Zeleny a picture of her as enticement. He indicated that he wanted to have a responsible husband for her in America, but this required money. Kosko pulled it off. In this manner Jozef Zeleny acquired a mailorder bride. Although he would not admit it , he was marrying her to drown the memory of Ludmilla. And, even though he and Marija produced a considerable number of youngsters between them, things did not work. Jozef Zeleny never ceased to mourn for Ludmilla. There were significant differences between man and wife . As a native of the Svidnik area, Jozef was considered a Rusnak, and definitely Pan-Slav. Marija, a native of Kosice, was culturally if not politically Magyarone. She was deeply religious. Jozef was more spiritual than religious. He loved the Old Church Slavonic liturgy of the Greek Catholic Church. But he never went to confession. Marija asked him why. He explained it to her: "When I was back there in Ludovika, I had to work in the summers, to pay for my arrears and the upkeep of my horse during the school year. I was employed on the property of an affluent priest. One day, when I went to pitch hay in the barn, I heard giggling coming from the haystack. His Reverence was having a romp in the hay with one of the local girls. Alright, this man might represent God when he stands before the altar. But when he steps back from the altar, he is as capable of sin and error as anyone else. I' ll be damned if I answer before him or anyone else." Jozef followed political developments in the New Czechoslovak Republic with great interest. Although he had seen the White side for what it was worth during the course of the Russian Civil War, he had a certain admiration for General Milan Rastislav Stefanik, who was definitely anti-Bolshevik. Stefanik hailed from a village called Kosariska, in the Brezova district of western Slovakia. During the 1848 revolution against Hungarian rule, a famous battle was fought at Brezova. Slovak mountaineers, fighting on their own terms and on their own terrain, defeated the Hungarian military in the otherwise disastrous September campaign. �142 SLOVAKIA-2017 Such was Stefanik ' s heritage. As the son of a Lutheran minister, he was raised in a particularly patriotic regional environment. To assure his son's advancement without the latter succumbing to the pressures of magyarization, his father helped Milan obtain a scholarship in Prague. The old man was utterly appalled with the results. Milan became an agnostic among a circle of Slovak intellectuals in Prague who rallied under Czech philosophy professor T.G. Masaryk. He became the president of the Slovak student organization in Prague known as Detvan. The students in Detvan tended to major in the mundane sciences. Although Stefanik attended Masaryk' s philosophy classes, he majored in astronomy. Upon graduation, he borrowed some money, emigrated to France, and found employment in the Medoun observatory near Paris. In this capacity he engaged in roughly a dozen learned expeditions to other countries. He acquired French citizenship in 1912. He also learned how to fly. Stefanik thus became an officer in the air corps of the French Army when the Great War began. Given his membership on the Czechoslovak National Council, the French eventually accorded Stefanik the rank of brigadiergeneral. He became the driving force in the creation of the Czechoslovak Legion . In this capacity he clashed with Edvard Benes, who soon became foreign minister in the new Czechoslovak Republic. On the other hand, Stefanik advocated pressing an offensive against the Bolsheviks in Siberia, whereas Benes followed Masaryk' s lead in avoiding intervention in Russia's internal affairs. Then there was the issue of Slovak autonomy. Stefanik came from a school of Slovaks who were considered more pro-Czech than the Czechs themselves . Yet, during the Great War, he had occasion to visit the United States, where he solicited American Slovak support. After his interactions with the fraternal leaders, Stefanik considered that, with their advice and financial support, Slovakia could be worthy of autonomy. He resented his name being inscribed to a declaration of independence for Czechoslovakia which made no provision for Slovakia's status . Stefanik and Benes hated each other. Stefanik regarded Benes as "this first grade socialist, this paper revolutionary, this distorted diplomat." Benes responded by labeling Stefanik as "this astronomer who thinks he is a soldier, this peasant who thinks he is an aristocrat, this politician who thinks he is a genius. " �SLOVAKIA-2017 143 Insofar as Benes was entrenched in Prague while Stefanik was with the Legion in Siberia, the Czech foreign minister had the upper hand. Benes had the ministry of defense bifurcated. Stefanik, as Minister of War, retained command of Czechoslovakia's armed forces abroad (the Legion in Siberia), while a clone of Benes, Vaclav Klofac, became the Minister of National Defense .. Stefanik nonetheless prepared to return home. He made official visits to France and Italy. On the morning of May 5, 1919, he boarded a Caproni aircraft in the north Italian city of Udine. It was a three hour flight to Bratislava, Stefanik's intended destination. As he circled the runway of Vajnory, his plane suddenly fell to the ground from a height of 500 meters. Some witnesses charged that Stefanik' s plane had been shot down by a Czech artillery battery. The incident was officially described as an accident. Indeed, this might well have been the case. No evidence has ever been found that Benes had Stefanik murdered. This unfortunate incident came at a time when the Czechoslovak Republic was experiencing border clashes with Hungary, at this time under a Bolshevik government. The markings on the Caproni aircraft (red, white and green) were identical to the Hungarian national colors, albeit in horizontal order. Yet, years afterward, members of the artillery battery maintained that they were given their orders and that there was no mistake. They were expecting that plane. It stood to reason that there would be an appropriate state funeral. Its proceedings were recorded by Robert W. Seton-Watson, a distinguished British historian, who attended. Being Scottish, SetonWatson had a certain romantic attraction for a people who were highlanders with a heroic attitude towards life. He had championed the Slovak cause when they were under Hungarian rule. During the Great War, R. W. Seton-Watson served as adviser to the British government on Eastern European affairs. He became a personal friend of T. G. Masaryk. If Masaryk is said to be the founding father of Czechoslovakia, then Seton-Watson qualifies as the godfather. Seton-Watson description of Stefanik's funeral remains poignant to this day. Bratislava had only recently been occupied by the Czechs. Seton-Watson noted that Skols - Czech gymnastic society members recently assuming para-military roles - kept perfect order during the funeral procession, which extended a mile and a half: "Considering that the Czechs have been here exactly three months in �144 SLOVAKIA-2017 occupation of the town ... it was a ceremony which must have duly impressed the naturally lukewarm Magyar and German citizens, as suggesting that the newcomers had come to stay and are perfectly capable of taking charge." In regard to the aftermath of the ceremonies, Seton-Watson noted: "the coffin left for Brezova ... where the Slovak peasants - this seems to me so typical of their good taste and feeling - have on their accord hewn a rock grave for him on the highest point of the Little Carpathians, overlooking the whole western district." *** A former Legionnaire sent an account of Stefanik' s funeral to Jozef. Jozef mourned for Stefanik. He also subscribed to the theory that Stefanik had been murdered at the instigation of the foreign ministry . He began brooding deeply on the relationship between his life and the recent historical events. He began having nightmares. Throughout the odyssey across Siberia, Jozef had observed atrocities. These not only consisted of the usual burned villages and the numerous hanging of peasants. The Legionnaires became desensitized to the likes of that. But Jozef also had occasion to witness the grisly mutilation of innocent peasants by Kozaks and Mongols. These haunted his dreams. In any case, he could no longer sleep without vodka. And he still grieved for Ludmilla. There are people who, following the death of a spouse or loved one, marry, produce children, yet still grieve for the deceased a full decade later. Jozef Zeleny was such an individual. Eventually, he began taking out his angst on family members. Three specific incidents merit scrutiny. The first of these concerned his eldest daughter, Margarite, when she was twelve years old. He was drinking heavily that day when he could no longer hold his alcohol as he had previously. Margarite was playing hop scotch with other girls. Her father summoned her home with a single whistle. "Ah, gee whiz, I always gotta go," she complained to her friends. Jozef overheard the remark and did not like it. He belabored his daughter with his razor strap repeatedly and with vigor. The next day (when he was sober), he saw Margarite disrobe to step into the wash tub . Her noted the black and blue marks on her back and her rump. �SLOVAKIA-2017 145 "Who did this to you?" he gasped. "You did!" Marija threw it back m his face. "When she was playing hop scotch." Jozko paled and lowered his head. "I'll never beat her again," he vowed. Indeed, on this he kept his word. But he was still capable of emotional excess. On one occasion, when Marija was out of the house, he was minding the youngsters. One infant daughter, Leona, messed her diapers. Her father flew into a rage. His eldest son, Janko, was now a big, strapping young man. Aware of his father's capacity for violence, he intervened decisively. He picked up a railroad tie and cracked his father across the ribs, breaking two of them. Father and son never got close to each other again. Yet the most egregious emotional excess of Jozef Zeleny was yet to come. It concerned one of his daughters, named Helena, the beauty of the litter. Endowed with long dark hair and green eyes, Helena looked more Magyar than Slovak. One could tell she would do well one day. One day, at age seventeen, Helena came home from school, at a time when her mother was not home. There had been a layoff in the steel mill, which extended to the level of foreman . Consequently Jozef Zeleny simply lay around the house, drinking and whittling wood. And now, his daughter was home. "Where is your mother?" he demanded. "I don ' t know," she responded. "You are lying! " her father bellowed. And he threw his knife at her. Here it should be noted that Jozef Zeleny, having been trained by Gypsies, was an excellent knife thrower, whether he was drunk or sober. If he wanted to impale his daughter, he definitely would have done so. The knife whizzed past her head and pinned a lock of her hair against the wall behind her. In a state of shock, Helena's head hit the wall, and she fell to the floor unconscious. When she woke, she could not walk for the next two months. The attending doctor legally petitioned for her to be taken out of the house. She was moved into the house of her elder sister Margarite, now married. As Helena recovered, Margarite made her scrub floors and generally worked her like a dog. �146 SLOVAKIA-2017 Helena Zelenova nonetheless became the most successful of Jozko ' s offspring. She became a cocktail waitress. In this capacity she encountered a piano player in a night club. Reinhard Wolfmeister, of Germanic origin, was not your ordinary piano player. He qualified as a genuine pianist. He began playing piano at age four, had an affection for Chopin, and progressed to Paderewski. He attained such a mastery of Paderewski that he qualified for a scholarship in music at the Sorbonne, in Paris. His mother wanted him to be a doctor. After three years of pre-med at the University of Pittsburgh, Reinhard decided he did not want to be a doctor. This being the era of the Great Depression, he could look down the bluff from Mount Washington and see the tin shantytowns. He decided people didn ' t have enough money to afford doctors. So, instead, he took two courses at the Robert Morris Business College, gained employment in a freight shipping company, and was eventually dragged, kicking and screaming, upstairs to the vice- presidency. Yet insofar as he still loved music, he played piano in nightclubs in the evenings. He worked two jobs. He made money and invested it wisely. Eventually, the Wolfmeister family moved to Florida. Here Helena integrated herself into the local society so well that her Slovak sisters came to describe her as the "Queen of the Jews." *** Jozef Zeleny had enough intelligence left to realize he was losing it. Marija passed away after a brief illness, and he mourned for her. But he still grieved for Ludmilla to an even greater extent. Then there was Helena's forthcoming marriage. Having a heroic attitude towards life, Jozef Zeleny could not appreciate that which was unheroic. His upcoming son-in-law could have been a concert pianist in Paris, yet opted to become the manager of a trucking company in Pittsburgh instead. It made no sense. Jozko once again began to brood deeply. He had worked long enough in the steel industry to benefit from the gains that labor unions made for steelworkers under the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He had a nice pension and began looking for an exit. �SLOVAKIA-2017 147 Jozef had a cousin who lived in Monongahela. He asked if he could visit there for several weeks "for reasons of mental health." His cousin replied in the affirmative. Jozef had yet to reach his dreadful decision when he first went to Monongahela. Yet it is worth nothing that he had one previous experience with hypothermia. Several years back, he had been three miles from home on the coldest night of the winter. The temperature was fifteen degrees below zero and accompanied by thirty mile-an-hour winds. It was snowing horizontally throughout the Monongahela valley. The public transportation system was paralyzed. Jozko was jumping up and down in a futile attempt to warm himself. Since it was too cold to walk, he ran and ran and ran. At the end of the second mile, he wasn't cold anymore. He began feeling like Ulysses hearing the calling of the Sirens. He experienced an erection. And he wanted to lie down and go to sleep. Then he realized what was happening. He was beginning to freeze. Jozef Zeleny resisted the temptation to succumb. He pushed on the last mile to the tavern, where he rented a room upstairs. Ice hung from his normally upturned moustaches. After four shots of vodka, he thawed out... except for his feet. Even though he had worn two pairs of socks, frostbite had gotten into his feet. It felt like he was walking on concrete blocks for the next sixteen hours. Aside from that, it had been a euphoric experience. And so, in Monongahela, Jozko frowned thoughtfully as the wind hit hard and it was obvious that a snowstorm was on the way. "I'm going for a walk," he announced. "JEE-zus Ker-RIST! " his cousin exclaimed. "It's colder than a well digger's ass out there! Have you lost your f'ck"n mind?" I have my reasons," Jozef replied cryptically. He commenced walking across the ridge in a westerly direction. The snowstorm blew into his face. In spite of the severity of the weather, he perceived the terrain as being beautiful. It reminded him of Siberia. As the delirium which accompanies hypothermia took hold, Jozef saw an image before him. It was Ludmilla. He staggered forward. *** �148 SLOVAKIA-2017 Most people who knew her agreed that Celeste Romanczykowa was a rough piece of work. Her house - little more than a cottage stood atop the ridge to which Jozef was ascending. Celeste was the product of a union between a Polish coal miner and a West Virginia hillbilly. So it stood to reason that she could be fractious at times. Auburn, brown eyed, and generously endowed in the breasts and the rump, she was comely to behold to men who are not obsessed with skinny women. Celeste was a widow. Her coal miner husband had died of black lung three years earlier. She was noted for a good heart, and loved dogs. But she did not suffer tyranny gracefully, and consequently ignored the overtures of her husband 's cronies among the coal miners. She lived alone and was lonely. As the snowstorm moved in, she went out on the hillside to gather wood. She saw the strange figure staggering up the hill. "Who are you?" she asked, pulling him by the sleeve. He muttered a few words in Slovak. Being half-Polish, she more or less understood. If she did not know who he was, she understood what he was. She dragged him into the house. Once he reached the couch, he collapsed unconscious. Through a neighbor, Celeste summoned the local doctor. After administering Jozef some medicine, he declared: "If you had discovered him an hour later, it would have been too late. But now I think he'll make it. Just keep him warm. Celeste gazed down at the man on the coach. She noticed the upturned moustaches. Her paternal side of the family had come from the Dukla Pass, between Poland and Slovakia. She perceived that he had at some point in his life been a cavalryman. Later, when his eyes opened, she became hypnotized by their ice blue, steel glaze. Jozko stirred. "Ludmilla, ... " he murmured. "You hush now," she said softly. "I' m going to take care of you." He opened his eyes. And smiled. � SLOVAKIA-2017 133 SIBERIA: A SLOVAK TALE (A story based upon the life of the author's grandfather, Jan Janosko) R. Vladimir Baumgarten Jozef Zeleny, most recently an employee of United States Steel, headquartered in Homestead, Pennsylvania, decided that he no longer wished to live . This puzzled people, after it was all over. By Slovak-American standards, Jozef Zeleny was by no means a failure. Granted his wife had died, but six out of ten of his children had survived and landed on their feet. They were all responsible and functional adults. Yet, Jozef Zeleny wanted to die. He contacted a relative in the town of Monongahela, located on a river of that name and the border of Virginia. He intended to march from there, up and across the ridge line, and disappear into a snowstorm. Hypothermia is a benevolent death. After a while, you no longer feel the cold. You begin to feel warm and sensuous . You want to lie down and sleep. You go to sleep. Then you die. Why did Jozef Zeleny want to die? To answer this question, we must look into his background . It involved a drama which originated a full generation earlier. *** Jozef Zeleny was born near Svidnik, in northeastern Slovakia. Seven generations of his ancestors had served in the military as Hungarian Hussars. Zeleny began his adult life in this hereditary occupation. He was admitted to the Ludovika Military Academy in Budapest and graduated with the rank of sub-lieutenant on the eve of the Great War. In August of 1914 he was dispatched to the Eastern Front. Here he became infected with the spirit of Slovak nationalism , which resented Hungarian domination. Many Czechs and Slovaks in the Austro-Hungarian Army either deserted or were captured by the Russian army. In this way Zeleny became a member of the Czechoslovak Legion. �134 SLOVAKIA-2017 The Czechoslovak Legion in Russia was a curious organization. Colonies of Czechs and Slovaks had existed in Russia since the 19 th century. After the outbreak of the war, Czechs and Slovaks in Russia were allowed to organize themselves into a military unit called the Druiina, which served as an auxiliary to the Russian Army. Originally, the Drui ina engaged in reconnaissance and infiltration of Slavic units in the Austro-Hungarian army. As it demonstrated its competence, the Druiina, grew, with more captured Slavic prisoners. In March of 1917 revolution erupted in Petrograd and on March 15 th Tsar Nicholas II abdicated and a Provisional Government replaced him. Most Czech and Slovak Legionnaires disliked Tsarist rule and initially welcomed the Russian Revolution. They had chafed under the restrictions imposed upon them by the Tsarist government and looked forward to more freedom of action. Zeleny participated in the Czechoslovak Legion's baptism of fire at the battle of Zborov on July 2, 1917. Zborov (Zboriv in Ukrainian), is a village in the Carpathian foothills of western Ukraine, then part of the Austrian province of Galicia. In its vicinity, two fortified Austrian positions, Galish and Kalish, guarded the approaches to the city of Lviv (Lemberg, Lvov). Two Finnish Regiments of the Russian Army were ordered to effect a pincers movement around Galish. The Legionnaires were supposed to move in after the Finns. However, the Czechs and Slovaks were impatient for action and moved ahead of the Finns. Their opponents were largely Czechs or Bosnian Serbs, who were poorly-motivated. While the Russian command hesitated in the southern sector, the Legionnaires, led by Captain Radola Gajda, stormed the hills overlooking the battlefield. This breakthrough resulted in the capture of 62 Austro-Hungarian officers, 3,150 soldiers, 20 pieces of arti llery and 40 machine guns. Russian General Selichev then declared, "Czech eagles led Russian chickens ." After this victory, the Russian Provisional Government recognized the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia as an independent army, answerable to the Czechoslovak National Council in Paris, led by T.G. Masaryk, Milan R. Stefanik and Edvard Benes. However, the Provisional Government was toppled by a military coup in Petrograd, led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin on November 7, 1917. Since the incoming Bolshevik government wanted peace with Germany in order to create a communist state in Russia, it inherited a large number �SLOVAKIA-2017 135 of Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war, many of whom were armed and roaming the countryside. The Czechoslovak Legionnaires were among them, and continued to support the Western Allies. On the other hand, many German and Hungarian prisoners of war had joined the newly-established Red Guards. They now controlled large areas of Siberia. On May 15, 1918, an incident occurred in Russia which had international ramifications. At the railway station in Chelyabinsk, in the Ural Mountains, a train carrying Czechoslovak Legionnaires drew alongside a train bearing repatriated Hungarian p.o.w. ' s headed in the opposite direction. The Bolsheviks had made peace with the Germans and Austro-Hungarians in December of 1917 and had agreed to repatriate each other's p.o.w.'s. As the trains passed each other, a shouting match ensued and one of the Hungarians hurled a lead pipe and fractured a Czech soldier's skull. The well-armed Legionnaires pulled the culprit off the train and hanged him on the spot. The local Soviet government demanded an inquiry and arrested three Czechoslovak officers who attended the inquiry. As soon as their comrades heard of this incident, they stormed the jail, freed their officers, and seized control of the town. In Moscow, Commissar of War Leon Trotsky, ordered that any armed Czechoslovak soldiers found along the Trans-Siberian Railway were to be shot on the spot. This was probably Trotsky ' s biggest mistake. Relieved of the necessity of negotiating with the Bolsheviks, the Legionnaires seized control of the Trans-Siberian railroad and blasted their way east all the way to Vladivostok on the Pacific. For eighteen months this army without a country controlled the world ' s largest land mass. *** And so, Lieutenant Zeleny found himself in Siberia. It was a huge land of contrasts and contradictions. Covered in snow and frost during the long winter, it became a field of flowers in the summer. The land was rich in natural resources. Much of the timber was cut and the minerals were mined by convict labor. Tens of thousands of Russian men and women , convicted of crimes ranging from murder to petty theft or even simple vagrancy, had been deported there. Siberia boasted a penal system operated at a profit. On the other hand, Siberia also contained many Russians who had moved there in �136 SLOVAKIA-2017 search of land and greater liberty. It was a land of unlimited opportunity for those who were able to withstand its rigors. Peasants in Siberia became accustomed to thinking and acting more independently than their kinsmen in European Russia. This would have fateful consequences for the White side during the Russian Civil War. Although there were theaters and other forms of amusement in Omsk, Irkutsk and Vladivostok, the chief form of recreation in Siberia was the consumption of vodka. Harbing, a city the Russians built in Manchuria, on a stretch of land they obtained as a concession from China, boasted a distillery that produced thirty million gallons of vodka per year. Other distilleries in Siberia soon equaled this production . As in many frontier cultures, Siberia was more inclined to dispense alcohol than education. In the late 1880's the American journalist George Kennan observe that in each settlement, there were thirty saloons for every school. Jozef Zeleny liked to drink. He acclimatized to the local culture. He managed to digest kumis (fermented mare ' s milk), and cultivated a genuine fondness for another fermented beverage made of juice derived from reindeer antlers. But, serious drinking involved vodka. For this reason he visited a certain tavern in Omsk in the summer of 1918. There he was attracted to a very striking, brown-eyed blonde. As a rule, women did not frequent taverns unless they were prostitutes. Something in her bearing suggested that she was not. Jozef left her alone. Three days later he encountered her in the local park. She was walking a dog on a leash. It was said to be a Jack Russel , although it had the face of a Pit Bull. Suddenly, two larger unleashed dogs appeared . They bore down upon the little guy. Jozef seized a fallen tree branch and rushed into the fray. The little guy was way ahead of him. Roaring like a lion, he plunged forward and hit one of the bigger dogs with his head, causing it to bowl over. Meanwhile, Jozef hit to other dog with his switch. Both bigger dogs ran off. Man and small dog stood triumphantly on the field of battle. The blonde woman laughed delightedly. "Bravo! " she exclaimmed. "You were both magnificent." Jozef looked at her with narrowed eyes. "I saw you in the tavern a few days ago. I see that you are some kind of lady. You have no business in a place like that. Why did you go there?" �SLOVAKIA-2017 137 "Because I was waiting for someone to tell me that, instead of trying to pick me up. I need a friend ... and some help." Jozef was stunned by her answer. This is how he met Ludmilla Suslova. She was a schoolteacher. Her father worked for the Directorate, which claimed to be the government of Siberia. The Directorate consisted of Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries and was opposed to the Bolsheviks in Moscow. The Directorate enjoyed the patronage of the Czechoslovak Legion. Ludmilla's husband had recently abandoned her. Their small house was in need of repair. She needed a good man around the house and Jozef qualified. She told him that he could move in rent-free if he maintained the house. He was amenable to such an arrangement because he currently occupied a tepluska, one of the railway boxcars attached to an armored train, along with other Legionnaires. A comer was set aside for games of cards or chess, but there was no privacy. Jozef and Ludmilla did not bond immediately. He was intimidated by her beauty. He initially bonded with her dog Yasha. He was useless as a watchdog since he barked only at other animals. This sad-eyed canine brought great joy to Jozef s life. Ultimately, nature took its course between Jozef and Ludmilla. One day, when working together in the house, their bodies pressed against each other. Mutually-suppressed desire spontaneously exploded. They did not even make it into the bedroom. Thereafter, they lived as man and wife. *** Both the Western Allies and Japan had long been seeking an excuse to intervene in Russia against the Bolsheviks. Now they had one. In the summer of 1918 they recognized the Czechoslovak Legionnaires as co-belligerents against Germany and Austria-Hungary and could justify landing troops in Siberia under the pretext of rendering aid to their allies. However, the paradigm shifted in the autumn months. The Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary disintegrated in October and on the 28 th the newly-created Czechoslovak Republic emerged. Now the Legionnaires lost interest in fighting the Bolsheviks and just wanted to go home. Furthermore, on November 15 1\ just after the armistice which ended the Great War, the Directory in Omsk was toppled by a �138 SLOVAKIA-2017 military coup. A certain Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak, who just two weeks earlier had been living in a cheap Tokyo hotel, claimed the title of Supreme Commander of all Russia. He was unequal to the task. Although personally honest and well-intentioned, Kolchak had little control over his subordinates, most of whom were thieves and bandits in the pay of the Japanese, and who committed various war crimes against the civilian population. About six months after Kolchak assumed power, just as the black flies and mosquitos in Siberia began to reassert themselves, Captain (yes, he had been promoted) Zeleny had a revealing experience. He passed through a barnyard in which wounded Russian soldiers lay in the hay. The insects attacked the pus oozing from their wounds. Distressed by what he saw, Zeleny approached an elegantlydressed White Russian officer, who was speaking in French to a lady on his arm. "These men are in bad shape!" Jozef exclaimed. "You should help them out!" "Please don ' t talk about things like that," the officer replied . "You' II upset the lady." When Jozef related the incident to Ludmilla, he declared "A regime built upon this kind of shit cannot survive." Ludmilla agreed. Yet, for a time, given the backing of the Western Allies and Japan, it looked as if Kolchak might win. On March 6, 1919, he launched a 700-mile offensive in the Urals that stretched from the forests of fir in the north to the steppes below Oren berg in the south. His armies reached Ufa, halfway between the Urals and the Volga. Here the Whites were met by the Army of Turkestan, as well as the I 51, 4 th and 8 th Red Armies, led by General Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze. Frunze was incapacitated by an artillery concussion while advancing on Ufa, but his subordinate, Vasily lvanovich Chapayev, in command of the 25 th Rifle Regiment, pressed ahead. Chapayev was already a legend among the Reds. As a partisan commander the previous year, he had tangled with the Czechoslovak Legionnaires in the Urals. He had since gone to Moscow for advanced military training. He then returned to the Urals front as a regular field commander. Chapayed was himself wounded in the storming of the city, but the Reds prevailed and captured Ufa on June 81\ Now the way was open for the Reds to cross the Urals. Kolchak's government, to say nothing of the Czechoslovak Legionnaires, prepared to evacuate Omsk. "Marry me," Jozef urged �SLOVAKIA-2017 139 Ludmilla. "As an officer's wife, you can return with me to our new country of Czechoslovakia. It will be a good place to live." Ludmilla shook her head sadly. "You Western Slavs can carry your country with you. It is different with us Russians. I can never be at home in another place, regardless of who rules it or how." And so, Jozef and Ludmilla parted ways. Omsk fell to the Red Army on November 14 th . Ludmilla was killed when a stray artillery shell hit her house. A Russian who fled the country later informed Jozef of her death. He never ceased to grieve for her. Happily, Yasha survived and found another home. While evacuating Siberia in 1919, the Czechs and Slovaks kept the best trains for themselves. An exasperated Kolchak cabled his erstwhile subordinate in eastern Siberia, the Kozak atman Grigorii Semyonov, urging him to halt the Czechoslovak trains at all cost. The Legionnaires intercepted the cable and then blocked Kolchak ' s trains at Irkutsk. The desperate Kolchak then abdicated as Supreme Commander of Russia and threw himself on the mercy of the Allies, who now included Czechoslovakia. The previous year the Legionnaires had captured Kazan on the Volga, where they found the tsarist gold reserves . They now negotiated with the Bolsheviks for free rite of passage in return for the gold reserves and the Bolsheviks eagerly accepted. As Kolchak's train, containing cocaine but not much else, reached Irkutsk on January 15, 1920, the Legionnaire guards abandoned him. The city council of Irkutsk then arrested Kolchak. The council consisted of Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries. However, Bolsheviks were also in town. Lenin wanted Kolchak brought to Moscow to stand trial. However, one of Kolchak's commanders tried to rescue him and, when the city council heard of this, it executed Kolchak by firing squad on February 7, 1920 and dumped his body into a hole in the ice on the river Angara. By the end of 1920 the last of the Czechoslovak Legionnaires withdrew by sea from Vladivostok. British and American ships transported them to either Vancouver in Canada or San Francisco in the USA . They then crossed both countries by rail and were shipped to Europe across the Atlantic. Most of them returned to the newlycreated Czechoslovakia. A few decided to remain in the USA. One of them was Jozef Zeleny. *** �140 SLOVAKIA-2017 Jozef had relatives in the Pittsburgh area. The found him employment in the local steel mill. Due to his education and service in the military, Jozko (his pet name) soon became a foreman . He also took an interest in the Slovak community and joined one of their fraternal-benefit societies . Slovak organizations in the Pittsburgh region had played a role in the creation of Czechoslovakia. In 1918 T.G. Masaryk, head of the Czecho-Slovak liberation movement, visited the Mecca of American Slovaks to seek a mandate for the union of the Czechs and Slovaks in a future Czecho-Slovakia because the Slovaks back home were not free to speak their minds. His visit attracted large crowds, including South Slavs. His negotiations with the Slovaks on May 29-31 were quite tempestuous, but led to the signing of the Pittsburgh Agreement, which promised the Slovaks their own Diet, administration, courts, schools and the use of their own language. In other words, home-rule. Unfortunately, when Masaryk returned to the new Czechoslovakia, he first forgot and later repudiated the Pittsburgh Agreement, which led to a breakdown of relations between the Czechs and the Slovaks in the first Czechoslovak Republic. The steel towns of the greater Pittsburgh area were also populated by Carpatho-Rusyns from Hungary. In eastern Slovakia the distinction between Slovak and Rusyn remains somewhat nebulous. Indeed, Jozko qualified as a "Rusnak" (the popular term for Rusyn). Following the lead of the Slovaks, many joined fraternal organizations, which not only provided benefits to workers but published newspapers as well. Through these institutions the Rusyns acquired political awareness . One of their organizations was the Greek Catholic Union headquartered in the Homestead-Munhall district. Another was the United Societies of America, based in McKeesport, which contained both Greek Catholi c and Orthodox members. On July 23 , 1918, they merged to form the American National Council of UhroRusyns. They resolved to join Czechoslovakia in exchange for territorial autonomy. As in the case of the Slovaks, the Prague government decided that they were not ready for autonomy. During the course of his participation in the politics of the fraternals, Jozko bonded with the president of his lodge. Th is individual, Ivan Kosko, some twenty years Zeleny's senior, was personally affable but was hopelessly corrupt. He had been dipping into the treas- �SLOVAKIA-2017 141 ury for some time. He knew he would get caught sooner or later if he did not put the money back. Yet Kosko had a certain bargaining collateral. It consisted of a fifteen year-old daughter who was living back in the Old Country in Kosice with an aunt. This dark haired, wind-swept lass was comely to behold. Kosko showed Jozef Zeleny a picture of her as enticement. He indicated that he wanted to have a responsible husband for her in America, but this required money. Kosko pulled it off. In this manner Jozef Zeleny acquired a mailorder bride. Although he would not admit it , he was marrying her to drown the memory of Ludmilla. And, even though he and Marija produced a considerable number of youngsters between them, things did not work. Jozef Zeleny never ceased to mourn for Ludmilla. There were significant differences between man and wife . As a native of the Svidnik area, Jozef was considered a Rusnak, and definitely Pan-Slav. Marija, a native of Kosice, was culturally if not politically Magyarone. She was deeply religious. Jozef was more spiritual than religious. He loved the Old Church Slavonic liturgy of the Greek Catholic Church. But he never went to confession. Marija asked him why. He explained it to her: "When I was back there in Ludovika, I had to work in the summers, to pay for my arrears and the upkeep of my horse during the school year. I was employed on the property of an affluent priest. One day, when I went to pitch hay in the barn, I heard giggling coming from the haystack. His Reverence was having a romp in the hay with one of the local girls. Alright, this man might represent God when he stands before the altar. But when he steps back from the altar, he is as capable of sin and error as anyone else. I' ll be damned if I answer before him or anyone else." Jozef followed political developments in the New Czechoslovak Republic with great interest. Although he had seen the White side for what it was worth during the course of the Russian Civil War, he had a certain admiration for General Milan Rastislav Stefanik, who was definitely anti-Bolshevik. Stefanik hailed from a village called Kosariska, in the Brezova district of western Slovakia. During the 1848 revolution against Hungarian rule, a famous battle was fought at Brezova. Slovak mountaineers, fighting on their own terms and on their own terrain, defeated the Hungarian military in the otherwise disastrous September campaign. �142 SLOVAKIA-2017 Such was Stefanik ' s heritage. As the son of a Lutheran minister, he was raised in a particularly patriotic regional environment. To assure his son's advancement without the latter succumbing to the pressures of magyarization, his father helped Milan obtain a scholarship in Prague. The old man was utterly appalled with the results. Milan became an agnostic among a circle of Slovak intellectuals in Prague who rallied under Czech philosophy professor T.G. Masaryk. He became the president of the Slovak student organization in Prague known as Detvan. The students in Detvan tended to major in the mundane sciences. Although Stefanik attended Masaryk' s philosophy classes, he majored in astronomy. Upon graduation, he borrowed some money, emigrated to France, and found employment in the Medoun observatory near Paris. In this capacity he engaged in roughly a dozen learned expeditions to other countries. He acquired French citizenship in 1912. He also learned how to fly. Stefanik thus became an officer in the air corps of the French Army when the Great War began. Given his membership on the Czechoslovak National Council, the French eventually accorded Stefanik the rank of brigadiergeneral. He became the driving force in the creation of the Czechoslovak Legion . In this capacity he clashed with Edvard Benes, who soon became foreign minister in the new Czechoslovak Republic. On the other hand, Stefanik advocated pressing an offensive against the Bolsheviks in Siberia, whereas Benes followed Masaryk' s lead in avoiding intervention in Russia's internal affairs. Then there was the issue of Slovak autonomy. Stefanik came from a school of Slovaks who were considered more pro-Czech than the Czechs themselves . Yet, during the Great War, he had occasion to visit the United States, where he solicited American Slovak support. After his interactions with the fraternal leaders, Stefanik considered that, with their advice and financial support, Slovakia could be worthy of autonomy. He resented his name being inscribed to a declaration of independence for Czechoslovakia which made no provision for Slovakia's status . Stefanik and Benes hated each other. Stefanik regarded Benes as "this first grade socialist, this paper revolutionary, this distorted diplomat." Benes responded by labeling Stefanik as "this astronomer who thinks he is a soldier, this peasant who thinks he is an aristocrat, this politician who thinks he is a genius. " �SLOVAKIA-2017 143 Insofar as Benes was entrenched in Prague while Stefanik was with the Legion in Siberia, the Czech foreign minister had the upper hand. Benes had the ministry of defense bifurcated. Stefanik, as Minister of War, retained command of Czechoslovakia's armed forces abroad (the Legion in Siberia), while a clone of Benes, Vaclav Klofac, became the Minister of National Defense .. Stefanik nonetheless prepared to return home. He made official visits to France and Italy. On the morning of May 5, 1919, he boarded a Caproni aircraft in the north Italian city of Udine. It was a three hour flight to Bratislava, Stefanik's intended destination. As he circled the runway of Vajnory, his plane suddenly fell to the ground from a height of 500 meters. Some witnesses charged that Stefanik' s plane had been shot down by a Czech artillery battery. The incident was officially described as an accident. Indeed, this might well have been the case. No evidence has ever been found that Benes had Stefanik murdered. This unfortunate incident came at a time when the Czechoslovak Republic was experiencing border clashes with Hungary, at this time under a Bolshevik government. The markings on the Caproni aircraft (red, white and green) were identical to the Hungarian national colors, albeit in horizontal order. Yet, years afterward, members of the artillery battery maintained that they were given their orders and that there was no mistake. They were expecting that plane. It stood to reason that there would be an appropriate state funeral. Its proceedings were recorded by Robert W. Seton-Watson, a distinguished British historian, who attended. Being Scottish, SetonWatson had a certain romantic attraction for a people who were highlanders with a heroic attitude towards life. He had championed the Slovak cause when they were under Hungarian rule. During the Great War, R. W. Seton-Watson served as adviser to the British government on Eastern European affairs. He became a personal friend of T. G. Masaryk. If Masaryk is said to be the founding father of Czechoslovakia, then Seton-Watson qualifies as the godfather. Seton-Watson description of Stefanik's funeral remains poignant to this day. Bratislava had only recently been occupied by the Czechs. Seton-Watson noted that Skols - Czech gymnastic society members recently assuming para-military roles - kept perfect order during the funeral procession, which extended a mile and a half: "Considering that the Czechs have been here exactly three months in �144 SLOVAKIA-2017 occupation of the town ... it was a ceremony which must have duly impressed the naturally lukewarm Magyar and German citizens, as suggesting that the newcomers had come to stay and are perfectly capable of taking charge." In regard to the aftermath of the ceremonies, Seton-Watson noted: "the coffin left for Brezova ... where the Slovak peasants - this seems to me so typical of their good taste and feeling - have on their accord hewn a rock grave for him on the highest point of the Little Carpathians, overlooking the whole western district." *** A former Legionnaire sent an account of Stefanik' s funeral to Jozef. Jozef mourned for Stefanik. He also subscribed to the theory that Stefanik had been murdered at the instigation of the foreign ministry . He began brooding deeply on the relationship between his life and the recent historical events. He began having nightmares. Throughout the odyssey across Siberia, Jozef had observed atrocities. These not only consisted of the usual burned villages and the numerous hanging of peasants. The Legionnaires became desensitized to the likes of that. But Jozef also had occasion to witness the grisly mutilation of innocent peasants by Kozaks and Mongols. These haunted his dreams. In any case, he could no longer sleep without vodka. And he still grieved for Ludmilla. There are people who, following the death of a spouse or loved one, marry, produce children, yet still grieve for the deceased a full decade later. Jozef Zeleny was such an individual. Eventually, he began taking out his angst on family members. Three specific incidents merit scrutiny. The first of these concerned his eldest daughter, Margarite, when she was twelve years old. He was drinking heavily that day when he could no longer hold his alcohol as he had previously. Margarite was playing hop scotch with other girls. Her father summoned her home with a single whistle. "Ah, gee whiz, I always gotta go," she complained to her friends. Jozef overheard the remark and did not like it. He belabored his daughter with his razor strap repeatedly and with vigor. The next day (when he was sober), he saw Margarite disrobe to step into the wash tub . Her noted the black and blue marks on her back and her rump. �SLOVAKIA-2017 145 "Who did this to you?" he gasped. "You did!" Marija threw it back m his face. "When she was playing hop scotch." Jozko paled and lowered his head. "I'll never beat her again," he vowed. Indeed, on this he kept his word. But he was still capable of emotional excess. On one occasion, when Marija was out of the house, he was minding the youngsters. One infant daughter, Leona, messed her diapers. Her father flew into a rage. His eldest son, Janko, was now a big, strapping young man. Aware of his father's capacity for violence, he intervened decisively. He picked up a railroad tie and cracked his father across the ribs, breaking two of them. Father and son never got close to each other again. Yet the most egregious emotional excess of Jozef Zeleny was yet to come. It concerned one of his daughters, named Helena, the beauty of the litter. Endowed with long dark hair and green eyes, Helena looked more Magyar than Slovak. One could tell she would do well one day. One day, at age seventeen, Helena came home from school, at a time when her mother was not home. There had been a layoff in the steel mill, which extended to the level of foreman . Consequently Jozef Zeleny simply lay around the house, drinking and whittling wood. And now, his daughter was home. "Where is your mother?" he demanded. "I don ' t know," she responded. "You are lying! " her father bellowed. And he threw his knife at her. Here it should be noted that Jozef Zeleny, having been trained by Gypsies, was an excellent knife thrower, whether he was drunk or sober. If he wanted to impale his daughter, he definitely would have done so. The knife whizzed past her head and pinned a lock of her hair against the wall behind her. In a state of shock, Helena's head hit the wall, and she fell to the floor unconscious. When she woke, she could not walk for the next two months. The attending doctor legally petitioned for her to be taken out of the house. She was moved into the house of her elder sister Margarite, now married. As Helena recovered, Margarite made her scrub floors and generally worked her like a dog. �146 SLOVAKIA-2017 Helena Zelenova nonetheless became the most successful of Jozko ' s offspring. She became a cocktail waitress. In this capacity she encountered a piano player in a night club. Reinhard Wolfmeister, of Germanic origin, was not your ordinary piano player. He qualified as a genuine pianist. He began playing piano at age four, had an affection for Chopin, and progressed to Paderewski. He attained such a mastery of Paderewski that he qualified for a scholarship in music at the Sorbonne, in Paris. His mother wanted him to be a doctor. After three years of pre-med at the University of Pittsburgh, Reinhard decided he did not want to be a doctor. This being the era of the Great Depression, he could look down the bluff from Mount Washington and see the tin shantytowns. He decided people didn ' t have enough money to afford doctors. So, instead, he took two courses at the Robert Morris Business College, gained employment in a freight shipping company, and was eventually dragged, kicking and screaming, upstairs to the vice- presidency. Yet insofar as he still loved music, he played piano in nightclubs in the evenings. He worked two jobs. He made money and invested it wisely. Eventually, the Wolfmeister family moved to Florida. Here Helena integrated herself into the local society so well that her Slovak sisters came to describe her as the "Queen of the Jews." *** Jozef Zeleny had enough intelligence left to realize he was losing it. Marija passed away after a brief illness, and he mourned for her. But he still grieved for Ludmilla to an even greater extent. Then there was Helena's forthcoming marriage. Having a heroic attitude towards life, Jozef Zeleny could not appreciate that which was unheroic. His upcoming son-in-law could have been a concert pianist in Paris, yet opted to become the manager of a trucking company in Pittsburgh instead. It made no sense. Jozko once again began to brood deeply. He had worked long enough in the steel industry to benefit from the gains that labor unions made for steelworkers under the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He had a nice pension and began looking for an exit. �SLOVAKIA-2017 147 Jozef had a cousin who lived in Monongahela. He asked if he could visit there for several weeks "for reasons of mental health." His cousin replied in the affirmative. Jozef had yet to reach his dreadful decision when he first went to Monongahela. Yet it is worth nothing that he had one previous experience with hypothermia. Several years back, he had been three miles from home on the coldest night of the winter. The temperature was fifteen degrees below zero and accompanied by thirty mile-an-hour winds. It was snowing horizontally throughout the Monongahela valley. The public transportation system was paralyzed. Jozko was jumping up and down in a futile attempt to warm himself. Since it was too cold to walk, he ran and ran and ran. At the end of the second mile, he wasn't cold anymore. He began feeling like Ulysses hearing the calling of the Sirens. He experienced an erection. And he wanted to lie down and go to sleep. Then he realized what was happening. He was beginning to freeze. Jozef Zeleny resisted the temptation to succumb. He pushed on the last mile to the tavern, where he rented a room upstairs. Ice hung from his normally upturned moustaches. After four shots of vodka, he thawed out... except for his feet. Even though he had worn two pairs of socks, frostbite had gotten into his feet. It felt like he was walking on concrete blocks for the next sixteen hours. Aside from that, it had been a euphoric experience. And so, in Monongahela, Jozko frowned thoughtfully as the wind hit hard and it was obvious that a snowstorm was on the way. "I'm going for a walk," he announced. "JEE-zus Ker-RIST! " his cousin exclaimed. "It's colder than a well digger's ass out there! Have you lost your f'ck"n mind?" I have my reasons," Jozef replied cryptically. He commenced walking across the ridge in a westerly direction. The snowstorm blew into his face. In spite of the severity of the weather, he perceived the terrain as being beautiful. It reminded him of Siberia. As the delirium which accompanies hypothermia took hold, Jozef saw an image before him. It was Ludmilla. He staggered forward. *** �148 SLOVAKIA-2017 Most people who knew her agreed that Celeste Romanczykowa was a rough piece of work. Her house - little more than a cottage stood atop the ridge to which Jozef was ascending. Celeste was the product of a union between a Polish coal miner and a West Virginia hillbilly. So it stood to reason that she could be fractious at times. Auburn, brown eyed, and generously endowed in the breasts and the rump, she was comely to behold to men who are not obsessed with skinny women. Celeste was a widow. Her coal miner husband had died of black lung three years earlier. She was noted for a good heart, and loved dogs. But she did not suffer tyranny gracefully, and consequently ignored the overtures of her husband 's cronies among the coal miners. She lived alone and was lonely. As the snowstorm moved in, she went out on the hillside to gather wood. She saw the strange figure staggering up the hill. "Who are you?" she asked, pulling him by the sleeve. He muttered a few words in Slovak. Being half-Polish, she more or less understood. If she did not know who he was, she understood what he was. She dragged him into the house. Once he reached the couch, he collapsed unconscious. Through a neighbor, Celeste summoned the local doctor. After administering Jozef some medicine, he declared: "If you had discovered him an hour later, it would have been too late. But now I think he'll make it. Just keep him warm. Celeste gazed down at the man on the coach. She noticed the upturned moustaches. Her paternal side of the family had come from the Dukla Pass, between Poland and Slovakia. She perceived that he had at some point in his life been a cavalryman. Later, when his eyes opened, she became hypnotized by their ice blue, steel glaze. Jozko stirred. "Ludmilla, ... " he murmured. "You hush now," she said softly. "I' m going to take care of you." He opened his eyes. And smiled. � 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 2017, Vol. 43 Description An account of the resource Vol. 43 (No. 80-81), 2017. 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 2017 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-2017 133 SIBERIA: A SLOVAK TALE (A story based upon the life of the author's grandfather, Jan Janosko) R. Vladimir Baumgarten Jozef Zeleny, most recently an employee of United States Steel, headquartered in Homestead, Pennsylvania, decided that he no longer wished to live . This puzzled people, after it was all over. By Slovak-American standards, Jozef Zeleny was by no means a failure. Granted his wife had died, but six out of ten of his children had survived and landed on their feet. They were all responsible and functional adults. Yet, Jozef Zeleny wanted to die. He contacted a relative in the town of Monongahela, located on a river of that name and the border of Virginia. He intended to march from there, up and across the ridge line, and disappear into a snowstorm. Hypothermia is a benevolent death. After a while, you no longer feel the cold. You begin to feel warm and sensuous . You want to lie down and sleep. You go to sleep. Then you die. Why did Jozef Zeleny want to die? To answer this question, we must look into his background . It involved a drama which originated a full generation earlier. *** Jozef Zeleny was born near Svidnik, in northeastern Slovakia. Seven generations of his ancestors had served in the military as Hungarian Hussars. Zeleny began his adult life in this hereditary occupation. He was admitted to the Ludovika Military Academy in Budapest and graduated with the rank of sub-lieutenant on the eve of the Great War. In August of 1914 he was dispatched to the Eastern Front. Here he became infected with the spirit of Slovak nationalism , which resented Hungarian domination. Many Czechs and Slovaks in the Austro-Hungarian Army either deserted or were captured by the Russian army. In this way Zeleny became a member of the Czechoslovak Legion. 134 SLOVAKIA-2017 The Czechoslovak Legion in Russia was a curious organization. Colonies of Czechs and Slovaks had existed in Russia since the 19 th century. After the outbreak of the war, Czechs and Slovaks in Russia were allowed to organize themselves into a military unit called the Druiina, which served as an auxiliary to the Russian Army. Originally, the Drui ina engaged in reconnaissance and infiltration of Slavic units in the Austro-Hungarian army. As it demonstrated its competence, the Druiina, grew, with more captured Slavic prisoners. In March of 1917 revolution erupted in Petrograd and on March 15 th Tsar Nicholas II abdicated and a Provisional Government replaced him. Most Czech and Slovak Legionnaires disliked Tsarist rule and initially welcomed the Russian Revolution. They had chafed under the restrictions imposed upon them by the Tsarist government and looked forward to more freedom of action. Zeleny participated in the Czechoslovak Legion's baptism of fire at the battle of Zborov on July 2, 1917. Zborov (Zboriv in Ukrainian), is a village in the Carpathian foothills of western Ukraine, then part of the Austrian province of Galicia. In its vicinity, two fortified Austrian positions, Galish and Kalish, guarded the approaches to the city of Lviv (Lemberg, Lvov). Two Finnish Regiments of the Russian Army were ordered to effect a pincers movement around Galish. The Legionnaires were supposed to move in after the Finns. However, the Czechs and Slovaks were impatient for action and moved ahead of the Finns. Their opponents were largely Czechs or Bosnian Serbs, who were poorly-motivated. While the Russian command hesitated in the southern sector, the Legionnaires, led by Captain Radola Gajda, stormed the hills overlooking the battlefield. This breakthrough resulted in the capture of 62 Austro-Hungarian officers, 3,150 soldiers, 20 pieces of arti llery and 40 machine guns. Russian General Selichev then declared, "Czech eagles led Russian chickens ." After this victory, the Russian Provisional Government recognized the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia as an independent army, answerable to the Czechoslovak National Council in Paris, led by T.G. Masaryk, Milan R. Stefanik and Edvard Benes. However, the Provisional Government was toppled by a military coup in Petrograd, led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin on November 7, 1917. Since the incoming Bolshevik government wanted peace with Germany in order to create a communist state in Russia, it inherited a large number SLOVAKIA-2017 135 of Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war, many of whom were armed and roaming the countryside. The Czechoslovak Legionnaires were among them, and continued to support the Western Allies. On the other hand, many German and Hungarian prisoners of war had joined the newly-established Red Guards. They now controlled large areas of Siberia. On May 15, 1918, an incident occurred in Russia which had international ramifications. At the railway station in Chelyabinsk, in the Ural Mountains, a train carrying Czechoslovak Legionnaires drew alongside a train bearing repatriated Hungarian p.o.w. ' s headed in the opposite direction. The Bolsheviks had made peace with the Germans and Austro-Hungarians in December of 1917 and had agreed to repatriate each other's p.o.w.'s. As the trains passed each other, a shouting match ensued and one of the Hungarians hurled a lead pipe and fractured a Czech soldier's skull. The well-armed Legionnaires pulled the culprit off the train and hanged him on the spot. The local Soviet government demanded an inquiry and arrested three Czechoslovak officers who attended the inquiry. As soon as their comrades heard of this incident, they stormed the jail, freed their officers, and seized control of the town. In Moscow, Commissar of War Leon Trotsky, ordered that any armed Czechoslovak soldiers found along the Trans-Siberian Railway were to be shot on the spot. This was probably Trotsky ' s biggest mistake. Relieved of the necessity of negotiating with the Bolsheviks, the Legionnaires seized control of the Trans-Siberian railroad and blasted their way east all the way to Vladivostok on the Pacific. For eighteen months this army without a country controlled the world ' s largest land mass. *** And so, Lieutenant Zeleny found himself in Siberia. It was a huge land of contrasts and contradictions. Covered in snow and frost during the long winter, it became a field of flowers in the summer. The land was rich in natural resources. Much of the timber was cut and the minerals were mined by convict labor. Tens of thousands of Russian men and women , convicted of crimes ranging from murder to petty theft or even simple vagrancy, had been deported there. Siberia boasted a penal system operated at a profit. On the other hand, Siberia also contained many Russians who had moved there in 136 SLOVAKIA-2017 search of land and greater liberty. It was a land of unlimited opportunity for those who were able to withstand its rigors. Peasants in Siberia became accustomed to thinking and acting more independently than their kinsmen in European Russia. This would have fateful consequences for the White side during the Russian Civil War. Although there were theaters and other forms of amusement in Omsk, Irkutsk and Vladivostok, the chief form of recreation in Siberia was the consumption of vodka. Harbing, a city the Russians built in Manchuria, on a stretch of land they obtained as a concession from China, boasted a distillery that produced thirty million gallons of vodka per year. Other distilleries in Siberia soon equaled this production . As in many frontier cultures, Siberia was more inclined to dispense alcohol than education. In the late 1880's the American journalist George Kennan observe that in each settlement, there were thirty saloons for every school. Jozef Zeleny liked to drink. He acclimatized to the local culture. He managed to digest kumis (fermented mare ' s milk), and cultivated a genuine fondness for another fermented beverage made of juice derived from reindeer antlers. But, serious drinking involved vodka. For this reason he visited a certain tavern in Omsk in the summer of 1918. There he was attracted to a very striking, brown-eyed blonde. As a rule, women did not frequent taverns unless they were prostitutes. Something in her bearing suggested that she was not. Jozef left her alone. Three days later he encountered her in the local park. She was walking a dog on a leash. It was said to be a Jack Russel , although it had the face of a Pit Bull. Suddenly, two larger unleashed dogs appeared . They bore down upon the little guy. Jozef seized a fallen tree branch and rushed into the fray. The little guy was way ahead of him. Roaring like a lion, he plunged forward and hit one of the bigger dogs with his head, causing it to bowl over. Meanwhile, Jozef hit to other dog with his switch. Both bigger dogs ran off. Man and small dog stood triumphantly on the field of battle. The blonde woman laughed delightedly. "Bravo! " she exclaimmed. "You were both magnificent." Jozef looked at her with narrowed eyes. "I saw you in the tavern a few days ago. I see that you are some kind of lady. You have no business in a place like that. Why did you go there?" SLOVAKIA-2017 137 "Because I was waiting for someone to tell me that, instead of trying to pick me up. I need a friend ... and some help." Jozef was stunned by her answer. This is how he met Ludmilla Suslova. She was a schoolteacher. Her father worked for the Directorate, which claimed to be the government of Siberia. The Directorate consisted of Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries and was opposed to the Bolsheviks in Moscow. The Directorate enjoyed the patronage of the Czechoslovak Legion. Ludmilla's husband had recently abandoned her. Their small house was in need of repair. She needed a good man around the house and Jozef qualified. She told him that he could move in rent-free if he maintained the house. He was amenable to such an arrangement because he currently occupied a tepluska, one of the railway boxcars attached to an armored train, along with other Legionnaires. A comer was set aside for games of cards or chess, but there was no privacy. Jozef and Ludmilla did not bond immediately. He was intimidated by her beauty. He initially bonded with her dog Yasha. He was useless as a watchdog since he barked only at other animals. This sad-eyed canine brought great joy to Jozef s life. Ultimately, nature took its course between Jozef and Ludmilla. One day, when working together in the house, their bodies pressed against each other. Mutually-suppressed desire spontaneously exploded. They did not even make it into the bedroom. Thereafter, they lived as man and wife. *** Both the Western Allies and Japan had long been seeking an excuse to intervene in Russia against the Bolsheviks. Now they had one. In the summer of 1918 they recognized the Czechoslovak Legionnaires as co-belligerents against Germany and Austria-Hungary and could justify landing troops in Siberia under the pretext of rendering aid to their allies. However, the paradigm shifted in the autumn months. The Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary disintegrated in October and on the 28 th the newly-created Czechoslovak Republic emerged. Now the Legionnaires lost interest in fighting the Bolsheviks and just wanted to go home. Furthermore, on November 15 1\ just after the armistice which ended the Great War, the Directory in Omsk was toppled by a 138 SLOVAKIA-2017 military coup. A certain Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak, who just two weeks earlier had been living in a cheap Tokyo hotel, claimed the title of Supreme Commander of all Russia. He was unequal to the task. Although personally honest and well-intentioned, Kolchak had little control over his subordinates, most of whom were thieves and bandits in the pay of the Japanese, and who committed various war crimes against the civilian population. About six months after Kolchak assumed power, just as the black flies and mosquitos in Siberia began to reassert themselves, Captain (yes, he had been promoted) Zeleny had a revealing experience. He passed through a barnyard in which wounded Russian soldiers lay in the hay. The insects attacked the pus oozing from their wounds. Distressed by what he saw, Zeleny approached an elegantlydressed White Russian officer, who was speaking in French to a lady on his arm. "These men are in bad shape!" Jozef exclaimed. "You should help them out!" "Please don ' t talk about things like that," the officer replied . "You' II upset the lady." When Jozef related the incident to Ludmilla, he declared "A regime built upon this kind of shit cannot survive." Ludmilla agreed. Yet, for a time, given the backing of the Western Allies and Japan, it looked as if Kolchak might win. On March 6, 1919, he launched a 700-mile offensive in the Urals that stretched from the forests of fir in the north to the steppes below Oren berg in the south. His armies reached Ufa, halfway between the Urals and the Volga. Here the Whites were met by the Army of Turkestan, as well as the I 51, 4 th and 8 th Red Armies, led by General Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze. Frunze was incapacitated by an artillery concussion while advancing on Ufa, but his subordinate, Vasily lvanovich Chapayev, in command of the 25 th Rifle Regiment, pressed ahead. Chapayev was already a legend among the Reds. As a partisan commander the previous year, he had tangled with the Czechoslovak Legionnaires in the Urals. He had since gone to Moscow for advanced military training. He then returned to the Urals front as a regular field commander. Chapayed was himself wounded in the storming of the city, but the Reds prevailed and captured Ufa on June 81\ Now the way was open for the Reds to cross the Urals. Kolchak's government, to say nothing of the Czechoslovak Legionnaires, prepared to evacuate Omsk. "Marry me," Jozef urged SLOVAKIA-2017 139 Ludmilla. "As an officer's wife, you can return with me to our new country of Czechoslovakia. It will be a good place to live." Ludmilla shook her head sadly. "You Western Slavs can carry your country with you. It is different with us Russians. I can never be at home in another place, regardless of who rules it or how." And so, Jozef and Ludmilla parted ways. Omsk fell to the Red Army on November 14 th . Ludmilla was killed when a stray artillery shell hit her house. A Russian who fled the country later informed Jozef of her death. He never ceased to grieve for her. Happily, Yasha survived and found another home. While evacuating Siberia in 1919, the Czechs and Slovaks kept the best trains for themselves. An exasperated Kolchak cabled his erstwhile subordinate in eastern Siberia, the Kozak atman Grigorii Semyonov, urging him to halt the Czechoslovak trains at all cost. The Legionnaires intercepted the cable and then blocked Kolchak ' s trains at Irkutsk. The desperate Kolchak then abdicated as Supreme Commander of Russia and threw himself on the mercy of the Allies, who now included Czechoslovakia. The previous year the Legionnaires had captured Kazan on the Volga, where they found the tsarist gold reserves . They now negotiated with the Bolsheviks for free rite of passage in return for the gold reserves and the Bolsheviks eagerly accepted. As Kolchak's train, containing cocaine but not much else, reached Irkutsk on January 15, 1920, the Legionnaire guards abandoned him. The city council of Irkutsk then arrested Kolchak. The council consisted of Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries. However, Bolsheviks were also in town. Lenin wanted Kolchak brought to Moscow to stand trial. However, one of Kolchak's commanders tried to rescue him and, when the city council heard of this, it executed Kolchak by firing squad on February 7, 1920 and dumped his body into a hole in the ice on the river Angara. By the end of 1920 the last of the Czechoslovak Legionnaires withdrew by sea from Vladivostok. British and American ships transported them to either Vancouver in Canada or San Francisco in the USA . They then crossed both countries by rail and were shipped to Europe across the Atlantic. Most of them returned to the newlycreated Czechoslovakia. A few decided to remain in the USA. One of them was Jozef Zeleny. *** 140 SLOVAKIA-2017 Jozef had relatives in the Pittsburgh area. The found him employment in the local steel mill. Due to his education and service in the military, Jozko (his pet name) soon became a foreman . He also took an interest in the Slovak community and joined one of their fraternal-benefit societies . Slovak organizations in the Pittsburgh region had played a role in the creation of Czechoslovakia. In 1918 T.G. Masaryk, head of the Czecho-Slovak liberation movement, visited the Mecca of American Slovaks to seek a mandate for the union of the Czechs and Slovaks in a future Czecho-Slovakia because the Slovaks back home were not free to speak their minds. His visit attracted large crowds, including South Slavs. His negotiations with the Slovaks on May 29-31 were quite tempestuous, but led to the signing of the Pittsburgh Agreement, which promised the Slovaks their own Diet, administration, courts, schools and the use of their own language. In other words, home-rule. Unfortunately, when Masaryk returned to the new Czechoslovakia, he first forgot and later repudiated the Pittsburgh Agreement, which led to a breakdown of relations between the Czechs and the Slovaks in the first Czechoslovak Republic. The steel towns of the greater Pittsburgh area were also populated by Carpatho-Rusyns from Hungary. In eastern Slovakia the distinction between Slovak and Rusyn remains somewhat nebulous. Indeed, Jozko qualified as a "Rusnak" (the popular term for Rusyn). Following the lead of the Slovaks, many joined fraternal organizations, which not only provided benefits to workers but published newspapers as well. Through these institutions the Rusyns acquired political awareness . One of their organizations was the Greek Catholic Union headquartered in the Homestead-Munhall district. Another was the United Societies of America, based in McKeesport, which contained both Greek Catholi c and Orthodox members. On July 23 , 1918, they merged to form the American National Council of UhroRusyns. They resolved to join Czechoslovakia in exchange for territorial autonomy. As in the case of the Slovaks, the Prague government decided that they were not ready for autonomy. During the course of his participation in the politics of the fraternals, Jozko bonded with the president of his lodge. Th is individual, Ivan Kosko, some twenty years Zeleny's senior, was personally affable but was hopelessly corrupt. He had been dipping into the treas- SLOVAKIA-2017 141 ury for some time. He knew he would get caught sooner or later if he did not put the money back. Yet Kosko had a certain bargaining collateral. It consisted of a fifteen year-old daughter who was living back in the Old Country in Kosice with an aunt. This dark haired, wind-swept lass was comely to behold. Kosko showed Jozef Zeleny a picture of her as enticement. He indicated that he wanted to have a responsible husband for her in America, but this required money. Kosko pulled it off. In this manner Jozef Zeleny acquired a mailorder bride. Although he would not admit it , he was marrying her to drown the memory of Ludmilla. And, even though he and Marija produced a considerable number of youngsters between them, things did not work. Jozef Zeleny never ceased to mourn for Ludmilla. There were significant differences between man and wife . As a native of the Svidnik area, Jozef was considered a Rusnak, and definitely Pan-Slav. Marija, a native of Kosice, was culturally if not politically Magyarone. She was deeply religious. Jozef was more spiritual than religious. He loved the Old Church Slavonic liturgy of the Greek Catholic Church. But he never went to confession. Marija asked him why. He explained it to her: "When I was back there in Ludovika, I had to work in the summers, to pay for my arrears and the upkeep of my horse during the school year. I was employed on the property of an affluent priest. One day, when I went to pitch hay in the barn, I heard giggling coming from the haystack. His Reverence was having a romp in the hay with one of the local girls. Alright, this man might represent God when he stands before the altar. But when he steps back from the altar, he is as capable of sin and error as anyone else. I' ll be damned if I answer before him or anyone else." Jozef followed political developments in the New Czechoslovak Republic with great interest. Although he had seen the White side for what it was worth during the course of the Russian Civil War, he had a certain admiration for General Milan Rastislav Stefanik, who was definitely anti-Bolshevik. Stefanik hailed from a village called Kosariska, in the Brezova district of western Slovakia. During the 1848 revolution against Hungarian rule, a famous battle was fought at Brezova. Slovak mountaineers, fighting on their own terms and on their own terrain, defeated the Hungarian military in the otherwise disastrous September campaign. 142 SLOVAKIA-2017 Such was Stefanik ' s heritage. As the son of a Lutheran minister, he was raised in a particularly patriotic regional environment. To assure his son's advancement without the latter succumbing to the pressures of magyarization, his father helped Milan obtain a scholarship in Prague. The old man was utterly appalled with the results. Milan became an agnostic among a circle of Slovak intellectuals in Prague who rallied under Czech philosophy professor T.G. Masaryk. He became the president of the Slovak student organization in Prague known as Detvan. The students in Detvan tended to major in the mundane sciences. Although Stefanik attended Masaryk' s philosophy classes, he majored in astronomy. Upon graduation, he borrowed some money, emigrated to France, and found employment in the Medoun observatory near Paris. In this capacity he engaged in roughly a dozen learned expeditions to other countries. He acquired French citizenship in 1912. He also learned how to fly. Stefanik thus became an officer in the air corps of the French Army when the Great War began. Given his membership on the Czechoslovak National Council, the French eventually accorded Stefanik the rank of brigadiergeneral. He became the driving force in the creation of the Czechoslovak Legion . In this capacity he clashed with Edvard Benes, who soon became foreign minister in the new Czechoslovak Republic. On the other hand, Stefanik advocated pressing an offensive against the Bolsheviks in Siberia, whereas Benes followed Masaryk' s lead in avoiding intervention in Russia's internal affairs. Then there was the issue of Slovak autonomy. Stefanik came from a school of Slovaks who were considered more pro-Czech than the Czechs themselves . Yet, during the Great War, he had occasion to visit the United States, where he solicited American Slovak support. After his interactions with the fraternal leaders, Stefanik considered that, with their advice and financial support, Slovakia could be worthy of autonomy. He resented his name being inscribed to a declaration of independence for Czechoslovakia which made no provision for Slovakia's status . Stefanik and Benes hated each other. Stefanik regarded Benes as "this first grade socialist, this paper revolutionary, this distorted diplomat." Benes responded by labeling Stefanik as "this astronomer who thinks he is a soldier, this peasant who thinks he is an aristocrat, this politician who thinks he is a genius. " SLOVAKIA-2017 143 Insofar as Benes was entrenched in Prague while Stefanik was with the Legion in Siberia, the Czech foreign minister had the upper hand. Benes had the ministry of defense bifurcated. Stefanik, as Minister of War, retained command of Czechoslovakia's armed forces abroad (the Legion in Siberia), while a clone of Benes, Vaclav Klofac, became the Minister of National Defense .. Stefanik nonetheless prepared to return home. He made official visits to France and Italy. On the morning of May 5, 1919, he boarded a Caproni aircraft in the north Italian city of Udine. It was a three hour flight to Bratislava, Stefanik's intended destination. As he circled the runway of Vajnory, his plane suddenly fell to the ground from a height of 500 meters. Some witnesses charged that Stefanik' s plane had been shot down by a Czech artillery battery. The incident was officially described as an accident. Indeed, this might well have been the case. No evidence has ever been found that Benes had Stefanik murdered. This unfortunate incident came at a time when the Czechoslovak Republic was experiencing border clashes with Hungary, at this time under a Bolshevik government. The markings on the Caproni aircraft (red, white and green) were identical to the Hungarian national colors, albeit in horizontal order. Yet, years afterward, members of the artillery battery maintained that they were given their orders and that there was no mistake. They were expecting that plane. It stood to reason that there would be an appropriate state funeral. Its proceedings were recorded by Robert W. Seton-Watson, a distinguished British historian, who attended. Being Scottish, SetonWatson had a certain romantic attraction for a people who were highlanders with a heroic attitude towards life. He had championed the Slovak cause when they were under Hungarian rule. During the Great War, R. W. Seton-Watson served as adviser to the British government on Eastern European affairs. He became a personal friend of T. G. Masaryk. If Masaryk is said to be the founding father of Czechoslovakia, then Seton-Watson qualifies as the godfather. Seton-Watson description of Stefanik's funeral remains poignant to this day. Bratislava had only recently been occupied by the Czechs. Seton-Watson noted that Skols - Czech gymnastic society members recently assuming para-military roles - kept perfect order during the funeral procession, which extended a mile and a half: "Considering that the Czechs have been here exactly three months in 144 SLOVAKIA-2017 occupation of the town ... it was a ceremony which must have duly impressed the naturally lukewarm Magyar and German citizens, as suggesting that the newcomers had come to stay and are perfectly capable of taking charge." In regard to the aftermath of the ceremonies, Seton-Watson noted: "the coffin left for Brezova ... where the Slovak peasants - this seems to me so typical of their good taste and feeling - have on their accord hewn a rock grave for him on the highest point of the Little Carpathians, overlooking the whole western district." *** A former Legionnaire sent an account of Stefanik' s funeral to Jozef. Jozef mourned for Stefanik. He also subscribed to the theory that Stefanik had been murdered at the instigation of the foreign ministry . He began brooding deeply on the relationship between his life and the recent historical events. He began having nightmares. Throughout the odyssey across Siberia, Jozef had observed atrocities. These not only consisted of the usual burned villages and the numerous hanging of peasants. The Legionnaires became desensitized to the likes of that. But Jozef also had occasion to witness the grisly mutilation of innocent peasants by Kozaks and Mongols. These haunted his dreams. In any case, he could no longer sleep without vodka. And he still grieved for Ludmilla. There are people who, following the death of a spouse or loved one, marry, produce children, yet still grieve for the deceased a full decade later. Jozef Zeleny was such an individual. Eventually, he began taking out his angst on family members. Three specific incidents merit scrutiny. The first of these concerned his eldest daughter, Margarite, when she was twelve years old. He was drinking heavily that day when he could no longer hold his alcohol as he had previously. Margarite was playing hop scotch with other girls. Her father summoned her home with a single whistle. "Ah, gee whiz, I always gotta go," she complained to her friends. Jozef overheard the remark and did not like it. He belabored his daughter with his razor strap repeatedly and with vigor. The next day (when he was sober), he saw Margarite disrobe to step into the wash tub . Her noted the black and blue marks on her back and her rump. SLOVAKIA-2017 145 "Who did this to you?" he gasped. "You did!" Marija threw it back m his face. "When she was playing hop scotch." Jozko paled and lowered his head. "I'll never beat her again," he vowed. Indeed, on this he kept his word. But he was still capable of emotional excess. On one occasion, when Marija was out of the house, he was minding the youngsters. One infant daughter, Leona, messed her diapers. Her father flew into a rage. His eldest son, Janko, was now a big, strapping young man. Aware of his father's capacity for violence, he intervened decisively. He picked up a railroad tie and cracked his father across the ribs, breaking two of them. Father and son never got close to each other again. Yet the most egregious emotional excess of Jozef Zeleny was yet to come. It concerned one of his daughters, named Helena, the beauty of the litter. Endowed with long dark hair and green eyes, Helena looked more Magyar than Slovak. One could tell she would do well one day. One day, at age seventeen, Helena came home from school, at a time when her mother was not home. There had been a layoff in the steel mill, which extended to the level of foreman . Consequently Jozef Zeleny simply lay around the house, drinking and whittling wood. And now, his daughter was home. "Where is your mother?" he demanded. "I don ' t know," she responded. "You are lying! " her father bellowed. And he threw his knife at her. Here it should be noted that Jozef Zeleny, having been trained by Gypsies, was an excellent knife thrower, whether he was drunk or sober. If he wanted to impale his daughter, he definitely would have done so. The knife whizzed past her head and pinned a lock of her hair against the wall behind her. In a state of shock, Helena's head hit the wall, and she fell to the floor unconscious. When she woke, she could not walk for the next two months. The attending doctor legally petitioned for her to be taken out of the house. She was moved into the house of her elder sister Margarite, now married. As Helena recovered, Margarite made her scrub floors and generally worked her like a dog. 146 SLOVAKIA-2017 Helena Zelenova nonetheless became the most successful of Jozko ' s offspring. She became a cocktail waitress. In this capacity she encountered a piano player in a night club. Reinhard Wolfmeister, of Germanic origin, was not your ordinary piano player. He qualified as a genuine pianist. He began playing piano at age four, had an affection for Chopin, and progressed to Paderewski. He attained such a mastery of Paderewski that he qualified for a scholarship in music at the Sorbonne, in Paris. His mother wanted him to be a doctor. After three years of pre-med at the University of Pittsburgh, Reinhard decided he did not want to be a doctor. This being the era of the Great Depression, he could look down the bluff from Mount Washington and see the tin shantytowns. He decided people didn ' t have enough money to afford doctors. So, instead, he took two courses at the Robert Morris Business College, gained employment in a freight shipping company, and was eventually dragged, kicking and screaming, upstairs to the vice- presidency. Yet insofar as he still loved music, he played piano in nightclubs in the evenings. He worked two jobs. He made money and invested it wisely. Eventually, the Wolfmeister family moved to Florida. Here Helena integrated herself into the local society so well that her Slovak sisters came to describe her as the "Queen of the Jews." *** Jozef Zeleny had enough intelligence left to realize he was losing it. Marija passed away after a brief illness, and he mourned for her. But he still grieved for Ludmilla to an even greater extent. Then there was Helena's forthcoming marriage. Having a heroic attitude towards life, Jozef Zeleny could not appreciate that which was unheroic. His upcoming son-in-law could have been a concert pianist in Paris, yet opted to become the manager of a trucking company in Pittsburgh instead. It made no sense. Jozko once again began to brood deeply. He had worked long enough in the steel industry to benefit from the gains that labor unions made for steelworkers under the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He had a nice pension and began looking for an exit. SLOVAKIA-2017 147 Jozef had a cousin who lived in Monongahela. He asked if he could visit there for several weeks "for reasons of mental health." His cousin replied in the affirmative. Jozef had yet to reach his dreadful decision when he first went to Monongahela. Yet it is worth nothing that he had one previous experience with hypothermia. Several years back, he had been three miles from home on the coldest night of the winter. The temperature was fifteen degrees below zero and accompanied by thirty mile-an-hour winds. It was snowing horizontally throughout the Monongahela valley. The public transportation system was paralyzed. Jozko was jumping up and down in a futile attempt to warm himself. Since it was too cold to walk, he ran and ran and ran. At the end of the second mile, he wasn't cold anymore. He began feeling like Ulysses hearing the calling of the Sirens. He experienced an erection. And he wanted to lie down and go to sleep. Then he realized what was happening. He was beginning to freeze. Jozef Zeleny resisted the temptation to succumb. He pushed on the last mile to the tavern, where he rented a room upstairs. Ice hung from his normally upturned moustaches. After four shots of vodka, he thawed out... except for his feet. Even though he had worn two pairs of socks, frostbite had gotten into his feet. It felt like he was walking on concrete blocks for the next sixteen hours. Aside from that, it had been a euphoric experience. And so, in Monongahela, Jozko frowned thoughtfully as the wind hit hard and it was obvious that a snowstorm was on the way. "I'm going for a walk," he announced. "JEE-zus Ker-RIST! " his cousin exclaimed. "It's colder than a well digger's ass out there! Have you lost your f'ck"n mind?" I have my reasons," Jozef replied cryptically. He commenced walking across the ridge in a westerly direction. The snowstorm blew into his face. In spite of the severity of the weather, he perceived the terrain as being beautiful. It reminded him of Siberia. As the delirium which accompanies hypothermia took hold, Jozef saw an image before him. It was Ludmilla. He staggered forward. *** 148 SLOVAKIA-2017 Most people who knew her agreed that Celeste Romanczykowa was a rough piece of work. Her house - little more than a cottage stood atop the ridge to which Jozef was ascending. Celeste was the product of a union between a Polish coal miner and a West Virginia hillbilly. So it stood to reason that she could be fractious at times. Auburn, brown eyed, and generously endowed in the breasts and the rump, she was comely to behold to men who are not obsessed with skinny women. Celeste was a widow. Her coal miner husband had died of black lung three years earlier. She was noted for a good heart, and loved dogs. But she did not suffer tyranny gracefully, and consequently ignored the overtures of her husband 's cronies among the coal miners. She lived alone and was lonely. As the snowstorm moved in, she went out on the hillside to gather wood. She saw the strange figure staggering up the hill. "Who are you?" she asked, pulling him by the sleeve. He muttered a few words in Slovak. Being half-Polish, she more or less understood. If she did not know who he was, she understood what he was. She dragged him into the house. Once he reached the couch, he collapsed unconscious. Through a neighbor, Celeste summoned the local doctor. After administering Jozef some medicine, he declared: "If you had discovered him an hour later, it would have been too late. But now I think he'll make it. Just keep him warm. Celeste gazed down at the man on the coach. She noticed the upturned moustaches. Her paternal side of the family had come from the Dukla Pass, between Poland and Slovakia. She perceived that he had at some point in his life been a cavalryman. Later, when his eyes opened, she became hypnotized by their ice blue, steel glaze. Jozko stirred. "Ludmilla, ... " he murmured. "You hush now," she said softly. "I' m going to take care of you." He opened his eyes. And smiled.  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 Siberia: A Slovak Folk Tale Description An account of the resource R. Vladimir Baumgarten Slovakia, Vol. 43 (No. 80-81), 2017 pp. 133-148 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Baumgarten, R. Vladimir Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/9b607f90c3dd9a49f7fca1ce7e120b68.pdf 529bb88cf46f523dfd6737d72b749b3d PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 2019 83 RUSSOPHILES WITHOUT RUSSIA R. Vladimir Baumgarten (Dedicated to the Memory ofNikolaj Ordos) The Carpatho-Rusyns, technically a stateless people, have been dubbed the "Kurds of Central Europe." They straddle the northern and southern slopes of the Carpathian mountains in the border re1 gions of Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine and Romania. Since the 1989 revolutions and the collapse of Communism in East Central Europe, both the Slovak and Polish governments have recognized the Carpatho-Rusyns as a distinct nationality. Ukraine, where the largest number of Rusyns dwell, does not. After World War II, incoming communist governments classified the Rusyns as Ukrainians by administrative fiat for reasons of convenience, which shall be explained below. The current post-communist government of Ukraine adamantly adheres to this position. 2 Further west, across the Uz river, many Carpatho-Rusyns in eastern Slovakia have voluntari ly assimilated into the Slovak nationality, for reasons which shall likewise be explained in this essay. The first impetus for the Rusyn national awakening came from a belief that they were part of a Great Russian nation, extending "from the Poprad River [in eastern Slovakia] to the Pacific." 3 The Russophile tradition influenced Carpatho-Rusyn culture and politics for a full century. An examination of its history reveals more than a few 1 Paul Robert Magocsi , " Mapping Stateless Peoples: The East Slavs of the Carpathians," Canadian Slavonic Papers, XXIX, Nos. 3-4 ( 1997), 301-54. 2 The Ukrainophile viewpoint was exemplified by Viacheslav Chomovil ( 19371999). During the Brezhnev era, Chomovil was a dissident journalist and human rights activist. He was sent to the labor camps several times for separatist activities. In the late I 980's he was one of the leaders of the People's Movement of Ukraine (better-known as Rukh). After the Soviet Union disintegrated and Ukraine became independent, Chomovil became alarmed by the Rusyn political renaissance. He considered it separatist and urged the Prosecutor General's office in Kiev to file charges aga inst its protagonists. 3 Paul Robert Magocsi , "The Nationalist lntelligentia and the Peasantry in Twentieth Century Subcarpathian Rus "', in Magocs i, Of the Making of Nationalities Th ere is No End, Vol. I (New York, 1999), 19. �84 SLOVAKIA 2019 ironies. In retrospect, it seems remarkable that the Russophile tradition lasted as long as it did. Indeed, remnants of it exist to this day. The current essay is an attempt to explain its rise and fall. The Russophile Tradition in Habsburg Hungary, Galicia and America The homeland of the Carpatho-Rusyns has been alternatively referred to as Ruthenia, Podkarpatska Rus' (Subcarpathian Rus '), Transcarpathia and Carpatho-Ukraine. For reasons of convenience, this author shall refer to it as Podkarpatska Rus' . It was part of the Kingdom of Hungary for about 900 years. Much of Podkarpatska Rus' was a game preserve for the Hungarian nobility. Its Eastern Slav peasants, shepherds and lumberjacks were forbidden to hunt the deer, even when the latter devoured the people's meagre cabbage plots. Starvation was common. The Rusyns were the most impoverished and illiterate ethnic group in the Hungarian kingdom. Originally a bastion of the Russian Orthodox Church, the homeland of the Carpatho-Rusyns was a battleground and passageway in the ongoing struggle between the Austrian Habsburgs and the Transylvanian princes. In order to wean these people away from any allegiance to the Transylvanian princes, most of whom were Calvinists, the Habsburgs decided to incorporate them into the Roman Catholic Church. They accomplished this by creating a Slavonic/Greek Rite of the church. At the Union of Uzhorod (April 24, 1646), 63 Orthodox priests pledged to recognize the primacy of the pope and the sanctity of Roman Catholic doctrine in exchange for keeping the Slavonic liturgy and a married clergy.4 These clergymen were exempted from the feudal burdens of serfdom, received an income from their parishioners, and could send their sons to seminaries in the Habsburg Monarchy for higher education. Despite this favorable concession from the Imperial House, the Rusyns remained generally loyal to their Magyar lords. This was especially the case of the Kuruc (Crusader) uprising and freedom war of Ferenc Rakoczi II ( 1703-1711 ). 4 For the most comprehensive study of this event, see Michal Lacko, "The Union of Uzhorod," Slovak Studies, VI ( 1966), 7-190. �SLOVAK.IA 2019 85 The contribution of the Rusyns was sufficiently valorous for them to receive the title gens fidelissima ("the most faithful people").5 In the first half of the nineteenth century, when the various Slavic nationalities of the Habsburg Monarchy-Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs and Croats-launched their own national revivals, the Rusyns were slow to respond. No Rusyns attended the Slav Congress during the revolutionary year 1948. On the contrary, Greek Catholic seminarians in Uzhorod abandoned their intended vocations in order to volunteer for the Hungarian honveds (National Guard) during Hungary' s 1848-1849 war of independence.6 A few educated Rusyns were aware of a certain kinship with Russia. In 1791 Ivan Orlai ( 1771-1829) emigrated to Russia. A schoolteacher, he had been denied advancement in the Austrian system of education. In St. Petersburg he studied medicine and ultimately became court surgeon, actively working in the reorganization of the Russian medical profession. He advised the Ministry of Education to invite other educated Rusyns "since they usually know Church Slavonic thoroughly." 7 Orlai served as Mentor to Nikolaj Gogol, author of Taras Bulba, the Russified Ukrainian who ultimately became one of the literary giants of nineteenth-century Russia. Orlai encouraged other Russian scholars to take an interest in their kinsmen on the other side of the Carpathians. Meanwhile, a Greek Catholic eparchy was established in Presov, eastern Slovakia, in 1818. Its eparch (bishop), Hrihory Tarkovych, was an active pioneer of Russian culture. In expanding his library, he imported the complete works of the eighteenth-century Russian intellectual and scientist Mikhail Lomonosov.8 5 The Rusyns gained this title as a result of a battle fought near Trencin castle in western Slovakia on August 4, 1708. During the fi ghting Rakoczi vaulted across a ravine on horseback. He was thrown forward , striking his head and losing consciousness. His Carpatho-Rusyn peasant infantry held its ground long enough for him to be carried from the fi eld. Outnumbered and outgunned by the Imperial regulars, these Rusyns were subsequently massacred. 6 Paul Robert Magocsi, The Shaping of a National Identity: Subcarpathian Rus: / 848-1 948 (Cambridge, MA: 1978), 43. 7 Elaine Rusinko, Straddling Borders: Literature and Identity in Subcarpathian Rus ' (Toronto, 2008), 99. 8 Athanasius Pekar, The History of the Church in Carpathian Rus' (New York, 1992), 89. �86 SLOVAKIA 2019 The first real impetus for the Carpatho-Rusyn awakening came as a result of the Russian military intervention against the Hungarian war of independence in 1849. It was not undertaken to liberate the Slavs of Hungary who were in a state of revolt against Magyar tyranny. Tsar Nicholas I of Russia employed far more autocratic powers than did the House of Habsburg and regarded the stamping out of the fires of revolution, which had swept Europe since the previous year, as a self-evident duty. Polish revolutionary veterans were serving on the Hungarian side and he feared the spread of revolution to his Polish possessions. Nicholas was no Pan-Slav. Two years earlier a nest of such agitators had been discovered in Kiev. It called itself "The Brotherhood of Sts . Cyril and Methodius," and, according to Nicholas, its adherents had invented some monstrosity called the Ukrainian nationality. One of its leading members was not only Ukraine's best poet, but its best painter as well. His people sought ties with the Czechs and Slovaks. Nicholas saw to it that several of them were jailed and he had Taras Schevcenko drafted into the Russian army for ten years, during which time he was forbidden to write or sketch. 9 A number of Russian Pan-Slav politically conservative individuals sympathized with the Slovak people. Tsar Nicholas admonished the Slavophile journalist Ivan Aksakov ( 1823-1886) that, under the guise of a general Slav alliance, subversive elements in the Kingdom of Hungary wished to create a struggle which was not in the name of 0 God, but in a spirit of mutiny, which was dangerous to Russia. ' The Russian military commanders carefully studied the earlier conflicts between the Habsburgs and the Transylvanian princes . They observed that The Austrians had traditionally moved against Transylvania by starting from Kosice in eastern Slovakia. It was considered safer to cross the Hornad and Tisa rivers in the Carpathian 11 foothills than to assault Transylvania from the Hungarian plain. On June 9, the main Russian army commanded by Field Marshal Ivan Paskievitch, consisting of 70,890 soldiers and 240 cannon poured into Slovakia through the Dukla Pass from partitioned Po9 Pav lo Zaitsev, Taras Shevchenko. A Life (Toronto, 1989), 139-57. °Cudovit Holotik, "The Slovaks: An Integrating or Disintegrating Force?" Austrian 1 Histo ry Yearbook, III , Part 2 ( 1967): 2. 11 William Stiles, Austria in 1848-50, II (New York, 1850), 294. Stiles was the American charge d'affaires in Vienna during the revolutionary events of 1848-49. �SLOVAKIA 2019 87 land. The Russians captured Presov on June 20 and took Kosice five days later. To supply their army, the Russians stockpiled large amounts of foodstuffs at the northern end of the Dukla Pass. However, the military bureaucracy of Tsar Nicholas was inefficient. Provisions were made to transport the artillery but not the food . Austrian quartermasters, who also had a supply of food , and were allied with the Russians, had fled the area. The Russian soldiers, hungry and exasperated, turned to plunder. Don Cossacks looted a number of Slovak villages so thoroughly that the inhabitants fled into the for12 ests . The Russian intervention in this area would be remembered with ill-feelings by Magyars and non-Magyars alike. There were Slovak Pan-Slavs who were willing to overlook Russian misconduct. They convinced themselves that Grand Duke Konstantin was preparing to transfer his headquarters from Warsaw to Kosice, where he would proclaim a new Slav state. Slovak leaders appealed to the Russian embassy and military mission in Vienna for recognition. They requested that Slovak advisors and regional administrators be attached to the Russian military in eastern Slovakia. Tsar Nicholas replied to one such request "I received the same thing yesterday from Danilevsky [the Russian consul in Belgrade]. I have no time for such matters." 13 On the other hand, the reception of Russian military intervention was not universally negative. Rusyn peasants in the highlands witnessed a mighty Slav army in their region for the first time. They were awed. They gave fruits and nuts to the invaders. Aleksander Dukhnovych, soon to become an awakener among the Rusyns, later wrote, "One thing really gave me joy in life, and that was in 1849 when I first saw the glorious Rus sian army .. .I can't describe the feeling of gladness at seeing the first Cossacks on the streets of Presov. I danced and cried with delight. .. It was truly the first, perhaps the last, joy of my life." 14 Aleksander Dukhnovych (1803-1865) was born in the village of Topol 'a in the Humenne region of eastern Slovakia. He was descended from Greek Catholic priests and was consequently educated 12 John Shelton Curtis, The Russian Army under Nicholas I, 1925-/ 854 (Durham, NC, 1865), 298 . 13 Holotik, 383. 14 Quoted in Magocsi, The Shaping of a National Identity, 45. �88 SLOVAKIA 2019 at the Theological Seminary in Uzhorod. After ordination as a priest in 1827, he was assigned to the bishop 's chancellery in Presov. His relatively progressive views clashed with those of the more conservative Tarkovych, who then assigned him to a relatively remote rural parish. Dukhnovych regarded his assignment as a godsend. In Uzhorod he had received a Hungarian education, which influenced his early writings. In the rural parish he discovered, or re-discovered, "the people." He was influenced by the Slovak National Awakening and applied its precepts to the awakening of his own Rusyn people. After the death of Tarkovych, Dukhnovych was reassigned to Presov and appointed eparchical canon in 1843 . He remained closely associated with the city-considered a Rusyn cultural center in spite of its Slovak majority- for the rest of his life. In 1850, after the suppression of the Hungarian revolution, Dukhnovych established the first Rusyn cultural association, the Presov Literary Society. His own literary contribution was considerable. In 1851 he composed the poem "Vruchanie," whose opening lines "I was, am, and will remain a Rusyn" became the motif for the unofficial anthem of the Carpatho-Rusyn people. He researched and wrote extensively on the Rusyn people. His monumental achievement was the play "Virtue is More Important than Riches," which is still performed regularly in regional theatres in eastern Slovakia and western Ukraine. 15 The ethical values expressed in this play mirror Dukhnovych 's role as a social reformer. He campaigned vigorously against illiteracy, alcoholism, and the lingering pagan superstitions which persisted among his people. The literary language employed-indeed, invented by Dukhnovych-was peculiar. It was a blend of Old Church Slavonic, standard Russian and the native dialect. His later disciples called it "the traditional Carpatho-Rusyn langage," while his critics derrided it as "jazychije" (macaronic jargon). 16 Indeed, while Dukhnovych was the greatest of the Rusyn awakeners, he inhibited the establishment of a distinctive Rusyn identity by his unequivocal adherence to the Great Russian idea. 15 For an English-language translation, see Aleksander Duchnovych, Virtue is More Important than Riches, ed. by Elai ne Rusinko (New York, 1994). 16 See the entry "Dukhnovych, Aleksander," in Paul Robert Magocs i and Robert Popp, eds. , Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture (Toronto, 2005), I06. �SLOVAKIA 2019 89 If Dukhnovych was the unquestioned giant among the Rusyns in the realm of culture, then Adolf Dobrian' skyi ( 1817-1901) fulfilled this function in the realm of politics. Dobrian'skyi was born in Rudl'ov, Zemplin county, Slovakia, the son of a Greek Catholic priest. He attended secondary schools in Levoca, Roznava and Misko le, and then studied philosophy in Kos ice ( 1833 ), law in Eger (1834-36) and mining at the Academy of Mines and Forests in Banska Stiavnica, central Slovakia. He was fluent in several foreign languages, including Magyar, German, French, English and Italian. He visited Bohemia, where he was influenced by Frantisek Palacky, Karel Havlicek and other Czech national awakeners. Dobrian'skyi initially welcomed Hungary' s 1848 Revolution for the liberal reforms that it promised. But when the Slovak district of Banska Bystrica elected him as its representative to the Hungarian Diet, the Hungarian government rejected his mandate on the grounds of Pan-Slavism. Dobrian'skyi then indeed became a Pan-Slav. He moved to Presov, where he built a following which advocated a political union of the Rusyns of Hungary with those of Austrian Galicia. When the Russians prepared to invade Hungary, the Austrian government appointed him as its liason with Paskievitch. Dobrian 'skyi then served as advisor to the Russian military. After the defeat of revolutionary Hungary, the Austrian government imposed a centralist bureaucratic regime. Dobrian' skyi then became advisor to the Uzhorod Civil District, which encompassed four counties. He regarded the civil district as a prelude to the establishment of an autonomous Rusyn state under the Emperor of Austria. 17 Defeated in the Austro-Sardinian war of 1859, The Habsburg Monarchy was substantially weakened. It was forced to retreat from bureaucratic centralism and make concessions to the Magyars. Dobrian' skyi was recalled , and the old nobles began to reoccupy county positions. In 1866 Austria suffered another defeat, this time at the hands of Prussia, and resigned itself in 1867 to accepting the Magyar nobility as equal partners in the renamed Dual Monarchy of AustriaHungary. Emperor Franz-Josef allowed himself to be crowned King of Hungary in Budapest and the Hungarian nobles were granted complete self-government in internal affairs. By now their obsession 17 See the entry " Dobrian' skyi, Adolf," in Magocsi and Popp, eds., Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, 93. �90 SLOVAK.IA 2019 with Pan-Slavism reached paranoid proportions . They viewed the magyarization of Hungary's Slavic minorities as imperative. Persecution of Slovak and Carpatho-Rusyn educational and cultural institutions became the order of the day. A similar course evolved in Galicia, the Austrian province of partitioned Poland. Shortly after the 1867 Compromise with Hungary came into effect, Empreor Franz-Josef appointed his trusted Polish confidant Count Agenor Goluchowski as Viceroy of Galicia. Goluchowski gained for his Polish nobles a degree of autonomy that mirrored that of the Magyars. The education system was polonized. This posed a direct threat to the advancement of the Rusyns. Educated Rusyns became politically divided. The Ukrainian movement gained the greatest strength . However, there were still Rusyns who adhered to the traditions of old Rus' .They stubbornly continued to write in Old Church Slavonic and isolated themselves from the people. Cultureally, these Old Ruthenians identified with Russia, but professed allegiance to the Austrian Emperor. Such a dual allegiance became more difficult to maintain as the nineteenth-century ran its course. Austria and Russia were no longer allies, and were in fact competing for hegemony in the Balkans. Similarly, the Rusyns of Galicia found themselves cast in the role of a political football in the rivalry of the two empires. A case in point was the career of Ivan Naumovych (1826-1891), who was born Galicia in 1836. In his youth he was strongly influenced by the Polish national movement. However, he experienced a turning point during the revolutionary year of 1848, when there was a brief uprising in the city of Lviv. Naumovych was observing the fighting from a hillside when imperial soldiers spotted him and assumed he was a Polish rebel. They arrested him, but Naumovych persuaded them to release him by convincing the Austrians that he was a Russian. 18 Being Russian, Naumovych decided, carried certain privileges. After 1850, when Naumovych was ordained a Greek Catholic priest, he became staunchly Russophile in cultural orientation. He organized opposition to a campaign organized by the Roman Catholic Polish clergy to latinize the liturgy of the Greek rite. In this ca18 Keith Dyrud, The Quest fo r th e Rusyn Soul: The Politics of Religion and Culture in Eastern Europ e and America, 1890-World War I (Philadelphia, 1992), 28. �SLOVAKIA 2019 91 pacity he sought Russian support. At this point, Naumovych did not convert to Orthodoxy . He still regarded the Greek Catholic (Uniate) church as a potential bridge between Eastern and Western Christendom. Nontheless, inspired by his activism, an entire village in eastern Galicia converted to Orthodoxy in May of 1877. More conversions followed in the next three years. The Galician authorities charged Naumovych with treason. In their view his activity was not religious but political. Naumovych had indeed maintained contact with Russian Pan-Slav agents. 19In July of 1882 he was finally convicted and sentenced to eight months in jail. Other Rusyns who converted to Orthodoxy likewise found themselves hauled into court, although, surprisingly, a Polish jury acquitted them. Both the Austrian government and Polish patriots understood the necessity of not pushing the Old Ruthenians to the point of open subversion. The Ukrainophile movement predominated in Galicia, but the Russophile tradition was not going to go away. Galicia, unlike Russian Ukraine, was not a particularly productive agricultural region. Much of the countryside is hilly and the soil is poor. A bad harvest usually resulted in famine , and this happened at the beginning of the twentieth century. Russian Pan-Slavs responded by founding the Galician-Russian Benevolent Association in St. Petersburg on February 9, 1903. At the opening meeting acertain Father Petrov delivered the inaugural address. American historian Keith Dyrud described the subsequent address as follows: He likened the world to an artist's palette or a musician 's instrument. God was that artist or musician. The nationalities of the world were like colors on the palette or strings on the instrument. If some of the colors or strings are missing, the painting or music will be incomplete and this is a crime against the spirit. This crime against the spirit occurs when a culture allows itself to become divided. The separation of the people of Galicia and Carpatho-Russia (Subcarpathia) from the Russian nation was just such a crime . It is the obligation of a national culture to unite its people into a united nation. In other words, the orator was suggesting that it was 19 Ibid ., 28 . �92 SLOVAK.IA 2019 the obligation of Russia to unite in a single nation all people with a Russian culture. He included the Galicians and Subcarpathians 20 among the people with a Russian culture. Under the leadership of Count Vladimir Bobrinski , the GalicianRussian Benevolent Association extended financia l relief to famine victims of Galicia. Tsarist Russia, the most despotic and reactionary among the Great Powers, could appear benevolent while working to expand its influence. Bobrinski likewise dispatched agents to Podparkarpatska Rus ' , where starvation was an everyday occurrence, rather than a momentous event. The Hungarian government was less hesitant than its Austrian counterpart to prosecute Rusyns for conversion to the Orthodox faith. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the first converts to the Orthodox faith in Podkarpatska Rus ' materialized in the vi llage of Iza. They were simple peasants who disliked their pastor, a magyarized Rusyn, who replaced their language with Magyar in the parish school. Led by the cantor-teacher Andry Vladymir, they appealed to the Serbian patriarch, who had nominal authority over all Orthodox subjects of the Habsburg Monarchy, to send them an Orthodox priest. Greek Catholic priest and historian Athanasius Pekar, himself a Ukrainophile, later admitted: "All that needed to be done to liquidate the so-called 'Orthodox movement' in Iza was to appoint a new village pastor and reopen the parish school." 2 1 Instead, the Hungarian government arrested the participants late in 1903 for alleged ties with Russia, and in the following year placed them on trial in Marmaros. All the defendants were found gui lty of treason. The Maramaros trial made a deep impression on the mind of a simple woodcutter of Iasnyia named Aleksander Kabaliu (18771947). He had just been released from the army, where he had been persecuted by Hungarian officers for his Pan-Slav inclinations. Kabuliak had a pronounced inclination towards a monastic life . He made religious pilgrimages to Russia, Jerusalem and Mount Athos in Greece. At a Russian monastery in the last-named location, he was received into the Orthodox fold . He turned his home in Iasnyia into a veritable Russian museum, collecting and displaying icons. Fearing 20 21 Ibid. , 49-50. Pekar, I 05 . �SLOVAKIA 2019 93 persecution by Hungarian authorities, Kabaliuk emigrated to the Russian Empire, where he was tonsured as a monk in 1910. The Russian Orthodox Church initially intended that Kabaliuk wou ld go to America and assume custody of a modest parish in Pittsburgh.22 Instead, he decided to return to Hungary to share in the martyrdom of the villagers of Iza. The Hungarian authorities were happy to oblige him. At the end of 1913 there was a second Maramaros trial, in which Kabaliuk and 94 peasants were the defendants. The Hungarians were hopeful that the trial would expose the activities of Count Bobrinskii and his associates. All it achieved was international condemnation of Magyar policies . Nonetheless, Kabaliuk was sentenced to four and a half years in jail, while 32 others were sentenced to one or two years and various fines. The rest were dismissed for lack of evidence. It was also at the tum of the century that many Rusyns followed the example of their Slovak kinsmen and neighbors in emigrating to America. Although members of both groups originated in the dirtpoor hill country of the eastern Carpathians, they tended to gravitate towards industrial centers in the United States. Surprisingly, America provided both stimulus for the Russophile tradition and a resurgence of the Russian Orthodox faith. Dyrud writes: The majority of the Rusyn immigrants came to the United States as illiterate peasants and had not participated in the intellectual and cultural conflicts that were raging in the old country. Thus it was in this country that Rusyn peasants from Galicia and Subcarpathia first lived together and found that they did not have as much in common as it first seemed. And it was in the United States that many of them first heard of the Ukrainian movement. And it was there that the Rusyns from Subcarpathia felt free to express national sentiments without the pressures of magyarization. It was in the United States that most of the Rusyn immigrants were told for the first time by the Russian Orthodox mission that they were really Russians. 23 22 See the entry "Kabaliuk, Aleksander," in Magocsi and Popp, eds., Encyclopedia o[ Ru syn History and Culture, 223. 2 Dyrud, 58 . �94 SLOVAK.IA 2019 Ironically, the Russian cause was indirectly aided by a most unlikely element: Irish American Catholic priests. Many of the latter resented the fact that Greek Catholic candidates for the priesthood were permitted to marry while they were not. Most outstanding was Archbishop John Ireland of Minneapolis-St. Paul. On December 19, 1889, he was visited by a Greek Catholic priest named Alexis Toth. Toth had been dispatched by the Presov eparchy to assume the pastorship of St. Mary ' s, a modest church recently constructed by the Rusyn community of Minneapolis. When Father Toth presented his credentials, Archbishop Ireland became greatly agitated. He informed Toth that he did not consider him to be a genuine Catholic, and denied him permission to administer the sacraments. 24 After consultation with the parishioners of St. Mary's, Toth conferred with Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Vladimir of San Francisco. The latter was eager and willing to accept the parish of St. Mary's into the Orthodox fold. Aside from Alaska, which Russia had sold to the United States earlier, there were up to the 1870s only three Orthodox churches in the United States. In addition to San Francisco, there was a Russian parish in New York City and a Greek Orthodox church in New Orleans. Native converts in America were exclusively Alaskan Aleuts and Eskimos . Now, however, the wave of Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants indicated a potential source of growth. Since nearly all Rusyn immigrants were in the eastern half of the United States, New York rather than San Francisco was delegated as an episcopal seat. In 1890 the construction of St. Nicholas Cathedral was completed in New York. Tsar Nicholas II personally donated 5,000 roubles to this project. His government subsidized the construction of other churches and supported activities of the Orthodox Missionary Society founded in Moscow. In Minneapolis, Father Toth founded the Russian Mutual Aid Society. These prosletization efforts exceeded all expectations. By the time of the outbreak of World War I in 1914, over one-third of all Rusyn immigrants in the United States had converted to Orthodoxy. 25 They served as enthusiastic supporters of the Russian cause in the Great War. World War I brought with it the culmination of the historic struggle for the Carpathians, and caused great suffering among the 24 25 Ibid 65-6 Ibid: 65 . • �SLOVAK.IA 2019 95 Rusyns of Galicia, eastern Slovakia and Podkarpatska Rus' . By early September 1914 Russian armies had overrun much of eastern Galicia. Count Georgii Bobrinskii, brother of Count Vladimir, was made governor-general, and started a campaign to eradicate the Ukrainian movement. All Ukrainian cultural organizations, cooperatives and journals were shut down. The Russian language replaced Ukrainian in the school system. Hundreds of Greek Catholic priests were deported into the depths of Russia. There was admittedly some dissent in Russian governmental circles. Noted statesman Pavel Miliukov described Russian conduct in Galicia as a European scandal. Yet Foreign Minister Sergei Sazanov stated unequivocally: "Now is exactly the right moment to rid ourselves of the Ukrainian movement once and for all." 26 The Ukrainophiles had a measure of revenge when the AustroHungarian military reoccupied the province in the following year. They denounced their Russophile neighbors for alleged collaboration with the invaders. Hungarian troops carried out mass hangings. At the same time, Polish nobles spread rumors that the Ukrainophiles were covertly pro-Russian, so as to reassert their own authority in Galicia. In truth, thousands of Russophiles and Ukrainophiles alike suffered internment in Austrian concentration camps. The most notorious of these camps was Talerhof, near Graz. Sanitary conditions were deplorable, and an estimated 1,767 persons died of typhus and 27 other diseases. Austria's parliament was scandalized, and Emperor Karl ordered Talerhof closed early in 1917. Early in 1915, for the second of three occasions in the course of a century, the Russian military crossed through the Dukla Pass. This move came as a result of the seige of Przemysl, Austria-Hungary's principal fortress in Galicia. Russian troops occupied the Carpathian mountain passes to the south to prevent the Austro-Hungarian military from sending reinforcements to break the siege. Casualties on both sides of the winter war of 1914-15 were appalling. It is likely that more soldiers succumbed to the "White Death" (hypothermia) than were killed by enemy bullets. 28 Ultimately, the Austrian side 26 Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A History (Toronto, Buffalo and London, 2009), 343. See the entry "Talerhof," in Magocsi and Pop, eds,. Encyclopedia of Rusy n History and Culture, 488 . 28 For rhe most recent account of the winter campaign, see Traydon A. Tumstell, Blood on the Snow: The Carpathian Winter War of I 9 I 5 (Lawrence, KD, 20 I 0). 27 �96 SLOVAKIA 2019 gave way first. Russian soldiers under General Lavrl' Kornilov pushed through the southern end of Dukla Pass and advanced as far as the village of Lodomirova, just north of the town of Svidnik. Here they established a military cemetery for their dead. Lodomirova eventually became the site of a Russian cultural center in northeastern Slovakia, which shall be discussed in due course. The Russians did not remain in occupation of this toehold in Slovakia for long. Germany, Austria-Hungary's senior partner, launched a counteroffensive eastward across Poland, albeit at the cost of having enough troops to capture Paris. Russian troops painfully withdrew north of the Carpathians. They were now demoralized and ripe for revolution. Mass mutinies forced Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate on March 15, 1917. The reign of the Romanov dynasty had ended. Tsarist Russia was destroyed. Politically speaking, the Russophi-le orientation was now a dead letter. Culturally, its future was now an openended question . At this point Russophiles among the Rusyns looked with growing interest at the now ascendant Czechoslovak independence movement. The Rusyns in Interwar Czechoslovakia and Poland The Czechoslovak independence movement was a curious article. For almost a century, there existed an intellectual tradition which maintained that Czechs and Slovaks were two branches of the same nationality. Yet the concept of a politically united Czechoslovak state was largely the invention to Tomas Garrigue Masaryk ( 18501937), a Czech philosophy professor and notorious defender of unpopular causes. Perceiving that World War I would result in AustriaHungary coming increasingly under the domination of Kaiser Wilhelm ' s Germany, Masaryk decided to lobby among the opposing Western powers for Czecho-Slovak independence. In Geneva, in neutral Switzerland, he was joined by his protege, the sociology professor Edvard Benes. Together they proceeded to Paris, where they were joined by Milan Rastislav Stefanik, a young Slovak serving as an officer in the French Air Force. This triumvirate formed a Czech Action Committee Abroad, which was eventually expanded and renamed the Czechoslovak National Council. Given his position on this body, the French eventually gave Stefanik genera l' s rank. He raised a Czechoslovak Legion from prisoners of war and deserters �SLOVAKIA 2019 97 from the Austro-Hungarian Army. The Czechoslovak Legion distinguished itself on the Western, Eastern and eventually Italian fronts, and gained increased Allied favor in the struggle for the recognition of the independence movement. 29 In 1918 Masaryk visited the United States, not only to gain official American recognition, but also a mandate from the Slovak community in America, since Slovakia itself was politically gagged. In October of 1915 the Bohemian National Alliance and the Slovak League of America had already concluded a preliminary agreement for cooperation in Cleveland. Masaryk proceeded to Pittsburgh to conclude a more formal agreement for a Czecho-Slovak merger. Masaryk's visit to the Mecca of the American Slovaks was greeted by a large manifestation of support which included South Slavs as well as Czechs and Slovaks. Yet the negotiations undertaken at Moose Hall on May 29-31 were not without controversy. Masaryk pledged Slovakia an administration, a school system and linguistic rights, but not its own parliament, as specified by the earlier Cleveland Agreement. Here Jozef Husek of the Slovak Catholic Jednota raised strenuous objections. Albert Mamatey, president of the Slovak League, impressed Masaryk with the seriousness of losing the support of the largest single Slovak organization. The delegates were evenly divided, and Masaryk finally broke the deadlock by signing a revised draft with all the proposals. 30 The steel towns of the greater Pittsburgh area were also heavily populated by Rusyns from Hungary. Following the lead of the Slovaks, many joined fraternal organizations, which not only provided 29 The Czechoslovak Legion in Russia was the most instrumental military force in attaining Allied recognition of the independence movement. With Russia withdrawing from the war in 1918, Czechoslovak legionnaires wished to be evacuated and sent to France, where a German offensive to capture Paris was anticipated. Attempts by the Bolsheviks to disarm them resu lted in their capture of the Trans-Siberian Railway and a legendary odyssey to the Pacific coast. It also gave the Western Allies a pretext to intervene in the Russian Civil War. The experience of the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia boats of a sizable amount of literature. The best Englishlanguage studies are authored by Victor M. Fie, The Revolutionary War for Independence and the Russian Question: The Czechoslovak Army in Russia 1914-191 8 (New Delhi, 1977) and The Bolsheviks and the Czechoslovak Legion. The Origins of Their Armed Conflict: March to May 1918 (New Delhi , 1978). 30 See Marian Mark Stolarik, "The Role of American Slovaks in the Creation of Czecho-Slovakia" Slo vak Studies, VIII ( 1968), 48-5 1 �98 SLOVAKIA 2019 benefits to workers but published newspapers as well. Its members had acquired a measure of political awareness. One such organization was the Greek Catholic Union, headquartered in the HomesteadMunhall district. Another was the United Societies of America, which contained both Greek Catholic and Orthodox members, based in McKeesport. At the time of Masaryk's pilgrimage to Pittsburgh, the Czech independence leader was approached by Nicholas Pachuta, editor of the Greek Catholic Union's newspaper Rus 'kii Viestnik. Pachuta had recently converted to Orthodoxy. Up until this point he had advocated the incorporation of Podkarpatska Rus' into the Russian Empire. Now that there was no more Russian Empire, Pachuta approached Masaryk with the idea of union with a Czecho-Slovak state. He was soon afterwards expelled from the Greek Catholic Union. 3 1 Overall, the Greek Catholic clergy wished their homeland to remain part of Hungary. Many laymen wanted union with Galicia but insisted Galicia was Russian rather than Ukrainian. The end to the Great War was approaching, and territorial changes could be anticipated. One of President Woodrow Wilson's celebrated Fourteen Points for peace was "self-determination for the peoples of AustriaHungary." It was necessary to have a common program. Members of both organizations met in Homestead on July 23, 1918 to form the American National Council of Uhro-Rusyns. The subsequent Homestead Resolution read as follows: If the pre-war boundaries remain, Rusyns, as the most loyal people-gens fidelissima-deserve that Hungary provide [them} with autonomy. If new boundaries are made, they should be made according to nationality; thus, Uhro-Rusyns can belong nowhere else than to their nearest brothers by blood, language and faith, to the Galician and Bukovinian Rusyns. But if we are divided by foreign aspirations from Ukrainians and Old-Russians [Galician Russophiles}, the National Council demands in this case autonomy for Uhro-Rusyns so they can pre32 serve their national character. 31 Magocsi, Th e Shaping of a National Identity, 81. The original text of the Homestead Resolution appears under the heading " Do Vpukh Vhro-Rusynov zhivlych v Soed" in Prosvita, August 8, 1918 32 �SLOVAKIA 2019 99 The Rusyns commissioned a young Pittsburgh lawyer named Gregory Zsatkovich ( 1886-1967) to represent their interests to the United States government. Pennsylvania congressman Guy Campbell arranged a meeting between Zsatkovich and President Wilson on October 21. Wilson thought it unfeasible to grant full independence to so small a nation in a geopolitically sensitive region, and consequently recommended that Zsatkovich seek autonomy in a larger state. He referred Zsatkovich to Masaryk, whose independence movement had been recently recognized by the U.S. State Department, Zsatkovich met with Masaryk in Philadelphia, where the latter hosted a congress called the Mid-European Democratic Union on October 23-26. According to Zsatkovich's memoir afterwards, Masaryk assured him: "If the Rusyns decide to join the Czechoslovak Republic, they shall constitute a fully autonomous state." 33 There remained a sticky issue. Rusyn territorial claims included several counties in eastern Slovakia. Here there were numerous Rusyns in the northern mountain districts whereas elsewhere the population consisted of either Slovaks or Rusyns who had already voluntarily assimilated into the Slovak nationality. Masaryk was further alleged to declare on this point: "The frontiers will be so determined that the 34 Rusyns will be satisfied." On November 12, at a meeting of the National Council of UhroRusyns in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the Czechoslovak option was provisionally adopted, albeit including the demand for the counties of eastern Slovakia. A subsequent plebiscite among the American Rusyn fraternals provided Zsatkovich with the desired results: out of 1,102 votes submitted, 732 (67 percent) were for union with Czechoslovakia and 310 (28 percent) for union with Ukraine. Additionally, there were 27 votes for complete independence, 10 votes for union with Russia, and 9 votes for remaining part ofHungary. 35 Back in the Old Country, the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in October of 1918 led to a power vacuum in many areas of the Carpathians. Several different national councils were organized by Rusyns, each of which had its own program for the fu- 33 Gregory Zsatkovich, Otkryhote-Expose bydaltelho gubernatori Podkarpatskoj Rusi (Homestead, PA , 1921 ), 5. 34 Ibid 5 35 Ma~o~si , Th e Shaping of a National Identity, 85. �100 SLOVAK.IA 2019 ture affiliation of the people. A Russophile group in eastern Slovakia, based in Stara Cubovna, initially wanted a merger with Galicia. Dissenters among them, led by the lawyer Antonii Beskyd ( 1855-1933), considered such a move impractical. They reconvened in Presov and declared themselves for union with Czechoslovakia instead. A new revolutionary government in Hungary pledged to grant the Rusyns territorial autonomy. A group of Greek Catholic priests in Uzhorod declared themselves in favor of this option. Another pro-Hungarian group met in Khust, but its speakers were shouted down by Pro-Ukrainian elements led by the lawyer Iulii Braschaiko (1879-1955). The Ukrainophle orientation had at last taken hold in Podkarpatska Rus ', and would grow progressively stronger. Most dramatic of all were events in the easternmost Hutsul region, centered around Iasnyia. Here the populace favored union with Ukraine, but, pending further developments, took matters into their own hands. In the early morning of January 7, 1919, a group of demobilized Rusyn soldiers, aided by troops sent by the West Ukrainian Republic, drove out the Hungarian garrison of 250 militiamen. On February 5 the victorious Rusyns proclaimed their own "Hutsul Republic," with a 42-member elected council and a four-man government. This little state existed until June 11, when the area was occupied by advancing Romanian troops.36 Late in 1918, Czechoslovak legionnaires returning from the Italian Front had begun a military occupation of Slovakia, and advanced across the Uz River. Uzhorod was occupied on January 10, 1919. The Czechoslovak position was strengthened as a result of a Bolshevik government assuming power in Hungary, much to the alarm of the Western powers. This Hungarian government wished to build upon the "Ruska Kraina" declared by its predecessor, the Karolyi regime. It went to extremes attempting to implement communist rule, threatening the death penalty for even the smallest commercial transactions. This decree became impossible to enforce, since the commissars were themselves profiteering. 37 Podkarpatska Rus' was soon engulfed in counterrevolution. 36 See Paul Robert Magocsi, "The Rusyn Decision to Unite With Czechoslovakia" in Magocsi, Of the Making of Natio nalities, 134. 37 Ibid, 140-42 �SLOVAKIA 2019 101 Even before the establishment of the Bolshevik regime, members of the Uzhorod Council began experiencing doubts concerning the viability of remaining part of Hungary. A leading member of the Council, Reverend Avhustyn Voloshyn (1874-1945), began negotiating with Slovak leader Milan Hodza. Voloshyn was joined by supporters of both Beskid and Brashchaiko. The Russophiles realized that the Russia they had loved and believed in was unlikely to return from the dead. The Ukrainophiles realized that an independent Ukraine was unlikely to survive the turmoil of the Russian Civil War. Members of both orientations were willing to form a single body representing their mutual interests. It was in this spirit that the Central Russian National Council was formed in Uzhorod on May 8, 1919. Zsatkovich arrived with the text of the Scranton Resolution, which was endorsed unanimously. It remained to the Western peacemakers gathered in Paris to give sanction to Podkarpatska Rus' being granted to Czechoslovakia. Yet, contrary to later Hungarian revisionist claims, the victorious Western Allies did not arbitrarily hand the region over to the Czechs. The decision to unite with Czechoslovakia was that of the Rusyn people themselves .38 The realities of being part of the Czechoslovakia disappointed the expectations of many educated Rusyns. Autonomy was not forthcoming. They could send representatives to parliament in Prague, but did not have their own regional parliament. Prague apparently decided that the Rusyns, like the Slovaks, were not ready for autonomy. Zsatkovich became the first provincial governor, but the actual administration lay in the hands of a centralized Czech bureaucracy. Zsatkovich eventually resigned in disgust and returned to America. The disputed counties in eastern Slovakia remained under Slovak administration. To complicate matters further, there was now a group of Rusyns who considered themselves their own nationality, in addition to the existing Russophile and Ukrainophile orientations. Politically, on the local level, Prague would support one and then another orientation, depending upon its convenience at a particular moment. The Czechoslovak administration made great strides in education, virtually eliminating illiteracy in twenty years . The government poured tremendous amounts of money into Podkarpatska Rus ', and liberally funded cultural activities of all three orientations. 38 Ibid, 146. �102 SLOVAKIA 2019 On April 29, 1920, there was a meeting of local leaders in Uzhorod, headed by Iulii Brashchaiko. Its purpose was to establish a cultural organization encompassing all Podkarpatska Rus '. Nothing resulted from this meeting since Russophiles led by Anthonii Beskyd raised angry objections to the Ukrainophile cultural orientation of Brashchaiko ' s group. On May 9 Brashchaiko's fol lowers established the Prosvita Society, modeled along the lines of the Ukrainian society of the same name in Galicia. Its task was to publish all kinds of popular and scholarly books "written in the national tongue and accessible to every Subcarpathian Ru syn." 39 The Czechoslovak Pros vita was reinforced by many educated Ga li cian Ukrainians who found Polish rul e objectionable. On th e May 23 , 1923, those Russophiles who boycotted the Prosvita met in Uzhorod to establish their own organization, which was called the Dukhnovych Society. Its stated goals were to foster "the cultural deve lopment of the Ru ssian people living within Czechoslovakia, and most importantly to educate them in a moral , patriotic and Ru ssian spirit, exclusive of al l political activity." 40 The contrast between the two rival societies was visib le. The old tricolor Ru ssian flag flew over the reading rooms of the Dukhnovych Society, whereas Prosvita reading rooms displayed the blue and ye llow Ukrainian national colors. In terms of literature, the new Dukhnovych Society championed the great Russian masters : Pushkin, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, etc. The Prosvita Society advanced the writings of Shevchenko and other less known Ukrainian awakeners. Both Russophiles and Ukrainophiles expanded their activities from literature to theater. The Ru ssophiles tended to produce hi storical dramas, whereas the Ukrainophi les focused on folk songs and ballads. The latter used standard Ukrainian as the language of performance, whereas the Russophiles had to translate their productions into a Rusyn dia lect. It must be frankly admitted that the Ukrainophile orientation gained the upper hand in popularity during the course of the kulturkampf for Podkarpatska Rus' in the First Czechoslovak Republic. Avtustyn Voloshyn had become a convert to the Ukrainophile orien39 Statul tova,ystva 'Prosvita • Podkarpatska Rus ·, (Uzhorod, 1920), 6. Usta v Rusakogo ku/'turna-prosvete/'noga obshchturni Aleksandra Duchnovychovicha , (Uzhorod, 1923), 40 �SLOVAK.IA 2019 103 tation. He and his associates were astute and learned men-teachers and scholars who kept closely in touch with Rusyn cultural life. By contrast, the Dukhnovych Society fell increasingly under the influence of Stefan Fentsik ( 1892-1946), a local politician who used the organization as a platform to propagate a his own views, his political ties with Poland and Hungary-which shall be di scussed in due course-became common knowledge by 1937, and did much to compromise the Dukhnovych Society. 41 Russian culture survived more comfortably in eastern Slovakia, since 1928 elevated to the official status of a province. In large measure this direction was due to the efforts of Iulii Lazho (18671929), a native of Svidnik and senator for the Social Democratic Party in the Czechoslovak parliament. Earlier, Lazho had emigrated to America, where he converted to Orthodoxy and also rose in the construction industry. He returned home to start his own construction firm, and also to seek revenge against his former Greek Catholic pastor. As mayor of Ladomirova, where the Russian military cemetery was located, Lazho invited Vital ii Maksimenko ( 1873-1960), former archimandrite of the monastery at Pochaiev (in Polish Volhynia), to establish a missionary headquarters there. Lazho also procured a Cyrillic alphabet printing press which Czechoslovak legionnaires in Russia had appropriated, shipped all the way to Vladivostok on the Pacific coast, and which made its way to Prague. During two decades of activity the Ladomirova mission published over I 00 Orthodox church books, the newspaper Pravoslavnaia Karpatskaje Rus ' (1928-1944), the journal for young people Diestvo I ivnost Khristi ( 1935-1941 ), a scholarly journal Pravoslavny put' ( 1938-1940) and the annual almanac Pravnoslavny ruskii/Ruskii narodnyi kalendar ( 1924-1944). The Russian monks also worked to inculcate Russian culture among the native Rusyns, hosting such events as an annual Russian Day in the summers and the tree-lighting ceremony for Orthodox Christmas. 42 In approaching the causes of the Orthodox revival in interwar Czechoslovakia, it is necessary to understand the world view of the 41 Magocsi, "Nationalist Intelligentsia and the Peasantry" in Of th e Making of Nationalities, 200. 42 See the entry "Ladomirova Monastery" in Magocsi and Pop, eds. , En cyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, 266 . �104 SLOVAKIA 2019 national-state's founding father. T.G. Masaryk was a complex individual. As one biographer expressed it: "This man wanted to emancipate workers without embracing Marxism, liberate women without promoting feminism, and educate the young without celebrating youth. " 43 He was considered in the West to be an expert on Russia. He had written extensively on the great writer Dostoevsky, whom he regarded as the classic representative of Russian thought. There were elements of the Russian national psychology which Masaryk found disturbing. Like Havlicek before him, he felt that the Western Slavs, especially the Czechs, should follow a different path . As a proponent of Westeren humanism, Masaryk disparaged the mystical tradition of the Eastern Orthodox faith .44 Yet Masaryk reserved even greater hostility for the Roman Catholi c Church. He drew inspiration from Jan Hus, the great Bohemian religious reformer who was burned at the stake for heresy in 1415 . In 1905, while celebrating the anniversary of Hus ' death, Masaryk coined the slogan "Away from Rome! " Politics in the first years of the Czechoslovak Republic had a distinctly anti-Catholic flavor. His government favored the appointment of Lutherans for administration in Slovakia at the expense of the Catholic majority. In Podkarpatska Rus ', where there were virtua lly no Protestants, such a policy was impossible. Here Czechoslovak authorities fostered a revival of Orthodoxy. One Czech mini ster assessed the impact as follows: It seemed to some Russophile politicians, both in Prague and in Ruthenia ... that the right time had come to convert the Rutheni an peasant back to the Greek Orthodox religion. This opinion was shared by many Russian emigres who flocked to Czechoslovak ia ... after 1919. A drive for 'Orthodoxy ' was started in Rutheni a ... It is a question of how much of this movement was spontaneous and due to the pro-Russian feeling of the population and to its di slike for the purely magyarized Uniate clergy, and how much of its strength it owed to the propaganda and preaching of the Russian Orthodox emigres and clergy and to the support of some Czech political circles. 43 Bruce Garver, "Masaryk and Czech Politics 1900-1914" in Stanley B. Winters, ed. , T G. Masaryk (1850- 193 7) Vo lum e I Thinker and Politician (London, 1990), 22 . 44 See Paul 1. Tresky, " Masaryk and Dostoyevsky" in Harry Hanak, ed., T G. Masa1y k (/ 850- 193 7) Volum e II/ Statesman and Cultural Force (London, 1990), 161-77. �SLOVAKIA 2019 105 However, it certainly added one more element to the confusion reigning in Ruthenia and led to animosities which, in the end, turned against the Prague Government itself.45 Reverend Voloshyn bitterly remonstrated against the situation in Prague in 1929: The agitation usually began in the local tavern, where the agitator met the most notorious brawlers in the village. After a short talk, emboldened by 'noisy' arguments and vodka, the peasants would begin to shout abuse against the village pastor. In a matter of two or three days a ' committee' made up of the pastor's 'opponents ' would be formed. The committee did not immediately begin advocating Orthodoxy; instead, it showered the bishop with complaints and delegations, demanding that there be an investigation against the pastor or that he be removed outright. Then followed other forms of harassment, demonstrations, threats against the pastor, intimidation of church curators, and such . The committee would send the pastor letters demanding that he leave the vi llage. As time went on, the committee made increasingly bolder threats that the pastor get out ' or else!' .. .. If, despite such harassment, the priest remained in his parish, the threats escalated. Someone would break his windows, shoot into his windows, poison hi s well , set fire to his grain or stables, and in some cases even the parish house, assault and beat the priest, etc. The government remained indifferent to all this under the pretext of ' Freedom of conscience! Freedom ofreligion!' 46 This state of affairs could not permitted to go on indefinitely. Czechoslovakia was, after all, a republic governed by law. The Vatican made its own contribution to improved church-state relations by transferring Bishop Antonii Papp of Mukachevo to Hungary and replacing him with canon Petro Gebej on July 16, 1924. At the same time, in response to forthcoming parliamentary elections, President Masaryk cryptically declared that "the Catholics will get as many rights as they win." 47 Rusyn voters supported Czech Catho lic political parties which gained an increased measure of strength in parliament. The rights accorded to Greek Catholics by the constitution in 45 Frantisek Nemec and Vladimir Modry, Th e Soviet Seizure of Subcarpathian Ruthenia (Toronto, 1955), 38-9. 46 Avhustyn Voloshyn, " Relihijni vidnozny na Podkarpats ' kyi" in Acta Conventia Pragensis pro Studii Orentalibus n. 1919, (Olomouc, 1930), 218-9. 47 Pekar, 11 8. �106 SLOVAKIA 2019 any case were now enforced. Violence and vandalism were now prosecuted and soon ceased. In some instances church property was restored. Bishop Gebej led a religious revival which resulted in priests maintaining closer contact with their parishioners. A number of converts to Orthodoxy returned to the Greek Catholic faith. The Orthodox revival was one of the sources of survival for the Russophile orientation. Another source was, ironically, Hungarian funding . The fall of Bela Kun's communist regime in August of 1919 was followed by the restoration of the nobility in Hungary. Counterrevolutionary White terror now followed Red terror. Right wing elements who rallied under Admiral Miklos Horthy, soon elevated to the position of regent of Hungary, wanted to regain Slovakia and Podkarpatska Rus' but had to go about it covertly.48 The victorious Western powers would not recognize any government in Hungary which would not accept their peace tenns . On June 4, 1920, Hungary was compelled to sign the Treaty of Trianon, which ceded Slovakia and Podkarpatska Rus' to Czechoslovakia, Transylvania to Romania, and Croatia and the Voivodina to what became known as Yugoslavia. Trianon psychologically scarred Hungarian society for a full generation. France offered to soften the blow by extending to Hungary financial credits, particularly in the area of railway development, in exchange for compliance. Hungarian Prime Minister Istvan Bethlen cheerfully accepted the financial aid and outwardly complied with Trianon. Yet his government covertly subsidized elements in Slovakia and Podkarpatska Rus' who were disgruntled with Czechoslovak centrali sm. Having previously denied these peoples autonomy, the Hungarians now championed their right to selfdetern1ination as a first step toward regaining them. One of the recipients of Hungarian financial aid was Stefan Fentsik. Another was Andrei Brodii ( 1895-1946), a journalist, teacher and chairman of the Autonomous Agricultural Union/Autonomyi Zenled'skij Sojuz (AZS). Fentsik yielded leadership of the Russophile movement to Brodii during the 1930s. Ukrainophile historian Peter Stercho later maintained that Brodii, Fentsik and other select 48 As a precedent to future collaboration in this matter, Poland allowed itself to be used as a staging ground for Hungarian subversion of Czechos lovak administration . A "Magyar-S lovak League" was established in Krakow, and dispatched armed vo lunteers across the border into Slovakia. �SLOVAKIA 2019 107 Russophile leaders had to conceal their ties with Hungary from their followers, since even the latter were opposed to territorial revision. 49 Polish policy towards the Rusyns of Galicia followed a similar pattern. In the area directly north of the Dukla Pass lived people belonging to a branch of the Rusyns known as the Lemkos. They can be geographically divided by the San River. The Ukrainian movement penetrated the area east of the San early in the twentieth century and accounted for numerous followers. In November 1918 Lemkos from about 30 villages gathered in the village of Komancza (Komancha in Rusyn) to form their own little republic. This Komancha Republic was viewed as a transitional state, pending merger with a greater Ukraine. West of the San the Lemkos still adhered to the traditions of old Rus'. In autumn 1918 they wanted union with Russia. Since this was obviously never going to happen, the Polish government could afford to humor these Lemkos, The Poles were preoccupied with the West Ukrainian Republic which was proclaimed in Lviv on November 1, 1918, and event which plunged Galicia into an ethnic civil war. On December 5, some 500 Lemko Rusyns representing 130 vi1lages and towns of western Lemkovyna met in Florynka (in Grybow district) to form a government. While the Polish military crushed the Komancha Republic in January 1919, it tended to view the Florynka Lemko Rusyn Republic as a potential ally against the Ukrainians. Polish officials who were present offered the former town hall of Grybow as a political headquarters, while the Polish Army provided arms for a Lemko national guard. Schools and cooperatives were soon organized. Amazingly, the Lemko Rusyn Republic survived a full sixteen months. It was governed by an executive council headed by Reverend Mykhal Iurchakevych and a central national council headed by the lawyer Iaroslaw Kachmarchyk. The Poles were disappointed with the results. The Lemkos were happy to accept whatever aid the Polish government and military were willing to offer but nonetheless were unwilling to take up arms against their errant brethren to the east. Additionally, Kachmarchyk's government rejected the notion of union with a Bolshevik Russia, and began looking at the example of 49 Peter Stercho, Diplomacy of Double Morality: Europe's Crossroads in CarpathoUkraine /9/9-/939(NewYork , 1971), 171. �108 SLOVAKIA 2019 their brethren of the south side of the Carpathians. A union with Czechoslovakia now seemed a viable option. Unfortunately, in 1920 relations between Poland and Czechoslovakia were at a particularly low point, owing to border disputes concerning Tesin in Silesia and Orava-Spis in Slovakia. Before the end of March the Poles arrested Kachmarchyk and members of his government. They were tried on June 10, 1921. A Polish jury acquitted them, which was only reasonable insofar as the Poles had encouraged their activities in the first place. But the event marked the death knell of Lemko statehood. 50 Yet the Poles still had use for the Lernkos in the interwar period. The Greek Catholic Church was strongly identified with the Ukrainian national movement. The leadership of the Polish military, overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, encouraged the movement to convert the Lemkos to Orthodoxy, and thus express a Russian character at the expense of the Ukrainian .51 It was a classic case of Divide and Rule. Elsewhere, in Volhynia, adherents of the Ukrainian national movement were Orthodox. Here militant Polish nationalists attacked and vandalized Orthodox monasteries and schools. At the same time, for reasons of security, Poland wished to have a common border with Hungary. For this reason the Polish government supported Hungarian efforts to regain Podkarpatska Rus' . The events which accompanied the international crisis in 1938 are well-known. The present author shall limit himself to summarizing key particulars. The Munich "diktat" of September 1938 resulted in Czechoslovakia being forced to yield the Gennan populated Sudetenland to Nazi Germany. Deprived of her most vital border defenses, Czechoslovakia was now rendered militarily defenseless. Hostile neighbors, Poland and Hungary, were now encouraged to make their own territorial claims. Moreover, the Prague government could no longer resist demands for autonomy on the part of Slovakia and Podkarpatska Rus ' . 50 See Paul Robert Magocsi, "The Lemko Rusyn Republic ( 1918-1920) and Political Thought in Western Rus' -Ukraine" in Magocsi, Of the Making of Nationalities, 303315. 51 See Mykola Kucherpa, "The Nationality Policy of Poland towards Ukrainians before World War II" in Paul Berst and Jaroslav Mokolak, eds., Th e Lemko Region 1939-1947, War, Occupation and Deportation (New Haven and Krakow, 2002), 3949. �SLOVAKIA 2019 109 In the case of Podkarpatska Rus', a cabinet was formed on October 11 which consisted of both Russophiles and Ukrainophiles. Russophiles predominated, with Brodii as prime minister and Fentsik as deputy prime minister. Brodii was convinced that, if a plebiscite was held, the majority of Rusyns would vote for reunion with Hungary. Brodii 's ministry lasted only fifteen days. An alarmed central government summoned Brodii and Fentsik to Prague. There Brodii was arrested, while Fentsik found asylum in the Polish embassy. 52 Prague authorized Voloshyn, who was a member of the cabinet, to form a new government. Voloshyn proclaimed the province as an autonomous nation with the new name of Carpatho-Ukraine on November 3. The victory of the Ukrainophiles was at last complete. Autonomous Carpatho-Ukraine got off to a rough start. Hungary was prepared to re-annex the region, although conservative circles of the Hungarian government confined their claims to areas which were predominantly Magyar. Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy opted to appear in the role of peacemakers in this territorial dispute between Czechoslovakia and Hungary. They arbitrated a compromise settlement in Vienna on November 2, 1938. By terms of the First Vienna Award, Kosice, in southern Slovakia, and Uzhorod and Mukachevo, the two leading cities of Carpatho-Ukraine, were restored to Hungary. The government of Carpatho-Ukraine was forced to relocate to Khust, which was little more than an oversized village. Militant Hungarian nationalists regarded the First Vienna Award as a temporary expedient, and worked for the complete annexation of CarpathoUkraine. Under the auspices of the Ministry of Defense, a covert paramilitary group known as the "Ragged Guard" was organized to infiltrate Carpatho-Ukraine and conduct terrorist acts designed to destabilize the regime. Poland likewise dispatched paramilitary units for the same purpose. If the credible research of Ukrainophile historian Stercho is to be believed, the Polish paramilitary units outpaced their Hungarian counterparts in acts of terrorism. 53 Carpatho-Ukraine was in need of allies, and these were forthcoming. Militant Ukrainian nationalists from Poland crossed the mountains to organize the Riflemen of the Carpathian Sich. It has been argued by Russophile opponents that the Riflemen of the Car52 53 Magocs i, The Shaping of a National Identity, 238. Stercho, 302. �110 SLOVAKIA 2019 pathian Sich inaugurated the reign of "Ukrainian terror." It is true that they focu sed more on the Russophile domestic opposition than they did on Polish or Hungarian infiltrators. A detention camp was established for dissident Russophiles and Rusynophiles at Dumen . Yet conditions of internment were relaxed. Political differences extended to the family leve l, and prisoners under guard where permitted to attend social events in neighboring Rakhiv.54 There was a conflict of interest between the Carpathian Sich and the Voloshyn regime. Sich rifl emen viewed Carpatho-Ukraine as the cornerstore of a future greater Ukraine, and counted on the support of Nazi Germany. Voloshyn , by contrast, decided that adherence to Czecho-Slovakia (now officially spelled with a hyphen) was a necessary expedient. In March of 1939 there were clashes between the Carpathian Sich and the regular Czechoslovak military. This confl ict was abruptly terminated when German leader Adolf Hitler moved to eliminate what remained of Czecho-Slovakia . As he prepared to militarily occupy Prague, he disappointed Ukrainophi les by giving his consent for Hungary to annex the province. Under German pressure, Slovakia declared its independence on March 14. CarpathoUkraine was now cut off from the Czech lands. With Hungarian troops already crossing the border, Voloshyn symbo li cally proclaimed Carpatho-Ukraine's independence on March 15 . Carpatho-Ukraine existed as an independent state for all of a day . On the 16 th , Hungarian military units were fighting for Khust. The Riflemen of the Carpathian Sich resisted with admirab le resolve , but its units were scattered and no match for the Hungarian army. They later regrouped in the mountains or were pushed across the border to Eastern Slovakia, thus encouraging Hungary to invade the latter as well. 55 Hungarian troops reached the Polish border by the end of the I 61\ and were eagerly embraced by their opposite numbers. The region was renamed Subcarpathia and governed directly from Budapest. There was some vague talk in the Hungarian parliament about according autonomy to the most recently annexed portion , but not to Uzhorod or Mukachevo, which were now considered 54 Paul Robert Magocsi , "The Nationality Problem in Subcarpathian Rus ' I 9381939: A Reappraisal" in Magocsi , Of th e Making of Nationalities, 228 . 55 This invasion of Eastern Slovakia resulted in portions of the disputed counties likewise being annexed by Hungary. It also resulted in the Slovak Republic placing itself under the military protection of Nazi Germany. �SLOVAKIA 2019 111 directly part of Hungary. Autonomy was del ayed indefinitely. As World War II progressed, the Hungarian military vehemently opposed autonomy for security reaso ns . The Ukrainophiles were particularly singled out for political persecution, while the Russophiles were more or less set aside. Interestingly, the Hungarian government began cultivating the idea that the Rusyns were their own separate nationality, an idea which ultimately became the wave of the future. 56 The resto ration of Hungarian rule dis illusioned the Russophil es. It stood to reason that, once Hungary went down to defeat with Nazi Germany, Andrei Brodii would come to a bad end . He did not attempt to flee when Soviet forces reached the area in the autumn of 1944, but attempted to negotiate with them. He was arrested by the Soviet counterintelligence unit SMERSH, charged as a fascist co ll aborator, and executed on November 7, 1946. A similar fate awa ited Stefan Fentsik: he was shot in the courtyard of the Uzhorod prison on March 30, 1946. Their Ukrainophile rival Voloshyn fared no better. Having taken up res idence in Prague during the war years, he taught at the Ukrainian Free University. In June 1945 he was arrested by SMERSH and transported to Moscow. He died in Lefortovo prison on July 19, undoubtedl y murdered. An ironic footnote of hi story is worth mentioning. Both Brodii and Fentsik were posthumously rehabilitated after the breakup of the Soviet Union. No such rehabilitation has been granted to Voloshyn. World War II and Ukrainiazation If the Russophiles in Podkarpatska Rus' were fatally compromised by collaboration with the Hungarians, then in Eastern Slovakia they earned acclamation for their role in an anti-fascist struggle. A leading force in the resistance to the pro-German regime of president-priest Jozef Ti so was the Slovak Communist Party. George Kennan , at that time charge d 'affa ires to the U.S. embassy in Prague, assessed the pro-communist sentiment in Eastern Slovakia as being a "bird of a different color [which] in former circumstances would have little chance of success." He added, however, that owing to 56 Magocs i, The Shaping of a National Identity, 248-9 . �112 SLOVAKIA 2019 guidance from Moscow, the Communists could become the most formidable resistance group of all. 57 Kennan's prognosis was largely accurate, though certain qualifying feature s must be noted. The Communists did not have a monopoly on the resistance movement. In prewar Czechoslovakia they were strongest in Podkarpatska Rus ', but in Eastern Slovakia they were never ab le to muster more than seven percent of the vote among the Ru syns in the interwar period. Not wishing to be isolated from other Rusyns in organized resistance to the Tiso regime, local Communi sts opted to join the Carpatho-Russian Council for National Liberation (KRASNO), which shall be introduced shortly. The view of the autonomous and later independent Slovak state on the Rusyns was that the latter were "S lovaks of the Greek Catholic faith ." This view was exemp li fied by Andrej Dudas, who in 1940 was appointed regional administrator of Eastern Slovakia. He was convinced that the idea of a Rusyn nationality was created by the Hungarians, a position he maintained a full three decades later as an emigre in Argentina.58 In early 1939, the Rusyn Nationa l Committee and the Carpatho-Russian Nationa l Counci l were banned by the Slovak government, and the activity of the Dukhnovych Society was restricted. The Ukrainian movement among the Rusyns was particularly loathed by the Slovak nationalist leadership. Slovak police reports up until November 1938 indicate that Rusyns in the Presov Region supported union with their brethren east of the Uz Ri ver. Yet, in November, the same police reports indicate a significant change. The Ukrainian movement was even more alien to the Presov Region Rusyns than was Slovak nationalism, and they were henceforth opposed to a revision of borders which was favorable to CarpathoUkraine. 59 Rusyns shared in the economic prosperity of the Slovak Republic which characterized the first half of World War II. Workers in Germany sent money home to their families, whi le locally a number 57 Report written about May I, 1939 on conditions in Slovakia in George Ken nan, From Prague After Munich. Diplomatic Papers 1938-1 940 (Princeton, 1968), 139140. 58 Andrej Dudas, Rusinska otazka ajej uzadie (B uenos Aires, 1971), 25 . 59 See the entry " Carpatho-Russian Autonomous Counci l for National Liberation/Karpatorusskii avtonomyi sovet natsional'nmyi osvonodenyi (KRASNO)" in Magocsi and Pop, eds ., Encyclopedia of Rusy n Histo1y and Culture, 58. �SLOVAKIA 2019 113 of Rusyns profited from the expropriation of Jewish property. Yet once it became obvious that the Slovak Republic was on the losing side of the war, a number of Rusyns began to organize, The Carpatho-Russian Autonomous Council for National Liberation (Karpatorusskii avtonomyi sovet national'nogo obsvobzhdenii-KRASNO) was founded in Presov in September 1943. Its goals were to aid escaped Soviet prisoners of war and partisans and to cooperate with other underground elements opposed to what it considered a clericofascist regime. Its members envisioned a restored Czechoslovakia in which Rusyns would be equal partners with Czechs and Slovaks. Although its orientation was pro-Soviet and decidedly leftist, KRASNO was not a communist front organization. It was founded by civic and cultural leaders of varied political orientation. Vasyl' Karaman ( 1903-1961) was born in the village of Nagov, in Slovakia. After completing his education at the Commercial Academy in Mukachevo (1924-1927), be returned to eastern Slovakia, where he worked as a civil servant in Presov from 1927 to 1933 , and then served in various towns as secretary for the pro-government Agrarian Republican Party. When Czecho-Slovakia was being partitioned in the fall of 1938, he opposed the pro-Ukrainian orientation of the Voloshyn government. He was elected as chairman of a newly re-established Central Russian National Council. Its members included both Russophiles and Rusynophiles who wished to retain ties with what remained of Czecho-Slovakia, unlike the followers of Brodii and Fentsik. Unable to realize his objectives, he returned to the Presov Region. Here he joined a Committee of Rusyns which tried to reach an accommodation with the Slovak government. This was not possible, since Slovak nationalist officials distrusted his Russophile orientation. After Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June of 1941, Karaman was arrested. He spent a year and a half in jail, and after his release made contact with the Zhydovs'kyi brothers, Ivan and Petro. Together the three men were among the founders of KRASNO. 60 Ivan Zhydovs'kyi (1897-1982) was born in the village of Sarisske Jastrabie. His secondary school education at the Piarist gymnasium in Sabinov was interrupted in 1915, when he was drafted 60 See the entry " Karaman, Vasyl"' in Magocsi and Pop, eds., Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, 228. �114 SLOVAKIA 2019 into the Austro-Hungarian Army. A year later he was captured on the Eastern Front. Like many prisoners of War, he embraced the Bolshevik cause during the Russian Revolution. During the Russian Civil War Zhydovs ' kyi served as a political commissar in the 216 th International Communist Brigade. When he returned home, he discontinued the role of agitator and became at least outwardly conformist. He completed his secondary education in 1919, and then studied law at the Comenius University in Bratislava, obtaining a degree in 1924. He worked for a time as a tax inspector in Uzhorod. By the I 930s he had a law practice in Uzhorod and he was director of the Presov branch of the Uzhorod-based Subcarpathia Bank. As a Russophile, Zhydovs ' kyi was prominent in the Central Russian National Council and in the Dukhnovych Society. Although opposed to the separatist Slovak government, he kept a lower profile then Kamman and was never arrested. He operated a law practice in Giraltovce prior to his invol ve ment with KRASNO .61 His older brother Petro Zhydovs'kyi (1890-1947) was likewise born in Sarisske Jastrabie. As a teenager Petro emigrated to America in 1905 . Although he acquired little formal education, he returned home on the eve of World War I detern1ined to work for the advancement of the Rusyn people. Drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army, he deserted, then was captured and sentenced to prison. After the establishment of Czechoslovakia, he joined the Agrarian Republican Party and served as deputy to parliament from 1935 to 1938 . During the crisis of 1938 Zhydovs'kyi joined with Ivan P' ieshchak in submitting a memorandum to the British envoy Lord Runciman, calling for the unification of the Presov Region with an autonomous Podkarpatska Rus' .62 Ivan P' ieshchak ( 1904-1972) was born in the village of Vel'ky Lipnik. After graduating from the gymnasium of Mukachevo and the Presov Greek Catholic Teachers' Co llege, he taught in the regional elementary school s. P ' ieshchak was active in the Union of Rusyn Teachers in Slovakia and helped organize the Union of Rusyn Youth in Slovakia (1933). At the same time he studied law, and attained a 61 See the entry "Zhydovs'kyi, Ivan" in Magocsi and Pop, eds., Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, 55 l. 62 See the entry "Zhydovs' kyi , Petro" in Magocsi and Pop, eds., Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, 551-2. �SLOVA.KIA 2019 115 doctoral degree from Charles University in Prague in the same year. By the mid 1930s P 'ieshchak was a prominent figure on the Rusyn political and cultural scene. He joined Andrei Brodii's Autonomous Agricultural Union and served as its representative in parliament. Interestingly, at this time he also worked closely with Andrej Hlinka's Slovak People's Party in the parliament's autonomist bloc . When Podkarpatska Rus' attained autonomy, P'ieshchak served as state secretary in Brodii 's brief-lived cabinet. After Brodii 's demise, he returned to Slovakia, where he maintained a law practice prior to his involvement with KRASNO .63 KRASNO rapidly expanded its network. By the summer of 1944 it controlled 3 7 villages in a sort of "partisan republic" between Medzilaborce and Stropkov. Intensification of partisan activityreinforced by Soviet partisans parachuted across the Carpathiansled to German military intervention in Slovakia at the end of August 1944. The clandestine military center of dissident Slovak Army officers , headquartered in Banska Bystrica, was already in touch with the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile in London. Its members had to proclaim the Slovak Nationa l Uprising under premature circumstances on August 29. 64 The Slovak National Uprising was a highly complex affair, which goes well beyond the limits of this study. It is sufficient to note here that it was dependent upon Soviet military support. Contrary to allegations by later critics, the Soviets did not deliberately betray the uprising. Their military capacity to cross the Carpathians was severely limited, particularly after the Germans occupied the Dukla pass. Yet the Soviets did not wish to forfeit the political influence they expected to enjoy in postwar Czechoslovakia, and rendered military assistance. In this capacity the Russian military 63 See the entry "P'ieshchak, Ivan" in Magocsi and Pop, eds., Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, 384-5 . 64 Slovak soldiers, under the influence of Captain Piotr Alekseyevitch Velitchko intercepted members of a German military mission passing through Slovakia in the vicinity of Turciansky Sviity Martin. The Slovak soldiers escorted the Germans to the local barracks. It was Velitchko 's intention that the Germans would be disarmed there and that they would be sent to Ukrainian Partisan Headquarters in Kiev. But when the Germans attempted to depart, they were massacred by the Slovaks. Berlin then decided on a complete military occupation of Slovakia. At this point Lieutenant-Colonel Golian in Banska Bystrica issued the order to start the uprising. �116 SLOVAK.IA 2019 crossed through the Dukla pass for a third time in a military campaign that has been immortalized by local historiography. The Carpatho-Dukla operation, initiated on September 8, was undertaken by the 38 1h Soviet Army, led by General Kyril Moskalenko, supported by the 1s i Czechoslovak Army Corps, led by General Ludvik Svoboda. Many of the troops of the Is 1 Army Corps were Rusyns. In the autumn of 1939, as a result of the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, the Soviets had annexed eastern Galicia and merged it with the Ukrainian S.S.R. An estimated 30,000 Rusyns who were disgruntled with Hungarian rule crossed the mountains into eastern Galicia, expecting to be cordially received by their Slavic brethren. Instead, every single one of them was arrested by the NKVD (Soviet State Security) and received an eight to ten year sentence for the illegal border crossing. A full sixty percent of them perished in the Gulag by the time Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June of 1941. The survivors were released to join the I s i Czechoslovak Army Corps . Any Pan-Slav feeling- Russophile or Ukrainophi le alikewhich the Rusyn s may have had earlier had been beaten out of them in the Gulag. They merely wished to return home. In the autumn of 1944 it appeared that they would be the vanguard in the liberation of their homeland. Instead, they were committed to the meat-grinder of the Dukla Pass, where their casualties exceeded sixty percent. 65 The storming of the Duk la Pass was finally completed on October 6th. In the fighting which followed, the monastery community of Ladomirova was severely damaged. Most of the buildings, including the print shop but not the church, were destroyed. Now, too , the NKVD began rounding up Russian emigres in Slovakia. The monks fled to Bratislava, and from there fourteen of them emigrated to the United States. They entered the recently established Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, in upstate New York, where Archbishop Maksimenko now served as archimandrite. They built a church that was a replica of its predecessor in Ladomirova. A young Rusyn novitiate from the village, Vasyl' Shkurla (born 1928), ultimately became Archbishop Lavrl' , one of the leading figures of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. By the 1980s Holy Trinity had become a major 65 See Vladimir Baumgarten, "Fifty Years Later: An Inquiry into Soviet Military Policy During the Slovak Uprising" in Lewis White, ed., On All Fronts: Czechoslovaks During World War ff Part 2 (Washington , 1995), 2 19-28. �SLOVAKIA 2019 117 cultural center for Russian emigres. When the cello virtuoso Mstislav Rostropovich defected to the United States, he chose to settle in Jordanville in order to be near Holy Trinity. 66 The Germans torched large areas in eastern Slovakia as they were forced to retreat, including the town of Svidnik. General Svoboda was nonetheless hailed as a hero and liberator when he entered it on October 28 .67 After the liberation of Svidnik, the Allies temporarily went on the defensive. KRASNO partisans continued fighting in the hills north of Presov. In October their adherents welcomed a declaration by the Slovak National Council that a resurrected Czechoslovakia would consist of three equal nations- Czechs, Slovaks and Rusyns. It must be understood that Rusyns did not fight in partisan units exclusively of their own nationality. Jozef Rodak, longtime director of the East Slovak Military Museum in Svidnik, asserted that most partisan groups in the region had a mixed composition of Slovaks and Rusyns.68 To this day many people in eastern Slovakia have a dual sense of identity : they consider themselves Rusyns by heritage and Slovaks by citizenship. The realities of liberation at the end of World War II disappointed the aspirations of many Rusyns, particularly Russophiles. It undoubtedly di sconcerted them to discover that Moscow now considered them to be Ukrainians. There was already a precedent for thi s aspect of Soviet policy . In 1923 the delegation of Rusyn Communists attended a Party Congress in Soviet Ukraine and declared their acceptance of Ukrainian nationality. It was altogether practical for Soviet authorities to reaffirm acceptance of this principle at the end of 66 See the entry " Ladomirova Monastery" in Magocsi and Pop, eds., Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, 266. 67 General Svoboda was designated as an honorary citizen of Svidnik. As president of Czechoslovakia during the Prague Spring of 1968, Svoboda gave the town its first hospital. In I 979, the year of the old man's death, a statue of him was erected in Svidnik. Owing to the damage of autumn 1944, Svidnik is a modem town . Most of the buildings are constructed in the so-called "social realist" style. Svoboda ' s statue looks strangely at home among the imposing, unattractive concrete structures. 68 As a graduate student of Safarik University in Prefov who specialized in the history of his region during World War 11 , Rodak was frequently delegated to carry the briefcases of Soviet military visitors. He remained outwardly conformist throughout the Soviet era. After the 1989 revolution and the coll apse of the communist system, Rodak wrote a series of articles for newspapers in eastern Slovakia and southeas tern Poland in which he exonerated partisans who had fallen into disfa vor. �118 SLOVAKIA 2019 World War II. Throughout the war, the Soviets had pledged themselves to the recognition of Czechoslovakia' prewar frontiers . Yet now Moscow infom1ed the Czechoslovak government that it could not ignore "the will of the people." In the wake of the Red Army's occupation of Podkarpatska Rus ' , various National Committees were established to vote in favor of the province being merged with the Ukrainian S.S.R. In all fairness to these communities, they overall enjoyed popular support. 69 The region was officially ceded at the end of June, 1945. Across the Uz River, in the Presov Region , the Russophile leaders of the defunct KRASNO drew the politically correct conclusion. Now, they too, considered themselves Ukrainian. They reorganized themselves as the Ukrainian National Council of the Presov Region. They envisioned that the long disputed counties of eastern Slovakia would be included in the territorial transfer. Indeed, even before the war ended, Vasyl' Karaman and the Zhysov ' skyi brothers planned to stage a meeting in Presov in February 1945 calling for the merger. A Soviet military major explained to them that such a meeting would be inopportune. The war was still on, and the Soviet Union intended to honor its obligations to Czechoslovakia.70 With eastern Slovakia excluded from the territorial settlement, the Ukrainian National Council of the Presov Region now called for the resurrected Czechoslovakia to consist of three equal nations: Czechs, Slovaks and Ukrainians. The Slovak National Council had already expressed itself in favor of autonomy for the Rusyns. Now, in light of Ukrainian irredentism, it declared its Ukrainian counter• 1·d 11 part as mva 1 . Even after the Rusyns were officially classified as Ukrainian, the Russophile tradition not only persisted but predominated in the Presov Region . It must be noted that the Soviet 3gth Army was composed of elite Guards regiments, the cream of the Soviet military. Its soldiers conducted themselves in a correct and disciplined manner in 69 Yaroslav Pylynsky, Rising Ethnic Self-Awareness. Carpatho-Rusyns- Birth of a New Nation or a Political Game? (Copenhagen, 1998), 20. 70 Memorandum on the Ukrainian movement in Eastern Slovakia. Kosice. February 16, 1945 , in Nemec and Modry, Th e Soviet Seizure of Ruthenia, Document no.77 , 359-60 71 Magocsi , "National Assimilation: The Case of the Rusyn-Ukrainians of Czechoslovakia" in Of the Making of Nationalities, 262 . �SLOVAKIA 2019 119 their interactions with the locals after forcing their way through the Dukla Pass. This was in striking contrast with the soldiers of the 4 th Ukrainian Front, who penetrated Slovakia from the south, and who engaged in rape and widespread looting. This author can personally attest to the fact that citizens of the Svidnik area remember the Russians fondly as having assisted them through a bitter winter, and afterwards helped the locals plant their spring crops. Historian Mykola Musynka, himself a Ukrainophi le, summarizes the local attitudes as follows: The culmination of Russophilism in the cultural life of the Rusyns of the Prefo v Region occurred in the years just after World War II, when due to the Red Army's defeat of German fascism, th e Soviet Union enjoyed considerable authority among Rusyn-Ukrainians as well as Czechs and Slovaks. Everything "Soviet" was perceived as "Russian." Political propaganda attempted to portray the Soviet Union as an ideal country in which all peoples were united around the "Great Russian people. " The Russian language, Russian culture, the Russian individual, and the "Russian Soul " all symbolized the acme ofp e,:fection. 72 Russian Elementary and secondary schools proliferated after World War II, in addition to the Russian gymnasium in Presov, an additional Russian gymnasium was established in Medzilaborce on February 23, 1945, and trade schoo ls were opened in which Russian was the language of instruction. According to official statistics for the 1948-49 school year, there were 43 kindergartens, 276 elementary schools, 38 incomplete and 6 complete secondary schools with instruction in the Russian language, totaling 23, 11 2 pupils.73 After the Ukrainian National Council of the Presov Region was abolished, it was replaced by a new organization, the cultural Union of Ukrainian Workers (Kul'tumy sojuz'ukrajans'kyi trudjascychKSUT), which was staunchly supportive of the Communist Party. KSUT initiated numerous publications in the Ukrainian language. 72 Mykola Musynka, "The Postwar Development of the Regional Culture of the Rusyn-Ukrainians of Czechoslovakia' in Paul Robert Magocsi, ed., The Persistence of Regional Cultures: Rusyns and Ukrainians in the Carpathian Hom eland and Abroad (New York, 1993), 55. 73 Ibid, 56. �120 SLOVAKIA 2019 Beginning on June 28, 1952, by decree of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovakia, the language of instruction in all Russian elementary and secondary schools of Eastern Slovakia was changed to Ukrainian . The change in the school system was torturous for all parties. It was implemented too quickly. Instructors who had never studied literary Ukrainian were assigned to take month-long courses, after which they were expected to teach in that language. The vast majority of teachers detested it. There was a shortage of textbooks, dictionaries and other printed materials. Ukrainiazation nonetheless made significant strides in popular culture . In January 1953 , KSUT sponsored the first professional song and dance ensemble in Medzilaborce under the artistic direction of Jurij Kostjik. It was eventually reorganized as the Dukla Ukrainian Folk Ensemble. In September of that year, a Department of Ukrainian Language and Literature was established at the Presov Pedagogical Institute, which in 1959 became the Philosophical Faculty of Safarik University, under the direction of Petro Bungansyn. Literary works by Rusyns in the Presov Region reached an unprecedented level of publication in the course of a decade in the Ukrainian language. After 1959, the Ukrainian division of the Slovak Pedagogical Publishing House had a monopoly on the release of Ukrainian books in the Presov Region. During a thirty-year period it published 373 literary and scholarly works. Not all of them withstood the test of time. Many employed the so-called "socialist realist" style, reflecting a Marxist-Leninist ideological bent which conformed to Party dogma. Yet the Presov Region has produced works which have assumed a permanent place in the history of literature. 74 A number of former Russophiles moved with the times and adopted Ukrainian literary norms. Those Russophiles who remained outside the Communist Party could not expect a triumphal finish . Such was the case of Vasyl' Karaman, who, after the abolition of the body he had chaired, was accused of being a "Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist." The allegation was blatantly absurd: Karaman steadfactly believed that the future of the Rusyns was closely bound to the Soviet Union . He was nonetheless removed from political and cultural life in the Presov Region. Similarily, Ivan P'ieshchak was ac74 Ibid, 65 . �SLOVAKIA 2019 121 cused of bourgeois nationalism, driven from his home in 1952, and forbidden to practice law for nearly a decade. Ironically, some of the greatest beneficiaries of the new socialist order were those Rusyns of the 1st Czechoslovak Anny Corps who had survived the ordeal of the Dukla Pass. In spite of their suffering in the Gulag, they had fought bravely and well under General Svoboda, in fact becoming his favorite soldiers. 75 The treaty transferring Podkarpatska Rus ' to Soviet Ukraine contained a certain "exemption" clause. Those Rusyns with a record of service in the Czechoslovak Army could retain Czechoslovak citizenship. About half of them chose to do so, relocating west of the Uz. Svoboda redressed the balance for them as much as humanly possible, obtaining jobs for them in the military and especially in the security services. One might suppose that, after their experience in the Gulag, they would have been averse to serving as agents of repression. Instead, thanks to Svoboda' s generous patronage, they became overrepresented in the secret police, not only in eastern Slovakia but in Prague and Bratislava as well. This role fueled the hostility of their fellow citizens. Animosities smoldered beneath the surface for a full generation. During the Prague spring of 1968, the Slovak press suddenly became articulate in its denunciations: " ... this 15 year anti-Slovak movement in eastern ... Slovakia must be liquidated." 76 Slovak nationalists in particular resented the fact that the city of Presov served as a bastion of Ukrainophile activity. Slogans appeared on a number of buildings: "Presov was and will be only- and only- a Slovak city" and "Ukrainians, get out of Presov! " 77 The Slovak element of eastern Slovakia was not the only one which opposed the Ukrainian movement. Passive opposition was expressed by many Rusyns themselves . If they could not be themselves, the Rusyns opted for the closest thing, and voluntarily assimilated into the Slovak nationality. 78 The local dialect spoken was not foreign to them, unlike that of the Ukrainian textbooks imported from Kiev. Whenever local citizens were questioned by the police, they declared themselves as Slo75 Magocsi, "Magyars and Carpatho-Rusyns in Czechoslovakia" in Of the Making of Nationalities, 175. 76 Cited in Kulturny zivot (Bratislava) April 15, 1968 and Vychod (Kosice) November 29, 1968. 77 Magocsi, "National Assimilation", 283. 78 fbid, 264-70. �122 SLOVAKIA 2019 vak, fearing deportation to the Soviet Union. Finally, the relatively more advanced Slovak economy drew many to the industrial valleys farther south, where the process was completed. For those Rusyns who continued to consider themselves Ukrainian , yet another shock awaited in the following generation. After the 1989 revolutions and the collapse of communism in East Central Europe, first the Slovak and then the Polish government recognized the Carpatho-Rusyns as a distinct nationality. Many young Rusyns eagerly embraced the new orientation. 79 Conclusion. Unrepentant Russophiles: Yurkovsky, Kabuliak, Sidor and Karabelesh The demise of the Russophile orientation among the CarpathoRusyn people was undoubtedly, to employ a Marxist cliche, historically inevitable. An interesting story revealing the pathetic depths to which it had descended by World War II is provided by Marian Zgomiak, later a professor at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow , Poland. At the outbreak of World War II, Zgomiak was a 15 year-old Polish youth. When Poland was militarily crushed by Nazi Germany in September of 1939, Poli sh Army veterans hoped to escape to the West to fight again. Since most of the Polish soldiers fleeing abroad were between the ages of 17 and 30, two groups of people played disproportionately large roles in the domestic resistance movement organized by the Polish Home Army (Armija Krajowa- AK). One of them was Polish teenagers, who acted as couriers escorting the fugitive s to the border with Slovakia. Another was the Lemkos, who acted as guides. 79 The rejection of Ukrainian identity is by no means unanimous. On November 17, 1990, at the First Congress of the Ru syn Renaissance Society in Medzilaborce, spokesman Mychal Turok-Heter stressed that "while it is vital to preserve national pride, it is wrong to attack the Ukrai nians and the Ukrainian language . Gradually, the Ru syns will write and advance toward the common path which will lead them to fulfilling thei r mi ssive of peace for us all." See Myslenka, 75. Frequently, on the local level , there ex ists a certa in pluralism. In Svidnik, the Museu m of UkrainianRus'Culture acknowledges kinship with the former while stressing the regional identity of the latter. See the entry " Museum of Ukrainian Rus' Culture in Svidnik" in Magocsi and Pop, eds., Encyclopedia of Rusy n Histo1y and Cu lture, 337. �SLOVAK.IA 2019 123 Young Zgorniak was active in these border expeditions. On July 2, 1942, he and his father were arrested by the Gestapo. After the usual beatings and interrogation in the basement of the Gestapo headquarters in Gorlice, Zgorniak was transferred to the prison in Jaslo. Here he bonded with a Lemko prisoner named Yurkovsky. This Yurkovsky was an unrepentant Russophile. During World War I he and his father were hauled off to internment in Talerhof. Yurkovsky senior died there during the typhus epidemic. Yurkovsky junior returned to the mountain districts of Lemkovyna to serve as a teacher in the interwar years. He did not consider himself a Rusyn or even a Lemko, but a Russian. He was not receptive to Polish efforts to sponsor a separate Lemko identity. After the invasion of the Soviet Union in June of I 941 , the Nazi Government General (to which Lemkos west of the San River where subject) rounded up Lemkos known for their pro-Russian sentiments. In this manner Yurkovsky found himself in the prison of Jaslo. Both the quality and quantity of food in the prison of Jaslo left much to be desired. In September of 1942 German authorities loosened the regime to the point where Lemkos (but not Poles) could receive food packages. Arrangements were made for Zgomiak's mother to send food to Yurkovsky, who shared it with her son. Working together in the hospital section of the prison, they had the opportunity to engage in intellectual discussions. Zgorniak records the following: During one of the discussions I asked whether or how he could coordinate the Carpatho-Rusyn orientation on the Russia ruled by the Tsar with an orientation on a Russia ruled by the Bolsheviks who had overthrown and murdered the Tsar and his family. He said he could do so because "after the death a/father in Talerhof I had the dream . In it my father appeared and said 'the cause for which both are fighting shall be successful! ' That dream I keep in mind and I believe it will prove to be true. "80 80 Marian Zgomiak, " Meeting with Lemko leaders who had been arrested by the Gestapo and who were in prison in Jaslo 1942" in Best and Moklak, eds ., The Lemko Region, /939-194 7, 129. �124 SLOVAKIA 2019 Zgomiak asserts that he was convinced Yurkovsky and other Lemkos could have been released had they declared themselves Ukrainians. They declined to do so. Eventually, Yurkovsky was transferred to a concentration camp in Pruszkow, from which he was liberated before the end of the war. Yurkovsky then became sold on the plan jointly agreed upon by the Polish and Soviet governments to encourage Lemkos to emigrate to the east. Those whose villages had been destroyed during the Carpatho-Dukla operation went willingly. Others followed Yurkovsky across the border. They were by no means satisfied with living conditions in Soviet Ukraine, and turned on Yurkovsky for encouraging them to leave in the first place. He suffered something akin to a nervous breakdown and developed heart disease. Zgomiak concluded: "I remember him as an intelligent fellow who despite hi s various interests was fatally attracted to the idea for which he fought." 81 In light of its ignominious end in the realm of politics, what remains of the Russophile tradition among the Carpatho-Rusyns in the realm of culture? Here the author wishes to turn to the areas of religion and literature. In the area of reli gion, the Orthodox faith has provided a certain legacy. It must be understood that the majority of Rusyns professing any religious belief adhere to the Greek Catholic rather than the Orthodox Church . Yet the Orthodox revival of the early twentieth century made an enduring impact which was embraced by the communist regimes after World War II. Its most enthusiastic protagonist was Aleksander Kabuliak. At the end of World War I he was released from prison and became a major figure of the Orthodox revival in Czechoslovakia. There was a sc hi sm within the Orthodox Church in the 1920s. Its adherents were subject to the Serbian patriarchate, whereas Czech converts to Orthodoxy wanted their own autocephalous Orthodox Church. They appealed to the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople. On March 4, 1923 he consecrated the archimandrite Savritij as bishop. Bi shop Savritij 's leadership was contested by Bishop Gorazd, the Serbian patriarch 's representative. Kabuliak sided with the Serbian patriarchate in this di spute. With the Orthodox Church temporarily paralyzed and depri ved of an acting bishop, Kabuliak assumed the role of administrator. The Hungar81 Ibid, 129. �SLOVAKIA 2019 125 ians did not molest him during World War II, nor did he do anything to provoke them. But on November 18, 1944, on behalf of the Orthodox believers of Podkarpatska Rus ', Kabuliak wrote a letter to no less a personage than Soviet leader J. V. Stalin. He recommended the establishment of a Carpatho-Russian Soviet Republic encompassing territory extending "from Iasnyia to Poprad and from Uzhok Pass to Debrecen." 82 Since Moscow was already planning to incorporate Podkarpatska Rus' into the Ukrainian S.S.R., this was not an option. Yet in the following month Kabuliak led a delegation to Moscow requesting the transfer of episcopal jurisdiction from the Serbian to the Moscow patriarchate. Here his efforts were crowned with success. In posthumous recognition of his achievement, in 200 I the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow patriarchate) canonized Kabuliak as the first Carpatho-Rusyn saint. Eastern Galicia, like Podkarpatska Rus ', was ceded to Soviet Ukraine at the end of the war. In both areas incoming communist regimes declared the Greek Catholic Church abolished and transferred its parishes to the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church. In Galicia most of the clergy accepted the formal change and retained their old parishes. The Ukrainian character of the church consequently survived . In Transcarpathia the Greek Catholic clergy was more resistant to Orthodoxy and it was imposed more forcefully. Bishop Teodor Romza of Mukachevo was brutally murdered, while lesser clergymen were arrested and deported.83 They were replaced by Russian priests di spatched from Moscow. The Orthodox Church here acquired an expressively Russian character. From the standpoint of Rusyn culture, inclusion into the Russian Orthodox Church was a double-edged sword. In America, Reverend Alexis Toth had sought to convince his flock that the best way to preserve their rite, tradition and identity was through conversion to Orthodoxy. Yet St. Alexis (He too was canonized) had a great love for the variety of liturgical music known as Carpathian plainchant. 82 See the entry "Kabuliak, Aleksander" in Magocsi and Pop, eds. , Encyclopedia of Rusyn Hist01:y and Culture, 223 . 83 Pekar, 151 -4. �126 SLOVAK.IA 2019 This and another native aspects of worship were submerged by Russian liturgical tradition .84 In Czechoslovakia the legal status of the Greek Catholic Church was restored as a result of the liberal reforms of the Prague spring of 1968. Yet it lost its Rusyn character and became a force for slovakization. Much church property has been restored since the collapse of the communist system in 1989. Yet there remain adherents of the Orthodox faith in northeastern Slovakia. This author has an endearing memory of a visit to an Orthodox church in Svidnik. It was a modest, prefabricated structure, erected in the L990s. The morning was cold. There was only room inside the church for elderly parishioners. Yet a sizable crowd of young people remained standing outside. They displayed enough reverence to refrain from smoking throughout the Divine Liturgy. If the Rusyns can no longer be considered Great Russians, then the Russian government, and especially the Orthodox Church, wishes to retain whatever bonds still exist. While seminarians of the autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church have received their education in Ukraine, those who adhere to the Moscow patriarchate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have been educated in Russia. Such was the case of Dmitri Sidor, born March 29, 1955, currently rector of the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross in Uzhorod. Reverend Sidor heads a movement demanding autonomy for Rusyns of Ukraine. He stresses the religious character of his people, and the similarity of their language with Old Church Slavonic. On December 19, 2008 , the Rusyn issue was raised at an international conference held on the Don, southern Russia. The conference was entitled "Genocide and Cultural Ethnocide of the Rusyns of Carpathian Rus' [from the end of the nineteenth to the beginning of the twenty first century]." A resolution was adopted. It stated that, alongside the Armenians, the Rusyns were the first victims of genocide in the twentieth century, thi s in reference to the policy of the Austro-Hungarian military during the First World War. Today, the resolution continued, Kiev engaged in a "policy of cultural ethno- 84 Paul Robert Magocsi, "Adaptati on Wi thout Assimilati on: The Genius of the Greek Catholic Church of Mukachevo" in Of the Making of Nationalities, Volume 11 , 202. �SLOVAKIA 2019 127 cide." It pointed out that the Rusyns were recognized as a distinct nationality by numerous countries, but not Ukraine. 85 The Ukrainophile orientation responded to the Rostov conference. One articulate response may be found in the working paper "Political and Ethno-Cultural Aspects of the Rusyns' Problem: A Ukrainian Perspective," by Natalya Belitzer of the Py lip Orlyk Institute for Democracy in Kiev. She outlines the tortutous, complex evolution of the history of a region which has been subject to numerous rulers. She echoes her colleague M. Lanchuk in asserting that the main issue at stake has not been the ethno-cultural identity of the Rusyns but rather what has been termed "political Ruthenianism," which many Ukrainians perceive as a threat. 86 According to Belitzer, the disintegration of the Soviet Union was accompanied by an artificial politicization of the Rusyn question. Belitzer is not opposed to Ru syn autonomy in principle. Yet, as a Ukrainophile, she considers the Rusyn tongue as a mere dialect of the Ukrainian language. Belitzer makes a particularly revealing admission when she states that "Ukrainian democracy is ... quite benevolent to the ideas and practices of the restoration of minorities ' own identity, but at the same time strongly denies Rusyn identity as being separate from the Ukrainian.,,s1 Therein lies the rub. If the Rusyn tongue is a dialect of the Ukrainian language, why is its use not permitted in schools? Rusyn schoolchildren speak one way at home but are required to speak another way at school. Such practices are grist to Dmitri Sidor's mill. Aside from the fact that Ukraine has an army and the Rusyns do not, Father Dmitri's movement faces two serious obstacles. For one, he is an Orthodox priest, whereas the majority of Rusyns still profess (or have resumed professing) the Greek Catholic faith. Secondly, while a majority of the Rusyns in the Presov Region and Lemkovyna 85 Resolution of the International conference "Genocide and Cultural Ethnocide of Ru syns in Carpathian Rus' [from the end of the nineteenth to the beginning of the twenty first century] Rostov on the Don, Russia. December 2 1, 2008 www.podkar~atskarus.eu 6 M. Panchuk, " Political Rutheni ani sm" in Demons of Peace and Messengers of War(Kiev, 1997), 323. 87 Natalya Belitzer, "Political and Ethno-Cultural Aspects of the Rusyns' Problem : A Ukrainian Perspective". Research paper prepared within the framework of the Programme on European Security (PROGRES) sponsored by the Center for European Security Studies and the University of Gronigen (Netherlands). Undated, 12. �128 SLOVAKIA 2019 consider themselves their own nationality, a majority of them in Transcarpathia consider themselves Ukrainian. Yet the movement has a growing popular appeal. In a state where bureaucratic centralism has had a constipating effect, autonomy can be a powerful laxative. Moreover, the Rusyns now possess a certain bargaining chip . A full eighty percent of all Russian petroleum and natural gas which is sold to Europe passes through pipelines in the area of Uzhorod. If the Rusyns were to succeed in establishing an independent state, they would be eligible to receive billions of dollars of gas transit profits from Kiev.88 In the realm of literature, the Russophile tradition has likewise established an enduring legacy. This is especially exemplified by the writings of Andrii Karabelesh ( 1906-1964). Karabelesh was born in the Transcarpathian village of Tibala, near Mukachevo. When he first attended the gymnasium in Mukachevo the language of instruction was still Magyar. This changed due to the arrival in Podkarpatska Rus ' of many Russian emigres fleeing the revolution. Karabelesh adapted to the russification of the school system so enthusiastically that he became the first secular writer among Rusyn Russophi les. He went on to study at the Theological Seminary in Uzhorod ( 1925-1928). While still a student he published- in Russian- two collections of poetry, lzbrany e stikhovtvorenia (1928) and V buchalh rassvieta ( 1929). These works have been characterized as "dominated by mysticism, a pessimistic outlook on life, and a love of Russian culture." 89 He did not complete his studies at the Theological Seminary because he converted to Orthodoxy. His conversion was less for religious than for cultural reasons. As literary historian Elaine Rusinko writes: "Karabelesh ' s deity is not the conventional God of the Greek Catholic catechism, but an amorphous, spiritual force that provides metaphysical potential and philosophical substance for the poet." 9 Karabelesh went on to Prague, where he obtained a degree in philosophy from Charles University in 1934. ° 88 See " Ukraine Laun ches Moderni zation of Urengog-Ponary-U zhorod Pipeline," Ukra inian News Agency, Jul y 19, 2011 . 89 See the entry " Karabelesh, Andrii " in Magocsi and Pop, eds., Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, 223. 90 Ru sinko, 350. �SLOVAKIA 2019 129 Karabelesh continued writing exclusively in standard Russian. Unlike earlier Russophiles, he did not look towards Russia for the deliverance of the Rusyn people. In his estimation, it was no longer a matter of what Holy Mother Russia could do for Podkarpatska Rus'. It was a matter of what Carpathian-Rus' could do for Holy Mother Russia. In his enthusiasm for the great Russian literary giants, Karabelesh exhibited a tendency towards plagiarism, using some of their phrases directly in his own poetry. Karabelesh 's special favorite was Mikhail Lennontov, who merits attention here. Like his predecessor, the great Russian Romantic Alexander Pushkin, Lermontov wrote passionately, lived wildly and was killed in a duel. Unlike Pushkin, Lermontov created a literary genre in which the psychology of the protagonist played a leading role. This served as a precedent for the great novels of Dostoyevsky later in the century.91 In his poem "Nevdol'strie" (Dissatisfaction), Karabelesh quotes Lermontov's Pechorin: "I was not born for happiness. " 92 Anyone who studies the course of Karabelesh 's life would probably agree. He taught secondary school for a time in Podkarpatska Rus ', but when the Hungarians reoccupied the region he fled to Bohemia. Karabelesh participated in the Czech Resistance against the Nazis, heading a small underground group in Litamsyl. In this capacity he was arrested by the Gestapo in 1942. He passed the remainder of the war in the concentration camps of Mauthausen and Buchenwald. After the war he remained for a time in western Czechoslovakia, serving as principal of the gymnasium of Svitavy (19451953). Then he moved to the Presov Region, where he taught Russian language and literature at Safarik University. Although a member of the Ukrainian section of the Slovak Writers Union, he continued to write exclusively in Russian. It was not simply a case of Karabelesh being unwilling to move with the times. The red banner of the October Revolution replaced the grey skies in "V karpatikh osin" (Autumn in the Carpathians ). 93 Yet the apolitical, pessimistic tone of Karabelesh 's poetry became increasingly an object of attack by communist ideologues. In 1956, when the Soviet Communist Party was 91 See Semyon Eks hut, " Pushkin 's Heir" Russian Life, 42 , No, 6 (October/November 1999), 20-32. 92 Rusinko, 353. 93 Ibid, 362. �130 SLOVAKIA 2019 in a state of ideological crisis in the aftermath of Stalin's death , Karabelesh raised his voice in criticism of the imposed ukrainization of the Rusyn people. He was subsequently expelled from the Slovak Writers Union and returned to Bohemia. In the homeland, literary hi storian and defender of the "social realist" genre Iurii Bolega opened an ideological offensive against Karabelesh ' s work, condemning it as having a Russian chauvinist and anti-social character. One may ask why Karabelesh would wish to return home under such circumstances. Yet the years he spent in concentration camps had undennined hi s health, and Karabelesh was of the opinion "Where you are born, there you should die! " 94 Terminally ill, Karabelesh finally returned home in 1964. He died in Mukachevo on September 4 . In the post-communist era his poetry has experienced a revival of popularity. The Eastern Carpathians constitute an area of scenic beauty, but also in many places one of the depressing poverty. In his poem " Moi Narod" (My Nation), Karabelesh focuses on "fences and of abandoned gardens," "dried out grape vines," "bars of broken down churches," "unplowed fields," and so on. His writing reflects the mixture of beauty and melancholia that is essential to the brooding Slavic soul. If the Russophile tradition never reached the level of popularity that the Ukrainophile orientation attained, it nonetheless remains an essential part of the cultural landscape. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author wishes to thank and express his deep appreciation to Bob Broedel , president of the Tallahassee-Krasnodar Sister City Program, for hi s technical assistance in accessing material published in Russia and Ukraine. 94 Ibid, 359. � SLOVAKIA 2019 83 RUSSOPHILES WITHOUT RUSSIA R. Vladimir Baumgarten (Dedicated to the Memory ofNikolaj Ordos) The Carpatho-Rusyns, technically a stateless people, have been dubbed the "Kurds of Central Europe." They straddle the northern and southern slopes of the Carpathian mountains in the border re1 gions of Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine and Romania. Since the 1989 revolutions and the collapse of Communism in East Central Europe, both the Slovak and Polish governments have recognized the Carpatho-Rusyns as a distinct nationality. Ukraine, where the largest number of Rusyns dwell, does not. After World War II, incoming communist governments classified the Rusyns as Ukrainians by administrative fiat for reasons of convenience, which shall be explained below. The current post-communist government of Ukraine adamantly adheres to this position. 2 Further west, across the Uz river, many Carpatho-Rusyns in eastern Slovakia have voluntari ly assimilated into the Slovak nationality, for reasons which shall likewise be explained in this essay. The first impetus for the Rusyn national awakening came from a belief that they were part of a Great Russian nation, extending "from the Poprad River [in eastern Slovakia] to the Pacific." 3 The Russophile tradition influenced Carpatho-Rusyn culture and politics for a full century. An examination of its history reveals more than a few 1 Paul Robert Magocsi , " Mapping Stateless Peoples: The East Slavs of the Carpathians," Canadian Slavonic Papers, XXIX, Nos. 3-4 ( 1997), 301-54. 2 The Ukrainophile viewpoint was exemplified by Viacheslav Chomovil ( 19371999). During the Brezhnev era, Chomovil was a dissident journalist and human rights activist. He was sent to the labor camps several times for separatist activities. In the late I 980's he was one of the leaders of the People's Movement of Ukraine (better-known as Rukh). After the Soviet Union disintegrated and Ukraine became independent, Chomovil became alarmed by the Rusyn political renaissance. He considered it separatist and urged the Prosecutor General's office in Kiev to file charges aga inst its protagonists. 3 Paul Robert Magocsi , "The Nationalist lntelligentia and the Peasantry in Twentieth Century Subcarpathian Rus "', in Magocs i, Of the Making of Nationalities Th ere is No End, Vol. I (New York, 1999), 19. �84 SLOVAKIA 2019 ironies. In retrospect, it seems remarkable that the Russophile tradition lasted as long as it did. Indeed, remnants of it exist to this day. The current essay is an attempt to explain its rise and fall. The Russophile Tradition in Habsburg Hungary, Galicia and America The homeland of the Carpatho-Rusyns has been alternatively referred to as Ruthenia, Podkarpatska Rus' (Subcarpathian Rus '), Transcarpathia and Carpatho-Ukraine. For reasons of convenience, this author shall refer to it as Podkarpatska Rus' . It was part of the Kingdom of Hungary for about 900 years. Much of Podkarpatska Rus' was a game preserve for the Hungarian nobility. Its Eastern Slav peasants, shepherds and lumberjacks were forbidden to hunt the deer, even when the latter devoured the people's meagre cabbage plots. Starvation was common. The Rusyns were the most impoverished and illiterate ethnic group in the Hungarian kingdom. Originally a bastion of the Russian Orthodox Church, the homeland of the Carpatho-Rusyns was a battleground and passageway in the ongoing struggle between the Austrian Habsburgs and the Transylvanian princes. In order to wean these people away from any allegiance to the Transylvanian princes, most of whom were Calvinists, the Habsburgs decided to incorporate them into the Roman Catholic Church. They accomplished this by creating a Slavonic/Greek Rite of the church. At the Union of Uzhorod (April 24, 1646), 63 Orthodox priests pledged to recognize the primacy of the pope and the sanctity of Roman Catholic doctrine in exchange for keeping the Slavonic liturgy and a married clergy.4 These clergymen were exempted from the feudal burdens of serfdom, received an income from their parishioners, and could send their sons to seminaries in the Habsburg Monarchy for higher education. Despite this favorable concession from the Imperial House, the Rusyns remained generally loyal to their Magyar lords. This was especially the case of the Kuruc (Crusader) uprising and freedom war of Ferenc Rakoczi II ( 1703-1711 ). 4 For the most comprehensive study of this event, see Michal Lacko, "The Union of Uzhorod," Slovak Studies, VI ( 1966), 7-190. �SLOVAK.IA 2019 85 The contribution of the Rusyns was sufficiently valorous for them to receive the title gens fidelissima ("the most faithful people").5 In the first half of the nineteenth century, when the various Slavic nationalities of the Habsburg Monarchy-Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs and Croats-launched their own national revivals, the Rusyns were slow to respond. No Rusyns attended the Slav Congress during the revolutionary year 1948. On the contrary, Greek Catholic seminarians in Uzhorod abandoned their intended vocations in order to volunteer for the Hungarian honveds (National Guard) during Hungary' s 1848-1849 war of independence.6 A few educated Rusyns were aware of a certain kinship with Russia. In 1791 Ivan Orlai ( 1771-1829) emigrated to Russia. A schoolteacher, he had been denied advancement in the Austrian system of education. In St. Petersburg he studied medicine and ultimately became court surgeon, actively working in the reorganization of the Russian medical profession. He advised the Ministry of Education to invite other educated Rusyns "since they usually know Church Slavonic thoroughly." 7 Orlai served as Mentor to Nikolaj Gogol, author of Taras Bulba, the Russified Ukrainian who ultimately became one of the literary giants of nineteenth-century Russia. Orlai encouraged other Russian scholars to take an interest in their kinsmen on the other side of the Carpathians. Meanwhile, a Greek Catholic eparchy was established in Presov, eastern Slovakia, in 1818. Its eparch (bishop), Hrihory Tarkovych, was an active pioneer of Russian culture. In expanding his library, he imported the complete works of the eighteenth-century Russian intellectual and scientist Mikhail Lomonosov.8 5 The Rusyns gained this title as a result of a battle fought near Trencin castle in western Slovakia on August 4, 1708. During the fi ghting Rakoczi vaulted across a ravine on horseback. He was thrown forward , striking his head and losing consciousness. His Carpatho-Rusyn peasant infantry held its ground long enough for him to be carried from the fi eld. Outnumbered and outgunned by the Imperial regulars, these Rusyns were subsequently massacred. 6 Paul Robert Magocsi, The Shaping of a National Identity: Subcarpathian Rus: / 848-1 948 (Cambridge, MA: 1978), 43. 7 Elaine Rusinko, Straddling Borders: Literature and Identity in Subcarpathian Rus ' (Toronto, 2008), 99. 8 Athanasius Pekar, The History of the Church in Carpathian Rus' (New York, 1992), 89. �86 SLOVAKIA 2019 The first real impetus for the Carpatho-Rusyn awakening came as a result of the Russian military intervention against the Hungarian war of independence in 1849. It was not undertaken to liberate the Slavs of Hungary who were in a state of revolt against Magyar tyranny. Tsar Nicholas I of Russia employed far more autocratic powers than did the House of Habsburg and regarded the stamping out of the fires of revolution, which had swept Europe since the previous year, as a self-evident duty. Polish revolutionary veterans were serving on the Hungarian side and he feared the spread of revolution to his Polish possessions. Nicholas was no Pan-Slav. Two years earlier a nest of such agitators had been discovered in Kiev. It called itself "The Brotherhood of Sts . Cyril and Methodius," and, according to Nicholas, its adherents had invented some monstrosity called the Ukrainian nationality. One of its leading members was not only Ukraine's best poet, but its best painter as well. His people sought ties with the Czechs and Slovaks. Nicholas saw to it that several of them were jailed and he had Taras Schevcenko drafted into the Russian army for ten years, during which time he was forbidden to write or sketch. 9 A number of Russian Pan-Slav politically conservative individuals sympathized with the Slovak people. Tsar Nicholas admonished the Slavophile journalist Ivan Aksakov ( 1823-1886) that, under the guise of a general Slav alliance, subversive elements in the Kingdom of Hungary wished to create a struggle which was not in the name of 0 God, but in a spirit of mutiny, which was dangerous to Russia. ' The Russian military commanders carefully studied the earlier conflicts between the Habsburgs and the Transylvanian princes . They observed that The Austrians had traditionally moved against Transylvania by starting from Kosice in eastern Slovakia. It was considered safer to cross the Hornad and Tisa rivers in the Carpathian 11 foothills than to assault Transylvania from the Hungarian plain. On June 9, the main Russian army commanded by Field Marshal Ivan Paskievitch, consisting of 70,890 soldiers and 240 cannon poured into Slovakia through the Dukla Pass from partitioned Po9 Pav lo Zaitsev, Taras Shevchenko. A Life (Toronto, 1989), 139-57. °Cudovit Holotik, "The Slovaks: An Integrating or Disintegrating Force?" Austrian 1 Histo ry Yearbook, III , Part 2 ( 1967): 2. 11 William Stiles, Austria in 1848-50, II (New York, 1850), 294. Stiles was the American charge d'affaires in Vienna during the revolutionary events of 1848-49. �SLOVAKIA 2019 87 land. The Russians captured Presov on June 20 and took Kosice five days later. To supply their army, the Russians stockpiled large amounts of foodstuffs at the northern end of the Dukla Pass. However, the military bureaucracy of Tsar Nicholas was inefficient. Provisions were made to transport the artillery but not the food . Austrian quartermasters, who also had a supply of food , and were allied with the Russians, had fled the area. The Russian soldiers, hungry and exasperated, turned to plunder. Don Cossacks looted a number of Slovak villages so thoroughly that the inhabitants fled into the for12 ests . The Russian intervention in this area would be remembered with ill-feelings by Magyars and non-Magyars alike. There were Slovak Pan-Slavs who were willing to overlook Russian misconduct. They convinced themselves that Grand Duke Konstantin was preparing to transfer his headquarters from Warsaw to Kosice, where he would proclaim a new Slav state. Slovak leaders appealed to the Russian embassy and military mission in Vienna for recognition. They requested that Slovak advisors and regional administrators be attached to the Russian military in eastern Slovakia. Tsar Nicholas replied to one such request "I received the same thing yesterday from Danilevsky [the Russian consul in Belgrade]. I have no time for such matters." 13 On the other hand, the reception of Russian military intervention was not universally negative. Rusyn peasants in the highlands witnessed a mighty Slav army in their region for the first time. They were awed. They gave fruits and nuts to the invaders. Aleksander Dukhnovych, soon to become an awakener among the Rusyns, later wrote, "One thing really gave me joy in life, and that was in 1849 when I first saw the glorious Rus sian army .. .I can't describe the feeling of gladness at seeing the first Cossacks on the streets of Presov. I danced and cried with delight. .. It was truly the first, perhaps the last, joy of my life." 14 Aleksander Dukhnovych (1803-1865) was born in the village of Topol 'a in the Humenne region of eastern Slovakia. He was descended from Greek Catholic priests and was consequently educated 12 John Shelton Curtis, The Russian Army under Nicholas I, 1925-/ 854 (Durham, NC, 1865), 298 . 13 Holotik, 383. 14 Quoted in Magocsi, The Shaping of a National Identity, 45. �88 SLOVAKIA 2019 at the Theological Seminary in Uzhorod. After ordination as a priest in 1827, he was assigned to the bishop 's chancellery in Presov. His relatively progressive views clashed with those of the more conservative Tarkovych, who then assigned him to a relatively remote rural parish. Dukhnovych regarded his assignment as a godsend. In Uzhorod he had received a Hungarian education, which influenced his early writings. In the rural parish he discovered, or re-discovered, "the people." He was influenced by the Slovak National Awakening and applied its precepts to the awakening of his own Rusyn people. After the death of Tarkovych, Dukhnovych was reassigned to Presov and appointed eparchical canon in 1843 . He remained closely associated with the city-considered a Rusyn cultural center in spite of its Slovak majority- for the rest of his life. In 1850, after the suppression of the Hungarian revolution, Dukhnovych established the first Rusyn cultural association, the Presov Literary Society. His own literary contribution was considerable. In 1851 he composed the poem "Vruchanie," whose opening lines "I was, am, and will remain a Rusyn" became the motif for the unofficial anthem of the Carpatho-Rusyn people. He researched and wrote extensively on the Rusyn people. His monumental achievement was the play "Virtue is More Important than Riches," which is still performed regularly in regional theatres in eastern Slovakia and western Ukraine. 15 The ethical values expressed in this play mirror Dukhnovych 's role as a social reformer. He campaigned vigorously against illiteracy, alcoholism, and the lingering pagan superstitions which persisted among his people. The literary language employed-indeed, invented by Dukhnovych-was peculiar. It was a blend of Old Church Slavonic, standard Russian and the native dialect. His later disciples called it "the traditional Carpatho-Rusyn langage," while his critics derrided it as "jazychije" (macaronic jargon). 16 Indeed, while Dukhnovych was the greatest of the Rusyn awakeners, he inhibited the establishment of a distinctive Rusyn identity by his unequivocal adherence to the Great Russian idea. 15 For an English-language translation, see Aleksander Duchnovych, Virtue is More Important than Riches, ed. by Elai ne Rusinko (New York, 1994). 16 See the entry "Dukhnovych, Aleksander," in Paul Robert Magocs i and Robert Popp, eds. , Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture (Toronto, 2005), I06. �SLOVAKIA 2019 89 If Dukhnovych was the unquestioned giant among the Rusyns in the realm of culture, then Adolf Dobrian' skyi ( 1817-1901) fulfilled this function in the realm of politics. Dobrian'skyi was born in Rudl'ov, Zemplin county, Slovakia, the son of a Greek Catholic priest. He attended secondary schools in Levoca, Roznava and Misko le, and then studied philosophy in Kos ice ( 1833 ), law in Eger (1834-36) and mining at the Academy of Mines and Forests in Banska Stiavnica, central Slovakia. He was fluent in several foreign languages, including Magyar, German, French, English and Italian. He visited Bohemia, where he was influenced by Frantisek Palacky, Karel Havlicek and other Czech national awakeners. Dobrian'skyi initially welcomed Hungary' s 1848 Revolution for the liberal reforms that it promised. But when the Slovak district of Banska Bystrica elected him as its representative to the Hungarian Diet, the Hungarian government rejected his mandate on the grounds of Pan-Slavism. Dobrian'skyi then indeed became a Pan-Slav. He moved to Presov, where he built a following which advocated a political union of the Rusyns of Hungary with those of Austrian Galicia. When the Russians prepared to invade Hungary, the Austrian government appointed him as its liason with Paskievitch. Dobrian 'skyi then served as advisor to the Russian military. After the defeat of revolutionary Hungary, the Austrian government imposed a centralist bureaucratic regime. Dobrian' skyi then became advisor to the Uzhorod Civil District, which encompassed four counties. He regarded the civil district as a prelude to the establishment of an autonomous Rusyn state under the Emperor of Austria. 17 Defeated in the Austro-Sardinian war of 1859, The Habsburg Monarchy was substantially weakened. It was forced to retreat from bureaucratic centralism and make concessions to the Magyars. Dobrian' skyi was recalled , and the old nobles began to reoccupy county positions. In 1866 Austria suffered another defeat, this time at the hands of Prussia, and resigned itself in 1867 to accepting the Magyar nobility as equal partners in the renamed Dual Monarchy of AustriaHungary. Emperor Franz-Josef allowed himself to be crowned King of Hungary in Budapest and the Hungarian nobles were granted complete self-government in internal affairs. By now their obsession 17 See the entry " Dobrian' skyi, Adolf," in Magocsi and Popp, eds., Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, 93. �90 SLOVAK.IA 2019 with Pan-Slavism reached paranoid proportions . They viewed the magyarization of Hungary's Slavic minorities as imperative. Persecution of Slovak and Carpatho-Rusyn educational and cultural institutions became the order of the day. A similar course evolved in Galicia, the Austrian province of partitioned Poland. Shortly after the 1867 Compromise with Hungary came into effect, Empreor Franz-Josef appointed his trusted Polish confidant Count Agenor Goluchowski as Viceroy of Galicia. Goluchowski gained for his Polish nobles a degree of autonomy that mirrored that of the Magyars. The education system was polonized. This posed a direct threat to the advancement of the Rusyns. Educated Rusyns became politically divided. The Ukrainian movement gained the greatest strength . However, there were still Rusyns who adhered to the traditions of old Rus' .They stubbornly continued to write in Old Church Slavonic and isolated themselves from the people. Cultureally, these Old Ruthenians identified with Russia, but professed allegiance to the Austrian Emperor. Such a dual allegiance became more difficult to maintain as the nineteenth-century ran its course. Austria and Russia were no longer allies, and were in fact competing for hegemony in the Balkans. Similarly, the Rusyns of Galicia found themselves cast in the role of a political football in the rivalry of the two empires. A case in point was the career of Ivan Naumovych (1826-1891), who was born Galicia in 1836. In his youth he was strongly influenced by the Polish national movement. However, he experienced a turning point during the revolutionary year of 1848, when there was a brief uprising in the city of Lviv. Naumovych was observing the fighting from a hillside when imperial soldiers spotted him and assumed he was a Polish rebel. They arrested him, but Naumovych persuaded them to release him by convincing the Austrians that he was a Russian. 18 Being Russian, Naumovych decided, carried certain privileges. After 1850, when Naumovych was ordained a Greek Catholic priest, he became staunchly Russophile in cultural orientation. He organized opposition to a campaign organized by the Roman Catholic Polish clergy to latinize the liturgy of the Greek rite. In this ca18 Keith Dyrud, The Quest fo r th e Rusyn Soul: The Politics of Religion and Culture in Eastern Europ e and America, 1890-World War I (Philadelphia, 1992), 28. �SLOVAKIA 2019 91 pacity he sought Russian support. At this point, Naumovych did not convert to Orthodoxy . He still regarded the Greek Catholic (Uniate) church as a potential bridge between Eastern and Western Christendom. Nontheless, inspired by his activism, an entire village in eastern Galicia converted to Orthodoxy in May of 1877. More conversions followed in the next three years. The Galician authorities charged Naumovych with treason. In their view his activity was not religious but political. Naumovych had indeed maintained contact with Russian Pan-Slav agents. 19In July of 1882 he was finally convicted and sentenced to eight months in jail. Other Rusyns who converted to Orthodoxy likewise found themselves hauled into court, although, surprisingly, a Polish jury acquitted them. Both the Austrian government and Polish patriots understood the necessity of not pushing the Old Ruthenians to the point of open subversion. The Ukrainophile movement predominated in Galicia, but the Russophile tradition was not going to go away. Galicia, unlike Russian Ukraine, was not a particularly productive agricultural region. Much of the countryside is hilly and the soil is poor. A bad harvest usually resulted in famine , and this happened at the beginning of the twentieth century. Russian Pan-Slavs responded by founding the Galician-Russian Benevolent Association in St. Petersburg on February 9, 1903. At the opening meeting acertain Father Petrov delivered the inaugural address. American historian Keith Dyrud described the subsequent address as follows: He likened the world to an artist's palette or a musician 's instrument. God was that artist or musician. The nationalities of the world were like colors on the palette or strings on the instrument. If some of the colors or strings are missing, the painting or music will be incomplete and this is a crime against the spirit. This crime against the spirit occurs when a culture allows itself to become divided. The separation of the people of Galicia and Carpatho-Russia (Subcarpathia) from the Russian nation was just such a crime . It is the obligation of a national culture to unite its people into a united nation. In other words, the orator was suggesting that it was 19 Ibid ., 28 . �92 SLOVAK.IA 2019 the obligation of Russia to unite in a single nation all people with a Russian culture. He included the Galicians and Subcarpathians 20 among the people with a Russian culture. Under the leadership of Count Vladimir Bobrinski , the GalicianRussian Benevolent Association extended financia l relief to famine victims of Galicia. Tsarist Russia, the most despotic and reactionary among the Great Powers, could appear benevolent while working to expand its influence. Bobrinski likewise dispatched agents to Podparkarpatska Rus ' , where starvation was an everyday occurrence, rather than a momentous event. The Hungarian government was less hesitant than its Austrian counterpart to prosecute Rusyns for conversion to the Orthodox faith. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the first converts to the Orthodox faith in Podkarpatska Rus ' materialized in the vi llage of Iza. They were simple peasants who disliked their pastor, a magyarized Rusyn, who replaced their language with Magyar in the parish school. Led by the cantor-teacher Andry Vladymir, they appealed to the Serbian patriarch, who had nominal authority over all Orthodox subjects of the Habsburg Monarchy, to send them an Orthodox priest. Greek Catholic priest and historian Athanasius Pekar, himself a Ukrainophile, later admitted: "All that needed to be done to liquidate the so-called 'Orthodox movement' in Iza was to appoint a new village pastor and reopen the parish school." 2 1 Instead, the Hungarian government arrested the participants late in 1903 for alleged ties with Russia, and in the following year placed them on trial in Marmaros. All the defendants were found gui lty of treason. The Maramaros trial made a deep impression on the mind of a simple woodcutter of Iasnyia named Aleksander Kabaliu (18771947). He had just been released from the army, where he had been persecuted by Hungarian officers for his Pan-Slav inclinations. Kabuliak had a pronounced inclination towards a monastic life . He made religious pilgrimages to Russia, Jerusalem and Mount Athos in Greece. At a Russian monastery in the last-named location, he was received into the Orthodox fold . He turned his home in Iasnyia into a veritable Russian museum, collecting and displaying icons. Fearing 20 21 Ibid. , 49-50. Pekar, I 05 . �SLOVAKIA 2019 93 persecution by Hungarian authorities, Kabaliuk emigrated to the Russian Empire, where he was tonsured as a monk in 1910. The Russian Orthodox Church initially intended that Kabaliuk wou ld go to America and assume custody of a modest parish in Pittsburgh.22 Instead, he decided to return to Hungary to share in the martyrdom of the villagers of Iza. The Hungarian authorities were happy to oblige him. At the end of 1913 there was a second Maramaros trial, in which Kabaliuk and 94 peasants were the defendants. The Hungarians were hopeful that the trial would expose the activities of Count Bobrinskii and his associates. All it achieved was international condemnation of Magyar policies . Nonetheless, Kabaliuk was sentenced to four and a half years in jail, while 32 others were sentenced to one or two years and various fines. The rest were dismissed for lack of evidence. It was also at the tum of the century that many Rusyns followed the example of their Slovak kinsmen and neighbors in emigrating to America. Although members of both groups originated in the dirtpoor hill country of the eastern Carpathians, they tended to gravitate towards industrial centers in the United States. Surprisingly, America provided both stimulus for the Russophile tradition and a resurgence of the Russian Orthodox faith. Dyrud writes: The majority of the Rusyn immigrants came to the United States as illiterate peasants and had not participated in the intellectual and cultural conflicts that were raging in the old country. Thus it was in this country that Rusyn peasants from Galicia and Subcarpathia first lived together and found that they did not have as much in common as it first seemed. And it was in the United States that many of them first heard of the Ukrainian movement. And it was there that the Rusyns from Subcarpathia felt free to express national sentiments without the pressures of magyarization. It was in the United States that most of the Rusyn immigrants were told for the first time by the Russian Orthodox mission that they were really Russians. 23 22 See the entry "Kabaliuk, Aleksander," in Magocsi and Popp, eds., Encyclopedia o[ Ru syn History and Culture, 223. 2 Dyrud, 58 . �94 SLOVAK.IA 2019 Ironically, the Russian cause was indirectly aided by a most unlikely element: Irish American Catholic priests. Many of the latter resented the fact that Greek Catholic candidates for the priesthood were permitted to marry while they were not. Most outstanding was Archbishop John Ireland of Minneapolis-St. Paul. On December 19, 1889, he was visited by a Greek Catholic priest named Alexis Toth. Toth had been dispatched by the Presov eparchy to assume the pastorship of St. Mary ' s, a modest church recently constructed by the Rusyn community of Minneapolis. When Father Toth presented his credentials, Archbishop Ireland became greatly agitated. He informed Toth that he did not consider him to be a genuine Catholic, and denied him permission to administer the sacraments. 24 After consultation with the parishioners of St. Mary's, Toth conferred with Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Vladimir of San Francisco. The latter was eager and willing to accept the parish of St. Mary's into the Orthodox fold. Aside from Alaska, which Russia had sold to the United States earlier, there were up to the 1870s only three Orthodox churches in the United States. In addition to San Francisco, there was a Russian parish in New York City and a Greek Orthodox church in New Orleans. Native converts in America were exclusively Alaskan Aleuts and Eskimos . Now, however, the wave of Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants indicated a potential source of growth. Since nearly all Rusyn immigrants were in the eastern half of the United States, New York rather than San Francisco was delegated as an episcopal seat. In 1890 the construction of St. Nicholas Cathedral was completed in New York. Tsar Nicholas II personally donated 5,000 roubles to this project. His government subsidized the construction of other churches and supported activities of the Orthodox Missionary Society founded in Moscow. In Minneapolis, Father Toth founded the Russian Mutual Aid Society. These prosletization efforts exceeded all expectations. By the time of the outbreak of World War I in 1914, over one-third of all Rusyn immigrants in the United States had converted to Orthodoxy. 25 They served as enthusiastic supporters of the Russian cause in the Great War. World War I brought with it the culmination of the historic struggle for the Carpathians, and caused great suffering among the 24 25 Ibid 65-6 Ibid: 65 . • �SLOVAK.IA 2019 95 Rusyns of Galicia, eastern Slovakia and Podkarpatska Rus' . By early September 1914 Russian armies had overrun much of eastern Galicia. Count Georgii Bobrinskii, brother of Count Vladimir, was made governor-general, and started a campaign to eradicate the Ukrainian movement. All Ukrainian cultural organizations, cooperatives and journals were shut down. The Russian language replaced Ukrainian in the school system. Hundreds of Greek Catholic priests were deported into the depths of Russia. There was admittedly some dissent in Russian governmental circles. Noted statesman Pavel Miliukov described Russian conduct in Galicia as a European scandal. Yet Foreign Minister Sergei Sazanov stated unequivocally: "Now is exactly the right moment to rid ourselves of the Ukrainian movement once and for all." 26 The Ukrainophiles had a measure of revenge when the AustroHungarian military reoccupied the province in the following year. They denounced their Russophile neighbors for alleged collaboration with the invaders. Hungarian troops carried out mass hangings. At the same time, Polish nobles spread rumors that the Ukrainophiles were covertly pro-Russian, so as to reassert their own authority in Galicia. In truth, thousands of Russophiles and Ukrainophiles alike suffered internment in Austrian concentration camps. The most notorious of these camps was Talerhof, near Graz. Sanitary conditions were deplorable, and an estimated 1,767 persons died of typhus and 27 other diseases. Austria's parliament was scandalized, and Emperor Karl ordered Talerhof closed early in 1917. Early in 1915, for the second of three occasions in the course of a century, the Russian military crossed through the Dukla Pass. This move came as a result of the seige of Przemysl, Austria-Hungary's principal fortress in Galicia. Russian troops occupied the Carpathian mountain passes to the south to prevent the Austro-Hungarian military from sending reinforcements to break the siege. Casualties on both sides of the winter war of 1914-15 were appalling. It is likely that more soldiers succumbed to the "White Death" (hypothermia) than were killed by enemy bullets. 28 Ultimately, the Austrian side 26 Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A History (Toronto, Buffalo and London, 2009), 343. See the entry "Talerhof," in Magocsi and Pop, eds,. Encyclopedia of Rusy n History and Culture, 488 . 28 For rhe most recent account of the winter campaign, see Traydon A. Tumstell, Blood on the Snow: The Carpathian Winter War of I 9 I 5 (Lawrence, KD, 20 I 0). 27 �96 SLOVAKIA 2019 gave way first. Russian soldiers under General Lavrl' Kornilov pushed through the southern end of Dukla Pass and advanced as far as the village of Lodomirova, just north of the town of Svidnik. Here they established a military cemetery for their dead. Lodomirova eventually became the site of a Russian cultural center in northeastern Slovakia, which shall be discussed in due course. The Russians did not remain in occupation of this toehold in Slovakia for long. Germany, Austria-Hungary's senior partner, launched a counteroffensive eastward across Poland, albeit at the cost of having enough troops to capture Paris. Russian troops painfully withdrew north of the Carpathians. They were now demoralized and ripe for revolution. Mass mutinies forced Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate on March 15, 1917. The reign of the Romanov dynasty had ended. Tsarist Russia was destroyed. Politically speaking, the Russophi-le orientation was now a dead letter. Culturally, its future was now an openended question . At this point Russophiles among the Rusyns looked with growing interest at the now ascendant Czechoslovak independence movement. The Rusyns in Interwar Czechoslovakia and Poland The Czechoslovak independence movement was a curious article. For almost a century, there existed an intellectual tradition which maintained that Czechs and Slovaks were two branches of the same nationality. Yet the concept of a politically united Czechoslovak state was largely the invention to Tomas Garrigue Masaryk ( 18501937), a Czech philosophy professor and notorious defender of unpopular causes. Perceiving that World War I would result in AustriaHungary coming increasingly under the domination of Kaiser Wilhelm ' s Germany, Masaryk decided to lobby among the opposing Western powers for Czecho-Slovak independence. In Geneva, in neutral Switzerland, he was joined by his protege, the sociology professor Edvard Benes. Together they proceeded to Paris, where they were joined by Milan Rastislav Stefanik, a young Slovak serving as an officer in the French Air Force. This triumvirate formed a Czech Action Committee Abroad, which was eventually expanded and renamed the Czechoslovak National Council. Given his position on this body, the French eventually gave Stefanik genera l' s rank. He raised a Czechoslovak Legion from prisoners of war and deserters �SLOVAKIA 2019 97 from the Austro-Hungarian Army. The Czechoslovak Legion distinguished itself on the Western, Eastern and eventually Italian fronts, and gained increased Allied favor in the struggle for the recognition of the independence movement. 29 In 1918 Masaryk visited the United States, not only to gain official American recognition, but also a mandate from the Slovak community in America, since Slovakia itself was politically gagged. In October of 1915 the Bohemian National Alliance and the Slovak League of America had already concluded a preliminary agreement for cooperation in Cleveland. Masaryk proceeded to Pittsburgh to conclude a more formal agreement for a Czecho-Slovak merger. Masaryk's visit to the Mecca of the American Slovaks was greeted by a large manifestation of support which included South Slavs as well as Czechs and Slovaks. Yet the negotiations undertaken at Moose Hall on May 29-31 were not without controversy. Masaryk pledged Slovakia an administration, a school system and linguistic rights, but not its own parliament, as specified by the earlier Cleveland Agreement. Here Jozef Husek of the Slovak Catholic Jednota raised strenuous objections. Albert Mamatey, president of the Slovak League, impressed Masaryk with the seriousness of losing the support of the largest single Slovak organization. The delegates were evenly divided, and Masaryk finally broke the deadlock by signing a revised draft with all the proposals. 30 The steel towns of the greater Pittsburgh area were also heavily populated by Rusyns from Hungary. Following the lead of the Slovaks, many joined fraternal organizations, which not only provided 29 The Czechoslovak Legion in Russia was the most instrumental military force in attaining Allied recognition of the independence movement. With Russia withdrawing from the war in 1918, Czechoslovak legionnaires wished to be evacuated and sent to France, where a German offensive to capture Paris was anticipated. Attempts by the Bolsheviks to disarm them resu lted in their capture of the Trans-Siberian Railway and a legendary odyssey to the Pacific coast. It also gave the Western Allies a pretext to intervene in the Russian Civil War. The experience of the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia boats of a sizable amount of literature. The best Englishlanguage studies are authored by Victor M. Fie, The Revolutionary War for Independence and the Russian Question: The Czechoslovak Army in Russia 1914-191 8 (New Delhi, 1977) and The Bolsheviks and the Czechoslovak Legion. The Origins of Their Armed Conflict: March to May 1918 (New Delhi , 1978). 30 See Marian Mark Stolarik, "The Role of American Slovaks in the Creation of Czecho-Slovakia" Slo vak Studies, VIII ( 1968), 48-5 1 �98 SLOVAKIA 2019 benefits to workers but published newspapers as well. Its members had acquired a measure of political awareness. One such organization was the Greek Catholic Union, headquartered in the HomesteadMunhall district. Another was the United Societies of America, which contained both Greek Catholic and Orthodox members, based in McKeesport. At the time of Masaryk's pilgrimage to Pittsburgh, the Czech independence leader was approached by Nicholas Pachuta, editor of the Greek Catholic Union's newspaper Rus 'kii Viestnik. Pachuta had recently converted to Orthodoxy. Up until this point he had advocated the incorporation of Podkarpatska Rus' into the Russian Empire. Now that there was no more Russian Empire, Pachuta approached Masaryk with the idea of union with a Czecho-Slovak state. He was soon afterwards expelled from the Greek Catholic Union. 3 1 Overall, the Greek Catholic clergy wished their homeland to remain part of Hungary. Many laymen wanted union with Galicia but insisted Galicia was Russian rather than Ukrainian. The end to the Great War was approaching, and territorial changes could be anticipated. One of President Woodrow Wilson's celebrated Fourteen Points for peace was "self-determination for the peoples of AustriaHungary." It was necessary to have a common program. Members of both organizations met in Homestead on July 23, 1918 to form the American National Council of Uhro-Rusyns. The subsequent Homestead Resolution read as follows: If the pre-war boundaries remain, Rusyns, as the most loyal people-gens fidelissima-deserve that Hungary provide [them} with autonomy. If new boundaries are made, they should be made according to nationality; thus, Uhro-Rusyns can belong nowhere else than to their nearest brothers by blood, language and faith, to the Galician and Bukovinian Rusyns. But if we are divided by foreign aspirations from Ukrainians and Old-Russians [Galician Russophiles}, the National Council demands in this case autonomy for Uhro-Rusyns so they can pre32 serve their national character. 31 Magocsi, Th e Shaping of a National Identity, 81. The original text of the Homestead Resolution appears under the heading " Do Vpukh Vhro-Rusynov zhivlych v Soed" in Prosvita, August 8, 1918 32 �SLOVAKIA 2019 99 The Rusyns commissioned a young Pittsburgh lawyer named Gregory Zsatkovich ( 1886-1967) to represent their interests to the United States government. Pennsylvania congressman Guy Campbell arranged a meeting between Zsatkovich and President Wilson on October 21. Wilson thought it unfeasible to grant full independence to so small a nation in a geopolitically sensitive region, and consequently recommended that Zsatkovich seek autonomy in a larger state. He referred Zsatkovich to Masaryk, whose independence movement had been recently recognized by the U.S. State Department, Zsatkovich met with Masaryk in Philadelphia, where the latter hosted a congress called the Mid-European Democratic Union on October 23-26. According to Zsatkovich's memoir afterwards, Masaryk assured him: "If the Rusyns decide to join the Czechoslovak Republic, they shall constitute a fully autonomous state." 33 There remained a sticky issue. Rusyn territorial claims included several counties in eastern Slovakia. Here there were numerous Rusyns in the northern mountain districts whereas elsewhere the population consisted of either Slovaks or Rusyns who had already voluntarily assimilated into the Slovak nationality. Masaryk was further alleged to declare on this point: "The frontiers will be so determined that the 34 Rusyns will be satisfied." On November 12, at a meeting of the National Council of UhroRusyns in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the Czechoslovak option was provisionally adopted, albeit including the demand for the counties of eastern Slovakia. A subsequent plebiscite among the American Rusyn fraternals provided Zsatkovich with the desired results: out of 1,102 votes submitted, 732 (67 percent) were for union with Czechoslovakia and 310 (28 percent) for union with Ukraine. Additionally, there were 27 votes for complete independence, 10 votes for union with Russia, and 9 votes for remaining part ofHungary. 35 Back in the Old Country, the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in October of 1918 led to a power vacuum in many areas of the Carpathians. Several different national councils were organized by Rusyns, each of which had its own program for the fu- 33 Gregory Zsatkovich, Otkryhote-Expose bydaltelho gubernatori Podkarpatskoj Rusi (Homestead, PA , 1921 ), 5. 34 Ibid 5 35 Ma~o~si , Th e Shaping of a National Identity, 85. �100 SLOVAK.IA 2019 ture affiliation of the people. A Russophile group in eastern Slovakia, based in Stara Cubovna, initially wanted a merger with Galicia. Dissenters among them, led by the lawyer Antonii Beskyd ( 1855-1933), considered such a move impractical. They reconvened in Presov and declared themselves for union with Czechoslovakia instead. A new revolutionary government in Hungary pledged to grant the Rusyns territorial autonomy. A group of Greek Catholic priests in Uzhorod declared themselves in favor of this option. Another pro-Hungarian group met in Khust, but its speakers were shouted down by Pro-Ukrainian elements led by the lawyer Iulii Braschaiko (1879-1955). The Ukrainophle orientation had at last taken hold in Podkarpatska Rus ', and would grow progressively stronger. Most dramatic of all were events in the easternmost Hutsul region, centered around Iasnyia. Here the populace favored union with Ukraine, but, pending further developments, took matters into their own hands. In the early morning of January 7, 1919, a group of demobilized Rusyn soldiers, aided by troops sent by the West Ukrainian Republic, drove out the Hungarian garrison of 250 militiamen. On February 5 the victorious Rusyns proclaimed their own "Hutsul Republic," with a 42-member elected council and a four-man government. This little state existed until June 11, when the area was occupied by advancing Romanian troops.36 Late in 1918, Czechoslovak legionnaires returning from the Italian Front had begun a military occupation of Slovakia, and advanced across the Uz River. Uzhorod was occupied on January 10, 1919. The Czechoslovak position was strengthened as a result of a Bolshevik government assuming power in Hungary, much to the alarm of the Western powers. This Hungarian government wished to build upon the "Ruska Kraina" declared by its predecessor, the Karolyi regime. It went to extremes attempting to implement communist rule, threatening the death penalty for even the smallest commercial transactions. This decree became impossible to enforce, since the commissars were themselves profiteering. 37 Podkarpatska Rus' was soon engulfed in counterrevolution. 36 See Paul Robert Magocsi, "The Rusyn Decision to Unite With Czechoslovakia" in Magocsi, Of the Making of Natio nalities, 134. 37 Ibid, 140-42 �SLOVAKIA 2019 101 Even before the establishment of the Bolshevik regime, members of the Uzhorod Council began experiencing doubts concerning the viability of remaining part of Hungary. A leading member of the Council, Reverend Avhustyn Voloshyn (1874-1945), began negotiating with Slovak leader Milan Hodza. Voloshyn was joined by supporters of both Beskid and Brashchaiko. The Russophiles realized that the Russia they had loved and believed in was unlikely to return from the dead. The Ukrainophiles realized that an independent Ukraine was unlikely to survive the turmoil of the Russian Civil War. Members of both orientations were willing to form a single body representing their mutual interests. It was in this spirit that the Central Russian National Council was formed in Uzhorod on May 8, 1919. Zsatkovich arrived with the text of the Scranton Resolution, which was endorsed unanimously. It remained to the Western peacemakers gathered in Paris to give sanction to Podkarpatska Rus' being granted to Czechoslovakia. Yet, contrary to later Hungarian revisionist claims, the victorious Western Allies did not arbitrarily hand the region over to the Czechs. The decision to unite with Czechoslovakia was that of the Rusyn people themselves .38 The realities of being part of the Czechoslovakia disappointed the expectations of many educated Rusyns. Autonomy was not forthcoming. They could send representatives to parliament in Prague, but did not have their own regional parliament. Prague apparently decided that the Rusyns, like the Slovaks, were not ready for autonomy. Zsatkovich became the first provincial governor, but the actual administration lay in the hands of a centralized Czech bureaucracy. Zsatkovich eventually resigned in disgust and returned to America. The disputed counties in eastern Slovakia remained under Slovak administration. To complicate matters further, there was now a group of Rusyns who considered themselves their own nationality, in addition to the existing Russophile and Ukrainophile orientations. Politically, on the local level, Prague would support one and then another orientation, depending upon its convenience at a particular moment. The Czechoslovak administration made great strides in education, virtually eliminating illiteracy in twenty years . The government poured tremendous amounts of money into Podkarpatska Rus ', and liberally funded cultural activities of all three orientations. 38 Ibid, 146. �102 SLOVAKIA 2019 On April 29, 1920, there was a meeting of local leaders in Uzhorod, headed by Iulii Brashchaiko. Its purpose was to establish a cultural organization encompassing all Podkarpatska Rus '. Nothing resulted from this meeting since Russophiles led by Anthonii Beskyd raised angry objections to the Ukrainophile cultural orientation of Brashchaiko ' s group. On May 9 Brashchaiko's fol lowers established the Prosvita Society, modeled along the lines of the Ukrainian society of the same name in Galicia. Its task was to publish all kinds of popular and scholarly books "written in the national tongue and accessible to every Subcarpathian Ru syn." 39 The Czechoslovak Pros vita was reinforced by many educated Ga li cian Ukrainians who found Polish rul e objectionable. On th e May 23 , 1923, those Russophiles who boycotted the Prosvita met in Uzhorod to establish their own organization, which was called the Dukhnovych Society. Its stated goals were to foster "the cultural deve lopment of the Ru ssian people living within Czechoslovakia, and most importantly to educate them in a moral , patriotic and Ru ssian spirit, exclusive of al l political activity." 40 The contrast between the two rival societies was visib le. The old tricolor Ru ssian flag flew over the reading rooms of the Dukhnovych Society, whereas Prosvita reading rooms displayed the blue and ye llow Ukrainian national colors. In terms of literature, the new Dukhnovych Society championed the great Russian masters : Pushkin, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, etc. The Prosvita Society advanced the writings of Shevchenko and other less known Ukrainian awakeners. Both Russophiles and Ukrainophiles expanded their activities from literature to theater. The Ru ssophiles tended to produce hi storical dramas, whereas the Ukrainophi les focused on folk songs and ballads. The latter used standard Ukrainian as the language of performance, whereas the Russophiles had to translate their productions into a Rusyn dia lect. It must be frankly admitted that the Ukrainophile orientation gained the upper hand in popularity during the course of the kulturkampf for Podkarpatska Rus' in the First Czechoslovak Republic. Avtustyn Voloshyn had become a convert to the Ukrainophile orien39 Statul tova,ystva 'Prosvita • Podkarpatska Rus ·, (Uzhorod, 1920), 6. Usta v Rusakogo ku/'turna-prosvete/'noga obshchturni Aleksandra Duchnovychovicha , (Uzhorod, 1923), 40 �SLOVAK.IA 2019 103 tation. He and his associates were astute and learned men-teachers and scholars who kept closely in touch with Rusyn cultural life. By contrast, the Dukhnovych Society fell increasingly under the influence of Stefan Fentsik ( 1892-1946), a local politician who used the organization as a platform to propagate a his own views, his political ties with Poland and Hungary-which shall be di scussed in due course-became common knowledge by 1937, and did much to compromise the Dukhnovych Society. 41 Russian culture survived more comfortably in eastern Slovakia, since 1928 elevated to the official status of a province. In large measure this direction was due to the efforts of Iulii Lazho (18671929), a native of Svidnik and senator for the Social Democratic Party in the Czechoslovak parliament. Earlier, Lazho had emigrated to America, where he converted to Orthodoxy and also rose in the construction industry. He returned home to start his own construction firm, and also to seek revenge against his former Greek Catholic pastor. As mayor of Ladomirova, where the Russian military cemetery was located, Lazho invited Vital ii Maksimenko ( 1873-1960), former archimandrite of the monastery at Pochaiev (in Polish Volhynia), to establish a missionary headquarters there. Lazho also procured a Cyrillic alphabet printing press which Czechoslovak legionnaires in Russia had appropriated, shipped all the way to Vladivostok on the Pacific coast, and which made its way to Prague. During two decades of activity the Ladomirova mission published over I 00 Orthodox church books, the newspaper Pravoslavnaia Karpatskaje Rus ' (1928-1944), the journal for young people Diestvo I ivnost Khristi ( 1935-1941 ), a scholarly journal Pravoslavny put' ( 1938-1940) and the annual almanac Pravnoslavny ruskii/Ruskii narodnyi kalendar ( 1924-1944). The Russian monks also worked to inculcate Russian culture among the native Rusyns, hosting such events as an annual Russian Day in the summers and the tree-lighting ceremony for Orthodox Christmas. 42 In approaching the causes of the Orthodox revival in interwar Czechoslovakia, it is necessary to understand the world view of the 41 Magocsi, "Nationalist Intelligentsia and the Peasantry" in Of th e Making of Nationalities, 200. 42 See the entry "Ladomirova Monastery" in Magocsi and Pop, eds. , En cyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, 266 . �104 SLOVAKIA 2019 national-state's founding father. T.G. Masaryk was a complex individual. As one biographer expressed it: "This man wanted to emancipate workers without embracing Marxism, liberate women without promoting feminism, and educate the young without celebrating youth. " 43 He was considered in the West to be an expert on Russia. He had written extensively on the great writer Dostoevsky, whom he regarded as the classic representative of Russian thought. There were elements of the Russian national psychology which Masaryk found disturbing. Like Havlicek before him, he felt that the Western Slavs, especially the Czechs, should follow a different path . As a proponent of Westeren humanism, Masaryk disparaged the mystical tradition of the Eastern Orthodox faith .44 Yet Masaryk reserved even greater hostility for the Roman Catholi c Church. He drew inspiration from Jan Hus, the great Bohemian religious reformer who was burned at the stake for heresy in 1415 . In 1905, while celebrating the anniversary of Hus ' death, Masaryk coined the slogan "Away from Rome! " Politics in the first years of the Czechoslovak Republic had a distinctly anti-Catholic flavor. His government favored the appointment of Lutherans for administration in Slovakia at the expense of the Catholic majority. In Podkarpatska Rus ', where there were virtua lly no Protestants, such a policy was impossible. Here Czechoslovak authorities fostered a revival of Orthodoxy. One Czech mini ster assessed the impact as follows: It seemed to some Russophile politicians, both in Prague and in Ruthenia ... that the right time had come to convert the Rutheni an peasant back to the Greek Orthodox religion. This opinion was shared by many Russian emigres who flocked to Czechoslovak ia ... after 1919. A drive for 'Orthodoxy ' was started in Rutheni a ... It is a question of how much of this movement was spontaneous and due to the pro-Russian feeling of the population and to its di slike for the purely magyarized Uniate clergy, and how much of its strength it owed to the propaganda and preaching of the Russian Orthodox emigres and clergy and to the support of some Czech political circles. 43 Bruce Garver, "Masaryk and Czech Politics 1900-1914" in Stanley B. Winters, ed. , T G. Masaryk (1850- 193 7) Vo lum e I Thinker and Politician (London, 1990), 22 . 44 See Paul 1. Tresky, " Masaryk and Dostoyevsky" in Harry Hanak, ed., T G. Masa1y k (/ 850- 193 7) Volum e II/ Statesman and Cultural Force (London, 1990), 161-77. �SLOVAKIA 2019 105 However, it certainly added one more element to the confusion reigning in Ruthenia and led to animosities which, in the end, turned against the Prague Government itself.45 Reverend Voloshyn bitterly remonstrated against the situation in Prague in 1929: The agitation usually began in the local tavern, where the agitator met the most notorious brawlers in the village. After a short talk, emboldened by 'noisy' arguments and vodka, the peasants would begin to shout abuse against the village pastor. In a matter of two or three days a ' committee' made up of the pastor's 'opponents ' would be formed. The committee did not immediately begin advocating Orthodoxy; instead, it showered the bishop with complaints and delegations, demanding that there be an investigation against the pastor or that he be removed outright. Then followed other forms of harassment, demonstrations, threats against the pastor, intimidation of church curators, and such . The committee would send the pastor letters demanding that he leave the vi llage. As time went on, the committee made increasingly bolder threats that the pastor get out ' or else!' .. .. If, despite such harassment, the priest remained in his parish, the threats escalated. Someone would break his windows, shoot into his windows, poison hi s well , set fire to his grain or stables, and in some cases even the parish house, assault and beat the priest, etc. The government remained indifferent to all this under the pretext of ' Freedom of conscience! Freedom ofreligion!' 46 This state of affairs could not permitted to go on indefinitely. Czechoslovakia was, after all, a republic governed by law. The Vatican made its own contribution to improved church-state relations by transferring Bishop Antonii Papp of Mukachevo to Hungary and replacing him with canon Petro Gebej on July 16, 1924. At the same time, in response to forthcoming parliamentary elections, President Masaryk cryptically declared that "the Catholics will get as many rights as they win." 47 Rusyn voters supported Czech Catho lic political parties which gained an increased measure of strength in parliament. The rights accorded to Greek Catholics by the constitution in 45 Frantisek Nemec and Vladimir Modry, Th e Soviet Seizure of Subcarpathian Ruthenia (Toronto, 1955), 38-9. 46 Avhustyn Voloshyn, " Relihijni vidnozny na Podkarpats ' kyi" in Acta Conventia Pragensis pro Studii Orentalibus n. 1919, (Olomouc, 1930), 218-9. 47 Pekar, 11 8. �106 SLOVAKIA 2019 any case were now enforced. Violence and vandalism were now prosecuted and soon ceased. In some instances church property was restored. Bishop Gebej led a religious revival which resulted in priests maintaining closer contact with their parishioners. A number of converts to Orthodoxy returned to the Greek Catholic faith. The Orthodox revival was one of the sources of survival for the Russophile orientation. Another source was, ironically, Hungarian funding . The fall of Bela Kun's communist regime in August of 1919 was followed by the restoration of the nobility in Hungary. Counterrevolutionary White terror now followed Red terror. Right wing elements who rallied under Admiral Miklos Horthy, soon elevated to the position of regent of Hungary, wanted to regain Slovakia and Podkarpatska Rus' but had to go about it covertly.48 The victorious Western powers would not recognize any government in Hungary which would not accept their peace tenns . On June 4, 1920, Hungary was compelled to sign the Treaty of Trianon, which ceded Slovakia and Podkarpatska Rus' to Czechoslovakia, Transylvania to Romania, and Croatia and the Voivodina to what became known as Yugoslavia. Trianon psychologically scarred Hungarian society for a full generation. France offered to soften the blow by extending to Hungary financial credits, particularly in the area of railway development, in exchange for compliance. Hungarian Prime Minister Istvan Bethlen cheerfully accepted the financial aid and outwardly complied with Trianon. Yet his government covertly subsidized elements in Slovakia and Podkarpatska Rus' who were disgruntled with Czechoslovak centrali sm. Having previously denied these peoples autonomy, the Hungarians now championed their right to selfdetern1ination as a first step toward regaining them. One of the recipients of Hungarian financial aid was Stefan Fentsik. Another was Andrei Brodii ( 1895-1946), a journalist, teacher and chairman of the Autonomous Agricultural Union/Autonomyi Zenled'skij Sojuz (AZS). Fentsik yielded leadership of the Russophile movement to Brodii during the 1930s. Ukrainophile historian Peter Stercho later maintained that Brodii, Fentsik and other select 48 As a precedent to future collaboration in this matter, Poland allowed itself to be used as a staging ground for Hungarian subversion of Czechos lovak administration . A "Magyar-S lovak League" was established in Krakow, and dispatched armed vo lunteers across the border into Slovakia. �SLOVAKIA 2019 107 Russophile leaders had to conceal their ties with Hungary from their followers, since even the latter were opposed to territorial revision. 49 Polish policy towards the Rusyns of Galicia followed a similar pattern. In the area directly north of the Dukla Pass lived people belonging to a branch of the Rusyns known as the Lemkos. They can be geographically divided by the San River. The Ukrainian movement penetrated the area east of the San early in the twentieth century and accounted for numerous followers. In November 1918 Lemkos from about 30 villages gathered in the village of Komancza (Komancha in Rusyn) to form their own little republic. This Komancha Republic was viewed as a transitional state, pending merger with a greater Ukraine. West of the San the Lemkos still adhered to the traditions of old Rus'. In autumn 1918 they wanted union with Russia. Since this was obviously never going to happen, the Polish government could afford to humor these Lemkos, The Poles were preoccupied with the West Ukrainian Republic which was proclaimed in Lviv on November 1, 1918, and event which plunged Galicia into an ethnic civil war. On December 5, some 500 Lemko Rusyns representing 130 vi1lages and towns of western Lemkovyna met in Florynka (in Grybow district) to form a government. While the Polish military crushed the Komancha Republic in January 1919, it tended to view the Florynka Lemko Rusyn Republic as a potential ally against the Ukrainians. Polish officials who were present offered the former town hall of Grybow as a political headquarters, while the Polish Army provided arms for a Lemko national guard. Schools and cooperatives were soon organized. Amazingly, the Lemko Rusyn Republic survived a full sixteen months. It was governed by an executive council headed by Reverend Mykhal Iurchakevych and a central national council headed by the lawyer Iaroslaw Kachmarchyk. The Poles were disappointed with the results. The Lemkos were happy to accept whatever aid the Polish government and military were willing to offer but nonetheless were unwilling to take up arms against their errant brethren to the east. Additionally, Kachmarchyk's government rejected the notion of union with a Bolshevik Russia, and began looking at the example of 49 Peter Stercho, Diplomacy of Double Morality: Europe's Crossroads in CarpathoUkraine /9/9-/939(NewYork , 1971), 171. �108 SLOVAKIA 2019 their brethren of the south side of the Carpathians. A union with Czechoslovakia now seemed a viable option. Unfortunately, in 1920 relations between Poland and Czechoslovakia were at a particularly low point, owing to border disputes concerning Tesin in Silesia and Orava-Spis in Slovakia. Before the end of March the Poles arrested Kachmarchyk and members of his government. They were tried on June 10, 1921. A Polish jury acquitted them, which was only reasonable insofar as the Poles had encouraged their activities in the first place. But the event marked the death knell of Lemko statehood. 50 Yet the Poles still had use for the Lernkos in the interwar period. The Greek Catholic Church was strongly identified with the Ukrainian national movement. The leadership of the Polish military, overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, encouraged the movement to convert the Lemkos to Orthodoxy, and thus express a Russian character at the expense of the Ukrainian .51 It was a classic case of Divide and Rule. Elsewhere, in Volhynia, adherents of the Ukrainian national movement were Orthodox. Here militant Polish nationalists attacked and vandalized Orthodox monasteries and schools. At the same time, for reasons of security, Poland wished to have a common border with Hungary. For this reason the Polish government supported Hungarian efforts to regain Podkarpatska Rus' . The events which accompanied the international crisis in 1938 are well-known. The present author shall limit himself to summarizing key particulars. The Munich "diktat" of September 1938 resulted in Czechoslovakia being forced to yield the Gennan populated Sudetenland to Nazi Germany. Deprived of her most vital border defenses, Czechoslovakia was now rendered militarily defenseless. Hostile neighbors, Poland and Hungary, were now encouraged to make their own territorial claims. Moreover, the Prague government could no longer resist demands for autonomy on the part of Slovakia and Podkarpatska Rus ' . 50 See Paul Robert Magocsi, "The Lemko Rusyn Republic ( 1918-1920) and Political Thought in Western Rus' -Ukraine" in Magocsi, Of the Making of Nationalities, 303315. 51 See Mykola Kucherpa, "The Nationality Policy of Poland towards Ukrainians before World War II" in Paul Berst and Jaroslav Mokolak, eds., Th e Lemko Region 1939-1947, War, Occupation and Deportation (New Haven and Krakow, 2002), 3949. �SLOVAKIA 2019 109 In the case of Podkarpatska Rus', a cabinet was formed on October 11 which consisted of both Russophiles and Ukrainophiles. Russophiles predominated, with Brodii as prime minister and Fentsik as deputy prime minister. Brodii was convinced that, if a plebiscite was held, the majority of Rusyns would vote for reunion with Hungary. Brodii 's ministry lasted only fifteen days. An alarmed central government summoned Brodii and Fentsik to Prague. There Brodii was arrested, while Fentsik found asylum in the Polish embassy. 52 Prague authorized Voloshyn, who was a member of the cabinet, to form a new government. Voloshyn proclaimed the province as an autonomous nation with the new name of Carpatho-Ukraine on November 3. The victory of the Ukrainophiles was at last complete. Autonomous Carpatho-Ukraine got off to a rough start. Hungary was prepared to re-annex the region, although conservative circles of the Hungarian government confined their claims to areas which were predominantly Magyar. Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy opted to appear in the role of peacemakers in this territorial dispute between Czechoslovakia and Hungary. They arbitrated a compromise settlement in Vienna on November 2, 1938. By terms of the First Vienna Award, Kosice, in southern Slovakia, and Uzhorod and Mukachevo, the two leading cities of Carpatho-Ukraine, were restored to Hungary. The government of Carpatho-Ukraine was forced to relocate to Khust, which was little more than an oversized village. Militant Hungarian nationalists regarded the First Vienna Award as a temporary expedient, and worked for the complete annexation of CarpathoUkraine. Under the auspices of the Ministry of Defense, a covert paramilitary group known as the "Ragged Guard" was organized to infiltrate Carpatho-Ukraine and conduct terrorist acts designed to destabilize the regime. Poland likewise dispatched paramilitary units for the same purpose. If the credible research of Ukrainophile historian Stercho is to be believed, the Polish paramilitary units outpaced their Hungarian counterparts in acts of terrorism. 53 Carpatho-Ukraine was in need of allies, and these were forthcoming. Militant Ukrainian nationalists from Poland crossed the mountains to organize the Riflemen of the Carpathian Sich. It has been argued by Russophile opponents that the Riflemen of the Car52 53 Magocs i, The Shaping of a National Identity, 238. Stercho, 302. �110 SLOVAKIA 2019 pathian Sich inaugurated the reign of "Ukrainian terror." It is true that they focu sed more on the Russophile domestic opposition than they did on Polish or Hungarian infiltrators. A detention camp was established for dissident Russophiles and Rusynophiles at Dumen . Yet conditions of internment were relaxed. Political differences extended to the family leve l, and prisoners under guard where permitted to attend social events in neighboring Rakhiv.54 There was a conflict of interest between the Carpathian Sich and the Voloshyn regime. Sich rifl emen viewed Carpatho-Ukraine as the cornerstore of a future greater Ukraine, and counted on the support of Nazi Germany. Voloshyn , by contrast, decided that adherence to Czecho-Slovakia (now officially spelled with a hyphen) was a necessary expedient. In March of 1939 there were clashes between the Carpathian Sich and the regular Czechoslovak military. This confl ict was abruptly terminated when German leader Adolf Hitler moved to eliminate what remained of Czecho-Slovakia . As he prepared to militarily occupy Prague, he disappointed Ukrainophi les by giving his consent for Hungary to annex the province. Under German pressure, Slovakia declared its independence on March 14. CarpathoUkraine was now cut off from the Czech lands. With Hungarian troops already crossing the border, Voloshyn symbo li cally proclaimed Carpatho-Ukraine's independence on March 15 . Carpatho-Ukraine existed as an independent state for all of a day . On the 16 th , Hungarian military units were fighting for Khust. The Riflemen of the Carpathian Sich resisted with admirab le resolve , but its units were scattered and no match for the Hungarian army. They later regrouped in the mountains or were pushed across the border to Eastern Slovakia, thus encouraging Hungary to invade the latter as well. 55 Hungarian troops reached the Polish border by the end of the I 61\ and were eagerly embraced by their opposite numbers. The region was renamed Subcarpathia and governed directly from Budapest. There was some vague talk in the Hungarian parliament about according autonomy to the most recently annexed portion , but not to Uzhorod or Mukachevo, which were now considered 54 Paul Robert Magocsi , "The Nationality Problem in Subcarpathian Rus ' I 9381939: A Reappraisal" in Magocsi , Of th e Making of Nationalities, 228 . 55 This invasion of Eastern Slovakia resulted in portions of the disputed counties likewise being annexed by Hungary. It also resulted in the Slovak Republic placing itself under the military protection of Nazi Germany. �SLOVAKIA 2019 111 directly part of Hungary. Autonomy was del ayed indefinitely. As World War II progressed, the Hungarian military vehemently opposed autonomy for security reaso ns . The Ukrainophiles were particularly singled out for political persecution, while the Russophiles were more or less set aside. Interestingly, the Hungarian government began cultivating the idea that the Rusyns were their own separate nationality, an idea which ultimately became the wave of the future. 56 The resto ration of Hungarian rule dis illusioned the Russophil es. It stood to reason that, once Hungary went down to defeat with Nazi Germany, Andrei Brodii would come to a bad end . He did not attempt to flee when Soviet forces reached the area in the autumn of 1944, but attempted to negotiate with them. He was arrested by the Soviet counterintelligence unit SMERSH, charged as a fascist co ll aborator, and executed on November 7, 1946. A similar fate awa ited Stefan Fentsik: he was shot in the courtyard of the Uzhorod prison on March 30, 1946. Their Ukrainophile rival Voloshyn fared no better. Having taken up res idence in Prague during the war years, he taught at the Ukrainian Free University. In June 1945 he was arrested by SMERSH and transported to Moscow. He died in Lefortovo prison on July 19, undoubtedl y murdered. An ironic footnote of hi story is worth mentioning. Both Brodii and Fentsik were posthumously rehabilitated after the breakup of the Soviet Union. No such rehabilitation has been granted to Voloshyn. World War II and Ukrainiazation If the Russophiles in Podkarpatska Rus' were fatally compromised by collaboration with the Hungarians, then in Eastern Slovakia they earned acclamation for their role in an anti-fascist struggle. A leading force in the resistance to the pro-German regime of president-priest Jozef Ti so was the Slovak Communist Party. George Kennan , at that time charge d 'affa ires to the U.S. embassy in Prague, assessed the pro-communist sentiment in Eastern Slovakia as being a "bird of a different color [which] in former circumstances would have little chance of success." He added, however, that owing to 56 Magocs i, The Shaping of a National Identity, 248-9 . �112 SLOVAKIA 2019 guidance from Moscow, the Communists could become the most formidable resistance group of all. 57 Kennan's prognosis was largely accurate, though certain qualifying feature s must be noted. The Communists did not have a monopoly on the resistance movement. In prewar Czechoslovakia they were strongest in Podkarpatska Rus ', but in Eastern Slovakia they were never ab le to muster more than seven percent of the vote among the Ru syns in the interwar period. Not wishing to be isolated from other Rusyns in organized resistance to the Tiso regime, local Communi sts opted to join the Carpatho-Russian Council for National Liberation (KRASNO), which shall be introduced shortly. The view of the autonomous and later independent Slovak state on the Rusyns was that the latter were "S lovaks of the Greek Catholic faith ." This view was exemp li fied by Andrej Dudas, who in 1940 was appointed regional administrator of Eastern Slovakia. He was convinced that the idea of a Rusyn nationality was created by the Hungarians, a position he maintained a full three decades later as an emigre in Argentina.58 In early 1939, the Rusyn Nationa l Committee and the Carpatho-Russian Nationa l Counci l were banned by the Slovak government, and the activity of the Dukhnovych Society was restricted. The Ukrainian movement among the Rusyns was particularly loathed by the Slovak nationalist leadership. Slovak police reports up until November 1938 indicate that Rusyns in the Presov Region supported union with their brethren east of the Uz Ri ver. Yet, in November, the same police reports indicate a significant change. The Ukrainian movement was even more alien to the Presov Region Rusyns than was Slovak nationalism, and they were henceforth opposed to a revision of borders which was favorable to CarpathoUkraine. 59 Rusyns shared in the economic prosperity of the Slovak Republic which characterized the first half of World War II. Workers in Germany sent money home to their families, whi le locally a number 57 Report written about May I, 1939 on conditions in Slovakia in George Ken nan, From Prague After Munich. Diplomatic Papers 1938-1 940 (Princeton, 1968), 139140. 58 Andrej Dudas, Rusinska otazka ajej uzadie (B uenos Aires, 1971), 25 . 59 See the entry " Carpatho-Russian Autonomous Counci l for National Liberation/Karpatorusskii avtonomyi sovet natsional'nmyi osvonodenyi (KRASNO)" in Magocsi and Pop, eds ., Encyclopedia of Rusy n Histo1y and Culture, 58. �SLOVAKIA 2019 113 of Rusyns profited from the expropriation of Jewish property. Yet once it became obvious that the Slovak Republic was on the losing side of the war, a number of Rusyns began to organize, The Carpatho-Russian Autonomous Council for National Liberation (Karpatorusskii avtonomyi sovet national'nogo obsvobzhdenii-KRASNO) was founded in Presov in September 1943. Its goals were to aid escaped Soviet prisoners of war and partisans and to cooperate with other underground elements opposed to what it considered a clericofascist regime. Its members envisioned a restored Czechoslovakia in which Rusyns would be equal partners with Czechs and Slovaks. Although its orientation was pro-Soviet and decidedly leftist, KRASNO was not a communist front organization. It was founded by civic and cultural leaders of varied political orientation. Vasyl' Karaman ( 1903-1961) was born in the village of Nagov, in Slovakia. After completing his education at the Commercial Academy in Mukachevo (1924-1927), be returned to eastern Slovakia, where he worked as a civil servant in Presov from 1927 to 1933 , and then served in various towns as secretary for the pro-government Agrarian Republican Party. When Czecho-Slovakia was being partitioned in the fall of 1938, he opposed the pro-Ukrainian orientation of the Voloshyn government. He was elected as chairman of a newly re-established Central Russian National Council. Its members included both Russophiles and Rusynophiles who wished to retain ties with what remained of Czecho-Slovakia, unlike the followers of Brodii and Fentsik. Unable to realize his objectives, he returned to the Presov Region. Here he joined a Committee of Rusyns which tried to reach an accommodation with the Slovak government. This was not possible, since Slovak nationalist officials distrusted his Russophile orientation. After Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June of 1941, Karaman was arrested. He spent a year and a half in jail, and after his release made contact with the Zhydovs'kyi brothers, Ivan and Petro. Together the three men were among the founders of KRASNO. 60 Ivan Zhydovs'kyi (1897-1982) was born in the village of Sarisske Jastrabie. His secondary school education at the Piarist gymnasium in Sabinov was interrupted in 1915, when he was drafted 60 See the entry " Karaman, Vasyl"' in Magocsi and Pop, eds., Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, 228. �114 SLOVAKIA 2019 into the Austro-Hungarian Army. A year later he was captured on the Eastern Front. Like many prisoners of War, he embraced the Bolshevik cause during the Russian Revolution. During the Russian Civil War Zhydovs ' kyi served as a political commissar in the 216 th International Communist Brigade. When he returned home, he discontinued the role of agitator and became at least outwardly conformist. He completed his secondary education in 1919, and then studied law at the Comenius University in Bratislava, obtaining a degree in 1924. He worked for a time as a tax inspector in Uzhorod. By the I 930s he had a law practice in Uzhorod and he was director of the Presov branch of the Uzhorod-based Subcarpathia Bank. As a Russophile, Zhydovs ' kyi was prominent in the Central Russian National Council and in the Dukhnovych Society. Although opposed to the separatist Slovak government, he kept a lower profile then Kamman and was never arrested. He operated a law practice in Giraltovce prior to his invol ve ment with KRASNO .61 His older brother Petro Zhydovs'kyi (1890-1947) was likewise born in Sarisske Jastrabie. As a teenager Petro emigrated to America in 1905 . Although he acquired little formal education, he returned home on the eve of World War I detern1ined to work for the advancement of the Rusyn people. Drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army, he deserted, then was captured and sentenced to prison. After the establishment of Czechoslovakia, he joined the Agrarian Republican Party and served as deputy to parliament from 1935 to 1938 . During the crisis of 1938 Zhydovs'kyi joined with Ivan P' ieshchak in submitting a memorandum to the British envoy Lord Runciman, calling for the unification of the Presov Region with an autonomous Podkarpatska Rus' .62 Ivan P' ieshchak ( 1904-1972) was born in the village of Vel'ky Lipnik. After graduating from the gymnasium of Mukachevo and the Presov Greek Catholic Teachers' Co llege, he taught in the regional elementary school s. P ' ieshchak was active in the Union of Rusyn Teachers in Slovakia and helped organize the Union of Rusyn Youth in Slovakia (1933). At the same time he studied law, and attained a 61 See the entry "Zhydovs'kyi, Ivan" in Magocsi and Pop, eds., Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, 55 l. 62 See the entry "Zhydovs' kyi , Petro" in Magocsi and Pop, eds., Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, 551-2. �SLOVA.KIA 2019 115 doctoral degree from Charles University in Prague in the same year. By the mid 1930s P 'ieshchak was a prominent figure on the Rusyn political and cultural scene. He joined Andrei Brodii's Autonomous Agricultural Union and served as its representative in parliament. Interestingly, at this time he also worked closely with Andrej Hlinka's Slovak People's Party in the parliament's autonomist bloc . When Podkarpatska Rus' attained autonomy, P'ieshchak served as state secretary in Brodii 's brief-lived cabinet. After Brodii 's demise, he returned to Slovakia, where he maintained a law practice prior to his involvement with KRASNO .63 KRASNO rapidly expanded its network. By the summer of 1944 it controlled 3 7 villages in a sort of "partisan republic" between Medzilaborce and Stropkov. Intensification of partisan activityreinforced by Soviet partisans parachuted across the Carpathiansled to German military intervention in Slovakia at the end of August 1944. The clandestine military center of dissident Slovak Army officers , headquartered in Banska Bystrica, was already in touch with the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile in London. Its members had to proclaim the Slovak Nationa l Uprising under premature circumstances on August 29. 64 The Slovak National Uprising was a highly complex affair, which goes well beyond the limits of this study. It is sufficient to note here that it was dependent upon Soviet military support. Contrary to allegations by later critics, the Soviets did not deliberately betray the uprising. Their military capacity to cross the Carpathians was severely limited, particularly after the Germans occupied the Dukla pass. Yet the Soviets did not wish to forfeit the political influence they expected to enjoy in postwar Czechoslovakia, and rendered military assistance. In this capacity the Russian military 63 See the entry "P'ieshchak, Ivan" in Magocsi and Pop, eds., Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, 384-5 . 64 Slovak soldiers, under the influence of Captain Piotr Alekseyevitch Velitchko intercepted members of a German military mission passing through Slovakia in the vicinity of Turciansky Sviity Martin. The Slovak soldiers escorted the Germans to the local barracks. It was Velitchko 's intention that the Germans would be disarmed there and that they would be sent to Ukrainian Partisan Headquarters in Kiev. But when the Germans attempted to depart, they were massacred by the Slovaks. Berlin then decided on a complete military occupation of Slovakia. At this point Lieutenant-Colonel Golian in Banska Bystrica issued the order to start the uprising. �116 SLOVAK.IA 2019 crossed through the Dukla pass for a third time in a military campaign that has been immortalized by local historiography. The Carpatho-Dukla operation, initiated on September 8, was undertaken by the 38 1h Soviet Army, led by General Kyril Moskalenko, supported by the 1s i Czechoslovak Army Corps, led by General Ludvik Svoboda. Many of the troops of the Is 1 Army Corps were Rusyns. In the autumn of 1939, as a result of the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, the Soviets had annexed eastern Galicia and merged it with the Ukrainian S.S.R. An estimated 30,000 Rusyns who were disgruntled with Hungarian rule crossed the mountains into eastern Galicia, expecting to be cordially received by their Slavic brethren. Instead, every single one of them was arrested by the NKVD (Soviet State Security) and received an eight to ten year sentence for the illegal border crossing. A full sixty percent of them perished in the Gulag by the time Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June of 1941. The survivors were released to join the I s i Czechoslovak Army Corps . Any Pan-Slav feeling- Russophile or Ukrainophi le alikewhich the Rusyn s may have had earlier had been beaten out of them in the Gulag. They merely wished to return home. In the autumn of 1944 it appeared that they would be the vanguard in the liberation of their homeland. Instead, they were committed to the meat-grinder of the Dukla Pass, where their casualties exceeded sixty percent. 65 The storming of the Duk la Pass was finally completed on October 6th. In the fighting which followed, the monastery community of Ladomirova was severely damaged. Most of the buildings, including the print shop but not the church, were destroyed. Now, too , the NKVD began rounding up Russian emigres in Slovakia. The monks fled to Bratislava, and from there fourteen of them emigrated to the United States. They entered the recently established Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, in upstate New York, where Archbishop Maksimenko now served as archimandrite. They built a church that was a replica of its predecessor in Ladomirova. A young Rusyn novitiate from the village, Vasyl' Shkurla (born 1928), ultimately became Archbishop Lavrl' , one of the leading figures of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. By the 1980s Holy Trinity had become a major 65 See Vladimir Baumgarten, "Fifty Years Later: An Inquiry into Soviet Military Policy During the Slovak Uprising" in Lewis White, ed., On All Fronts: Czechoslovaks During World War ff Part 2 (Washington , 1995), 2 19-28. �SLOVAKIA 2019 117 cultural center for Russian emigres. When the cello virtuoso Mstislav Rostropovich defected to the United States, he chose to settle in Jordanville in order to be near Holy Trinity. 66 The Germans torched large areas in eastern Slovakia as they were forced to retreat, including the town of Svidnik. General Svoboda was nonetheless hailed as a hero and liberator when he entered it on October 28 .67 After the liberation of Svidnik, the Allies temporarily went on the defensive. KRASNO partisans continued fighting in the hills north of Presov. In October their adherents welcomed a declaration by the Slovak National Council that a resurrected Czechoslovakia would consist of three equal nations- Czechs, Slovaks and Rusyns. It must be understood that Rusyns did not fight in partisan units exclusively of their own nationality. Jozef Rodak, longtime director of the East Slovak Military Museum in Svidnik, asserted that most partisan groups in the region had a mixed composition of Slovaks and Rusyns.68 To this day many people in eastern Slovakia have a dual sense of identity : they consider themselves Rusyns by heritage and Slovaks by citizenship. The realities of liberation at the end of World War II disappointed the aspirations of many Rusyns, particularly Russophiles. It undoubtedly di sconcerted them to discover that Moscow now considered them to be Ukrainians. There was already a precedent for thi s aspect of Soviet policy . In 1923 the delegation of Rusyn Communists attended a Party Congress in Soviet Ukraine and declared their acceptance of Ukrainian nationality. It was altogether practical for Soviet authorities to reaffirm acceptance of this principle at the end of 66 See the entry " Ladomirova Monastery" in Magocsi and Pop, eds., Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, 266. 67 General Svoboda was designated as an honorary citizen of Svidnik. As president of Czechoslovakia during the Prague Spring of 1968, Svoboda gave the town its first hospital. In I 979, the year of the old man's death, a statue of him was erected in Svidnik. Owing to the damage of autumn 1944, Svidnik is a modem town . Most of the buildings are constructed in the so-called "social realist" style. Svoboda ' s statue looks strangely at home among the imposing, unattractive concrete structures. 68 As a graduate student of Safarik University in Prefov who specialized in the history of his region during World War 11 , Rodak was frequently delegated to carry the briefcases of Soviet military visitors. He remained outwardly conformist throughout the Soviet era. After the 1989 revolution and the coll apse of the communist system, Rodak wrote a series of articles for newspapers in eastern Slovakia and southeas tern Poland in which he exonerated partisans who had fallen into disfa vor. �118 SLOVAKIA 2019 World War II. Throughout the war, the Soviets had pledged themselves to the recognition of Czechoslovakia' prewar frontiers . Yet now Moscow infom1ed the Czechoslovak government that it could not ignore "the will of the people." In the wake of the Red Army's occupation of Podkarpatska Rus ' , various National Committees were established to vote in favor of the province being merged with the Ukrainian S.S.R. In all fairness to these communities, they overall enjoyed popular support. 69 The region was officially ceded at the end of June, 1945. Across the Uz River, in the Presov Region , the Russophile leaders of the defunct KRASNO drew the politically correct conclusion. Now, they too, considered themselves Ukrainian. They reorganized themselves as the Ukrainian National Council of the Presov Region. They envisioned that the long disputed counties of eastern Slovakia would be included in the territorial transfer. Indeed, even before the war ended, Vasyl' Karaman and the Zhysov ' skyi brothers planned to stage a meeting in Presov in February 1945 calling for the merger. A Soviet military major explained to them that such a meeting would be inopportune. The war was still on, and the Soviet Union intended to honor its obligations to Czechoslovakia.70 With eastern Slovakia excluded from the territorial settlement, the Ukrainian National Council of the Presov Region now called for the resurrected Czechoslovakia to consist of three equal nations: Czechs, Slovaks and Ukrainians. The Slovak National Council had already expressed itself in favor of autonomy for the Rusyns. Now, in light of Ukrainian irredentism, it declared its Ukrainian counter• 1·d 11 part as mva 1 . Even after the Rusyns were officially classified as Ukrainian, the Russophile tradition not only persisted but predominated in the Presov Region . It must be noted that the Soviet 3gth Army was composed of elite Guards regiments, the cream of the Soviet military. Its soldiers conducted themselves in a correct and disciplined manner in 69 Yaroslav Pylynsky, Rising Ethnic Self-Awareness. Carpatho-Rusyns- Birth of a New Nation or a Political Game? (Copenhagen, 1998), 20. 70 Memorandum on the Ukrainian movement in Eastern Slovakia. Kosice. February 16, 1945 , in Nemec and Modry, Th e Soviet Seizure of Ruthenia, Document no.77 , 359-60 71 Magocsi , "National Assimilation: The Case of the Rusyn-Ukrainians of Czechoslovakia" in Of the Making of Nationalities, 262 . �SLOVAKIA 2019 119 their interactions with the locals after forcing their way through the Dukla Pass. This was in striking contrast with the soldiers of the 4 th Ukrainian Front, who penetrated Slovakia from the south, and who engaged in rape and widespread looting. This author can personally attest to the fact that citizens of the Svidnik area remember the Russians fondly as having assisted them through a bitter winter, and afterwards helped the locals plant their spring crops. Historian Mykola Musynka, himself a Ukrainophi le, summarizes the local attitudes as follows: The culmination of Russophilism in the cultural life of the Rusyns of the Prefo v Region occurred in the years just after World War II, when due to the Red Army's defeat of German fascism, th e Soviet Union enjoyed considerable authority among Rusyn-Ukrainians as well as Czechs and Slovaks. Everything "Soviet" was perceived as "Russian." Political propaganda attempted to portray the Soviet Union as an ideal country in which all peoples were united around the "Great Russian people. " The Russian language, Russian culture, the Russian individual, and the "Russian Soul " all symbolized the acme ofp e,:fection. 72 Russian Elementary and secondary schools proliferated after World War II, in addition to the Russian gymnasium in Presov, an additional Russian gymnasium was established in Medzilaborce on February 23, 1945, and trade schoo ls were opened in which Russian was the language of instruction. According to official statistics for the 1948-49 school year, there were 43 kindergartens, 276 elementary schools, 38 incomplete and 6 complete secondary schools with instruction in the Russian language, totaling 23, 11 2 pupils.73 After the Ukrainian National Council of the Presov Region was abolished, it was replaced by a new organization, the cultural Union of Ukrainian Workers (Kul'tumy sojuz'ukrajans'kyi trudjascychKSUT), which was staunchly supportive of the Communist Party. KSUT initiated numerous publications in the Ukrainian language. 72 Mykola Musynka, "The Postwar Development of the Regional Culture of the Rusyn-Ukrainians of Czechoslovakia' in Paul Robert Magocsi, ed., The Persistence of Regional Cultures: Rusyns and Ukrainians in the Carpathian Hom eland and Abroad (New York, 1993), 55. 73 Ibid, 56. �120 SLOVAKIA 2019 Beginning on June 28, 1952, by decree of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovakia, the language of instruction in all Russian elementary and secondary schools of Eastern Slovakia was changed to Ukrainian . The change in the school system was torturous for all parties. It was implemented too quickly. Instructors who had never studied literary Ukrainian were assigned to take month-long courses, after which they were expected to teach in that language. The vast majority of teachers detested it. There was a shortage of textbooks, dictionaries and other printed materials. Ukrainiazation nonetheless made significant strides in popular culture . In January 1953 , KSUT sponsored the first professional song and dance ensemble in Medzilaborce under the artistic direction of Jurij Kostjik. It was eventually reorganized as the Dukla Ukrainian Folk Ensemble. In September of that year, a Department of Ukrainian Language and Literature was established at the Presov Pedagogical Institute, which in 1959 became the Philosophical Faculty of Safarik University, under the direction of Petro Bungansyn. Literary works by Rusyns in the Presov Region reached an unprecedented level of publication in the course of a decade in the Ukrainian language. After 1959, the Ukrainian division of the Slovak Pedagogical Publishing House had a monopoly on the release of Ukrainian books in the Presov Region. During a thirty-year period it published 373 literary and scholarly works. Not all of them withstood the test of time. Many employed the so-called "socialist realist" style, reflecting a Marxist-Leninist ideological bent which conformed to Party dogma. Yet the Presov Region has produced works which have assumed a permanent place in the history of literature. 74 A number of former Russophiles moved with the times and adopted Ukrainian literary norms. Those Russophiles who remained outside the Communist Party could not expect a triumphal finish . Such was the case of Vasyl' Karaman, who, after the abolition of the body he had chaired, was accused of being a "Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist." The allegation was blatantly absurd: Karaman steadfactly believed that the future of the Rusyns was closely bound to the Soviet Union . He was nonetheless removed from political and cultural life in the Presov Region. Similarily, Ivan P'ieshchak was ac74 Ibid, 65 . �SLOVAKIA 2019 121 cused of bourgeois nationalism, driven from his home in 1952, and forbidden to practice law for nearly a decade. Ironically, some of the greatest beneficiaries of the new socialist order were those Rusyns of the 1st Czechoslovak Anny Corps who had survived the ordeal of the Dukla Pass. In spite of their suffering in the Gulag, they had fought bravely and well under General Svoboda, in fact becoming his favorite soldiers. 75 The treaty transferring Podkarpatska Rus ' to Soviet Ukraine contained a certain "exemption" clause. Those Rusyns with a record of service in the Czechoslovak Army could retain Czechoslovak citizenship. About half of them chose to do so, relocating west of the Uz. Svoboda redressed the balance for them as much as humanly possible, obtaining jobs for them in the military and especially in the security services. One might suppose that, after their experience in the Gulag, they would have been averse to serving as agents of repression. Instead, thanks to Svoboda' s generous patronage, they became overrepresented in the secret police, not only in eastern Slovakia but in Prague and Bratislava as well. This role fueled the hostility of their fellow citizens. Animosities smoldered beneath the surface for a full generation. During the Prague spring of 1968, the Slovak press suddenly became articulate in its denunciations: " ... this 15 year anti-Slovak movement in eastern ... Slovakia must be liquidated." 76 Slovak nationalists in particular resented the fact that the city of Presov served as a bastion of Ukrainophile activity. Slogans appeared on a number of buildings: "Presov was and will be only- and only- a Slovak city" and "Ukrainians, get out of Presov! " 77 The Slovak element of eastern Slovakia was not the only one which opposed the Ukrainian movement. Passive opposition was expressed by many Rusyns themselves . If they could not be themselves, the Rusyns opted for the closest thing, and voluntarily assimilated into the Slovak nationality. 78 The local dialect spoken was not foreign to them, unlike that of the Ukrainian textbooks imported from Kiev. Whenever local citizens were questioned by the police, they declared themselves as Slo75 Magocsi, "Magyars and Carpatho-Rusyns in Czechoslovakia" in Of the Making of Nationalities, 175. 76 Cited in Kulturny zivot (Bratislava) April 15, 1968 and Vychod (Kosice) November 29, 1968. 77 Magocsi, "National Assimilation", 283. 78 fbid, 264-70. �122 SLOVAKIA 2019 vak, fearing deportation to the Soviet Union. Finally, the relatively more advanced Slovak economy drew many to the industrial valleys farther south, where the process was completed. For those Rusyns who continued to consider themselves Ukrainian , yet another shock awaited in the following generation. After the 1989 revolutions and the collapse of communism in East Central Europe, first the Slovak and then the Polish government recognized the Carpatho-Rusyns as a distinct nationality. Many young Rusyns eagerly embraced the new orientation. 79 Conclusion. Unrepentant Russophiles: Yurkovsky, Kabuliak, Sidor and Karabelesh The demise of the Russophile orientation among the CarpathoRusyn people was undoubtedly, to employ a Marxist cliche, historically inevitable. An interesting story revealing the pathetic depths to which it had descended by World War II is provided by Marian Zgomiak, later a professor at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow , Poland. At the outbreak of World War II, Zgomiak was a 15 year-old Polish youth. When Poland was militarily crushed by Nazi Germany in September of 1939, Poli sh Army veterans hoped to escape to the West to fight again. Since most of the Polish soldiers fleeing abroad were between the ages of 17 and 30, two groups of people played disproportionately large roles in the domestic resistance movement organized by the Polish Home Army (Armija Krajowa- AK). One of them was Polish teenagers, who acted as couriers escorting the fugitive s to the border with Slovakia. Another was the Lemkos, who acted as guides. 79 The rejection of Ukrainian identity is by no means unanimous. On November 17, 1990, at the First Congress of the Ru syn Renaissance Society in Medzilaborce, spokesman Mychal Turok-Heter stressed that "while it is vital to preserve national pride, it is wrong to attack the Ukrai nians and the Ukrainian language . Gradually, the Ru syns will write and advance toward the common path which will lead them to fulfilling thei r mi ssive of peace for us all." See Myslenka, 75. Frequently, on the local level , there ex ists a certa in pluralism. In Svidnik, the Museu m of UkrainianRus'Culture acknowledges kinship with the former while stressing the regional identity of the latter. See the entry " Museum of Ukrainian Rus' Culture in Svidnik" in Magocsi and Pop, eds., Encyclopedia of Rusy n Histo1y and Cu lture, 337. �SLOVAK.IA 2019 123 Young Zgorniak was active in these border expeditions. On July 2, 1942, he and his father were arrested by the Gestapo. After the usual beatings and interrogation in the basement of the Gestapo headquarters in Gorlice, Zgorniak was transferred to the prison in Jaslo. Here he bonded with a Lemko prisoner named Yurkovsky. This Yurkovsky was an unrepentant Russophile. During World War I he and his father were hauled off to internment in Talerhof. Yurkovsky senior died there during the typhus epidemic. Yurkovsky junior returned to the mountain districts of Lemkovyna to serve as a teacher in the interwar years. He did not consider himself a Rusyn or even a Lemko, but a Russian. He was not receptive to Polish efforts to sponsor a separate Lemko identity. After the invasion of the Soviet Union in June of I 941 , the Nazi Government General (to which Lemkos west of the San River where subject) rounded up Lemkos known for their pro-Russian sentiments. In this manner Yurkovsky found himself in the prison of Jaslo. Both the quality and quantity of food in the prison of Jaslo left much to be desired. In September of 1942 German authorities loosened the regime to the point where Lemkos (but not Poles) could receive food packages. Arrangements were made for Zgomiak's mother to send food to Yurkovsky, who shared it with her son. Working together in the hospital section of the prison, they had the opportunity to engage in intellectual discussions. Zgorniak records the following: During one of the discussions I asked whether or how he could coordinate the Carpatho-Rusyn orientation on the Russia ruled by the Tsar with an orientation on a Russia ruled by the Bolsheviks who had overthrown and murdered the Tsar and his family. He said he could do so because "after the death a/father in Talerhof I had the dream . In it my father appeared and said 'the cause for which both are fighting shall be successful! ' That dream I keep in mind and I believe it will prove to be true. "80 80 Marian Zgomiak, " Meeting with Lemko leaders who had been arrested by the Gestapo and who were in prison in Jaslo 1942" in Best and Moklak, eds ., The Lemko Region, /939-194 7, 129. �124 SLOVAKIA 2019 Zgomiak asserts that he was convinced Yurkovsky and other Lemkos could have been released had they declared themselves Ukrainians. They declined to do so. Eventually, Yurkovsky was transferred to a concentration camp in Pruszkow, from which he was liberated before the end of the war. Yurkovsky then became sold on the plan jointly agreed upon by the Polish and Soviet governments to encourage Lemkos to emigrate to the east. Those whose villages had been destroyed during the Carpatho-Dukla operation went willingly. Others followed Yurkovsky across the border. They were by no means satisfied with living conditions in Soviet Ukraine, and turned on Yurkovsky for encouraging them to leave in the first place. He suffered something akin to a nervous breakdown and developed heart disease. Zgomiak concluded: "I remember him as an intelligent fellow who despite hi s various interests was fatally attracted to the idea for which he fought." 81 In light of its ignominious end in the realm of politics, what remains of the Russophile tradition among the Carpatho-Rusyns in the realm of culture? Here the author wishes to turn to the areas of religion and literature. In the area of reli gion, the Orthodox faith has provided a certain legacy. It must be understood that the majority of Rusyns professing any religious belief adhere to the Greek Catholic rather than the Orthodox Church . Yet the Orthodox revival of the early twentieth century made an enduring impact which was embraced by the communist regimes after World War II. Its most enthusiastic protagonist was Aleksander Kabuliak. At the end of World War I he was released from prison and became a major figure of the Orthodox revival in Czechoslovakia. There was a sc hi sm within the Orthodox Church in the 1920s. Its adherents were subject to the Serbian patriarchate, whereas Czech converts to Orthodoxy wanted their own autocephalous Orthodox Church. They appealed to the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople. On March 4, 1923 he consecrated the archimandrite Savritij as bishop. Bi shop Savritij 's leadership was contested by Bishop Gorazd, the Serbian patriarch 's representative. Kabuliak sided with the Serbian patriarchate in this di spute. With the Orthodox Church temporarily paralyzed and depri ved of an acting bishop, Kabuliak assumed the role of administrator. The Hungar81 Ibid, 129. �SLOVAKIA 2019 125 ians did not molest him during World War II, nor did he do anything to provoke them. But on November 18, 1944, on behalf of the Orthodox believers of Podkarpatska Rus ', Kabuliak wrote a letter to no less a personage than Soviet leader J. V. Stalin. He recommended the establishment of a Carpatho-Russian Soviet Republic encompassing territory extending "from Iasnyia to Poprad and from Uzhok Pass to Debrecen." 82 Since Moscow was already planning to incorporate Podkarpatska Rus' into the Ukrainian S.S.R., this was not an option. Yet in the following month Kabuliak led a delegation to Moscow requesting the transfer of episcopal jurisdiction from the Serbian to the Moscow patriarchate. Here his efforts were crowned with success. In posthumous recognition of his achievement, in 200 I the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow patriarchate) canonized Kabuliak as the first Carpatho-Rusyn saint. Eastern Galicia, like Podkarpatska Rus ', was ceded to Soviet Ukraine at the end of the war. In both areas incoming communist regimes declared the Greek Catholic Church abolished and transferred its parishes to the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church. In Galicia most of the clergy accepted the formal change and retained their old parishes. The Ukrainian character of the church consequently survived . In Transcarpathia the Greek Catholic clergy was more resistant to Orthodoxy and it was imposed more forcefully. Bishop Teodor Romza of Mukachevo was brutally murdered, while lesser clergymen were arrested and deported.83 They were replaced by Russian priests di spatched from Moscow. The Orthodox Church here acquired an expressively Russian character. From the standpoint of Rusyn culture, inclusion into the Russian Orthodox Church was a double-edged sword. In America, Reverend Alexis Toth had sought to convince his flock that the best way to preserve their rite, tradition and identity was through conversion to Orthodoxy. Yet St. Alexis (He too was canonized) had a great love for the variety of liturgical music known as Carpathian plainchant. 82 See the entry "Kabuliak, Aleksander" in Magocsi and Pop, eds. , Encyclopedia of Rusyn Hist01:y and Culture, 223 . 83 Pekar, 151 -4. �126 SLOVAK.IA 2019 This and another native aspects of worship were submerged by Russian liturgical tradition .84 In Czechoslovakia the legal status of the Greek Catholic Church was restored as a result of the liberal reforms of the Prague spring of 1968. Yet it lost its Rusyn character and became a force for slovakization. Much church property has been restored since the collapse of the communist system in 1989. Yet there remain adherents of the Orthodox faith in northeastern Slovakia. This author has an endearing memory of a visit to an Orthodox church in Svidnik. It was a modest, prefabricated structure, erected in the L990s. The morning was cold. There was only room inside the church for elderly parishioners. Yet a sizable crowd of young people remained standing outside. They displayed enough reverence to refrain from smoking throughout the Divine Liturgy. If the Rusyns can no longer be considered Great Russians, then the Russian government, and especially the Orthodox Church, wishes to retain whatever bonds still exist. While seminarians of the autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church have received their education in Ukraine, those who adhere to the Moscow patriarchate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have been educated in Russia. Such was the case of Dmitri Sidor, born March 29, 1955, currently rector of the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross in Uzhorod. Reverend Sidor heads a movement demanding autonomy for Rusyns of Ukraine. He stresses the religious character of his people, and the similarity of their language with Old Church Slavonic. On December 19, 2008 , the Rusyn issue was raised at an international conference held on the Don, southern Russia. The conference was entitled "Genocide and Cultural Ethnocide of the Rusyns of Carpathian Rus' [from the end of the nineteenth to the beginning of the twenty first century]." A resolution was adopted. It stated that, alongside the Armenians, the Rusyns were the first victims of genocide in the twentieth century, thi s in reference to the policy of the Austro-Hungarian military during the First World War. Today, the resolution continued, Kiev engaged in a "policy of cultural ethno- 84 Paul Robert Magocsi, "Adaptati on Wi thout Assimilati on: The Genius of the Greek Catholic Church of Mukachevo" in Of the Making of Nationalities, Volume 11 , 202. �SLOVAKIA 2019 127 cide." It pointed out that the Rusyns were recognized as a distinct nationality by numerous countries, but not Ukraine. 85 The Ukrainophile orientation responded to the Rostov conference. One articulate response may be found in the working paper "Political and Ethno-Cultural Aspects of the Rusyns' Problem: A Ukrainian Perspective," by Natalya Belitzer of the Py lip Orlyk Institute for Democracy in Kiev. She outlines the tortutous, complex evolution of the history of a region which has been subject to numerous rulers. She echoes her colleague M. Lanchuk in asserting that the main issue at stake has not been the ethno-cultural identity of the Rusyns but rather what has been termed "political Ruthenianism," which many Ukrainians perceive as a threat. 86 According to Belitzer, the disintegration of the Soviet Union was accompanied by an artificial politicization of the Rusyn question. Belitzer is not opposed to Ru syn autonomy in principle. Yet, as a Ukrainophile, she considers the Rusyn tongue as a mere dialect of the Ukrainian language. Belitzer makes a particularly revealing admission when she states that "Ukrainian democracy is ... quite benevolent to the ideas and practices of the restoration of minorities ' own identity, but at the same time strongly denies Rusyn identity as being separate from the Ukrainian.,,s1 Therein lies the rub. If the Rusyn tongue is a dialect of the Ukrainian language, why is its use not permitted in schools? Rusyn schoolchildren speak one way at home but are required to speak another way at school. Such practices are grist to Dmitri Sidor's mill. Aside from the fact that Ukraine has an army and the Rusyns do not, Father Dmitri's movement faces two serious obstacles. For one, he is an Orthodox priest, whereas the majority of Rusyns still profess (or have resumed professing) the Greek Catholic faith. Secondly, while a majority of the Rusyns in the Presov Region and Lemkovyna 85 Resolution of the International conference "Genocide and Cultural Ethnocide of Ru syns in Carpathian Rus' [from the end of the nineteenth to the beginning of the twenty first century] Rostov on the Don, Russia. December 2 1, 2008 www.podkar~atskarus.eu 6 M. Panchuk, " Political Rutheni ani sm" in Demons of Peace and Messengers of War(Kiev, 1997), 323. 87 Natalya Belitzer, "Political and Ethno-Cultural Aspects of the Rusyns' Problem : A Ukrainian Perspective". Research paper prepared within the framework of the Programme on European Security (PROGRES) sponsored by the Center for European Security Studies and the University of Gronigen (Netherlands). Undated, 12. �128 SLOVAKIA 2019 consider themselves their own nationality, a majority of them in Transcarpathia consider themselves Ukrainian. Yet the movement has a growing popular appeal. In a state where bureaucratic centralism has had a constipating effect, autonomy can be a powerful laxative. Moreover, the Rusyns now possess a certain bargaining chip . A full eighty percent of all Russian petroleum and natural gas which is sold to Europe passes through pipelines in the area of Uzhorod. If the Rusyns were to succeed in establishing an independent state, they would be eligible to receive billions of dollars of gas transit profits from Kiev.88 In the realm of literature, the Russophile tradition has likewise established an enduring legacy. This is especially exemplified by the writings of Andrii Karabelesh ( 1906-1964). Karabelesh was born in the Transcarpathian village of Tibala, near Mukachevo. When he first attended the gymnasium in Mukachevo the language of instruction was still Magyar. This changed due to the arrival in Podkarpatska Rus ' of many Russian emigres fleeing the revolution. Karabelesh adapted to the russification of the school system so enthusiastically that he became the first secular writer among Rusyn Russophi les. He went on to study at the Theological Seminary in Uzhorod ( 1925-1928). While still a student he published- in Russian- two collections of poetry, lzbrany e stikhovtvorenia (1928) and V buchalh rassvieta ( 1929). These works have been characterized as "dominated by mysticism, a pessimistic outlook on life, and a love of Russian culture." 89 He did not complete his studies at the Theological Seminary because he converted to Orthodoxy. His conversion was less for religious than for cultural reasons. As literary historian Elaine Rusinko writes: "Karabelesh ' s deity is not the conventional God of the Greek Catholic catechism, but an amorphous, spiritual force that provides metaphysical potential and philosophical substance for the poet." 9 Karabelesh went on to Prague, where he obtained a degree in philosophy from Charles University in 1934. ° 88 See " Ukraine Laun ches Moderni zation of Urengog-Ponary-U zhorod Pipeline," Ukra inian News Agency, Jul y 19, 2011 . 89 See the entry " Karabelesh, Andrii " in Magocsi and Pop, eds., Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, 223. 90 Ru sinko, 350. �SLOVAKIA 2019 129 Karabelesh continued writing exclusively in standard Russian. Unlike earlier Russophiles, he did not look towards Russia for the deliverance of the Rusyn people. In his estimation, it was no longer a matter of what Holy Mother Russia could do for Podkarpatska Rus'. It was a matter of what Carpathian-Rus' could do for Holy Mother Russia. In his enthusiasm for the great Russian literary giants, Karabelesh exhibited a tendency towards plagiarism, using some of their phrases directly in his own poetry. Karabelesh 's special favorite was Mikhail Lennontov, who merits attention here. Like his predecessor, the great Russian Romantic Alexander Pushkin, Lermontov wrote passionately, lived wildly and was killed in a duel. Unlike Pushkin, Lermontov created a literary genre in which the psychology of the protagonist played a leading role. This served as a precedent for the great novels of Dostoyevsky later in the century.91 In his poem "Nevdol'strie" (Dissatisfaction), Karabelesh quotes Lermontov's Pechorin: "I was not born for happiness. " 92 Anyone who studies the course of Karabelesh 's life would probably agree. He taught secondary school for a time in Podkarpatska Rus ', but when the Hungarians reoccupied the region he fled to Bohemia. Karabelesh participated in the Czech Resistance against the Nazis, heading a small underground group in Litamsyl. In this capacity he was arrested by the Gestapo in 1942. He passed the remainder of the war in the concentration camps of Mauthausen and Buchenwald. After the war he remained for a time in western Czechoslovakia, serving as principal of the gymnasium of Svitavy (19451953). Then he moved to the Presov Region, where he taught Russian language and literature at Safarik University. Although a member of the Ukrainian section of the Slovak Writers Union, he continued to write exclusively in Russian. It was not simply a case of Karabelesh being unwilling to move with the times. The red banner of the October Revolution replaced the grey skies in "V karpatikh osin" (Autumn in the Carpathians ). 93 Yet the apolitical, pessimistic tone of Karabelesh 's poetry became increasingly an object of attack by communist ideologues. In 1956, when the Soviet Communist Party was 91 See Semyon Eks hut, " Pushkin 's Heir" Russian Life, 42 , No, 6 (October/November 1999), 20-32. 92 Rusinko, 353. 93 Ibid, 362. �130 SLOVAKIA 2019 in a state of ideological crisis in the aftermath of Stalin's death , Karabelesh raised his voice in criticism of the imposed ukrainization of the Rusyn people. He was subsequently expelled from the Slovak Writers Union and returned to Bohemia. In the homeland, literary hi storian and defender of the "social realist" genre Iurii Bolega opened an ideological offensive against Karabelesh ' s work, condemning it as having a Russian chauvinist and anti-social character. One may ask why Karabelesh would wish to return home under such circumstances. Yet the years he spent in concentration camps had undennined hi s health, and Karabelesh was of the opinion "Where you are born, there you should die! " 94 Terminally ill, Karabelesh finally returned home in 1964. He died in Mukachevo on September 4 . In the post-communist era his poetry has experienced a revival of popularity. The Eastern Carpathians constitute an area of scenic beauty, but also in many places one of the depressing poverty. In his poem " Moi Narod" (My Nation), Karabelesh focuses on "fences and of abandoned gardens," "dried out grape vines," "bars of broken down churches," "unplowed fields," and so on. His writing reflects the mixture of beauty and melancholia that is essential to the brooding Slavic soul. If the Russophile tradition never reached the level of popularity that the Ukrainophile orientation attained, it nonetheless remains an essential part of the cultural landscape. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author wishes to thank and express his deep appreciation to Bob Broedel , president of the Tallahassee-Krasnodar Sister City Program, for hi s technical assistance in accessing material published in Russia and Ukraine. 94 Ibid, 359. � 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 2019, Vol. 44 Description An account of the resource Vol. 44 (No. 82-83), 2019. 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 2019 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 2019 83 RUSSOPHILES WITHOUT RUSSIA R. Vladimir Baumgarten (Dedicated to the Memory ofNikolaj Ordos) The Carpatho-Rusyns, technically a stateless people, have been dubbed the "Kurds of Central Europe." They straddle the northern and southern slopes of the Carpathian mountains in the border re1 gions of Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine and Romania. Since the 1989 revolutions and the collapse of Communism in East Central Europe, both the Slovak and Polish governments have recognized the Carpatho-Rusyns as a distinct nationality. Ukraine, where the largest number of Rusyns dwell, does not. After World War II, incoming communist governments classified the Rusyns as Ukrainians by administrative fiat for reasons of convenience, which shall be explained below. The current post-communist government of Ukraine adamantly adheres to this position. 2 Further west, across the Uz river, many Carpatho-Rusyns in eastern Slovakia have voluntari ly assimilated into the Slovak nationality, for reasons which shall likewise be explained in this essay. The first impetus for the Rusyn national awakening came from a belief that they were part of a Great Russian nation, extending "from the Poprad River [in eastern Slovakia] to the Pacific." 3 The Russophile tradition influenced Carpatho-Rusyn culture and politics for a full century. An examination of its history reveals more than a few 1 Paul Robert Magocsi , " Mapping Stateless Peoples: The East Slavs of the Carpathians," Canadian Slavonic Papers, XXIX, Nos. 3-4 ( 1997), 301-54. 2 The Ukrainophile viewpoint was exemplified by Viacheslav Chomovil ( 19371999). During the Brezhnev era, Chomovil was a dissident journalist and human rights activist. He was sent to the labor camps several times for separatist activities. In the late I 980's he was one of the leaders of the People's Movement of Ukraine (better-known as Rukh). After the Soviet Union disintegrated and Ukraine became independent, Chomovil became alarmed by the Rusyn political renaissance. He considered it separatist and urged the Prosecutor General's office in Kiev to file charges aga inst its protagonists. 3 Paul Robert Magocsi , "The Nationalist lntelligentia and the Peasantry in Twentieth Century Subcarpathian Rus "', in Magocs i, Of the Making of Nationalities Th ere is No End, Vol. I (New York, 1999), 19. 84 SLOVAKIA 2019 ironies. In retrospect, it seems remarkable that the Russophile tradition lasted as long as it did. Indeed, remnants of it exist to this day. The current essay is an attempt to explain its rise and fall. The Russophile Tradition in Habsburg Hungary, Galicia and America The homeland of the Carpatho-Rusyns has been alternatively referred to as Ruthenia, Podkarpatska Rus' (Subcarpathian Rus '), Transcarpathia and Carpatho-Ukraine. For reasons of convenience, this author shall refer to it as Podkarpatska Rus' . It was part of the Kingdom of Hungary for about 900 years. Much of Podkarpatska Rus' was a game preserve for the Hungarian nobility. Its Eastern Slav peasants, shepherds and lumberjacks were forbidden to hunt the deer, even when the latter devoured the people's meagre cabbage plots. Starvation was common. The Rusyns were the most impoverished and illiterate ethnic group in the Hungarian kingdom. Originally a bastion of the Russian Orthodox Church, the homeland of the Carpatho-Rusyns was a battleground and passageway in the ongoing struggle between the Austrian Habsburgs and the Transylvanian princes. In order to wean these people away from any allegiance to the Transylvanian princes, most of whom were Calvinists, the Habsburgs decided to incorporate them into the Roman Catholic Church. They accomplished this by creating a Slavonic/Greek Rite of the church. At the Union of Uzhorod (April 24, 1646), 63 Orthodox priests pledged to recognize the primacy of the pope and the sanctity of Roman Catholic doctrine in exchange for keeping the Slavonic liturgy and a married clergy.4 These clergymen were exempted from the feudal burdens of serfdom, received an income from their parishioners, and could send their sons to seminaries in the Habsburg Monarchy for higher education. Despite this favorable concession from the Imperial House, the Rusyns remained generally loyal to their Magyar lords. This was especially the case of the Kuruc (Crusader) uprising and freedom war of Ferenc Rakoczi II ( 1703-1711 ). 4 For the most comprehensive study of this event, see Michal Lacko, "The Union of Uzhorod," Slovak Studies, VI ( 1966), 7-190. SLOVAK.IA 2019 85 The contribution of the Rusyns was sufficiently valorous for them to receive the title gens fidelissima ("the most faithful people").5 In the first half of the nineteenth century, when the various Slavic nationalities of the Habsburg Monarchy-Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs and Croats-launched their own national revivals, the Rusyns were slow to respond. No Rusyns attended the Slav Congress during the revolutionary year 1948. On the contrary, Greek Catholic seminarians in Uzhorod abandoned their intended vocations in order to volunteer for the Hungarian honveds (National Guard) during Hungary' s 1848-1849 war of independence.6 A few educated Rusyns were aware of a certain kinship with Russia. In 1791 Ivan Orlai ( 1771-1829) emigrated to Russia. A schoolteacher, he had been denied advancement in the Austrian system of education. In St. Petersburg he studied medicine and ultimately became court surgeon, actively working in the reorganization of the Russian medical profession. He advised the Ministry of Education to invite other educated Rusyns "since they usually know Church Slavonic thoroughly." 7 Orlai served as Mentor to Nikolaj Gogol, author of Taras Bulba, the Russified Ukrainian who ultimately became one of the literary giants of nineteenth-century Russia. Orlai encouraged other Russian scholars to take an interest in their kinsmen on the other side of the Carpathians. Meanwhile, a Greek Catholic eparchy was established in Presov, eastern Slovakia, in 1818. Its eparch (bishop), Hrihory Tarkovych, was an active pioneer of Russian culture. In expanding his library, he imported the complete works of the eighteenth-century Russian intellectual and scientist Mikhail Lomonosov.8 5 The Rusyns gained this title as a result of a battle fought near Trencin castle in western Slovakia on August 4, 1708. During the fi ghting Rakoczi vaulted across a ravine on horseback. He was thrown forward , striking his head and losing consciousness. His Carpatho-Rusyn peasant infantry held its ground long enough for him to be carried from the fi eld. Outnumbered and outgunned by the Imperial regulars, these Rusyns were subsequently massacred. 6 Paul Robert Magocsi, The Shaping of a National Identity: Subcarpathian Rus: / 848-1 948 (Cambridge, MA: 1978), 43. 7 Elaine Rusinko, Straddling Borders: Literature and Identity in Subcarpathian Rus ' (Toronto, 2008), 99. 8 Athanasius Pekar, The History of the Church in Carpathian Rus' (New York, 1992), 89. 86 SLOVAKIA 2019 The first real impetus for the Carpatho-Rusyn awakening came as a result of the Russian military intervention against the Hungarian war of independence in 1849. It was not undertaken to liberate the Slavs of Hungary who were in a state of revolt against Magyar tyranny. Tsar Nicholas I of Russia employed far more autocratic powers than did the House of Habsburg and regarded the stamping out of the fires of revolution, which had swept Europe since the previous year, as a self-evident duty. Polish revolutionary veterans were serving on the Hungarian side and he feared the spread of revolution to his Polish possessions. Nicholas was no Pan-Slav. Two years earlier a nest of such agitators had been discovered in Kiev. It called itself "The Brotherhood of Sts . Cyril and Methodius," and, according to Nicholas, its adherents had invented some monstrosity called the Ukrainian nationality. One of its leading members was not only Ukraine's best poet, but its best painter as well. His people sought ties with the Czechs and Slovaks. Nicholas saw to it that several of them were jailed and he had Taras Schevcenko drafted into the Russian army for ten years, during which time he was forbidden to write or sketch. 9 A number of Russian Pan-Slav politically conservative individuals sympathized with the Slovak people. Tsar Nicholas admonished the Slavophile journalist Ivan Aksakov ( 1823-1886) that, under the guise of a general Slav alliance, subversive elements in the Kingdom of Hungary wished to create a struggle which was not in the name of 0 God, but in a spirit of mutiny, which was dangerous to Russia. ' The Russian military commanders carefully studied the earlier conflicts between the Habsburgs and the Transylvanian princes . They observed that The Austrians had traditionally moved against Transylvania by starting from Kosice in eastern Slovakia. It was considered safer to cross the Hornad and Tisa rivers in the Carpathian 11 foothills than to assault Transylvania from the Hungarian plain. On June 9, the main Russian army commanded by Field Marshal Ivan Paskievitch, consisting of 70,890 soldiers and 240 cannon poured into Slovakia through the Dukla Pass from partitioned Po9 Pav lo Zaitsev, Taras Shevchenko. A Life (Toronto, 1989), 139-57. °Cudovit Holotik, "The Slovaks: An Integrating or Disintegrating Force?" Austrian 1 Histo ry Yearbook, III , Part 2 ( 1967): 2. 11 William Stiles, Austria in 1848-50, II (New York, 1850), 294. Stiles was the American charge d'affaires in Vienna during the revolutionary events of 1848-49. SLOVAKIA 2019 87 land. The Russians captured Presov on June 20 and took Kosice five days later. To supply their army, the Russians stockpiled large amounts of foodstuffs at the northern end of the Dukla Pass. However, the military bureaucracy of Tsar Nicholas was inefficient. Provisions were made to transport the artillery but not the food . Austrian quartermasters, who also had a supply of food , and were allied with the Russians, had fled the area. The Russian soldiers, hungry and exasperated, turned to plunder. Don Cossacks looted a number of Slovak villages so thoroughly that the inhabitants fled into the for12 ests . The Russian intervention in this area would be remembered with ill-feelings by Magyars and non-Magyars alike. There were Slovak Pan-Slavs who were willing to overlook Russian misconduct. They convinced themselves that Grand Duke Konstantin was preparing to transfer his headquarters from Warsaw to Kosice, where he would proclaim a new Slav state. Slovak leaders appealed to the Russian embassy and military mission in Vienna for recognition. They requested that Slovak advisors and regional administrators be attached to the Russian military in eastern Slovakia. Tsar Nicholas replied to one such request "I received the same thing yesterday from Danilevsky [the Russian consul in Belgrade]. I have no time for such matters." 13 On the other hand, the reception of Russian military intervention was not universally negative. Rusyn peasants in the highlands witnessed a mighty Slav army in their region for the first time. They were awed. They gave fruits and nuts to the invaders. Aleksander Dukhnovych, soon to become an awakener among the Rusyns, later wrote, "One thing really gave me joy in life, and that was in 1849 when I first saw the glorious Rus sian army .. .I can't describe the feeling of gladness at seeing the first Cossacks on the streets of Presov. I danced and cried with delight. .. It was truly the first, perhaps the last, joy of my life." 14 Aleksander Dukhnovych (1803-1865) was born in the village of Topol 'a in the Humenne region of eastern Slovakia. He was descended from Greek Catholic priests and was consequently educated 12 John Shelton Curtis, The Russian Army under Nicholas I, 1925-/ 854 (Durham, NC, 1865), 298 . 13 Holotik, 383. 14 Quoted in Magocsi, The Shaping of a National Identity, 45. 88 SLOVAKIA 2019 at the Theological Seminary in Uzhorod. After ordination as a priest in 1827, he was assigned to the bishop 's chancellery in Presov. His relatively progressive views clashed with those of the more conservative Tarkovych, who then assigned him to a relatively remote rural parish. Dukhnovych regarded his assignment as a godsend. In Uzhorod he had received a Hungarian education, which influenced his early writings. In the rural parish he discovered, or re-discovered, "the people." He was influenced by the Slovak National Awakening and applied its precepts to the awakening of his own Rusyn people. After the death of Tarkovych, Dukhnovych was reassigned to Presov and appointed eparchical canon in 1843 . He remained closely associated with the city-considered a Rusyn cultural center in spite of its Slovak majority- for the rest of his life. In 1850, after the suppression of the Hungarian revolution, Dukhnovych established the first Rusyn cultural association, the Presov Literary Society. His own literary contribution was considerable. In 1851 he composed the poem "Vruchanie," whose opening lines "I was, am, and will remain a Rusyn" became the motif for the unofficial anthem of the Carpatho-Rusyn people. He researched and wrote extensively on the Rusyn people. His monumental achievement was the play "Virtue is More Important than Riches," which is still performed regularly in regional theatres in eastern Slovakia and western Ukraine. 15 The ethical values expressed in this play mirror Dukhnovych 's role as a social reformer. He campaigned vigorously against illiteracy, alcoholism, and the lingering pagan superstitions which persisted among his people. The literary language employed-indeed, invented by Dukhnovych-was peculiar. It was a blend of Old Church Slavonic, standard Russian and the native dialect. His later disciples called it "the traditional Carpatho-Rusyn langage," while his critics derrided it as "jazychije" (macaronic jargon). 16 Indeed, while Dukhnovych was the greatest of the Rusyn awakeners, he inhibited the establishment of a distinctive Rusyn identity by his unequivocal adherence to the Great Russian idea. 15 For an English-language translation, see Aleksander Duchnovych, Virtue is More Important than Riches, ed. by Elai ne Rusinko (New York, 1994). 16 See the entry "Dukhnovych, Aleksander," in Paul Robert Magocs i and Robert Popp, eds. , Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture (Toronto, 2005), I06. SLOVAKIA 2019 89 If Dukhnovych was the unquestioned giant among the Rusyns in the realm of culture, then Adolf Dobrian' skyi ( 1817-1901) fulfilled this function in the realm of politics. Dobrian'skyi was born in Rudl'ov, Zemplin county, Slovakia, the son of a Greek Catholic priest. He attended secondary schools in Levoca, Roznava and Misko le, and then studied philosophy in Kos ice ( 1833 ), law in Eger (1834-36) and mining at the Academy of Mines and Forests in Banska Stiavnica, central Slovakia. He was fluent in several foreign languages, including Magyar, German, French, English and Italian. He visited Bohemia, where he was influenced by Frantisek Palacky, Karel Havlicek and other Czech national awakeners. Dobrian'skyi initially welcomed Hungary' s 1848 Revolution for the liberal reforms that it promised. But when the Slovak district of Banska Bystrica elected him as its representative to the Hungarian Diet, the Hungarian government rejected his mandate on the grounds of Pan-Slavism. Dobrian'skyi then indeed became a Pan-Slav. He moved to Presov, where he built a following which advocated a political union of the Rusyns of Hungary with those of Austrian Galicia. When the Russians prepared to invade Hungary, the Austrian government appointed him as its liason with Paskievitch. Dobrian 'skyi then served as advisor to the Russian military. After the defeat of revolutionary Hungary, the Austrian government imposed a centralist bureaucratic regime. Dobrian' skyi then became advisor to the Uzhorod Civil District, which encompassed four counties. He regarded the civil district as a prelude to the establishment of an autonomous Rusyn state under the Emperor of Austria. 17 Defeated in the Austro-Sardinian war of 1859, The Habsburg Monarchy was substantially weakened. It was forced to retreat from bureaucratic centralism and make concessions to the Magyars. Dobrian' skyi was recalled , and the old nobles began to reoccupy county positions. In 1866 Austria suffered another defeat, this time at the hands of Prussia, and resigned itself in 1867 to accepting the Magyar nobility as equal partners in the renamed Dual Monarchy of AustriaHungary. Emperor Franz-Josef allowed himself to be crowned King of Hungary in Budapest and the Hungarian nobles were granted complete self-government in internal affairs. By now their obsession 17 See the entry " Dobrian' skyi, Adolf," in Magocsi and Popp, eds., Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, 93. 90 SLOVAK.IA 2019 with Pan-Slavism reached paranoid proportions . They viewed the magyarization of Hungary's Slavic minorities as imperative. Persecution of Slovak and Carpatho-Rusyn educational and cultural institutions became the order of the day. A similar course evolved in Galicia, the Austrian province of partitioned Poland. Shortly after the 1867 Compromise with Hungary came into effect, Empreor Franz-Josef appointed his trusted Polish confidant Count Agenor Goluchowski as Viceroy of Galicia. Goluchowski gained for his Polish nobles a degree of autonomy that mirrored that of the Magyars. The education system was polonized. This posed a direct threat to the advancement of the Rusyns. Educated Rusyns became politically divided. The Ukrainian movement gained the greatest strength . However, there were still Rusyns who adhered to the traditions of old Rus' .They stubbornly continued to write in Old Church Slavonic and isolated themselves from the people. Cultureally, these Old Ruthenians identified with Russia, but professed allegiance to the Austrian Emperor. Such a dual allegiance became more difficult to maintain as the nineteenth-century ran its course. Austria and Russia were no longer allies, and were in fact competing for hegemony in the Balkans. Similarly, the Rusyns of Galicia found themselves cast in the role of a political football in the rivalry of the two empires. A case in point was the career of Ivan Naumovych (1826-1891), who was born Galicia in 1836. In his youth he was strongly influenced by the Polish national movement. However, he experienced a turning point during the revolutionary year of 1848, when there was a brief uprising in the city of Lviv. Naumovych was observing the fighting from a hillside when imperial soldiers spotted him and assumed he was a Polish rebel. They arrested him, but Naumovych persuaded them to release him by convincing the Austrians that he was a Russian. 18 Being Russian, Naumovych decided, carried certain privileges. After 1850, when Naumovych was ordained a Greek Catholic priest, he became staunchly Russophile in cultural orientation. He organized opposition to a campaign organized by the Roman Catholic Polish clergy to latinize the liturgy of the Greek rite. In this ca18 Keith Dyrud, The Quest fo r th e Rusyn Soul: The Politics of Religion and Culture in Eastern Europ e and America, 1890-World War I (Philadelphia, 1992), 28. SLOVAKIA 2019 91 pacity he sought Russian support. At this point, Naumovych did not convert to Orthodoxy . He still regarded the Greek Catholic (Uniate) church as a potential bridge between Eastern and Western Christendom. Nontheless, inspired by his activism, an entire village in eastern Galicia converted to Orthodoxy in May of 1877. More conversions followed in the next three years. The Galician authorities charged Naumovych with treason. In their view his activity was not religious but political. Naumovych had indeed maintained contact with Russian Pan-Slav agents. 19In July of 1882 he was finally convicted and sentenced to eight months in jail. Other Rusyns who converted to Orthodoxy likewise found themselves hauled into court, although, surprisingly, a Polish jury acquitted them. Both the Austrian government and Polish patriots understood the necessity of not pushing the Old Ruthenians to the point of open subversion. The Ukrainophile movement predominated in Galicia, but the Russophile tradition was not going to go away. Galicia, unlike Russian Ukraine, was not a particularly productive agricultural region. Much of the countryside is hilly and the soil is poor. A bad harvest usually resulted in famine , and this happened at the beginning of the twentieth century. Russian Pan-Slavs responded by founding the Galician-Russian Benevolent Association in St. Petersburg on February 9, 1903. At the opening meeting acertain Father Petrov delivered the inaugural address. American historian Keith Dyrud described the subsequent address as follows: He likened the world to an artist's palette or a musician 's instrument. God was that artist or musician. The nationalities of the world were like colors on the palette or strings on the instrument. If some of the colors or strings are missing, the painting or music will be incomplete and this is a crime against the spirit. This crime against the spirit occurs when a culture allows itself to become divided. The separation of the people of Galicia and Carpatho-Russia (Subcarpathia) from the Russian nation was just such a crime . It is the obligation of a national culture to unite its people into a united nation. In other words, the orator was suggesting that it was 19 Ibid ., 28 . 92 SLOVAK.IA 2019 the obligation of Russia to unite in a single nation all people with a Russian culture. He included the Galicians and Subcarpathians 20 among the people with a Russian culture. Under the leadership of Count Vladimir Bobrinski , the GalicianRussian Benevolent Association extended financia l relief to famine victims of Galicia. Tsarist Russia, the most despotic and reactionary among the Great Powers, could appear benevolent while working to expand its influence. Bobrinski likewise dispatched agents to Podparkarpatska Rus ' , where starvation was an everyday occurrence, rather than a momentous event. The Hungarian government was less hesitant than its Austrian counterpart to prosecute Rusyns for conversion to the Orthodox faith. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the first converts to the Orthodox faith in Podkarpatska Rus ' materialized in the vi llage of Iza. They were simple peasants who disliked their pastor, a magyarized Rusyn, who replaced their language with Magyar in the parish school. Led by the cantor-teacher Andry Vladymir, they appealed to the Serbian patriarch, who had nominal authority over all Orthodox subjects of the Habsburg Monarchy, to send them an Orthodox priest. Greek Catholic priest and historian Athanasius Pekar, himself a Ukrainophile, later admitted: "All that needed to be done to liquidate the so-called 'Orthodox movement' in Iza was to appoint a new village pastor and reopen the parish school." 2 1 Instead, the Hungarian government arrested the participants late in 1903 for alleged ties with Russia, and in the following year placed them on trial in Marmaros. All the defendants were found gui lty of treason. The Maramaros trial made a deep impression on the mind of a simple woodcutter of Iasnyia named Aleksander Kabaliu (18771947). He had just been released from the army, where he had been persecuted by Hungarian officers for his Pan-Slav inclinations. Kabuliak had a pronounced inclination towards a monastic life . He made religious pilgrimages to Russia, Jerusalem and Mount Athos in Greece. At a Russian monastery in the last-named location, he was received into the Orthodox fold . He turned his home in Iasnyia into a veritable Russian museum, collecting and displaying icons. Fearing 20 21 Ibid. , 49-50. Pekar, I 05 . SLOVAKIA 2019 93 persecution by Hungarian authorities, Kabaliuk emigrated to the Russian Empire, where he was tonsured as a monk in 1910. The Russian Orthodox Church initially intended that Kabaliuk wou ld go to America and assume custody of a modest parish in Pittsburgh.22 Instead, he decided to return to Hungary to share in the martyrdom of the villagers of Iza. The Hungarian authorities were happy to oblige him. At the end of 1913 there was a second Maramaros trial, in which Kabaliuk and 94 peasants were the defendants. The Hungarians were hopeful that the trial would expose the activities of Count Bobrinskii and his associates. All it achieved was international condemnation of Magyar policies . Nonetheless, Kabaliuk was sentenced to four and a half years in jail, while 32 others were sentenced to one or two years and various fines. The rest were dismissed for lack of evidence. It was also at the tum of the century that many Rusyns followed the example of their Slovak kinsmen and neighbors in emigrating to America. Although members of both groups originated in the dirtpoor hill country of the eastern Carpathians, they tended to gravitate towards industrial centers in the United States. Surprisingly, America provided both stimulus for the Russophile tradition and a resurgence of the Russian Orthodox faith. Dyrud writes: The majority of the Rusyn immigrants came to the United States as illiterate peasants and had not participated in the intellectual and cultural conflicts that were raging in the old country. Thus it was in this country that Rusyn peasants from Galicia and Subcarpathia first lived together and found that they did not have as much in common as it first seemed. And it was in the United States that many of them first heard of the Ukrainian movement. And it was there that the Rusyns from Subcarpathia felt free to express national sentiments without the pressures of magyarization. It was in the United States that most of the Rusyn immigrants were told for the first time by the Russian Orthodox mission that they were really Russians. 23 22 See the entry "Kabaliuk, Aleksander," in Magocsi and Popp, eds., Encyclopedia o[ Ru syn History and Culture, 223. 2 Dyrud, 58 . 94 SLOVAK.IA 2019 Ironically, the Russian cause was indirectly aided by a most unlikely element: Irish American Catholic priests. Many of the latter resented the fact that Greek Catholic candidates for the priesthood were permitted to marry while they were not. Most outstanding was Archbishop John Ireland of Minneapolis-St. Paul. On December 19, 1889, he was visited by a Greek Catholic priest named Alexis Toth. Toth had been dispatched by the Presov eparchy to assume the pastorship of St. Mary ' s, a modest church recently constructed by the Rusyn community of Minneapolis. When Father Toth presented his credentials, Archbishop Ireland became greatly agitated. He informed Toth that he did not consider him to be a genuine Catholic, and denied him permission to administer the sacraments. 24 After consultation with the parishioners of St. Mary's, Toth conferred with Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Vladimir of San Francisco. The latter was eager and willing to accept the parish of St. Mary's into the Orthodox fold. Aside from Alaska, which Russia had sold to the United States earlier, there were up to the 1870s only three Orthodox churches in the United States. In addition to San Francisco, there was a Russian parish in New York City and a Greek Orthodox church in New Orleans. Native converts in America were exclusively Alaskan Aleuts and Eskimos . Now, however, the wave of Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants indicated a potential source of growth. Since nearly all Rusyn immigrants were in the eastern half of the United States, New York rather than San Francisco was delegated as an episcopal seat. In 1890 the construction of St. Nicholas Cathedral was completed in New York. Tsar Nicholas II personally donated 5,000 roubles to this project. His government subsidized the construction of other churches and supported activities of the Orthodox Missionary Society founded in Moscow. In Minneapolis, Father Toth founded the Russian Mutual Aid Society. These prosletization efforts exceeded all expectations. By the time of the outbreak of World War I in 1914, over one-third of all Rusyn immigrants in the United States had converted to Orthodoxy. 25 They served as enthusiastic supporters of the Russian cause in the Great War. World War I brought with it the culmination of the historic struggle for the Carpathians, and caused great suffering among the 24 25 Ibid 65-6 Ibid: 65 . • SLOVAK.IA 2019 95 Rusyns of Galicia, eastern Slovakia and Podkarpatska Rus' . By early September 1914 Russian armies had overrun much of eastern Galicia. Count Georgii Bobrinskii, brother of Count Vladimir, was made governor-general, and started a campaign to eradicate the Ukrainian movement. All Ukrainian cultural organizations, cooperatives and journals were shut down. The Russian language replaced Ukrainian in the school system. Hundreds of Greek Catholic priests were deported into the depths of Russia. There was admittedly some dissent in Russian governmental circles. Noted statesman Pavel Miliukov described Russian conduct in Galicia as a European scandal. Yet Foreign Minister Sergei Sazanov stated unequivocally: "Now is exactly the right moment to rid ourselves of the Ukrainian movement once and for all." 26 The Ukrainophiles had a measure of revenge when the AustroHungarian military reoccupied the province in the following year. They denounced their Russophile neighbors for alleged collaboration with the invaders. Hungarian troops carried out mass hangings. At the same time, Polish nobles spread rumors that the Ukrainophiles were covertly pro-Russian, so as to reassert their own authority in Galicia. In truth, thousands of Russophiles and Ukrainophiles alike suffered internment in Austrian concentration camps. The most notorious of these camps was Talerhof, near Graz. Sanitary conditions were deplorable, and an estimated 1,767 persons died of typhus and 27 other diseases. Austria's parliament was scandalized, and Emperor Karl ordered Talerhof closed early in 1917. Early in 1915, for the second of three occasions in the course of a century, the Russian military crossed through the Dukla Pass. This move came as a result of the seige of Przemysl, Austria-Hungary's principal fortress in Galicia. Russian troops occupied the Carpathian mountain passes to the south to prevent the Austro-Hungarian military from sending reinforcements to break the siege. Casualties on both sides of the winter war of 1914-15 were appalling. It is likely that more soldiers succumbed to the "White Death" (hypothermia) than were killed by enemy bullets. 28 Ultimately, the Austrian side 26 Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A History (Toronto, Buffalo and London, 2009), 343. See the entry "Talerhof," in Magocsi and Pop, eds,. Encyclopedia of Rusy n History and Culture, 488 . 28 For rhe most recent account of the winter campaign, see Traydon A. Tumstell, Blood on the Snow: The Carpathian Winter War of I 9 I 5 (Lawrence, KD, 20 I 0). 27 96 SLOVAKIA 2019 gave way first. Russian soldiers under General Lavrl' Kornilov pushed through the southern end of Dukla Pass and advanced as far as the village of Lodomirova, just north of the town of Svidnik. Here they established a military cemetery for their dead. Lodomirova eventually became the site of a Russian cultural center in northeastern Slovakia, which shall be discussed in due course. The Russians did not remain in occupation of this toehold in Slovakia for long. Germany, Austria-Hungary's senior partner, launched a counteroffensive eastward across Poland, albeit at the cost of having enough troops to capture Paris. Russian troops painfully withdrew north of the Carpathians. They were now demoralized and ripe for revolution. Mass mutinies forced Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate on March 15, 1917. The reign of the Romanov dynasty had ended. Tsarist Russia was destroyed. Politically speaking, the Russophi-le orientation was now a dead letter. Culturally, its future was now an openended question . At this point Russophiles among the Rusyns looked with growing interest at the now ascendant Czechoslovak independence movement. The Rusyns in Interwar Czechoslovakia and Poland The Czechoslovak independence movement was a curious article. For almost a century, there existed an intellectual tradition which maintained that Czechs and Slovaks were two branches of the same nationality. Yet the concept of a politically united Czechoslovak state was largely the invention to Tomas Garrigue Masaryk ( 18501937), a Czech philosophy professor and notorious defender of unpopular causes. Perceiving that World War I would result in AustriaHungary coming increasingly under the domination of Kaiser Wilhelm ' s Germany, Masaryk decided to lobby among the opposing Western powers for Czecho-Slovak independence. In Geneva, in neutral Switzerland, he was joined by his protege, the sociology professor Edvard Benes. Together they proceeded to Paris, where they were joined by Milan Rastislav Stefanik, a young Slovak serving as an officer in the French Air Force. This triumvirate formed a Czech Action Committee Abroad, which was eventually expanded and renamed the Czechoslovak National Council. Given his position on this body, the French eventually gave Stefanik genera l' s rank. He raised a Czechoslovak Legion from prisoners of war and deserters SLOVAKIA 2019 97 from the Austro-Hungarian Army. The Czechoslovak Legion distinguished itself on the Western, Eastern and eventually Italian fronts, and gained increased Allied favor in the struggle for the recognition of the independence movement. 29 In 1918 Masaryk visited the United States, not only to gain official American recognition, but also a mandate from the Slovak community in America, since Slovakia itself was politically gagged. In October of 1915 the Bohemian National Alliance and the Slovak League of America had already concluded a preliminary agreement for cooperation in Cleveland. Masaryk proceeded to Pittsburgh to conclude a more formal agreement for a Czecho-Slovak merger. Masaryk's visit to the Mecca of the American Slovaks was greeted by a large manifestation of support which included South Slavs as well as Czechs and Slovaks. Yet the negotiations undertaken at Moose Hall on May 29-31 were not without controversy. Masaryk pledged Slovakia an administration, a school system and linguistic rights, but not its own parliament, as specified by the earlier Cleveland Agreement. Here Jozef Husek of the Slovak Catholic Jednota raised strenuous objections. Albert Mamatey, president of the Slovak League, impressed Masaryk with the seriousness of losing the support of the largest single Slovak organization. The delegates were evenly divided, and Masaryk finally broke the deadlock by signing a revised draft with all the proposals. 30 The steel towns of the greater Pittsburgh area were also heavily populated by Rusyns from Hungary. Following the lead of the Slovaks, many joined fraternal organizations, which not only provided 29 The Czechoslovak Legion in Russia was the most instrumental military force in attaining Allied recognition of the independence movement. With Russia withdrawing from the war in 1918, Czechoslovak legionnaires wished to be evacuated and sent to France, where a German offensive to capture Paris was anticipated. Attempts by the Bolsheviks to disarm them resu lted in their capture of the Trans-Siberian Railway and a legendary odyssey to the Pacific coast. It also gave the Western Allies a pretext to intervene in the Russian Civil War. The experience of the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia boats of a sizable amount of literature. The best Englishlanguage studies are authored by Victor M. Fie, The Revolutionary War for Independence and the Russian Question: The Czechoslovak Army in Russia 1914-191 8 (New Delhi, 1977) and The Bolsheviks and the Czechoslovak Legion. The Origins of Their Armed Conflict: March to May 1918 (New Delhi , 1978). 30 See Marian Mark Stolarik, "The Role of American Slovaks in the Creation of Czecho-Slovakia" Slo vak Studies, VIII ( 1968), 48-5 1 98 SLOVAKIA 2019 benefits to workers but published newspapers as well. Its members had acquired a measure of political awareness. One such organization was the Greek Catholic Union, headquartered in the HomesteadMunhall district. Another was the United Societies of America, which contained both Greek Catholic and Orthodox members, based in McKeesport. At the time of Masaryk's pilgrimage to Pittsburgh, the Czech independence leader was approached by Nicholas Pachuta, editor of the Greek Catholic Union's newspaper Rus 'kii Viestnik. Pachuta had recently converted to Orthodoxy. Up until this point he had advocated the incorporation of Podkarpatska Rus' into the Russian Empire. Now that there was no more Russian Empire, Pachuta approached Masaryk with the idea of union with a Czecho-Slovak state. He was soon afterwards expelled from the Greek Catholic Union. 3 1 Overall, the Greek Catholic clergy wished their homeland to remain part of Hungary. Many laymen wanted union with Galicia but insisted Galicia was Russian rather than Ukrainian. The end to the Great War was approaching, and territorial changes could be anticipated. One of President Woodrow Wilson's celebrated Fourteen Points for peace was "self-determination for the peoples of AustriaHungary." It was necessary to have a common program. Members of both organizations met in Homestead on July 23, 1918 to form the American National Council of Uhro-Rusyns. The subsequent Homestead Resolution read as follows: If the pre-war boundaries remain, Rusyns, as the most loyal people-gens fidelissima-deserve that Hungary provide [them} with autonomy. If new boundaries are made, they should be made according to nationality; thus, Uhro-Rusyns can belong nowhere else than to their nearest brothers by blood, language and faith, to the Galician and Bukovinian Rusyns. But if we are divided by foreign aspirations from Ukrainians and Old-Russians [Galician Russophiles}, the National Council demands in this case autonomy for Uhro-Rusyns so they can pre32 serve their national character. 31 Magocsi, Th e Shaping of a National Identity, 81. The original text of the Homestead Resolution appears under the heading " Do Vpukh Vhro-Rusynov zhivlych v Soed" in Prosvita, August 8, 1918 32 SLOVAKIA 2019 99 The Rusyns commissioned a young Pittsburgh lawyer named Gregory Zsatkovich ( 1886-1967) to represent their interests to the United States government. Pennsylvania congressman Guy Campbell arranged a meeting between Zsatkovich and President Wilson on October 21. Wilson thought it unfeasible to grant full independence to so small a nation in a geopolitically sensitive region, and consequently recommended that Zsatkovich seek autonomy in a larger state. He referred Zsatkovich to Masaryk, whose independence movement had been recently recognized by the U.S. State Department, Zsatkovich met with Masaryk in Philadelphia, where the latter hosted a congress called the Mid-European Democratic Union on October 23-26. According to Zsatkovich's memoir afterwards, Masaryk assured him: "If the Rusyns decide to join the Czechoslovak Republic, they shall constitute a fully autonomous state." 33 There remained a sticky issue. Rusyn territorial claims included several counties in eastern Slovakia. Here there were numerous Rusyns in the northern mountain districts whereas elsewhere the population consisted of either Slovaks or Rusyns who had already voluntarily assimilated into the Slovak nationality. Masaryk was further alleged to declare on this point: "The frontiers will be so determined that the 34 Rusyns will be satisfied." On November 12, at a meeting of the National Council of UhroRusyns in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the Czechoslovak option was provisionally adopted, albeit including the demand for the counties of eastern Slovakia. A subsequent plebiscite among the American Rusyn fraternals provided Zsatkovich with the desired results: out of 1,102 votes submitted, 732 (67 percent) were for union with Czechoslovakia and 310 (28 percent) for union with Ukraine. Additionally, there were 27 votes for complete independence, 10 votes for union with Russia, and 9 votes for remaining part ofHungary. 35 Back in the Old Country, the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in October of 1918 led to a power vacuum in many areas of the Carpathians. Several different national councils were organized by Rusyns, each of which had its own program for the fu- 33 Gregory Zsatkovich, Otkryhote-Expose bydaltelho gubernatori Podkarpatskoj Rusi (Homestead, PA , 1921 ), 5. 34 Ibid 5 35 Ma~o~si , Th e Shaping of a National Identity, 85. 100 SLOVAK.IA 2019 ture affiliation of the people. A Russophile group in eastern Slovakia, based in Stara Cubovna, initially wanted a merger with Galicia. Dissenters among them, led by the lawyer Antonii Beskyd ( 1855-1933), considered such a move impractical. They reconvened in Presov and declared themselves for union with Czechoslovakia instead. A new revolutionary government in Hungary pledged to grant the Rusyns territorial autonomy. A group of Greek Catholic priests in Uzhorod declared themselves in favor of this option. Another pro-Hungarian group met in Khust, but its speakers were shouted down by Pro-Ukrainian elements led by the lawyer Iulii Braschaiko (1879-1955). The Ukrainophle orientation had at last taken hold in Podkarpatska Rus ', and would grow progressively stronger. Most dramatic of all were events in the easternmost Hutsul region, centered around Iasnyia. Here the populace favored union with Ukraine, but, pending further developments, took matters into their own hands. In the early morning of January 7, 1919, a group of demobilized Rusyn soldiers, aided by troops sent by the West Ukrainian Republic, drove out the Hungarian garrison of 250 militiamen. On February 5 the victorious Rusyns proclaimed their own "Hutsul Republic," with a 42-member elected council and a four-man government. This little state existed until June 11, when the area was occupied by advancing Romanian troops.36 Late in 1918, Czechoslovak legionnaires returning from the Italian Front had begun a military occupation of Slovakia, and advanced across the Uz River. Uzhorod was occupied on January 10, 1919. The Czechoslovak position was strengthened as a result of a Bolshevik government assuming power in Hungary, much to the alarm of the Western powers. This Hungarian government wished to build upon the "Ruska Kraina" declared by its predecessor, the Karolyi regime. It went to extremes attempting to implement communist rule, threatening the death penalty for even the smallest commercial transactions. This decree became impossible to enforce, since the commissars were themselves profiteering. 37 Podkarpatska Rus' was soon engulfed in counterrevolution. 36 See Paul Robert Magocsi, "The Rusyn Decision to Unite With Czechoslovakia" in Magocsi, Of the Making of Natio nalities, 134. 37 Ibid, 140-42 SLOVAKIA 2019 101 Even before the establishment of the Bolshevik regime, members of the Uzhorod Council began experiencing doubts concerning the viability of remaining part of Hungary. A leading member of the Council, Reverend Avhustyn Voloshyn (1874-1945), began negotiating with Slovak leader Milan Hodza. Voloshyn was joined by supporters of both Beskid and Brashchaiko. The Russophiles realized that the Russia they had loved and believed in was unlikely to return from the dead. The Ukrainophiles realized that an independent Ukraine was unlikely to survive the turmoil of the Russian Civil War. Members of both orientations were willing to form a single body representing their mutual interests. It was in this spirit that the Central Russian National Council was formed in Uzhorod on May 8, 1919. Zsatkovich arrived with the text of the Scranton Resolution, which was endorsed unanimously. It remained to the Western peacemakers gathered in Paris to give sanction to Podkarpatska Rus' being granted to Czechoslovakia. Yet, contrary to later Hungarian revisionist claims, the victorious Western Allies did not arbitrarily hand the region over to the Czechs. The decision to unite with Czechoslovakia was that of the Rusyn people themselves .38 The realities of being part of the Czechoslovakia disappointed the expectations of many educated Rusyns. Autonomy was not forthcoming. They could send representatives to parliament in Prague, but did not have their own regional parliament. Prague apparently decided that the Rusyns, like the Slovaks, were not ready for autonomy. Zsatkovich became the first provincial governor, but the actual administration lay in the hands of a centralized Czech bureaucracy. Zsatkovich eventually resigned in disgust and returned to America. The disputed counties in eastern Slovakia remained under Slovak administration. To complicate matters further, there was now a group of Rusyns who considered themselves their own nationality, in addition to the existing Russophile and Ukrainophile orientations. Politically, on the local level, Prague would support one and then another orientation, depending upon its convenience at a particular moment. The Czechoslovak administration made great strides in education, virtually eliminating illiteracy in twenty years . The government poured tremendous amounts of money into Podkarpatska Rus ', and liberally funded cultural activities of all three orientations. 38 Ibid, 146. 102 SLOVAKIA 2019 On April 29, 1920, there was a meeting of local leaders in Uzhorod, headed by Iulii Brashchaiko. Its purpose was to establish a cultural organization encompassing all Podkarpatska Rus '. Nothing resulted from this meeting since Russophiles led by Anthonii Beskyd raised angry objections to the Ukrainophile cultural orientation of Brashchaiko ' s group. On May 9 Brashchaiko's fol lowers established the Prosvita Society, modeled along the lines of the Ukrainian society of the same name in Galicia. Its task was to publish all kinds of popular and scholarly books "written in the national tongue and accessible to every Subcarpathian Ru syn." 39 The Czechoslovak Pros vita was reinforced by many educated Ga li cian Ukrainians who found Polish rul e objectionable. On th e May 23 , 1923, those Russophiles who boycotted the Prosvita met in Uzhorod to establish their own organization, which was called the Dukhnovych Society. Its stated goals were to foster "the cultural deve lopment of the Ru ssian people living within Czechoslovakia, and most importantly to educate them in a moral , patriotic and Ru ssian spirit, exclusive of al l political activity." 40 The contrast between the two rival societies was visib le. The old tricolor Ru ssian flag flew over the reading rooms of the Dukhnovych Society, whereas Prosvita reading rooms displayed the blue and ye llow Ukrainian national colors. In terms of literature, the new Dukhnovych Society championed the great Russian masters : Pushkin, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, etc. The Prosvita Society advanced the writings of Shevchenko and other less known Ukrainian awakeners. Both Russophiles and Ukrainophiles expanded their activities from literature to theater. The Ru ssophiles tended to produce hi storical dramas, whereas the Ukrainophi les focused on folk songs and ballads. The latter used standard Ukrainian as the language of performance, whereas the Russophiles had to translate their productions into a Rusyn dia lect. It must be frankly admitted that the Ukrainophile orientation gained the upper hand in popularity during the course of the kulturkampf for Podkarpatska Rus' in the First Czechoslovak Republic. Avtustyn Voloshyn had become a convert to the Ukrainophile orien39 Statul tova,ystva 'Prosvita • Podkarpatska Rus ·, (Uzhorod, 1920), 6. Usta v Rusakogo ku/'turna-prosvete/'noga obshchturni Aleksandra Duchnovychovicha , (Uzhorod, 1923), 40 SLOVAK.IA 2019 103 tation. He and his associates were astute and learned men-teachers and scholars who kept closely in touch with Rusyn cultural life. By contrast, the Dukhnovych Society fell increasingly under the influence of Stefan Fentsik ( 1892-1946), a local politician who used the organization as a platform to propagate a his own views, his political ties with Poland and Hungary-which shall be di scussed in due course-became common knowledge by 1937, and did much to compromise the Dukhnovych Society. 41 Russian culture survived more comfortably in eastern Slovakia, since 1928 elevated to the official status of a province. In large measure this direction was due to the efforts of Iulii Lazho (18671929), a native of Svidnik and senator for the Social Democratic Party in the Czechoslovak parliament. Earlier, Lazho had emigrated to America, where he converted to Orthodoxy and also rose in the construction industry. He returned home to start his own construction firm, and also to seek revenge against his former Greek Catholic pastor. As mayor of Ladomirova, where the Russian military cemetery was located, Lazho invited Vital ii Maksimenko ( 1873-1960), former archimandrite of the monastery at Pochaiev (in Polish Volhynia), to establish a missionary headquarters there. Lazho also procured a Cyrillic alphabet printing press which Czechoslovak legionnaires in Russia had appropriated, shipped all the way to Vladivostok on the Pacific coast, and which made its way to Prague. During two decades of activity the Ladomirova mission published over I 00 Orthodox church books, the newspaper Pravoslavnaia Karpatskaje Rus ' (1928-1944), the journal for young people Diestvo I ivnost Khristi ( 1935-1941 ), a scholarly journal Pravoslavny put' ( 1938-1940) and the annual almanac Pravnoslavny ruskii/Ruskii narodnyi kalendar ( 1924-1944). The Russian monks also worked to inculcate Russian culture among the native Rusyns, hosting such events as an annual Russian Day in the summers and the tree-lighting ceremony for Orthodox Christmas. 42 In approaching the causes of the Orthodox revival in interwar Czechoslovakia, it is necessary to understand the world view of the 41 Magocsi, "Nationalist Intelligentsia and the Peasantry" in Of th e Making of Nationalities, 200. 42 See the entry "Ladomirova Monastery" in Magocsi and Pop, eds. , En cyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, 266 . 104 SLOVAKIA 2019 national-state's founding father. T.G. Masaryk was a complex individual. As one biographer expressed it: "This man wanted to emancipate workers without embracing Marxism, liberate women without promoting feminism, and educate the young without celebrating youth. " 43 He was considered in the West to be an expert on Russia. He had written extensively on the great writer Dostoevsky, whom he regarded as the classic representative of Russian thought. There were elements of the Russian national psychology which Masaryk found disturbing. Like Havlicek before him, he felt that the Western Slavs, especially the Czechs, should follow a different path . As a proponent of Westeren humanism, Masaryk disparaged the mystical tradition of the Eastern Orthodox faith .44 Yet Masaryk reserved even greater hostility for the Roman Catholi c Church. He drew inspiration from Jan Hus, the great Bohemian religious reformer who was burned at the stake for heresy in 1415 . In 1905, while celebrating the anniversary of Hus ' death, Masaryk coined the slogan "Away from Rome! " Politics in the first years of the Czechoslovak Republic had a distinctly anti-Catholic flavor. His government favored the appointment of Lutherans for administration in Slovakia at the expense of the Catholic majority. In Podkarpatska Rus ', where there were virtua lly no Protestants, such a policy was impossible. Here Czechoslovak authorities fostered a revival of Orthodoxy. One Czech mini ster assessed the impact as follows: It seemed to some Russophile politicians, both in Prague and in Ruthenia ... that the right time had come to convert the Rutheni an peasant back to the Greek Orthodox religion. This opinion was shared by many Russian emigres who flocked to Czechoslovak ia ... after 1919. A drive for 'Orthodoxy ' was started in Rutheni a ... It is a question of how much of this movement was spontaneous and due to the pro-Russian feeling of the population and to its di slike for the purely magyarized Uniate clergy, and how much of its strength it owed to the propaganda and preaching of the Russian Orthodox emigres and clergy and to the support of some Czech political circles. 43 Bruce Garver, "Masaryk and Czech Politics 1900-1914" in Stanley B. Winters, ed. , T G. Masaryk (1850- 193 7) Vo lum e I Thinker and Politician (London, 1990), 22 . 44 See Paul 1. Tresky, " Masaryk and Dostoyevsky" in Harry Hanak, ed., T G. Masa1y k (/ 850- 193 7) Volum e II/ Statesman and Cultural Force (London, 1990), 161-77. SLOVAKIA 2019 105 However, it certainly added one more element to the confusion reigning in Ruthenia and led to animosities which, in the end, turned against the Prague Government itself.45 Reverend Voloshyn bitterly remonstrated against the situation in Prague in 1929: The agitation usually began in the local tavern, where the agitator met the most notorious brawlers in the village. After a short talk, emboldened by 'noisy' arguments and vodka, the peasants would begin to shout abuse against the village pastor. In a matter of two or three days a ' committee' made up of the pastor's 'opponents ' would be formed. The committee did not immediately begin advocating Orthodoxy; instead, it showered the bishop with complaints and delegations, demanding that there be an investigation against the pastor or that he be removed outright. Then followed other forms of harassment, demonstrations, threats against the pastor, intimidation of church curators, and such . The committee would send the pastor letters demanding that he leave the vi llage. As time went on, the committee made increasingly bolder threats that the pastor get out ' or else!' .. .. If, despite such harassment, the priest remained in his parish, the threats escalated. Someone would break his windows, shoot into his windows, poison hi s well , set fire to his grain or stables, and in some cases even the parish house, assault and beat the priest, etc. The government remained indifferent to all this under the pretext of ' Freedom of conscience! Freedom ofreligion!' 46 This state of affairs could not permitted to go on indefinitely. Czechoslovakia was, after all, a republic governed by law. The Vatican made its own contribution to improved church-state relations by transferring Bishop Antonii Papp of Mukachevo to Hungary and replacing him with canon Petro Gebej on July 16, 1924. At the same time, in response to forthcoming parliamentary elections, President Masaryk cryptically declared that "the Catholics will get as many rights as they win." 47 Rusyn voters supported Czech Catho lic political parties which gained an increased measure of strength in parliament. The rights accorded to Greek Catholics by the constitution in 45 Frantisek Nemec and Vladimir Modry, Th e Soviet Seizure of Subcarpathian Ruthenia (Toronto, 1955), 38-9. 46 Avhustyn Voloshyn, " Relihijni vidnozny na Podkarpats ' kyi" in Acta Conventia Pragensis pro Studii Orentalibus n. 1919, (Olomouc, 1930), 218-9. 47 Pekar, 11 8. 106 SLOVAKIA 2019 any case were now enforced. Violence and vandalism were now prosecuted and soon ceased. In some instances church property was restored. Bishop Gebej led a religious revival which resulted in priests maintaining closer contact with their parishioners. A number of converts to Orthodoxy returned to the Greek Catholic faith. The Orthodox revival was one of the sources of survival for the Russophile orientation. Another source was, ironically, Hungarian funding . The fall of Bela Kun's communist regime in August of 1919 was followed by the restoration of the nobility in Hungary. Counterrevolutionary White terror now followed Red terror. Right wing elements who rallied under Admiral Miklos Horthy, soon elevated to the position of regent of Hungary, wanted to regain Slovakia and Podkarpatska Rus' but had to go about it covertly.48 The victorious Western powers would not recognize any government in Hungary which would not accept their peace tenns . On June 4, 1920, Hungary was compelled to sign the Treaty of Trianon, which ceded Slovakia and Podkarpatska Rus' to Czechoslovakia, Transylvania to Romania, and Croatia and the Voivodina to what became known as Yugoslavia. Trianon psychologically scarred Hungarian society for a full generation. France offered to soften the blow by extending to Hungary financial credits, particularly in the area of railway development, in exchange for compliance. Hungarian Prime Minister Istvan Bethlen cheerfully accepted the financial aid and outwardly complied with Trianon. Yet his government covertly subsidized elements in Slovakia and Podkarpatska Rus' who were disgruntled with Czechoslovak centrali sm. Having previously denied these peoples autonomy, the Hungarians now championed their right to selfdetern1ination as a first step toward regaining them. One of the recipients of Hungarian financial aid was Stefan Fentsik. Another was Andrei Brodii ( 1895-1946), a journalist, teacher and chairman of the Autonomous Agricultural Union/Autonomyi Zenled'skij Sojuz (AZS). Fentsik yielded leadership of the Russophile movement to Brodii during the 1930s. Ukrainophile historian Peter Stercho later maintained that Brodii, Fentsik and other select 48 As a precedent to future collaboration in this matter, Poland allowed itself to be used as a staging ground for Hungarian subversion of Czechos lovak administration . A "Magyar-S lovak League" was established in Krakow, and dispatched armed vo lunteers across the border into Slovakia. SLOVAKIA 2019 107 Russophile leaders had to conceal their ties with Hungary from their followers, since even the latter were opposed to territorial revision. 49 Polish policy towards the Rusyns of Galicia followed a similar pattern. In the area directly north of the Dukla Pass lived people belonging to a branch of the Rusyns known as the Lemkos. They can be geographically divided by the San River. The Ukrainian movement penetrated the area east of the San early in the twentieth century and accounted for numerous followers. In November 1918 Lemkos from about 30 villages gathered in the village of Komancza (Komancha in Rusyn) to form their own little republic. This Komancha Republic was viewed as a transitional state, pending merger with a greater Ukraine. West of the San the Lemkos still adhered to the traditions of old Rus'. In autumn 1918 they wanted union with Russia. Since this was obviously never going to happen, the Polish government could afford to humor these Lemkos, The Poles were preoccupied with the West Ukrainian Republic which was proclaimed in Lviv on November 1, 1918, and event which plunged Galicia into an ethnic civil war. On December 5, some 500 Lemko Rusyns representing 130 vi1lages and towns of western Lemkovyna met in Florynka (in Grybow district) to form a government. While the Polish military crushed the Komancha Republic in January 1919, it tended to view the Florynka Lemko Rusyn Republic as a potential ally against the Ukrainians. Polish officials who were present offered the former town hall of Grybow as a political headquarters, while the Polish Army provided arms for a Lemko national guard. Schools and cooperatives were soon organized. Amazingly, the Lemko Rusyn Republic survived a full sixteen months. It was governed by an executive council headed by Reverend Mykhal Iurchakevych and a central national council headed by the lawyer Iaroslaw Kachmarchyk. The Poles were disappointed with the results. The Lemkos were happy to accept whatever aid the Polish government and military were willing to offer but nonetheless were unwilling to take up arms against their errant brethren to the east. Additionally, Kachmarchyk's government rejected the notion of union with a Bolshevik Russia, and began looking at the example of 49 Peter Stercho, Diplomacy of Double Morality: Europe's Crossroads in CarpathoUkraine /9/9-/939(NewYork , 1971), 171. 108 SLOVAKIA 2019 their brethren of the south side of the Carpathians. A union with Czechoslovakia now seemed a viable option. Unfortunately, in 1920 relations between Poland and Czechoslovakia were at a particularly low point, owing to border disputes concerning Tesin in Silesia and Orava-Spis in Slovakia. Before the end of March the Poles arrested Kachmarchyk and members of his government. They were tried on June 10, 1921. A Polish jury acquitted them, which was only reasonable insofar as the Poles had encouraged their activities in the first place. But the event marked the death knell of Lemko statehood. 50 Yet the Poles still had use for the Lernkos in the interwar period. The Greek Catholic Church was strongly identified with the Ukrainian national movement. The leadership of the Polish military, overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, encouraged the movement to convert the Lemkos to Orthodoxy, and thus express a Russian character at the expense of the Ukrainian .51 It was a classic case of Divide and Rule. Elsewhere, in Volhynia, adherents of the Ukrainian national movement were Orthodox. Here militant Polish nationalists attacked and vandalized Orthodox monasteries and schools. At the same time, for reasons of security, Poland wished to have a common border with Hungary. For this reason the Polish government supported Hungarian efforts to regain Podkarpatska Rus' . The events which accompanied the international crisis in 1938 are well-known. The present author shall limit himself to summarizing key particulars. The Munich "diktat" of September 1938 resulted in Czechoslovakia being forced to yield the Gennan populated Sudetenland to Nazi Germany. Deprived of her most vital border defenses, Czechoslovakia was now rendered militarily defenseless. Hostile neighbors, Poland and Hungary, were now encouraged to make their own territorial claims. Moreover, the Prague government could no longer resist demands for autonomy on the part of Slovakia and Podkarpatska Rus ' . 50 See Paul Robert Magocsi, "The Lemko Rusyn Republic ( 1918-1920) and Political Thought in Western Rus' -Ukraine" in Magocsi, Of the Making of Nationalities, 303315. 51 See Mykola Kucherpa, "The Nationality Policy of Poland towards Ukrainians before World War II" in Paul Berst and Jaroslav Mokolak, eds., Th e Lemko Region 1939-1947, War, Occupation and Deportation (New Haven and Krakow, 2002), 3949. SLOVAKIA 2019 109 In the case of Podkarpatska Rus', a cabinet was formed on October 11 which consisted of both Russophiles and Ukrainophiles. Russophiles predominated, with Brodii as prime minister and Fentsik as deputy prime minister. Brodii was convinced that, if a plebiscite was held, the majority of Rusyns would vote for reunion with Hungary. Brodii 's ministry lasted only fifteen days. An alarmed central government summoned Brodii and Fentsik to Prague. There Brodii was arrested, while Fentsik found asylum in the Polish embassy. 52 Prague authorized Voloshyn, who was a member of the cabinet, to form a new government. Voloshyn proclaimed the province as an autonomous nation with the new name of Carpatho-Ukraine on November 3. The victory of the Ukrainophiles was at last complete. Autonomous Carpatho-Ukraine got off to a rough start. Hungary was prepared to re-annex the region, although conservative circles of the Hungarian government confined their claims to areas which were predominantly Magyar. Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy opted to appear in the role of peacemakers in this territorial dispute between Czechoslovakia and Hungary. They arbitrated a compromise settlement in Vienna on November 2, 1938. By terms of the First Vienna Award, Kosice, in southern Slovakia, and Uzhorod and Mukachevo, the two leading cities of Carpatho-Ukraine, were restored to Hungary. The government of Carpatho-Ukraine was forced to relocate to Khust, which was little more than an oversized village. Militant Hungarian nationalists regarded the First Vienna Award as a temporary expedient, and worked for the complete annexation of CarpathoUkraine. Under the auspices of the Ministry of Defense, a covert paramilitary group known as the "Ragged Guard" was organized to infiltrate Carpatho-Ukraine and conduct terrorist acts designed to destabilize the regime. Poland likewise dispatched paramilitary units for the same purpose. If the credible research of Ukrainophile historian Stercho is to be believed, the Polish paramilitary units outpaced their Hungarian counterparts in acts of terrorism. 53 Carpatho-Ukraine was in need of allies, and these were forthcoming. Militant Ukrainian nationalists from Poland crossed the mountains to organize the Riflemen of the Carpathian Sich. It has been argued by Russophile opponents that the Riflemen of the Car52 53 Magocs i, The Shaping of a National Identity, 238. Stercho, 302. 110 SLOVAKIA 2019 pathian Sich inaugurated the reign of "Ukrainian terror." It is true that they focu sed more on the Russophile domestic opposition than they did on Polish or Hungarian infiltrators. A detention camp was established for dissident Russophiles and Rusynophiles at Dumen . Yet conditions of internment were relaxed. Political differences extended to the family leve l, and prisoners under guard where permitted to attend social events in neighboring Rakhiv.54 There was a conflict of interest between the Carpathian Sich and the Voloshyn regime. Sich rifl emen viewed Carpatho-Ukraine as the cornerstore of a future greater Ukraine, and counted on the support of Nazi Germany. Voloshyn , by contrast, decided that adherence to Czecho-Slovakia (now officially spelled with a hyphen) was a necessary expedient. In March of 1939 there were clashes between the Carpathian Sich and the regular Czechoslovak military. This confl ict was abruptly terminated when German leader Adolf Hitler moved to eliminate what remained of Czecho-Slovakia . As he prepared to militarily occupy Prague, he disappointed Ukrainophi les by giving his consent for Hungary to annex the province. Under German pressure, Slovakia declared its independence on March 14. CarpathoUkraine was now cut off from the Czech lands. With Hungarian troops already crossing the border, Voloshyn symbo li cally proclaimed Carpatho-Ukraine's independence on March 15 . Carpatho-Ukraine existed as an independent state for all of a day . On the 16 th , Hungarian military units were fighting for Khust. The Riflemen of the Carpathian Sich resisted with admirab le resolve , but its units were scattered and no match for the Hungarian army. They later regrouped in the mountains or were pushed across the border to Eastern Slovakia, thus encouraging Hungary to invade the latter as well. 55 Hungarian troops reached the Polish border by the end of the I 61\ and were eagerly embraced by their opposite numbers. The region was renamed Subcarpathia and governed directly from Budapest. There was some vague talk in the Hungarian parliament about according autonomy to the most recently annexed portion , but not to Uzhorod or Mukachevo, which were now considered 54 Paul Robert Magocsi , "The Nationality Problem in Subcarpathian Rus ' I 9381939: A Reappraisal" in Magocsi , Of th e Making of Nationalities, 228 . 55 This invasion of Eastern Slovakia resulted in portions of the disputed counties likewise being annexed by Hungary. It also resulted in the Slovak Republic placing itself under the military protection of Nazi Germany. SLOVAKIA 2019 111 directly part of Hungary. Autonomy was del ayed indefinitely. As World War II progressed, the Hungarian military vehemently opposed autonomy for security reaso ns . The Ukrainophiles were particularly singled out for political persecution, while the Russophiles were more or less set aside. Interestingly, the Hungarian government began cultivating the idea that the Rusyns were their own separate nationality, an idea which ultimately became the wave of the future. 56 The resto ration of Hungarian rule dis illusioned the Russophil es. It stood to reason that, once Hungary went down to defeat with Nazi Germany, Andrei Brodii would come to a bad end . He did not attempt to flee when Soviet forces reached the area in the autumn of 1944, but attempted to negotiate with them. He was arrested by the Soviet counterintelligence unit SMERSH, charged as a fascist co ll aborator, and executed on November 7, 1946. A similar fate awa ited Stefan Fentsik: he was shot in the courtyard of the Uzhorod prison on March 30, 1946. Their Ukrainophile rival Voloshyn fared no better. Having taken up res idence in Prague during the war years, he taught at the Ukrainian Free University. In June 1945 he was arrested by SMERSH and transported to Moscow. He died in Lefortovo prison on July 19, undoubtedl y murdered. An ironic footnote of hi story is worth mentioning. Both Brodii and Fentsik were posthumously rehabilitated after the breakup of the Soviet Union. No such rehabilitation has been granted to Voloshyn. World War II and Ukrainiazation If the Russophiles in Podkarpatska Rus' were fatally compromised by collaboration with the Hungarians, then in Eastern Slovakia they earned acclamation for their role in an anti-fascist struggle. A leading force in the resistance to the pro-German regime of president-priest Jozef Ti so was the Slovak Communist Party. George Kennan , at that time charge d 'affa ires to the U.S. embassy in Prague, assessed the pro-communist sentiment in Eastern Slovakia as being a "bird of a different color [which] in former circumstances would have little chance of success." He added, however, that owing to 56 Magocs i, The Shaping of a National Identity, 248-9 . 112 SLOVAKIA 2019 guidance from Moscow, the Communists could become the most formidable resistance group of all. 57 Kennan's prognosis was largely accurate, though certain qualifying feature s must be noted. The Communists did not have a monopoly on the resistance movement. In prewar Czechoslovakia they were strongest in Podkarpatska Rus ', but in Eastern Slovakia they were never ab le to muster more than seven percent of the vote among the Ru syns in the interwar period. Not wishing to be isolated from other Rusyns in organized resistance to the Tiso regime, local Communi sts opted to join the Carpatho-Russian Council for National Liberation (KRASNO), which shall be introduced shortly. The view of the autonomous and later independent Slovak state on the Rusyns was that the latter were "S lovaks of the Greek Catholic faith ." This view was exemp li fied by Andrej Dudas, who in 1940 was appointed regional administrator of Eastern Slovakia. He was convinced that the idea of a Rusyn nationality was created by the Hungarians, a position he maintained a full three decades later as an emigre in Argentina.58 In early 1939, the Rusyn Nationa l Committee and the Carpatho-Russian Nationa l Counci l were banned by the Slovak government, and the activity of the Dukhnovych Society was restricted. The Ukrainian movement among the Rusyns was particularly loathed by the Slovak nationalist leadership. Slovak police reports up until November 1938 indicate that Rusyns in the Presov Region supported union with their brethren east of the Uz Ri ver. Yet, in November, the same police reports indicate a significant change. The Ukrainian movement was even more alien to the Presov Region Rusyns than was Slovak nationalism, and they were henceforth opposed to a revision of borders which was favorable to CarpathoUkraine. 59 Rusyns shared in the economic prosperity of the Slovak Republic which characterized the first half of World War II. Workers in Germany sent money home to their families, whi le locally a number 57 Report written about May I, 1939 on conditions in Slovakia in George Ken nan, From Prague After Munich. Diplomatic Papers 1938-1 940 (Princeton, 1968), 139140. 58 Andrej Dudas, Rusinska otazka ajej uzadie (B uenos Aires, 1971), 25 . 59 See the entry " Carpatho-Russian Autonomous Counci l for National Liberation/Karpatorusskii avtonomyi sovet natsional'nmyi osvonodenyi (KRASNO)" in Magocsi and Pop, eds ., Encyclopedia of Rusy n Histo1y and Culture, 58. SLOVAKIA 2019 113 of Rusyns profited from the expropriation of Jewish property. Yet once it became obvious that the Slovak Republic was on the losing side of the war, a number of Rusyns began to organize, The Carpatho-Russian Autonomous Council for National Liberation (Karpatorusskii avtonomyi sovet national'nogo obsvobzhdenii-KRASNO) was founded in Presov in September 1943. Its goals were to aid escaped Soviet prisoners of war and partisans and to cooperate with other underground elements opposed to what it considered a clericofascist regime. Its members envisioned a restored Czechoslovakia in which Rusyns would be equal partners with Czechs and Slovaks. Although its orientation was pro-Soviet and decidedly leftist, KRASNO was not a communist front organization. It was founded by civic and cultural leaders of varied political orientation. Vasyl' Karaman ( 1903-1961) was born in the village of Nagov, in Slovakia. After completing his education at the Commercial Academy in Mukachevo (1924-1927), be returned to eastern Slovakia, where he worked as a civil servant in Presov from 1927 to 1933 , and then served in various towns as secretary for the pro-government Agrarian Republican Party. When Czecho-Slovakia was being partitioned in the fall of 1938, he opposed the pro-Ukrainian orientation of the Voloshyn government. He was elected as chairman of a newly re-established Central Russian National Council. Its members included both Russophiles and Rusynophiles who wished to retain ties with what remained of Czecho-Slovakia, unlike the followers of Brodii and Fentsik. Unable to realize his objectives, he returned to the Presov Region. Here he joined a Committee of Rusyns which tried to reach an accommodation with the Slovak government. This was not possible, since Slovak nationalist officials distrusted his Russophile orientation. After Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June of 1941, Karaman was arrested. He spent a year and a half in jail, and after his release made contact with the Zhydovs'kyi brothers, Ivan and Petro. Together the three men were among the founders of KRASNO. 60 Ivan Zhydovs'kyi (1897-1982) was born in the village of Sarisske Jastrabie. His secondary school education at the Piarist gymnasium in Sabinov was interrupted in 1915, when he was drafted 60 See the entry " Karaman, Vasyl"' in Magocsi and Pop, eds., Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, 228. 114 SLOVAKIA 2019 into the Austro-Hungarian Army. A year later he was captured on the Eastern Front. Like many prisoners of War, he embraced the Bolshevik cause during the Russian Revolution. During the Russian Civil War Zhydovs ' kyi served as a political commissar in the 216 th International Communist Brigade. When he returned home, he discontinued the role of agitator and became at least outwardly conformist. He completed his secondary education in 1919, and then studied law at the Comenius University in Bratislava, obtaining a degree in 1924. He worked for a time as a tax inspector in Uzhorod. By the I 930s he had a law practice in Uzhorod and he was director of the Presov branch of the Uzhorod-based Subcarpathia Bank. As a Russophile, Zhydovs ' kyi was prominent in the Central Russian National Council and in the Dukhnovych Society. Although opposed to the separatist Slovak government, he kept a lower profile then Kamman and was never arrested. He operated a law practice in Giraltovce prior to his invol ve ment with KRASNO .61 His older brother Petro Zhydovs'kyi (1890-1947) was likewise born in Sarisske Jastrabie. As a teenager Petro emigrated to America in 1905 . Although he acquired little formal education, he returned home on the eve of World War I detern1ined to work for the advancement of the Rusyn people. Drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army, he deserted, then was captured and sentenced to prison. After the establishment of Czechoslovakia, he joined the Agrarian Republican Party and served as deputy to parliament from 1935 to 1938 . During the crisis of 1938 Zhydovs'kyi joined with Ivan P' ieshchak in submitting a memorandum to the British envoy Lord Runciman, calling for the unification of the Presov Region with an autonomous Podkarpatska Rus' .62 Ivan P' ieshchak ( 1904-1972) was born in the village of Vel'ky Lipnik. After graduating from the gymnasium of Mukachevo and the Presov Greek Catholic Teachers' Co llege, he taught in the regional elementary school s. P ' ieshchak was active in the Union of Rusyn Teachers in Slovakia and helped organize the Union of Rusyn Youth in Slovakia (1933). At the same time he studied law, and attained a 61 See the entry "Zhydovs'kyi, Ivan" in Magocsi and Pop, eds., Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, 55 l. 62 See the entry "Zhydovs' kyi , Petro" in Magocsi and Pop, eds., Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, 551-2. SLOVA.KIA 2019 115 doctoral degree from Charles University in Prague in the same year. By the mid 1930s P 'ieshchak was a prominent figure on the Rusyn political and cultural scene. He joined Andrei Brodii's Autonomous Agricultural Union and served as its representative in parliament. Interestingly, at this time he also worked closely with Andrej Hlinka's Slovak People's Party in the parliament's autonomist bloc . When Podkarpatska Rus' attained autonomy, P'ieshchak served as state secretary in Brodii 's brief-lived cabinet. After Brodii 's demise, he returned to Slovakia, where he maintained a law practice prior to his involvement with KRASNO .63 KRASNO rapidly expanded its network. By the summer of 1944 it controlled 3 7 villages in a sort of "partisan republic" between Medzilaborce and Stropkov. Intensification of partisan activityreinforced by Soviet partisans parachuted across the Carpathiansled to German military intervention in Slovakia at the end of August 1944. The clandestine military center of dissident Slovak Army officers , headquartered in Banska Bystrica, was already in touch with the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile in London. Its members had to proclaim the Slovak Nationa l Uprising under premature circumstances on August 29. 64 The Slovak National Uprising was a highly complex affair, which goes well beyond the limits of this study. It is sufficient to note here that it was dependent upon Soviet military support. Contrary to allegations by later critics, the Soviets did not deliberately betray the uprising. Their military capacity to cross the Carpathians was severely limited, particularly after the Germans occupied the Dukla pass. Yet the Soviets did not wish to forfeit the political influence they expected to enjoy in postwar Czechoslovakia, and rendered military assistance. In this capacity the Russian military 63 See the entry "P'ieshchak, Ivan" in Magocsi and Pop, eds., Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, 384-5 . 64 Slovak soldiers, under the influence of Captain Piotr Alekseyevitch Velitchko intercepted members of a German military mission passing through Slovakia in the vicinity of Turciansky Sviity Martin. The Slovak soldiers escorted the Germans to the local barracks. It was Velitchko 's intention that the Germans would be disarmed there and that they would be sent to Ukrainian Partisan Headquarters in Kiev. But when the Germans attempted to depart, they were massacred by the Slovaks. Berlin then decided on a complete military occupation of Slovakia. At this point Lieutenant-Colonel Golian in Banska Bystrica issued the order to start the uprising. 116 SLOVAK.IA 2019 crossed through the Dukla pass for a third time in a military campaign that has been immortalized by local historiography. The Carpatho-Dukla operation, initiated on September 8, was undertaken by the 38 1h Soviet Army, led by General Kyril Moskalenko, supported by the 1s i Czechoslovak Army Corps, led by General Ludvik Svoboda. Many of the troops of the Is 1 Army Corps were Rusyns. In the autumn of 1939, as a result of the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, the Soviets had annexed eastern Galicia and merged it with the Ukrainian S.S.R. An estimated 30,000 Rusyns who were disgruntled with Hungarian rule crossed the mountains into eastern Galicia, expecting to be cordially received by their Slavic brethren. Instead, every single one of them was arrested by the NKVD (Soviet State Security) and received an eight to ten year sentence for the illegal border crossing. A full sixty percent of them perished in the Gulag by the time Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June of 1941. The survivors were released to join the I s i Czechoslovak Army Corps . Any Pan-Slav feeling- Russophile or Ukrainophi le alikewhich the Rusyn s may have had earlier had been beaten out of them in the Gulag. They merely wished to return home. In the autumn of 1944 it appeared that they would be the vanguard in the liberation of their homeland. Instead, they were committed to the meat-grinder of the Dukla Pass, where their casualties exceeded sixty percent. 65 The storming of the Duk la Pass was finally completed on October 6th. In the fighting which followed, the monastery community of Ladomirova was severely damaged. Most of the buildings, including the print shop but not the church, were destroyed. Now, too , the NKVD began rounding up Russian emigres in Slovakia. The monks fled to Bratislava, and from there fourteen of them emigrated to the United States. They entered the recently established Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, in upstate New York, where Archbishop Maksimenko now served as archimandrite. They built a church that was a replica of its predecessor in Ladomirova. A young Rusyn novitiate from the village, Vasyl' Shkurla (born 1928), ultimately became Archbishop Lavrl' , one of the leading figures of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. By the 1980s Holy Trinity had become a major 65 See Vladimir Baumgarten, "Fifty Years Later: An Inquiry into Soviet Military Policy During the Slovak Uprising" in Lewis White, ed., On All Fronts: Czechoslovaks During World War ff Part 2 (Washington , 1995), 2 19-28. SLOVAKIA 2019 117 cultural center for Russian emigres. When the cello virtuoso Mstislav Rostropovich defected to the United States, he chose to settle in Jordanville in order to be near Holy Trinity. 66 The Germans torched large areas in eastern Slovakia as they were forced to retreat, including the town of Svidnik. General Svoboda was nonetheless hailed as a hero and liberator when he entered it on October 28 .67 After the liberation of Svidnik, the Allies temporarily went on the defensive. KRASNO partisans continued fighting in the hills north of Presov. In October their adherents welcomed a declaration by the Slovak National Council that a resurrected Czechoslovakia would consist of three equal nations- Czechs, Slovaks and Rusyns. It must be understood that Rusyns did not fight in partisan units exclusively of their own nationality. Jozef Rodak, longtime director of the East Slovak Military Museum in Svidnik, asserted that most partisan groups in the region had a mixed composition of Slovaks and Rusyns.68 To this day many people in eastern Slovakia have a dual sense of identity : they consider themselves Rusyns by heritage and Slovaks by citizenship. The realities of liberation at the end of World War II disappointed the aspirations of many Rusyns, particularly Russophiles. It undoubtedly di sconcerted them to discover that Moscow now considered them to be Ukrainians. There was already a precedent for thi s aspect of Soviet policy . In 1923 the delegation of Rusyn Communists attended a Party Congress in Soviet Ukraine and declared their acceptance of Ukrainian nationality. It was altogether practical for Soviet authorities to reaffirm acceptance of this principle at the end of 66 See the entry " Ladomirova Monastery" in Magocsi and Pop, eds., Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, 266. 67 General Svoboda was designated as an honorary citizen of Svidnik. As president of Czechoslovakia during the Prague Spring of 1968, Svoboda gave the town its first hospital. In I 979, the year of the old man's death, a statue of him was erected in Svidnik. Owing to the damage of autumn 1944, Svidnik is a modem town . Most of the buildings are constructed in the so-called "social realist" style. Svoboda ' s statue looks strangely at home among the imposing, unattractive concrete structures. 68 As a graduate student of Safarik University in Prefov who specialized in the history of his region during World War 11 , Rodak was frequently delegated to carry the briefcases of Soviet military visitors. He remained outwardly conformist throughout the Soviet era. After the 1989 revolution and the coll apse of the communist system, Rodak wrote a series of articles for newspapers in eastern Slovakia and southeas tern Poland in which he exonerated partisans who had fallen into disfa vor. 118 SLOVAKIA 2019 World War II. Throughout the war, the Soviets had pledged themselves to the recognition of Czechoslovakia' prewar frontiers . Yet now Moscow infom1ed the Czechoslovak government that it could not ignore "the will of the people." In the wake of the Red Army's occupation of Podkarpatska Rus ' , various National Committees were established to vote in favor of the province being merged with the Ukrainian S.S.R. In all fairness to these communities, they overall enjoyed popular support. 69 The region was officially ceded at the end of June, 1945. Across the Uz River, in the Presov Region , the Russophile leaders of the defunct KRASNO drew the politically correct conclusion. Now, they too, considered themselves Ukrainian. They reorganized themselves as the Ukrainian National Council of the Presov Region. They envisioned that the long disputed counties of eastern Slovakia would be included in the territorial transfer. Indeed, even before the war ended, Vasyl' Karaman and the Zhysov ' skyi brothers planned to stage a meeting in Presov in February 1945 calling for the merger. A Soviet military major explained to them that such a meeting would be inopportune. The war was still on, and the Soviet Union intended to honor its obligations to Czechoslovakia.70 With eastern Slovakia excluded from the territorial settlement, the Ukrainian National Council of the Presov Region now called for the resurrected Czechoslovakia to consist of three equal nations: Czechs, Slovaks and Ukrainians. The Slovak National Council had already expressed itself in favor of autonomy for the Rusyns. Now, in light of Ukrainian irredentism, it declared its Ukrainian counter• 1·d 11 part as mva 1 . Even after the Rusyns were officially classified as Ukrainian, the Russophile tradition not only persisted but predominated in the Presov Region . It must be noted that the Soviet 3gth Army was composed of elite Guards regiments, the cream of the Soviet military. Its soldiers conducted themselves in a correct and disciplined manner in 69 Yaroslav Pylynsky, Rising Ethnic Self-Awareness. Carpatho-Rusyns- Birth of a New Nation or a Political Game? (Copenhagen, 1998), 20. 70 Memorandum on the Ukrainian movement in Eastern Slovakia. Kosice. February 16, 1945 , in Nemec and Modry, Th e Soviet Seizure of Ruthenia, Document no.77 , 359-60 71 Magocsi , "National Assimilation: The Case of the Rusyn-Ukrainians of Czechoslovakia" in Of the Making of Nationalities, 262 . SLOVAKIA 2019 119 their interactions with the locals after forcing their way through the Dukla Pass. This was in striking contrast with the soldiers of the 4 th Ukrainian Front, who penetrated Slovakia from the south, and who engaged in rape and widespread looting. This author can personally attest to the fact that citizens of the Svidnik area remember the Russians fondly as having assisted them through a bitter winter, and afterwards helped the locals plant their spring crops. Historian Mykola Musynka, himself a Ukrainophi le, summarizes the local attitudes as follows: The culmination of Russophilism in the cultural life of the Rusyns of the Prefo v Region occurred in the years just after World War II, when due to the Red Army's defeat of German fascism, th e Soviet Union enjoyed considerable authority among Rusyn-Ukrainians as well as Czechs and Slovaks. Everything "Soviet" was perceived as "Russian." Political propaganda attempted to portray the Soviet Union as an ideal country in which all peoples were united around the "Great Russian people. " The Russian language, Russian culture, the Russian individual, and the "Russian Soul " all symbolized the acme ofp e,:fection. 72 Russian Elementary and secondary schools proliferated after World War II, in addition to the Russian gymnasium in Presov, an additional Russian gymnasium was established in Medzilaborce on February 23, 1945, and trade schoo ls were opened in which Russian was the language of instruction. According to official statistics for the 1948-49 school year, there were 43 kindergartens, 276 elementary schools, 38 incomplete and 6 complete secondary schools with instruction in the Russian language, totaling 23, 11 2 pupils.73 After the Ukrainian National Council of the Presov Region was abolished, it was replaced by a new organization, the cultural Union of Ukrainian Workers (Kul'tumy sojuz'ukrajans'kyi trudjascychKSUT), which was staunchly supportive of the Communist Party. KSUT initiated numerous publications in the Ukrainian language. 72 Mykola Musynka, "The Postwar Development of the Regional Culture of the Rusyn-Ukrainians of Czechoslovakia' in Paul Robert Magocsi, ed., The Persistence of Regional Cultures: Rusyns and Ukrainians in the Carpathian Hom eland and Abroad (New York, 1993), 55. 73 Ibid, 56. 120 SLOVAKIA 2019 Beginning on June 28, 1952, by decree of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovakia, the language of instruction in all Russian elementary and secondary schools of Eastern Slovakia was changed to Ukrainian . The change in the school system was torturous for all parties. It was implemented too quickly. Instructors who had never studied literary Ukrainian were assigned to take month-long courses, after which they were expected to teach in that language. The vast majority of teachers detested it. There was a shortage of textbooks, dictionaries and other printed materials. Ukrainiazation nonetheless made significant strides in popular culture . In January 1953 , KSUT sponsored the first professional song and dance ensemble in Medzilaborce under the artistic direction of Jurij Kostjik. It was eventually reorganized as the Dukla Ukrainian Folk Ensemble. In September of that year, a Department of Ukrainian Language and Literature was established at the Presov Pedagogical Institute, which in 1959 became the Philosophical Faculty of Safarik University, under the direction of Petro Bungansyn. Literary works by Rusyns in the Presov Region reached an unprecedented level of publication in the course of a decade in the Ukrainian language. After 1959, the Ukrainian division of the Slovak Pedagogical Publishing House had a monopoly on the release of Ukrainian books in the Presov Region. During a thirty-year period it published 373 literary and scholarly works. Not all of them withstood the test of time. Many employed the so-called "socialist realist" style, reflecting a Marxist-Leninist ideological bent which conformed to Party dogma. Yet the Presov Region has produced works which have assumed a permanent place in the history of literature. 74 A number of former Russophiles moved with the times and adopted Ukrainian literary norms. Those Russophiles who remained outside the Communist Party could not expect a triumphal finish . Such was the case of Vasyl' Karaman, who, after the abolition of the body he had chaired, was accused of being a "Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist." The allegation was blatantly absurd: Karaman steadfactly believed that the future of the Rusyns was closely bound to the Soviet Union . He was nonetheless removed from political and cultural life in the Presov Region. Similarily, Ivan P'ieshchak was ac74 Ibid, 65 . SLOVAKIA 2019 121 cused of bourgeois nationalism, driven from his home in 1952, and forbidden to practice law for nearly a decade. Ironically, some of the greatest beneficiaries of the new socialist order were those Rusyns of the 1st Czechoslovak Anny Corps who had survived the ordeal of the Dukla Pass. In spite of their suffering in the Gulag, they had fought bravely and well under General Svoboda, in fact becoming his favorite soldiers. 75 The treaty transferring Podkarpatska Rus ' to Soviet Ukraine contained a certain "exemption" clause. Those Rusyns with a record of service in the Czechoslovak Army could retain Czechoslovak citizenship. About half of them chose to do so, relocating west of the Uz. Svoboda redressed the balance for them as much as humanly possible, obtaining jobs for them in the military and especially in the security services. One might suppose that, after their experience in the Gulag, they would have been averse to serving as agents of repression. Instead, thanks to Svoboda' s generous patronage, they became overrepresented in the secret police, not only in eastern Slovakia but in Prague and Bratislava as well. This role fueled the hostility of their fellow citizens. Animosities smoldered beneath the surface for a full generation. During the Prague spring of 1968, the Slovak press suddenly became articulate in its denunciations: " ... this 15 year anti-Slovak movement in eastern ... Slovakia must be liquidated." 76 Slovak nationalists in particular resented the fact that the city of Presov served as a bastion of Ukrainophile activity. Slogans appeared on a number of buildings: "Presov was and will be only- and only- a Slovak city" and "Ukrainians, get out of Presov! " 77 The Slovak element of eastern Slovakia was not the only one which opposed the Ukrainian movement. Passive opposition was expressed by many Rusyns themselves . If they could not be themselves, the Rusyns opted for the closest thing, and voluntarily assimilated into the Slovak nationality. 78 The local dialect spoken was not foreign to them, unlike that of the Ukrainian textbooks imported from Kiev. Whenever local citizens were questioned by the police, they declared themselves as Slo75 Magocsi, "Magyars and Carpatho-Rusyns in Czechoslovakia" in Of the Making of Nationalities, 175. 76 Cited in Kulturny zivot (Bratislava) April 15, 1968 and Vychod (Kosice) November 29, 1968. 77 Magocsi, "National Assimilation", 283. 78 fbid, 264-70. 122 SLOVAKIA 2019 vak, fearing deportation to the Soviet Union. Finally, the relatively more advanced Slovak economy drew many to the industrial valleys farther south, where the process was completed. For those Rusyns who continued to consider themselves Ukrainian , yet another shock awaited in the following generation. After the 1989 revolutions and the collapse of communism in East Central Europe, first the Slovak and then the Polish government recognized the Carpatho-Rusyns as a distinct nationality. Many young Rusyns eagerly embraced the new orientation. 79 Conclusion. Unrepentant Russophiles: Yurkovsky, Kabuliak, Sidor and Karabelesh The demise of the Russophile orientation among the CarpathoRusyn people was undoubtedly, to employ a Marxist cliche, historically inevitable. An interesting story revealing the pathetic depths to which it had descended by World War II is provided by Marian Zgomiak, later a professor at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow , Poland. At the outbreak of World War II, Zgomiak was a 15 year-old Polish youth. When Poland was militarily crushed by Nazi Germany in September of 1939, Poli sh Army veterans hoped to escape to the West to fight again. Since most of the Polish soldiers fleeing abroad were between the ages of 17 and 30, two groups of people played disproportionately large roles in the domestic resistance movement organized by the Polish Home Army (Armija Krajowa- AK). One of them was Polish teenagers, who acted as couriers escorting the fugitive s to the border with Slovakia. Another was the Lemkos, who acted as guides. 79 The rejection of Ukrainian identity is by no means unanimous. On November 17, 1990, at the First Congress of the Ru syn Renaissance Society in Medzilaborce, spokesman Mychal Turok-Heter stressed that "while it is vital to preserve national pride, it is wrong to attack the Ukrai nians and the Ukrainian language . Gradually, the Ru syns will write and advance toward the common path which will lead them to fulfilling thei r mi ssive of peace for us all." See Myslenka, 75. Frequently, on the local level , there ex ists a certa in pluralism. In Svidnik, the Museu m of UkrainianRus'Culture acknowledges kinship with the former while stressing the regional identity of the latter. See the entry " Museum of Ukrainian Rus' Culture in Svidnik" in Magocsi and Pop, eds., Encyclopedia of Rusy n Histo1y and Cu lture, 337. SLOVAK.IA 2019 123 Young Zgorniak was active in these border expeditions. On July 2, 1942, he and his father were arrested by the Gestapo. After the usual beatings and interrogation in the basement of the Gestapo headquarters in Gorlice, Zgorniak was transferred to the prison in Jaslo. Here he bonded with a Lemko prisoner named Yurkovsky. This Yurkovsky was an unrepentant Russophile. During World War I he and his father were hauled off to internment in Talerhof. Yurkovsky senior died there during the typhus epidemic. Yurkovsky junior returned to the mountain districts of Lemkovyna to serve as a teacher in the interwar years. He did not consider himself a Rusyn or even a Lemko, but a Russian. He was not receptive to Polish efforts to sponsor a separate Lemko identity. After the invasion of the Soviet Union in June of I 941 , the Nazi Government General (to which Lemkos west of the San River where subject) rounded up Lemkos known for their pro-Russian sentiments. In this manner Yurkovsky found himself in the prison of Jaslo. Both the quality and quantity of food in the prison of Jaslo left much to be desired. In September of 1942 German authorities loosened the regime to the point where Lemkos (but not Poles) could receive food packages. Arrangements were made for Zgomiak's mother to send food to Yurkovsky, who shared it with her son. Working together in the hospital section of the prison, they had the opportunity to engage in intellectual discussions. Zgorniak records the following: During one of the discussions I asked whether or how he could coordinate the Carpatho-Rusyn orientation on the Russia ruled by the Tsar with an orientation on a Russia ruled by the Bolsheviks who had overthrown and murdered the Tsar and his family. He said he could do so because "after the death a/father in Talerhof I had the dream . In it my father appeared and said 'the cause for which both are fighting shall be successful! ' That dream I keep in mind and I believe it will prove to be true. "80 80 Marian Zgomiak, " Meeting with Lemko leaders who had been arrested by the Gestapo and who were in prison in Jaslo 1942" in Best and Moklak, eds ., The Lemko Region, /939-194 7, 129. 124 SLOVAKIA 2019 Zgomiak asserts that he was convinced Yurkovsky and other Lemkos could have been released had they declared themselves Ukrainians. They declined to do so. Eventually, Yurkovsky was transferred to a concentration camp in Pruszkow, from which he was liberated before the end of the war. Yurkovsky then became sold on the plan jointly agreed upon by the Polish and Soviet governments to encourage Lemkos to emigrate to the east. Those whose villages had been destroyed during the Carpatho-Dukla operation went willingly. Others followed Yurkovsky across the border. They were by no means satisfied with living conditions in Soviet Ukraine, and turned on Yurkovsky for encouraging them to leave in the first place. He suffered something akin to a nervous breakdown and developed heart disease. Zgomiak concluded: "I remember him as an intelligent fellow who despite hi s various interests was fatally attracted to the idea for which he fought." 81 In light of its ignominious end in the realm of politics, what remains of the Russophile tradition among the Carpatho-Rusyns in the realm of culture? Here the author wishes to turn to the areas of religion and literature. In the area of reli gion, the Orthodox faith has provided a certain legacy. It must be understood that the majority of Rusyns professing any religious belief adhere to the Greek Catholic rather than the Orthodox Church . Yet the Orthodox revival of the early twentieth century made an enduring impact which was embraced by the communist regimes after World War II. Its most enthusiastic protagonist was Aleksander Kabuliak. At the end of World War I he was released from prison and became a major figure of the Orthodox revival in Czechoslovakia. There was a sc hi sm within the Orthodox Church in the 1920s. Its adherents were subject to the Serbian patriarchate, whereas Czech converts to Orthodoxy wanted their own autocephalous Orthodox Church. They appealed to the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople. On March 4, 1923 he consecrated the archimandrite Savritij as bishop. Bi shop Savritij 's leadership was contested by Bishop Gorazd, the Serbian patriarch 's representative. Kabuliak sided with the Serbian patriarchate in this di spute. With the Orthodox Church temporarily paralyzed and depri ved of an acting bishop, Kabuliak assumed the role of administrator. The Hungar81 Ibid, 129. SLOVAKIA 2019 125 ians did not molest him during World War II, nor did he do anything to provoke them. But on November 18, 1944, on behalf of the Orthodox believers of Podkarpatska Rus ', Kabuliak wrote a letter to no less a personage than Soviet leader J. V. Stalin. He recommended the establishment of a Carpatho-Russian Soviet Republic encompassing territory extending "from Iasnyia to Poprad and from Uzhok Pass to Debrecen." 82 Since Moscow was already planning to incorporate Podkarpatska Rus' into the Ukrainian S.S.R., this was not an option. Yet in the following month Kabuliak led a delegation to Moscow requesting the transfer of episcopal jurisdiction from the Serbian to the Moscow patriarchate. Here his efforts were crowned with success. In posthumous recognition of his achievement, in 200 I the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow patriarchate) canonized Kabuliak as the first Carpatho-Rusyn saint. Eastern Galicia, like Podkarpatska Rus ', was ceded to Soviet Ukraine at the end of the war. In both areas incoming communist regimes declared the Greek Catholic Church abolished and transferred its parishes to the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church. In Galicia most of the clergy accepted the formal change and retained their old parishes. The Ukrainian character of the church consequently survived . In Transcarpathia the Greek Catholic clergy was more resistant to Orthodoxy and it was imposed more forcefully. Bishop Teodor Romza of Mukachevo was brutally murdered, while lesser clergymen were arrested and deported.83 They were replaced by Russian priests di spatched from Moscow. The Orthodox Church here acquired an expressively Russian character. From the standpoint of Rusyn culture, inclusion into the Russian Orthodox Church was a double-edged sword. In America, Reverend Alexis Toth had sought to convince his flock that the best way to preserve their rite, tradition and identity was through conversion to Orthodoxy. Yet St. Alexis (He too was canonized) had a great love for the variety of liturgical music known as Carpathian plainchant. 82 See the entry "Kabuliak, Aleksander" in Magocsi and Pop, eds. , Encyclopedia of Rusyn Hist01:y and Culture, 223 . 83 Pekar, 151 -4. 126 SLOVAK.IA 2019 This and another native aspects of worship were submerged by Russian liturgical tradition .84 In Czechoslovakia the legal status of the Greek Catholic Church was restored as a result of the liberal reforms of the Prague spring of 1968. Yet it lost its Rusyn character and became a force for slovakization. Much church property has been restored since the collapse of the communist system in 1989. Yet there remain adherents of the Orthodox faith in northeastern Slovakia. This author has an endearing memory of a visit to an Orthodox church in Svidnik. It was a modest, prefabricated structure, erected in the L990s. The morning was cold. There was only room inside the church for elderly parishioners. Yet a sizable crowd of young people remained standing outside. They displayed enough reverence to refrain from smoking throughout the Divine Liturgy. If the Rusyns can no longer be considered Great Russians, then the Russian government, and especially the Orthodox Church, wishes to retain whatever bonds still exist. While seminarians of the autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church have received their education in Ukraine, those who adhere to the Moscow patriarchate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have been educated in Russia. Such was the case of Dmitri Sidor, born March 29, 1955, currently rector of the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross in Uzhorod. Reverend Sidor heads a movement demanding autonomy for Rusyns of Ukraine. He stresses the religious character of his people, and the similarity of their language with Old Church Slavonic. On December 19, 2008 , the Rusyn issue was raised at an international conference held on the Don, southern Russia. The conference was entitled "Genocide and Cultural Ethnocide of the Rusyns of Carpathian Rus' [from the end of the nineteenth to the beginning of the twenty first century]." A resolution was adopted. It stated that, alongside the Armenians, the Rusyns were the first victims of genocide in the twentieth century, thi s in reference to the policy of the Austro-Hungarian military during the First World War. Today, the resolution continued, Kiev engaged in a "policy of cultural ethno- 84 Paul Robert Magocsi, "Adaptati on Wi thout Assimilati on: The Genius of the Greek Catholic Church of Mukachevo" in Of the Making of Nationalities, Volume 11 , 202. SLOVAKIA 2019 127 cide." It pointed out that the Rusyns were recognized as a distinct nationality by numerous countries, but not Ukraine. 85 The Ukrainophile orientation responded to the Rostov conference. One articulate response may be found in the working paper "Political and Ethno-Cultural Aspects of the Rusyns' Problem: A Ukrainian Perspective," by Natalya Belitzer of the Py lip Orlyk Institute for Democracy in Kiev. She outlines the tortutous, complex evolution of the history of a region which has been subject to numerous rulers. She echoes her colleague M. Lanchuk in asserting that the main issue at stake has not been the ethno-cultural identity of the Rusyns but rather what has been termed "political Ruthenianism," which many Ukrainians perceive as a threat. 86 According to Belitzer, the disintegration of the Soviet Union was accompanied by an artificial politicization of the Rusyn question. Belitzer is not opposed to Ru syn autonomy in principle. Yet, as a Ukrainophile, she considers the Rusyn tongue as a mere dialect of the Ukrainian language. Belitzer makes a particularly revealing admission when she states that "Ukrainian democracy is ... quite benevolent to the ideas and practices of the restoration of minorities ' own identity, but at the same time strongly denies Rusyn identity as being separate from the Ukrainian.,,s1 Therein lies the rub. If the Rusyn tongue is a dialect of the Ukrainian language, why is its use not permitted in schools? Rusyn schoolchildren speak one way at home but are required to speak another way at school. Such practices are grist to Dmitri Sidor's mill. Aside from the fact that Ukraine has an army and the Rusyns do not, Father Dmitri's movement faces two serious obstacles. For one, he is an Orthodox priest, whereas the majority of Rusyns still profess (or have resumed professing) the Greek Catholic faith. Secondly, while a majority of the Rusyns in the Presov Region and Lemkovyna 85 Resolution of the International conference "Genocide and Cultural Ethnocide of Ru syns in Carpathian Rus' [from the end of the nineteenth to the beginning of the twenty first century] Rostov on the Don, Russia. December 2 1, 2008 www.podkar~atskarus.eu 6 M. Panchuk, " Political Rutheni ani sm" in Demons of Peace and Messengers of War(Kiev, 1997), 323. 87 Natalya Belitzer, "Political and Ethno-Cultural Aspects of the Rusyns' Problem : A Ukrainian Perspective". Research paper prepared within the framework of the Programme on European Security (PROGRES) sponsored by the Center for European Security Studies and the University of Gronigen (Netherlands). Undated, 12. 128 SLOVAKIA 2019 consider themselves their own nationality, a majority of them in Transcarpathia consider themselves Ukrainian. Yet the movement has a growing popular appeal. In a state where bureaucratic centralism has had a constipating effect, autonomy can be a powerful laxative. Moreover, the Rusyns now possess a certain bargaining chip . A full eighty percent of all Russian petroleum and natural gas which is sold to Europe passes through pipelines in the area of Uzhorod. If the Rusyns were to succeed in establishing an independent state, they would be eligible to receive billions of dollars of gas transit profits from Kiev.88 In the realm of literature, the Russophile tradition has likewise established an enduring legacy. This is especially exemplified by the writings of Andrii Karabelesh ( 1906-1964). Karabelesh was born in the Transcarpathian village of Tibala, near Mukachevo. When he first attended the gymnasium in Mukachevo the language of instruction was still Magyar. This changed due to the arrival in Podkarpatska Rus ' of many Russian emigres fleeing the revolution. Karabelesh adapted to the russification of the school system so enthusiastically that he became the first secular writer among Rusyn Russophi les. He went on to study at the Theological Seminary in Uzhorod ( 1925-1928). While still a student he published- in Russian- two collections of poetry, lzbrany e stikhovtvorenia (1928) and V buchalh rassvieta ( 1929). These works have been characterized as "dominated by mysticism, a pessimistic outlook on life, and a love of Russian culture." 89 He did not complete his studies at the Theological Seminary because he converted to Orthodoxy. His conversion was less for religious than for cultural reasons. As literary historian Elaine Rusinko writes: "Karabelesh ' s deity is not the conventional God of the Greek Catholic catechism, but an amorphous, spiritual force that provides metaphysical potential and philosophical substance for the poet." 9 Karabelesh went on to Prague, where he obtained a degree in philosophy from Charles University in 1934. ° 88 See " Ukraine Laun ches Moderni zation of Urengog-Ponary-U zhorod Pipeline," Ukra inian News Agency, Jul y 19, 2011 . 89 See the entry " Karabelesh, Andrii " in Magocsi and Pop, eds., Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, 223. 90 Ru sinko, 350. SLOVAKIA 2019 129 Karabelesh continued writing exclusively in standard Russian. Unlike earlier Russophiles, he did not look towards Russia for the deliverance of the Rusyn people. In his estimation, it was no longer a matter of what Holy Mother Russia could do for Podkarpatska Rus'. It was a matter of what Carpathian-Rus' could do for Holy Mother Russia. In his enthusiasm for the great Russian literary giants, Karabelesh exhibited a tendency towards plagiarism, using some of their phrases directly in his own poetry. Karabelesh 's special favorite was Mikhail Lennontov, who merits attention here. Like his predecessor, the great Russian Romantic Alexander Pushkin, Lermontov wrote passionately, lived wildly and was killed in a duel. Unlike Pushkin, Lermontov created a literary genre in which the psychology of the protagonist played a leading role. This served as a precedent for the great novels of Dostoyevsky later in the century.91 In his poem "Nevdol'strie" (Dissatisfaction), Karabelesh quotes Lermontov's Pechorin: "I was not born for happiness. " 92 Anyone who studies the course of Karabelesh 's life would probably agree. He taught secondary school for a time in Podkarpatska Rus ', but when the Hungarians reoccupied the region he fled to Bohemia. Karabelesh participated in the Czech Resistance against the Nazis, heading a small underground group in Litamsyl. In this capacity he was arrested by the Gestapo in 1942. He passed the remainder of the war in the concentration camps of Mauthausen and Buchenwald. After the war he remained for a time in western Czechoslovakia, serving as principal of the gymnasium of Svitavy (19451953). Then he moved to the Presov Region, where he taught Russian language and literature at Safarik University. Although a member of the Ukrainian section of the Slovak Writers Union, he continued to write exclusively in Russian. It was not simply a case of Karabelesh being unwilling to move with the times. The red banner of the October Revolution replaced the grey skies in "V karpatikh osin" (Autumn in the Carpathians ). 93 Yet the apolitical, pessimistic tone of Karabelesh 's poetry became increasingly an object of attack by communist ideologues. In 1956, when the Soviet Communist Party was 91 See Semyon Eks hut, " Pushkin 's Heir" Russian Life, 42 , No, 6 (October/November 1999), 20-32. 92 Rusinko, 353. 93 Ibid, 362. 130 SLOVAKIA 2019 in a state of ideological crisis in the aftermath of Stalin's death , Karabelesh raised his voice in criticism of the imposed ukrainization of the Rusyn people. He was subsequently expelled from the Slovak Writers Union and returned to Bohemia. In the homeland, literary hi storian and defender of the "social realist" genre Iurii Bolega opened an ideological offensive against Karabelesh ' s work, condemning it as having a Russian chauvinist and anti-social character. One may ask why Karabelesh would wish to return home under such circumstances. Yet the years he spent in concentration camps had undennined hi s health, and Karabelesh was of the opinion "Where you are born, there you should die! " 94 Terminally ill, Karabelesh finally returned home in 1964. He died in Mukachevo on September 4 . In the post-communist era his poetry has experienced a revival of popularity. The Eastern Carpathians constitute an area of scenic beauty, but also in many places one of the depressing poverty. In his poem " Moi Narod" (My Nation), Karabelesh focuses on "fences and of abandoned gardens," "dried out grape vines," "bars of broken down churches," "unplowed fields," and so on. His writing reflects the mixture of beauty and melancholia that is essential to the brooding Slavic soul. If the Russophile tradition never reached the level of popularity that the Ukrainophile orientation attained, it nonetheless remains an essential part of the cultural landscape. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author wishes to thank and express his deep appreciation to Bob Broedel , president of the Tallahassee-Krasnodar Sister City Program, for hi s technical assistance in accessing material published in Russia and Ukraine. 94 Ibid, 359.  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 Russophiles without Russia Description An account of the resource R. Vladimir Baumgarten Slovakia, Vol. 44 (No. 82-83), 2019 pp. 83-130 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Baumgarten, R. Vladimir Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/7d54895a0addf5d2ce8c601ba5159aba.pdf 8a0ac5ce6df2959de2477a32febbd6da PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 3 Slovak World Congress Edward J. B e h u n c i k First Vice-President, Slovak World Congress and President, Slovak League of America In May, 1918, just several months before the creation of the federated Republic of Czecho-Slovakia ( the spelling used in the peace treaties and all official documents ensuing from the Armistice of November 11, 1918), the Slovaks and Czechs in the United States met at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They spoke for their downtrodden brethren in Slovakia and Bohemia and brought forth the Pittsburgh Pact. By its terms, the newly created country was to be a federated country of the Slovak state and the Czech state. Now, with the legalistic existence of the Slovak Socialist Republic and the Czech Socialist Republic in the federated state of Czecho-Slovakia a reality, the need again arises for interested, freedom-loving and dedicated Slovaks to speak for their subjugated brethren. In the current crisis, however, the spokesmen for the captive natives can come from various parts of the free world, rather than primarily from the United States of America. In the half century since the founding of the new state--Czecho-Slovakia--the Communist bear has driven Slovaks and Czechs to all parts of the free world. Admittedly, the largest portion of refugees of both nations are in the United States. But, some of the cream of Slovak intellectuals, scientists, teachers, professors and other learned Slovak men and women (as well as Czech) are found in Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, Latin America and Western Europe. All of those could contribute special talents and ideas to the common cause of peace for their fellow Slovaks and thus to the common cause for the peace we all seek through the brotherhood of man under the fatherhood of God. To get them to assist with their talents, it was necessary to have a common forum. In June, 1970, the Slovaks of the free world took �4 SLOVAKIA a giant step in this direction. From June 19, 1970 through June 21, 1970, at the Americana Hotel in New York City, representativ es and leaders of Slovak civic, cultural, fraternal and religious organizations from such diverse places as Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Canada, England , Africa, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Austria and Chile met in formal conclave. There, they created the Slovak World Congress with Stephen B . Roman, international ly renowned industrialist of Toronto, Ontario in Canada, as its first President. A formal Declaration was issued at the end of the sessions which Declaration, it is hoped, will in years to come be looked upon as the Slovak Magna Charta. It crystallizes in 20th Century language and background, the age old aspirations of the Slovak people for unity, national self-determin ation and a lawful place in the family of nations. The Declaration reads as follows: "Representativ es of Slovak organizations throughout the world, as well as individuals of Slovak origin in the Uniited States of America, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Sweden, England, Argentina, Germany, Spa,i n and Chile, assembled in New York City in order to lay the founda,hlons for the creation of a wo-r ld organization of Slovaks hereby declare that: The struggle for freedom and self-fulfillment is the constant goal throughout Slovak history. Attainment of this objective has not been without encountering obstacles, nor without reqU!iring the work and struggle of many generartions and coull!tless sacrifices. Particularly now, when the Slovak nation is unable to determine its own destiny freely, everyone must make great sacrifices. Slovaks living throughout the entire world, many of whom were born in the United States and elsewhoce, accept as a moral durty the necessity to unite in the struggle for the natural rights o.f the Slovak na-tion and for the complete freedom in .the determinartion of its destinies. We consider it our obligation to present to the world a true picture of the life and aspira. !Jions of the Slovak naition for a free and democratic way of life. Today we a•r e more acutely aware of this duty in view �SLOVAKIA 5 of the fad that the regime which has been forced upon the Slovak nation is opposed to the national trad~tions of Slovakia and the country is occupied by the military forces of a foreign Great Power. Therefore, in view of the foregoing: We subscribe to the traditional values of Slovak history which have promoted the re-birth of our nation, its growth and its acceptance in western civilization among cultured nations; We contend thait the Slo~ak question is an iruterna,ti.onal problem and therefore we request tha,t inrternation.il justice be done Slovakia, justice that would be e~essed in full democratic statehood; We take a posiitive aittiitude towards the p,rocess of integration in Europe and we demand that the Slovak nation be given the right to participate freely and directly in this process. We desire and hope that the situation in Cerntral and Eastern Europe will change so that there Wiill no longer be any obstacle towards establishing and maintain~ng cu.l!turre exchanges between the Slovaks ait home and abroad which prnsent conditions in Slovakia either ma~e compl,etely impossible, or allow only in a restricted sense. We recommend the establishment of a permanent organization for the realization of all these aspirations under the name of: Slovak World Congress, which shaiU embody the spirit of brntherhood and mutual respect. Religious affiliations or poHtical views, insofar as they are not contrary to the spirit of democracy and the objectiv,es mentioned above, will not bar anyone from membership or activ,e participation in our o,rganization. We consider it essential that our go,als and methods as well as our activities foUow democratic principles. We sha]l endeavor to have the Slovak World Congress represent its members on all international scientific, cultural, reliigious o:r political forums in the in:tereSlts of ,the Slorvak nation as expressed in the Constiltution and by-laws of the organization. 1 1 We urge that the Slovak World Congress devote itself towa,rds promoting the spirit of unity and to co-ordina~e all nationa,l efforts through constant contact with member organizations maintained tmough central secretariats, regional secre- �SLOVAKIA 6 tariats, committees and information bureaus in various countries around the world. We a:sik the bless~ng of Almighty God in this undertaiking in the firm hope that with the help and co-operation of all ffiovia 1IB we may successful!~ ifulfill our role." A program for concerted action was formulated at the founding sessions of the Congress. In mid-1971, at the closing session of the first Congress to be held at Toronto from June 17 through 20, 1971, it is expected that a we11org-anized, progressive, farsighted and unified central vehicle will emerge. This central organ will make it possible for the Slovaks to act in conjunction with or on a parallel level with the other peoples of central and eastern Europe, all of whom, have the common fate of being presently under the domination of the Soviet tanks and forces . 1 It will at long last also give the Slovaks a worldwide representative body to speak for and act on behalf of their oppressed brethren in occupied Slovakia. Without such a voice to speak for them, our native Slovak kin might well feel abandoned by the fortunate Slovaks now settled throughout the free world. That our brethren in Slovakia would lose faith or themselves give up their fight for freedom and self-determination, is, of course, unthinkable in view of their centuries old struggle for these ideals. With good will on the part of all, with prayerful petitions to the Father of all, and with sacrifices of time, energy and finances by all, free world Slovaks should, under the imaginative, inspiring and dedicated leadership of Stephen B. Roman, be especially able to make a very worthwhile contribution to the Brotherhood of Man under the Fatherhood of God. May God grant that they do not miss this unusual opportunity for service and for good. That is why on a previous occasion, I prophesied that June, 1970, the birthdate of the Slovak World Congress will become known in Slovak history as the milestone of .· the last half of the twentieth century. I pray that the events of the coming decade will prove me correct. � SLOVAKIA 3 Slovak World Congress Edward J. B e h u n c i k First Vice-President, Slovak World Congress and President, Slovak League of America In May, 1918, just several months before the creation of the federated Republic of Czecho-Slovakia ( the spelling used in the peace treaties and all official documents ensuing from the Armistice of November 11, 1918), the Slovaks and Czechs in the United States met at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They spoke for their downtrodden brethren in Slovakia and Bohemia and brought forth the Pittsburgh Pact. By its terms, the newly created country was to be a federated country of the Slovak state and the Czech state. Now, with the legalistic existence of the Slovak Socialist Republic and the Czech Socialist Republic in the federated state of Czecho-Slovakia a reality, the need again arises for interested, freedom-loving and dedicated Slovaks to speak for their subjugated brethren. In the current crisis, however, the spokesmen for the captive natives can come from various parts of the free world, rather than primarily from the United States of America. In the half century since the founding of the new state--Czecho-Slovakia--the Communist bear has driven Slovaks and Czechs to all parts of the free world. Admittedly, the largest portion of refugees of both nations are in the United States. But, some of the cream of Slovak intellectuals, scientists, teachers, professors and other learned Slovak men and women (as well as Czech) are found in Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, Latin America and Western Europe. All of those could contribute special talents and ideas to the common cause of peace for their fellow Slovaks and thus to the common cause for the peace we all seek through the brotherhood of man under the fatherhood of God. To get them to assist with their talents, it was necessary to have a common forum. In June, 1970, the Slovaks of the free world took �4 SLOVAKIA a giant step in this direction. From June 19, 1970 through June 21, 1970, at the Americana Hotel in New York City, representativ es and leaders of Slovak civic, cultural, fraternal and religious organizations from such diverse places as Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Canada, England , Africa, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Austria and Chile met in formal conclave. There, they created the Slovak World Congress with Stephen B . Roman, international ly renowned industrialist of Toronto, Ontario in Canada, as its first President. A formal Declaration was issued at the end of the sessions which Declaration, it is hoped, will in years to come be looked upon as the Slovak Magna Charta. It crystallizes in 20th Century language and background, the age old aspirations of the Slovak people for unity, national self-determin ation and a lawful place in the family of nations. The Declaration reads as follows: "Representativ es of Slovak organizations throughout the world, as well as individuals of Slovak origin in the Uniited States of America, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Sweden, England, Argentina, Germany, Spa,i n and Chile, assembled in New York City in order to lay the founda,hlons for the creation of a wo-r ld organization of Slovaks hereby declare that: The struggle for freedom and self-fulfillment is the constant goal throughout Slovak history. Attainment of this objective has not been without encountering obstacles, nor without reqU!iring the work and struggle of many generartions and coull!tless sacrifices. Particularly now, when the Slovak nation is unable to determine its own destiny freely, everyone must make great sacrifices. Slovaks living throughout the entire world, many of whom were born in the United States and elsewhoce, accept as a moral durty the necessity to unite in the struggle for the natural rights o.f the Slovak na-tion and for the complete freedom in .the determinartion of its destinies. We consider it our obligation to present to the world a true picture of the life and aspira. !Jions of the Slovak naition for a free and democratic way of life. Today we a•r e more acutely aware of this duty in view �SLOVAKIA 5 of the fad that the regime which has been forced upon the Slovak nation is opposed to the national trad~tions of Slovakia and the country is occupied by the military forces of a foreign Great Power. Therefore, in view of the foregoing: We subscribe to the traditional values of Slovak history which have promoted the re-birth of our nation, its growth and its acceptance in western civilization among cultured nations; We contend thait the Slo~ak question is an iruterna,ti.onal problem and therefore we request tha,t inrternation.il justice be done Slovakia, justice that would be e~essed in full democratic statehood; We take a posiitive aittiitude towards the p,rocess of integration in Europe and we demand that the Slovak nation be given the right to participate freely and directly in this process. We desire and hope that the situation in Cerntral and Eastern Europe will change so that there Wiill no longer be any obstacle towards establishing and maintain~ng cu.l!turre exchanges between the Slovaks ait home and abroad which prnsent conditions in Slovakia either ma~e compl,etely impossible, or allow only in a restricted sense. We recommend the establishment of a permanent organization for the realization of all these aspirations under the name of: Slovak World Congress, which shaiU embody the spirit of brntherhood and mutual respect. Religious affiliations or poHtical views, insofar as they are not contrary to the spirit of democracy and the objectiv,es mentioned above, will not bar anyone from membership or activ,e participation in our o,rganization. We consider it essential that our go,als and methods as well as our activities foUow democratic principles. We sha]l endeavor to have the Slovak World Congress represent its members on all international scientific, cultural, reliigious o:r political forums in the in:tereSlts of ,the Slorvak nation as expressed in the Constiltution and by-laws of the organization. 1 1 We urge that the Slovak World Congress devote itself towa,rds promoting the spirit of unity and to co-ordina~e all nationa,l efforts through constant contact with member organizations maintained tmough central secretariats, regional secre- �SLOVAKIA 6 tariats, committees and information bureaus in various countries around the world. We a:sik the bless~ng of Almighty God in this undertaiking in the firm hope that with the help and co-operation of all ffiovia 1IB we may successful!~ ifulfill our role." A program for concerted action was formulated at the founding sessions of the Congress. In mid-1971, at the closing session of the first Congress to be held at Toronto from June 17 through 20, 1971, it is expected that a we11org-anized, progressive, farsighted and unified central vehicle will emerge. This central organ will make it possible for the Slovaks to act in conjunction with or on a parallel level with the other peoples of central and eastern Europe, all of whom, have the common fate of being presently under the domination of the Soviet tanks and forces . 1 It will at long last also give the Slovaks a worldwide representative body to speak for and act on behalf of their oppressed brethren in occupied Slovakia. Without such a voice to speak for them, our native Slovak kin might well feel abandoned by the fortunate Slovaks now settled throughout the free world. That our brethren in Slovakia would lose faith or themselves give up their fight for freedom and self-determination, is, of course, unthinkable in view of their centuries old struggle for these ideals. With good will on the part of all, with prayerful petitions to the Father of all, and with sacrifices of time, energy and finances by all, free world Slovaks should, under the imaginative, inspiring and dedicated leadership of Stephen B. Roman, be especially able to make a very worthwhile contribution to the Brotherhood of Man under the Fatherhood of God. May God grant that they do not miss this unusual opportunity for service and for good. That is why on a previous occasion, I prophesied that June, 1970, the birthdate of the Slovak World Congress will become known in Slovak history as the milestone of .· the last half of the twentieth century. I pray that the events of the coming decade will prove me correct. � 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 1971, Vol. 21 Description An account of the resource Vol. 21 (No. 44), 1971. 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 1971 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 3 Slovak World Congress Edward J. B e h u n c i k First Vice-President, Slovak World Congress and President, Slovak League of America In May, 1918, just several months before the creation of the federated Republic of Czecho-Slovakia ( the spelling used in the peace treaties and all official documents ensuing from the Armistice of November 11, 1918), the Slovaks and Czechs in the United States met at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They spoke for their downtrodden brethren in Slovakia and Bohemia and brought forth the Pittsburgh Pact. By its terms, the newly created country was to be a federated country of the Slovak state and the Czech state. Now, with the legalistic existence of the Slovak Socialist Republic and the Czech Socialist Republic in the federated state of Czecho-Slovakia a reality, the need again arises for interested, freedom-loving and dedicated Slovaks to speak for their subjugated brethren. In the current crisis, however, the spokesmen for the captive natives can come from various parts of the free world, rather than primarily from the United States of America. In the half century since the founding of the new state--Czecho-Slovakia--the Communist bear has driven Slovaks and Czechs to all parts of the free world. Admittedly, the largest portion of refugees of both nations are in the United States. But, some of the cream of Slovak intellectuals, scientists, teachers, professors and other learned Slovak men and women (as well as Czech) are found in Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, Latin America and Western Europe. All of those could contribute special talents and ideas to the common cause of peace for their fellow Slovaks and thus to the common cause for the peace we all seek through the brotherhood of man under the fatherhood of God. To get them to assist with their talents, it was necessary to have a common forum. In June, 1970, the Slovaks of the free world took 4 SLOVAKIA a giant step in this direction. From June 19, 1970 through June 21, 1970, at the Americana Hotel in New York City, representativ es and leaders of Slovak civic, cultural, fraternal and religious organizations from such diverse places as Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Canada, England , Africa, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Austria and Chile met in formal conclave. There, they created the Slovak World Congress with Stephen B . Roman, international ly renowned industrialist of Toronto, Ontario in Canada, as its first President. A formal Declaration was issued at the end of the sessions which Declaration, it is hoped, will in years to come be looked upon as the Slovak Magna Charta. It crystallizes in 20th Century language and background, the age old aspirations of the Slovak people for unity, national self-determin ation and a lawful place in the family of nations. The Declaration reads as follows: "Representativ es of Slovak organizations throughout the world, as well as individuals of Slovak origin in the Uniited States of America, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Sweden, England, Argentina, Germany, Spa,i n and Chile, assembled in New York City in order to lay the founda,hlons for the creation of a wo-r ld organization of Slovaks hereby declare that: The struggle for freedom and self-fulfillment is the constant goal throughout Slovak history. Attainment of this objective has not been without encountering obstacles, nor without reqU!iring the work and struggle of many generartions and coull!tless sacrifices. Particularly now, when the Slovak nation is unable to determine its own destiny freely, everyone must make great sacrifices. Slovaks living throughout the entire world, many of whom were born in the United States and elsewhoce, accept as a moral durty the necessity to unite in the struggle for the natural rights o.f the Slovak na-tion and for the complete freedom in .the determinartion of its destinies. We consider it our obligation to present to the world a true picture of the life and aspira. !Jions of the Slovak naition for a free and democratic way of life. Today we a•r e more acutely aware of this duty in view SLOVAKIA 5 of the fad that the regime which has been forced upon the Slovak nation is opposed to the national trad~tions of Slovakia and the country is occupied by the military forces of a foreign Great Power. Therefore, in view of the foregoing: We subscribe to the traditional values of Slovak history which have promoted the re-birth of our nation, its growth and its acceptance in western civilization among cultured nations; We contend thait the Slo~ak question is an iruterna,ti.onal problem and therefore we request tha,t inrternation.il justice be done Slovakia, justice that would be e~essed in full democratic statehood; We take a posiitive aittiitude towards the p,rocess of integration in Europe and we demand that the Slovak nation be given the right to participate freely and directly in this process. We desire and hope that the situation in Cerntral and Eastern Europe will change so that there Wiill no longer be any obstacle towards establishing and maintain~ng cu.l!turre exchanges between the Slovaks ait home and abroad which prnsent conditions in Slovakia either ma~e compl,etely impossible, or allow only in a restricted sense. We recommend the establishment of a permanent organization for the realization of all these aspirations under the name of: Slovak World Congress, which shaiU embody the spirit of brntherhood and mutual respect. Religious affiliations or poHtical views, insofar as they are not contrary to the spirit of democracy and the objectiv,es mentioned above, will not bar anyone from membership or activ,e participation in our o,rganization. We consider it essential that our go,als and methods as well as our activities foUow democratic principles. We sha]l endeavor to have the Slovak World Congress represent its members on all international scientific, cultural, reliigious o:r political forums in the in:tereSlts of ,the Slorvak nation as expressed in the Constiltution and by-laws of the organization. 1 1 We urge that the Slovak World Congress devote itself towa,rds promoting the spirit of unity and to co-ordina~e all nationa,l efforts through constant contact with member organizations maintained tmough central secretariats, regional secre- SLOVAKIA 6 tariats, committees and information bureaus in various countries around the world. We a:sik the bless~ng of Almighty God in this undertaiking in the firm hope that with the help and co-operation of all ffiovia 1IB we may successful!~ ifulfill our role." A program for concerted action was formulated at the founding sessions of the Congress. In mid-1971, at the closing session of the first Congress to be held at Toronto from June 17 through 20, 1971, it is expected that a we11org-anized, progressive, farsighted and unified central vehicle will emerge. This central organ will make it possible for the Slovaks to act in conjunction with or on a parallel level with the other peoples of central and eastern Europe, all of whom, have the common fate of being presently under the domination of the Soviet tanks and forces . 1 It will at long last also give the Slovaks a worldwide representative body to speak for and act on behalf of their oppressed brethren in occupied Slovakia. Without such a voice to speak for them, our native Slovak kin might well feel abandoned by the fortunate Slovaks now settled throughout the free world. That our brethren in Slovakia would lose faith or themselves give up their fight for freedom and self-determination, is, of course, unthinkable in view of their centuries old struggle for these ideals. With good will on the part of all, with prayerful petitions to the Father of all, and with sacrifices of time, energy and finances by all, free world Slovaks should, under the imaginative, inspiring and dedicated leadership of Stephen B. Roman, be especially able to make a very worthwhile contribution to the Brotherhood of Man under the Fatherhood of God. May God grant that they do not miss this unusual opportunity for service and for good. That is why on a previous occasion, I prophesied that June, 1970, the birthdate of the Slovak World Congress will become known in Slovak history as the milestone of .· the last half of the twentieth century. I pray that the events of the coming decade will prove me correct.  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 Slovak World Congress Description An account of the resource Edward J. Behuncik, First Vice-President, Slovak World Congress, and President, Slovak League of America Slovakia, Vol. 21 (No. 44), 1971 pp. 3-6 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Behuncik, Edward J. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/4f5f952bb2569787e3329d8bebfee411.pdf eef801728331229dc6d7e84945ffd5a3 PDF Text Text 48 SLOVAKIA Fortieth Anniversary Canadian Slovak League Edward J. B eh u n c i k (The following is the message of Edward J. Behuncik, President of the Slovak League of America, on the occasion of the 40th Anniversary of the Canadian Slovak League at the Marlborough Hotel, Winnipeg, Manitoba, canada, August 5, 197?.) I assure you that the Slovak League of America, with which originally so many of you were officially associated as branch officers and members, is happy with your growth and successful development. Like every good Mother, we in the United States take maternal pride in your accomplishments. And because you are such a good offspring we are even happier. We especially congratulate your wise founders whose foresight made this week's renewal activity possible. We remember in pr ayer and happy memory your departed leaders and officers. In this same spirit, we congratulate you on reaching the 30th year of the successful and productive publication of your excellent weekly, The Canadian Slovak. I think its editorials rate among the finest writings I've come across in any of the many publications I see. It's top notch in any language. You have, on your own, done great things for the Slovak cause because you've so greatly helped the Canadian Slovaks. When you help Slovaks in Canada, you help Slovaks in the United States and everywhere. So also, when we help Slovaks in the United States, then we help Slovaks in Canada and elsewhere. And working together, we help all Slovaks and indirectly all peace-loving and God-fearing people everywhere. Thus, we make our efforts to sooner bring to reality the �SLOVAKIA 49 cherished aspirations for the Brotherhood of Man under the Fatherhood of God. My appreciation has been quickened by the sense that your choice has been determined solely by your unending union-in word, in spirit and in fraternal co-operationwith the great Slovak civic and cultural federation, which I am fortunate to head at this moment of history. I was pleased to note in the minutes of your first organizational session on December 12, 1932, that you _pledged to support and co-operate with the Slovak League of America-the Minutes state: "4. Vyvinula sa dlha debata, v ktorej vedene bratom Karolom Maresom, zhromazdene delegatstvo uist'ovalo brata Jozefa Zemana, ze program a ciele 1. kongresu Slov. Ligy v Kanade su cisto slovenske, ze spolu so Slov. Ligou V Amerike chceme pracovat' za tu nasu slovencinu." I am happy to state that you've kept that commitment and am fully confident that you will continue to do so. I, therefore, beg your indulgence while I set forth for your thoughtful consideration several ideas which I hold to be of paramount importance in the drama which the members of the Slovak League of America and you, the members of the Canadian Slovak League, are enacting through our daily and regular performance of the duties .and privileges of membership in our respective leagues. The dictionary tells us that "a patriot is one whose ruling is the love of his country," and that patriotism is "love and zeal for one's country." We in the United States love our country just as much as you love Canada. But we, like you love and are proud of all that is great and noble in the history of the land of our forefathers - beautiful Slovakia. Otherwise, you would not this evening be in Winnipeg, your birthplace. By taking pride, real lawful pride, in all things Slovak, we become better citizens and patriots of the countries where we live. The flame of Slovak patriotism which had long burned and still burns with a steady flame in all times of stress �50 SLOVAKIA and danger, has enabled the nation to maintain the struggle for its rightful place of distinction as a separate member of the family of nations. It has also sustained all Slovaks in their age-old efforts to carry out their destiny in the face of the most formidable opposition throughout the centuries and thereby, has exorted the admiration and often the envy of foreign observers. This record gives fresh proof even today of the invincible and unbroken vigor and vitality of the Slovak. And meanwhile, it has promoted among the citizens of every land in which this Slovak patriotism has taken root a sense of public duty and the growth of a spirit of self-sacrifice and devotion to country, dominion or commonwealth. But, patriotism must be founded on great principles and supported by great virtues. It involves duties as well as privileges, and these duties arise not only in connection with the domestic relations of the citizens to his native or adopted country. They arise also in all that concerns the attitude of that country towards foreign nations. That is why we must make certain that all countries become cognizant of the legitimate aspirations and aims of the Slovak people. It is the clear duty of true patriotism everywhere to consider this question of the expansion and extension of the Slovak cause in which we seem to be fulfilling the manifest duty of our Slovak heritage. So, you as good Canadians and as good Slovaks have a firm assurance of loyalty and affection of the sons of Slovakia in the United States and wherever else they may be. You are also assured of their readiness to play their part with you in the common cause even to a greater extent than in the past. I have faith in our cause and in our Slovak people. That is why I am happy to have the privilege to lead the Slovak League of America in what I pray will be its most glorious era. That is why I am happy to solicit your continued co-operation in the days to come as we with you and other Slovak groups solidify and coordinate into a true pillar of Slovak unity and solidarity. �SLOVAKIA 51 We now have the structure-The Slovak World Cogress, founded in the headquarters site of the United Nations in June, 1970. I believe that with all the forces and enthusiasm of which the democratic processes alone are capable, we, firmly united, will complete and maintain that splendid edifice of our fraternal and heartfelt love, which commenced under such successful auspices at New York and Toronto. Henceforth, all Slovaks wherever situated enter upon a new epoch of noble union, in this world-wide Slovak Congress. I also believe that the firmness of purpose and strength of will which are necessary to this end shall be supplied by the patriotism which sustains the most strenuous efforts and makes possible the greatest sacrifice. You have the power and, I am confident, the will to fill this patriotic need-to contribute your patriotic share. You still have in full measure the opportunity of continued service until you have achieved, at least, your 100th Anniversary. All this time we can and will do because we are without fear. We are apprehensive, in these trying times, but we Slovaks have a solid, spiritual philosophy of life which will enable us to continue to face the future unafraid. In that spirit, we conduct ourselves in fraternal harmony and cultural and civic friendship. We have always presented throughout the years-you in Canada with us in the United States-the agreeable spectacle of a fraternal harmony and friendly co-operation absolutely united in the best interests of Slovaks and Slovakia. We have differed occasionally, as friends and kin must differ; but, we never had a single quarrel, we have had no factional fights. I think this displays a spirit for which it is worthwhile to continue to make sacrifices. And then as we grow older and the shadows begin to lengthen, we hopefully should be able to look back on �52 SLOVAKIA this period as a happy and fruitful era. We can then, in good conscience, turn over the reins to o~ successors with the feeling of satisfaction that, to the best of ou.rlimited talents, we contributed our small share to the mosaic of a greater Slovak nation, culture, tradition and haven of religious ·and intellectual achievements. And later, after much more time, when other futuregenerations look back on this period-yours and mine -they will see that what we did was but to carry on the work of our great predecessors. When they do so, we hope· they will be inspired to do a greater degree what we, on your Fortieth Anniversary, were and are trying to do for the greater honor and glory of our Heavenly Father-or as we would say in our Mother tongue Za .Boha a narod. Your gatherings are a living testimony of a determination to support the principles I have touched upon. The voice of gratitude and praise for all your contributions is limited to no area-it is. uttered by every Slovak: tongue. So, let us pray God that the day of triumph for Slovaks and Slovakia may soon come and while we pray and press on with unconquerable determination, let us make sure that we preserve the Slovak soul from the corrodinginfluences of injustice, materialism and selfishness. • • • I found the Democratic Convention to be totally undemocratic. At least two major candidates, who had considerable backing, withdrew from the race without a fight. This proves to me insincerity, dishonesty and cowardice on their part. After all, people contributed-and the candidates spent-millions. of dollars for their election. This money now has gone "down the river" simply because these men did not want to fight against certain odds. I admire the candidates who remained in the race to the end, but I lost all confidence in the men who gave up so easily, even though Labor and other powerful political and social elements were behind them. This again proves to me that politics is NOT above the board, that there are underhanded deals, and that the wishes of the people are NOT considered. This is tragic, because it is the people that have been and are footing the bill. - Fr. Louis P. Hohos � 48 SLOVAKIA Fortieth Anniversary Canadian Slovak League Edward J. B eh u n c i k (The following is the message of Edward J. Behuncik, President of the Slovak League of America, on the occasion of the 40th Anniversary of the Canadian Slovak League at the Marlborough Hotel, Winnipeg, Manitoba, canada, August 5, 197?.) I assure you that the Slovak League of America, with which originally so many of you were officially associated as branch officers and members, is happy with your growth and successful development. Like every good Mother, we in the United States take maternal pride in your accomplishments. And because you are such a good offspring we are even happier. We especially congratulate your wise founders whose foresight made this week's renewal activity possible. We remember in pr ayer and happy memory your departed leaders and officers. In this same spirit, we congratulate you on reaching the 30th year of the successful and productive publication of your excellent weekly, The Canadian Slovak. I think its editorials rate among the finest writings I've come across in any of the many publications I see. It's top notch in any language. You have, on your own, done great things for the Slovak cause because you've so greatly helped the Canadian Slovaks. When you help Slovaks in Canada, you help Slovaks in the United States and everywhere. So also, when we help Slovaks in the United States, then we help Slovaks in Canada and elsewhere. And working together, we help all Slovaks and indirectly all peace-loving and God-fearing people everywhere. Thus, we make our efforts to sooner bring to reality the �SLOVAKIA 49 cherished aspirations for the Brotherhood of Man under the Fatherhood of God. My appreciation has been quickened by the sense that your choice has been determined solely by your unending union-in word, in spirit and in fraternal co-operationwith the great Slovak civic and cultural federation, which I am fortunate to head at this moment of history. I was pleased to note in the minutes of your first organizational session on December 12, 1932, that you _pledged to support and co-operate with the Slovak League of America-the Minutes state: "4. Vyvinula sa dlha debata, v ktorej vedene bratom Karolom Maresom, zhromazdene delegatstvo uist'ovalo brata Jozefa Zemana, ze program a ciele 1. kongresu Slov. Ligy v Kanade su cisto slovenske, ze spolu so Slov. Ligou V Amerike chceme pracovat' za tu nasu slovencinu." I am happy to state that you've kept that commitment and am fully confident that you will continue to do so. I, therefore, beg your indulgence while I set forth for your thoughtful consideration several ideas which I hold to be of paramount importance in the drama which the members of the Slovak League of America and you, the members of the Canadian Slovak League, are enacting through our daily and regular performance of the duties .and privileges of membership in our respective leagues. The dictionary tells us that "a patriot is one whose ruling is the love of his country," and that patriotism is "love and zeal for one's country." We in the United States love our country just as much as you love Canada. But we, like you love and are proud of all that is great and noble in the history of the land of our forefathers - beautiful Slovakia. Otherwise, you would not this evening be in Winnipeg, your birthplace. By taking pride, real lawful pride, in all things Slovak, we become better citizens and patriots of the countries where we live. The flame of Slovak patriotism which had long burned and still burns with a steady flame in all times of stress �50 SLOVAKIA and danger, has enabled the nation to maintain the struggle for its rightful place of distinction as a separate member of the family of nations. It has also sustained all Slovaks in their age-old efforts to carry out their destiny in the face of the most formidable opposition throughout the centuries and thereby, has exorted the admiration and often the envy of foreign observers. This record gives fresh proof even today of the invincible and unbroken vigor and vitality of the Slovak. And meanwhile, it has promoted among the citizens of every land in which this Slovak patriotism has taken root a sense of public duty and the growth of a spirit of self-sacrifice and devotion to country, dominion or commonwealth. But, patriotism must be founded on great principles and supported by great virtues. It involves duties as well as privileges, and these duties arise not only in connection with the domestic relations of the citizens to his native or adopted country. They arise also in all that concerns the attitude of that country towards foreign nations. That is why we must make certain that all countries become cognizant of the legitimate aspirations and aims of the Slovak people. It is the clear duty of true patriotism everywhere to consider this question of the expansion and extension of the Slovak cause in which we seem to be fulfilling the manifest duty of our Slovak heritage. So, you as good Canadians and as good Slovaks have a firm assurance of loyalty and affection of the sons of Slovakia in the United States and wherever else they may be. You are also assured of their readiness to play their part with you in the common cause even to a greater extent than in the past. I have faith in our cause and in our Slovak people. That is why I am happy to have the privilege to lead the Slovak League of America in what I pray will be its most glorious era. That is why I am happy to solicit your continued co-operation in the days to come as we with you and other Slovak groups solidify and coordinate into a true pillar of Slovak unity and solidarity. �SLOVAKIA 51 We now have the structure-The Slovak World Cogress, founded in the headquarters site of the United Nations in June, 1970. I believe that with all the forces and enthusiasm of which the democratic processes alone are capable, we, firmly united, will complete and maintain that splendid edifice of our fraternal and heartfelt love, which commenced under such successful auspices at New York and Toronto. Henceforth, all Slovaks wherever situated enter upon a new epoch of noble union, in this world-wide Slovak Congress. I also believe that the firmness of purpose and strength of will which are necessary to this end shall be supplied by the patriotism which sustains the most strenuous efforts and makes possible the greatest sacrifice. You have the power and, I am confident, the will to fill this patriotic need-to contribute your patriotic share. You still have in full measure the opportunity of continued service until you have achieved, at least, your 100th Anniversary. All this time we can and will do because we are without fear. We are apprehensive, in these trying times, but we Slovaks have a solid, spiritual philosophy of life which will enable us to continue to face the future unafraid. In that spirit, we conduct ourselves in fraternal harmony and cultural and civic friendship. We have always presented throughout the years-you in Canada with us in the United States-the agreeable spectacle of a fraternal harmony and friendly co-operation absolutely united in the best interests of Slovaks and Slovakia. We have differed occasionally, as friends and kin must differ; but, we never had a single quarrel, we have had no factional fights. I think this displays a spirit for which it is worthwhile to continue to make sacrifices. And then as we grow older and the shadows begin to lengthen, we hopefully should be able to look back on �52 SLOVAKIA this period as a happy and fruitful era. We can then, in good conscience, turn over the reins to o~ successors with the feeling of satisfaction that, to the best of ou.rlimited talents, we contributed our small share to the mosaic of a greater Slovak nation, culture, tradition and haven of religious ·and intellectual achievements. And later, after much more time, when other futuregenerations look back on this period-yours and mine -they will see that what we did was but to carry on the work of our great predecessors. When they do so, we hope· they will be inspired to do a greater degree what we, on your Fortieth Anniversary, were and are trying to do for the greater honor and glory of our Heavenly Father-or as we would say in our Mother tongue Za .Boha a narod. Your gatherings are a living testimony of a determination to support the principles I have touched upon. The voice of gratitude and praise for all your contributions is limited to no area-it is. uttered by every Slovak: tongue. So, let us pray God that the day of triumph for Slovaks and Slovakia may soon come and while we pray and press on with unconquerable determination, let us make sure that we preserve the Slovak soul from the corrodinginfluences of injustice, materialism and selfishness. • • • I found the Democratic Convention to be totally undemocratic. At least two major candidates, who had considerable backing, withdrew from the race without a fight. This proves to me insincerity, dishonesty and cowardice on their part. After all, people contributed-and the candidates spent-millions. of dollars for their election. This money now has gone "down the river" simply because these men did not want to fight against certain odds. I admire the candidates who remained in the race to the end, but I lost all confidence in the men who gave up so easily, even though Labor and other powerful political and social elements were behind them. This again proves to me that politics is NOT above the board, that there are underhanded deals, and that the wishes of the people are NOT considered. This is tragic, because it is the people that have been and are footing the bill. - Fr. Louis P. Hohos � 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 1973, Vol. 23 Description An account of the resource Vol. 23 (No. 46), 1973. 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 1973 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 48 SLOVAKIA Fortieth Anniversary Canadian Slovak League Edward J. B eh u n c i k (The following is the message of Edward J. Behuncik, President of the Slovak League of America, on the occasion of the 40th Anniversary of the Canadian Slovak League at the Marlborough Hotel, Winnipeg, Manitoba, canada, August 5, 197?.) I assure you that the Slovak League of America, with which originally so many of you were officially associated as branch officers and members, is happy with your growth and successful development. Like every good Mother, we in the United States take maternal pride in your accomplishments. And because you are such a good offspring we are even happier. We especially congratulate your wise founders whose foresight made this week's renewal activity possible. We remember in pr ayer and happy memory your departed leaders and officers. In this same spirit, we congratulate you on reaching the 30th year of the successful and productive publication of your excellent weekly, The Canadian Slovak. I think its editorials rate among the finest writings I've come across in any of the many publications I see. It's top notch in any language. You have, on your own, done great things for the Slovak cause because you've so greatly helped the Canadian Slovaks. When you help Slovaks in Canada, you help Slovaks in the United States and everywhere. So also, when we help Slovaks in the United States, then we help Slovaks in Canada and elsewhere. And working together, we help all Slovaks and indirectly all peace-loving and God-fearing people everywhere. Thus, we make our efforts to sooner bring to reality the SLOVAKIA 49 cherished aspirations for the Brotherhood of Man under the Fatherhood of God. My appreciation has been quickened by the sense that your choice has been determined solely by your unending union-in word, in spirit and in fraternal co-operationwith the great Slovak civic and cultural federation, which I am fortunate to head at this moment of history. I was pleased to note in the minutes of your first organizational session on December 12, 1932, that you _pledged to support and co-operate with the Slovak League of America-the Minutes state: "4. Vyvinula sa dlha debata, v ktorej vedene bratom Karolom Maresom, zhromazdene delegatstvo uist'ovalo brata Jozefa Zemana, ze program a ciele 1. kongresu Slov. Ligy v Kanade su cisto slovenske, ze spolu so Slov. Ligou V Amerike chceme pracovat' za tu nasu slovencinu." I am happy to state that you've kept that commitment and am fully confident that you will continue to do so. I, therefore, beg your indulgence while I set forth for your thoughtful consideration several ideas which I hold to be of paramount importance in the drama which the members of the Slovak League of America and you, the members of the Canadian Slovak League, are enacting through our daily and regular performance of the duties .and privileges of membership in our respective leagues. The dictionary tells us that "a patriot is one whose ruling is the love of his country," and that patriotism is "love and zeal for one's country." We in the United States love our country just as much as you love Canada. But we, like you love and are proud of all that is great and noble in the history of the land of our forefathers - beautiful Slovakia. Otherwise, you would not this evening be in Winnipeg, your birthplace. By taking pride, real lawful pride, in all things Slovak, we become better citizens and patriots of the countries where we live. The flame of Slovak patriotism which had long burned and still burns with a steady flame in all times of stress 50 SLOVAKIA and danger, has enabled the nation to maintain the struggle for its rightful place of distinction as a separate member of the family of nations. It has also sustained all Slovaks in their age-old efforts to carry out their destiny in the face of the most formidable opposition throughout the centuries and thereby, has exorted the admiration and often the envy of foreign observers. This record gives fresh proof even today of the invincible and unbroken vigor and vitality of the Slovak. And meanwhile, it has promoted among the citizens of every land in which this Slovak patriotism has taken root a sense of public duty and the growth of a spirit of self-sacrifice and devotion to country, dominion or commonwealth. But, patriotism must be founded on great principles and supported by great virtues. It involves duties as well as privileges, and these duties arise not only in connection with the domestic relations of the citizens to his native or adopted country. They arise also in all that concerns the attitude of that country towards foreign nations. That is why we must make certain that all countries become cognizant of the legitimate aspirations and aims of the Slovak people. It is the clear duty of true patriotism everywhere to consider this question of the expansion and extension of the Slovak cause in which we seem to be fulfilling the manifest duty of our Slovak heritage. So, you as good Canadians and as good Slovaks have a firm assurance of loyalty and affection of the sons of Slovakia in the United States and wherever else they may be. You are also assured of their readiness to play their part with you in the common cause even to a greater extent than in the past. I have faith in our cause and in our Slovak people. That is why I am happy to have the privilege to lead the Slovak League of America in what I pray will be its most glorious era. That is why I am happy to solicit your continued co-operation in the days to come as we with you and other Slovak groups solidify and coordinate into a true pillar of Slovak unity and solidarity. SLOVAKIA 51 We now have the structure-The Slovak World Cogress, founded in the headquarters site of the United Nations in June, 1970. I believe that with all the forces and enthusiasm of which the democratic processes alone are capable, we, firmly united, will complete and maintain that splendid edifice of our fraternal and heartfelt love, which commenced under such successful auspices at New York and Toronto. Henceforth, all Slovaks wherever situated enter upon a new epoch of noble union, in this world-wide Slovak Congress. I also believe that the firmness of purpose and strength of will which are necessary to this end shall be supplied by the patriotism which sustains the most strenuous efforts and makes possible the greatest sacrifice. You have the power and, I am confident, the will to fill this patriotic need-to contribute your patriotic share. You still have in full measure the opportunity of continued service until you have achieved, at least, your 100th Anniversary. All this time we can and will do because we are without fear. We are apprehensive, in these trying times, but we Slovaks have a solid, spiritual philosophy of life which will enable us to continue to face the future unafraid. In that spirit, we conduct ourselves in fraternal harmony and cultural and civic friendship. We have always presented throughout the years-you in Canada with us in the United States-the agreeable spectacle of a fraternal harmony and friendly co-operation absolutely united in the best interests of Slovaks and Slovakia. We have differed occasionally, as friends and kin must differ; but, we never had a single quarrel, we have had no factional fights. I think this displays a spirit for which it is worthwhile to continue to make sacrifices. And then as we grow older and the shadows begin to lengthen, we hopefully should be able to look back on 52 SLOVAKIA this period as a happy and fruitful era. We can then, in good conscience, turn over the reins to o~ successors with the feeling of satisfaction that, to the best of ou.rlimited talents, we contributed our small share to the mosaic of a greater Slovak nation, culture, tradition and haven of religious ·and intellectual achievements. And later, after much more time, when other futuregenerations look back on this period-yours and mine -they will see that what we did was but to carry on the work of our great predecessors. When they do so, we hope· they will be inspired to do a greater degree what we, on your Fortieth Anniversary, were and are trying to do for the greater honor and glory of our Heavenly Father-or as we would say in our Mother tongue Za .Boha a narod. Your gatherings are a living testimony of a determination to support the principles I have touched upon. The voice of gratitude and praise for all your contributions is limited to no area-it is. uttered by every Slovak: tongue. So, let us pray God that the day of triumph for Slovaks and Slovakia may soon come and while we pray and press on with unconquerable determination, let us make sure that we preserve the Slovak soul from the corrodinginfluences of injustice, materialism and selfishness. • • • I found the Democratic Convention to be totally undemocratic. At least two major candidates, who had considerable backing, withdrew from the race without a fight. This proves to me insincerity, dishonesty and cowardice on their part. After all, people contributed-and the candidates spent-millions. of dollars for their election. This money now has gone "down the river" simply because these men did not want to fight against certain odds. I admire the candidates who remained in the race to the end, but I lost all confidence in the men who gave up so easily, even though Labor and other powerful political and social elements were behind them. This again proves to me that politics is NOT above the board, that there are underhanded deals, and that the wishes of the people are NOT considered. This is tragic, because it is the people that have been and are footing the bill. - Fr. Louis P. Hohos  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 Fortieth Anniversary Canadian Slovak League Description An account of the resource Edward J. Behuncik Slovakia, Vol. 23 (No. 46), 1973 pp. 48-52 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Behuncik, Edward J. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/45659504571e73709d3af12ade8f38d4.pdf aa5bcb2f509bdab5c3ada93a826da2b6 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 1976 �(il( ill! l!E 3E 3E 3E 3E 3E fl" !B IIIIII IIIIII N at io na l 3E 3E 3E 3E 3E 3E 3E 3!B r.h Cz e~ & Sl ov ak . b ra ry M us eu m & Li Ce da r Ra p id s, III III III Io wa Pr es en te d by : ~ fflW IIIIII IIIIII III III III A~A- ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ID ID ID ID D at e: ~ ~ /9 9 ~ LI IIE 3E 3E 3E 3E 3E 3E ~ 3E 3E 3E 3E 3E 3E 31 l~ the nia l Me da l sponsored by vak Am eri ca n Bic en ten lic Slo tho Ca R st VE Fir CO T the ON (FR ission ffJnded by mm Co l nia ten en Bic n Slovak Am eri ca tio n.) Slovak Ladies As so cia �SLOVAKIA VOLUME XXVI 1976 MICHAEL NOVAK Editor DANIEL F. TANZONE Associate Editor EDITORIAL BOARD: Draga Divinska Joseph M. Kirschbaum Joseph C. Krajsa Susan Mikula Joseph A. Mikus Reverend Andrew V. Pier, O.S.B. Mark Stolarik Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. A Political Science and Historical Annual Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA Mailing Address: SLOVAKIA 17 Porach Street Yonkers, New York 10701 N0.49 �Printed By JEDNOTA PRINTERY Middletown, Pennsylva11_ia 17057 �SLOVAKIA 3 Table of Contents In Memoriam - Edward J. Behuncik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 In Memoriam: Dr. Joseph Pauco - F. Vnuk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Foreword - Edward J. Behuncik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Editor's Note - Dr. Michael Novak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Resolution by the Bicentennial Conference of the Slovak League of America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Immigration and Eastern Slovak Nationalism M . Mark Stolarik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Materialism and Morality: Slavic-American Immigrants and Education, 1890-1940 - John Bodnar ...... .. . . .... .. . 21 Slovak and Ruthenian Easter Eggs - Andrew Cincura . . . . . . . . . . 40 John J. Kubasek, Priest and Patriot - DanielF. Tanzone ... .... . 69 The Ideas of the Hlasist Movement - Anthony X. Sutherland 76 Selections from An Anthology of Slovak Literature Introductory Remarks by Andrew Cincura . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Slovakia on My Map - Margaret Matus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Book Reviews Prof. Joseph M. Kirschbaum ............................ Andrew V. Pier, O.S.B . ................................. Andrew Cincura . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Owen V. Johnson . . ....... . ................. . .... . . . . .. 111 117 122 126 Our Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inside Back Cover ��SLOVAKIA 5 Jn McmPriam .i. (1914-1975) This Bicentennial issue of Slovakia marks the first time since 1964 that its editor is not Dr. Joseph Pauco. Our late dedicated and devoted Secretary-Treasurer of the Slovak League of America, Dr. Pauco took over the editorship of Slovakia upon the death of our former League President, Philip A. Hrobak. Having served his people and his generation with unusual dedication, Dr. Pauco laid down his pen on November 18, 1975 at a time when we thought he was in the full tide of a buoyant, very active life, holding much promise and hope of continued fruitful service. His is a rare example of a life truly lived for God and country - ZA BOHA A NAROD!! Steadfast in his beliefs , he was ever the uncompromising opponent of injustice and tyranny, especially the atheistic tyranny of Communism - with an unusual wrath against those whom he deemed godless invaders and oppressors. An unshrinking patriot, the success of his efforts can, to a large extent, be measured by the slanderous attacks he suffered at times from diverse national and international sources. But always maintaining his hold on the ideal, he continued by his spoken, and more significantly by his written , word to give of his many talents to both his native and adopted countries and to Slovaks everywhere. His many published works relating to Slovak history and particularly Slovak American history have earned him a place of distinction among Slovakia's many gifted writers and authors. The pledge made at his graveside bears reaffirmation: ' ' Dear Doctor, we, whom you left behind, pledge to carry on ... ZA BOHA A NAROD ." EDWARD J. BEHUNCIK President, Slovak League of America �SLOVAKIA 6 ln iMemPriam . V DR. JOZEF PAUCO Editor of Slovakia from 1964 to 1975 After eleven years the masthead of Slovakia no longer bears the name of Dr. Jozef Pauco as its editor. He died on November 18th, 1975 after a short illness. Everybody who knew him - either personally or through his literary, journalistic and editorial work - would agree that the Slovak cause lost in him its most worthy defender. Dr. Jozef Pauco will certainly be remembered as one of the greatest names in the history of Slovak journalism. He selflessly dedicated the great talent of his pen to the services of his nation. From the earliest writing of his student days to the last series of his articles, studies , commentaries and editorials he faithfully followed a firm and unchanging line: to win for his nation those rights and liberties which were its due. During the years of Slovak independence (1939-45) Dr. Pauco was the Editor-in-Chief of the largest Slovak daily, Slovak. With the fall of the Slovak Republic he went into exile in order to fight for the restoration of Slovak independence. His skillful journalistic pen proved to be an effective weapon in this struggle. In 1950 he emigrated to the U.S.A. where he became the Assistant Editor of Jednota, the official organ of the First Catholic Slovak Union of the United States and Canada. But Dr. Pauco's energy and enthusiasm could not be exhausted in one job. Soon he was putting into action new plans and ideas. He was acutely aware that the Slovak cause needed patient explanation and elucidation in the political, academic and opinion-making circles of the Western World, particularly in the U.S. The enemies of the Slovak nation systematically - and regrettably with great measure of success - presented the Slovak struggle for independence as something subversive, dishonest and outr~eous. Dr. Jozef Pauco was one of those Slovak patriots who took upon themselves the task of changing this unsatisfactory state of affairs . They set out to expose falsehood , to defend the truth, to convince people that there was nothing subversive or unnatural in a nation's struggle for its independence . To promote and disseminate these ideas Dr. Pauco and his circle of friends launched a number of journals in the English language in which they tried to represent the political situation of Slovakia in its proper �SLOVAKIA 7 context and in its true light. Dr. Pauco, as the Secretary-General of the Slovak National Council Abroad, was the editor of the monthly, Bulletin of the Slovak National Council (appeared in 1953-58), and at the same time assisted P. A. Hrobak in editing another informative journal in the English language, Slovak Newsletter. The revue Slovakia "<as a far more ambitious and more durable project. It started its existence in 1950 when the Slovak League of America - prompted by its Secretary, Dr. Frantisek Hrusovsky decided to publish an English magazine dealing with Slovak cultural, political, historical and social affairs. The objectives of this magazine were stated thus: ''The chief purpose of Slovakia is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence.'' Initially the magazine was published quarterly but in the past 15 years it has been appearing as an annual publication. The first editor of Slovakia was Phillip A. Hrobak. Pauco's collaboration with this magazine started from the beginning. He provided not only editorial help but was also one of the most regular contributors. From 1964 (after the death of P. A. Hrobak) Dr. Jozef Pauco who in the meantime had been elected the Secretary of the Slovak League of America - took over the editorship. In the following eleven years he carried out this function expertly and efficiently. He tried hard and successfully to make Slovakia into a respected and representative revue. He gave Slovakia a new, more contemporary style. Prior to his editorship the content of Slovakia was largely made up of articles published originally in Slovak and intended primarily for the Slovak public. Dr. Pauco gradually changed that. He used to approach Slovak men of letters, Slovak historians and politicians with requests for specially written contributions. In this way there appeared in Slovakia many valuable essays and reviews in which various aspects of Slovak history, culture, politics, emigration, etc. were presented in an informative manner with the emphasis on those essentials in which a non-Slovak reader would be and should be interested. The imprint left by Pauco's dedicated and professional work is indelible and lasting. In compiling each issue of Slovakia Dr. Pauco tried to maintain an even balance. The variety of topics and the wide range of contributors from every corner of the world are an eloquent testimony to these efforts. No aspect of Slovak life, both past and present, was left untouched. From the study of the past issues of Slovakia the reader can obtain an undistorted picture of Slovaks, their country and their aspirations. In presenting this picture Dr. Pauco wanted to show to the free and freedom-loving people in the West the eventful history, the cultural riches and the political maturity of the Slovak nation. And in all this there was an implicit plea not so much for sympathy as for understanding. As an exiled son of a nation forcibly deprived of its in- �8 SLOVAKIA dependence, Dr. Jozef Pauco was valiantly striving to procure justice for his enslaved countrymen. The whole nation will gratefully remember his sacrifice and his devoted service. May he rest in peace! F. VNUK Australia �SLOVAKIA 9 Foreword As part of the Bicentennial programs of the Slovak League of America, we are happy to publish this special issue of our annual publication. After we suffered the loss of our long time editor, Dr. Joseph Pauco, who died on November 18, 1975, we fortunately obtained the services of Michael Novak, Slovak American author and lay theologian, as acting editor-in-chief. Into new hands is now committed the guidance and issuance of our Slovakia with all its heritage of things attained, with all its hopes of things to come. The hands of our current generation of Slovak Americans are new but they are firm and strong. Michael Novak brings to his task an equipment rare in fullness and rich in promise. The elders of our Slovak ethnics are cognizant that we are the passing instruments of a process that transcends our fleeting hour. We know that on each new generation this duty to take over the torch rests afresh. I am confident that the works compiled herein will mark the 1976 issue of Slovakia as an outstanding contribution by youthful Slovak Americans to the ethnic bicentennial and to the growing influence of the Slovak League and our affiliated organizations in the expended ethnic identification in America's pluralistic society. Accordingly, I am delighted, as President of the Slovak League, to express my official as well as personal gratitude to Dr. Novak and to the contributors whose works appear herein. To all to whom these lines appear, I wish you many moments of joyous, serious and rewarding reading and contemplative cogitation. EDWARD J. BEHUNCIK President �10 SLOVAKIA Editor's Note The untimely death of Joseph Pauco left a vacancy, hard to fill , in the editorship of Slovakia. After his arrival in America, Pauco served the aspirations of the Slovak people long and well. We stand in his debt, dedicating this issue to him. Yet, characteristically, life springs from death. In the vacuum he left, while the present editor stood confused and in need of help, younger talents sprang up to offer their assistance. Mark Stolarik and John Bodnar bring to Slovakia a taste of the new scholarship, which is slowly but deeply revising the picture of immigration held by American historians. Other young colleagues of theirs will, we hope, join us in the future and make of Slovakia one of the best outlets of the new scholarship . Andrew Cincura and Owen V. Johnson add depth and balance to this volume. The new anthology by Cincura will be a major event in Slovak life in English-speaking lands, an indispensable and herculean effort; we are pleased to offer the readers of Slovakia a foretaste of his large new book. Professor Johnson ' s cool, objective tone witnesses to a new level of maturity and frank, open disagreement proper to the world of high scholarship. In 1976, the United States is 200 years old. But the great migration from Eastern Slovakia to the U.S. is barely 100 years old. One hundred years! It is time, now, for a new chapter to be opened in SlovakAmerican life - a new level of scholarship, a new tone of voice, a new depth and energy, a new generation to pick up the long struggle of the brave, suffering peoples of the past. Slovaks do not stand alone at the present moment. On all sides , many other ethnic peoples - and all those millions of Americans of mixed ethnic ancestry - are struggling to gain a clearer idea of their own identity and of America's . Scholarship is desperately needed, as are repositories of letters, diaries, legal records, old newspapers, and material of all sorts that scholars might study. And we need writers, novelists, poets, dramatists, moviemakers, song-writers, reporters, journalists of all sorts . And political sophistication and clout. Who were our grandparents? Why did tn(!y come to America - or, for later migrants, why did they stay longer in Slovakia? In order to enter our future intelligently, we need · to understand our special history . This issue, then, having anchored itself in a remembrance of things past , looks toward the future. MICHAEL NOV AK May 28, 1976 �SLOVAKIA 11 RESOLUTION UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED BYTHE BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION CONFERENCE OFTHE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA MARCH 27, 1976 On the occasion of the annual conference of the Slovak League of America held in the historic City of Philadelphia during this last weekend of March in our nation's bicentennial year, the officers and delegates lawfully assembled in the shadows of Independence Hall solemnly and unanimously reiterate our unswerving, permanent and loyal commitment and dedication to the basic moral and ethical principles herein enumerated: 1. Preservation and expansion of the moral truths enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights of the United States and in the Charter of the United Nations. 2. Condemnation of all forms of tyranny and totalitarian political systems , especially the atheistic philosophy of materialistic communism. 3. Conviction that the peaceful cooperation between countries based upon the principles enunciated in the Charter of the United Nations is in harmony with the aspirations and hopes of all peace-loving peoples and the basis of international peace . 4. Conviction that peace in Europe - and thus peace in the world - can never be complete until everywhere in Europe men can choose, in peace and freedom, how their countries will be governed. 5. Reaffirmation of our faith in fundamental human rights , in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the rights of men and women and of nations , large and small, to enjoy free government of the people , by the people and for the people. In accordance with the above as well as with the principles set forth in the Constitution and By-Laws of the Slovak League of America, we declare that: A. We, Slovak Americans of second, third and fourth United States generations , seek and will continue to seek our equitable share in the fruits and advantages which belong to us as much as they belong �12 SLOVAKIA to any other ethnic group making up the great mosaic which is these United States of America. B. We will continue to make our special contributions to these United States of America as our native or adopted country goes forward in its third century of growth and progress. C. We will continue to cherish our eleven hundred year old Christian tradition with our own Slovak language, songs, dances, arts and cultural specialties which set us apart as a special unit of the great Slav family of peoples. D. We will, by exercising our ethnic qualities, emulate our Slovak forbear Major Polerecky who, on behalf of the General of the Armies, George Washington, accepted the sword of surrender from General Cornwallis at Yorktown and our contemporary Slovak American, Captain Eugene Ceman, one of the first humans to land on and explore the moon. E. The eventual liberation of our brethren and kinsfolk in subjugated Slovakia, and, in the ecumenical spirit of the day, all mankind, from the tyranny and yoke of atheistic materialism of godless communism must and will be our continuous goal. NOW, THEREFORE, to give action to our hopes and aspirations, we respectfully submit that to effectuate the above declared ideals, we must, individually and collectively, through our chosen authorities of state and nation, seek assistance in remaking this world in which we live - now - today - this day and this week. We agree to continue to be inspired by our prayers and deliberations here at historic independence Hall being cognizant and especially appreciative of the great rights and privileges we enjoy as citizens of the greatest democracy in the history of mankind. Further, we authorize our League president and executive secretary to take such other action as they believe will be in the best interests and of assistance in bringing the above sentiments to the attention of such authorities and officials as they believe will bring to fruition our aspirations herein set forth. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, these resolutions have been unanimously adopted at our Bicentennial Conference here at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, this 27th day of March, 1976. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA Edward J. Behuncik, President John A. Holy, Executive Secretary \ � SLOVAKIA 1976 �(il( ill! l!E 3E 3E 3E 3E 3E fl" !B IIIIII IIIIII N at io na l 3E 3E 3E 3E 3E 3E 3E 3!B r.h Cz e~ & Sl ov ak . b ra ry M us eu m & Li Ce da r Ra p id s, III III III Io wa Pr es en te d by : ~ fflW IIIIII IIIIII III III III A~A- ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ID ID ID ID D at e: ~ ~ /9 9 ~ LI IIE 3E 3E 3E 3E 3E 3E ~ 3E 3E 3E 3E 3E 3E 31 l~ the nia l Me da l sponsored by vak Am eri ca n Bic en ten lic Slo tho Ca R st VE Fir CO T the ON (FR ission ffJnded by mm Co l nia ten en Bic n Slovak Am eri ca tio n.) Slovak Ladies As so cia �SLOVAKIA VOLUME XXVI 1976 MICHAEL NOVAK Editor DANIEL F. TANZONE Associate Editor EDITORIAL BOARD: Draga Divinska Joseph M. Kirschbaum Joseph C. Krajsa Susan Mikula Joseph A. Mikus Reverend Andrew V. Pier, O.S.B. Mark Stolarik Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. A Political Science and Historical Annual Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA Mailing Address: SLOVAKIA 17 Porach Street Yonkers, New York 10701 N0.49 �Printed By JEDNOTA PRINTERY Middletown, Pennsylva11_ia 17057 �SLOVAKIA 3 Table of Contents In Memoriam - Edward J. Behuncik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 In Memoriam: Dr. Joseph Pauco - F. Vnuk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Foreword - Edward J. Behuncik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Editor's Note - Dr. Michael Novak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Resolution by the Bicentennial Conference of the Slovak League of America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Immigration and Eastern Slovak Nationalism M . Mark Stolarik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Materialism and Morality: Slavic-American Immigrants and Education, 1890-1940 - John Bodnar ...... .. . . .... .. . 21 Slovak and Ruthenian Easter Eggs - Andrew Cincura . . . . . . . . . . 40 John J. Kubasek, Priest and Patriot - DanielF. Tanzone ... .... . 69 The Ideas of the Hlasist Movement - Anthony X. Sutherland 76 Selections from An Anthology of Slovak Literature Introductory Remarks by Andrew Cincura . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Slovakia on My Map - Margaret Matus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Book Reviews Prof. Joseph M. Kirschbaum ............................ Andrew V. Pier, O.S.B . ................................. Andrew Cincura . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Owen V. Johnson . . ....... . ................. . .... . . . . .. 111 117 122 126 Our Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inside Back Cover ��SLOVAKIA 5 Jn McmPriam .i. (1914-1975) This Bicentennial issue of Slovakia marks the first time since 1964 that its editor is not Dr. Joseph Pauco. Our late dedicated and devoted Secretary-Treasurer of the Slovak League of America, Dr. Pauco took over the editorship of Slovakia upon the death of our former League President, Philip A. Hrobak. Having served his people and his generation with unusual dedication, Dr. Pauco laid down his pen on November 18, 1975 at a time when we thought he was in the full tide of a buoyant, very active life, holding much promise and hope of continued fruitful service. His is a rare example of a life truly lived for God and country - ZA BOHA A NAROD!! Steadfast in his beliefs , he was ever the uncompromising opponent of injustice and tyranny, especially the atheistic tyranny of Communism - with an unusual wrath against those whom he deemed godless invaders and oppressors. An unshrinking patriot, the success of his efforts can, to a large extent, be measured by the slanderous attacks he suffered at times from diverse national and international sources. But always maintaining his hold on the ideal, he continued by his spoken, and more significantly by his written , word to give of his many talents to both his native and adopted countries and to Slovaks everywhere. His many published works relating to Slovak history and particularly Slovak American history have earned him a place of distinction among Slovakia's many gifted writers and authors. The pledge made at his graveside bears reaffirmation: ' ' Dear Doctor, we, whom you left behind, pledge to carry on ... ZA BOHA A NAROD ." EDWARD J. BEHUNCIK President, Slovak League of America �SLOVAKIA 6 ln iMemPriam . V DR. JOZEF PAUCO Editor of Slovakia from 1964 to 1975 After eleven years the masthead of Slovakia no longer bears the name of Dr. Jozef Pauco as its editor. He died on November 18th, 1975 after a short illness. Everybody who knew him - either personally or through his literary, journalistic and editorial work - would agree that the Slovak cause lost in him its most worthy defender. Dr. Jozef Pauco will certainly be remembered as one of the greatest names in the history of Slovak journalism. He selflessly dedicated the great talent of his pen to the services of his nation. From the earliest writing of his student days to the last series of his articles, studies , commentaries and editorials he faithfully followed a firm and unchanging line: to win for his nation those rights and liberties which were its due. During the years of Slovak independence (1939-45) Dr. Pauco was the Editor-in-Chief of the largest Slovak daily, Slovak. With the fall of the Slovak Republic he went into exile in order to fight for the restoration of Slovak independence. His skillful journalistic pen proved to be an effective weapon in this struggle. In 1950 he emigrated to the U.S.A. where he became the Assistant Editor of Jednota, the official organ of the First Catholic Slovak Union of the United States and Canada. But Dr. Pauco's energy and enthusiasm could not be exhausted in one job. Soon he was putting into action new plans and ideas. He was acutely aware that the Slovak cause needed patient explanation and elucidation in the political, academic and opinion-making circles of the Western World, particularly in the U.S. The enemies of the Slovak nation systematically - and regrettably with great measure of success - presented the Slovak struggle for independence as something subversive, dishonest and outr~eous. Dr. Jozef Pauco was one of those Slovak patriots who took upon themselves the task of changing this unsatisfactory state of affairs . They set out to expose falsehood , to defend the truth, to convince people that there was nothing subversive or unnatural in a nation's struggle for its independence . To promote and disseminate these ideas Dr. Pauco and his circle of friends launched a number of journals in the English language in which they tried to represent the political situation of Slovakia in its proper �SLOVAKIA 7 context and in its true light. Dr. Pauco, as the Secretary-General of the Slovak National Council Abroad, was the editor of the monthly, Bulletin of the Slovak National Council (appeared in 1953-58), and at the same time assisted P. A. Hrobak in editing another informative journal in the English language, Slovak Newsletter. The revue Slovakia "<as a far more ambitious and more durable project. It started its existence in 1950 when the Slovak League of America - prompted by its Secretary, Dr. Frantisek Hrusovsky decided to publish an English magazine dealing with Slovak cultural, political, historical and social affairs. The objectives of this magazine were stated thus: ''The chief purpose of Slovakia is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence.'' Initially the magazine was published quarterly but in the past 15 years it has been appearing as an annual publication. The first editor of Slovakia was Phillip A. Hrobak. Pauco's collaboration with this magazine started from the beginning. He provided not only editorial help but was also one of the most regular contributors. From 1964 (after the death of P. A. Hrobak) Dr. Jozef Pauco who in the meantime had been elected the Secretary of the Slovak League of America - took over the editorship. In the following eleven years he carried out this function expertly and efficiently. He tried hard and successfully to make Slovakia into a respected and representative revue. He gave Slovakia a new, more contemporary style. Prior to his editorship the content of Slovakia was largely made up of articles published originally in Slovak and intended primarily for the Slovak public. Dr. Pauco gradually changed that. He used to approach Slovak men of letters, Slovak historians and politicians with requests for specially written contributions. In this way there appeared in Slovakia many valuable essays and reviews in which various aspects of Slovak history, culture, politics, emigration, etc. were presented in an informative manner with the emphasis on those essentials in which a non-Slovak reader would be and should be interested. The imprint left by Pauco's dedicated and professional work is indelible and lasting. In compiling each issue of Slovakia Dr. Pauco tried to maintain an even balance. The variety of topics and the wide range of contributors from every corner of the world are an eloquent testimony to these efforts. No aspect of Slovak life, both past and present, was left untouched. From the study of the past issues of Slovakia the reader can obtain an undistorted picture of Slovaks, their country and their aspirations. In presenting this picture Dr. Pauco wanted to show to the free and freedom-loving people in the West the eventful history, the cultural riches and the political maturity of the Slovak nation. And in all this there was an implicit plea not so much for sympathy as for understanding. As an exiled son of a nation forcibly deprived of its in- �8 SLOVAKIA dependence, Dr. Jozef Pauco was valiantly striving to procure justice for his enslaved countrymen. The whole nation will gratefully remember his sacrifice and his devoted service. May he rest in peace! F. VNUK Australia �SLOVAKIA 9 Foreword As part of the Bicentennial programs of the Slovak League of America, we are happy to publish this special issue of our annual publication. After we suffered the loss of our long time editor, Dr. Joseph Pauco, who died on November 18, 1975, we fortunately obtained the services of Michael Novak, Slovak American author and lay theologian, as acting editor-in-chief. Into new hands is now committed the guidance and issuance of our Slovakia with all its heritage of things attained, with all its hopes of things to come. The hands of our current generation of Slovak Americans are new but they are firm and strong. Michael Novak brings to his task an equipment rare in fullness and rich in promise. The elders of our Slovak ethnics are cognizant that we are the passing instruments of a process that transcends our fleeting hour. We know that on each new generation this duty to take over the torch rests afresh. I am confident that the works compiled herein will mark the 1976 issue of Slovakia as an outstanding contribution by youthful Slovak Americans to the ethnic bicentennial and to the growing influence of the Slovak League and our affiliated organizations in the expended ethnic identification in America's pluralistic society. Accordingly, I am delighted, as President of the Slovak League, to express my official as well as personal gratitude to Dr. Novak and to the contributors whose works appear herein. To all to whom these lines appear, I wish you many moments of joyous, serious and rewarding reading and contemplative cogitation. EDWARD J. BEHUNCIK President �10 SLOVAKIA Editor's Note The untimely death of Joseph Pauco left a vacancy, hard to fill , in the editorship of Slovakia. After his arrival in America, Pauco served the aspirations of the Slovak people long and well. We stand in his debt, dedicating this issue to him. Yet, characteristically, life springs from death. In the vacuum he left, while the present editor stood confused and in need of help, younger talents sprang up to offer their assistance. Mark Stolarik and John Bodnar bring to Slovakia a taste of the new scholarship, which is slowly but deeply revising the picture of immigration held by American historians. Other young colleagues of theirs will, we hope, join us in the future and make of Slovakia one of the best outlets of the new scholarship . Andrew Cincura and Owen V. Johnson add depth and balance to this volume. The new anthology by Cincura will be a major event in Slovak life in English-speaking lands, an indispensable and herculean effort; we are pleased to offer the readers of Slovakia a foretaste of his large new book. Professor Johnson ' s cool, objective tone witnesses to a new level of maturity and frank, open disagreement proper to the world of high scholarship. In 1976, the United States is 200 years old. But the great migration from Eastern Slovakia to the U.S. is barely 100 years old. One hundred years! It is time, now, for a new chapter to be opened in SlovakAmerican life - a new level of scholarship, a new tone of voice, a new depth and energy, a new generation to pick up the long struggle of the brave, suffering peoples of the past. Slovaks do not stand alone at the present moment. On all sides , many other ethnic peoples - and all those millions of Americans of mixed ethnic ancestry - are struggling to gain a clearer idea of their own identity and of America's . Scholarship is desperately needed, as are repositories of letters, diaries, legal records, old newspapers, and material of all sorts that scholars might study. And we need writers, novelists, poets, dramatists, moviemakers, song-writers, reporters, journalists of all sorts . And political sophistication and clout. Who were our grandparents? Why did tn(!y come to America - or, for later migrants, why did they stay longer in Slovakia? In order to enter our future intelligently, we need · to understand our special history . This issue, then, having anchored itself in a remembrance of things past , looks toward the future. MICHAEL NOV AK May 28, 1976 �SLOVAKIA 11 RESOLUTION UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED BYTHE BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION CONFERENCE OFTHE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA MARCH 27, 1976 On the occasion of the annual conference of the Slovak League of America held in the historic City of Philadelphia during this last weekend of March in our nation's bicentennial year, the officers and delegates lawfully assembled in the shadows of Independence Hall solemnly and unanimously reiterate our unswerving, permanent and loyal commitment and dedication to the basic moral and ethical principles herein enumerated: 1. Preservation and expansion of the moral truths enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights of the United States and in the Charter of the United Nations. 2. Condemnation of all forms of tyranny and totalitarian political systems , especially the atheistic philosophy of materialistic communism. 3. Conviction that the peaceful cooperation between countries based upon the principles enunciated in the Charter of the United Nations is in harmony with the aspirations and hopes of all peace-loving peoples and the basis of international peace . 4. Conviction that peace in Europe - and thus peace in the world - can never be complete until everywhere in Europe men can choose, in peace and freedom, how their countries will be governed. 5. Reaffirmation of our faith in fundamental human rights , in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the rights of men and women and of nations , large and small, to enjoy free government of the people , by the people and for the people. In accordance with the above as well as with the principles set forth in the Constitution and By-Laws of the Slovak League of America, we declare that: A. We, Slovak Americans of second, third and fourth United States generations , seek and will continue to seek our equitable share in the fruits and advantages which belong to us as much as they belong �12 SLOVAKIA to any other ethnic group making up the great mosaic which is these United States of America. B. We will continue to make our special contributions to these United States of America as our native or adopted country goes forward in its third century of growth and progress. C. We will continue to cherish our eleven hundred year old Christian tradition with our own Slovak language, songs, dances, arts and cultural specialties which set us apart as a special unit of the great Slav family of peoples. D. We will, by exercising our ethnic qualities, emulate our Slovak forbear Major Polerecky who, on behalf of the General of the Armies, George Washington, accepted the sword of surrender from General Cornwallis at Yorktown and our contemporary Slovak American, Captain Eugene Ceman, one of the first humans to land on and explore the moon. E. The eventual liberation of our brethren and kinsfolk in subjugated Slovakia, and, in the ecumenical spirit of the day, all mankind, from the tyranny and yoke of atheistic materialism of godless communism must and will be our continuous goal. NOW, THEREFORE, to give action to our hopes and aspirations, we respectfully submit that to effectuate the above declared ideals, we must, individually and collectively, through our chosen authorities of state and nation, seek assistance in remaking this world in which we live - now - today - this day and this week. We agree to continue to be inspired by our prayers and deliberations here at historic independence Hall being cognizant and especially appreciative of the great rights and privileges we enjoy as citizens of the greatest democracy in the history of mankind. Further, we authorize our League president and executive secretary to take such other action as they believe will be in the best interests and of assistance in bringing the above sentiments to the attention of such authorities and officials as they believe will bring to fruition our aspirations herein set forth. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, these resolutions have been unanimously adopted at our Bicentennial Conference here at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, this 27th day of March, 1976. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA Edward J. Behuncik, President John A. Holy, Executive Secretary \ � 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 1976, Vol. 26 Description An account of the resource Vol. 26 (No. 49), 1976. 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 1976 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 1976 (il( ill! l!E 3E 3E 3E 3E 3E fl" !B IIIIII IIIIII N at io na l 3E 3E 3E 3E 3E 3E 3E 3!B r.h Cz e~ & Sl ov ak . b ra ry M us eu m & Li Ce da r Ra p id s, III III III Io wa Pr es en te d by : ~ fflW IIIIII IIIIII III III III A~A- ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ID ID ID ID D at e: ~ ~ /9 9 ~ LI IIE 3E 3E 3E 3E 3E 3E ~ 3E 3E 3E 3E 3E 3E 31 l~ the nia l Me da l sponsored by vak Am eri ca n Bic en ten lic Slo tho Ca R st VE Fir CO T the ON (FR ission ffJnded by mm Co l nia ten en Bic n Slovak Am eri ca tio n.) Slovak Ladies As so cia SLOVAKIA VOLUME XXVI 1976 MICHAEL NOVAK Editor DANIEL F. TANZONE Associate Editor EDITORIAL BOARD: Draga Divinska Joseph M. Kirschbaum Joseph C. Krajsa Susan Mikula Joseph A. Mikus Reverend Andrew V. Pier, O.S.B. Mark Stolarik Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. A Political Science and Historical Annual Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA Mailing Address: SLOVAKIA 17 Porach Street Yonkers, New York 10701 N0.49 Printed By JEDNOTA PRINTERY Middletown, Pennsylva11_ia 17057 SLOVAKIA 3 Table of Contents In Memoriam - Edward J. Behuncik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 In Memoriam: Dr. Joseph Pauco - F. Vnuk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Foreword - Edward J. Behuncik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Editor's Note - Dr. Michael Novak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Resolution by the Bicentennial Conference of the Slovak League of America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Immigration and Eastern Slovak Nationalism M . Mark Stolarik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Materialism and Morality: Slavic-American Immigrants and Education, 1890-1940 - John Bodnar ...... .. . . .... .. . 21 Slovak and Ruthenian Easter Eggs - Andrew Cincura . . . . . . . . . . 40 John J. Kubasek, Priest and Patriot - DanielF. Tanzone ... .... . 69 The Ideas of the Hlasist Movement - Anthony X. Sutherland 76 Selections from An Anthology of Slovak Literature Introductory Remarks by Andrew Cincura . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Slovakia on My Map - Margaret Matus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Book Reviews Prof. Joseph M. Kirschbaum ............................ Andrew V. Pier, O.S.B . ................................. Andrew Cincura . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Owen V. Johnson . . ....... . ................. . .... . . . . .. 111 117 122 126 Our Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inside Back Cover SLOVAKIA 5 Jn McmPriam .i. (1914-1975) This Bicentennial issue of Slovakia marks the first time since 1964 that its editor is not Dr. Joseph Pauco. Our late dedicated and devoted Secretary-Treasurer of the Slovak League of America, Dr. Pauco took over the editorship of Slovakia upon the death of our former League President, Philip A. Hrobak. Having served his people and his generation with unusual dedication, Dr. Pauco laid down his pen on November 18, 1975 at a time when we thought he was in the full tide of a buoyant, very active life, holding much promise and hope of continued fruitful service. His is a rare example of a life truly lived for God and country - ZA BOHA A NAROD!! Steadfast in his beliefs , he was ever the uncompromising opponent of injustice and tyranny, especially the atheistic tyranny of Communism - with an unusual wrath against those whom he deemed godless invaders and oppressors. An unshrinking patriot, the success of his efforts can, to a large extent, be measured by the slanderous attacks he suffered at times from diverse national and international sources. But always maintaining his hold on the ideal, he continued by his spoken, and more significantly by his written , word to give of his many talents to both his native and adopted countries and to Slovaks everywhere. His many published works relating to Slovak history and particularly Slovak American history have earned him a place of distinction among Slovakia's many gifted writers and authors. The pledge made at his graveside bears reaffirmation: ' ' Dear Doctor, we, whom you left behind, pledge to carry on ... ZA BOHA A NAROD ." EDWARD J. BEHUNCIK President, Slovak League of America SLOVAKIA 6 ln iMemPriam . V DR. JOZEF PAUCO Editor of Slovakia from 1964 to 1975 After eleven years the masthead of Slovakia no longer bears the name of Dr. Jozef Pauco as its editor. He died on November 18th, 1975 after a short illness. Everybody who knew him - either personally or through his literary, journalistic and editorial work - would agree that the Slovak cause lost in him its most worthy defender. Dr. Jozef Pauco will certainly be remembered as one of the greatest names in the history of Slovak journalism. He selflessly dedicated the great talent of his pen to the services of his nation. From the earliest writing of his student days to the last series of his articles, studies , commentaries and editorials he faithfully followed a firm and unchanging line: to win for his nation those rights and liberties which were its due. During the years of Slovak independence (1939-45) Dr. Pauco was the Editor-in-Chief of the largest Slovak daily, Slovak. With the fall of the Slovak Republic he went into exile in order to fight for the restoration of Slovak independence. His skillful journalistic pen proved to be an effective weapon in this struggle. In 1950 he emigrated to the U.S.A. where he became the Assistant Editor of Jednota, the official organ of the First Catholic Slovak Union of the United States and Canada. But Dr. Pauco's energy and enthusiasm could not be exhausted in one job. Soon he was putting into action new plans and ideas. He was acutely aware that the Slovak cause needed patient explanation and elucidation in the political, academic and opinion-making circles of the Western World, particularly in the U.S. The enemies of the Slovak nation systematically - and regrettably with great measure of success - presented the Slovak struggle for independence as something subversive, dishonest and outr~eous. Dr. Jozef Pauco was one of those Slovak patriots who took upon themselves the task of changing this unsatisfactory state of affairs . They set out to expose falsehood , to defend the truth, to convince people that there was nothing subversive or unnatural in a nation's struggle for its independence . To promote and disseminate these ideas Dr. Pauco and his circle of friends launched a number of journals in the English language in which they tried to represent the political situation of Slovakia in its proper SLOVAKIA 7 context and in its true light. Dr. Pauco, as the Secretary-General of the Slovak National Council Abroad, was the editor of the monthly, Bulletin of the Slovak National Council (appeared in 1953-58), and at the same time assisted P. A. Hrobak in editing another informative journal in the English language, Slovak Newsletter. The revue Slovakia "<as a far more ambitious and more durable project. It started its existence in 1950 when the Slovak League of America - prompted by its Secretary, Dr. Frantisek Hrusovsky decided to publish an English magazine dealing with Slovak cultural, political, historical and social affairs. The objectives of this magazine were stated thus: ''The chief purpose of Slovakia is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence.'' Initially the magazine was published quarterly but in the past 15 years it has been appearing as an annual publication. The first editor of Slovakia was Phillip A. Hrobak. Pauco's collaboration with this magazine started from the beginning. He provided not only editorial help but was also one of the most regular contributors. From 1964 (after the death of P. A. Hrobak) Dr. Jozef Pauco who in the meantime had been elected the Secretary of the Slovak League of America - took over the editorship. In the following eleven years he carried out this function expertly and efficiently. He tried hard and successfully to make Slovakia into a respected and representative revue. He gave Slovakia a new, more contemporary style. Prior to his editorship the content of Slovakia was largely made up of articles published originally in Slovak and intended primarily for the Slovak public. Dr. Pauco gradually changed that. He used to approach Slovak men of letters, Slovak historians and politicians with requests for specially written contributions. In this way there appeared in Slovakia many valuable essays and reviews in which various aspects of Slovak history, culture, politics, emigration, etc. were presented in an informative manner with the emphasis on those essentials in which a non-Slovak reader would be and should be interested. The imprint left by Pauco's dedicated and professional work is indelible and lasting. In compiling each issue of Slovakia Dr. Pauco tried to maintain an even balance. The variety of topics and the wide range of contributors from every corner of the world are an eloquent testimony to these efforts. No aspect of Slovak life, both past and present, was left untouched. From the study of the past issues of Slovakia the reader can obtain an undistorted picture of Slovaks, their country and their aspirations. In presenting this picture Dr. Pauco wanted to show to the free and freedom-loving people in the West the eventful history, the cultural riches and the political maturity of the Slovak nation. And in all this there was an implicit plea not so much for sympathy as for understanding. As an exiled son of a nation forcibly deprived of its in- 8 SLOVAKIA dependence, Dr. Jozef Pauco was valiantly striving to procure justice for his enslaved countrymen. The whole nation will gratefully remember his sacrifice and his devoted service. May he rest in peace! F. VNUK Australia SLOVAKIA 9 Foreword As part of the Bicentennial programs of the Slovak League of America, we are happy to publish this special issue of our annual publication. After we suffered the loss of our long time editor, Dr. Joseph Pauco, who died on November 18, 1975, we fortunately obtained the services of Michael Novak, Slovak American author and lay theologian, as acting editor-in-chief. Into new hands is now committed the guidance and issuance of our Slovakia with all its heritage of things attained, with all its hopes of things to come. The hands of our current generation of Slovak Americans are new but they are firm and strong. Michael Novak brings to his task an equipment rare in fullness and rich in promise. The elders of our Slovak ethnics are cognizant that we are the passing instruments of a process that transcends our fleeting hour. We know that on each new generation this duty to take over the torch rests afresh. I am confident that the works compiled herein will mark the 1976 issue of Slovakia as an outstanding contribution by youthful Slovak Americans to the ethnic bicentennial and to the growing influence of the Slovak League and our affiliated organizations in the expended ethnic identification in America's pluralistic society. Accordingly, I am delighted, as President of the Slovak League, to express my official as well as personal gratitude to Dr. Novak and to the contributors whose works appear herein. To all to whom these lines appear, I wish you many moments of joyous, serious and rewarding reading and contemplative cogitation. EDWARD J. BEHUNCIK President 10 SLOVAKIA Editor's Note The untimely death of Joseph Pauco left a vacancy, hard to fill , in the editorship of Slovakia. After his arrival in America, Pauco served the aspirations of the Slovak people long and well. We stand in his debt, dedicating this issue to him. Yet, characteristically, life springs from death. In the vacuum he left, while the present editor stood confused and in need of help, younger talents sprang up to offer their assistance. Mark Stolarik and John Bodnar bring to Slovakia a taste of the new scholarship, which is slowly but deeply revising the picture of immigration held by American historians. Other young colleagues of theirs will, we hope, join us in the future and make of Slovakia one of the best outlets of the new scholarship . Andrew Cincura and Owen V. Johnson add depth and balance to this volume. The new anthology by Cincura will be a major event in Slovak life in English-speaking lands, an indispensable and herculean effort; we are pleased to offer the readers of Slovakia a foretaste of his large new book. Professor Johnson ' s cool, objective tone witnesses to a new level of maturity and frank, open disagreement proper to the world of high scholarship. In 1976, the United States is 200 years old. But the great migration from Eastern Slovakia to the U.S. is barely 100 years old. One hundred years! It is time, now, for a new chapter to be opened in SlovakAmerican life - a new level of scholarship, a new tone of voice, a new depth and energy, a new generation to pick up the long struggle of the brave, suffering peoples of the past. Slovaks do not stand alone at the present moment. On all sides , many other ethnic peoples - and all those millions of Americans of mixed ethnic ancestry - are struggling to gain a clearer idea of their own identity and of America's . Scholarship is desperately needed, as are repositories of letters, diaries, legal records, old newspapers, and material of all sorts that scholars might study. And we need writers, novelists, poets, dramatists, moviemakers, song-writers, reporters, journalists of all sorts . And political sophistication and clout. Who were our grandparents? Why did tn(!y come to America - or, for later migrants, why did they stay longer in Slovakia? In order to enter our future intelligently, we need · to understand our special history . This issue, then, having anchored itself in a remembrance of things past , looks toward the future. MICHAEL NOV AK May 28, 1976 SLOVAKIA 11 RESOLUTION UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED BYTHE BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION CONFERENCE OFTHE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA MARCH 27, 1976 On the occasion of the annual conference of the Slovak League of America held in the historic City of Philadelphia during this last weekend of March in our nation's bicentennial year, the officers and delegates lawfully assembled in the shadows of Independence Hall solemnly and unanimously reiterate our unswerving, permanent and loyal commitment and dedication to the basic moral and ethical principles herein enumerated: 1. Preservation and expansion of the moral truths enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights of the United States and in the Charter of the United Nations. 2. Condemnation of all forms of tyranny and totalitarian political systems , especially the atheistic philosophy of materialistic communism. 3. Conviction that the peaceful cooperation between countries based upon the principles enunciated in the Charter of the United Nations is in harmony with the aspirations and hopes of all peace-loving peoples and the basis of international peace . 4. Conviction that peace in Europe - and thus peace in the world - can never be complete until everywhere in Europe men can choose, in peace and freedom, how their countries will be governed. 5. Reaffirmation of our faith in fundamental human rights , in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the rights of men and women and of nations , large and small, to enjoy free government of the people , by the people and for the people. In accordance with the above as well as with the principles set forth in the Constitution and By-Laws of the Slovak League of America, we declare that: A. We, Slovak Americans of second, third and fourth United States generations , seek and will continue to seek our equitable share in the fruits and advantages which belong to us as much as they belong 12 SLOVAKIA to any other ethnic group making up the great mosaic which is these United States of America. B. We will continue to make our special contributions to these United States of America as our native or adopted country goes forward in its third century of growth and progress. C. We will continue to cherish our eleven hundred year old Christian tradition with our own Slovak language, songs, dances, arts and cultural specialties which set us apart as a special unit of the great Slav family of peoples. D. We will, by exercising our ethnic qualities, emulate our Slovak forbear Major Polerecky who, on behalf of the General of the Armies, George Washington, accepted the sword of surrender from General Cornwallis at Yorktown and our contemporary Slovak American, Captain Eugene Ceman, one of the first humans to land on and explore the moon. E. The eventual liberation of our brethren and kinsfolk in subjugated Slovakia, and, in the ecumenical spirit of the day, all mankind, from the tyranny and yoke of atheistic materialism of godless communism must and will be our continuous goal. NOW, THEREFORE, to give action to our hopes and aspirations, we respectfully submit that to effectuate the above declared ideals, we must, individually and collectively, through our chosen authorities of state and nation, seek assistance in remaking this world in which we live - now - today - this day and this week. We agree to continue to be inspired by our prayers and deliberations here at historic independence Hall being cognizant and especially appreciative of the great rights and privileges we enjoy as citizens of the greatest democracy in the history of mankind. Further, we authorize our League president and executive secretary to take such other action as they believe will be in the best interests and of assistance in bringing the above sentiments to the attention of such authorities and officials as they believe will bring to fruition our aspirations herein set forth. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, these resolutions have been unanimously adopted at our Bicentennial Conference here at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, this 27th day of March, 1976. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA Edward J. Behuncik, President John A. Holy, Executive Secretary \  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. 26 (No. 49) Description An account of the resource includes In Memoriam (Edward J. Behuncik); In Memoriam: Dr. Joseph Paučo (F. Vnuk); Foreword (Edward J. Behuncik); Editor's Note (Michael Novak), Resolution by the Bicentennial Conference of the Slovak League of America Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Vnuk, František, 1926- Behuncik, Edward J. Novak, Michael, 1933-2017 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1976 LCNAF+dates name SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/925e1172817fcf3aae8ab06168d7f2c3.pdf aa810d47743180d2874305b37a9043da PDF Text Text ��SLOVAKIA VOLUME XXVII 19n MICHAEL NOVAK Editor EDITORIAL BOARD: Draga Divinska Joseph M. Kirschbaum Joseph C. Krajsa Susan Mikula Joseph A. Mikus Rev. Andrew V. Pier, O.S.B. Mark Stolarik Daniel F. Tanzone Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. A Political Science and Historical Annual Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA Mailing Address: SLOVAKIA 870 Rifle Camp Road West Paterson, N.J. 07424 N0.50 �Printed by JEDNOTA PRINTERY P.O . Box 150 Middletown, Pennsylvania 17057 U.S.A. �SLOVAKIA 3 Table of Contents From the Editor - Michael Novak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Remarks by Edward J . Behuncik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 THE MASSACRE AT LATIIMER MINES September 10, 1897 - Three Accounts The Lattimer Massacre and Its Sources George A . Turner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 The Lattimer Massacre - Konstantin Culen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 The Lattimer Massacre and Trial Harry B . Schooley, m . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Immigration, Education, and the Social Mobility of Slovaks , 1870-1930 - M. Mark Stolarik ..... . . . . .. . . . .. . . 80 Preludes to "Charter ' 77 " - TheodoricJ. Zubek, O.F.M. .. ... .. . 91 A Call for Courage - Hana Ponickti Introduction by J.M. Kirschbaum .. . . .. ... . .. .. .. .. . . .... . 107 The Nationalist Movements of the Austrian Slavs in 1848: A Comparative Sociological Profile Stanley Z. Pech .................. . .. . ...... .. ...... . ... . 113 A Slovak-American Perspective in a Changing Society Alexander J . Rudinsky .............. . ............. . ..... 136 Book Review - J. M. Kirschbaum .. . ..... .. .. . . . .. . . ......... 144 Our Contributors . . . ..... . . . . ... ......... .. . . ... ...... . .... . 147 ��SLOVAKIA 5 From the Editor One of the most significant events in Slovak American history was the massacre at Lattimer Mines, outside Hazleton, Pennsylvania, which occurred on September 10, 1897. The strike of that summer, led by Slavic laborers, including many Slovaks, was a turning point in the history of the United Mine Workers. No historian has ever recorded the full account of the events of September 10th, although Victor Greene's important and pioneering work, The Slavic Community on Strike (Notre Dame University Press) did lay bare the larger context and Edward Pinkowski' s pamphlet (Philadelphia: The Sunshine Press) kept the story alive. The most thorough work on the massacre has been prepared by Professor George A. Turner of Bloomsburg State College in a series of articles and Slovakia is honored to carry in full one of his comprehensive studies on the subject. His is an authoritative voice in the field. Years ago, Konstantin Culen devoted chapters 5 through 9 of his History of the Slovaks in America (Dejiny Slovakov v Amerike), vol. 1, (Nakladatefstvo Slovenskej Ligy v Bratislave, 1942), to this tragic event. In the strong, fluent, and authentic translation by the indefatigable and perceptive Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M., of the Jankola Library in Danville, Pennsylvania, we are privileged to make these pages available in English for the first time. Culen's work is significant because it records not only the facts but also the interpretation given to the massacre in the Slovak-American communities of that time. A third paper on Lattimer is also included. Professor Schooley wrote this essay twelve years ago, as an undergraduate, and was at first reluctant to allow its publication. On some matters of fact and detail, there are errors in the text; Professor Turner's thorough knowledge and research is here the more basic document. But our younger readers can take heart from Schooley's work; his documentation and vivid interpretation helped to create interest in this event within the local historical societies and libraries of the region, when older scholars had forgotten it. There are many other treasures in this volume, demonstrating some of the range of interests of our writers and readers. The report on "Charter 77" is especially important. We are also pleased to have Dr. Kirschbaum's review of Professor Skilling's important book. Meanwhile, manuscripts for next year's edition are already arriving. Manuscripts may be sent to the editor at any time, but preferably before June 1, 1978. My warmest thanks and appreciation go to Messrs. Edward Behuncik and John Holy, Officers of the Slovak League of America, for �6 SLOVAKIA their support; to Joseph C. Krajsa, Editor of Jednota , and his coworkers at the Jednota Printery; and to my colleagues, Daniel F. Tanzone and Sister M. Martina Tybor, for their generous assistance. MICHAEL NOV AK, Editor Department of Religion Syracuse University Syracuse , New York 13210 �SLOVAKIA 7 Remarks by Edward J. Behuncik Made at the 70th Anniversary Slovak League of America Banquet Hotel Cleveland Sheraton Cleveland, Ohio Sunday, May 15, 1977 As today's successor to our esteemed founder , Father Stefan Furdek, I am delighted to have this opportunity to greet all of you. Before making my brief remarks, I take this occasion publicly to extend my official as well as personal thanks to all you fine Ohio Slovaks who worked so diligently in preparing this anniversary celebration. Thank you one and all. Now, with apologies to the immortal Abraham Lincoln , I proceed with my remarks. Three score and ten years ago, our forefathers brought forth on this continent, a new federation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that Slovaks are coequal with all men. Now we are engaged in a great moral war, testing whether that federation, or any federation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met at the founding site of our federation. We have come to rededicate ourselves and to pay tribute to those who gave of their lives and honor that this federation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot rededicate - we cannot glorify we cannot hallow this site. The brave Slovaks - living and dead - who struggled here for Slovak ethnicity, have consecrated our cause far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long rememb er what we say here, but it can never forget what Father Stefan Furdek and his associates did here . It is for us , the living , rather to be rededicated here to the unfinished work which they who struggled and sacrificed have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here rededicated to the great task remaining before us - that from our honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they lived and died - For God and Nation - Za Boha a Na.rod; that we here highly resolve that these our founders and predecessors shall not have sacrificed in vain - that this federation - The Slovak League of America - under God , shall in this age of American ethnicity have rebirth of freedom and of increased leadership and productivity so that government of the Slovak people, by the Slovak people, for the Slovak people be established in a free �8 SLOVAKIA Slovakia, and that in this manner we help to make certain that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth. Thank you. � ��SLOVAKIA VOLUME XXVII 19n MICHAEL NOVAK Editor EDITORIAL BOARD: Draga Divinska Joseph M. Kirschbaum Joseph C. Krajsa Susan Mikula Joseph A. Mikus Rev. Andrew V. Pier, O.S.B. Mark Stolarik Daniel F. Tanzone Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. A Political Science and Historical Annual Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA Mailing Address: SLOVAKIA 870 Rifle Camp Road West Paterson, N.J. 07424 N0.50 �Printed by JEDNOTA PRINTERY P.O . Box 150 Middletown, Pennsylvania 17057 U.S.A. �SLOVAKIA 3 Table of Contents From the Editor - Michael Novak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Remarks by Edward J . Behuncik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 THE MASSACRE AT LATIIMER MINES September 10, 1897 - Three Accounts The Lattimer Massacre and Its Sources George A . Turner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 The Lattimer Massacre - Konstantin Culen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 The Lattimer Massacre and Trial Harry B . Schooley, m . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Immigration, Education, and the Social Mobility of Slovaks , 1870-1930 - M. Mark Stolarik ..... . . . . .. . . . .. . . 80 Preludes to "Charter ' 77 " - TheodoricJ. Zubek, O.F.M. .. ... .. . 91 A Call for Courage - Hana Ponickti Introduction by J.M. Kirschbaum .. . . .. ... . .. .. .. .. . . .... . 107 The Nationalist Movements of the Austrian Slavs in 1848: A Comparative Sociological Profile Stanley Z. Pech .................. . .. . ...... .. ...... . ... . 113 A Slovak-American Perspective in a Changing Society Alexander J . Rudinsky .............. . ............. . ..... 136 Book Review - J. M. Kirschbaum .. . ..... .. .. . . . .. . . ......... 144 Our Contributors . . . ..... . . . . ... ......... .. . . ... ...... . .... . 147 ��SLOVAKIA 5 From the Editor One of the most significant events in Slovak American history was the massacre at Lattimer Mines, outside Hazleton, Pennsylvania, which occurred on September 10, 1897. The strike of that summer, led by Slavic laborers, including many Slovaks, was a turning point in the history of the United Mine Workers. No historian has ever recorded the full account of the events of September 10th, although Victor Greene's important and pioneering work, The Slavic Community on Strike (Notre Dame University Press) did lay bare the larger context and Edward Pinkowski' s pamphlet (Philadelphia: The Sunshine Press) kept the story alive. The most thorough work on the massacre has been prepared by Professor George A. Turner of Bloomsburg State College in a series of articles and Slovakia is honored to carry in full one of his comprehensive studies on the subject. His is an authoritative voice in the field. Years ago, Konstantin Culen devoted chapters 5 through 9 of his History of the Slovaks in America (Dejiny Slovakov v Amerike), vol. 1, (Nakladatefstvo Slovenskej Ligy v Bratislave, 1942), to this tragic event. In the strong, fluent, and authentic translation by the indefatigable and perceptive Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M., of the Jankola Library in Danville, Pennsylvania, we are privileged to make these pages available in English for the first time. Culen's work is significant because it records not only the facts but also the interpretation given to the massacre in the Slovak-American communities of that time. A third paper on Lattimer is also included. Professor Schooley wrote this essay twelve years ago, as an undergraduate, and was at first reluctant to allow its publication. On some matters of fact and detail, there are errors in the text; Professor Turner's thorough knowledge and research is here the more basic document. But our younger readers can take heart from Schooley's work; his documentation and vivid interpretation helped to create interest in this event within the local historical societies and libraries of the region, when older scholars had forgotten it. There are many other treasures in this volume, demonstrating some of the range of interests of our writers and readers. The report on "Charter 77" is especially important. We are also pleased to have Dr. Kirschbaum's review of Professor Skilling's important book. Meanwhile, manuscripts for next year's edition are already arriving. Manuscripts may be sent to the editor at any time, but preferably before June 1, 1978. My warmest thanks and appreciation go to Messrs. Edward Behuncik and John Holy, Officers of the Slovak League of America, for �6 SLOVAKIA their support; to Joseph C. Krajsa, Editor of Jednota , and his coworkers at the Jednota Printery; and to my colleagues, Daniel F. Tanzone and Sister M. Martina Tybor, for their generous assistance. MICHAEL NOV AK, Editor Department of Religion Syracuse University Syracuse , New York 13210 �SLOVAKIA 7 Remarks by Edward J. Behuncik Made at the 70th Anniversary Slovak League of America Banquet Hotel Cleveland Sheraton Cleveland, Ohio Sunday, May 15, 1977 As today's successor to our esteemed founder , Father Stefan Furdek, I am delighted to have this opportunity to greet all of you. Before making my brief remarks, I take this occasion publicly to extend my official as well as personal thanks to all you fine Ohio Slovaks who worked so diligently in preparing this anniversary celebration. Thank you one and all. Now, with apologies to the immortal Abraham Lincoln , I proceed with my remarks. Three score and ten years ago, our forefathers brought forth on this continent, a new federation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that Slovaks are coequal with all men. Now we are engaged in a great moral war, testing whether that federation, or any federation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met at the founding site of our federation. We have come to rededicate ourselves and to pay tribute to those who gave of their lives and honor that this federation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot rededicate - we cannot glorify we cannot hallow this site. The brave Slovaks - living and dead - who struggled here for Slovak ethnicity, have consecrated our cause far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long rememb er what we say here, but it can never forget what Father Stefan Furdek and his associates did here . It is for us , the living , rather to be rededicated here to the unfinished work which they who struggled and sacrificed have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here rededicated to the great task remaining before us - that from our honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they lived and died - For God and Nation - Za Boha a Na.rod; that we here highly resolve that these our founders and predecessors shall not have sacrificed in vain - that this federation - The Slovak League of America - under God , shall in this age of American ethnicity have rebirth of freedom and of increased leadership and productivity so that government of the Slovak people, by the Slovak people, for the Slovak people be established in a free �8 SLOVAKIA Slovakia, and that in this manner we help to make certain that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth. Thank you. � 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 1977, Vol. 27 Description An account of the resource Vol. 27 (No. 50), 1977. 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 1977 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 VOLUME XXVII 19n MICHAEL NOVAK Editor EDITORIAL BOARD: Draga Divinska Joseph M. Kirschbaum Joseph C. Krajsa Susan Mikula Joseph A. Mikus Rev. Andrew V. Pier, O.S.B. Mark Stolarik Daniel F. Tanzone Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. A Political Science and Historical Annual Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA Mailing Address: SLOVAKIA 870 Rifle Camp Road West Paterson, N.J. 07424 N0.50 Printed by JEDNOTA PRINTERY P.O . Box 150 Middletown, Pennsylvania 17057 U.S.A. SLOVAKIA 3 Table of Contents From the Editor - Michael Novak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Remarks by Edward J . Behuncik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 THE MASSACRE AT LATIIMER MINES September 10, 1897 - Three Accounts The Lattimer Massacre and Its Sources George A . Turner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 The Lattimer Massacre - Konstantin Culen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 The Lattimer Massacre and Trial Harry B . Schooley, m . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Immigration, Education, and the Social Mobility of Slovaks , 1870-1930 - M. Mark Stolarik ..... . . . . .. . . . .. . . 80 Preludes to "Charter ' 77 " - TheodoricJ. Zubek, O.F.M. .. ... .. . 91 A Call for Courage - Hana Ponickti Introduction by J.M. Kirschbaum .. . . .. ... . .. .. .. .. . . .... . 107 The Nationalist Movements of the Austrian Slavs in 1848: A Comparative Sociological Profile Stanley Z. Pech .................. . .. . ...... .. ...... . ... . 113 A Slovak-American Perspective in a Changing Society Alexander J . Rudinsky .............. . ............. . ..... 136 Book Review - J. M. Kirschbaum .. . ..... .. .. . . . .. . . ......... 144 Our Contributors . . . ..... . . . . ... ......... .. . . ... ...... . .... . 147 SLOVAKIA 5 From the Editor One of the most significant events in Slovak American history was the massacre at Lattimer Mines, outside Hazleton, Pennsylvania, which occurred on September 10, 1897. The strike of that summer, led by Slavic laborers, including many Slovaks, was a turning point in the history of the United Mine Workers. No historian has ever recorded the full account of the events of September 10th, although Victor Greene's important and pioneering work, The Slavic Community on Strike (Notre Dame University Press) did lay bare the larger context and Edward Pinkowski' s pamphlet (Philadelphia: The Sunshine Press) kept the story alive. The most thorough work on the massacre has been prepared by Professor George A. Turner of Bloomsburg State College in a series of articles and Slovakia is honored to carry in full one of his comprehensive studies on the subject. His is an authoritative voice in the field. Years ago, Konstantin Culen devoted chapters 5 through 9 of his History of the Slovaks in America (Dejiny Slovakov v Amerike), vol. 1, (Nakladatefstvo Slovenskej Ligy v Bratislave, 1942), to this tragic event. In the strong, fluent, and authentic translation by the indefatigable and perceptive Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M., of the Jankola Library in Danville, Pennsylvania, we are privileged to make these pages available in English for the first time. Culen's work is significant because it records not only the facts but also the interpretation given to the massacre in the Slovak-American communities of that time. A third paper on Lattimer is also included. Professor Schooley wrote this essay twelve years ago, as an undergraduate, and was at first reluctant to allow its publication. On some matters of fact and detail, there are errors in the text; Professor Turner's thorough knowledge and research is here the more basic document. But our younger readers can take heart from Schooley's work; his documentation and vivid interpretation helped to create interest in this event within the local historical societies and libraries of the region, when older scholars had forgotten it. There are many other treasures in this volume, demonstrating some of the range of interests of our writers and readers. The report on "Charter 77" is especially important. We are also pleased to have Dr. Kirschbaum's review of Professor Skilling's important book. Meanwhile, manuscripts for next year's edition are already arriving. Manuscripts may be sent to the editor at any time, but preferably before June 1, 1978. My warmest thanks and appreciation go to Messrs. Edward Behuncik and John Holy, Officers of the Slovak League of America, for 6 SLOVAKIA their support; to Joseph C. Krajsa, Editor of Jednota , and his coworkers at the Jednota Printery; and to my colleagues, Daniel F. Tanzone and Sister M. Martina Tybor, for their generous assistance. MICHAEL NOV AK, Editor Department of Religion Syracuse University Syracuse , New York 13210 SLOVAKIA 7 Remarks by Edward J. Behuncik Made at the 70th Anniversary Slovak League of America Banquet Hotel Cleveland Sheraton Cleveland, Ohio Sunday, May 15, 1977 As today's successor to our esteemed founder , Father Stefan Furdek, I am delighted to have this opportunity to greet all of you. Before making my brief remarks, I take this occasion publicly to extend my official as well as personal thanks to all you fine Ohio Slovaks who worked so diligently in preparing this anniversary celebration. Thank you one and all. Now, with apologies to the immortal Abraham Lincoln , I proceed with my remarks. Three score and ten years ago, our forefathers brought forth on this continent, a new federation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that Slovaks are coequal with all men. Now we are engaged in a great moral war, testing whether that federation, or any federation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met at the founding site of our federation. We have come to rededicate ourselves and to pay tribute to those who gave of their lives and honor that this federation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot rededicate - we cannot glorify we cannot hallow this site. The brave Slovaks - living and dead - who struggled here for Slovak ethnicity, have consecrated our cause far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long rememb er what we say here, but it can never forget what Father Stefan Furdek and his associates did here . It is for us , the living , rather to be rededicated here to the unfinished work which they who struggled and sacrificed have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here rededicated to the great task remaining before us - that from our honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they lived and died - For God and Nation - Za Boha a Na.rod; that we here highly resolve that these our founders and predecessors shall not have sacrificed in vain - that this federation - The Slovak League of America - under God , shall in this age of American ethnicity have rebirth of freedom and of increased leadership and productivity so that government of the Slovak people, by the Slovak people, for the Slovak people be established in a free 8 SLOVAKIA Slovakia, and that in this manner we help to make certain that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth. Thank you.  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. 27 (No. 50) Description An account of the resource includes From the Editor (Michael Novak); Remarks by Edward J. Behuncik Made at the 70th Anniversary Slovak League of America Banquet Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Novak, Michael, 1933-2017 Behuncik, Edward J. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 LCNAF+dates name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/373dcb5dcadbb689ab0d20fc92179869.pdf 21166dcc775a59692ccd3b141054bf7b PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 1978-79 Published By THE SLOVAK LEAGUE ( OF AMERICA ����SLOVAKIA VOLUME XXVIII 1978-1979 DOUBLE ISSUE NOS. 61-62 \ A Political, Science and Historical Annual Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE Of AMERICA MICHAEL NOVAK Executive Editor M. MARK STOLARIK Managing Editor, Book Review Editor EDITORIAL BOARD: Draga Divinska Joseph M. Kirschbaum Joseph C. Krajsa Susan Mikula Joseph A. Mikus Rev. Andrew V. Pier, O.S.B. Daniel F. Tanzone Sr. M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. BOARD OF ACADEMIC ADVISORS: David P. Daniel Thomas D. Marzik Owen V. Johnson Stanley Z. Pech M. Mark Mazurik, Chairman Mailing Address: SLOVAKIA 870 Rifle Camp Road West Paterson, N.J. 07424 ��SLOVAKIA Table of Contents An Important Notice from the Editor MichaelNovak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 A Message from the President Edward J. Behunc) k . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 A Challenge for Slovak Americans Luby Holy .. . . . ............ ...... .. .. .............. . ... 11 ARTICLES The Slovak State in Post-war Historiography YeshayahuJelinek . . ..... . ............. . ....... .. .. . .... 17 The Slovak Intelligentsia, 1918-1938 Owen V. Johnson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 The Protestant Reformation and Slovak Ethnic Consciousness David P. Daniel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 From Field to Factory: The Historiography of Slovak Immigration to the United States M. Mark Stolarik ............... . .... . . ... ............ .. 66 A Note for Researchers Stanley B. Kimball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 FICTION Reminiscences of a Slovak Miner George P. Resick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 The Man Who Made Good in America Thomas Bell ...... . ... ... ..... .... .. . . ................. 107 �SLOVAKIA '' Baked Blockheads' ' Frantisek Hetko .... . . . ... . . . . . . . ... . . . . . ... . . . . ... . ... . 113 The Sorrows of Marienka V. S. Koban .. ........ ............... . .. . ........ . . . .... 119 Success Story Alvena Seckar ...... . . . ... . . . ......... ... .. .. ... ........ 133 The New Spring Eudo Ondrejov . .. . ... . . .......... . .... . ..... . .......... 140 BOOK REVIEWS The Guns of Lattimer Paul Wilkes .. . . .. . . . . .. ...... . . . . . . . ... . . . . ... . . . . ..... 145 The Czechs in America; Slovaks in America June Granatir Alexander . .. . . ... . .......... . .. .. .. . . . . . . . 147 The Hussite Movement and the Reformation in Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia (1350-1650) Peter Brock ..... . . ......... . . . .. . . . .. ....... . ... .. ..... 152 \ Our Contributors ... . .. .. . .. . . ... .... . ... ·. . . . . . . . . . .. ....... 155 �An Important Notice From The Editor With this double issue, representing both 1978 and 1979, SLOVAKIA hopes to establish a new schedule for annual publication. In order to have each issue out by midyear, our deadline for new manuscripts and book reviews will be set at December 31 of the preceding year. For the 1980 issue, we are particularly anxious to publish manuscripts assessing the illfated Slovak Republic, just past forty years after its birth. Manuscripts on this or other appropriate subjects must reach the editors by December 31 , 1979. Mark Stolarik, Executive Director of The Balch Institute, (18 South 7th Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106) has agreed to assist me as managing editor of SLOVAKIA. All manuscripts should be mailed to him in triplicate, with a stamped, self-addressed return envelope. This procedure will facilitate consultation with our distinguished board of advisors . I once again express my gratitude to all whose labors made this double issue possible , without whose generous collaboration my task would be insuperable . MICHAEL NOV AK Editor ��A Messag·~ from the President Again, the Slovak League of America is honored to have this issue of SLOVAKIA edited by Dr. Michael Novak, our fellow Slovak American, nationally syndicated columnist, leader and professor of religion. With each issue, under his editorship, our renowned publication makes greater strides toward higher literary achievement as it outgrows its parochial outlook. We are all grateful to Michael Novak for his valuable help in this respect. This issue is the first to contain mention of the Slovak League of America Heritage Foundation, Ltd. I particularly recommend study of the excellent article on the Foundation appearing herein by Miss Luby Holy. I am certain that it will serve as an inspiration and incentive to all of you. I hope it will also result in your own active participation in our efforts to raise substantial funds for the preservation, promotion and perpetuation of our centuries-old, rich heritage of Slovak culture, arts, language and traditions. It is my earnest desire that when we close out our Slovak Heritage Drive in 1982, on the occasion of the League's 75th or diamond jubilee, we will have a well financed Foundation firmly established. This will permit our undertaking the many worthy projects yet to be fulfilled by the young generation of educated, dedicated and productive Slovak Americans, all proud of their ethnic origins. So long as the Slovak League of America, with its diverse affiliates (that is, the Slovak League of America Scholarship Fund, Inc., the American Fund for Slovak Refugees, Inc. and the Slovak League of America Heritage Foundation, Ltd.) continues, with your support, as the central cultural and civic body of the organized Slovak Americans, we can and will be able to say, as the songwriter expresses it in "Hej Slovaci": "Zije, zije duch Slovensky bude zit' na veky." ("The Slovak spirit lives, it lives, it will live forever.") EDWARD J. BEHUNCIK President ��SLOVAKIA 11 A Challenge for Slovak Americans \ ' LUBYHOLY On November 13, 1977, the Slovak League of America Executive Board met in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for no ordinary conclave. Matters discussed and implemented during this session would, in- the future, have far reaching effects for those of Slovak heritage living in the free world. For the second time in the twentieth century, a major comprehensive fund drive to benefit the causes of Slovaks was inaugurated by the Slovak League of America. This drive, a broadly based campaign being conducted to create a financial base for the preservation, promotion and advancement of the rich Slovak culture, language, and heritage, became known as the Slovak Heritage Drive of the Slovak League of America Heritage Foundation, Ltd. The idea of conducting a wide scale fund-raising campaign to amass a financial reservoir for the purpose of preserving and advancing the Slovak heritage had been circulating among Slovaks for some time prior to the actual implementation of the Slovak Heritage Drive. Impetus was given to initiating this campaign during the 70th anniversary convention of the Slovak League of America in May, 1977, when Slovak World Congress President Stephen B. Roman in his keynote address suggested that the SLA start a new million dollar drive whose monies would be used to promote the Slovak heritage and aid the collective causes of all peoples of Slovak ancestry. As added incentive to institute such a reservoir, Mr. Roman offered to himself donate a quarter of a million dollars to the fund , if all other Slovaks of the free world would collectively contribute $750,000. Following this public pledge, Slovak League officials set about laying the necessary framework to make the Slovak Heritage Drive an active entity. After 6 months of preliminary legwork and consultations, the campaign was ready to be launched, and an Executive Board meeting was called to Pittsburgh to effectuate the Drive. During this November, 1977, conclave , the Slovak League of America Heritage Foundation, Ltd. (SLAHF, Ltd.) was established as a fund-managing and distributing unit of the Slovak League , which would specifically handle monies associated with the Slovak Heritage Drive. It was decided that the Foundation would initially be managed by the Board of Directors who comprised the Executive Board of the �12 SLOVAKIA Slovak League of America. This Board consisted of Edward J. Behuncik, President; John A. Holy, Secretary; and Board Members: Michael J . Zahorsky, President of the First Catholic Slovak Union; Louise M. Yash, President of the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association; George J. Kostelnik, President of the Slovak Catholic Sokol; Irma A. Vrbancic, President of the Pennsylvania Catholic Slovak Ladies Union; Stephen J. Kavulic, President of the Pennsylvania Catholic Slovak Union; and Slovak League Executive Board members, Andrew F . Hudak and Dr. Joseph Mikula. Gregor Chren of Stratford, Connecticut, was added to the SLAHF , Ltd. Board as its Treasurer. The Foundation was later incorporated in the state of Connecticut as a non-profit, non-stock, charitable and cultural corporation, and achieved tax exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service. All contributions to the Fund would therefore be tax-deductible. The establishment of the Slovak Heritage Drive under the auspices of the SLAHF, Ltd. was meant to reinforce the credibility of national programs identified with the Drive , and to associate the Drive with the internationally respected Slovak League. Monies collected by the Slovak Heritage Drive would be allocated to: 1) Preserve and expand existing Slovak Cultural Institutions such as libraries, institutes, publications, etc.; 2) Initiate new projects and programs for the advancement of the Slovak culture and ethnicity in the United States and other countries ; 3) Publish books and informative pamphlets about the Slovak Nation and American Slovaks, including history, culture and national goals ; 4) Establish youth-oriented programs to encourage greater involvement of younger generations of Slovak Americans in our cultural activities, fraternal organizations, and Slovak 'Americ~ life in general; 5) Support projects and activities in other countries on behalf of the Slovak cause; and 6) Provide funds for situations which necessitate speedy actions and decisions in the interests of Slovaks in America and elsewhere. Thus organized, the SLAHF , Ltd . immediately set forth to accomplish its task. The first three donations, $100 from Andrew F. Hudak, $100 from John A. Holy and $250 from Edward J. Behuncik, were duly accepted and recorded by the Foundation on November 13, 1977. The Slovak Heritage Drive was officially underway. By January 6, 1978, the Slovak League of America Heritage Foundation, Ltd. deposited its first $1 ,000 of contributions into a new account at the People 's Savings Bank in Bridgeport, Connecticut. �SLOVAKIA 13 Governing Board members launched publicity campaigns for the Drive with the cooperation of the various Slovak American societies and organizations and members -of the Slovak American press such as the Jednota , Katolicky Sokol}. Slovak v Amerike , and Zenska Jednota publications, and momentum was gained. At the time of this writing (February, 1979) , approximately $19,000 has already been collected. Slovak Americans are becoming aware of the Slovak Heritage Drive 's importance and are contributing generously. Slovak League President Edward J. Behuncik and his wife Catherine , for instance , have set a fine example for others. Mr. and Mrs. Behuncik donated $5 ,000 to the Drive at the 1978 SLA Congress in Chicago in addition to their original $250 donation, and are at present the largest contributors to the Slovak Heritage Drive. To further the Drive ' s progress and to make more individuals and Slovak societies aware of the Fund and its goals, flyers and pamphlets are currently being printed. Mass mailings and an intensive publicity campaign is being planned for the coming months and years . The Slovak Heritage Drive is slated to continue until May, 1982, when the Slovak League of America celebrates its 75th anniversary. It is hoped that by this time , Slovaks in the free world will have amassed one million dollars for the fund , of which $750,000 will have come from contributions during the Drive's duration, and $250 ,000 from Mr. Roman. It has been said that the measure of dedication is that which one is willing to sacrifice. Fifty or sixty years ago, another generation of Slovak Americans was able to raise one million dollars in an heroic effort to save the Slovak nation. Surely in this age of affluence, today's Slovaks should be able to raise one million dollars for their cultural needs and self-preservation as a viable ethnic entity in the cultural mosiac that is America. The present generation of Slovak Americans has a task - indeed, an historical duty - to guarantee that its institutions of culture and its national life will not perish for want of material needs. In this duty, we must not fail. �� SLOVAKIA 1978-79 Published By THE SLOVAK LEAGUE ( OF AMERICA ����SLOVAKIA VOLUME XXVIII 1978-1979 DOUBLE ISSUE NOS. 61-62 \ A Political, Science and Historical Annual Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE Of AMERICA MICHAEL NOVAK Executive Editor M. MARK STOLARIK Managing Editor, Book Review Editor EDITORIAL BOARD: Draga Divinska Joseph M. Kirschbaum Joseph C. Krajsa Susan Mikula Joseph A. Mikus Rev. Andrew V. Pier, O.S.B. Daniel F. Tanzone Sr. M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. BOARD OF ACADEMIC ADVISORS: David P. Daniel Thomas D. Marzik Owen V. Johnson Stanley Z. Pech M. Mark Mazurik, Chairman Mailing Address: SLOVAKIA 870 Rifle Camp Road West Paterson, N.J. 07424 ��SLOVAKIA Table of Contents An Important Notice from the Editor MichaelNovak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 A Message from the President Edward J. Behunc) k . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 A Challenge for Slovak Americans Luby Holy .. . . . ............ ...... .. .. .............. . ... 11 ARTICLES The Slovak State in Post-war Historiography YeshayahuJelinek . . ..... . ............. . ....... .. .. . .... 17 The Slovak Intelligentsia, 1918-1938 Owen V. Johnson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 The Protestant Reformation and Slovak Ethnic Consciousness David P. Daniel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 From Field to Factory: The Historiography of Slovak Immigration to the United States M. Mark Stolarik ............... . .... . . ... ............ .. 66 A Note for Researchers Stanley B. Kimball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 FICTION Reminiscences of a Slovak Miner George P. Resick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 The Man Who Made Good in America Thomas Bell ...... . ... ... ..... .... .. . . ................. 107 �SLOVAKIA '' Baked Blockheads' ' Frantisek Hetko .... . . . ... . . . . . . . ... . . . . . ... . . . . ... . ... . 113 The Sorrows of Marienka V. S. Koban .. ........ ............... . .. . ........ . . . .... 119 Success Story Alvena Seckar ...... . . . ... . . . ......... ... .. .. ... ........ 133 The New Spring Eudo Ondrejov . .. . ... . . .......... . .... . ..... . .......... 140 BOOK REVIEWS The Guns of Lattimer Paul Wilkes .. . . .. . . . . .. ...... . . . . . . . ... . . . . ... . . . . ..... 145 The Czechs in America; Slovaks in America June Granatir Alexander . .. . . ... . .......... . .. .. .. . . . . . . . 147 The Hussite Movement and the Reformation in Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia (1350-1650) Peter Brock ..... . . ......... . . . .. . . . .. ....... . ... .. ..... 152 \ Our Contributors ... . .. .. . .. . . ... .... . ... ·. . . . . . . . . . .. ....... 155 �An Important Notice From The Editor With this double issue, representing both 1978 and 1979, SLOVAKIA hopes to establish a new schedule for annual publication. In order to have each issue out by midyear, our deadline for new manuscripts and book reviews will be set at December 31 of the preceding year. For the 1980 issue, we are particularly anxious to publish manuscripts assessing the illfated Slovak Republic, just past forty years after its birth. Manuscripts on this or other appropriate subjects must reach the editors by December 31 , 1979. Mark Stolarik, Executive Director of The Balch Institute, (18 South 7th Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106) has agreed to assist me as managing editor of SLOVAKIA. All manuscripts should be mailed to him in triplicate, with a stamped, self-addressed return envelope. This procedure will facilitate consultation with our distinguished board of advisors . I once again express my gratitude to all whose labors made this double issue possible , without whose generous collaboration my task would be insuperable . MICHAEL NOV AK Editor ��A Messag·~ from the President Again, the Slovak League of America is honored to have this issue of SLOVAKIA edited by Dr. Michael Novak, our fellow Slovak American, nationally syndicated columnist, leader and professor of religion. With each issue, under his editorship, our renowned publication makes greater strides toward higher literary achievement as it outgrows its parochial outlook. We are all grateful to Michael Novak for his valuable help in this respect. This issue is the first to contain mention of the Slovak League of America Heritage Foundation, Ltd. I particularly recommend study of the excellent article on the Foundation appearing herein by Miss Luby Holy. I am certain that it will serve as an inspiration and incentive to all of you. I hope it will also result in your own active participation in our efforts to raise substantial funds for the preservation, promotion and perpetuation of our centuries-old, rich heritage of Slovak culture, arts, language and traditions. It is my earnest desire that when we close out our Slovak Heritage Drive in 1982, on the occasion of the League's 75th or diamond jubilee, we will have a well financed Foundation firmly established. This will permit our undertaking the many worthy projects yet to be fulfilled by the young generation of educated, dedicated and productive Slovak Americans, all proud of their ethnic origins. So long as the Slovak League of America, with its diverse affiliates (that is, the Slovak League of America Scholarship Fund, Inc., the American Fund for Slovak Refugees, Inc. and the Slovak League of America Heritage Foundation, Ltd.) continues, with your support, as the central cultural and civic body of the organized Slovak Americans, we can and will be able to say, as the songwriter expresses it in "Hej Slovaci": "Zije, zije duch Slovensky bude zit' na veky." ("The Slovak spirit lives, it lives, it will live forever.") EDWARD J. BEHUNCIK President ��SLOVAKIA 11 A Challenge for Slovak Americans \ ' LUBYHOLY On November 13, 1977, the Slovak League of America Executive Board met in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for no ordinary conclave. Matters discussed and implemented during this session would, in- the future, have far reaching effects for those of Slovak heritage living in the free world. For the second time in the twentieth century, a major comprehensive fund drive to benefit the causes of Slovaks was inaugurated by the Slovak League of America. This drive, a broadly based campaign being conducted to create a financial base for the preservation, promotion and advancement of the rich Slovak culture, language, and heritage, became known as the Slovak Heritage Drive of the Slovak League of America Heritage Foundation, Ltd. The idea of conducting a wide scale fund-raising campaign to amass a financial reservoir for the purpose of preserving and advancing the Slovak heritage had been circulating among Slovaks for some time prior to the actual implementation of the Slovak Heritage Drive. Impetus was given to initiating this campaign during the 70th anniversary convention of the Slovak League of America in May, 1977, when Slovak World Congress President Stephen B. Roman in his keynote address suggested that the SLA start a new million dollar drive whose monies would be used to promote the Slovak heritage and aid the collective causes of all peoples of Slovak ancestry. As added incentive to institute such a reservoir, Mr. Roman offered to himself donate a quarter of a million dollars to the fund , if all other Slovaks of the free world would collectively contribute $750,000. Following this public pledge, Slovak League officials set about laying the necessary framework to make the Slovak Heritage Drive an active entity. After 6 months of preliminary legwork and consultations, the campaign was ready to be launched, and an Executive Board meeting was called to Pittsburgh to effectuate the Drive. During this November, 1977, conclave , the Slovak League of America Heritage Foundation, Ltd. (SLAHF, Ltd.) was established as a fund-managing and distributing unit of the Slovak League , which would specifically handle monies associated with the Slovak Heritage Drive. It was decided that the Foundation would initially be managed by the Board of Directors who comprised the Executive Board of the �12 SLOVAKIA Slovak League of America. This Board consisted of Edward J. Behuncik, President; John A. Holy, Secretary; and Board Members: Michael J . Zahorsky, President of the First Catholic Slovak Union; Louise M. Yash, President of the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association; George J. Kostelnik, President of the Slovak Catholic Sokol; Irma A. Vrbancic, President of the Pennsylvania Catholic Slovak Ladies Union; Stephen J. Kavulic, President of the Pennsylvania Catholic Slovak Union; and Slovak League Executive Board members, Andrew F . Hudak and Dr. Joseph Mikula. Gregor Chren of Stratford, Connecticut, was added to the SLAHF , Ltd. Board as its Treasurer. The Foundation was later incorporated in the state of Connecticut as a non-profit, non-stock, charitable and cultural corporation, and achieved tax exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service. All contributions to the Fund would therefore be tax-deductible. The establishment of the Slovak Heritage Drive under the auspices of the SLAHF, Ltd. was meant to reinforce the credibility of national programs identified with the Drive , and to associate the Drive with the internationally respected Slovak League. Monies collected by the Slovak Heritage Drive would be allocated to: 1) Preserve and expand existing Slovak Cultural Institutions such as libraries, institutes, publications, etc.; 2) Initiate new projects and programs for the advancement of the Slovak culture and ethnicity in the United States and other countries ; 3) Publish books and informative pamphlets about the Slovak Nation and American Slovaks, including history, culture and national goals ; 4) Establish youth-oriented programs to encourage greater involvement of younger generations of Slovak Americans in our cultural activities, fraternal organizations, and Slovak 'Americ~ life in general; 5) Support projects and activities in other countries on behalf of the Slovak cause; and 6) Provide funds for situations which necessitate speedy actions and decisions in the interests of Slovaks in America and elsewhere. Thus organized, the SLAHF , Ltd . immediately set forth to accomplish its task. The first three donations, $100 from Andrew F. Hudak, $100 from John A. Holy and $250 from Edward J. Behuncik, were duly accepted and recorded by the Foundation on November 13, 1977. The Slovak Heritage Drive was officially underway. By January 6, 1978, the Slovak League of America Heritage Foundation, Ltd. deposited its first $1 ,000 of contributions into a new account at the People 's Savings Bank in Bridgeport, Connecticut. �SLOVAKIA 13 Governing Board members launched publicity campaigns for the Drive with the cooperation of the various Slovak American societies and organizations and members -of the Slovak American press such as the Jednota , Katolicky Sokol}. Slovak v Amerike , and Zenska Jednota publications, and momentum was gained. At the time of this writing (February, 1979) , approximately $19,000 has already been collected. Slovak Americans are becoming aware of the Slovak Heritage Drive 's importance and are contributing generously. Slovak League President Edward J. Behuncik and his wife Catherine , for instance , have set a fine example for others. Mr. and Mrs. Behuncik donated $5 ,000 to the Drive at the 1978 SLA Congress in Chicago in addition to their original $250 donation, and are at present the largest contributors to the Slovak Heritage Drive. To further the Drive ' s progress and to make more individuals and Slovak societies aware of the Fund and its goals, flyers and pamphlets are currently being printed. Mass mailings and an intensive publicity campaign is being planned for the coming months and years . The Slovak Heritage Drive is slated to continue until May, 1982, when the Slovak League of America celebrates its 75th anniversary. It is hoped that by this time , Slovaks in the free world will have amassed one million dollars for the fund , of which $750,000 will have come from contributions during the Drive's duration, and $250 ,000 from Mr. Roman. It has been said that the measure of dedication is that which one is willing to sacrifice. Fifty or sixty years ago, another generation of Slovak Americans was able to raise one million dollars in an heroic effort to save the Slovak nation. Surely in this age of affluence, today's Slovaks should be able to raise one million dollars for their cultural needs and self-preservation as a viable ethnic entity in the cultural mosiac that is America. The present generation of Slovak Americans has a task - indeed, an historical duty - to guarantee that its institutions of culture and its national life will not perish for want of material needs. In this duty, we must not fail. �� 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 1978-79, Vol. 28 Description An account of the resource Vol. 28 (No. 51-52), 1978-79. 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 1978-79 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 1978-79 Published By THE SLOVAK LEAGUE ( OF AMERICA SLOVAKIA VOLUME XXVIII 1978-1979 DOUBLE ISSUE NOS. 61-62 \ A Political, Science and Historical Annual Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE Of AMERICA MICHAEL NOVAK Executive Editor M. MARK STOLARIK Managing Editor, Book Review Editor EDITORIAL BOARD: Draga Divinska Joseph M. Kirschbaum Joseph C. Krajsa Susan Mikula Joseph A. Mikus Rev. Andrew V. Pier, O.S.B. Daniel F. Tanzone Sr. M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. BOARD OF ACADEMIC ADVISORS: David P. Daniel Thomas D. Marzik Owen V. Johnson Stanley Z. Pech M. Mark Mazurik, Chairman Mailing Address: SLOVAKIA 870 Rifle Camp Road West Paterson, N.J. 07424 SLOVAKIA Table of Contents An Important Notice from the Editor MichaelNovak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 A Message from the President Edward J. Behunc) k . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 A Challenge for Slovak Americans Luby Holy .. . . . ............ ...... .. .. .............. . ... 11 ARTICLES The Slovak State in Post-war Historiography YeshayahuJelinek . . ..... . ............. . ....... .. .. . .... 17 The Slovak Intelligentsia, 1918-1938 Owen V. Johnson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 The Protestant Reformation and Slovak Ethnic Consciousness David P. Daniel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 From Field to Factory: The Historiography of Slovak Immigration to the United States M. Mark Stolarik ............... . .... . . ... ............ .. 66 A Note for Researchers Stanley B. Kimball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 FICTION Reminiscences of a Slovak Miner George P. Resick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 The Man Who Made Good in America Thomas Bell ...... . ... ... ..... .... .. . . ................. 107 SLOVAKIA '' Baked Blockheads' ' Frantisek Hetko .... . . . ... . . . . . . . ... . . . . . ... . . . . ... . ... . 113 The Sorrows of Marienka V. S. Koban .. ........ ............... . .. . ........ . . . .... 119 Success Story Alvena Seckar ...... . . . ... . . . ......... ... .. .. ... ........ 133 The New Spring Eudo Ondrejov . .. . ... . . .......... . .... . ..... . .......... 140 BOOK REVIEWS The Guns of Lattimer Paul Wilkes .. . . .. . . . . .. ...... . . . . . . . ... . . . . ... . . . . ..... 145 The Czechs in America; Slovaks in America June Granatir Alexander . .. . . ... . .......... . .. .. .. . . . . . . . 147 The Hussite Movement and the Reformation in Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia (1350-1650) Peter Brock ..... . . ......... . . . .. . . . .. ....... . ... .. ..... 152 \ Our Contributors ... . .. .. . .. . . ... .... . ... ·. . . . . . . . . . .. ....... 155 An Important Notice From The Editor With this double issue, representing both 1978 and 1979, SLOVAKIA hopes to establish a new schedule for annual publication. In order to have each issue out by midyear, our deadline for new manuscripts and book reviews will be set at December 31 of the preceding year. For the 1980 issue, we are particularly anxious to publish manuscripts assessing the illfated Slovak Republic, just past forty years after its birth. Manuscripts on this or other appropriate subjects must reach the editors by December 31 , 1979. Mark Stolarik, Executive Director of The Balch Institute, (18 South 7th Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106) has agreed to assist me as managing editor of SLOVAKIA. All manuscripts should be mailed to him in triplicate, with a stamped, self-addressed return envelope. This procedure will facilitate consultation with our distinguished board of advisors . I once again express my gratitude to all whose labors made this double issue possible , without whose generous collaboration my task would be insuperable . MICHAEL NOV AK Editor A Messag·~ from the President Again, the Slovak League of America is honored to have this issue of SLOVAKIA edited by Dr. Michael Novak, our fellow Slovak American, nationally syndicated columnist, leader and professor of religion. With each issue, under his editorship, our renowned publication makes greater strides toward higher literary achievement as it outgrows its parochial outlook. We are all grateful to Michael Novak for his valuable help in this respect. This issue is the first to contain mention of the Slovak League of America Heritage Foundation, Ltd. I particularly recommend study of the excellent article on the Foundation appearing herein by Miss Luby Holy. I am certain that it will serve as an inspiration and incentive to all of you. I hope it will also result in your own active participation in our efforts to raise substantial funds for the preservation, promotion and perpetuation of our centuries-old, rich heritage of Slovak culture, arts, language and traditions. It is my earnest desire that when we close out our Slovak Heritage Drive in 1982, on the occasion of the League's 75th or diamond jubilee, we will have a well financed Foundation firmly established. This will permit our undertaking the many worthy projects yet to be fulfilled by the young generation of educated, dedicated and productive Slovak Americans, all proud of their ethnic origins. So long as the Slovak League of America, with its diverse affiliates (that is, the Slovak League of America Scholarship Fund, Inc., the American Fund for Slovak Refugees, Inc. and the Slovak League of America Heritage Foundation, Ltd.) continues, with your support, as the central cultural and civic body of the organized Slovak Americans, we can and will be able to say, as the songwriter expresses it in "Hej Slovaci": "Zije, zije duch Slovensky bude zit' na veky." ("The Slovak spirit lives, it lives, it will live forever.") EDWARD J. BEHUNCIK President SLOVAKIA 11 A Challenge for Slovak Americans \ ' LUBYHOLY On November 13, 1977, the Slovak League of America Executive Board met in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for no ordinary conclave. Matters discussed and implemented during this session would, in- the future, have far reaching effects for those of Slovak heritage living in the free world. For the second time in the twentieth century, a major comprehensive fund drive to benefit the causes of Slovaks was inaugurated by the Slovak League of America. This drive, a broadly based campaign being conducted to create a financial base for the preservation, promotion and advancement of the rich Slovak culture, language, and heritage, became known as the Slovak Heritage Drive of the Slovak League of America Heritage Foundation, Ltd. The idea of conducting a wide scale fund-raising campaign to amass a financial reservoir for the purpose of preserving and advancing the Slovak heritage had been circulating among Slovaks for some time prior to the actual implementation of the Slovak Heritage Drive. Impetus was given to initiating this campaign during the 70th anniversary convention of the Slovak League of America in May, 1977, when Slovak World Congress President Stephen B. Roman in his keynote address suggested that the SLA start a new million dollar drive whose monies would be used to promote the Slovak heritage and aid the collective causes of all peoples of Slovak ancestry. As added incentive to institute such a reservoir, Mr. Roman offered to himself donate a quarter of a million dollars to the fund , if all other Slovaks of the free world would collectively contribute $750,000. Following this public pledge, Slovak League officials set about laying the necessary framework to make the Slovak Heritage Drive an active entity. After 6 months of preliminary legwork and consultations, the campaign was ready to be launched, and an Executive Board meeting was called to Pittsburgh to effectuate the Drive. During this November, 1977, conclave , the Slovak League of America Heritage Foundation, Ltd. (SLAHF, Ltd.) was established as a fund-managing and distributing unit of the Slovak League , which would specifically handle monies associated with the Slovak Heritage Drive. It was decided that the Foundation would initially be managed by the Board of Directors who comprised the Executive Board of the 12 SLOVAKIA Slovak League of America. This Board consisted of Edward J. Behuncik, President; John A. Holy, Secretary; and Board Members: Michael J . Zahorsky, President of the First Catholic Slovak Union; Louise M. Yash, President of the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association; George J. Kostelnik, President of the Slovak Catholic Sokol; Irma A. Vrbancic, President of the Pennsylvania Catholic Slovak Ladies Union; Stephen J. Kavulic, President of the Pennsylvania Catholic Slovak Union; and Slovak League Executive Board members, Andrew F . Hudak and Dr. Joseph Mikula. Gregor Chren of Stratford, Connecticut, was added to the SLAHF , Ltd. Board as its Treasurer. The Foundation was later incorporated in the state of Connecticut as a non-profit, non-stock, charitable and cultural corporation, and achieved tax exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service. All contributions to the Fund would therefore be tax-deductible. The establishment of the Slovak Heritage Drive under the auspices of the SLAHF, Ltd. was meant to reinforce the credibility of national programs identified with the Drive , and to associate the Drive with the internationally respected Slovak League. Monies collected by the Slovak Heritage Drive would be allocated to: 1) Preserve and expand existing Slovak Cultural Institutions such as libraries, institutes, publications, etc.; 2) Initiate new projects and programs for the advancement of the Slovak culture and ethnicity in the United States and other countries ; 3) Publish books and informative pamphlets about the Slovak Nation and American Slovaks, including history, culture and national goals ; 4) Establish youth-oriented programs to encourage greater involvement of younger generations of Slovak Americans in our cultural activities, fraternal organizations, and Slovak 'Americ~ life in general; 5) Support projects and activities in other countries on behalf of the Slovak cause; and 6) Provide funds for situations which necessitate speedy actions and decisions in the interests of Slovaks in America and elsewhere. Thus organized, the SLAHF , Ltd . immediately set forth to accomplish its task. The first three donations, $100 from Andrew F. Hudak, $100 from John A. Holy and $250 from Edward J. Behuncik, were duly accepted and recorded by the Foundation on November 13, 1977. The Slovak Heritage Drive was officially underway. By January 6, 1978, the Slovak League of America Heritage Foundation, Ltd. deposited its first $1 ,000 of contributions into a new account at the People 's Savings Bank in Bridgeport, Connecticut. SLOVAKIA 13 Governing Board members launched publicity campaigns for the Drive with the cooperation of the various Slovak American societies and organizations and members -of the Slovak American press such as the Jednota , Katolicky Sokol}. Slovak v Amerike , and Zenska Jednota publications, and momentum was gained. At the time of this writing (February, 1979) , approximately $19,000 has already been collected. Slovak Americans are becoming aware of the Slovak Heritage Drive 's importance and are contributing generously. Slovak League President Edward J. Behuncik and his wife Catherine , for instance , have set a fine example for others. Mr. and Mrs. Behuncik donated $5 ,000 to the Drive at the 1978 SLA Congress in Chicago in addition to their original $250 donation, and are at present the largest contributors to the Slovak Heritage Drive. To further the Drive ' s progress and to make more individuals and Slovak societies aware of the Fund and its goals, flyers and pamphlets are currently being printed. Mass mailings and an intensive publicity campaign is being planned for the coming months and years . The Slovak Heritage Drive is slated to continue until May, 1982, when the Slovak League of America celebrates its 75th anniversary. It is hoped that by this time , Slovaks in the free world will have amassed one million dollars for the fund , of which $750,000 will have come from contributions during the Drive's duration, and $250 ,000 from Mr. Roman. It has been said that the measure of dedication is that which one is willing to sacrifice. Fifty or sixty years ago, another generation of Slovak Americans was able to raise one million dollars in an heroic effort to save the Slovak nation. Surely in this age of affluence, today's Slovaks should be able to raise one million dollars for their cultural needs and self-preservation as a viable ethnic entity in the cultural mosiac that is America. The present generation of Slovak Americans has a task - indeed, an historical duty - to guarantee that its institutions of culture and its national life will not perish for want of material needs. In this duty, we must not fail.  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. 28 (No. 51-52) Description An account of the resource includes An Important Notice from the Editor (Michael Novak); A Message from the President (Edward J. Behuncik); A Challenge for Slovak Americans (Luby Holy) Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Novak, Michael, 1933-2017 Behuncik, Edward J. Holy, Luby Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1978-79 LCNAF+dates name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/b194a94420b8280836a000cff9bdc153.pdf efe5228e5c66ec4d035069e682d78be1 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 1984 Published By THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA ��SLOVAKIA VOLUME XXXI NUMBER 57 1984 A schola rl y annu al devoted to the hi story, lit erature, and culture of Slovaks the world over Edi1or M . MARK STOLARIK The Ba lch I nstitute for Ethni c Studies A ssocia1e Edilor THOMAS D . MARZ IK Saint J ose ph 's Universit y Editorial Board GEORGE J DEMKO U.S. De partm ent of Sta te MI C HA EL NOVA K Am eri ca n Enterprise In stitute DAVID P . DA N I EL Co ncord ia Theological Seminary STANLEY Z. PECH Universi ty of British Colu mbia OWEN V JOH NSON India na Uni,·ersity NO RMA L. RU DI NS KY Oregon State U ni ve rsit y S/01·;,k League Ad,·isory Boa rd EDWARDJ DRAGA D IV INS KA J OSEPH C KRAJSA BEH UNC IK JOH N A . H OLY DAN I EL F. TANZONE Pu blisher Th e Slo,·a k League of Ameri ca c/o J ohn A. H oly, Sec retary -Treas urer 870 Ri0 e Camp R oad W est Paterson, N .J . 07424 Inquiries regarding subscrip ti o ns should be add ressed to J o hn H oly M an uscript s fo r possible publication an d boo ks for re,· iew sho uld be se nt to M . M a rk Stola rik , Edit or, S!o ,·a kia, 700 Penfie ld Ave., H a,-cnow n , Pa . 19083. ��SLOVAKIA A Message from the President Again it is my pleasure to introduce another issue of our highlyregarded scholarly a nnual, Slovakia. W e welcome Dr. Thomas D. Marzik, Associate Professor of History at St. J oseph 's University in Philadelphia, Pennsylva nia, as our associate edito r. H e is a n established scholar who has done ex tensive research in Slovakia, and I a m co nfide nt th a t h e will a bl y assist our ed itor , Dr. M . M ark Stola rik , in editin g our schola rly journal. Afte r an enthusiastic response, with many positive rev iews , of our las t " literary " issu e of Slovakia, edited by Mrs. Norma Rudin sky, we a re returnin g to our regular format. Our Slovak-American youth is p a rticularly urged to take advan tage of the opportunities presented by Dr. Stolarik and his editorial board to become bette r acquainted with our ri ch Slovak heritage. W e are members of a n ancient ethni c group which, in God 's good tim e , will ac hieve its ri ghtful pl ace in the family of na tions. Among the Slovak League's purposes in publishing Slovakia, a nd issuing other docum ents su ch as resolutions and memoranda , is to have the non-Slovak world learn about the people be neath the Tatra mountains ( a nd their diaspora), their culture, history and traditions. Many of the sc holars who con tribute to Slovakia play a n active role in conferences of the American Association for the Advan ce m e nt of Slavic Studies, held a nnu all y in American cities. These gatherings provide our youth with a nother opportunity to learn about Slovak history and culture. While we all recognize that the Slovak nation rightfully aspires, with our su pport , to achieve self-determination in a political system of its own choos in g, we also recognize that this will not co m e about until the hold of the Soviet Union upon our people in Czecho-Slovakia weakens. Meanwhile, one of the best ways for u s to kee p the Slova k cause alive a nd �4 SLOVAKIA in the eyes of the ge neral public is to suppo rt such important publicati ons a s Slovakia. By encouraging, and publishin g, seriou s works of scholarship on the Slovak people, we will continu e to win th e respect of schol ars, journalists and politi cians and pave the way for future co nsiderations of Slovak self-determination in the world fo rum . In thi s way we will remain tru e to the m andate esta blished by our ancestors who fo unded the Slovak League of America in Cleveland , Ohio in 1907 . They helped liberate our nation from Hun garian oppression in 1918 and , with G od 's help , we will m ake a similar co n tributi on in the fu ture. EDWARD J. BE HUN C IK , President Slovak League of Ameri ca �SLOVAKIA 5 Table of Contents A M essage from the President Edward]. B ehun cik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 HISTORY Mi grant R esponses to the City: The Neighborhood , Case Studies in Blac k and White, 1870-1940 J am es and Susan Borch ert 8 The Mati ca slovenska and Its Relation to the Development of Sl ovak Litera ture N orm a L . Rudinsk y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 The M od ernization of Slovakia: The R ole of V ocational High Schools , 1918-1938 Owen V. J ohnson 59 LITERATURE Excerpt from " In Due Season " Paul Wilkes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 My Grandfather ' s Silence Patricia Ondek L auren ce .. . . .... .... . . . .. . .. .. . . . .. . ... 101 Bro ken Line Ca rol T o warnick y 107 REVIEW ARTICLE ' Audi Alteram Pa rtem ': Eva Slavkovska, " V zt'ah sta tu k cirkvam v prvyc h rokoch vystavby socializmu na Slovensku" Th eodoric ]. Zubek . ............... . ........ . .. . .. . ... 11 3 REVIEWS R obin Okey, Ea stern Europ e, 1740-1980 (R . Vladimir Baumgarten) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Milorad M . Drachkovitch , ed . , East Central Europe U ose[ K alvoda) .. . .. .. .. . . .. ........... . ... . . . . . ... . . 121 �6 SLOVAKIA Rudolf Kraj covic, S vedectvo dejfn o slo ven cine (G erald J. Sabo) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 r.udovft Novak, K n ajstarsfm dejinam slo ven skeh o j azyka U ohn M . K ochik) .. . . . ......................... . . . ... 124 Frantisek K alesny , H abani na Sloven sku (Peter Brock) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Au gust A . Skodacek, Luth eran s in Slo vakia (R obert J. Sko vira) .............. . . . ..... .. .......... . 129 Paul R obert M agocsi, Th e Sh aping of a Na tional Identity and T h e Rusyn- Ukrainians of Czech oslo vakia (O wen V. J ohn son) .......... . ............ .. .. . ... .. .. 130 V oj tec h Sarlu ska, comp. , J ubilea M atice slo ven sk ej (John A . B erta) .. . .. . ... . . . ........ . ..... . .... . ...... 132 Mil an S. Durica, ed ., IJ m ondo sla vo . Volume VIII. (John M . K ochik) .......................... ... ... ... . 133 J osef K orbel, Twentieth-Century Czechoslovakia (M . E vangela Lubek) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Martin R . M yant , Socialism and D em ocracy in C zechoslovakia (Stanisla v J. Kirschbaum) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Leon Noel , L a T ch ecoslo vaquie d'avant Munich a nd J.F .N . Bradley, Politics in Czech oslovakia (Stanisla v J. Kirschbaum) . . .... .. . . . . ... . ...... . . . ..... 138 Zdenek L. Suda, Z ealots and R ebels (Peter R . Hrub y) ........................... .. ... . . .. . 140 Franti sek Bielik et. al ., Slovaci VO svete. Volume II . Uun e Gran atir A lexan der) ... . . . . .. ...... ..... ... . .... .. 142 Elena J akesova, Vyst'ah ovalectvo Slo vak ov do K anad y (Anthon y X. S uth erland) . . .... .. . ... .. . ..... .... . . . .... 144 Engelbert a nd H ertha Zobl , H olzbaukun st in der Slowak ei (Paul R . M agocs1) ............................... . .... 145 Atlas CSSR (Geo rge J. D emko) . ......... . .... . ......... ... ... .... 146 Peter Balaz et. al ., Slovak fo r Sla vicists (L o uise B . H ammer) .. . .......... . .. . . .... .. .. . ... .. .. 147 �SLOVAKIA 7 Jozef Mistrfk, Basic Slovak (Louise B . Hammer) ...... .... ... . ................... . 149 Abel Kral', Slovenska vyslovnost' (Louise B. Hammer) ................. . .... . ..... ..... . 150 Vojtech Mihalik , Erotikon (Yvonne Grabowski) 151 Vincent Sikula, Liesky (Yvonne Grabowski) 153 Book Note: Charles Wojatsek, From Trianon to the First Vienna Arbitral A ward (Yeshayahu J elinek) ................... . .. . . ........... 155 Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 7 Guidelines for Manuscripts ....... . ..... . .. . ..... . ... . .... .. 158 � SLOVAKIA 1984 Published By THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA ��SLOVAKIA VOLUME XXXI NUMBER 57 1984 A schola rl y annu al devoted to the hi story, lit erature, and culture of Slovaks the world over Edi1or M . MARK STOLARIK The Ba lch I nstitute for Ethni c Studies A ssocia1e Edilor THOMAS D . MARZ IK Saint J ose ph 's Universit y Editorial Board GEORGE J DEMKO U.S. De partm ent of Sta te MI C HA EL NOVA K Am eri ca n Enterprise In stitute DAVID P . DA N I EL Co ncord ia Theological Seminary STANLEY Z. PECH Universi ty of British Colu mbia OWEN V JOH NSON India na Uni,·ersity NO RMA L. RU DI NS KY Oregon State U ni ve rsit y S/01·;,k League Ad,·isory Boa rd EDWARDJ DRAGA D IV INS KA J OSEPH C KRAJSA BEH UNC IK JOH N A . H OLY DAN I EL F. TANZONE Pu blisher Th e Slo,·a k League of Ameri ca c/o J ohn A. H oly, Sec retary -Treas urer 870 Ri0 e Camp R oad W est Paterson, N .J . 07424 Inquiries regarding subscrip ti o ns should be add ressed to J o hn H oly M an uscript s fo r possible publication an d boo ks for re,· iew sho uld be se nt to M . M a rk Stola rik , Edit or, S!o ,·a kia, 700 Penfie ld Ave., H a,-cnow n , Pa . 19083. ��SLOVAKIA A Message from the President Again it is my pleasure to introduce another issue of our highlyregarded scholarly a nnual, Slovakia. W e welcome Dr. Thomas D. Marzik, Associate Professor of History at St. J oseph 's University in Philadelphia, Pennsylva nia, as our associate edito r. H e is a n established scholar who has done ex tensive research in Slovakia, and I a m co nfide nt th a t h e will a bl y assist our ed itor , Dr. M . M ark Stola rik , in editin g our schola rly journal. Afte r an enthusiastic response, with many positive rev iews , of our las t " literary " issu e of Slovakia, edited by Mrs. Norma Rudin sky, we a re returnin g to our regular format. Our Slovak-American youth is p a rticularly urged to take advan tage of the opportunities presented by Dr. Stolarik and his editorial board to become bette r acquainted with our ri ch Slovak heritage. W e are members of a n ancient ethni c group which, in God 's good tim e , will ac hieve its ri ghtful pl ace in the family of na tions. Among the Slovak League's purposes in publishing Slovakia, a nd issuing other docum ents su ch as resolutions and memoranda , is to have the non-Slovak world learn about the people be neath the Tatra mountains ( a nd their diaspora), their culture, history and traditions. Many of the sc holars who con tribute to Slovakia play a n active role in conferences of the American Association for the Advan ce m e nt of Slavic Studies, held a nnu all y in American cities. These gatherings provide our youth with a nother opportunity to learn about Slovak history and culture. While we all recognize that the Slovak nation rightfully aspires, with our su pport , to achieve self-determination in a political system of its own choos in g, we also recognize that this will not co m e about until the hold of the Soviet Union upon our people in Czecho-Slovakia weakens. Meanwhile, one of the best ways for u s to kee p the Slova k cause alive a nd �4 SLOVAKIA in the eyes of the ge neral public is to suppo rt such important publicati ons a s Slovakia. By encouraging, and publishin g, seriou s works of scholarship on the Slovak people, we will continu e to win th e respect of schol ars, journalists and politi cians and pave the way for future co nsiderations of Slovak self-determination in the world fo rum . In thi s way we will remain tru e to the m andate esta blished by our ancestors who fo unded the Slovak League of America in Cleveland , Ohio in 1907 . They helped liberate our nation from Hun garian oppression in 1918 and , with G od 's help , we will m ake a similar co n tributi on in the fu ture. EDWARD J. BE HUN C IK , President Slovak League of Ameri ca �SLOVAKIA 5 Table of Contents A M essage from the President Edward]. B ehun cik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 HISTORY Mi grant R esponses to the City: The Neighborhood , Case Studies in Blac k and White, 1870-1940 J am es and Susan Borch ert 8 The Mati ca slovenska and Its Relation to the Development of Sl ovak Litera ture N orm a L . Rudinsk y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 The M od ernization of Slovakia: The R ole of V ocational High Schools , 1918-1938 Owen V. J ohnson 59 LITERATURE Excerpt from " In Due Season " Paul Wilkes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 My Grandfather ' s Silence Patricia Ondek L auren ce .. . . .... .... . . . .. . .. .. . . . .. . ... 101 Bro ken Line Ca rol T o warnick y 107 REVIEW ARTICLE ' Audi Alteram Pa rtem ': Eva Slavkovska, " V zt'ah sta tu k cirkvam v prvyc h rokoch vystavby socializmu na Slovensku" Th eodoric ]. Zubek . ............... . ........ . .. . .. . ... 11 3 REVIEWS R obin Okey, Ea stern Europ e, 1740-1980 (R . Vladimir Baumgarten) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Milorad M . Drachkovitch , ed . , East Central Europe U ose[ K alvoda) .. . .. .. .. . . .. ........... . ... . . . . . ... . . 121 �6 SLOVAKIA Rudolf Kraj covic, S vedectvo dejfn o slo ven cine (G erald J. Sabo) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 r.udovft Novak, K n ajstarsfm dejinam slo ven skeh o j azyka U ohn M . K ochik) .. . . . ......................... . . . ... 124 Frantisek K alesny , H abani na Sloven sku (Peter Brock) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Au gust A . Skodacek, Luth eran s in Slo vakia (R obert J. Sko vira) .............. . . . ..... .. .......... . 129 Paul R obert M agocsi, Th e Sh aping of a Na tional Identity and T h e Rusyn- Ukrainians of Czech oslo vakia (O wen V. J ohn son) .......... . ............ .. .. . ... .. .. 130 V oj tec h Sarlu ska, comp. , J ubilea M atice slo ven sk ej (John A . B erta) .. . .. . ... . . . ........ . ..... . .... . ...... 132 Mil an S. Durica, ed ., IJ m ondo sla vo . Volume VIII. (John M . K ochik) .......................... ... ... ... . 133 J osef K orbel, Twentieth-Century Czechoslovakia (M . E vangela Lubek) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Martin R . M yant , Socialism and D em ocracy in C zechoslovakia (Stanisla v J. Kirschbaum) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Leon Noel , L a T ch ecoslo vaquie d'avant Munich a nd J.F .N . Bradley, Politics in Czech oslovakia (Stanisla v J. Kirschbaum) . . .... .. . . . . ... . ...... . . . ..... 138 Zdenek L. Suda, Z ealots and R ebels (Peter R . Hrub y) ........................... .. ... . . .. . 140 Franti sek Bielik et. al ., Slovaci VO svete. Volume II . Uun e Gran atir A lexan der) ... . . . . .. ...... ..... ... . .... .. 142 Elena J akesova, Vyst'ah ovalectvo Slo vak ov do K anad y (Anthon y X. S uth erland) . . .... .. . ... .. . ..... .... . . . .... 144 Engelbert a nd H ertha Zobl , H olzbaukun st in der Slowak ei (Paul R . M agocs1) ............................... . .... 145 Atlas CSSR (Geo rge J. D emko) . ......... . .... . ......... ... ... .... 146 Peter Balaz et. al ., Slovak fo r Sla vicists (L o uise B . H ammer) .. . .......... . .. . . .... .. .. . ... .. .. 147 �SLOVAKIA 7 Jozef Mistrfk, Basic Slovak (Louise B . Hammer) ...... .... ... . ................... . 149 Abel Kral', Slovenska vyslovnost' (Louise B. Hammer) ................. . .... . ..... ..... . 150 Vojtech Mihalik , Erotikon (Yvonne Grabowski) 151 Vincent Sikula, Liesky (Yvonne Grabowski) 153 Book Note: Charles Wojatsek, From Trianon to the First Vienna Arbitral A ward (Yeshayahu J elinek) ................... . .. . . ........... 155 Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 7 Guidelines for Manuscripts ....... . ..... . .. . ..... . ... . .... .. 158 � 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 1984, Vol. 31 Description An account of the resource Vol. 31 (No. 57), 1984. 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 1984 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 1984 Published By THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA SLOVAKIA VOLUME XXXI NUMBER 57 1984 A schola rl y annu al devoted to the hi story, lit erature, and culture of Slovaks the world over Edi1or M . MARK STOLARIK The Ba lch I nstitute for Ethni c Studies A ssocia1e Edilor THOMAS D . MARZ IK Saint J ose ph 's Universit y Editorial Board GEORGE J DEMKO U.S. De partm ent of Sta te MI C HA EL NOVA K Am eri ca n Enterprise In stitute DAVID P . DA N I EL Co ncord ia Theological Seminary STANLEY Z. PECH Universi ty of British Colu mbia OWEN V JOH NSON India na Uni,·ersity NO RMA L. RU DI NS KY Oregon State U ni ve rsit y S/01·;,k League Ad,·isory Boa rd EDWARDJ DRAGA D IV INS KA J OSEPH C KRAJSA BEH UNC IK JOH N A . H OLY DAN I EL F. TANZONE Pu blisher Th e Slo,·a k League of Ameri ca c/o J ohn A. H oly, Sec retary -Treas urer 870 Ri0 e Camp R oad W est Paterson, N .J . 07424 Inquiries regarding subscrip ti o ns should be add ressed to J o hn H oly M an uscript s fo r possible publication an d boo ks for re,· iew sho uld be se nt to M . M a rk Stola rik , Edit or, S!o ,·a kia, 700 Penfie ld Ave., H a,-cnow n , Pa . 19083. SLOVAKIA A Message from the President Again it is my pleasure to introduce another issue of our highlyregarded scholarly a nnual, Slovakia. W e welcome Dr. Thomas D. Marzik, Associate Professor of History at St. J oseph 's University in Philadelphia, Pennsylva nia, as our associate edito r. H e is a n established scholar who has done ex tensive research in Slovakia, and I a m co nfide nt th a t h e will a bl y assist our ed itor , Dr. M . M ark Stola rik , in editin g our schola rly journal. Afte r an enthusiastic response, with many positive rev iews , of our las t " literary " issu e of Slovakia, edited by Mrs. Norma Rudin sky, we a re returnin g to our regular format. Our Slovak-American youth is p a rticularly urged to take advan tage of the opportunities presented by Dr. Stolarik and his editorial board to become bette r acquainted with our ri ch Slovak heritage. W e are members of a n ancient ethni c group which, in God 's good tim e , will ac hieve its ri ghtful pl ace in the family of na tions. Among the Slovak League's purposes in publishing Slovakia, a nd issuing other docum ents su ch as resolutions and memoranda , is to have the non-Slovak world learn about the people be neath the Tatra mountains ( a nd their diaspora), their culture, history and traditions. Many of the sc holars who con tribute to Slovakia play a n active role in conferences of the American Association for the Advan ce m e nt of Slavic Studies, held a nnu all y in American cities. These gatherings provide our youth with a nother opportunity to learn about Slovak history and culture. While we all recognize that the Slovak nation rightfully aspires, with our su pport , to achieve self-determination in a political system of its own choos in g, we also recognize that this will not co m e about until the hold of the Soviet Union upon our people in Czecho-Slovakia weakens. Meanwhile, one of the best ways for u s to kee p the Slova k cause alive a nd 4 SLOVAKIA in the eyes of the ge neral public is to suppo rt such important publicati ons a s Slovakia. By encouraging, and publishin g, seriou s works of scholarship on the Slovak people, we will continu e to win th e respect of schol ars, journalists and politi cians and pave the way for future co nsiderations of Slovak self-determination in the world fo rum . In thi s way we will remain tru e to the m andate esta blished by our ancestors who fo unded the Slovak League of America in Cleveland , Ohio in 1907 . They helped liberate our nation from Hun garian oppression in 1918 and , with G od 's help , we will m ake a similar co n tributi on in the fu ture. EDWARD J. BE HUN C IK , President Slovak League of Ameri ca SLOVAKIA 5 Table of Contents A M essage from the President Edward]. B ehun cik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 HISTORY Mi grant R esponses to the City: The Neighborhood , Case Studies in Blac k and White, 1870-1940 J am es and Susan Borch ert 8 The Mati ca slovenska and Its Relation to the Development of Sl ovak Litera ture N orm a L . Rudinsk y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 The M od ernization of Slovakia: The R ole of V ocational High Schools , 1918-1938 Owen V. J ohnson 59 LITERATURE Excerpt from " In Due Season " Paul Wilkes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 My Grandfather ' s Silence Patricia Ondek L auren ce .. . . .... .... . . . .. . .. .. . . . .. . ... 101 Bro ken Line Ca rol T o warnick y 107 REVIEW ARTICLE ' Audi Alteram Pa rtem ': Eva Slavkovska, " V zt'ah sta tu k cirkvam v prvyc h rokoch vystavby socializmu na Slovensku" Th eodoric ]. Zubek . ............... . ........ . .. . .. . ... 11 3 REVIEWS R obin Okey, Ea stern Europ e, 1740-1980 (R . Vladimir Baumgarten) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Milorad M . Drachkovitch , ed . , East Central Europe U ose[ K alvoda) .. . .. .. .. . . .. ........... . ... . . . . . ... . . 121 6 SLOVAKIA Rudolf Kraj covic, S vedectvo dejfn o slo ven cine (G erald J. Sabo) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 r.udovft Novak, K n ajstarsfm dejinam slo ven skeh o j azyka U ohn M . K ochik) .. . . . ......................... . . . ... 124 Frantisek K alesny , H abani na Sloven sku (Peter Brock) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Au gust A . Skodacek, Luth eran s in Slo vakia (R obert J. Sko vira) .............. . . . ..... .. .......... . 129 Paul R obert M agocsi, Th e Sh aping of a Na tional Identity and T h e Rusyn- Ukrainians of Czech oslo vakia (O wen V. J ohn son) .......... . ............ .. .. . ... .. .. 130 V oj tec h Sarlu ska, comp. , J ubilea M atice slo ven sk ej (John A . B erta) .. . .. . ... . . . ........ . ..... . .... . ...... 132 Mil an S. Durica, ed ., IJ m ondo sla vo . Volume VIII. (John M . K ochik) .......................... ... ... ... . 133 J osef K orbel, Twentieth-Century Czechoslovakia (M . E vangela Lubek) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Martin R . M yant , Socialism and D em ocracy in C zechoslovakia (Stanisla v J. Kirschbaum) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Leon Noel , L a T ch ecoslo vaquie d'avant Munich a nd J.F .N . Bradley, Politics in Czech oslovakia (Stanisla v J. Kirschbaum) . . .... .. . . . . ... . ...... . . . ..... 138 Zdenek L. Suda, Z ealots and R ebels (Peter R . Hrub y) ........................... .. ... . . .. . 140 Franti sek Bielik et. al ., Slovaci VO svete. Volume II . Uun e Gran atir A lexan der) ... . . . . .. ...... ..... ... . .... .. 142 Elena J akesova, Vyst'ah ovalectvo Slo vak ov do K anad y (Anthon y X. S uth erland) . . .... .. . ... .. . ..... .... . . . .... 144 Engelbert a nd H ertha Zobl , H olzbaukun st in der Slowak ei (Paul R . M agocs1) ............................... . .... 145 Atlas CSSR (Geo rge J. D emko) . ......... . .... . ......... ... ... .... 146 Peter Balaz et. al ., Slovak fo r Sla vicists (L o uise B . H ammer) .. . .......... . .. . . .... .. .. . ... .. .. 147 SLOVAKIA 7 Jozef Mistrfk, Basic Slovak (Louise B . Hammer) ...... .... ... . ................... . 149 Abel Kral', Slovenska vyslovnost' (Louise B. Hammer) ................. . .... . ..... ..... . 150 Vojtech Mihalik , Erotikon (Yvonne Grabowski) 151 Vincent Sikula, Liesky (Yvonne Grabowski) 153 Book Note: Charles Wojatsek, From Trianon to the First Vienna Arbitral A ward (Yeshayahu J elinek) ................... . .. . . ........... 155 Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 7 Guidelines for Manuscripts ....... . ..... . .. . ..... . ... . .... .. 158  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. 31 (No. 57) Description An account of the resource includes A Message from the President (Edward J. Behuncik) Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Behuncik, Edward J. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/059d24587795e9ea830314094d3a750e.pdf 443b160de78b9ea4fd8cd32ba2f3cf8c PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 107 The Man 'Who Made Good in America THOMAS BELL In the spring of 1910, three men were sitting in a grimy courtyard, talking. All were Slovak steelworkers, fair, solidly-built men in their late thirties. The oldest, Mike Dobrejcak, was wearing slippers and a long-sleeved undershirt; he had got out of bed only an hour or so before, and would soon be going off to a night ' s work in the blast furnaces . The others , his brother Joe and his best friend Steve Bodnar, were cleanfaced and clean-shirted, notice to all the small world of a steel town that they weren't working. Times were bad; not as bad as they had been during the panic three years before, but bad enough. The courtyard, its paving gritty with mill dust, was closed in by the brick row in which Mike lived, by the fire-escaped back of a Washington Street saloon , and by the board fence against which Bodnar had titled his chair. Two doors down the row several men were playing cards, their table an old box, and at the far end of the yard, in the comer formed by the communal outhouse and another fence, a loom had been set up and some women were weaving carpets from old rags . It was a fine May afternoon; the three men could feel the warmth of the smoke-hazed sun penetrating their clothes. The saloon-keeper' s hired girl, who had entertained them briefly by coming out on the fire escape above them to wash a window, had clambered back inside , taking her ankles with her, and now the men were talking, like a good many other people in Braddock, about Andy Toth. * * * On a bleak New Year's Eve many years before, about midway in time between the Braddock lockout with which Carnegie began his war on the steelworkers ' union , and the Homestead lockout with which he finished it in 1892, there had been serious trouble at the mill gate in Braddock . The workers had asked for New Year ' s Day off and the This short story was first printed in Mainstream (1947) and is reprinted by permission of Marie Be ll. �108 SLOVAKIA company had refused, whereupon the day men gathered before the gate and tried to keep the incoming night men from going to work. Foremen and mill cops intervened, and very shortly a small riot was raging up and down Thirteenth Street. When it was over there were a number of broken heads on both sides and one man, an Irish foreman, was dead. Andy Toth, a laborer in the blast furnaces who 'd just recently come to America, married and the father of two boys, was arrested and tried for murder. He admitted participating in the fighting but denied that he 'd struck the foreman. He was nevertheless convicted and sentenced to hang, a sentence that was later commuted to life imprisonment. Still protesting his innocence , he disappeared into the state penitentiary, and after a while people stopped talking about him; and after another while everybody except his family - and perhaps the family of the dead foreman - had forgotten him. Now people were talking about him again, for after all these years it turned out that he was just as innocent as he'd always claimed to be. It seemed that a man in the old country, convinced he was dying, had confessed to the crime for which another man had already spent nearly twenty years in prison. His name was Steve Toth but he was no relation. The name was a common one; toth was the Hungarian word for Slovak. Contrary to his expectations, the repentant Steve Toth didn 't die. Meanwhile, however, the village notar, perhaps wondering if Steve Toth had been in his right mind when he told his fantastic story, had written to Braddock; and after a suitable interval Andy Toth's sons, now grown men, journeyed to Europe. Assured that he was safe as long as he didn 't return to America, Steve Toth talked freely . He hadn 't meant to kill anyone , he said. Everyone was fighting, and that he rather than someone else had struck the fatal blow , that it had proved fatal at all, was pure chance. He'd left Braddock at once and returned to the old country . When he heard that the police, to whom one immigrant laborer named Toth was apparently as good as another, had arrested Andy Toth, he had been afraid to reveal the truth. But he was glad \ he said, to get it off his conscience at last. . _ What Andy Toth ' s sons felt or thought as they listened to him was not known. They returned to Braddock laden with affidavits and documents and set about getting their father out of jail. There was a picture of him in the newspapers on his release , a stout, white-haired, dazed looking man. He carried a rosary and he was quoted as saying that he 'd always known he would be freed some day �' SLOVAKIA 109 because he had prayed every night and his faith in God' s goodness had never wavered. Several priests took his words, his history, for a text the following Sunday . Andy Toth did not breathe the free air of America long; almost as soon as it could be arranged, he went back to the old country. He wife, who had taken in boarders to support herself and her family, had died while he was in prison. His sons were American citizens with wives and American-born children. Andy Toth went back to the old country - to die , he said ; a sentiment everyone understood and no one took literally. What made the First Ward gasp, however, was the report that the steel company , in an unprecedented manifestation of generosity and remorse, had given him a check equal to all the wages he would have earned if he'd been working in the mill during his long years in prison . * * * People never get tired to talking about money. '' How much do you think he got?'' Joe asked. " It should be easy to figure out," Mike replied . "Fourteen cents an hour, twelve hours a day, seven days a week. ' ' " For twenty years. " "Ah." ''That sounds like a lot of money. '' A breeze rustled the drying leaves of the Pentecostal linden branches nailed over Mike's doorway, as over most of the doorways in the row . In Twelfth Street, on the other side of the board fence, a huckster was crying his chant of potatoes, cabbages and onions , and small boys with nothing better to do were echoing him mockingly . " You know how to figure , Mike. See what it comes to. " Mike smiled tolerantly, not unwilling to show off his learning. "If you like." He leaned around the comer of the doorway and called into the kitchen where Mary was getting his supper and packing his lunch bucket. "Marchal See if you can find me a pencil and paper." She came to the door, a small, tired women in a soiled dress , a year-old baby in her arms. The baby was gnawing gummily on a piece of bacon rind hung from a string around its neck. '' What do you want with a pencil and paper?'' she asked . Like the men, she spoke in Slovak. "We want to find out how much money the company gave Andy Toth .'' " Ach, you men! You'd do better to start getting ready for work. " But she brought him what he wanted, a brown paper bag and a stubby pencil. �110 SLOVAKIA Mike flattened the bag on his knee and wet the pencil with his tongue. " Fourteen cents an hour, twelve hours a day." He put the figures down and multiplied carefully. " One dollar and sixty-eight cents. " ''I could have told you that, '' Bodnar said. "Seven days a week - " Another pause. " It comes to eleven dollars and seventy-six cents." " What about the long tum?" Joe asked. " That's twelve hours more every other week." " Yes, but how do we know the company figured in the long turns? " "If he ' d been working he would have had to put them in, like everybody else. And they say the company paid him just as though he'd been working. What do you think, Stefan?" Bodnar said it sounded reasonable to him. But that , he went on drily , made it also certain the company would think differently. " If you start figuring it so exactly you ' ll need a better man with figures than I, " Mike said. " What about the times they cut wages? " " And don't forget they weren 't paying any fourteen cents an hour in those days ," Bodnar said . " I went into the mill for seventy-five cents a day. " "And shutdowns and layoffs ," Joe agreed, nodding. " God knows we 've had more than enough of those in the last twenty years. ' ' Mike protested, ''The more you talk the harder you make it.'' They thought it over. One of the card players rose and crossed the yard to the outhouse , making some remark to the women at the loom as he passed and laughing as he shut himself inside . '' Let's keep it simple, '' Mike said. '' A straight twelve hours a day , seven days a week, with no wage cuts or layoffs .'' Bodnar grunted . " I'd like a job in a mill like that. Where is it? " " In heaven , maybe ," Joe suggested. Bodnar turned his face and spat. ' 'Or in hell .' ' " Be quiet, " Mike said, " or I'll be here all day. " He was putting down figures again. ''Fifty-two times eleven-seventy-six - '' He multiplied and added. ''It comes to six hund\ed eleven dollars and fiftytwo cents a year, " he announced . " That much? " · " In twenty years it should make a nice piece of money," Joe observed reflectively . "Now I know why bankers enjoy their work . " Mike was staring at the paper. " You put down some figures , add them up and there you are rich. '' �\ ' SLOVAKIA 111 " How much in twenty years?" Bodnar asked. " One minute. It comes to - " Again Mike 's pencil moved, while the others watched it, absorbed. '' Boie moj! '' " Well? Well? Don 't just sit there. Tell us. " " As God is my judge, it comes to twelve thousand , two hundred thirty dollars and forty cents exactly. ' ' They stared at him blankly. " How much did you say? " Mike repeated the figure. ''Twelve thousand!'' Mike nodded. " In one piece, cash money. " " Jeiis! Twelve thousand dollars! " "I don 't believe it. " " There are the figures. " The immensity of the sum overwhelmed them. Speechless they stared at the paper on Mike 's knee. ' 'Good God! ' ' Bodnar exclaimed. ' 'When I heard they were giving him some money I wished him joy of it. I didn 't think much about it. I supposed it would come to a few hundred dollars more or less , little enough for what he suffered. But twelve thousand dollars!'' " It's a lot of money, " Mike admitted. " It's a fortune! And for what?" Mike glanced at his friend. ' 'Do you begrudge him the money? ' ' Bodnar stared at the paper on Mike 's knee and then struck a match and re-lit his pipe, emotion making him suck on it with loud, smacking noises . ' 'If I do, then may God forgive me. But what I'm thinking is that I was working in the mill when they took him off to jail, and so were you for that matter , and we 're working still. And do we have any twelve thousand dollars to show for it? Twelve thousand dollars? Twelve thousand turds! '' " We didn 't sit in jail for twenty years ." '' Devil take me if I wouldn't be glad to sit in the strongest jail they have for that kind of money! " ''Twenty years in jail is a long time , Stefan. '' ' 'Twenty years in that God-damned mill is a long time too , my friend! ' ' "Yes. Yes , it is. " " And what have we to show for it? Who 's the better off today? Look at us !" He gestured abruptly, taking in themselves, the mean yard , the card player reappearing in the door of the outhouse , sliding his thumbs up and down under his suspenders. " I ask you , who 's the �SLOVAKIA 112 better off? Toth, gone back to the old country with a fortune in his pocket and the rest of his life to do as he likes, - or we, breaking our backs in the blast furnaces to keep body and soul together?'' Mike didn't reply. Joe shrugged slightly, one hand holding his pipe near his mouth, the other cupping an elbow. "Itell you, Mike, it starts a man thinking." "Yes." Mary called, "Mihal, it's getting late!" In some upstairs bedroom a melancholy boarder, far from home, was hunched over an accordian and singing about a girl whose lover from over the wooded mountains never came to see her anymore, though once they had made love every hour, every minute, every day of the week including Saturday: '' Za hory, lesy, mti milti, kde si .. . '' The mills and blast furnaces were a low rumble on the other side of the housetops , and of his song. ''Mihal!'' After a while he got slowly to his feet. ''Toth could make a pretty good speech when he gets back to his village," he said. Bodnar grunted, still seething. Joe looked up at his brother. "A speech?'' Mike nodded, and a far-away look came into his eyes and his voice took on the formal tone appropriate to oratory . ''I was thinking he could stand up before the people who had gathered to welcome him home and he could say to them, ' My friends, in my youth I went to America to make my fortune, as the saying is . I dreamt of some day returning here rich and famous. Money in my pocket, maybe even my picture in the papers. You all know what thoughts will come into a young man's head when he is going to America. So off I went and now I've come back, and here I am. Rich and famous.' ' ' Mike stood above them for a moment, a faint, twisted smile on his lips . " Rich and famous," he repeated quietly. Then he shook his head, as a man will when he finds something too much for him, and went inside to get ready for work. � SLOVAKIA 107 The Man 'Who Made Good in America THOMAS BELL In the spring of 1910, three men were sitting in a grimy courtyard, talking. All were Slovak steelworkers, fair, solidly-built men in their late thirties. The oldest, Mike Dobrejcak, was wearing slippers and a long-sleeved undershirt; he had got out of bed only an hour or so before, and would soon be going off to a night ' s work in the blast furnaces . The others , his brother Joe and his best friend Steve Bodnar, were cleanfaced and clean-shirted, notice to all the small world of a steel town that they weren't working. Times were bad; not as bad as they had been during the panic three years before, but bad enough. The courtyard, its paving gritty with mill dust, was closed in by the brick row in which Mike lived, by the fire-escaped back of a Washington Street saloon , and by the board fence against which Bodnar had titled his chair. Two doors down the row several men were playing cards, their table an old box, and at the far end of the yard, in the comer formed by the communal outhouse and another fence, a loom had been set up and some women were weaving carpets from old rags . It was a fine May afternoon; the three men could feel the warmth of the smoke-hazed sun penetrating their clothes. The saloon-keeper' s hired girl, who had entertained them briefly by coming out on the fire escape above them to wash a window, had clambered back inside , taking her ankles with her, and now the men were talking, like a good many other people in Braddock, about Andy Toth. * * * On a bleak New Year's Eve many years before, about midway in time between the Braddock lockout with which Carnegie began his war on the steelworkers ' union , and the Homestead lockout with which he finished it in 1892, there had been serious trouble at the mill gate in Braddock . The workers had asked for New Year ' s Day off and the This short story was first printed in Mainstream (1947) and is reprinted by permission of Marie Be ll. �108 SLOVAKIA company had refused, whereupon the day men gathered before the gate and tried to keep the incoming night men from going to work. Foremen and mill cops intervened, and very shortly a small riot was raging up and down Thirteenth Street. When it was over there were a number of broken heads on both sides and one man, an Irish foreman, was dead. Andy Toth, a laborer in the blast furnaces who 'd just recently come to America, married and the father of two boys, was arrested and tried for murder. He admitted participating in the fighting but denied that he 'd struck the foreman. He was nevertheless convicted and sentenced to hang, a sentence that was later commuted to life imprisonment. Still protesting his innocence , he disappeared into the state penitentiary, and after a while people stopped talking about him; and after another while everybody except his family - and perhaps the family of the dead foreman - had forgotten him. Now people were talking about him again, for after all these years it turned out that he was just as innocent as he'd always claimed to be. It seemed that a man in the old country, convinced he was dying, had confessed to the crime for which another man had already spent nearly twenty years in prison. His name was Steve Toth but he was no relation. The name was a common one; toth was the Hungarian word for Slovak. Contrary to his expectations, the repentant Steve Toth didn 't die. Meanwhile, however, the village notar, perhaps wondering if Steve Toth had been in his right mind when he told his fantastic story, had written to Braddock; and after a suitable interval Andy Toth's sons, now grown men, journeyed to Europe. Assured that he was safe as long as he didn 't return to America, Steve Toth talked freely . He hadn 't meant to kill anyone , he said. Everyone was fighting, and that he rather than someone else had struck the fatal blow , that it had proved fatal at all, was pure chance. He'd left Braddock at once and returned to the old country . When he heard that the police, to whom one immigrant laborer named Toth was apparently as good as another, had arrested Andy Toth, he had been afraid to reveal the truth. But he was glad \ he said, to get it off his conscience at last. . _ What Andy Toth ' s sons felt or thought as they listened to him was not known. They returned to Braddock laden with affidavits and documents and set about getting their father out of jail. There was a picture of him in the newspapers on his release , a stout, white-haired, dazed looking man. He carried a rosary and he was quoted as saying that he 'd always known he would be freed some day �' SLOVAKIA 109 because he had prayed every night and his faith in God' s goodness had never wavered. Several priests took his words, his history, for a text the following Sunday . Andy Toth did not breathe the free air of America long; almost as soon as it could be arranged, he went back to the old country. He wife, who had taken in boarders to support herself and her family, had died while he was in prison. His sons were American citizens with wives and American-born children. Andy Toth went back to the old country - to die , he said ; a sentiment everyone understood and no one took literally. What made the First Ward gasp, however, was the report that the steel company , in an unprecedented manifestation of generosity and remorse, had given him a check equal to all the wages he would have earned if he'd been working in the mill during his long years in prison . * * * People never get tired to talking about money. '' How much do you think he got?'' Joe asked. " It should be easy to figure out," Mike replied . "Fourteen cents an hour, twelve hours a day, seven days a week. ' ' " For twenty years. " "Ah." ''That sounds like a lot of money. '' A breeze rustled the drying leaves of the Pentecostal linden branches nailed over Mike's doorway, as over most of the doorways in the row . In Twelfth Street, on the other side of the board fence, a huckster was crying his chant of potatoes, cabbages and onions , and small boys with nothing better to do were echoing him mockingly . " You know how to figure , Mike. See what it comes to. " Mike smiled tolerantly, not unwilling to show off his learning. "If you like." He leaned around the comer of the doorway and called into the kitchen where Mary was getting his supper and packing his lunch bucket. "Marchal See if you can find me a pencil and paper." She came to the door, a small, tired women in a soiled dress , a year-old baby in her arms. The baby was gnawing gummily on a piece of bacon rind hung from a string around its neck. '' What do you want with a pencil and paper?'' she asked . Like the men, she spoke in Slovak. "We want to find out how much money the company gave Andy Toth .'' " Ach, you men! You'd do better to start getting ready for work. " But she brought him what he wanted, a brown paper bag and a stubby pencil. �110 SLOVAKIA Mike flattened the bag on his knee and wet the pencil with his tongue. " Fourteen cents an hour, twelve hours a day." He put the figures down and multiplied carefully. " One dollar and sixty-eight cents. " ''I could have told you that, '' Bodnar said. "Seven days a week - " Another pause. " It comes to eleven dollars and seventy-six cents." " What about the long tum?" Joe asked. " That's twelve hours more every other week." " Yes, but how do we know the company figured in the long turns? " "If he ' d been working he would have had to put them in, like everybody else. And they say the company paid him just as though he'd been working. What do you think, Stefan?" Bodnar said it sounded reasonable to him. But that , he went on drily , made it also certain the company would think differently. " If you start figuring it so exactly you ' ll need a better man with figures than I, " Mike said. " What about the times they cut wages? " " And don't forget they weren 't paying any fourteen cents an hour in those days ," Bodnar said . " I went into the mill for seventy-five cents a day. " "And shutdowns and layoffs ," Joe agreed, nodding. " God knows we 've had more than enough of those in the last twenty years. ' ' Mike protested, ''The more you talk the harder you make it.'' They thought it over. One of the card players rose and crossed the yard to the outhouse , making some remark to the women at the loom as he passed and laughing as he shut himself inside . '' Let's keep it simple, '' Mike said. '' A straight twelve hours a day , seven days a week, with no wage cuts or layoffs .'' Bodnar grunted . " I'd like a job in a mill like that. Where is it? " " In heaven , maybe ," Joe suggested. Bodnar turned his face and spat. ' 'Or in hell .' ' " Be quiet, " Mike said, " or I'll be here all day. " He was putting down figures again. ''Fifty-two times eleven-seventy-six - '' He multiplied and added. ''It comes to six hund\ed eleven dollars and fiftytwo cents a year, " he announced . " That much? " · " In twenty years it should make a nice piece of money," Joe observed reflectively . "Now I know why bankers enjoy their work . " Mike was staring at the paper. " You put down some figures , add them up and there you are rich. '' �\ ' SLOVAKIA 111 " How much in twenty years?" Bodnar asked. " One minute. It comes to - " Again Mike 's pencil moved, while the others watched it, absorbed. '' Boie moj! '' " Well? Well? Don 't just sit there. Tell us. " " As God is my judge, it comes to twelve thousand , two hundred thirty dollars and forty cents exactly. ' ' They stared at him blankly. " How much did you say? " Mike repeated the figure. ''Twelve thousand!'' Mike nodded. " In one piece, cash money. " " Jeiis! Twelve thousand dollars! " "I don 't believe it. " " There are the figures. " The immensity of the sum overwhelmed them. Speechless they stared at the paper on Mike 's knee. ' 'Good God! ' ' Bodnar exclaimed. ' 'When I heard they were giving him some money I wished him joy of it. I didn 't think much about it. I supposed it would come to a few hundred dollars more or less , little enough for what he suffered. But twelve thousand dollars!'' " It's a lot of money, " Mike admitted. " It's a fortune! And for what?" Mike glanced at his friend. ' 'Do you begrudge him the money? ' ' Bodnar stared at the paper on Mike 's knee and then struck a match and re-lit his pipe, emotion making him suck on it with loud, smacking noises . ' 'If I do, then may God forgive me. But what I'm thinking is that I was working in the mill when they took him off to jail, and so were you for that matter , and we 're working still. And do we have any twelve thousand dollars to show for it? Twelve thousand dollars? Twelve thousand turds! '' " We didn 't sit in jail for twenty years ." '' Devil take me if I wouldn't be glad to sit in the strongest jail they have for that kind of money! " ''Twenty years in jail is a long time , Stefan. '' ' 'Twenty years in that God-damned mill is a long time too , my friend! ' ' "Yes. Yes , it is. " " And what have we to show for it? Who 's the better off today? Look at us !" He gestured abruptly, taking in themselves, the mean yard , the card player reappearing in the door of the outhouse , sliding his thumbs up and down under his suspenders. " I ask you , who 's the �SLOVAKIA 112 better off? Toth, gone back to the old country with a fortune in his pocket and the rest of his life to do as he likes, - or we, breaking our backs in the blast furnaces to keep body and soul together?'' Mike didn't reply. Joe shrugged slightly, one hand holding his pipe near his mouth, the other cupping an elbow. "Itell you, Mike, it starts a man thinking." "Yes." Mary called, "Mihal, it's getting late!" In some upstairs bedroom a melancholy boarder, far from home, was hunched over an accordian and singing about a girl whose lover from over the wooded mountains never came to see her anymore, though once they had made love every hour, every minute, every day of the week including Saturday: '' Za hory, lesy, mti milti, kde si .. . '' The mills and blast furnaces were a low rumble on the other side of the housetops , and of his song. ''Mihal!'' After a while he got slowly to his feet. ''Toth could make a pretty good speech when he gets back to his village," he said. Bodnar grunted, still seething. Joe looked up at his brother. "A speech?'' Mike nodded, and a far-away look came into his eyes and his voice took on the formal tone appropriate to oratory . ''I was thinking he could stand up before the people who had gathered to welcome him home and he could say to them, ' My friends, in my youth I went to America to make my fortune, as the saying is . I dreamt of some day returning here rich and famous. Money in my pocket, maybe even my picture in the papers. You all know what thoughts will come into a young man's head when he is going to America. So off I went and now I've come back, and here I am. Rich and famous.' ' ' Mike stood above them for a moment, a faint, twisted smile on his lips . " Rich and famous," he repeated quietly. Then he shook his head, as a man will when he finds something too much for him, and went inside to get ready for work. � 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 1978-79, Vol. 28 Description An account of the resource Vol. 28 (No. 51-52), 1978-79. 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 1978-79 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 107 The Man 'Who Made Good in America THOMAS BELL In the spring of 1910, three men were sitting in a grimy courtyard, talking. All were Slovak steelworkers, fair, solidly-built men in their late thirties. The oldest, Mike Dobrejcak, was wearing slippers and a long-sleeved undershirt; he had got out of bed only an hour or so before, and would soon be going off to a night ' s work in the blast furnaces . The others , his brother Joe and his best friend Steve Bodnar, were cleanfaced and clean-shirted, notice to all the small world of a steel town that they weren't working. Times were bad; not as bad as they had been during the panic three years before, but bad enough. The courtyard, its paving gritty with mill dust, was closed in by the brick row in which Mike lived, by the fire-escaped back of a Washington Street saloon , and by the board fence against which Bodnar had titled his chair. Two doors down the row several men were playing cards, their table an old box, and at the far end of the yard, in the comer formed by the communal outhouse and another fence, a loom had been set up and some women were weaving carpets from old rags . It was a fine May afternoon; the three men could feel the warmth of the smoke-hazed sun penetrating their clothes. The saloon-keeper' s hired girl, who had entertained them briefly by coming out on the fire escape above them to wash a window, had clambered back inside , taking her ankles with her, and now the men were talking, like a good many other people in Braddock, about Andy Toth. * * * On a bleak New Year's Eve many years before, about midway in time between the Braddock lockout with which Carnegie began his war on the steelworkers ' union , and the Homestead lockout with which he finished it in 1892, there had been serious trouble at the mill gate in Braddock . The workers had asked for New Year ' s Day off and the This short story was first printed in Mainstream (1947) and is reprinted by permission of Marie Be ll. 108 SLOVAKIA company had refused, whereupon the day men gathered before the gate and tried to keep the incoming night men from going to work. Foremen and mill cops intervened, and very shortly a small riot was raging up and down Thirteenth Street. When it was over there were a number of broken heads on both sides and one man, an Irish foreman, was dead. Andy Toth, a laborer in the blast furnaces who 'd just recently come to America, married and the father of two boys, was arrested and tried for murder. He admitted participating in the fighting but denied that he 'd struck the foreman. He was nevertheless convicted and sentenced to hang, a sentence that was later commuted to life imprisonment. Still protesting his innocence , he disappeared into the state penitentiary, and after a while people stopped talking about him; and after another while everybody except his family - and perhaps the family of the dead foreman - had forgotten him. Now people were talking about him again, for after all these years it turned out that he was just as innocent as he'd always claimed to be. It seemed that a man in the old country, convinced he was dying, had confessed to the crime for which another man had already spent nearly twenty years in prison. His name was Steve Toth but he was no relation. The name was a common one; toth was the Hungarian word for Slovak. Contrary to his expectations, the repentant Steve Toth didn 't die. Meanwhile, however, the village notar, perhaps wondering if Steve Toth had been in his right mind when he told his fantastic story, had written to Braddock; and after a suitable interval Andy Toth's sons, now grown men, journeyed to Europe. Assured that he was safe as long as he didn 't return to America, Steve Toth talked freely . He hadn 't meant to kill anyone , he said. Everyone was fighting, and that he rather than someone else had struck the fatal blow , that it had proved fatal at all, was pure chance. He'd left Braddock at once and returned to the old country . When he heard that the police, to whom one immigrant laborer named Toth was apparently as good as another, had arrested Andy Toth, he had been afraid to reveal the truth. But he was glad \ he said, to get it off his conscience at last. . _ What Andy Toth ' s sons felt or thought as they listened to him was not known. They returned to Braddock laden with affidavits and documents and set about getting their father out of jail. There was a picture of him in the newspapers on his release , a stout, white-haired, dazed looking man. He carried a rosary and he was quoted as saying that he 'd always known he would be freed some day ' SLOVAKIA 109 because he had prayed every night and his faith in God' s goodness had never wavered. Several priests took his words, his history, for a text the following Sunday . Andy Toth did not breathe the free air of America long; almost as soon as it could be arranged, he went back to the old country. He wife, who had taken in boarders to support herself and her family, had died while he was in prison. His sons were American citizens with wives and American-born children. Andy Toth went back to the old country - to die , he said ; a sentiment everyone understood and no one took literally. What made the First Ward gasp, however, was the report that the steel company , in an unprecedented manifestation of generosity and remorse, had given him a check equal to all the wages he would have earned if he'd been working in the mill during his long years in prison . * * * People never get tired to talking about money. '' How much do you think he got?'' Joe asked. " It should be easy to figure out," Mike replied . "Fourteen cents an hour, twelve hours a day, seven days a week. ' ' " For twenty years. " "Ah." ''That sounds like a lot of money. '' A breeze rustled the drying leaves of the Pentecostal linden branches nailed over Mike's doorway, as over most of the doorways in the row . In Twelfth Street, on the other side of the board fence, a huckster was crying his chant of potatoes, cabbages and onions , and small boys with nothing better to do were echoing him mockingly . " You know how to figure , Mike. See what it comes to. " Mike smiled tolerantly, not unwilling to show off his learning. "If you like." He leaned around the comer of the doorway and called into the kitchen where Mary was getting his supper and packing his lunch bucket. "Marchal See if you can find me a pencil and paper." She came to the door, a small, tired women in a soiled dress , a year-old baby in her arms. The baby was gnawing gummily on a piece of bacon rind hung from a string around its neck. '' What do you want with a pencil and paper?'' she asked . Like the men, she spoke in Slovak. "We want to find out how much money the company gave Andy Toth .'' " Ach, you men! You'd do better to start getting ready for work. " But she brought him what he wanted, a brown paper bag and a stubby pencil. 110 SLOVAKIA Mike flattened the bag on his knee and wet the pencil with his tongue. " Fourteen cents an hour, twelve hours a day." He put the figures down and multiplied carefully. " One dollar and sixty-eight cents. " ''I could have told you that, '' Bodnar said. "Seven days a week - " Another pause. " It comes to eleven dollars and seventy-six cents." " What about the long tum?" Joe asked. " That's twelve hours more every other week." " Yes, but how do we know the company figured in the long turns? " "If he ' d been working he would have had to put them in, like everybody else. And they say the company paid him just as though he'd been working. What do you think, Stefan?" Bodnar said it sounded reasonable to him. But that , he went on drily , made it also certain the company would think differently. " If you start figuring it so exactly you ' ll need a better man with figures than I, " Mike said. " What about the times they cut wages? " " And don't forget they weren 't paying any fourteen cents an hour in those days ," Bodnar said . " I went into the mill for seventy-five cents a day. " "And shutdowns and layoffs ," Joe agreed, nodding. " God knows we 've had more than enough of those in the last twenty years. ' ' Mike protested, ''The more you talk the harder you make it.'' They thought it over. One of the card players rose and crossed the yard to the outhouse , making some remark to the women at the loom as he passed and laughing as he shut himself inside . '' Let's keep it simple, '' Mike said. '' A straight twelve hours a day , seven days a week, with no wage cuts or layoffs .'' Bodnar grunted . " I'd like a job in a mill like that. Where is it? " " In heaven , maybe ," Joe suggested. Bodnar turned his face and spat. ' 'Or in hell .' ' " Be quiet, " Mike said, " or I'll be here all day. " He was putting down figures again. ''Fifty-two times eleven-seventy-six - '' He multiplied and added. ''It comes to six hund\ed eleven dollars and fiftytwo cents a year, " he announced . " That much? " · " In twenty years it should make a nice piece of money," Joe observed reflectively . "Now I know why bankers enjoy their work . " Mike was staring at the paper. " You put down some figures , add them up and there you are rich. '' \ ' SLOVAKIA 111 " How much in twenty years?" Bodnar asked. " One minute. It comes to - " Again Mike 's pencil moved, while the others watched it, absorbed. '' Boie moj! '' " Well? Well? Don 't just sit there. Tell us. " " As God is my judge, it comes to twelve thousand , two hundred thirty dollars and forty cents exactly. ' ' They stared at him blankly. " How much did you say? " Mike repeated the figure. ''Twelve thousand!'' Mike nodded. " In one piece, cash money. " " Jeiis! Twelve thousand dollars! " "I don 't believe it. " " There are the figures. " The immensity of the sum overwhelmed them. Speechless they stared at the paper on Mike 's knee. ' 'Good God! ' ' Bodnar exclaimed. ' 'When I heard they were giving him some money I wished him joy of it. I didn 't think much about it. I supposed it would come to a few hundred dollars more or less , little enough for what he suffered. But twelve thousand dollars!'' " It's a lot of money, " Mike admitted. " It's a fortune! And for what?" Mike glanced at his friend. ' 'Do you begrudge him the money? ' ' Bodnar stared at the paper on Mike 's knee and then struck a match and re-lit his pipe, emotion making him suck on it with loud, smacking noises . ' 'If I do, then may God forgive me. But what I'm thinking is that I was working in the mill when they took him off to jail, and so were you for that matter , and we 're working still. And do we have any twelve thousand dollars to show for it? Twelve thousand dollars? Twelve thousand turds! '' " We didn 't sit in jail for twenty years ." '' Devil take me if I wouldn't be glad to sit in the strongest jail they have for that kind of money! " ''Twenty years in jail is a long time , Stefan. '' ' 'Twenty years in that God-damned mill is a long time too , my friend! ' ' "Yes. Yes , it is. " " And what have we to show for it? Who 's the better off today? Look at us !" He gestured abruptly, taking in themselves, the mean yard , the card player reappearing in the door of the outhouse , sliding his thumbs up and down under his suspenders. " I ask you , who 's the SLOVAKIA 112 better off? Toth, gone back to the old country with a fortune in his pocket and the rest of his life to do as he likes, - or we, breaking our backs in the blast furnaces to keep body and soul together?'' Mike didn't reply. Joe shrugged slightly, one hand holding his pipe near his mouth, the other cupping an elbow. "Itell you, Mike, it starts a man thinking." "Yes." Mary called, "Mihal, it's getting late!" In some upstairs bedroom a melancholy boarder, far from home, was hunched over an accordian and singing about a girl whose lover from over the wooded mountains never came to see her anymore, though once they had made love every hour, every minute, every day of the week including Saturday: '' Za hory, lesy, mti milti, kde si .. . '' The mills and blast furnaces were a low rumble on the other side of the housetops , and of his song. ''Mihal!'' After a while he got slowly to his feet. ''Toth could make a pretty good speech when he gets back to his village," he said. Bodnar grunted, still seething. Joe looked up at his brother. "A speech?'' Mike nodded, and a far-away look came into his eyes and his voice took on the formal tone appropriate to oratory . ''I was thinking he could stand up before the people who had gathered to welcome him home and he could say to them, ' My friends, in my youth I went to America to make my fortune, as the saying is . I dreamt of some day returning here rich and famous. Money in my pocket, maybe even my picture in the papers. You all know what thoughts will come into a young man's head when he is going to America. So off I went and now I've come back, and here I am. Rich and famous.' ' ' Mike stood above them for a moment, a faint, twisted smile on his lips . " Rich and famous," he repeated quietly. Then he shook his head, as a man will when he finds something too much for him, and went inside to get ready for work.  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 Man Who Made Good in America Description An account of the resource Thomas Bell Slovakia, Vol. 28 (No. 51-52), 1978-79 pp. 107-112 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bell, Thomas, 1903-1961 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1978-79 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/1d03466e355cfdad7b25342ce320a66c.pdf 150d6e4c02c48cbfd5c70d17ffdd573c PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 87 AN ANTHOLOGY OF SLOVAK UTERA TURE Introductory Remarks ANDREW CINCURA \ An Anthology of Slovak Literature, compiled recently with financial support from The Rockefeller Foundation, presents the most representative selections from the works of over 70 Slovak authors. Consisting primarily of translations from Slovak poetry, prose , and drama, this anthology contains, in addition, a general introduction by Dr. Michael Novak, a long aesthetic-historical essay "Slovak Literature : A Brief History" by Dr. Karol StrmeN, and an appendix presenting several selections from Slovak-American authors. Several scholars and artists, including the well-known Slovak-American poet, Reverend Jaroslav J. Vajda, and American poet and scholar, Dr. Michael Collings , assisted the compiler in the project. The Anthology of Slovak Literature is - in the words of Dr. Novak - ''a work of major importance (connecting) the United States and one other small part of the world . . . This anthology is done with taste, intelligence, judgment, and perception. I read it with excitement, and I am sure that hundreds of thousands of others from Eastern Europe will find in it nourishment over the next generation, for it is a landmark book, certain to endure. " Although just a minute part of the work itself, the following excerpts from An Anthology of Slovak Literature will give the reader a foretaste of the character and artistry of the book. An Anthology of Slovak Literature has been available since May 1, 1976, at : University Hardcovers P . 0. Box 248 Riverside , California 92502 or from the major Slovak newspapers and bookstores throughout the United States and Canada. If ordered directly from the publisher, the price of the book is $16.50 for individual copies. A discount of 10 percent will be given on orders of 5-10 copies , and a discount of 20 percent on orders of 11 or more copies. The following selections are reprinted with perrmss10n of University Hardcovers, P. 0 . Box 248, Riverside, California 92502, from An Anthology of Slovak Literature by Andrew Cincura. Copyright © 1976 by Andrew Cincura. �88 SLOVAKIA On Skulls JAN HOLLY (1785-1849) Tell me, you skulls, so neatly stacked in dark bone-bins, whose were you once, a peasant's or a lord's? Which one of you was held aloof on a wealthy, mighty neck, and which drooped languid from a beggar's spine? Upon which, while alive, did fortune cast her smile, and which was crushed by lifelong slavery? Is this one whiter from the fawning adulation so many offered it in lavish awe? And that one darker having suffered undeserved ingratitude and cruel ridicule? Speechless in terrifying silence, not one of you is able to give me an answer to my question. In frightful heaps you lie, looking so very much like gathered shards of stony desolations; or like those grief-bent forests when the white-maned wind denudes them of their leafy captivating beauty. So when a man is gone: with him all honor dies and glory and every deference bestowed by others. (Ba1ne rozmanite, n. d.) Translated by J aroslav J. Vajda �SLOVAKIA God in Heaven \ AN"DREJ SLADKOVIC (1820-1872) God in heaven , see what sorrow when our young are cast abroad out into the world to borrow, toil, or beg a crust of bread. See them mercilessly driven, scattered by life's cruel hoax, what were solitary ravens have become falcon flocks . God in heaven, thus forsaken, if I stay, what can I earn? Into this world came I naked, naked I shall there return . In that hour, pray, be responsive to my final, inmost need: mercy , God, 0 God, have mercy when I stand alone with Thee. Translated by Jaroslav J. Vajda 89 �90 SLOVAKIA Bloody Sonnets (a fragment) PA VOL ORSAGH-HVIEZDOSLAV (1849-1921) I A song of blood: - what madness can this be? And which shall be our theme? The sudden rush rose-red, that leaps into a maiden 's blush, the sleeping infant's pink we love to see , that pulses under angel custody ; or shall it be the ardent crimson gush that fires the zealot 's brow with fervid flush: then let the song resound with rapture free! Oh, blood is a wonder-working fluid! Hidden like some rare vintage seething ~ithin the heart , it pounds with the might and rage of tempest-ridden breakers ; or bursting the tranquil pulse apart, it charges one with frenzy God-forbidden . .. Do thoughts like these engage the butcher's art? Translated by Jaroslav J. Vajda �SLOVAKIA The Guests , IVANKRASKO (1876-1958) Courteously , though with a mystic fearfulness, I welcomed nonetheless my funeral guests, somber, with psalters under thei:r arms, having arrived from distant lands . Ceremonially , with chalky, dry and bony hands each reverenced the icon of my dusty home, and bowing to the waist (to me - if not, to whom?), they sat around the table , a solemn, black-swathed ring. Searching the psalter for long-lost hymns, they then began to sing in deep sepulchral voice - the harshest kind of air of bitter fruit the tree of life was found to bear, of Mother Earth's original condition - as one she was before the thrice-cursed lust of slithering Diabolos ... And then as gloomily they left (under the smiles of those who never dared to take from Eve the apple of her wiles), and said they would return to us again next year to visit those they now considered brothers, or at least as near. Eunice! Where are you? Look how one by one they disappear. (Verse, 1912) Translated by Jaroslav J . Vajda 91 �92 SLOVAKIA The Hundred and First Tale of Boccaccio VALENTIN BENIAK (1894-1973) Quill in hand, I wrote a letter home: I shall stay on till Autumn here in Florence. And yes, I met Boccaccio carrying his Decameron, followed by a band of noble virgins. One I knew - Donna Clara - led her beast and handed me the leather bridle as she went. In Fiesole we met a priest bearing on his shoulder a battered trident. Neptune it was, reaping hay - despite his wont the pagan seas had scorned him, one and all. ''Sir,'' he asked, ' 'might you be the Duke of Brabant on your way to my confessional?" He would have liked the stole and blessed oil, would pray my soul to heaven's halls, would hire wicked men to toil rip Botticelli's Venus from the U(fizi's walls . . Slip her from her canvas world - be done! she would return with him to her sea-home . (For this is but the hundredth tale and one, carved from Carrara marble and sea-foam.) (Ozveny krokov, 1931) Translated by Andrew Cincura �SLOVAKIA ' Carmen EMIL B. LUKAC (1900) Dance and sing, you naked bajadera, throughout this long and melancholy era. Dance and sing, the golden calf is bleating, and dragon claws the kettle-fires are heating. In flaming dance your many limbs entwine to form a beast half-hydra, half-divine. Dance and sing, you universal axis, you contradictory, convoluted maxims: maze, lie, and death - not way and truth and life. Dance and sing, deaf.to the din of strife. The blood of millions suck, you golden flea. Machine guns bark, and cracks the gallows-tree. (Moloch, 1938) Translated by Jaroslav J. Vajda 93 �94 SLOVAKIA Two Days at Chujava (a Iragment) JONASZABORSKY (1812-1876) Zajac, a slovenly peasant and the village clown, entered the inn's hall. The youngsters surrounded him at once, and, as always, he launched into a narrative of his heroic exploits inBombardy. (1) "Every Bombardian bee, believe me, is as large as a Slovak sheep," Zajac said, to introduce his story. "And what about the beehives - how large are they?" Pelechavy asked from the other side of the table, smiling broadly. "Only as large as ours." "Then how can the bees enter the beehives?" "That's their problem, "the ex-hussar Zajac roared, laughing and half-seriously accusing Pelechavy of r.itting at the table without ever touching his full glass . "Why don't you drink like all the other right men do? May a hundred thunderclaps deafen your soul.'' A guffaw shook the room. The men emptied their glasses, while the Jewish innkeeper did his best to keep them filled. Zajac continued with his tall tales: "Did you know that macaroni is really nothing but tapeworms seventy yards long? People buy them by the foot. To eat macaroni, all one has to do is sit in the most comfortable position, open his mouth, and let the tapeworm run down his throat by itself, while the waitress measures its length by the yard and cuts it with scissors when the customer has eaten his fill.'' Zajac then related the tale of his love affair with an Italian countess. "As soon as I rode into the castle yard," he said, "she started to wink at me, her mouth watering with anticipation. She thought, 'By Jove, there's a lad. I'm sure he has no eq~al in the entire world!' And when I dismounted and handed my horse over to the servant, she shook my hand and took me by arm, saying, ''If you will, please!' Then we went into the house. After a good supper, she prepared a bed for her husband on the bench at the hearth. 'You'll sleep here tonight,' she said, patting his arm, 'but please be quiet and don't disturb the hussar in his sleep.' - For me she spread a sheaf of straw on the floor in the middle of the room. The count, listening to her soft conversation with me, coughed and said, 'Erzha, is that hussar whispering with you?' " 'So what if he is?' " 'Why don't you stop him?' the count said. " 'I can't. I don't speak his language,' the countess replied." �SLOVAKIA 95 '' And what about your meeting with Napoleon?'' a youngster with a broom-like feather on his hat called, prompting Zajac to further narration. '' All right, listen! WhE!n the Frenchmen had annoyed us with their frequent attacks, our Emperor met with his generals to find out which one of the Austro-Hungarian soldiers wore his cap most rakishly and would therefore be best suited to be sent to Napoleon . All the generals, of course, agreed that only I, Zajac, was the proper hero, willing and able to go on such an important mission. I mounted my horse and was off to Paris. On my arrival there, I tethered my horse to a fence . Mrs. Napoleon, the Empress of France, immediately ran to me, bringing oats for my horse in her apron and taking me into her kitchen . She cooked pirohy (a) for me, filled with minced pears. They were really good, better than any I'd ever seen or tasted! Large as peasant moccasins, they were greased with the tallow collected from seven melted candles. I swear to God, they were so good that the grease flowed down my chin as profusely as down Aaron's beard. I ate almost two of them. As an extra treat the Empress also cooked hriate (b) and baked pag<ice (c) with cracklings for my return trip." "And what about Napoleon?" "Well, he patted my shoulder and said, ' My dear fellow! I wish I had a regiment of hussars like you! With men like you I would easily conquer the entire world, and all the nations in it.' - And you should have seen it - I give you my word of honor and cross my heart - he embraced and kissed me as if I were his lady love.'' "And did he sue for peace?" ' 'Of course , what else could he do when I asked him to? He gave me ten farthings for whisky and asked me to convince our Emperor and generals not to stir until he took over as many lands as he wanted. He whetted his appetite for our Bombardy (1) and bombarded us out of it, may thunder and lightning strike his sideways-turned hat! We looked around, hoping that some Cossack would appear and help us, but the world is ungrateful! We assisted the Frenchmen in Crimea against the Muscovites and the thankless Muscovites did not come to repay our courtesy and help us against the Frenchmen. That's the kind of honor you find in this world! . . . " "You' re the greatest liar I've ever seen! " Buchak remarked, wiping his moustache. ''Yes, and all of you are great fools,'' the ex-hussar Zajac laughed. "You should take my words as seriously as you take the print on paper money, which sa: ·s you may exchange it for silver any time, or believe me as much as yo I can the saying that all men are equal." (1883) (Translated by Andrew Cincura) �96 SLOVAKIA NOTES: jocular term for Lombardy . Lombardy belonged to the AustroHungarian Empire until 1859. (1) Bombardy - (a) pirohy - cheese or fruit dumplings (b) hriate - hot whisky with goose-fat topping (c) pagace (pagaache) - small unsweetened cakes The nDiscovery" of Gunpowder (a frag111cnt) TEREZIA VANSOV A (1857-1941) Autumn had progressed considerably, but our children were still enjoying the golden freedom of summer vacation. In our village, there was a tradition that school started only after the Tisovec Fair. After the pupil's mothers had sold a goose or a piece of homespun linen and had bought clothes for their children and the primers with the picture of a rooster on the front cover. Then, and only then, could the children walk proudly to school. Our boys conducted great military maneuvers in the parsonage orchard. Danny, who continually pestered Srnchik with his questions about military strategy, commanded his "rank-and-file" comrades, who were equipped with wooden sabres, guns, and a supply of dry-pea bullets in their pockets. One-two-one-two - the company marched up the orchard path, and when Danny thought they had reached their position, he called, "H-a-a-a-1-t!" Then he turned to his "men" and drilled them in the proper ways of military know-how. He was naturally dissatisfied with the over-all results. The ''men'' halted, once with one leg in the forward position, then with the ~ther. Some of them were stooped, some crooked; some did not add to iih.e glory of the tight-knit military unit at all. "How are you standing there, Private Misho? Don't you know anything about proper military bearing? Up! Straighten your legs! No, no! Don't stand there like a duckling! Pull your belly in! Out with your chest!'' Misho tried his best, but he never succeeded in acquiring a proper stance. His face was one broad grin. He opened his mouth wide and held his hands tightly to his knees (his monkey-like hands actually reached lower than his knees!). Yet regardless of his efforts, he was never praised for his achievements. �SLOVAKIA 97 Then Danny drilled the ''troops'' in the proper use of weapons, but he became really upset when even his own gun refused to obey his command. "F-i-r-e! F-i-r-e!" Danny repeated in exasperation. What was the purpose of military games without a weapon that really shoots? Why use a weapon which neither fires nor kills? He had already almost worn out his brains in an effort to acquire gunpowder. What all he had done, and all for nothing! He would have bought some powder, and he certainly could have obtained the money for it somehow. But what good would it do when neither he nor any of his comrades were big enough to buy powder in Tisovec. He was just a child, and his request, however small, would have been considered too dangerous anyway. Danny's friend Johnny had not taken part in the military drill today. Johnny would have been subject to a reprimand from his stem commander had he not appeared when the game was about to end. Running through the orchard, Johnny finally stopped near the formation. With a book in his hand, he waved and shouted, almost out of breath, "Hurrah, we've got gunpowder!" The boys turned around. Forgetting their military discipline, they jumped out of their lines and surrounded Johnny. Johnny showed them the book - the Almanac of Fejerpataky. The boys stopped, bewildered. They thought their comrade had brought some real gunpowder with him; and instead, he only showed them an old book. Danny snatched the book from Johnny's hand and asked with contempt and suspicion, "Why did you bring this book?" "Here, look! Here it is!" Johnny replied, still gasping for breath. "What?" Danny asked impatiently. ''The formula for making gunpowder!'' Johnny's reply electrified Danny. "Let's see!" He grabbed the book again, sank to the turf, and started to turn the leaves. Johnny showed him the article in the almanac. Both boys plunged into reading and quickly forgot their comrades, who resumed their own play. Danny studied the well-known recipe like a cook about the prepare a tasty cake. While reading, he wondered how he could obtain and measure all the ingredients necessary for gunpowder. Seventy-five parts saltpeter (but what is "saltpeter" and where he could buy it?); eleven parts sulfur (ah, he had it; luckily, he had already taken some from his father's supply); and fourteen parts hazel-wood charcoal (that's the easiest to get: they could cut hazel twigs anywhere, and they could bum charcoal by themselves). The scales for weighing the ingredients? No problem - they would construct it from twigs, strings, and an apple. And now to work! Danny stood up, his face gleaming. He gave the necessary instructions immediately. The boys were to go tomorrow morning to cut hazel wood. They were to store the supply at the upper end of the orchard, and they were to build a charcoal-pile there. Johnny was to go to Tisovec to buy saltpeter. (Danny knew that he could not get any �98 SLOVAKIA himself because of his previous "contacts" with the city merchants.) Danny would try to find out what saltpeter was and where they could buy it. The orders dispensed, Danny hit the shortest path to his grandmother' s. He found her in front of her house thrashing hemp. He addressed her directly, "Grandma!" "What do you want, my son?" ' 'What ' s saltpeter?'' "Saltpeter?" the old woman repeated the question with surprise. "What is he dabbling in now, this Danny?" she thought with suspicion, unable to find a good reason behind the question. She was familiar with saltpeter, a harmless ingredient which was used for certain jobs in the household. She told him that the druggists in Tisovec kept saltpeter in their stores. This information was all Danny needed. Early the next morning, he sent Johnny to the city with three farthings to buy the saltpeter. In the meantime, Danny found a large apple, a "funtovka" apple (1) growing in the school garden, cut the apple in two equal halves, carving them into bowl-like plates, he attached the two halves first to strings and then to twigs arranged as primitive scales. When the charcoal was prepared and all the ingredients collected, he weighed the proper amounts of saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur, triturated every ingredient separately, and mixed them together. It made a little pile when he poured the mixture on a sheet of paper. He was as pleased with the feat as a chemist might have been with a successful experiment in his laboratory. The boys soon found that their experiment was successful, when one of them put the compound on the fire; the gunpowder wheezed up and hit Mis ho directly on his nose, for he was too curious and had stuck his head close to the compound "to see everything better." Fortunately, the amount allotted for the experiment was small, and Misho's accident thus was not too serious. A.similar result was attained in another experiment when one of the boys ~laced a capsule on a stone and hit it with another stone. The explosion again produced "casualties" - one "well-done thumb" and one "medium-done nose.'' The boys' summer games were brought to a sudden end with the announcement that school would open and classes would begin again immediately after the Tisovec Fair. (1934) Translated by Andrew Cincura NOTE: (1) funt (Slovak) - "pound. " "Funtovky" (pl.; funtovka, sg.) are very large apples that grow in Central Europe. In Slovak folk etymology, they are supposed to weigh at least one pound each. �SLOVAKIA 99 More About the Fair (11 fr1111111ent) MARTIN KUKUCfN (1860-1928) \ An African afternoon heat seemed to rest on our exhilarated city. There was almost no shade, not even next to the house walls. The sun was inescapable, burning mercilessly as if trying to suck the last drop of moisture from emaciated, desiccated Mother Earth. And still no one even thought of hitting the bunk for an hour or so, as the human constitution should require, especially after a festive dinner, when limbs become as heavy as lead and eyelids droop; when a sweet dream flutters about despite straining efforts to keep one's eyes open. Eyes grow stiff and seem to be bulging and enveloped by a fog in which objects merge with each other. In the end, you cannot do anything but give up and lie down sinking deeply into the embraces of a sweet nap. But who could have slept this afternoon? Recently rising from the table to sip black coffee, everyone shook off his drowsiness and went off to the square. The entire city swarmed and dawdled among the tents, buying and extorting presents without shyness or courtesy. Everyone was happy, alert, and lively. The bells, tolling four o'clock, put an end to the hurly-burly. At once the square became as empty as if swept. The tents were closed, and people either entered the church or - not finding a place inside surrounded the church in a numberless mass. After somewhat abbreviated vespers, a procession started. People forged out of the church in waves, reeling from side to side, and finally taking their position in rows. The most difficult task remained - to set the procession in motion. At the head there were school children under the church banner, followed by endless rows of men. Two by two, each of the men carried a faintly-smoldering candle into the dazzling sun's rays. The young boys following the men carried huge candles and torches in multicolored lanterns. The church banners fluttered in the air, then hung limply as the faint breeze died in the torrid stillness. Then the church kantadurs (1) marched under the ,leadership of mester (2) Ivo, all singing monotonous psalms with strong but dragging voices. The echo of their song thundered amid the houses and immediately died in the dead silence of the surroundings. Four youngsters in white albs, walking after the singers, carried on their shoulders the statue of the Virgin Mary, removed from the main altar. Mary sat majestically, with the smiling child on her knees. Crowns of pure gold glittered on the heads �100 SLOVAKIA of the Mother and Son. The Christ-Child spread his plump hands as if surprised by the sudden trip from the gloomy altar niche into the blinding sun. A brocade-like garment fell in colorful folds down the statue of the Mother of God. The image, laden with jewels and precious stones, glittered, flashed, and sparkled. After the company of priests, led by our Don Roko in a festive cape, sor Ilija Zorkovic walked in black clothes, with a hard hat in one hand and a black cane trimmed with a massive silver handle in the other. He walked alone. Pacing slowly and gravely, he looked neither to the right nor to the left, conscious of his authority and elevated rank which surpassed all the other laymen in the procession. Ilija is the chairman of the church board, curator and controller of all church holdings. He is responsible for the care of church fields and wine cellars. He manages the wine until it is sold to the merchants. Everything in the church - even the candles used in such large numbers every year - rests on his shoulders. He is, in addition, the manager of the Virgin Mary, the patroness of our city - he protects all jewelry and precious stones, earrings and golden chains, bracelets and rings. Sor Ilija Zorkovic keeps all the trinkets that are hung and poured over the statue in his own house in a heavy, ironbound chest. Such a grave responsibility entails much work and many pains, but the reward is splendid - during every procession, he occupies the most prominent place, alone, right behind the baldachin, before the eyes of the entire world, seen by friends and enemies, well-wishers and envious men. Why should his chest not swell with pride and self-assurance? Why should he not walk seriously and solemnly? Behind sor Ilija Zorkovic came the mayor surrounded by all the assessors. The mayor, too, walked gravely, but one way or another, his entire countenance was a far cry from Zorkovic's. After the representatives of the opcina, (4) there was a gap of five or six paces in the procession - the women walking separately behind the men's rows. The military retinue, with rifles on, their shoulders and their "hay-straw, hay-straw" cadence, flanked the statue and priests on both sides. · It was really a magnificent sight! The continuous tolling of the bells - urgent, fancy, heavy, tremulous - you name it! The bellman, holding the clapper in his fist and shaking it with his hand, struck the bell. Everyone looked forward to the procession; for weeks and weeks everyone delighted in its anticipation. Every member of the family took part in it if he had strength enough to move his limbs. Doddering elders, hardly able to drag their feet, were present, as were the little children, just managing their first attempts to stay on their feet. Mothers carried infants in their arms, so that no one would miss the procession. Among those present, there were also many non-residents. Many guests took pains to join the procession to express their devotion to the Mother of God either for restored health or for other favors �SLOVAKIA 101 granted them or their relatives. No wonder, then, that the magnificence and number of participants serve as a gauge for evaluating whether the fair was a complete or only a partial success. And the "mark" of relative success or failure was an important thing - every citizen was proud if his city's fair was famous far and wide . The entire processioJJ. dragged slowly across the square and through the short street, out,of the city toward the cross standing in the flat field on a marble pedestal. From there, following the promenade, the procession returned to the city, submerging into narrow alleys, flanked either by blunt fence walls or one-story houses . The streets were swept and sprinkled with white sand. The balconies of the more stately houses were transformed into fragrant flower groves; draperies or ornamental rugs hung from the windows and banisters . Even the teiaks (5) decorated their cottages for the occasion. The low roofs of some cottages were covered with flowerpots. In other cottages - those with marriageable daughters - the girls spread their dowries out on the roofs or on adjacent stone walls. The school children had already entered the narrow streets when sora (6) Andrejana's group was just leaving the church yard. The stylish young misses, as always, remained at the very end of the procession. Because of their relative distance from the statue of the Virgin, they may have forgotten the reason for their presence. While the lingering song of the church singers reverberated and a muffled prayer recited with the rosary beads murmured above the crowd, whispered conversations and giggles flowed among the young ladies, accompanied by glances cast toward the balcony of Citaonica (7) where a number of the young elite assembled to see the magnificent march. It is necessary to stress that hardly any of the young ladies wore a hat in most cases they wore black veils with the ends flowing picturesquely down their breasts. Since they had no parasols, they held fans in their hands, and were able to throw coquettish glances here and there, to the side or up toward the windows. The merchants remained at their tents. With the approach of the procession, they fell to their knees , contritely beating their chests. The bells warbled and tinkled. Dust clouds rose, especially behind the women. The mortars thundered in volleys. Sor Hija Zorkovic tied a knot on the cord in his hand after every volley, in order to have an exact count of the gunpowder used and prevent youngsters from stealing part of the explosives for hunting rabbits or partridges. And the Mother of God looked down kindly from her throne. Her Son , as if bewildered, threw his chubby hands about, smiling. With almost vertical rays, the sun blazed from above, and the dark-blue sky seemed to stretch absent-mindedly above this multicolored world. (1904) Translated by Andrew Cincura �102 SLOVAKIA Note: "More About the Fair," a fragment from Kukucin's novel, Dom u strcini (The House on the Hillside), is fundamentally a representative sample of the author's "second creative period," which coincided with his life in Dalmatia. (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) kantadurs (Dalmatian): singers mester (meshter, Dalmatian): master sor (shor, Dalmatian): mister, sir opcina (Croatian): commune, township teiaks (tezhaks, Croatian): poor peasants, farm hands sora (shora, Dalmatian): Mrs. citaonica (chitaonica, Croatian): reading club, library Joe Mak (a fr111111ent) JOZEF CIGER-HRONSKY (1896-1960) Just as Joe Mak returned on Thursday afternoon from hauling and had finished watering his horses, his employer, Baniar-Banoci, came into the yard and called, "Joe! J-o-o-e! Where are you?" ''Here! I'm here,'' Joe replied, coming out of the stable. Joe followed Baniar-Banoci to the hallway leading to the kitchen. "Take this and go home!" Baniar-Banoci gave Joe a large bottle of whisky, some flour, sugar, and other victuals. Joe Mak looked at Baniar and at the f~od in surprise, hesitating before taking the offered goods. ''Just take everything and hurry, go home! And send someone for the milk in the evening. But let me warn you, you'd better leave your sheepskin cap here and go home with a bare head!'' At that moment Joe's hands fell motionless. His lips moved into a smile. He looked first at the floor , then again at Baniar. He understood. "A girl?" " No, it's a boy!" Baniar replied. "The women said that he is big enough to post the banns and get married right away.'' "Well ... ," Joe Mak said, standing on one spot without a gesture and without any real thoughts in his head. He lifted his sheepskin cap somewhat automatically and thanked God from the bottom of his soul. "Julia wanted a girl," Joe said. "She still can have one. " "Yes, she can ... But I wouldn't have minded if she had had one now.'' �SLOVAKIA 103 Then he left. The flour and sugar on his back convinced him that everything was all right. He could believe Baniar's words. He did not need to ask anyone else. But the distance from Baniar's homestead to Joe's cottage was relatively long. Joe suddenly noticed that he was walking rapidly and began to drag his steps. If someone were to meet him, he would stop; he would talk at length as he would be expected to do; he would speak of the commonest things, for he wanted everything to be simple. He would say, ''Baniar told me that we have an additional member in our family, so I'm going to see. Of course, there will be more worries again .... And what a dry winter this is! The snow is late . Very likely we won 't have any snow this winter. One needs a bit of snow. Otherwise one loses track of the time, not knowing how far winter has progressed and why his fi1'gers get numb." He prepared the remarks about winter in the event that someone stopped him. But no one did. He was obliged to go home directly. And there he had only one opportunity to compliment Baniar for giving him so many things. Even so, he referred to Baniar only in order to have an excuse to stop at the hearth, unload the gifts slowly and carefully, and listen to the words of Mary Klachovka and Hana and little Joe, his son. It was easy for Joe to straighten his back. It was difficult to look at Julia, his wife. Almost transparent and with her eyes closed, she was lying in bed as if asleep; yet she was not asleep. She knew Joe was standing at her bedside unable to find words to fit the occasion. Her eyelids quivered. And when she opened her eyes, tears flowed down her cheeks. "Don't be angry with me , Joe!" Julia's lips moved, and Joe thought that she deliberately said the words softly so that no one but he could hear them. And Joe Mak was ashamed. Ordinary shame, though perhaps deeper than usual, overcame him. It was a merciless shame. Joe's face reddened as always, but this time the shame reached into his veins. Driving forward, it benumbed all of Joe's blood vessels. He pressed his knee to the sideboard of the bed, feeling that he could not stay on his feet otherwise. He pressed his hands together behind his back in an effort to cover his excitement. He clenched his teeth, realizing that both his eyelids and his eyesockets had begun to tremble. He knew they would gush tears like a little child if he relaxed his cheek muscles even slightly. Would that not be embarrassing? Or was there something else? Yes, there was! Mary Klachovka was present. She should not be lingering in the room at this time. Her presence was a sacrilege. She should not interfere with Joe's intimate conversation with Julia. No one likes to be surprised in a moment of weakness. No one wants to be caught at a time when he is nothing but a human being; �104 SLOVAKIA when he is neither rich nor poor, neither Joe nor Mak; when everything - work and clothing and everything bestowed on a man by destiny falls off of him for a while, and when nothing but fundamental wisdom remains in him. Klachovka felt it. She unconsciously sensed the moment. She left the room, taking the children with her so that Joe Mak did not have to hide his humanity, so that all his wisdom - a wisdom possessed by every man in such moments - would remain his in its entirety. Without Klachovka in the room, Joe Mak could reflect on those things which other men can think of in advance and thus prepare themselves for any contingency, so as to know when and how one should weep or when and how one should laugh. But the wise man Joe Mak found that in all his life he had learned nothing for such occasions and that he might better remain silent, without word or gesture, for it would be funny if his heavy hands started doing something they had never learned before and his mouth began a speech which he had not prepared. His hands could not attempt any tenderness, for they were calloused and rough, suitable only for heavy work. This way he was also able to hold back the assault of tears, however unusual, which welled in his eyes, since heretofore he had experienced only one kind of moisture on his face - that of sweat, drying either in the sun or frost, etching deep wrinkles into his face. Be that as it may, Joe just wanted Julia to know that even a laborer has a heart, although he cannot show it as much as a gentle man or a lighthearted youngster. Joe had more than enough warmth and kindness and love in his heart for this moment. Because his love for Julia was born with difficulty, it had become purer and more secure - a love on which one could rely. Surely Julia knew of all this. "God help us, Julia," Joe said like a weather-beaten priest who had plowed a cliff and was about to deliver his first sermon. A wan, almost invisible smile touched Julia's lips, lightly caressing her cheeks and eyes. The pure white smile then spread to her forehead. Had she been able to do anything~t all, she would have lifted both her hands so that Joe Mak could have placed his head in her palms. Had she been stronger, she would certainly have smiled more clearly and would have spoken loudly: "Joe, my dear husband! I didn't think I would live through this childbirth. I thought you and I would never understand each other. And everything I thought was wrong. Now I see clearly that you love me. I see everything and I know for sure that God will help us. Why shouldn't He? But don't be angry with me, Joe! Surely you aren't angry because of what I said. How could I imagine that you would be angry? I knew beforehand that you would be good to me when you returned home. A dream pressed its way into my eyes, and the women around by bed thought I was really sleeping. But I was just waiting for you, because all �SLOVAKIA 105 the others around me were strangers. I'll sleep soundly now. If you place your hand on my body, you can feel that my heart is still motionless; it feels as hard as a stone. But now that you've returned, now that I can see you, I'll rest peacefully, and my heart will start beating again. Do you know, my dear husband, what will happen when my heart begins to beat again? My entire world will start for me again.'' ''Banoci didn't tell me., what happened or how it happened. But I can guess," Joe Mak said quietly. Perspiration flowed down his hard face, but what could he do? What else could he do when he knew no other way of telling Julia that today was different from all other days? Joe Mak saw Julia's white smile. But he knew that a white smile was a very fragile thing; one must be very careful to not touch such a smile at all. Joe thought it would have been a blasphemy to desecrate such a smile with words. And Joe did not want to offend God today nor to hinder the beating of Julia's heart in any way. Julia's heart started slowly. Thump, thump .... Some blood had reached its auricles and ventricles and warmed up immediately. Happiness began glowing in Julia's cheeks. This happiness, small as it was in the beginning, started to grow and fly and flow and fill the entire room. Even the loud-mouthed Klachovka, returning to the room, refrained from disturbing the couple's bliss. Joe Mak lifted his oldest son up high and tickled him under his chin. And the boy broke into such laughter that the glass shook in the window frame. Little Joe laughed because he was a little boy. All this took place on Thursday. The hoarfrost came on the following Monday. Everyone knows that hoarfrost is like a beautiful veil. You cannot find it in any anticipated place or at any predetermined time. The hoarfrost's veil is beautiful on bleached meadows. But this one did not spread over plains or slopes. The hoarfrost usually settles on the birch twigs. It glitters opaquely, a demure element of nature's magnificence, reluctant to impose itself on anyone's sight. But this particular frost did not encase the birch twigs . The hoarfrost did not settle on the firs and willows either. It did not come at midnight as usual. This one came in the daylight and settled only on Mak's cottage. But even there, the hoarfrost did not spread over the entire cottage. It did not cover either the roof or the threshold, or the room. This day's hoarfrost settled only on Julia's face, on her forehead, on her closed eyes, on her white lips, on Julia's white smile. Yes, Julia was smiling even then, as she died. (1933) Translated by Andrew Cincura � SLOVAKIA 87 AN ANTHOLOGY OF SLOVAK UTERA TURE Introductory Remarks ANDREW CINCURA \ An Anthology of Slovak Literature, compiled recently with financial support from The Rockefeller Foundation, presents the most representative selections from the works of over 70 Slovak authors. Consisting primarily of translations from Slovak poetry, prose , and drama, this anthology contains, in addition, a general introduction by Dr. Michael Novak, a long aesthetic-historical essay "Slovak Literature : A Brief History" by Dr. Karol StrmeN, and an appendix presenting several selections from Slovak-American authors. Several scholars and artists, including the well-known Slovak-American poet, Reverend Jaroslav J. Vajda, and American poet and scholar, Dr. Michael Collings , assisted the compiler in the project. The Anthology of Slovak Literature is - in the words of Dr. Novak - ''a work of major importance (connecting) the United States and one other small part of the world . . . This anthology is done with taste, intelligence, judgment, and perception. I read it with excitement, and I am sure that hundreds of thousands of others from Eastern Europe will find in it nourishment over the next generation, for it is a landmark book, certain to endure. " Although just a minute part of the work itself, the following excerpts from An Anthology of Slovak Literature will give the reader a foretaste of the character and artistry of the book. An Anthology of Slovak Literature has been available since May 1, 1976, at : University Hardcovers P . 0. Box 248 Riverside , California 92502 or from the major Slovak newspapers and bookstores throughout the United States and Canada. If ordered directly from the publisher, the price of the book is $16.50 for individual copies. A discount of 10 percent will be given on orders of 5-10 copies , and a discount of 20 percent on orders of 11 or more copies. The following selections are reprinted with perrmss10n of University Hardcovers, P. 0 . Box 248, Riverside, California 92502, from An Anthology of Slovak Literature by Andrew Cincura. Copyright © 1976 by Andrew Cincura. �88 SLOVAKIA On Skulls JAN HOLLY (1785-1849) Tell me, you skulls, so neatly stacked in dark bone-bins, whose were you once, a peasant's or a lord's? Which one of you was held aloof on a wealthy, mighty neck, and which drooped languid from a beggar's spine? Upon which, while alive, did fortune cast her smile, and which was crushed by lifelong slavery? Is this one whiter from the fawning adulation so many offered it in lavish awe? And that one darker having suffered undeserved ingratitude and cruel ridicule? Speechless in terrifying silence, not one of you is able to give me an answer to my question. In frightful heaps you lie, looking so very much like gathered shards of stony desolations; or like those grief-bent forests when the white-maned wind denudes them of their leafy captivating beauty. So when a man is gone: with him all honor dies and glory and every deference bestowed by others. (Ba1ne rozmanite, n. d.) Translated by J aroslav J. Vajda �SLOVAKIA God in Heaven \ AN"DREJ SLADKOVIC (1820-1872) God in heaven , see what sorrow when our young are cast abroad out into the world to borrow, toil, or beg a crust of bread. See them mercilessly driven, scattered by life's cruel hoax, what were solitary ravens have become falcon flocks . God in heaven, thus forsaken, if I stay, what can I earn? Into this world came I naked, naked I shall there return . In that hour, pray, be responsive to my final, inmost need: mercy , God, 0 God, have mercy when I stand alone with Thee. Translated by Jaroslav J. Vajda 89 �90 SLOVAKIA Bloody Sonnets (a fragment) PA VOL ORSAGH-HVIEZDOSLAV (1849-1921) I A song of blood: - what madness can this be? And which shall be our theme? The sudden rush rose-red, that leaps into a maiden 's blush, the sleeping infant's pink we love to see , that pulses under angel custody ; or shall it be the ardent crimson gush that fires the zealot 's brow with fervid flush: then let the song resound with rapture free! Oh, blood is a wonder-working fluid! Hidden like some rare vintage seething ~ithin the heart , it pounds with the might and rage of tempest-ridden breakers ; or bursting the tranquil pulse apart, it charges one with frenzy God-forbidden . .. Do thoughts like these engage the butcher's art? Translated by Jaroslav J. Vajda �SLOVAKIA The Guests , IVANKRASKO (1876-1958) Courteously , though with a mystic fearfulness, I welcomed nonetheless my funeral guests, somber, with psalters under thei:r arms, having arrived from distant lands . Ceremonially , with chalky, dry and bony hands each reverenced the icon of my dusty home, and bowing to the waist (to me - if not, to whom?), they sat around the table , a solemn, black-swathed ring. Searching the psalter for long-lost hymns, they then began to sing in deep sepulchral voice - the harshest kind of air of bitter fruit the tree of life was found to bear, of Mother Earth's original condition - as one she was before the thrice-cursed lust of slithering Diabolos ... And then as gloomily they left (under the smiles of those who never dared to take from Eve the apple of her wiles), and said they would return to us again next year to visit those they now considered brothers, or at least as near. Eunice! Where are you? Look how one by one they disappear. (Verse, 1912) Translated by Jaroslav J . Vajda 91 �92 SLOVAKIA The Hundred and First Tale of Boccaccio VALENTIN BENIAK (1894-1973) Quill in hand, I wrote a letter home: I shall stay on till Autumn here in Florence. And yes, I met Boccaccio carrying his Decameron, followed by a band of noble virgins. One I knew - Donna Clara - led her beast and handed me the leather bridle as she went. In Fiesole we met a priest bearing on his shoulder a battered trident. Neptune it was, reaping hay - despite his wont the pagan seas had scorned him, one and all. ''Sir,'' he asked, ' 'might you be the Duke of Brabant on your way to my confessional?" He would have liked the stole and blessed oil, would pray my soul to heaven's halls, would hire wicked men to toil rip Botticelli's Venus from the U(fizi's walls . . Slip her from her canvas world - be done! she would return with him to her sea-home . (For this is but the hundredth tale and one, carved from Carrara marble and sea-foam.) (Ozveny krokov, 1931) Translated by Andrew Cincura �SLOVAKIA ' Carmen EMIL B. LUKAC (1900) Dance and sing, you naked bajadera, throughout this long and melancholy era. Dance and sing, the golden calf is bleating, and dragon claws the kettle-fires are heating. In flaming dance your many limbs entwine to form a beast half-hydra, half-divine. Dance and sing, you universal axis, you contradictory, convoluted maxims: maze, lie, and death - not way and truth and life. Dance and sing, deaf.to the din of strife. The blood of millions suck, you golden flea. Machine guns bark, and cracks the gallows-tree. (Moloch, 1938) Translated by Jaroslav J. Vajda 93 �94 SLOVAKIA Two Days at Chujava (a Iragment) JONASZABORSKY (1812-1876) Zajac, a slovenly peasant and the village clown, entered the inn's hall. The youngsters surrounded him at once, and, as always, he launched into a narrative of his heroic exploits inBombardy. (1) "Every Bombardian bee, believe me, is as large as a Slovak sheep," Zajac said, to introduce his story. "And what about the beehives - how large are they?" Pelechavy asked from the other side of the table, smiling broadly. "Only as large as ours." "Then how can the bees enter the beehives?" "That's their problem, "the ex-hussar Zajac roared, laughing and half-seriously accusing Pelechavy of r.itting at the table without ever touching his full glass . "Why don't you drink like all the other right men do? May a hundred thunderclaps deafen your soul.'' A guffaw shook the room. The men emptied their glasses, while the Jewish innkeeper did his best to keep them filled. Zajac continued with his tall tales: "Did you know that macaroni is really nothing but tapeworms seventy yards long? People buy them by the foot. To eat macaroni, all one has to do is sit in the most comfortable position, open his mouth, and let the tapeworm run down his throat by itself, while the waitress measures its length by the yard and cuts it with scissors when the customer has eaten his fill.'' Zajac then related the tale of his love affair with an Italian countess. "As soon as I rode into the castle yard," he said, "she started to wink at me, her mouth watering with anticipation. She thought, 'By Jove, there's a lad. I'm sure he has no eq~al in the entire world!' And when I dismounted and handed my horse over to the servant, she shook my hand and took me by arm, saying, ''If you will, please!' Then we went into the house. After a good supper, she prepared a bed for her husband on the bench at the hearth. 'You'll sleep here tonight,' she said, patting his arm, 'but please be quiet and don't disturb the hussar in his sleep.' - For me she spread a sheaf of straw on the floor in the middle of the room. The count, listening to her soft conversation with me, coughed and said, 'Erzha, is that hussar whispering with you?' " 'So what if he is?' " 'Why don't you stop him?' the count said. " 'I can't. I don't speak his language,' the countess replied." �SLOVAKIA 95 '' And what about your meeting with Napoleon?'' a youngster with a broom-like feather on his hat called, prompting Zajac to further narration. '' All right, listen! WhE!n the Frenchmen had annoyed us with their frequent attacks, our Emperor met with his generals to find out which one of the Austro-Hungarian soldiers wore his cap most rakishly and would therefore be best suited to be sent to Napoleon . All the generals, of course, agreed that only I, Zajac, was the proper hero, willing and able to go on such an important mission. I mounted my horse and was off to Paris. On my arrival there, I tethered my horse to a fence . Mrs. Napoleon, the Empress of France, immediately ran to me, bringing oats for my horse in her apron and taking me into her kitchen . She cooked pirohy (a) for me, filled with minced pears. They were really good, better than any I'd ever seen or tasted! Large as peasant moccasins, they were greased with the tallow collected from seven melted candles. I swear to God, they were so good that the grease flowed down my chin as profusely as down Aaron's beard. I ate almost two of them. As an extra treat the Empress also cooked hriate (b) and baked pag<ice (c) with cracklings for my return trip." "And what about Napoleon?" "Well, he patted my shoulder and said, ' My dear fellow! I wish I had a regiment of hussars like you! With men like you I would easily conquer the entire world, and all the nations in it.' - And you should have seen it - I give you my word of honor and cross my heart - he embraced and kissed me as if I were his lady love.'' "And did he sue for peace?" ' 'Of course , what else could he do when I asked him to? He gave me ten farthings for whisky and asked me to convince our Emperor and generals not to stir until he took over as many lands as he wanted. He whetted his appetite for our Bombardy (1) and bombarded us out of it, may thunder and lightning strike his sideways-turned hat! We looked around, hoping that some Cossack would appear and help us, but the world is ungrateful! We assisted the Frenchmen in Crimea against the Muscovites and the thankless Muscovites did not come to repay our courtesy and help us against the Frenchmen. That's the kind of honor you find in this world! . . . " "You' re the greatest liar I've ever seen! " Buchak remarked, wiping his moustache. ''Yes, and all of you are great fools,'' the ex-hussar Zajac laughed. "You should take my words as seriously as you take the print on paper money, which sa: ·s you may exchange it for silver any time, or believe me as much as yo I can the saying that all men are equal." (1883) (Translated by Andrew Cincura) �96 SLOVAKIA NOTES: jocular term for Lombardy . Lombardy belonged to the AustroHungarian Empire until 1859. (1) Bombardy - (a) pirohy - cheese or fruit dumplings (b) hriate - hot whisky with goose-fat topping (c) pagace (pagaache) - small unsweetened cakes The nDiscovery" of Gunpowder (a frag111cnt) TEREZIA VANSOV A (1857-1941) Autumn had progressed considerably, but our children were still enjoying the golden freedom of summer vacation. In our village, there was a tradition that school started only after the Tisovec Fair. After the pupil's mothers had sold a goose or a piece of homespun linen and had bought clothes for their children and the primers with the picture of a rooster on the front cover. Then, and only then, could the children walk proudly to school. Our boys conducted great military maneuvers in the parsonage orchard. Danny, who continually pestered Srnchik with his questions about military strategy, commanded his "rank-and-file" comrades, who were equipped with wooden sabres, guns, and a supply of dry-pea bullets in their pockets. One-two-one-two - the company marched up the orchard path, and when Danny thought they had reached their position, he called, "H-a-a-a-1-t!" Then he turned to his "men" and drilled them in the proper ways of military know-how. He was naturally dissatisfied with the over-all results. The ''men'' halted, once with one leg in the forward position, then with the ~ther. Some of them were stooped, some crooked; some did not add to iih.e glory of the tight-knit military unit at all. "How are you standing there, Private Misho? Don't you know anything about proper military bearing? Up! Straighten your legs! No, no! Don't stand there like a duckling! Pull your belly in! Out with your chest!'' Misho tried his best, but he never succeeded in acquiring a proper stance. His face was one broad grin. He opened his mouth wide and held his hands tightly to his knees (his monkey-like hands actually reached lower than his knees!). Yet regardless of his efforts, he was never praised for his achievements. �SLOVAKIA 97 Then Danny drilled the ''troops'' in the proper use of weapons, but he became really upset when even his own gun refused to obey his command. "F-i-r-e! F-i-r-e!" Danny repeated in exasperation. What was the purpose of military games without a weapon that really shoots? Why use a weapon which neither fires nor kills? He had already almost worn out his brains in an effort to acquire gunpowder. What all he had done, and all for nothing! He would have bought some powder, and he certainly could have obtained the money for it somehow. But what good would it do when neither he nor any of his comrades were big enough to buy powder in Tisovec. He was just a child, and his request, however small, would have been considered too dangerous anyway. Danny's friend Johnny had not taken part in the military drill today. Johnny would have been subject to a reprimand from his stem commander had he not appeared when the game was about to end. Running through the orchard, Johnny finally stopped near the formation. With a book in his hand, he waved and shouted, almost out of breath, "Hurrah, we've got gunpowder!" The boys turned around. Forgetting their military discipline, they jumped out of their lines and surrounded Johnny. Johnny showed them the book - the Almanac of Fejerpataky. The boys stopped, bewildered. They thought their comrade had brought some real gunpowder with him; and instead, he only showed them an old book. Danny snatched the book from Johnny's hand and asked with contempt and suspicion, "Why did you bring this book?" "Here, look! Here it is!" Johnny replied, still gasping for breath. "What?" Danny asked impatiently. ''The formula for making gunpowder!'' Johnny's reply electrified Danny. "Let's see!" He grabbed the book again, sank to the turf, and started to turn the leaves. Johnny showed him the article in the almanac. Both boys plunged into reading and quickly forgot their comrades, who resumed their own play. Danny studied the well-known recipe like a cook about the prepare a tasty cake. While reading, he wondered how he could obtain and measure all the ingredients necessary for gunpowder. Seventy-five parts saltpeter (but what is "saltpeter" and where he could buy it?); eleven parts sulfur (ah, he had it; luckily, he had already taken some from his father's supply); and fourteen parts hazel-wood charcoal (that's the easiest to get: they could cut hazel twigs anywhere, and they could bum charcoal by themselves). The scales for weighing the ingredients? No problem - they would construct it from twigs, strings, and an apple. And now to work! Danny stood up, his face gleaming. He gave the necessary instructions immediately. The boys were to go tomorrow morning to cut hazel wood. They were to store the supply at the upper end of the orchard, and they were to build a charcoal-pile there. Johnny was to go to Tisovec to buy saltpeter. (Danny knew that he could not get any �98 SLOVAKIA himself because of his previous "contacts" with the city merchants.) Danny would try to find out what saltpeter was and where they could buy it. The orders dispensed, Danny hit the shortest path to his grandmother' s. He found her in front of her house thrashing hemp. He addressed her directly, "Grandma!" "What do you want, my son?" ' 'What ' s saltpeter?'' "Saltpeter?" the old woman repeated the question with surprise. "What is he dabbling in now, this Danny?" she thought with suspicion, unable to find a good reason behind the question. She was familiar with saltpeter, a harmless ingredient which was used for certain jobs in the household. She told him that the druggists in Tisovec kept saltpeter in their stores. This information was all Danny needed. Early the next morning, he sent Johnny to the city with three farthings to buy the saltpeter. In the meantime, Danny found a large apple, a "funtovka" apple (1) growing in the school garden, cut the apple in two equal halves, carving them into bowl-like plates, he attached the two halves first to strings and then to twigs arranged as primitive scales. When the charcoal was prepared and all the ingredients collected, he weighed the proper amounts of saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur, triturated every ingredient separately, and mixed them together. It made a little pile when he poured the mixture on a sheet of paper. He was as pleased with the feat as a chemist might have been with a successful experiment in his laboratory. The boys soon found that their experiment was successful, when one of them put the compound on the fire; the gunpowder wheezed up and hit Mis ho directly on his nose, for he was too curious and had stuck his head close to the compound "to see everything better." Fortunately, the amount allotted for the experiment was small, and Misho's accident thus was not too serious. A.similar result was attained in another experiment when one of the boys ~laced a capsule on a stone and hit it with another stone. The explosion again produced "casualties" - one "well-done thumb" and one "medium-done nose.'' The boys' summer games were brought to a sudden end with the announcement that school would open and classes would begin again immediately after the Tisovec Fair. (1934) Translated by Andrew Cincura NOTE: (1) funt (Slovak) - "pound. " "Funtovky" (pl.; funtovka, sg.) are very large apples that grow in Central Europe. In Slovak folk etymology, they are supposed to weigh at least one pound each. �SLOVAKIA 99 More About the Fair (11 fr1111111ent) MARTIN KUKUCfN (1860-1928) \ An African afternoon heat seemed to rest on our exhilarated city. There was almost no shade, not even next to the house walls. The sun was inescapable, burning mercilessly as if trying to suck the last drop of moisture from emaciated, desiccated Mother Earth. And still no one even thought of hitting the bunk for an hour or so, as the human constitution should require, especially after a festive dinner, when limbs become as heavy as lead and eyelids droop; when a sweet dream flutters about despite straining efforts to keep one's eyes open. Eyes grow stiff and seem to be bulging and enveloped by a fog in which objects merge with each other. In the end, you cannot do anything but give up and lie down sinking deeply into the embraces of a sweet nap. But who could have slept this afternoon? Recently rising from the table to sip black coffee, everyone shook off his drowsiness and went off to the square. The entire city swarmed and dawdled among the tents, buying and extorting presents without shyness or courtesy. Everyone was happy, alert, and lively. The bells, tolling four o'clock, put an end to the hurly-burly. At once the square became as empty as if swept. The tents were closed, and people either entered the church or - not finding a place inside surrounded the church in a numberless mass. After somewhat abbreviated vespers, a procession started. People forged out of the church in waves, reeling from side to side, and finally taking their position in rows. The most difficult task remained - to set the procession in motion. At the head there were school children under the church banner, followed by endless rows of men. Two by two, each of the men carried a faintly-smoldering candle into the dazzling sun's rays. The young boys following the men carried huge candles and torches in multicolored lanterns. The church banners fluttered in the air, then hung limply as the faint breeze died in the torrid stillness. Then the church kantadurs (1) marched under the ,leadership of mester (2) Ivo, all singing monotonous psalms with strong but dragging voices. The echo of their song thundered amid the houses and immediately died in the dead silence of the surroundings. Four youngsters in white albs, walking after the singers, carried on their shoulders the statue of the Virgin Mary, removed from the main altar. Mary sat majestically, with the smiling child on her knees. Crowns of pure gold glittered on the heads �100 SLOVAKIA of the Mother and Son. The Christ-Child spread his plump hands as if surprised by the sudden trip from the gloomy altar niche into the blinding sun. A brocade-like garment fell in colorful folds down the statue of the Mother of God. The image, laden with jewels and precious stones, glittered, flashed, and sparkled. After the company of priests, led by our Don Roko in a festive cape, sor Ilija Zorkovic walked in black clothes, with a hard hat in one hand and a black cane trimmed with a massive silver handle in the other. He walked alone. Pacing slowly and gravely, he looked neither to the right nor to the left, conscious of his authority and elevated rank which surpassed all the other laymen in the procession. Ilija is the chairman of the church board, curator and controller of all church holdings. He is responsible for the care of church fields and wine cellars. He manages the wine until it is sold to the merchants. Everything in the church - even the candles used in such large numbers every year - rests on his shoulders. He is, in addition, the manager of the Virgin Mary, the patroness of our city - he protects all jewelry and precious stones, earrings and golden chains, bracelets and rings. Sor Ilija Zorkovic keeps all the trinkets that are hung and poured over the statue in his own house in a heavy, ironbound chest. Such a grave responsibility entails much work and many pains, but the reward is splendid - during every procession, he occupies the most prominent place, alone, right behind the baldachin, before the eyes of the entire world, seen by friends and enemies, well-wishers and envious men. Why should his chest not swell with pride and self-assurance? Why should he not walk seriously and solemnly? Behind sor Ilija Zorkovic came the mayor surrounded by all the assessors. The mayor, too, walked gravely, but one way or another, his entire countenance was a far cry from Zorkovic's. After the representatives of the opcina, (4) there was a gap of five or six paces in the procession - the women walking separately behind the men's rows. The military retinue, with rifles on, their shoulders and their "hay-straw, hay-straw" cadence, flanked the statue and priests on both sides. · It was really a magnificent sight! The continuous tolling of the bells - urgent, fancy, heavy, tremulous - you name it! The bellman, holding the clapper in his fist and shaking it with his hand, struck the bell. Everyone looked forward to the procession; for weeks and weeks everyone delighted in its anticipation. Every member of the family took part in it if he had strength enough to move his limbs. Doddering elders, hardly able to drag their feet, were present, as were the little children, just managing their first attempts to stay on their feet. Mothers carried infants in their arms, so that no one would miss the procession. Among those present, there were also many non-residents. Many guests took pains to join the procession to express their devotion to the Mother of God either for restored health or for other favors �SLOVAKIA 101 granted them or their relatives. No wonder, then, that the magnificence and number of participants serve as a gauge for evaluating whether the fair was a complete or only a partial success. And the "mark" of relative success or failure was an important thing - every citizen was proud if his city's fair was famous far and wide . The entire processioJJ. dragged slowly across the square and through the short street, out,of the city toward the cross standing in the flat field on a marble pedestal. From there, following the promenade, the procession returned to the city, submerging into narrow alleys, flanked either by blunt fence walls or one-story houses . The streets were swept and sprinkled with white sand. The balconies of the more stately houses were transformed into fragrant flower groves; draperies or ornamental rugs hung from the windows and banisters . Even the teiaks (5) decorated their cottages for the occasion. The low roofs of some cottages were covered with flowerpots. In other cottages - those with marriageable daughters - the girls spread their dowries out on the roofs or on adjacent stone walls. The school children had already entered the narrow streets when sora (6) Andrejana's group was just leaving the church yard. The stylish young misses, as always, remained at the very end of the procession. Because of their relative distance from the statue of the Virgin, they may have forgotten the reason for their presence. While the lingering song of the church singers reverberated and a muffled prayer recited with the rosary beads murmured above the crowd, whispered conversations and giggles flowed among the young ladies, accompanied by glances cast toward the balcony of Citaonica (7) where a number of the young elite assembled to see the magnificent march. It is necessary to stress that hardly any of the young ladies wore a hat in most cases they wore black veils with the ends flowing picturesquely down their breasts. Since they had no parasols, they held fans in their hands, and were able to throw coquettish glances here and there, to the side or up toward the windows. The merchants remained at their tents. With the approach of the procession, they fell to their knees , contritely beating their chests. The bells warbled and tinkled. Dust clouds rose, especially behind the women. The mortars thundered in volleys. Sor Hija Zorkovic tied a knot on the cord in his hand after every volley, in order to have an exact count of the gunpowder used and prevent youngsters from stealing part of the explosives for hunting rabbits or partridges. And the Mother of God looked down kindly from her throne. Her Son , as if bewildered, threw his chubby hands about, smiling. With almost vertical rays, the sun blazed from above, and the dark-blue sky seemed to stretch absent-mindedly above this multicolored world. (1904) Translated by Andrew Cincura �102 SLOVAKIA Note: "More About the Fair," a fragment from Kukucin's novel, Dom u strcini (The House on the Hillside), is fundamentally a representative sample of the author's "second creative period," which coincided with his life in Dalmatia. (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) kantadurs (Dalmatian): singers mester (meshter, Dalmatian): master sor (shor, Dalmatian): mister, sir opcina (Croatian): commune, township teiaks (tezhaks, Croatian): poor peasants, farm hands sora (shora, Dalmatian): Mrs. citaonica (chitaonica, Croatian): reading club, library Joe Mak (a fr111111ent) JOZEF CIGER-HRONSKY (1896-1960) Just as Joe Mak returned on Thursday afternoon from hauling and had finished watering his horses, his employer, Baniar-Banoci, came into the yard and called, "Joe! J-o-o-e! Where are you?" ''Here! I'm here,'' Joe replied, coming out of the stable. Joe followed Baniar-Banoci to the hallway leading to the kitchen. "Take this and go home!" Baniar-Banoci gave Joe a large bottle of whisky, some flour, sugar, and other victuals. Joe Mak looked at Baniar and at the f~od in surprise, hesitating before taking the offered goods. ''Just take everything and hurry, go home! And send someone for the milk in the evening. But let me warn you, you'd better leave your sheepskin cap here and go home with a bare head!'' At that moment Joe's hands fell motionless. His lips moved into a smile. He looked first at the floor , then again at Baniar. He understood. "A girl?" " No, it's a boy!" Baniar replied. "The women said that he is big enough to post the banns and get married right away.'' "Well ... ," Joe Mak said, standing on one spot without a gesture and without any real thoughts in his head. He lifted his sheepskin cap somewhat automatically and thanked God from the bottom of his soul. "Julia wanted a girl," Joe said. "She still can have one. " "Yes, she can ... But I wouldn't have minded if she had had one now.'' �SLOVAKIA 103 Then he left. The flour and sugar on his back convinced him that everything was all right. He could believe Baniar's words. He did not need to ask anyone else. But the distance from Baniar's homestead to Joe's cottage was relatively long. Joe suddenly noticed that he was walking rapidly and began to drag his steps. If someone were to meet him, he would stop; he would talk at length as he would be expected to do; he would speak of the commonest things, for he wanted everything to be simple. He would say, ''Baniar told me that we have an additional member in our family, so I'm going to see. Of course, there will be more worries again .... And what a dry winter this is! The snow is late . Very likely we won 't have any snow this winter. One needs a bit of snow. Otherwise one loses track of the time, not knowing how far winter has progressed and why his fi1'gers get numb." He prepared the remarks about winter in the event that someone stopped him. But no one did. He was obliged to go home directly. And there he had only one opportunity to compliment Baniar for giving him so many things. Even so, he referred to Baniar only in order to have an excuse to stop at the hearth, unload the gifts slowly and carefully, and listen to the words of Mary Klachovka and Hana and little Joe, his son. It was easy for Joe to straighten his back. It was difficult to look at Julia, his wife. Almost transparent and with her eyes closed, she was lying in bed as if asleep; yet she was not asleep. She knew Joe was standing at her bedside unable to find words to fit the occasion. Her eyelids quivered. And when she opened her eyes, tears flowed down her cheeks. "Don't be angry with me , Joe!" Julia's lips moved, and Joe thought that she deliberately said the words softly so that no one but he could hear them. And Joe Mak was ashamed. Ordinary shame, though perhaps deeper than usual, overcame him. It was a merciless shame. Joe's face reddened as always, but this time the shame reached into his veins. Driving forward, it benumbed all of Joe's blood vessels. He pressed his knee to the sideboard of the bed, feeling that he could not stay on his feet otherwise. He pressed his hands together behind his back in an effort to cover his excitement. He clenched his teeth, realizing that both his eyelids and his eyesockets had begun to tremble. He knew they would gush tears like a little child if he relaxed his cheek muscles even slightly. Would that not be embarrassing? Or was there something else? Yes, there was! Mary Klachovka was present. She should not be lingering in the room at this time. Her presence was a sacrilege. She should not interfere with Joe's intimate conversation with Julia. No one likes to be surprised in a moment of weakness. No one wants to be caught at a time when he is nothing but a human being; �104 SLOVAKIA when he is neither rich nor poor, neither Joe nor Mak; when everything - work and clothing and everything bestowed on a man by destiny falls off of him for a while, and when nothing but fundamental wisdom remains in him. Klachovka felt it. She unconsciously sensed the moment. She left the room, taking the children with her so that Joe Mak did not have to hide his humanity, so that all his wisdom - a wisdom possessed by every man in such moments - would remain his in its entirety. Without Klachovka in the room, Joe Mak could reflect on those things which other men can think of in advance and thus prepare themselves for any contingency, so as to know when and how one should weep or when and how one should laugh. But the wise man Joe Mak found that in all his life he had learned nothing for such occasions and that he might better remain silent, without word or gesture, for it would be funny if his heavy hands started doing something they had never learned before and his mouth began a speech which he had not prepared. His hands could not attempt any tenderness, for they were calloused and rough, suitable only for heavy work. This way he was also able to hold back the assault of tears, however unusual, which welled in his eyes, since heretofore he had experienced only one kind of moisture on his face - that of sweat, drying either in the sun or frost, etching deep wrinkles into his face. Be that as it may, Joe just wanted Julia to know that even a laborer has a heart, although he cannot show it as much as a gentle man or a lighthearted youngster. Joe had more than enough warmth and kindness and love in his heart for this moment. Because his love for Julia was born with difficulty, it had become purer and more secure - a love on which one could rely. Surely Julia knew of all this. "God help us, Julia," Joe said like a weather-beaten priest who had plowed a cliff and was about to deliver his first sermon. A wan, almost invisible smile touched Julia's lips, lightly caressing her cheeks and eyes. The pure white smile then spread to her forehead. Had she been able to do anything~t all, she would have lifted both her hands so that Joe Mak could have placed his head in her palms. Had she been stronger, she would certainly have smiled more clearly and would have spoken loudly: "Joe, my dear husband! I didn't think I would live through this childbirth. I thought you and I would never understand each other. And everything I thought was wrong. Now I see clearly that you love me. I see everything and I know for sure that God will help us. Why shouldn't He? But don't be angry with me, Joe! Surely you aren't angry because of what I said. How could I imagine that you would be angry? I knew beforehand that you would be good to me when you returned home. A dream pressed its way into my eyes, and the women around by bed thought I was really sleeping. But I was just waiting for you, because all �SLOVAKIA 105 the others around me were strangers. I'll sleep soundly now. If you place your hand on my body, you can feel that my heart is still motionless; it feels as hard as a stone. But now that you've returned, now that I can see you, I'll rest peacefully, and my heart will start beating again. Do you know, my dear husband, what will happen when my heart begins to beat again? My entire world will start for me again.'' ''Banoci didn't tell me., what happened or how it happened. But I can guess," Joe Mak said quietly. Perspiration flowed down his hard face, but what could he do? What else could he do when he knew no other way of telling Julia that today was different from all other days? Joe Mak saw Julia's white smile. But he knew that a white smile was a very fragile thing; one must be very careful to not touch such a smile at all. Joe thought it would have been a blasphemy to desecrate such a smile with words. And Joe did not want to offend God today nor to hinder the beating of Julia's heart in any way. Julia's heart started slowly. Thump, thump .... Some blood had reached its auricles and ventricles and warmed up immediately. Happiness began glowing in Julia's cheeks. This happiness, small as it was in the beginning, started to grow and fly and flow and fill the entire room. Even the loud-mouthed Klachovka, returning to the room, refrained from disturbing the couple's bliss. Joe Mak lifted his oldest son up high and tickled him under his chin. And the boy broke into such laughter that the glass shook in the window frame. Little Joe laughed because he was a little boy. All this took place on Thursday. The hoarfrost came on the following Monday. Everyone knows that hoarfrost is like a beautiful veil. You cannot find it in any anticipated place or at any predetermined time. The hoarfrost's veil is beautiful on bleached meadows. But this one did not spread over plains or slopes. The hoarfrost usually settles on the birch twigs. It glitters opaquely, a demure element of nature's magnificence, reluctant to impose itself on anyone's sight. But this particular frost did not encase the birch twigs . The hoarfrost did not settle on the firs and willows either. It did not come at midnight as usual. This one came in the daylight and settled only on Mak's cottage. But even there, the hoarfrost did not spread over the entire cottage. It did not cover either the roof or the threshold, or the room. This day's hoarfrost settled only on Julia's face, on her forehead, on her closed eyes, on her white lips, on Julia's white smile. Yes, Julia was smiling even then, as she died. (1933) Translated by Andrew Cincura � 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 1976, Vol. 26 Description An account of the resource Vol. 26 (No. 49), 1976. 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 1976 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 87 AN ANTHOLOGY OF SLOVAK UTERA TURE Introductory Remarks ANDREW CINCURA \ An Anthology of Slovak Literature, compiled recently with financial support from The Rockefeller Foundation, presents the most representative selections from the works of over 70 Slovak authors. Consisting primarily of translations from Slovak poetry, prose , and drama, this anthology contains, in addition, a general introduction by Dr. Michael Novak, a long aesthetic-historical essay "Slovak Literature : A Brief History" by Dr. Karol StrmeN, and an appendix presenting several selections from Slovak-American authors. Several scholars and artists, including the well-known Slovak-American poet, Reverend Jaroslav J. Vajda, and American poet and scholar, Dr. Michael Collings , assisted the compiler in the project. The Anthology of Slovak Literature is - in the words of Dr. Novak - ''a work of major importance (connecting) the United States and one other small part of the world . . . This anthology is done with taste, intelligence, judgment, and perception. I read it with excitement, and I am sure that hundreds of thousands of others from Eastern Europe will find in it nourishment over the next generation, for it is a landmark book, certain to endure. " Although just a minute part of the work itself, the following excerpts from An Anthology of Slovak Literature will give the reader a foretaste of the character and artistry of the book. An Anthology of Slovak Literature has been available since May 1, 1976, at : University Hardcovers P . 0. Box 248 Riverside , California 92502 or from the major Slovak newspapers and bookstores throughout the United States and Canada. If ordered directly from the publisher, the price of the book is $16.50 for individual copies. A discount of 10 percent will be given on orders of 5-10 copies , and a discount of 20 percent on orders of 11 or more copies. The following selections are reprinted with perrmss10n of University Hardcovers, P. 0 . Box 248, Riverside, California 92502, from An Anthology of Slovak Literature by Andrew Cincura. Copyright © 1976 by Andrew Cincura. 88 SLOVAKIA On Skulls JAN HOLLY (1785-1849) Tell me, you skulls, so neatly stacked in dark bone-bins, whose were you once, a peasant's or a lord's? Which one of you was held aloof on a wealthy, mighty neck, and which drooped languid from a beggar's spine? Upon which, while alive, did fortune cast her smile, and which was crushed by lifelong slavery? Is this one whiter from the fawning adulation so many offered it in lavish awe? And that one darker having suffered undeserved ingratitude and cruel ridicule? Speechless in terrifying silence, not one of you is able to give me an answer to my question. In frightful heaps you lie, looking so very much like gathered shards of stony desolations; or like those grief-bent forests when the white-maned wind denudes them of their leafy captivating beauty. So when a man is gone: with him all honor dies and glory and every deference bestowed by others. (Ba1ne rozmanite, n. d.) Translated by J aroslav J. Vajda SLOVAKIA God in Heaven \ AN"DREJ SLADKOVIC (1820-1872) God in heaven , see what sorrow when our young are cast abroad out into the world to borrow, toil, or beg a crust of bread. See them mercilessly driven, scattered by life's cruel hoax, what were solitary ravens have become falcon flocks . God in heaven, thus forsaken, if I stay, what can I earn? Into this world came I naked, naked I shall there return . In that hour, pray, be responsive to my final, inmost need: mercy , God, 0 God, have mercy when I stand alone with Thee. Translated by Jaroslav J. Vajda 89 90 SLOVAKIA Bloody Sonnets (a fragment) PA VOL ORSAGH-HVIEZDOSLAV (1849-1921) I A song of blood: - what madness can this be? And which shall be our theme? The sudden rush rose-red, that leaps into a maiden 's blush, the sleeping infant's pink we love to see , that pulses under angel custody ; or shall it be the ardent crimson gush that fires the zealot 's brow with fervid flush: then let the song resound with rapture free! Oh, blood is a wonder-working fluid! Hidden like some rare vintage seething ~ithin the heart , it pounds with the might and rage of tempest-ridden breakers ; or bursting the tranquil pulse apart, it charges one with frenzy God-forbidden . .. Do thoughts like these engage the butcher's art? Translated by Jaroslav J. Vajda SLOVAKIA The Guests , IVANKRASKO (1876-1958) Courteously , though with a mystic fearfulness, I welcomed nonetheless my funeral guests, somber, with psalters under thei:r arms, having arrived from distant lands . Ceremonially , with chalky, dry and bony hands each reverenced the icon of my dusty home, and bowing to the waist (to me - if not, to whom?), they sat around the table , a solemn, black-swathed ring. Searching the psalter for long-lost hymns, they then began to sing in deep sepulchral voice - the harshest kind of air of bitter fruit the tree of life was found to bear, of Mother Earth's original condition - as one she was before the thrice-cursed lust of slithering Diabolos ... And then as gloomily they left (under the smiles of those who never dared to take from Eve the apple of her wiles), and said they would return to us again next year to visit those they now considered brothers, or at least as near. Eunice! Where are you? Look how one by one they disappear. (Verse, 1912) Translated by Jaroslav J . Vajda 91 92 SLOVAKIA The Hundred and First Tale of Boccaccio VALENTIN BENIAK (1894-1973) Quill in hand, I wrote a letter home: I shall stay on till Autumn here in Florence. And yes, I met Boccaccio carrying his Decameron, followed by a band of noble virgins. One I knew - Donna Clara - led her beast and handed me the leather bridle as she went. In Fiesole we met a priest bearing on his shoulder a battered trident. Neptune it was, reaping hay - despite his wont the pagan seas had scorned him, one and all. ''Sir,'' he asked, ' 'might you be the Duke of Brabant on your way to my confessional?" He would have liked the stole and blessed oil, would pray my soul to heaven's halls, would hire wicked men to toil rip Botticelli's Venus from the U(fizi's walls . . Slip her from her canvas world - be done! she would return with him to her sea-home . (For this is but the hundredth tale and one, carved from Carrara marble and sea-foam.) (Ozveny krokov, 1931) Translated by Andrew Cincura SLOVAKIA ' Carmen EMIL B. LUKAC (1900) Dance and sing, you naked bajadera, throughout this long and melancholy era. Dance and sing, the golden calf is bleating, and dragon claws the kettle-fires are heating. In flaming dance your many limbs entwine to form a beast half-hydra, half-divine. Dance and sing, you universal axis, you contradictory, convoluted maxims: maze, lie, and death - not way and truth and life. Dance and sing, deaf.to the din of strife. The blood of millions suck, you golden flea. Machine guns bark, and cracks the gallows-tree. (Moloch, 1938) Translated by Jaroslav J. Vajda 93 94 SLOVAKIA Two Days at Chujava (a Iragment) JONASZABORSKY (1812-1876) Zajac, a slovenly peasant and the village clown, entered the inn's hall. The youngsters surrounded him at once, and, as always, he launched into a narrative of his heroic exploits inBombardy. (1) "Every Bombardian bee, believe me, is as large as a Slovak sheep," Zajac said, to introduce his story. "And what about the beehives - how large are they?" Pelechavy asked from the other side of the table, smiling broadly. "Only as large as ours." "Then how can the bees enter the beehives?" "That's their problem, "the ex-hussar Zajac roared, laughing and half-seriously accusing Pelechavy of r.itting at the table without ever touching his full glass . "Why don't you drink like all the other right men do? May a hundred thunderclaps deafen your soul.'' A guffaw shook the room. The men emptied their glasses, while the Jewish innkeeper did his best to keep them filled. Zajac continued with his tall tales: "Did you know that macaroni is really nothing but tapeworms seventy yards long? People buy them by the foot. To eat macaroni, all one has to do is sit in the most comfortable position, open his mouth, and let the tapeworm run down his throat by itself, while the waitress measures its length by the yard and cuts it with scissors when the customer has eaten his fill.'' Zajac then related the tale of his love affair with an Italian countess. "As soon as I rode into the castle yard," he said, "she started to wink at me, her mouth watering with anticipation. She thought, 'By Jove, there's a lad. I'm sure he has no eq~al in the entire world!' And when I dismounted and handed my horse over to the servant, she shook my hand and took me by arm, saying, ''If you will, please!' Then we went into the house. After a good supper, she prepared a bed for her husband on the bench at the hearth. 'You'll sleep here tonight,' she said, patting his arm, 'but please be quiet and don't disturb the hussar in his sleep.' - For me she spread a sheaf of straw on the floor in the middle of the room. The count, listening to her soft conversation with me, coughed and said, 'Erzha, is that hussar whispering with you?' " 'So what if he is?' " 'Why don't you stop him?' the count said. " 'I can't. I don't speak his language,' the countess replied." SLOVAKIA 95 '' And what about your meeting with Napoleon?'' a youngster with a broom-like feather on his hat called, prompting Zajac to further narration. '' All right, listen! WhE!n the Frenchmen had annoyed us with their frequent attacks, our Emperor met with his generals to find out which one of the Austro-Hungarian soldiers wore his cap most rakishly and would therefore be best suited to be sent to Napoleon . All the generals, of course, agreed that only I, Zajac, was the proper hero, willing and able to go on such an important mission. I mounted my horse and was off to Paris. On my arrival there, I tethered my horse to a fence . Mrs. Napoleon, the Empress of France, immediately ran to me, bringing oats for my horse in her apron and taking me into her kitchen . She cooked pirohy (a) for me, filled with minced pears. They were really good, better than any I'd ever seen or tasted! Large as peasant moccasins, they were greased with the tallow collected from seven melted candles. I swear to God, they were so good that the grease flowed down my chin as profusely as down Aaron's beard. I ate almost two of them. As an extra treat the Empress also cooked hriate (b) and baked pag<ice (c) with cracklings for my return trip." "And what about Napoleon?" "Well, he patted my shoulder and said, ' My dear fellow! I wish I had a regiment of hussars like you! With men like you I would easily conquer the entire world, and all the nations in it.' - And you should have seen it - I give you my word of honor and cross my heart - he embraced and kissed me as if I were his lady love.'' "And did he sue for peace?" ' 'Of course , what else could he do when I asked him to? He gave me ten farthings for whisky and asked me to convince our Emperor and generals not to stir until he took over as many lands as he wanted. He whetted his appetite for our Bombardy (1) and bombarded us out of it, may thunder and lightning strike his sideways-turned hat! We looked around, hoping that some Cossack would appear and help us, but the world is ungrateful! We assisted the Frenchmen in Crimea against the Muscovites and the thankless Muscovites did not come to repay our courtesy and help us against the Frenchmen. That's the kind of honor you find in this world! . . . " "You' re the greatest liar I've ever seen! " Buchak remarked, wiping his moustache. ''Yes, and all of you are great fools,'' the ex-hussar Zajac laughed. "You should take my words as seriously as you take the print on paper money, which sa: ·s you may exchange it for silver any time, or believe me as much as yo I can the saying that all men are equal." (1883) (Translated by Andrew Cincura) 96 SLOVAKIA NOTES: jocular term for Lombardy . Lombardy belonged to the AustroHungarian Empire until 1859. (1) Bombardy - (a) pirohy - cheese or fruit dumplings (b) hriate - hot whisky with goose-fat topping (c) pagace (pagaache) - small unsweetened cakes The nDiscovery" of Gunpowder (a frag111cnt) TEREZIA VANSOV A (1857-1941) Autumn had progressed considerably, but our children were still enjoying the golden freedom of summer vacation. In our village, there was a tradition that school started only after the Tisovec Fair. After the pupil's mothers had sold a goose or a piece of homespun linen and had bought clothes for their children and the primers with the picture of a rooster on the front cover. Then, and only then, could the children walk proudly to school. Our boys conducted great military maneuvers in the parsonage orchard. Danny, who continually pestered Srnchik with his questions about military strategy, commanded his "rank-and-file" comrades, who were equipped with wooden sabres, guns, and a supply of dry-pea bullets in their pockets. One-two-one-two - the company marched up the orchard path, and when Danny thought they had reached their position, he called, "H-a-a-a-1-t!" Then he turned to his "men" and drilled them in the proper ways of military know-how. He was naturally dissatisfied with the over-all results. The ''men'' halted, once with one leg in the forward position, then with the ~ther. Some of them were stooped, some crooked; some did not add to iih.e glory of the tight-knit military unit at all. "How are you standing there, Private Misho? Don't you know anything about proper military bearing? Up! Straighten your legs! No, no! Don't stand there like a duckling! Pull your belly in! Out with your chest!'' Misho tried his best, but he never succeeded in acquiring a proper stance. His face was one broad grin. He opened his mouth wide and held his hands tightly to his knees (his monkey-like hands actually reached lower than his knees!). Yet regardless of his efforts, he was never praised for his achievements. SLOVAKIA 97 Then Danny drilled the ''troops'' in the proper use of weapons, but he became really upset when even his own gun refused to obey his command. "F-i-r-e! F-i-r-e!" Danny repeated in exasperation. What was the purpose of military games without a weapon that really shoots? Why use a weapon which neither fires nor kills? He had already almost worn out his brains in an effort to acquire gunpowder. What all he had done, and all for nothing! He would have bought some powder, and he certainly could have obtained the money for it somehow. But what good would it do when neither he nor any of his comrades were big enough to buy powder in Tisovec. He was just a child, and his request, however small, would have been considered too dangerous anyway. Danny's friend Johnny had not taken part in the military drill today. Johnny would have been subject to a reprimand from his stem commander had he not appeared when the game was about to end. Running through the orchard, Johnny finally stopped near the formation. With a book in his hand, he waved and shouted, almost out of breath, "Hurrah, we've got gunpowder!" The boys turned around. Forgetting their military discipline, they jumped out of their lines and surrounded Johnny. Johnny showed them the book - the Almanac of Fejerpataky. The boys stopped, bewildered. They thought their comrade had brought some real gunpowder with him; and instead, he only showed them an old book. Danny snatched the book from Johnny's hand and asked with contempt and suspicion, "Why did you bring this book?" "Here, look! Here it is!" Johnny replied, still gasping for breath. "What?" Danny asked impatiently. ''The formula for making gunpowder!'' Johnny's reply electrified Danny. "Let's see!" He grabbed the book again, sank to the turf, and started to turn the leaves. Johnny showed him the article in the almanac. Both boys plunged into reading and quickly forgot their comrades, who resumed their own play. Danny studied the well-known recipe like a cook about the prepare a tasty cake. While reading, he wondered how he could obtain and measure all the ingredients necessary for gunpowder. Seventy-five parts saltpeter (but what is "saltpeter" and where he could buy it?); eleven parts sulfur (ah, he had it; luckily, he had already taken some from his father's supply); and fourteen parts hazel-wood charcoal (that's the easiest to get: they could cut hazel twigs anywhere, and they could bum charcoal by themselves). The scales for weighing the ingredients? No problem - they would construct it from twigs, strings, and an apple. And now to work! Danny stood up, his face gleaming. He gave the necessary instructions immediately. The boys were to go tomorrow morning to cut hazel wood. They were to store the supply at the upper end of the orchard, and they were to build a charcoal-pile there. Johnny was to go to Tisovec to buy saltpeter. (Danny knew that he could not get any 98 SLOVAKIA himself because of his previous "contacts" with the city merchants.) Danny would try to find out what saltpeter was and where they could buy it. The orders dispensed, Danny hit the shortest path to his grandmother' s. He found her in front of her house thrashing hemp. He addressed her directly, "Grandma!" "What do you want, my son?" ' 'What ' s saltpeter?'' "Saltpeter?" the old woman repeated the question with surprise. "What is he dabbling in now, this Danny?" she thought with suspicion, unable to find a good reason behind the question. She was familiar with saltpeter, a harmless ingredient which was used for certain jobs in the household. She told him that the druggists in Tisovec kept saltpeter in their stores. This information was all Danny needed. Early the next morning, he sent Johnny to the city with three farthings to buy the saltpeter. In the meantime, Danny found a large apple, a "funtovka" apple (1) growing in the school garden, cut the apple in two equal halves, carving them into bowl-like plates, he attached the two halves first to strings and then to twigs arranged as primitive scales. When the charcoal was prepared and all the ingredients collected, he weighed the proper amounts of saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur, triturated every ingredient separately, and mixed them together. It made a little pile when he poured the mixture on a sheet of paper. He was as pleased with the feat as a chemist might have been with a successful experiment in his laboratory. The boys soon found that their experiment was successful, when one of them put the compound on the fire; the gunpowder wheezed up and hit Mis ho directly on his nose, for he was too curious and had stuck his head close to the compound "to see everything better." Fortunately, the amount allotted for the experiment was small, and Misho's accident thus was not too serious. A.similar result was attained in another experiment when one of the boys ~laced a capsule on a stone and hit it with another stone. The explosion again produced "casualties" - one "well-done thumb" and one "medium-done nose.'' The boys' summer games were brought to a sudden end with the announcement that school would open and classes would begin again immediately after the Tisovec Fair. (1934) Translated by Andrew Cincura NOTE: (1) funt (Slovak) - "pound. " "Funtovky" (pl.; funtovka, sg.) are very large apples that grow in Central Europe. In Slovak folk etymology, they are supposed to weigh at least one pound each. SLOVAKIA 99 More About the Fair (11 fr1111111ent) MARTIN KUKUCfN (1860-1928) \ An African afternoon heat seemed to rest on our exhilarated city. There was almost no shade, not even next to the house walls. The sun was inescapable, burning mercilessly as if trying to suck the last drop of moisture from emaciated, desiccated Mother Earth. And still no one even thought of hitting the bunk for an hour or so, as the human constitution should require, especially after a festive dinner, when limbs become as heavy as lead and eyelids droop; when a sweet dream flutters about despite straining efforts to keep one's eyes open. Eyes grow stiff and seem to be bulging and enveloped by a fog in which objects merge with each other. In the end, you cannot do anything but give up and lie down sinking deeply into the embraces of a sweet nap. But who could have slept this afternoon? Recently rising from the table to sip black coffee, everyone shook off his drowsiness and went off to the square. The entire city swarmed and dawdled among the tents, buying and extorting presents without shyness or courtesy. Everyone was happy, alert, and lively. The bells, tolling four o'clock, put an end to the hurly-burly. At once the square became as empty as if swept. The tents were closed, and people either entered the church or - not finding a place inside surrounded the church in a numberless mass. After somewhat abbreviated vespers, a procession started. People forged out of the church in waves, reeling from side to side, and finally taking their position in rows. The most difficult task remained - to set the procession in motion. At the head there were school children under the church banner, followed by endless rows of men. Two by two, each of the men carried a faintly-smoldering candle into the dazzling sun's rays. The young boys following the men carried huge candles and torches in multicolored lanterns. The church banners fluttered in the air, then hung limply as the faint breeze died in the torrid stillness. Then the church kantadurs (1) marched under the ,leadership of mester (2) Ivo, all singing monotonous psalms with strong but dragging voices. The echo of their song thundered amid the houses and immediately died in the dead silence of the surroundings. Four youngsters in white albs, walking after the singers, carried on their shoulders the statue of the Virgin Mary, removed from the main altar. Mary sat majestically, with the smiling child on her knees. Crowns of pure gold glittered on the heads 100 SLOVAKIA of the Mother and Son. The Christ-Child spread his plump hands as if surprised by the sudden trip from the gloomy altar niche into the blinding sun. A brocade-like garment fell in colorful folds down the statue of the Mother of God. The image, laden with jewels and precious stones, glittered, flashed, and sparkled. After the company of priests, led by our Don Roko in a festive cape, sor Ilija Zorkovic walked in black clothes, with a hard hat in one hand and a black cane trimmed with a massive silver handle in the other. He walked alone. Pacing slowly and gravely, he looked neither to the right nor to the left, conscious of his authority and elevated rank which surpassed all the other laymen in the procession. Ilija is the chairman of the church board, curator and controller of all church holdings. He is responsible for the care of church fields and wine cellars. He manages the wine until it is sold to the merchants. Everything in the church - even the candles used in such large numbers every year - rests on his shoulders. He is, in addition, the manager of the Virgin Mary, the patroness of our city - he protects all jewelry and precious stones, earrings and golden chains, bracelets and rings. Sor Ilija Zorkovic keeps all the trinkets that are hung and poured over the statue in his own house in a heavy, ironbound chest. Such a grave responsibility entails much work and many pains, but the reward is splendid - during every procession, he occupies the most prominent place, alone, right behind the baldachin, before the eyes of the entire world, seen by friends and enemies, well-wishers and envious men. Why should his chest not swell with pride and self-assurance? Why should he not walk seriously and solemnly? Behind sor Ilija Zorkovic came the mayor surrounded by all the assessors. The mayor, too, walked gravely, but one way or another, his entire countenance was a far cry from Zorkovic's. After the representatives of the opcina, (4) there was a gap of five or six paces in the procession - the women walking separately behind the men's rows. The military retinue, with rifles on, their shoulders and their "hay-straw, hay-straw" cadence, flanked the statue and priests on both sides. · It was really a magnificent sight! The continuous tolling of the bells - urgent, fancy, heavy, tremulous - you name it! The bellman, holding the clapper in his fist and shaking it with his hand, struck the bell. Everyone looked forward to the procession; for weeks and weeks everyone delighted in its anticipation. Every member of the family took part in it if he had strength enough to move his limbs. Doddering elders, hardly able to drag their feet, were present, as were the little children, just managing their first attempts to stay on their feet. Mothers carried infants in their arms, so that no one would miss the procession. Among those present, there were also many non-residents. Many guests took pains to join the procession to express their devotion to the Mother of God either for restored health or for other favors SLOVAKIA 101 granted them or their relatives. No wonder, then, that the magnificence and number of participants serve as a gauge for evaluating whether the fair was a complete or only a partial success. And the "mark" of relative success or failure was an important thing - every citizen was proud if his city's fair was famous far and wide . The entire processioJJ. dragged slowly across the square and through the short street, out,of the city toward the cross standing in the flat field on a marble pedestal. From there, following the promenade, the procession returned to the city, submerging into narrow alleys, flanked either by blunt fence walls or one-story houses . The streets were swept and sprinkled with white sand. The balconies of the more stately houses were transformed into fragrant flower groves; draperies or ornamental rugs hung from the windows and banisters . Even the teiaks (5) decorated their cottages for the occasion. The low roofs of some cottages were covered with flowerpots. In other cottages - those with marriageable daughters - the girls spread their dowries out on the roofs or on adjacent stone walls. The school children had already entered the narrow streets when sora (6) Andrejana's group was just leaving the church yard. The stylish young misses, as always, remained at the very end of the procession. Because of their relative distance from the statue of the Virgin, they may have forgotten the reason for their presence. While the lingering song of the church singers reverberated and a muffled prayer recited with the rosary beads murmured above the crowd, whispered conversations and giggles flowed among the young ladies, accompanied by glances cast toward the balcony of Citaonica (7) where a number of the young elite assembled to see the magnificent march. It is necessary to stress that hardly any of the young ladies wore a hat in most cases they wore black veils with the ends flowing picturesquely down their breasts. Since they had no parasols, they held fans in their hands, and were able to throw coquettish glances here and there, to the side or up toward the windows. The merchants remained at their tents. With the approach of the procession, they fell to their knees , contritely beating their chests. The bells warbled and tinkled. Dust clouds rose, especially behind the women. The mortars thundered in volleys. Sor Hija Zorkovic tied a knot on the cord in his hand after every volley, in order to have an exact count of the gunpowder used and prevent youngsters from stealing part of the explosives for hunting rabbits or partridges. And the Mother of God looked down kindly from her throne. Her Son , as if bewildered, threw his chubby hands about, smiling. With almost vertical rays, the sun blazed from above, and the dark-blue sky seemed to stretch absent-mindedly above this multicolored world. (1904) Translated by Andrew Cincura 102 SLOVAKIA Note: "More About the Fair," a fragment from Kukucin's novel, Dom u strcini (The House on the Hillside), is fundamentally a representative sample of the author's "second creative period," which coincided with his life in Dalmatia. (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) kantadurs (Dalmatian): singers mester (meshter, Dalmatian): master sor (shor, Dalmatian): mister, sir opcina (Croatian): commune, township teiaks (tezhaks, Croatian): poor peasants, farm hands sora (shora, Dalmatian): Mrs. citaonica (chitaonica, Croatian): reading club, library Joe Mak (a fr111111ent) JOZEF CIGER-HRONSKY (1896-1960) Just as Joe Mak returned on Thursday afternoon from hauling and had finished watering his horses, his employer, Baniar-Banoci, came into the yard and called, "Joe! J-o-o-e! Where are you?" ''Here! I'm here,'' Joe replied, coming out of the stable. Joe followed Baniar-Banoci to the hallway leading to the kitchen. "Take this and go home!" Baniar-Banoci gave Joe a large bottle of whisky, some flour, sugar, and other victuals. Joe Mak looked at Baniar and at the f~od in surprise, hesitating before taking the offered goods. ''Just take everything and hurry, go home! And send someone for the milk in the evening. But let me warn you, you'd better leave your sheepskin cap here and go home with a bare head!'' At that moment Joe's hands fell motionless. His lips moved into a smile. He looked first at the floor , then again at Baniar. He understood. "A girl?" " No, it's a boy!" Baniar replied. "The women said that he is big enough to post the banns and get married right away.'' "Well ... ," Joe Mak said, standing on one spot without a gesture and without any real thoughts in his head. He lifted his sheepskin cap somewhat automatically and thanked God from the bottom of his soul. "Julia wanted a girl," Joe said. "She still can have one. " "Yes, she can ... But I wouldn't have minded if she had had one now.'' SLOVAKIA 103 Then he left. The flour and sugar on his back convinced him that everything was all right. He could believe Baniar's words. He did not need to ask anyone else. But the distance from Baniar's homestead to Joe's cottage was relatively long. Joe suddenly noticed that he was walking rapidly and began to drag his steps. If someone were to meet him, he would stop; he would talk at length as he would be expected to do; he would speak of the commonest things, for he wanted everything to be simple. He would say, ''Baniar told me that we have an additional member in our family, so I'm going to see. Of course, there will be more worries again .... And what a dry winter this is! The snow is late . Very likely we won 't have any snow this winter. One needs a bit of snow. Otherwise one loses track of the time, not knowing how far winter has progressed and why his fi1'gers get numb." He prepared the remarks about winter in the event that someone stopped him. But no one did. He was obliged to go home directly. And there he had only one opportunity to compliment Baniar for giving him so many things. Even so, he referred to Baniar only in order to have an excuse to stop at the hearth, unload the gifts slowly and carefully, and listen to the words of Mary Klachovka and Hana and little Joe, his son. It was easy for Joe to straighten his back. It was difficult to look at Julia, his wife. Almost transparent and with her eyes closed, she was lying in bed as if asleep; yet she was not asleep. She knew Joe was standing at her bedside unable to find words to fit the occasion. Her eyelids quivered. And when she opened her eyes, tears flowed down her cheeks. "Don't be angry with me , Joe!" Julia's lips moved, and Joe thought that she deliberately said the words softly so that no one but he could hear them. And Joe Mak was ashamed. Ordinary shame, though perhaps deeper than usual, overcame him. It was a merciless shame. Joe's face reddened as always, but this time the shame reached into his veins. Driving forward, it benumbed all of Joe's blood vessels. He pressed his knee to the sideboard of the bed, feeling that he could not stay on his feet otherwise. He pressed his hands together behind his back in an effort to cover his excitement. He clenched his teeth, realizing that both his eyelids and his eyesockets had begun to tremble. He knew they would gush tears like a little child if he relaxed his cheek muscles even slightly. Would that not be embarrassing? Or was there something else? Yes, there was! Mary Klachovka was present. She should not be lingering in the room at this time. Her presence was a sacrilege. She should not interfere with Joe's intimate conversation with Julia. No one likes to be surprised in a moment of weakness. No one wants to be caught at a time when he is nothing but a human being; 104 SLOVAKIA when he is neither rich nor poor, neither Joe nor Mak; when everything - work and clothing and everything bestowed on a man by destiny falls off of him for a while, and when nothing but fundamental wisdom remains in him. Klachovka felt it. She unconsciously sensed the moment. She left the room, taking the children with her so that Joe Mak did not have to hide his humanity, so that all his wisdom - a wisdom possessed by every man in such moments - would remain his in its entirety. Without Klachovka in the room, Joe Mak could reflect on those things which other men can think of in advance and thus prepare themselves for any contingency, so as to know when and how one should weep or when and how one should laugh. But the wise man Joe Mak found that in all his life he had learned nothing for such occasions and that he might better remain silent, without word or gesture, for it would be funny if his heavy hands started doing something they had never learned before and his mouth began a speech which he had not prepared. His hands could not attempt any tenderness, for they were calloused and rough, suitable only for heavy work. This way he was also able to hold back the assault of tears, however unusual, which welled in his eyes, since heretofore he had experienced only one kind of moisture on his face - that of sweat, drying either in the sun or frost, etching deep wrinkles into his face. Be that as it may, Joe just wanted Julia to know that even a laborer has a heart, although he cannot show it as much as a gentle man or a lighthearted youngster. Joe had more than enough warmth and kindness and love in his heart for this moment. Because his love for Julia was born with difficulty, it had become purer and more secure - a love on which one could rely. Surely Julia knew of all this. "God help us, Julia," Joe said like a weather-beaten priest who had plowed a cliff and was about to deliver his first sermon. A wan, almost invisible smile touched Julia's lips, lightly caressing her cheeks and eyes. The pure white smile then spread to her forehead. Had she been able to do anything~t all, she would have lifted both her hands so that Joe Mak could have placed his head in her palms. Had she been stronger, she would certainly have smiled more clearly and would have spoken loudly: "Joe, my dear husband! I didn't think I would live through this childbirth. I thought you and I would never understand each other. And everything I thought was wrong. Now I see clearly that you love me. I see everything and I know for sure that God will help us. Why shouldn't He? But don't be angry with me, Joe! Surely you aren't angry because of what I said. How could I imagine that you would be angry? I knew beforehand that you would be good to me when you returned home. A dream pressed its way into my eyes, and the women around by bed thought I was really sleeping. But I was just waiting for you, because all SLOVAKIA 105 the others around me were strangers. I'll sleep soundly now. If you place your hand on my body, you can feel that my heart is still motionless; it feels as hard as a stone. But now that you've returned, now that I can see you, I'll rest peacefully, and my heart will start beating again. Do you know, my dear husband, what will happen when my heart begins to beat again? My entire world will start for me again.'' ''Banoci didn't tell me., what happened or how it happened. But I can guess," Joe Mak said quietly. Perspiration flowed down his hard face, but what could he do? What else could he do when he knew no other way of telling Julia that today was different from all other days? Joe Mak saw Julia's white smile. But he knew that a white smile was a very fragile thing; one must be very careful to not touch such a smile at all. Joe thought it would have been a blasphemy to desecrate such a smile with words. And Joe did not want to offend God today nor to hinder the beating of Julia's heart in any way. Julia's heart started slowly. Thump, thump .... Some blood had reached its auricles and ventricles and warmed up immediately. Happiness began glowing in Julia's cheeks. This happiness, small as it was in the beginning, started to grow and fly and flow and fill the entire room. Even the loud-mouthed Klachovka, returning to the room, refrained from disturbing the couple's bliss. Joe Mak lifted his oldest son up high and tickled him under his chin. And the boy broke into such laughter that the glass shook in the window frame. Little Joe laughed because he was a little boy. All this took place on Thursday. The hoarfrost came on the following Monday. Everyone knows that hoarfrost is like a beautiful veil. You cannot find it in any anticipated place or at any predetermined time. The hoarfrost's veil is beautiful on bleached meadows. But this one did not spread over plains or slopes. The hoarfrost usually settles on the birch twigs. It glitters opaquely, a demure element of nature's magnificence, reluctant to impose itself on anyone's sight. But this particular frost did not encase the birch twigs . The hoarfrost did not settle on the firs and willows either. It did not come at midnight as usual. This one came in the daylight and settled only on Mak's cottage. But even there, the hoarfrost did not spread over the entire cottage. It did not cover either the roof or the threshold, or the room. This day's hoarfrost settled only on Julia's face, on her forehead, on her closed eyes, on her white lips, on Julia's white smile. Yes, Julia was smiling even then, as she died. (1933) Translated by Andrew Cincura  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 Selections from An Anthology of Slovak Literature Description An account of the resource Andrew Cincurra<br />Slovakia, Vol. 26 (No. 49), 1976<br />pp. 87-105<br /><ol><li>Introductory Remarks / Andrew Cincura (p. 87).</li> <li>On Skulls / Ján Hollý, translated by Jaroslav J. Vajda (p. 88).</li> <li>God in Heaven / Andrej Sládkovič, translated by Jaroslav J. Vajda (p. 89).</li> <li>Bloody Sonnets (a fragment) / Pavol Orságh-Hviezdoslav, translated by Jaroslav J. Vajda (p. 90).</li> <li>The Guests / Ivan Krasko, translated by Jaroslav J. Vajda (p. 91).</li> <li>The Hundred and First Tale of Boccaccio / Valentín Beniak, translated by Andrew Cincura (p. 92).</li> <li>Carmen / Emil B. Lukáč, translated by Jaroslav J. Vajda (p. 93).</li> <li>Two Days at Chujava (a fragment) / Jonáš Záborský, translated by Andrew Cincura (pp. 94-95).</li> <li>The "Discovery" of Gunpowder (a fragment) / Terézia Vansová, translated by Andrew Cincura (pp. 96-98).</li> <li>More About the Fair (a fragment) / Martin Kukučín, translated by Andrew Cincura (pp. 99-101).</li> <li>Joe Mak (a fragment) / Jozef Cíger-Hronský, translated by Andrew Cincura (pp. 102-105).</li> </ol> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cincura, Andrew, 1917- Vajda, Jaroslav J., 1919-2008 Hollý, Ján, 1785-1849 Sládkovič, Andrej, 1820-1872 Hviezdoslav, Pavol Országh, 1849-1921 Krasko, Ivan, 1876-1958 Beniak, Valentín, 1894-1973 Lukáč, Emil Boleslav, 1900-1979 Záborský, Jonáš, 1812-1876 Vansová, Terézia, 1857-1942 Kukučín, Martin, 1860-1928 Hronský, Jozef Cíger, 1896-1960 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1976 LCNAF SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/86d96c7d18c798012ece401fefbe311c.pdf 9cc550b54da39724fe915bd2ad8cc4c2 PDF Text Text 130 SLOVAKIA Great Slovak Talent Ethnic America is finally emerging from the cocoon of silence about its hopes, successes and failures, progress and achievements. This emergence is not, as some critics charge, hyphenating the United States. On the contrary it is a reemphasis and recounting of the very ideals which made this country gloriously different from other nations. Slovak-Americans are quick to tell you that in the past, and even current history of Slovakia, success could not have been easily achieved by Slovaks. Liberty was something they discovered only in the United States where even failure is not hopeless. The following article from the pen of the editor of Slovakia was translated from Slovak into English as a reminder that the fruition of the dreams of immigrants are fulfilled by succeeding sons and daughters and grandchildren, thanks to the opportunity for education, liberty, as well as the "stick-to-it-iveness" of each individual. The translator therefore presents this article in that spirit and with a hearty ... BRAVO, CYRIL J. ZILKA Among the talented artists justifiably highlighted by Jednota is Cyril J. Zilka of Miami, Florida. Although only 18 years of age, Cyril is a member of the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of Miami. It may therefore be a correct assumption that he is one of the youngest member of a philharmonic symphony orchestra in America. Such membership is acquired only through exceptional talent and our Slovak-American, Cyril Zilka, possesses it. His long series of performances testify to his mastership and artistry. It was not luck or mere chance that gave Zilka the opportunity to participate in the All-American Youth Orchestra at the John F. Kennedy Musical Center at Washington on May 9, 1972. Only the best musical talent in the land was accepted for this orchestra. This opportunity and success came about through Cyril's talent and performances in other cities. In 1972 Cyril was the orchestral concert master of all �SLOVAKIA 131 high schools in Florida, as well as of the Orchestral School of Miami, and likewise for the past two years of the Youth Orchestra of Greater Miami. Last year he was concert master at the Conservatory of the University of Cincinnati and he will continue in this capacity this summer. Cyril has attended many music courses in which he has always placed first. In 1971 he won a scholarship to Tanglewood, renowned musical center, and he also won a scholarship to the Eastern Musical Festival. He is a member of the Carmen Nappo Quarted where he plays first violin. For the past three years he has been a member of the Symphonic Orchestra in North Miami Beach in which he also plays first violin. He has appeared in 90 public concerts in Miami and the neighboring vicinity. Last year he won first prize, competing against contestants of all the high schools of the state of Florida - as soloist, in duet, and in chamber orchestral performances. He played first violin in all of these appearances. In 1972 Cyril won a scholarship for an eight-week music festival in Rome, Italy. He has received offers for further studies from the University of Cincinnati, Peabody Conservatory, Boston University, and the University of Miami for his oustanding performances. Cyril selected the University of Cincinnati. He is the bearer of All-American awards for musical performances - three Arion Awards - and innumerable musical awards and trophies. There is no doubt that Cyril Zilka has great talent. His grandparents came from Slovakia and settled in Monessen, Pa., where for many years they were members of the First Catholic Slovak Union, Branch 311. Cyril's father, Cyril, Sr., was a teacher at the Slovak Benedictine Boys High School at Cleveland, Ohio. If we need any further nudge to have some means of compiling data on our talented Slovak-Americans, the case of Cyril J. Zilka should provide it. We need a SlovakAmerican "Who's Who" for without it we have no way of knowing the progress and successes of our people or who represents us in the advancement of the cultural, artistic, military, professional, political or organizational life in the United States. Translated by Paul B e r i s h � 130 SLOVAKIA Great Slovak Talent Ethnic America is finally emerging from the cocoon of silence about its hopes, successes and failures, progress and achievements. This emergence is not, as some critics charge, hyphenating the United States. On the contrary it is a reemphasis and recounting of the very ideals which made this country gloriously different from other nations. Slovak-Americans are quick to tell you that in the past, and even current history of Slovakia, success could not have been easily achieved by Slovaks. Liberty was something they discovered only in the United States where even failure is not hopeless. The following article from the pen of the editor of Slovakia was translated from Slovak into English as a reminder that the fruition of the dreams of immigrants are fulfilled by succeeding sons and daughters and grandchildren, thanks to the opportunity for education, liberty, as well as the "stick-to-it-iveness" of each individual. The translator therefore presents this article in that spirit and with a hearty ... BRAVO, CYRIL J. ZILKA Among the talented artists justifiably highlighted by Jednota is Cyril J. Zilka of Miami, Florida. Although only 18 years of age, Cyril is a member of the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of Miami. It may therefore be a correct assumption that he is one of the youngest member of a philharmonic symphony orchestra in America. Such membership is acquired only through exceptional talent and our Slovak-American, Cyril Zilka, possesses it. His long series of performances testify to his mastership and artistry. It was not luck or mere chance that gave Zilka the opportunity to participate in the All-American Youth Orchestra at the John F. Kennedy Musical Center at Washington on May 9, 1972. Only the best musical talent in the land was accepted for this orchestra. This opportunity and success came about through Cyril's talent and performances in other cities. In 1972 Cyril was the orchestral concert master of all �SLOVAKIA 131 high schools in Florida, as well as of the Orchestral School of Miami, and likewise for the past two years of the Youth Orchestra of Greater Miami. Last year he was concert master at the Conservatory of the University of Cincinnati and he will continue in this capacity this summer. Cyril has attended many music courses in which he has always placed first. In 1971 he won a scholarship to Tanglewood, renowned musical center, and he also won a scholarship to the Eastern Musical Festival. He is a member of the Carmen Nappo Quarted where he plays first violin. For the past three years he has been a member of the Symphonic Orchestra in North Miami Beach in which he also plays first violin. He has appeared in 90 public concerts in Miami and the neighboring vicinity. Last year he won first prize, competing against contestants of all the high schools of the state of Florida - as soloist, in duet, and in chamber orchestral performances. He played first violin in all of these appearances. In 1972 Cyril won a scholarship for an eight-week music festival in Rome, Italy. He has received offers for further studies from the University of Cincinnati, Peabody Conservatory, Boston University, and the University of Miami for his oustanding performances. Cyril selected the University of Cincinnati. He is the bearer of All-American awards for musical performances - three Arion Awards - and innumerable musical awards and trophies. There is no doubt that Cyril Zilka has great talent. His grandparents came from Slovakia and settled in Monessen, Pa., where for many years they were members of the First Catholic Slovak Union, Branch 311. Cyril's father, Cyril, Sr., was a teacher at the Slovak Benedictine Boys High School at Cleveland, Ohio. If we need any further nudge to have some means of compiling data on our talented Slovak-Americans, the case of Cyril J. Zilka should provide it. We need a SlovakAmerican "Who's Who" for without it we have no way of knowing the progress and successes of our people or who represents us in the advancement of the cultural, artistic, military, professional, political or organizational life in the United States. Translated by Paul B e r i s h � 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 1974, Vol. 24 Description An account of the resource Vol. 24 (No. 47), 1974. 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 1974 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 130 SLOVAKIA Great Slovak Talent Ethnic America is finally emerging from the cocoon of silence about its hopes, successes and failures, progress and achievements. This emergence is not, as some critics charge, hyphenating the United States. On the contrary it is a reemphasis and recounting of the very ideals which made this country gloriously different from other nations. Slovak-Americans are quick to tell you that in the past, and even current history of Slovakia, success could not have been easily achieved by Slovaks. Liberty was something they discovered only in the United States where even failure is not hopeless. The following article from the pen of the editor of Slovakia was translated from Slovak into English as a reminder that the fruition of the dreams of immigrants are fulfilled by succeeding sons and daughters and grandchildren, thanks to the opportunity for education, liberty, as well as the "stick-to-it-iveness" of each individual. The translator therefore presents this article in that spirit and with a hearty ... BRAVO, CYRIL J. ZILKA Among the talented artists justifiably highlighted by Jednota is Cyril J. Zilka of Miami, Florida. Although only 18 years of age, Cyril is a member of the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of Miami. It may therefore be a correct assumption that he is one of the youngest member of a philharmonic symphony orchestra in America. Such membership is acquired only through exceptional talent and our Slovak-American, Cyril Zilka, possesses it. His long series of performances testify to his mastership and artistry. It was not luck or mere chance that gave Zilka the opportunity to participate in the All-American Youth Orchestra at the John F. Kennedy Musical Center at Washington on May 9, 1972. Only the best musical talent in the land was accepted for this orchestra. This opportunity and success came about through Cyril's talent and performances in other cities. In 1972 Cyril was the orchestral concert master of all SLOVAKIA 131 high schools in Florida, as well as of the Orchestral School of Miami, and likewise for the past two years of the Youth Orchestra of Greater Miami. Last year he was concert master at the Conservatory of the University of Cincinnati and he will continue in this capacity this summer. Cyril has attended many music courses in which he has always placed first. In 1971 he won a scholarship to Tanglewood, renowned musical center, and he also won a scholarship to the Eastern Musical Festival. He is a member of the Carmen Nappo Quarted where he plays first violin. For the past three years he has been a member of the Symphonic Orchestra in North Miami Beach in which he also plays first violin. He has appeared in 90 public concerts in Miami and the neighboring vicinity. Last year he won first prize, competing against contestants of all the high schools of the state of Florida - as soloist, in duet, and in chamber orchestral performances. He played first violin in all of these appearances. In 1972 Cyril won a scholarship for an eight-week music festival in Rome, Italy. He has received offers for further studies from the University of Cincinnati, Peabody Conservatory, Boston University, and the University of Miami for his oustanding performances. Cyril selected the University of Cincinnati. He is the bearer of All-American awards for musical performances - three Arion Awards - and innumerable musical awards and trophies. There is no doubt that Cyril Zilka has great talent. His grandparents came from Slovakia and settled in Monessen, Pa., where for many years they were members of the First Catholic Slovak Union, Branch 311. Cyril's father, Cyril, Sr., was a teacher at the Slovak Benedictine Boys High School at Cleveland, Ohio. If we need any further nudge to have some means of compiling data on our talented Slovak-Americans, the case of Cyril J. Zilka should provide it. We need a SlovakAmerican "Who's Who" for without it we have no way of knowing the progress and successes of our people or who represents us in the advancement of the cultural, artistic, military, professional, political or organizational life in the United States. Translated by Paul B e r i s h  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 Great Slovak Talent Description An account of the resource "The following article from the pen of the editor of Slovakia was translated from Slovak into English..." trans. Paul Berish Slovakia, Vol. 24 (No. 47), 1974 pp. 130-131 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Paučo, Jozef, 1914-1975 Berish, Paul Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1974 name SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/89fef06fff45e630883f6912b72e5997.pdf 686916407a14a21d309fc7be8b3da25d PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 87 A GLIM!PSE OF GOTHI'C SLOVA!KI:A By Tino Berko Every country has its hrilght side ,a s well as its shadows. '11he qualities that set it apart are rfatrly numerous, and !'Un the gamut :iirom tihe mrugniifiroent to the ·badkwa'l'.'ld aJilld booris'h . In the past, similar epithets a:lso aipplied to a land in the Carpathian Basin, - S'lovakra. Some of these adjectives are relatively new, having made thei-r appearance after 1918 when the Slovaks freed t!hemselves from the !Hungarian yoke and were a·b le to form Czeoho--lS'lovaki,a in common with tlhe Czeelhs. During the years from 1939-1945 when Slovakia ibecame a sovereign state, it acquired still other qualifying titles, good and not so good. Depending on whether they were to invest the Slovruk Republic with approval or lend it a false imruge, the words "fascist" or "nazi" were a'P'Plied. When Slovakia lost its political independence in 1945, it was reduced by the Ozeclhs to the status of an occupational province. Yet in the list of political epithets that we seek to recaH, there is no such name. On the contrary: '.Dhose in command of Slovakia today, the Czecihs, call the :plight of the enslaved Slovaks "people's democracy", "communistic"; since 1960, "socialistic" . The world is told by the voice of Czech propaganda that Slovakia did not win its independence until 1945 and that since then it has been a model of socialism. Out of "backward" Slovakia !has allegedly developed a " highly industria:lized" country. Thus another new epithet for Slova:kia. But in leafing baok through the catalog of Slovakia's a ttributes, the word "wonderful" still applies. Slovrukia today is still a -land that every nature-lover will readily endorse as " an immense natural park in Central Europe". In regard to its historic works of rurt, Slovakia is still a "ha:ribaric" country. But if we •b ear in mind 1:Jhat to the early Italian ear the word "Gothic" and "barbarian" were synonymous, the presence in Slovakia of many Gothic master-wo:riks of art makes thiat land indeed one replete with '~barbaric" treasures. This is just tJhe opposite to tlhe origina:l idea of Gothic meaning "uncivilized" (used in t!he ancient world to designate any person or thiJllg that was non-Greek �Gothic entrance to the fortress in Bratislava, Slovakia. (Photo Berka) �SLOVAKIA 89 or non-Roman), for the history of art has long since rehabilitated the Gothic style, 1:Jhe most perfect in unity and harrmony. Gothic Slovakia, which covers the entire country of 49,000 square kilometers, is a vast Eden of art where castles and !forts, churohes ,a nd chapels radiate a unique fascination. We know that this Gothic garden in Slovaikia was landscaped witJh the 1he}p of German settlers in the 13th and 14tJh Centuries; enlarged in the 15th Century and the beginning of the 16th, as ,a Late Gothic variation of the architectural style that lhad its birth in northern France. It is sad to reflect that it was not spared the ravages of war. Many of the forts crumbled in ruins when Hussit-es from Boihemi•a stormed Slovakia, or tJhe Turks, during the 16th Century, advanced as far as south and central Slovrukia and from their outposts struged wild plundering raids. 'Dhat is why today these Got!hic forts, once the a bode of counts and grandees, or places of asylum for the threatened populace in times of siege, are today in rack and ruin, looted and plundered and scarred by the raviages of time. Indeed, only a few of tJhe fortresses were spared this tragic fate. Slovakia's historic forts have been restored at great cost and rebuilt as museums of Sloviak history. Favored have ibeen the Gothic residences and forts of Bratislava, Nitra, Orava, Smolenke, Zvolen and, to some extent, Trencin. Very many, among them tJhe !fortresses of Strecno and Spis, see tJheir proud past reflected in wild ruins and twisted rocky ravines. They are documents in stone of the merciless inlI'oaJds 111pan their Gothic style, tJhe attack of re•a l barbarians. In contemplating Gothic Sloviakia, we must first mention tJhe numerous churcihes and sacred works of art, for they embody the strongest heritage of tJhe Slovak Gothic style, which has been preserved to this day, imparting to the faithful wibhin a sea of atheism, a theologica:l reply to the eternal "to be or not to lbe". Seen externally, the Gothic churches in Slovakia are not ostentatious, but plain. 'Dhey lack tJhe splendor and magnificent form reflected, for example, by the Cathedrals of Notre Dame in Chartres and Rheims. What one notes in pairticular is the imperrfect execution of the Gothic spires. Many cathedrals have towers that run counter to form or �Portal of the Cathedral in Kosice, Slovakia, seen from town-hall arcades. (Photo Berko > �SLOVAKIA 91 are in need of towers to conform in style. An example is tJhe Cathedrnl of Kosice. The upper parts have towers of Baroque or conkal roofs, but of different heights. At most, the parish cihurch in Spisska Nova Ves can he considered a prize in competition with other churc'hes in Slovakia. It suffered a disastrous fire in 1849 and acquired a tower 87 meters hi:gh, the highest in all Slovaki,a. The Gothic towers of Slovrukia form a contrast to t hose in Germany. For example, the spires of Regensburg are 105 and 107 meters, those of Fretburig Cathedral are 115 meters and those of the Cathedral at Ulm, 162 meters high. Again historical factors were responsiible for the lesser degree of magnificence and external form, as well as the inadequate execution of the Slovak church spires. It is quite understandable and excusable in '1i:g'ht of the turmoil that followed the Hussite and TurkiSlh wars. Furthermore, tihe churc!hes were often struck by disasters, such a:s floods , earthquaik es and fires, that had a hrurmful effect on the Got'hic beauty and style. Albeit the outer Gothic forms were somewhat inconsistent and frequently unfinished, especiaHy the steeples, the interiors possessed great riches. T•he Gothic tripty~hs, woodcarved statues and panei frescoes, a veritable feast for the eye, can claim for Slova•kia international primacy, for tihey merit the admiration of the most /fastidious fancier of art. Striking examples are to be found in: St. Martin's Cathedral and tihe Franciscan Church in Bratislava, the Bishop's Cathedrnls of Trnava, Banrska Bystrica and Spisska Kapitula; also the churches in Hronsky •B enadik, Zehra, Kezmarok, Spisska Sobota, Spissky Stvrtok, S'pisske Vlachy, L iptovsky Mikulas, Bardejov and Presov. A:11 are outstanding ecclesiastical edifices from the High and Late Got'hic periods 13th, 14th and 15th Centuries whose masters are not always known. Unique amonig tJhe Gothic structures of Slovakia, however, are the houses of worshiip in Levoca or Leutsdhau (•a n area settled by Germans in tihe 12th and 13th Centuries) in the northeastern part of Slovakia. They reach the zenitJh in the works of Master Paul .o f Levoca (1455-1530 ?) , principally in the main altar of St. James' Church, and in the metropolis of Kosice in East Slovakia, where the greatest �Gothic Cathedral of Kosice, Slovakia. Note Baroque roof on tower. (Photo Berka) �SLOVAKIA 93 Gothi,c structure in the country stands on a plot of giround 1,200 meters square. The main altar, 18.62 meters higih, is the largest altar, with ,s ide wings, in the Got:Jhic ,w orld. It is Paul of Levoca's masterpiece, erected in the mighty three-apse pseudo-'b asilica in 1508, lbut not completed until the end of 1,518. 'I'he altar is magnificent, not only because of its heig1ht, but due to the tectonic, composition and stylistic harmony. In creating this masterwork, Paul of Levoca merits a niche in the hall of fame alongside ot:Jher great Gothic architects and wood-carvers, that include Tilman Riemenschneider, Hans Multsclher, Veit Stoss, Hans Leinberger, Gregor Et1hart, Albrecht Dlirer, Lucas Crarnach, Hans Holbein and many other masters of the late Middle Ages. The altar with side wings of Paul of Levoca "is rooted in the familiar traditions of plastic art of the Sloviak historic landscape. If we put him with all his artistic and estJhetic qualities alongside similar works of other great masters of that period, we see that he forms a link in a chain extending across the peaks of European art of the XV and XVI Centuries.* 'Dhe bold execution of the ihigh altar in Lev,oca, is a work carved out of linden, or basswood, which made it susceptible early to worm damage. From 1952-54, it was treated and renovated to preserve it from further destructive forces, restoring the greatest specimen of Gothic art in Europe to manifest, in all its glory, the spirit of European solidarity and unity. Thus it mirrored the spirit of German-<8lavic cooperation, ,a s it was manifested in the Middle Ages in keeping with the Gothic spirit. In that same church of 'St. James, whose tower rburned down at the end of the 18th Century and was not rebuilt until 1858 - only 70 meters high this time and counter to style - there are six other Gothic altars with wings. They, too, are a creation of the famous Master Paul and his pupils, whose work was imitated throughout 1:Jhe Spis area and in fact, all of Slovrukia. Also, the wwks of Paul are the oarved figures of BetMehem on the altar of the Nativity in Levoca, and the statues of the Crucifixion in Lomnicka, of St. Barbar,a in Oko1i<cne, and the triptyclhs in tJhe churches of Banska Byst•rica, Sasova and Spisska Sdbota. Levoca a!lso has Gothic frescoes in the aforementioned sanctuary, datini5 �Largest Gothic Altar of its kind is this masterpiece by Paul of Levoca in the Church of St. James, Levoca, Slovakia. (Photo Berko) �SLOVAKIA from the 14th Century, plus several panel frescoes, a unique lava·bo and other art trea:sures that have made the town a verita,b le repository CYf superb sacred Gofilric art. Moving toward the Eaistern !Slovak cities of Bardejov and Kosice, one finds a verita:ble Gothic feast for t:Jhe eyes. Both these historic sites are proud of their ohurohes and many tripty~hs, woodca•r vings and panel frescoes that date from the 14tih and 1'5th Oenturies. In Bardejov is 1:Jhe Church of St. Aegidius, in the 12th Century the site of a Cistercian cloister, 1:Jhat invites the photographer's eye. The architects were Nicholas of Bardejov, Stefan L•apicid of Kosice, Master Urban and Franklin Stemraseg .CYf Ansba:ch who completed the steeple in 1486. This spire, too, was tfue victim of an earthquaJke, the la-st time in 1725, as weH as several fires in 1640, 1669 and 1836. Irts sp1re was but 78 meters h~gh and was not lb uilt in Gothic style. 'Dhe ohurch has pure lineation, crowned by an altar 17.5 meters hig,h in the main nave, wmoh is 24 meters high. Along with the otfuer side a1tars, 11 in all, one finds the famous triptych of the Nativity, tlhe work of an unknown artist from 1460, and the altar Vir dolorum, dating to 1505. No other cathedral in ,Slovakia can compare with that of Kosice, which enohants even the most fastidious eye with its grandeur •a nd ,b rilliance. 'Dhe cathedral's perfect Gobhic form, covering some 1,200 squaire meters ta:kes on gigantic proportions. It was bui'1t in the 14th and 151:Jh Centuries and practicaHy completed by 1436 as a 3-nave basilica. It is 60 meters long, 35.50 meters wide, 24 meters hi,g'h inside and 32.70 meters high outside, with a transept, whose interior length measures 42.20 meters. Several artists, among them the architect and stonecutter, Stefan Lapicid of Kosiice, and Mikulas Erom,pholz, were responsi<ble for the Gothic interior. The cathedral has 12 side-altars and a main altar 11 meters h ~gili. and 8 meters wide, and a triiptyoh from 1477. The 16 meter high pastoforium is ailso attri:buted to tlhat period. A unique stone sculpture of Master Stefan dating from the Late Gothic period. The crises that this CatJhedria:l CYf St. Eli'za!beth had to weather, come to the fore when one fooks at tfue spires. The four-sided one to the north, that becomes octagonal aJfter tlhree stories, is but 59 meters and runs counter to the general style, with a Baroque-Rococo roof from the �Apostle partaking of the "Last Supper", from the wood-carved Altar in St. James' Church , Levoca, Slovakia. (Photo Berko) �SLOVAKIA 97 yeair 1775. The second, or Matthew's spire, to the south, just about reaches 1Jhe roof of the nave. In 1902-04 it acquired a strange conical top. Tihe entire st11ucture laibors under the uneven proportions and varying roofs and seems to want in the fact tJhat the Kosicania (,t he people of Kosice) could lbe so neglectful and expeot the church to endure 1Jhis misshapen form so long. In other WOTds, if one may hold a brief for the cathedral of Kosice, it has not relinquished the hope that one day it will have Gothic spires of an aippropriate he1ght. We, too, !hope t!his dream will be fulfilled and that it will ·b ecome a concern of the city of Kosice and the experts on Slovak cultural edifices, especially since the "socialist regime" is very generous witJh funds for such purpose, and, where possible, provides ''highly developed" artistic workmen. * Meister P avol v on Levoca. Slowaki scher Ve rl ag der ,s chonen Liteiraitur, B raitislava 1964 , p. 165. We ,sirncerely cong;ratullate the 1Iargest and most ipopula'r Americain-61lovaJk newspaiper in America, J 1EDiNOTA (The Union), ofificia!l OTgan oif , tlhe First Ca<bholic S'1ovaJk Uniion (Jednoba) , whiclh celeJbrated itJs 75th Annivernairy on May 12, 1966. 'Dhe Crutholi,c Weekily waJs founded in Cleveland, Ohio, by the Rev. St~phern. Furxlek, who also founded the fraterna l society, and, be's ides F\t'I'idek, tbhere were suoh renowned editors and recognized leaJders of the American Slorvaikis as the Rev. Mait1:!h w Janikola, Joseph Husak, and Pihilip A. Hrobruk. 1 For orver the pa.1st two yearrs, Joseph C. Krajsa has been editor oft~ J·IDDiNOTA. The assistamt editor of 1:Jhe JIDDNOT A for the ,pa:st sixteen yearn i s the presenlt secreta,ry of tJhe Slova!k Leaigme of Ameriioa, Dr. Joseph Pa'lico. 1 The Fi,v st Catlho1ic SlorvaJk Union and its pwb1ication JEIDNOTA have s1U1pported the aims amd objectives of the Slovruk Lerugue of America since the League wa's foU111dedand they stm do today. Tihe JIDDNOTA hais /kept the Slovaik press al'ive and we wislh it continued success in its service to AmericaJn-Slovruk journaEsm. �The church and town-hall in Levoca, Spis, Slovakia. (Photo Berko) � SLOVAKIA 87 A GLIM!PSE OF GOTHI'C SLOVA!KI:A By Tino Berko Every country has its hrilght side ,a s well as its shadows. '11he qualities that set it apart are rfatrly numerous, and !'Un the gamut :iirom tihe mrugniifiroent to the ·badkwa'l'.'ld aJilld booris'h . In the past, similar epithets a:lso aipplied to a land in the Carpathian Basin, - S'lovakra. Some of these adjectives are relatively new, having made thei-r appearance after 1918 when the Slovaks freed t!hemselves from the !Hungarian yoke and were a·b le to form Czeoho--lS'lovaki,a in common with tlhe Czeelhs. During the years from 1939-1945 when Slovakia ibecame a sovereign state, it acquired still other qualifying titles, good and not so good. Depending on whether they were to invest the Slovruk Republic with approval or lend it a false imruge, the words "fascist" or "nazi" were a'P'Plied. When Slovakia lost its political independence in 1945, it was reduced by the Ozeclhs to the status of an occupational province. Yet in the list of political epithets that we seek to recaH, there is no such name. On the contrary: '.Dhose in command of Slovakia today, the Czecihs, call the :plight of the enslaved Slovaks "people's democracy", "communistic"; since 1960, "socialistic" . The world is told by the voice of Czech propaganda that Slovakia did not win its independence until 1945 and that since then it has been a model of socialism. Out of "backward" Slovakia !has allegedly developed a " highly industria:lized" country. Thus another new epithet for Slova:kia. But in leafing baok through the catalog of Slovakia's a ttributes, the word "wonderful" still applies. Slovrukia today is still a -land that every nature-lover will readily endorse as " an immense natural park in Central Europe". In regard to its historic works of rurt, Slovakia is still a "ha:ribaric" country. But if we •b ear in mind 1:Jhat to the early Italian ear the word "Gothic" and "barbarian" were synonymous, the presence in Slovakia of many Gothic master-wo:riks of art makes thiat land indeed one replete with '~barbaric" treasures. This is just tJhe opposite to tlhe origina:l idea of Gothic meaning "uncivilized" (used in t!he ancient world to designate any person or thiJllg that was non-Greek �Gothic entrance to the fortress in Bratislava, Slovakia. (Photo Berka) �SLOVAKIA 89 or non-Roman), for the history of art has long since rehabilitated the Gothic style, 1:Jhe most perfect in unity and harrmony. Gothic Slovakia, which covers the entire country of 49,000 square kilometers, is a vast Eden of art where castles and !forts, churohes ,a nd chapels radiate a unique fascination. We know that this Gothic garden in Slovaikia was landscaped witJh the 1he}p of German settlers in the 13th and 14tJh Centuries; enlarged in the 15th Century and the beginning of the 16th, as ,a Late Gothic variation of the architectural style that lhad its birth in northern France. It is sad to reflect that it was not spared the ravages of war. Many of the forts crumbled in ruins when Hussit-es from Boihemi•a stormed Slovakia, or tJhe Turks, during the 16th Century, advanced as far as south and central Slovrukia and from their outposts struged wild plundering raids. 'Dhat is why today these Got!hic forts, once the a bode of counts and grandees, or places of asylum for the threatened populace in times of siege, are today in rack and ruin, looted and plundered and scarred by the raviages of time. Indeed, only a few of tJhe fortresses were spared this tragic fate. Slovakia's historic forts have been restored at great cost and rebuilt as museums of Sloviak history. Favored have ibeen the Gothic residences and forts of Bratislava, Nitra, Orava, Smolenke, Zvolen and, to some extent, Trencin. Very many, among them tJhe !fortresses of Strecno and Spis, see tJheir proud past reflected in wild ruins and twisted rocky ravines. They are documents in stone of the merciless inlI'oaJds 111pan their Gothic style, tJhe attack of re•a l barbarians. In contemplating Gothic Sloviakia, we must first mention tJhe numerous churcihes and sacred works of art, for they embody the strongest heritage of tJhe Slovak Gothic style, which has been preserved to this day, imparting to the faithful wibhin a sea of atheism, a theologica:l reply to the eternal "to be or not to lbe". Seen externally, the Gothic churches in Slovakia are not ostentatious, but plain. 'Dhey lack tJhe splendor and magnificent form reflected, for example, by the Cathedrals of Notre Dame in Chartres and Rheims. What one notes in pairticular is the imperrfect execution of the Gothic spires. Many cathedrals have towers that run counter to form or �Portal of the Cathedral in Kosice, Slovakia, seen from town-hall arcades. (Photo Berko > �SLOVAKIA 91 are in need of towers to conform in style. An example is tJhe Cathedrnl of Kosice. The upper parts have towers of Baroque or conkal roofs, but of different heights. At most, the parish cihurch in Spisska Nova Ves can he considered a prize in competition with other churc'hes in Slovakia. It suffered a disastrous fire in 1849 and acquired a tower 87 meters hi:gh, the highest in all Slovaki,a. The Gothic towers of Slovrukia form a contrast to t hose in Germany. For example, the spires of Regensburg are 105 and 107 meters, those of Fretburig Cathedral are 115 meters and those of the Cathedral at Ulm, 162 meters high. Again historical factors were responsiible for the lesser degree of magnificence and external form, as well as the inadequate execution of the Slovak church spires. It is quite understandable and excusable in '1i:g'ht of the turmoil that followed the Hussite and TurkiSlh wars. Furthermore, tihe churc!hes were often struck by disasters, such a:s floods , earthquaik es and fires, that had a hrurmful effect on the Got'hic beauty and style. Albeit the outer Gothic forms were somewhat inconsistent and frequently unfinished, especiaHy the steeples, the interiors possessed great riches. T•he Gothic tripty~hs, woodcarved statues and panei frescoes, a veritable feast for the eye, can claim for Slova•kia international primacy, for tihey merit the admiration of the most /fastidious fancier of art. Striking examples are to be found in: St. Martin's Cathedral and tihe Franciscan Church in Bratislava, the Bishop's Cathedrnls of Trnava, Banrska Bystrica and Spisska Kapitula; also the churches in Hronsky •B enadik, Zehra, Kezmarok, Spisska Sobota, Spissky Stvrtok, S'pisske Vlachy, L iptovsky Mikulas, Bardejov and Presov. A:11 are outstanding ecclesiastical edifices from the High and Late Got'hic periods 13th, 14th and 15th Centuries whose masters are not always known. Unique amonig tJhe Gothic structures of Slovakia, however, are the houses of worshiip in Levoca or Leutsdhau (•a n area settled by Germans in tihe 12th and 13th Centuries) in the northeastern part of Slovakia. They reach the zenitJh in the works of Master Paul .o f Levoca (1455-1530 ?) , principally in the main altar of St. James' Church, and in the metropolis of Kosice in East Slovakia, where the greatest �Gothic Cathedral of Kosice, Slovakia. Note Baroque roof on tower. (Photo Berka) �SLOVAKIA 93 Gothi,c structure in the country stands on a plot of giround 1,200 meters square. The main altar, 18.62 meters higih, is the largest altar, with ,s ide wings, in the Got:Jhic ,w orld. It is Paul of Levoca's masterpiece, erected in the mighty three-apse pseudo-'b asilica in 1508, lbut not completed until the end of 1,518. 'I'he altar is magnificent, not only because of its heig1ht, but due to the tectonic, composition and stylistic harmony. In creating this masterwork, Paul of Levoca merits a niche in the hall of fame alongside ot:Jher great Gothic architects and wood-carvers, that include Tilman Riemenschneider, Hans Multsclher, Veit Stoss, Hans Leinberger, Gregor Et1hart, Albrecht Dlirer, Lucas Crarnach, Hans Holbein and many other masters of the late Middle Ages. The altar with side wings of Paul of Levoca "is rooted in the familiar traditions of plastic art of the Sloviak historic landscape. If we put him with all his artistic and estJhetic qualities alongside similar works of other great masters of that period, we see that he forms a link in a chain extending across the peaks of European art of the XV and XVI Centuries.* 'Dhe bold execution of the ihigh altar in Lev,oca, is a work carved out of linden, or basswood, which made it susceptible early to worm damage. From 1952-54, it was treated and renovated to preserve it from further destructive forces, restoring the greatest specimen of Gothic art in Europe to manifest, in all its glory, the spirit of European solidarity and unity. Thus it mirrored the spirit of German-<8lavic cooperation, ,a s it was manifested in the Middle Ages in keeping with the Gothic spirit. In that same church of 'St. James, whose tower rburned down at the end of the 18th Century and was not rebuilt until 1858 - only 70 meters high this time and counter to style - there are six other Gothic altars with wings. They, too, are a creation of the famous Master Paul and his pupils, whose work was imitated throughout 1:Jhe Spis area and in fact, all of Slovrukia. Also, the wwks of Paul are the oarved figures of BetMehem on the altar of the Nativity in Levoca, and the statues of the Crucifixion in Lomnicka, of St. Barbar,a in Oko1i<cne, and the triptyclhs in tJhe churches of Banska Byst•rica, Sasova and Spisska Sdbota. Levoca a!lso has Gothic frescoes in the aforementioned sanctuary, datini5 �Largest Gothic Altar of its kind is this masterpiece by Paul of Levoca in the Church of St. James, Levoca, Slovakia. (Photo Berko) �SLOVAKIA from the 14th Century, plus several panel frescoes, a unique lava·bo and other art trea:sures that have made the town a verita,b le repository CYf superb sacred Gofilric art. Moving toward the Eaistern !Slovak cities of Bardejov and Kosice, one finds a verita:ble Gothic feast for t:Jhe eyes. Both these historic sites are proud of their ohurohes and many tripty~hs, woodca•r vings and panel frescoes that date from the 14tih and 1'5th Oenturies. In Bardejov is 1:Jhe Church of St. Aegidius, in the 12th Century the site of a Cistercian cloister, 1:Jhat invites the photographer's eye. The architects were Nicholas of Bardejov, Stefan L•apicid of Kosice, Master Urban and Franklin Stemraseg .CYf Ansba:ch who completed the steeple in 1486. This spire, too, was tfue victim of an earthquaJke, the la-st time in 1725, as weH as several fires in 1640, 1669 and 1836. Irts sp1re was but 78 meters h~gh and was not lb uilt in Gothic style. 'Dhe ohurch has pure lineation, crowned by an altar 17.5 meters hig,h in the main nave, wmoh is 24 meters high. Along with the otfuer side a1tars, 11 in all, one finds the famous triptych of the Nativity, tlhe work of an unknown artist from 1460, and the altar Vir dolorum, dating to 1505. No other cathedral in ,Slovakia can compare with that of Kosice, which enohants even the most fastidious eye with its grandeur •a nd ,b rilliance. 'Dhe cathedral's perfect Gobhic form, covering some 1,200 squaire meters ta:kes on gigantic proportions. It was bui'1t in the 14th and 151:Jh Centuries and practicaHy completed by 1436 as a 3-nave basilica. It is 60 meters long, 35.50 meters wide, 24 meters hi,g'h inside and 32.70 meters high outside, with a transept, whose interior length measures 42.20 meters. Several artists, among them the architect and stonecutter, Stefan Lapicid of Kosiice, and Mikulas Erom,pholz, were responsi<ble for the Gothic interior. The cathedral has 12 side-altars and a main altar 11 meters h ~gili. and 8 meters wide, and a triiptyoh from 1477. The 16 meter high pastoforium is ailso attri:buted to tlhat period. A unique stone sculpture of Master Stefan dating from the Late Gothic period. The crises that this CatJhedria:l CYf St. Eli'za!beth had to weather, come to the fore when one fooks at tfue spires. The four-sided one to the north, that becomes octagonal aJfter tlhree stories, is but 59 meters and runs counter to the general style, with a Baroque-Rococo roof from the �Apostle partaking of the "Last Supper", from the wood-carved Altar in St. James' Church , Levoca, Slovakia. (Photo Berko) �SLOVAKIA 97 yeair 1775. The second, or Matthew's spire, to the south, just about reaches 1Jhe roof of the nave. In 1902-04 it acquired a strange conical top. Tihe entire st11ucture laibors under the uneven proportions and varying roofs and seems to want in the fact tJhat the Kosicania (,t he people of Kosice) could lbe so neglectful and expeot the church to endure 1Jhis misshapen form so long. In other WOTds, if one may hold a brief for the cathedral of Kosice, it has not relinquished the hope that one day it will have Gothic spires of an aippropriate he1ght. We, too, !hope t!his dream will be fulfilled and that it will ·b ecome a concern of the city of Kosice and the experts on Slovak cultural edifices, especially since the "socialist regime" is very generous witJh funds for such purpose, and, where possible, provides ''highly developed" artistic workmen. * Meister P avol v on Levoca. Slowaki scher Ve rl ag der ,s chonen Liteiraitur, B raitislava 1964 , p. 165. We ,sirncerely cong;ratullate the 1Iargest and most ipopula'r Americain-61lovaJk newspaiper in America, J 1EDiNOTA (The Union), ofificia!l OTgan oif , tlhe First Ca<bholic S'1ovaJk Uniion (Jednoba) , whiclh celeJbrated itJs 75th Annivernairy on May 12, 1966. 'Dhe Crutholi,c Weekily waJs founded in Cleveland, Ohio, by the Rev. St~phern. Furxlek, who also founded the fraterna l society, and, be's ides F\t'I'idek, tbhere were suoh renowned editors and recognized leaJders of the American Slorvaikis as the Rev. Mait1:!h w Janikola, Joseph Husak, and Pihilip A. Hrobruk. 1 For orver the pa.1st two yearrs, Joseph C. Krajsa has been editor oft~ J·IDDiNOTA. The assistamt editor of 1:Jhe JIDDNOT A for the ,pa:st sixteen yearn i s the presenlt secreta,ry of tJhe Slova!k Leaigme of Ameriioa, Dr. Joseph Pa'lico. 1 The Fi,v st Catlho1ic SlorvaJk Union and its pwb1ication JEIDNOTA have s1U1pported the aims amd objectives of the Slovruk Lerugue of America since the League wa's foU111dedand they stm do today. Tihe JIDDNOTA hais /kept the Slovaik press al'ive and we wislh it continued success in its service to AmericaJn-Slovruk journaEsm. �The church and town-hall in Levoca, Spis, Slovakia. (Photo Berko) � 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 1966, Vol. 16 Description An account of the resource Vol. 16 (No. 39), 1966. 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 1966 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 87 A GLIM!PSE OF GOTHI'C SLOVA!KI:A By Tino Berko Every country has its hrilght side ,a s well as its shadows. '11he qualities that set it apart are rfatrly numerous, and !'Un the gamut :iirom tihe mrugniifiroent to the ·badkwa'l'.'ld aJilld booris'h . In the past, similar epithets a:lso aipplied to a land in the Carpathian Basin, - S'lovakra. Some of these adjectives are relatively new, having made thei-r appearance after 1918 when the Slovaks freed t!hemselves from the !Hungarian yoke and were a·b le to form Czeoho--lS'lovaki,a in common with tlhe Czeelhs. During the years from 1939-1945 when Slovakia ibecame a sovereign state, it acquired still other qualifying titles, good and not so good. Depending on whether they were to invest the Slovruk Republic with approval or lend it a false imruge, the words "fascist" or "nazi" were a'P'Plied. When Slovakia lost its political independence in 1945, it was reduced by the Ozeclhs to the status of an occupational province. Yet in the list of political epithets that we seek to recaH, there is no such name. On the contrary: '.Dhose in command of Slovakia today, the Czecihs, call the :plight of the enslaved Slovaks "people's democracy", "communistic"; since 1960, "socialistic" . The world is told by the voice of Czech propaganda that Slovakia did not win its independence until 1945 and that since then it has been a model of socialism. Out of "backward" Slovakia !has allegedly developed a " highly industria:lized" country. Thus another new epithet for Slova:kia. But in leafing baok through the catalog of Slovakia's a ttributes, the word "wonderful" still applies. Slovrukia today is still a -land that every nature-lover will readily endorse as " an immense natural park in Central Europe". In regard to its historic works of rurt, Slovakia is still a "ha:ribaric" country. But if we •b ear in mind 1:Jhat to the early Italian ear the word "Gothic" and "barbarian" were synonymous, the presence in Slovakia of many Gothic master-wo:riks of art makes thiat land indeed one replete with '~barbaric" treasures. This is just tJhe opposite to tlhe origina:l idea of Gothic meaning "uncivilized" (used in t!he ancient world to designate any person or thiJllg that was non-Greek Gothic entrance to the fortress in Bratislava, Slovakia. (Photo Berka) SLOVAKIA 89 or non-Roman), for the history of art has long since rehabilitated the Gothic style, 1:Jhe most perfect in unity and harrmony. Gothic Slovakia, which covers the entire country of 49,000 square kilometers, is a vast Eden of art where castles and !forts, churohes ,a nd chapels radiate a unique fascination. We know that this Gothic garden in Slovaikia was landscaped witJh the 1he}p of German settlers in the 13th and 14tJh Centuries; enlarged in the 15th Century and the beginning of the 16th, as ,a Late Gothic variation of the architectural style that lhad its birth in northern France. It is sad to reflect that it was not spared the ravages of war. Many of the forts crumbled in ruins when Hussit-es from Boihemi•a stormed Slovakia, or tJhe Turks, during the 16th Century, advanced as far as south and central Slovrukia and from their outposts struged wild plundering raids. 'Dhat is why today these Got!hic forts, once the a bode of counts and grandees, or places of asylum for the threatened populace in times of siege, are today in rack and ruin, looted and plundered and scarred by the raviages of time. Indeed, only a few of tJhe fortresses were spared this tragic fate. Slovakia's historic forts have been restored at great cost and rebuilt as museums of Sloviak history. Favored have ibeen the Gothic residences and forts of Bratislava, Nitra, Orava, Smolenke, Zvolen and, to some extent, Trencin. Very many, among them tJhe !fortresses of Strecno and Spis, see tJheir proud past reflected in wild ruins and twisted rocky ravines. They are documents in stone of the merciless inlI'oaJds 111pan their Gothic style, tJhe attack of re•a l barbarians. In contemplating Gothic Sloviakia, we must first mention tJhe numerous churcihes and sacred works of art, for they embody the strongest heritage of tJhe Slovak Gothic style, which has been preserved to this day, imparting to the faithful wibhin a sea of atheism, a theologica:l reply to the eternal "to be or not to lbe". Seen externally, the Gothic churches in Slovakia are not ostentatious, but plain. 'Dhey lack tJhe splendor and magnificent form reflected, for example, by the Cathedrals of Notre Dame in Chartres and Rheims. What one notes in pairticular is the imperrfect execution of the Gothic spires. Many cathedrals have towers that run counter to form or Portal of the Cathedral in Kosice, Slovakia, seen from town-hall arcades. (Photo Berko > SLOVAKIA 91 are in need of towers to conform in style. An example is tJhe Cathedrnl of Kosice. The upper parts have towers of Baroque or conkal roofs, but of different heights. At most, the parish cihurch in Spisska Nova Ves can he considered a prize in competition with other churc'hes in Slovakia. It suffered a disastrous fire in 1849 and acquired a tower 87 meters hi:gh, the highest in all Slovaki,a. The Gothic towers of Slovrukia form a contrast to t hose in Germany. For example, the spires of Regensburg are 105 and 107 meters, those of Fretburig Cathedral are 115 meters and those of the Cathedral at Ulm, 162 meters high. Again historical factors were responsiible for the lesser degree of magnificence and external form, as well as the inadequate execution of the Slovak church spires. It is quite understandable and excusable in '1i:g'ht of the turmoil that followed the Hussite and TurkiSlh wars. Furthermore, tihe churc!hes were often struck by disasters, such a:s floods , earthquaik es and fires, that had a hrurmful effect on the Got'hic beauty and style. Albeit the outer Gothic forms were somewhat inconsistent and frequently unfinished, especiaHy the steeples, the interiors possessed great riches. T•he Gothic tripty~hs, woodcarved statues and panei frescoes, a veritable feast for the eye, can claim for Slova•kia international primacy, for tihey merit the admiration of the most /fastidious fancier of art. Striking examples are to be found in: St. Martin's Cathedral and tihe Franciscan Church in Bratislava, the Bishop's Cathedrnls of Trnava, Banrska Bystrica and Spisska Kapitula; also the churches in Hronsky •B enadik, Zehra, Kezmarok, Spisska Sobota, Spissky Stvrtok, S'pisske Vlachy, L iptovsky Mikulas, Bardejov and Presov. A:11 are outstanding ecclesiastical edifices from the High and Late Got'hic periods 13th, 14th and 15th Centuries whose masters are not always known. Unique amonig tJhe Gothic structures of Slovakia, however, are the houses of worshiip in Levoca or Leutsdhau (•a n area settled by Germans in tihe 12th and 13th Centuries) in the northeastern part of Slovakia. They reach the zenitJh in the works of Master Paul .o f Levoca (1455-1530 ?) , principally in the main altar of St. James' Church, and in the metropolis of Kosice in East Slovakia, where the greatest Gothic Cathedral of Kosice, Slovakia. Note Baroque roof on tower. (Photo Berka) SLOVAKIA 93 Gothi,c structure in the country stands on a plot of giround 1,200 meters square. The main altar, 18.62 meters higih, is the largest altar, with ,s ide wings, in the Got:Jhic ,w orld. It is Paul of Levoca's masterpiece, erected in the mighty three-apse pseudo-'b asilica in 1508, lbut not completed until the end of 1,518. 'I'he altar is magnificent, not only because of its heig1ht, but due to the tectonic, composition and stylistic harmony. In creating this masterwork, Paul of Levoca merits a niche in the hall of fame alongside ot:Jher great Gothic architects and wood-carvers, that include Tilman Riemenschneider, Hans Multsclher, Veit Stoss, Hans Leinberger, Gregor Et1hart, Albrecht Dlirer, Lucas Crarnach, Hans Holbein and many other masters of the late Middle Ages. The altar with side wings of Paul of Levoca "is rooted in the familiar traditions of plastic art of the Sloviak historic landscape. If we put him with all his artistic and estJhetic qualities alongside similar works of other great masters of that period, we see that he forms a link in a chain extending across the peaks of European art of the XV and XVI Centuries.* 'Dhe bold execution of the ihigh altar in Lev,oca, is a work carved out of linden, or basswood, which made it susceptible early to worm damage. From 1952-54, it was treated and renovated to preserve it from further destructive forces, restoring the greatest specimen of Gothic art in Europe to manifest, in all its glory, the spirit of European solidarity and unity. Thus it mirrored the spirit of German-<8lavic cooperation, ,a s it was manifested in the Middle Ages in keeping with the Gothic spirit. In that same church of 'St. James, whose tower rburned down at the end of the 18th Century and was not rebuilt until 1858 - only 70 meters high this time and counter to style - there are six other Gothic altars with wings. They, too, are a creation of the famous Master Paul and his pupils, whose work was imitated throughout 1:Jhe Spis area and in fact, all of Slovrukia. Also, the wwks of Paul are the oarved figures of BetMehem on the altar of the Nativity in Levoca, and the statues of the Crucifixion in Lomnicka, of St. Barbar,a in Oko1i<cne, and the triptyclhs in tJhe churches of Banska Byst•rica, Sasova and Spisska Sdbota. Levoca a!lso has Gothic frescoes in the aforementioned sanctuary, datini5 Largest Gothic Altar of its kind is this masterpiece by Paul of Levoca in the Church of St. James, Levoca, Slovakia. (Photo Berko) SLOVAKIA from the 14th Century, plus several panel frescoes, a unique lava·bo and other art trea:sures that have made the town a verita,b le repository CYf superb sacred Gofilric art. Moving toward the Eaistern !Slovak cities of Bardejov and Kosice, one finds a verita:ble Gothic feast for t:Jhe eyes. Both these historic sites are proud of their ohurohes and many tripty~hs, woodca•r vings and panel frescoes that date from the 14tih and 1'5th Oenturies. In Bardejov is 1:Jhe Church of St. Aegidius, in the 12th Century the site of a Cistercian cloister, 1:Jhat invites the photographer's eye. The architects were Nicholas of Bardejov, Stefan L•apicid of Kosice, Master Urban and Franklin Stemraseg .CYf Ansba:ch who completed the steeple in 1486. This spire, too, was tfue victim of an earthquaJke, the la-st time in 1725, as weH as several fires in 1640, 1669 and 1836. Irts sp1re was but 78 meters h~gh and was not lb uilt in Gothic style. 'Dhe ohurch has pure lineation, crowned by an altar 17.5 meters hig,h in the main nave, wmoh is 24 meters high. Along with the otfuer side a1tars, 11 in all, one finds the famous triptych of the Nativity, tlhe work of an unknown artist from 1460, and the altar Vir dolorum, dating to 1505. No other cathedral in ,Slovakia can compare with that of Kosice, which enohants even the most fastidious eye with its grandeur •a nd ,b rilliance. 'Dhe cathedral's perfect Gobhic form, covering some 1,200 squaire meters ta:kes on gigantic proportions. It was bui'1t in the 14th and 151:Jh Centuries and practicaHy completed by 1436 as a 3-nave basilica. It is 60 meters long, 35.50 meters wide, 24 meters hi,g'h inside and 32.70 meters high outside, with a transept, whose interior length measures 42.20 meters. Several artists, among them the architect and stonecutter, Stefan Lapicid of Kosiice, and Mikulas Erom,pholz, were responsi<ble for the Gothic interior. The cathedral has 12 side-altars and a main altar 11 meters h ~gili. and 8 meters wide, and a triiptyoh from 1477. The 16 meter high pastoforium is ailso attri:buted to tlhat period. A unique stone sculpture of Master Stefan dating from the Late Gothic period. The crises that this CatJhedria:l CYf St. Eli'za!beth had to weather, come to the fore when one fooks at tfue spires. The four-sided one to the north, that becomes octagonal aJfter tlhree stories, is but 59 meters and runs counter to the general style, with a Baroque-Rococo roof from the Apostle partaking of the "Last Supper", from the wood-carved Altar in St. James' Church , Levoca, Slovakia. (Photo Berko) SLOVAKIA 97 yeair 1775. The second, or Matthew's spire, to the south, just about reaches 1Jhe roof of the nave. In 1902-04 it acquired a strange conical top. Tihe entire st11ucture laibors under the uneven proportions and varying roofs and seems to want in the fact tJhat the Kosicania (,t he people of Kosice) could lbe so neglectful and expeot the church to endure 1Jhis misshapen form so long. In other WOTds, if one may hold a brief for the cathedral of Kosice, it has not relinquished the hope that one day it will have Gothic spires of an aippropriate he1ght. We, too, !hope t!his dream will be fulfilled and that it will ·b ecome a concern of the city of Kosice and the experts on Slovak cultural edifices, especially since the "socialist regime" is very generous witJh funds for such purpose, and, where possible, provides ''highly developed" artistic workmen. * Meister P avol v on Levoca. Slowaki scher Ve rl ag der ,s chonen Liteiraitur, B raitislava 1964 , p. 165. We ,sirncerely cong;ratullate the 1Iargest and most ipopula'r Americain-61lovaJk newspaiper in America, J 1EDiNOTA (The Union), ofificia!l OTgan oif , tlhe First Ca<bholic S'1ovaJk Uniion (Jednoba) , whiclh celeJbrated itJs 75th Annivernairy on May 12, 1966. 'Dhe Crutholi,c Weekily waJs founded in Cleveland, Ohio, by the Rev. St~phern. Furxlek, who also founded the fraterna l society, and, be's ides F\t'I'idek, tbhere were suoh renowned editors and recognized leaJders of the American Slorvaikis as the Rev. Mait1:!h w Janikola, Joseph Husak, and Pihilip A. Hrobruk. 1 For orver the pa.1st two yearrs, Joseph C. Krajsa has been editor oft~ J·IDDiNOTA. The assistamt editor of 1:Jhe JIDDNOT A for the ,pa:st sixteen yearn i s the presenlt secreta,ry of tJhe Slova!k Leaigme of Ameriioa, Dr. Joseph Pa'lico. 1 The Fi,v st Catlho1ic SlorvaJk Union and its pwb1ication JEIDNOTA have s1U1pported the aims amd objectives of the Slovruk Lerugue of America since the League wa's foU111dedand they stm do today. Tihe JIDDNOTA hais /kept the Slovaik press al'ive and we wislh it continued success in its service to AmericaJn-Slovruk journaEsm. The church and town-hall in Levoca, Spis, Slovakia. (Photo Berko)  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A Glimpse of Gothic Slovakia Description An account of the resource Tino Berko Slovakia, Vol. 16 (No. 39), 1966 pp. 87-98 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Berko, Tino Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1966 Type The nature or genre of the resource contains illustrations name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/305dce55d13e4aa1b6553450a99194e0.pdf 5b91ef527b37cd3d177c530223d24c5c PDF Text Text 180 SLOVAKIA Rusek, Stephanie 0., ''Milan Rastislav Stefanik." Slovakia, March, 1954, pp. 33-47. Kirschbaum, Joseph M., Slovakia in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Toronto: Slovak World Congress 1973. Mikus, Joseph A. , Slovakia: A Political History, 1918-1950. Milwaukee: The Marquette University Press, 1963. Oddo, G. L. , Slovakia and Its People . New York: Robert Speller and Sons, Publishers, 1960. Paufo, Joseph , Six ty Years of the Slovak League of America. Middletown, Pa.: Slovak League of Ame-r ica, 1967. Woytko, Sister Mary Gabrielle, Sl-o vakia's Road to Statehood. Michigan : John J . Lach, Publisher, 1957. Yurchak, P., The Slovaks. Scranton, Pa.: Obrana Press, Inc., 1946. III. SLOVAKIA BEFORE THE CZECHS John Bert a The Slovaks are a Slavic people who settled in the land between the Danube River and the Carpathian Mountains some 1500 years ago. The area had formerly been held by the Marcommani, a Celtic people, who fled the land after several disastrous wars with the armies of the Roman Empire. The Slovaks were hunters turned farmers. Their main enterprises were blacksmithing and potterymaking, while business transactions were done by bartering. They lived in simple mud and wooden huts, and lived in family groupings called clans, of which the oldest was its head. The Slovak gods were as numerous and varied as those of the Greeks and Romans. When a Slovak died, if cremated, the ashes were placed in urns and buried in a mound. If the body was to be buried, food, wine, weapons and jewelry were placed in the grave. The size of the burial site determined the importance of the dead person. The first attempt of the Slavonic peoples, living along the Danube, to unite into a viable force, came after the Avars, a nomadic Asian people, conquered part of their land. In 624, Samo, a Frankish merchant, united the people and led them to victory against the Avars. This victory encouraged them to face the Germanic Franks, who were �SLOVAKIA 181 also encroaching on their territory. In 631, the Franks, under Dagobert, were defeated in a three-day battle near Vogaste Castle. The Empire prospered now in peace. In 658, Samo died and his empire soon fell apart. For the next two hundred years the Slovaks were leaderless until in 830, Pribina, ruler of the Slovak city of Nitra, took charge, and created what was to become the Great Moravian Empire. He was a wise ruler. Though not a Christian himself, he allowed the Christians to proselytize in his land. In 836, Mojmir I drove Pribina from his throne . Pribina fled to the Germans from whom he received Pannonia to rule as his own until his death in 861. Mojmir enlarged Pribina's former domain, and tried to maintain friendly relations with the neighboring Germans . He was a Christian and allowed unhampered German missionary activity in his realm. He ruled until 846, when he in turn was unseated by the German king, Louis, and replaced by Rastislav. Rastislav maintained an uneasy truce with the Germans and Bulgarians. In 860, fearing German interference in Slovak affairs, Rastislav requested from Pope Nicholas I, priests with a knowledge of the Slavonic tongue to come among his people. The Pope had no such priests and Rastislav turned to the Byzantine Emperor, Michael III. Michael sent two priests, the brothers Cyril and Methodius. They arrived in 863, and began to convert the Great Moravian Empire to Christianity. They translated the :a:oly Scripture into the Slavonic tongue and formed an alphabet, now known as the Cyrillic alphabet. In 869, the German king, Louis, attacked the Empire. His armies devastated the land, but Rastislav managed to hold out at Devin, and kept the state's independence. That same year, Mojmir's nephew, Svatopluk of Nitra, overthrew Rastislav with German help. In 871, Svatopluk was taken prisoner by the Germans, and Slavomir united the Empire's forces . War soon followed. Svatopluk had managed to escape, and together with Slavomir, destroyed the German army at Devin. Svatopluk regained his throne, and began to enlarge his empire. The German clergy came into conflict with the �182 SLOVAKIA Slovak clergy over control of Church affairs. The Germans held a great amount of influence over Svatopluk, and the Slovaks were often per secuted in their own lands. It is said, that before his death in 894, Svatopluk had retired to a monastery, not revealing his identity until shortly before his death. Svatopluk's oldest son, Mojmir II, assumed his father's throne, while the younger son, Svatopluk II, received a p rincipality to rule, but under his elder brother's domination . In 895, with the secession of the Czech lands and Pannonia, Mojmir's domain shrank to that of Rastislav's. In 901, the Germans and Czechs invaded the Empire. After many fierce battles, Mojmir was forced to sue for peace, again losing territory to his enemies. In 902, the Magyars, an Asiatic people, invaded the Empire. Mojmir's forces suffered heavily. They had managed to rally their forces for a short while, but they could not stem the invading tide. In 906, Mojmir's resistance finally collapsed, and the Great Moravian Empire ceased to exist. The first Slovak state became a part of the Hungarian kingdom. From the tenth through the end of the thirteenth centuries, Slovakia formed an administrative unit known as Upper Hungary. During the Tartar invasions of the thirteenth century, Slovakia suffered as heavily as did the other eastern European peoples. In 1296, Duke Matus cak of Trencin, owing to the dynastic struggle then taking place in Hungary, used the occasion to organize almost the whole Slovakia under his personal rule. For approximately twenty-five years ( 12961321) cak ruled over what was in reality an independent Slovak state. cak formed his own domestic and foreign policies. He maintained his own army, laws, and minted his own currency. The Slovak peasantry suffered greatly at the hands of the great landowners. The Slovak nobility was non-existent. It had either been absorbed by the Magyars or decimated on the battlefield. Peasant revolts were common from the sixteenth century and thereafter, due to the institution of a Hungarian public law codified as the Tripartitum Opus Juris Consuetudinarii Regni Hungariae. It was drawn up �SLOVAKIA 183 by Stefan Verboczi, in 1514. It designated the roles in society the different classes would represent. The peasantry (servitus), became a large landless group, tied to the land, and owned by the local noble. The nobility (natio), were to be the only ones allowed citizenship. This document only served to perpetuate serfdom causing class struggles and the struggle for individual rights. It affected all peasants in Hungary-Croat, Serb, Slovak, Rumanian, and Magyar alike. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, universities were established by various religious orders at Bratislava, Nitra, Trencfn, Kosice, zilina, and other Slovak cities. For many years Slovakia served as a refuge for German, Czech, and other nationalities' academicians, who found it necessary, for various reasons, to leave their native lands. During the Protestant Reformation, the Slovaks remained loyal to the Roman Catholic Church, while the Czech Hussites were able to make a considerable number of conversions. During the Hussite wars, the Czech armies under Jiskra made frequent strikes onto Slovak territory, -::ausing considerab e damage to lives and property. After Lhe Hussites were finally beaten, many of their number fled Bohemia to settle in Slovakia. There, they later came to exert a great amount of influence in Slovak and Czech affairs throughout the twentieth century. Hungary proved itself incapable of withstanding the Ottoman onslaught from the Balkans. In 1526, at the Battle of Mohacs, King Louis and his Magyar army were destroyed by the Ottomans. The Ottomans took control of most of Hungary, while leaving a rump Magyar kingdom. It was nothing but a thin strip of territory that divided the Ottoman Empire from the Austrian lands. Most of Slovakia came under Ottoman rule, but it was only temporary. The Hungarian crown was given to Charles V of Austria. It wa3 hoped that he would be able to free the Hungarian lands. After 160 years and two Ottoman attempts to capture Vienna, the Austrians went on the offensive. The Battle of Zenta (1697), found the Ottomans crushed by the Austrians and forced out of Hungary. By the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699) the Ottomans were forced to cede all of Hungary, Transylvania, Croatia, and Slovenia to Austria. Thus, Slo- �184 SLOVAKIA vakia was freed from Ottoman rule, but now found herself under Austrian domination. Though the Habsburgs were now the rulers of Slovakia, the Magyar nobility was able to maintain their power over the Slovaks and the other nationalities within Hungary. Many gifted Slovak children, found educational opportunities available to them, but had to become Magyarized if worldly success was to be achieved. A great number of Magyarized Slovaks found success in the political and clerical fields. However, a number of educated Slovaks, seeing the plight of their fellow Slovaks, made attempts to maintain and develop Slovak culture and nationalism. It was the Slovak Protestants who made the first attempts at developing a Slovak identity. The Catholic Church eventually took over this role and maintained this position of dominance until the end of World War II. Anton Bernolak (1762-1813) first codified the Slovak language. He also fashioned a Slovak dictionary and grammar book to be used in translating the works of other tongues into the Slovak tongue, and vice versa. Many young Slovaks who were able to, went to be educated in Bohemia, feeling that there they would at least be among their fellow Slavs. Many of the leading political writers in Bohemia in the 1830's, such as Kollar and ~afarik, turned out to be Slovaks. In their writings they stressed not Czech nationalism, but the Slavic background of both the Czechs and Slovaks in the Austrian Empire. Some young Slovaks however, turned to and accepted the Magyar nationalism over their own Slovak ancestry. Two of the best known Magyar nationalists were Lajos Kossuth and Gaj Petofi, a nationalist Magyar poet and vehement antiCroat, was half Serb and half Slovak. Lajos Kossuth led the Magyar revolution of 1848-1849. When defeated, Kossuth fled to Paris, London and New York, always looking for an opportunity to restore an independent Hungary. Kossuth had been born of poor Slovak nobility, and was sent to be reared in a Magyar home. It was the Magyar custom to take the most promising children of all the subject nationalities and try to raise them as fervent Magyar nationalists. In May 1848, the Declaration of Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas set forth a program which set the tone of Slovak political �SLOVAKIA 185 desires for the next ninety years. Under the leadership of ~udovit stur, the first real Slovak spokesman, the program called for a federative monarchy, a Diet formed by a national council, equality of all nationalities, opening of Slovak primary and secondary schools, a national university and polytechnical school, formation of a national guard with its own command, recognition of the Slovak tongue as the language of administration, universal suffrage, freedom of the press, full legal ownership of lands which peasants owned only by a precarious title, and the right to possess a flag as a symbol of the Slovak Fatherland. When in 1848 Kossuth attempted to set up an independent Hungary, free of Vienna's rule, the Slovak people also rose to revolt, against Budapest. The uprising, led by stur, Jozef Hurban a Michal Hod.fa, was not in support of Viennese centralism, but a hope of a federative monarchy following the war. When at Myjava, September 1848, stur proclaimed Slovak independence from Hungary, he kept in mind the federation proposed. at Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas. While the Slovak regiments were being raised and fielded against the Magyars, two petitions were given to Austrian authorities pledging Slovak support of the Monarchy, in return for recognition of Slovak political desires following the Magyar defea u. The first petition was presented to the Emperor, Franz-Jozef, by°Fr. Jozef Kozacek in March 1849. The Emperor had been visiting in Olomouc at the time. The second petition was presented. in April 1849, to the government in Vienna by stur, Hurban and Hod.fa. Actions were promised. by the Austrian authorities, but after the Austrian victory, more time was spent in placating the Magyars, who had attempted. to destroy the Empire, than to the Slovaks and other nationalities who tried to keep the Empire intact. In February 1861, Hurban presented. to the Viennese government a document which covered the principal demands the Slovaks had sought in 1849. More importance must be given to the Memorandum of the Slovak Nation. It was drawn up in June 1861, by Slovak political leaders in Turciansky Sv. Martin led by Stefan Marko Daxner. This document was presented. to the Hungarian Parliament in the hope of their recognizing the uniqueness of the Slovak region and allowing them autono- �186 SLO V AKIA mous control over its own administration, courts, schools and cultural institutions. The Slovaks realized the dangers of Magyar statism which continued to try and assimilate all non-Magyar nationalities. The Slovaks also felt that only the combined actions of all the Hungarian nationalities could overcome Magyar domination. Slovak political leaders were few and far between. The most promising leaders had been either Magyarized or forced into exile from the homeland. The few who remained found themselves facing great odds. In 1863, the Matica slovenska (Slovak Academy) was established. It afforded the Slovak people the opportunity to rediscover their national heritage. Newpapers, books, schools, cultural and political groups were formed to give new life to the cause of Slovak nationalism and helped to educate future Slovak political leaders. In 1864, the Hun arian Parliament passed the L aw of Nationalities. All the inhabitants of the Hungarian lands were to be considered citizens of Hungary. In this way, Hungary formed itself into one political unit. Also, the law specified that all citizens had equal rights, and could express their own nationalist feelings, but within the law, and within reason. The Hungarian government under Ferenc Deak did its best to enforce the law so that it would appear to Vienna that Budapest was quite capable of dealing with its own minority problems on its own, without resorting to force. Thus in 1867, Franz-Jozef, feeling that the only way to ease his fears of another Magyar revolution, granted the Ausgleich. This Ausgleich (compromise) put the Magyars on an even platform with the Germans. The realm was divided into the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary. Franz-Jozef remained head-of-state. There was to be a common army and foreign policy. Hungary was responsible for the internal affairs of the lands of St. Stephen. Slovakia remained under Magyar domination. Beginning in 1871, the Magyars began their policy of Magyarization. At first the moves were subtle. Town council meetings could only be held in Magyar. Any dealings with the railroad service had to be in Magyar. By 1875 the Magyarization policies became more pronounced. The judi- �SL OVAKIA 187 ciary and administration fell to Magyarization. Church documents had to be in Magyar if they were to be considered legal. Eventually all non-Magyar schools were closed, both public and parochial alike. The Matica slovenska was forced to close its doors in 1874. In 1875, the last three Slovak Gymnasia ( high schools) were closed in Klas tor pod Znievom, Revuca and Turciansky Sv. Martin. Only Magyar schools were now to be found in Slovakia and the other non-Magyar areas. The local intelligentsia were advised, in their own best interests, to Magyarize if they wished to keep their position. Professional advancement depended on the amount of support one gave to the Magyar leadership. In all the political elections from 1865 to 1881, the Slovaks ran candidates for parliamentary office. Few, if any, were ever elected. When there were no Slovak representatives, the Croats, Serbs and Rumanians voiced the Slovak appeals inasmuch as the Slovaks and the others shared the same Magyar domination. After 1881, the Slovaks ran no candidates for political office. It was not until 1901 that the Slovaks again ran a list of candidates for parliamentary office. In August 1895, a Congress of Nationalities was held in Budapest, consisting of Slovaks, Serbs and Rumanians. It vigorously denounced the government's Magyarization policies. It demanded that as the Magyars represented less than half of Hungary's population, the other nationalities were entitled to their fair share of representation. ThP. Congress also demanded universal suffrage. Hlas, a monthly Slovak periodical, appeared in 1898. It was published by a group of Slovak Protestants, intellectuals and free-thinkers. They felt that the dangers of Magyarization were so great, that it constituted the necessity of Slovakia's fusion with the Czechs. In the First CzechoSlovak Republic, it would be these same Hlasists who would control the political power in Slovakia. It can be easily seen here that even as early as the 1890's, the Czechs were already planning for a union of the Czech lands and Slovakia. The Slovak Protestants were to be the main tools of Czech imperialism. In 1905, the Slovaks presented a list of t.hirteen parliamentary candidates. Only two were elected, Milan Hodza �188 SLOVAKIA and Ferko Skycak became disenchanted with the Hungarian People's Party, on whose list he was elected, and together with Fr. Andrej Hlinka, formed the Slovak People's Party. In the 1906 elections, the Slovak People's Party managed to elect six of eighteen candidates. In 1907, an incident occurred which united the Slovaks more than ever before to stand firm in the face of Magyar domination and intimidation. In his home village of cernova, Fr. Hlinka was to have consecrated the new church. As he had been called away to Moravia, the Magyar bishop of Spis chose a priest loyal to the regime to consecrate the new church. The Sunday the priest arrived, joined by the subprefect and a group of gendarmes, the populace of cernova attempted to block his way. The gendarmes were ordered to open fire on the people. Fourteen persons were killed and sixty wounded. Others were arrested on trumped up charges and imprisoned. No actions were taken on the gendarmes who were the real perpetrators of this crime. After the massacre of cernova, Hlinka became more determined than ever to obtain some form of independence for his people. By 1910, the Slovak position seemed to deteriorate. The Slovak population reached two million in that year's census. They were entitled by law, to forty representatives in the Hungarian Parliament. However, only three of fifty candidates were elected. Skycak had been reelected, but later resigned his seat. The pro_spects of at least an autonomous Slovak state seemed dim. Hlinka had by now joined forces with Hodza. Together, under the banner of the Slovak People's Party, they formed the first cohesive Slovak nationalist movement. Prior to this, there had been loose national groupings, but they had proved to be ineffective against the Magyars. At least now there was a single, unified movement to press for Slovak demands. In this new organization, Hodza was to develop the political programs of the movement, while Hlinka was to organize the support of the Slovak people. The Slovak political base was built on a coalition of Catholic solidarity, agrarian and workers' movements, and also a Czechophile element, composed mostly of the Hlasists, under T. G. Masaryk's indirect leadership. The loss of �SLOVAKIA 189 one of these elements could possibly bring down the whole Slovak nationalist movement. For without the support of the whole Slovak society, little could be accomplished, and the dreams of Slovak independence and freedom never realized. Between the years 1860 and 1914, 500,000 Slovaks left their ancestral homes to find hope and freedom in the New World. Here they would be able to express the nationalist sentiment which had so long been denied them by the Magyars. They did not forget their homeland. These American Slovaks were to form a base of political and economic support which was vital to Masaryk in order to establish a union of the Slovak and Czech lands following World War I. ( Third place - College) BIBLIOGRAPHY Capek, Tomas, The siovaks ,of Hungary. New York: F. H. Revell Co., 1906. Crankshaw, Edward, The FaU of the House of Hapsburg . New York: Viking Press, 1963. Jaszi, Oscar, Dissoiution of the Hapsburg Monarchy. The University of Chicago Press, 1929. Jelavich, Barbara, The Hapsburg Empire in European Affairs, 1814-1918. Chicago: Rand McNally and Co., 1969. Kirschbaum, Joseph, siovakia. New York: R. Speller and Sons, 1960. siovakia's Struggie for Independence. Canadian Slovak League, 1959. Lutzow, Count, The Hussite Wars. London: Dent, 1914. Mikus, Joseph, siovakia - A Poiiticai History, 1918-1950. Milwaukee: The Marquette University Press, 1963. Oddo, Gilbert, siovakia and Its Peopk New York: R. Speller and Sons, 1960. Palmer, Alan, A History of East-Centrai Europe since the Congress of Vienna. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1970. Seton-Watson, R. W., siovakia - Then and Now. London: G. Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1931. Taylor, A. J. P., The Hapsburg Monarchy, 1809-1918. New York: Harper and Row, 1965. Thomson, S. Harrison, Czechosiovakia in European History. Princeton University Press, 1953. Yurchak, Peter, The siovaks. Scranton, Pa., 1957. Zinner, Paul E., Czechosiovakia. University of Notre Dame Press, 1956. � 180 SLOVAKIA Rusek, Stephanie 0., ''Milan Rastislav Stefanik." Slovakia, March, 1954, pp. 33-47. Kirschbaum, Joseph M., Slovakia in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Toronto: Slovak World Congress 1973. Mikus, Joseph A. , Slovakia: A Political History, 1918-1950. Milwaukee: The Marquette University Press, 1963. Oddo, G. L. , Slovakia and Its People . New York: Robert Speller and Sons, Publishers, 1960. Paufo, Joseph , Six ty Years of the Slovak League of America. Middletown, Pa.: Slovak League of Ame-r ica, 1967. Woytko, Sister Mary Gabrielle, Sl-o vakia's Road to Statehood. Michigan : John J . Lach, Publisher, 1957. Yurchak, P., The Slovaks. Scranton, Pa.: Obrana Press, Inc., 1946. III. SLOVAKIA BEFORE THE CZECHS John Bert a The Slovaks are a Slavic people who settled in the land between the Danube River and the Carpathian Mountains some 1500 years ago. The area had formerly been held by the Marcommani, a Celtic people, who fled the land after several disastrous wars with the armies of the Roman Empire. The Slovaks were hunters turned farmers. Their main enterprises were blacksmithing and potterymaking, while business transactions were done by bartering. They lived in simple mud and wooden huts, and lived in family groupings called clans, of which the oldest was its head. The Slovak gods were as numerous and varied as those of the Greeks and Romans. When a Slovak died, if cremated, the ashes were placed in urns and buried in a mound. If the body was to be buried, food, wine, weapons and jewelry were placed in the grave. The size of the burial site determined the importance of the dead person. The first attempt of the Slavonic peoples, living along the Danube, to unite into a viable force, came after the Avars, a nomadic Asian people, conquered part of their land. In 624, Samo, a Frankish merchant, united the people and led them to victory against the Avars. This victory encouraged them to face the Germanic Franks, who were �SLOVAKIA 181 also encroaching on their territory. In 631, the Franks, under Dagobert, were defeated in a three-day battle near Vogaste Castle. The Empire prospered now in peace. In 658, Samo died and his empire soon fell apart. For the next two hundred years the Slovaks were leaderless until in 830, Pribina, ruler of the Slovak city of Nitra, took charge, and created what was to become the Great Moravian Empire. He was a wise ruler. Though not a Christian himself, he allowed the Christians to proselytize in his land. In 836, Mojmir I drove Pribina from his throne . Pribina fled to the Germans from whom he received Pannonia to rule as his own until his death in 861. Mojmir enlarged Pribina's former domain, and tried to maintain friendly relations with the neighboring Germans . He was a Christian and allowed unhampered German missionary activity in his realm. He ruled until 846, when he in turn was unseated by the German king, Louis, and replaced by Rastislav. Rastislav maintained an uneasy truce with the Germans and Bulgarians. In 860, fearing German interference in Slovak affairs, Rastislav requested from Pope Nicholas I, priests with a knowledge of the Slavonic tongue to come among his people. The Pope had no such priests and Rastislav turned to the Byzantine Emperor, Michael III. Michael sent two priests, the brothers Cyril and Methodius. They arrived in 863, and began to convert the Great Moravian Empire to Christianity. They translated the :a:oly Scripture into the Slavonic tongue and formed an alphabet, now known as the Cyrillic alphabet. In 869, the German king, Louis, attacked the Empire. His armies devastated the land, but Rastislav managed to hold out at Devin, and kept the state's independence. That same year, Mojmir's nephew, Svatopluk of Nitra, overthrew Rastislav with German help. In 871, Svatopluk was taken prisoner by the Germans, and Slavomir united the Empire's forces . War soon followed. Svatopluk had managed to escape, and together with Slavomir, destroyed the German army at Devin. Svatopluk regained his throne, and began to enlarge his empire. The German clergy came into conflict with the �182 SLOVAKIA Slovak clergy over control of Church affairs. The Germans held a great amount of influence over Svatopluk, and the Slovaks were often per secuted in their own lands. It is said, that before his death in 894, Svatopluk had retired to a monastery, not revealing his identity until shortly before his death. Svatopluk's oldest son, Mojmir II, assumed his father's throne, while the younger son, Svatopluk II, received a p rincipality to rule, but under his elder brother's domination . In 895, with the secession of the Czech lands and Pannonia, Mojmir's domain shrank to that of Rastislav's. In 901, the Germans and Czechs invaded the Empire. After many fierce battles, Mojmir was forced to sue for peace, again losing territory to his enemies. In 902, the Magyars, an Asiatic people, invaded the Empire. Mojmir's forces suffered heavily. They had managed to rally their forces for a short while, but they could not stem the invading tide. In 906, Mojmir's resistance finally collapsed, and the Great Moravian Empire ceased to exist. The first Slovak state became a part of the Hungarian kingdom. From the tenth through the end of the thirteenth centuries, Slovakia formed an administrative unit known as Upper Hungary. During the Tartar invasions of the thirteenth century, Slovakia suffered as heavily as did the other eastern European peoples. In 1296, Duke Matus cak of Trencin, owing to the dynastic struggle then taking place in Hungary, used the occasion to organize almost the whole Slovakia under his personal rule. For approximately twenty-five years ( 12961321) cak ruled over what was in reality an independent Slovak state. cak formed his own domestic and foreign policies. He maintained his own army, laws, and minted his own currency. The Slovak peasantry suffered greatly at the hands of the great landowners. The Slovak nobility was non-existent. It had either been absorbed by the Magyars or decimated on the battlefield. Peasant revolts were common from the sixteenth century and thereafter, due to the institution of a Hungarian public law codified as the Tripartitum Opus Juris Consuetudinarii Regni Hungariae. It was drawn up �SLOVAKIA 183 by Stefan Verboczi, in 1514. It designated the roles in society the different classes would represent. The peasantry (servitus), became a large landless group, tied to the land, and owned by the local noble. The nobility (natio), were to be the only ones allowed citizenship. This document only served to perpetuate serfdom causing class struggles and the struggle for individual rights. It affected all peasants in Hungary-Croat, Serb, Slovak, Rumanian, and Magyar alike. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, universities were established by various religious orders at Bratislava, Nitra, Trencfn, Kosice, zilina, and other Slovak cities. For many years Slovakia served as a refuge for German, Czech, and other nationalities' academicians, who found it necessary, for various reasons, to leave their native lands. During the Protestant Reformation, the Slovaks remained loyal to the Roman Catholic Church, while the Czech Hussites were able to make a considerable number of conversions. During the Hussite wars, the Czech armies under Jiskra made frequent strikes onto Slovak territory, -::ausing considerab e damage to lives and property. After Lhe Hussites were finally beaten, many of their number fled Bohemia to settle in Slovakia. There, they later came to exert a great amount of influence in Slovak and Czech affairs throughout the twentieth century. Hungary proved itself incapable of withstanding the Ottoman onslaught from the Balkans. In 1526, at the Battle of Mohacs, King Louis and his Magyar army were destroyed by the Ottomans. The Ottomans took control of most of Hungary, while leaving a rump Magyar kingdom. It was nothing but a thin strip of territory that divided the Ottoman Empire from the Austrian lands. Most of Slovakia came under Ottoman rule, but it was only temporary. The Hungarian crown was given to Charles V of Austria. It wa3 hoped that he would be able to free the Hungarian lands. After 160 years and two Ottoman attempts to capture Vienna, the Austrians went on the offensive. The Battle of Zenta (1697), found the Ottomans crushed by the Austrians and forced out of Hungary. By the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699) the Ottomans were forced to cede all of Hungary, Transylvania, Croatia, and Slovenia to Austria. Thus, Slo- �184 SLOVAKIA vakia was freed from Ottoman rule, but now found herself under Austrian domination. Though the Habsburgs were now the rulers of Slovakia, the Magyar nobility was able to maintain their power over the Slovaks and the other nationalities within Hungary. Many gifted Slovak children, found educational opportunities available to them, but had to become Magyarized if worldly success was to be achieved. A great number of Magyarized Slovaks found success in the political and clerical fields. However, a number of educated Slovaks, seeing the plight of their fellow Slovaks, made attempts to maintain and develop Slovak culture and nationalism. It was the Slovak Protestants who made the first attempts at developing a Slovak identity. The Catholic Church eventually took over this role and maintained this position of dominance until the end of World War II. Anton Bernolak (1762-1813) first codified the Slovak language. He also fashioned a Slovak dictionary and grammar book to be used in translating the works of other tongues into the Slovak tongue, and vice versa. Many young Slovaks who were able to, went to be educated in Bohemia, feeling that there they would at least be among their fellow Slavs. Many of the leading political writers in Bohemia in the 1830's, such as Kollar and ~afarik, turned out to be Slovaks. In their writings they stressed not Czech nationalism, but the Slavic background of both the Czechs and Slovaks in the Austrian Empire. Some young Slovaks however, turned to and accepted the Magyar nationalism over their own Slovak ancestry. Two of the best known Magyar nationalists were Lajos Kossuth and Gaj Petofi, a nationalist Magyar poet and vehement antiCroat, was half Serb and half Slovak. Lajos Kossuth led the Magyar revolution of 1848-1849. When defeated, Kossuth fled to Paris, London and New York, always looking for an opportunity to restore an independent Hungary. Kossuth had been born of poor Slovak nobility, and was sent to be reared in a Magyar home. It was the Magyar custom to take the most promising children of all the subject nationalities and try to raise them as fervent Magyar nationalists. In May 1848, the Declaration of Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas set forth a program which set the tone of Slovak political �SLOVAKIA 185 desires for the next ninety years. Under the leadership of ~udovit stur, the first real Slovak spokesman, the program called for a federative monarchy, a Diet formed by a national council, equality of all nationalities, opening of Slovak primary and secondary schools, a national university and polytechnical school, formation of a national guard with its own command, recognition of the Slovak tongue as the language of administration, universal suffrage, freedom of the press, full legal ownership of lands which peasants owned only by a precarious title, and the right to possess a flag as a symbol of the Slovak Fatherland. When in 1848 Kossuth attempted to set up an independent Hungary, free of Vienna's rule, the Slovak people also rose to revolt, against Budapest. The uprising, led by stur, Jozef Hurban a Michal Hod.fa, was not in support of Viennese centralism, but a hope of a federative monarchy following the war. When at Myjava, September 1848, stur proclaimed Slovak independence from Hungary, he kept in mind the federation proposed. at Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas. While the Slovak regiments were being raised and fielded against the Magyars, two petitions were given to Austrian authorities pledging Slovak support of the Monarchy, in return for recognition of Slovak political desires following the Magyar defea u. The first petition was presented to the Emperor, Franz-Jozef, by°Fr. Jozef Kozacek in March 1849. The Emperor had been visiting in Olomouc at the time. The second petition was presented. in April 1849, to the government in Vienna by stur, Hurban and Hod.fa. Actions were promised. by the Austrian authorities, but after the Austrian victory, more time was spent in placating the Magyars, who had attempted. to destroy the Empire, than to the Slovaks and other nationalities who tried to keep the Empire intact. In February 1861, Hurban presented. to the Viennese government a document which covered the principal demands the Slovaks had sought in 1849. More importance must be given to the Memorandum of the Slovak Nation. It was drawn up in June 1861, by Slovak political leaders in Turciansky Sv. Martin led by Stefan Marko Daxner. This document was presented. to the Hungarian Parliament in the hope of their recognizing the uniqueness of the Slovak region and allowing them autono- �186 SLO V AKIA mous control over its own administration, courts, schools and cultural institutions. The Slovaks realized the dangers of Magyar statism which continued to try and assimilate all non-Magyar nationalities. The Slovaks also felt that only the combined actions of all the Hungarian nationalities could overcome Magyar domination. Slovak political leaders were few and far between. The most promising leaders had been either Magyarized or forced into exile from the homeland. The few who remained found themselves facing great odds. In 1863, the Matica slovenska (Slovak Academy) was established. It afforded the Slovak people the opportunity to rediscover their national heritage. Newpapers, books, schools, cultural and political groups were formed to give new life to the cause of Slovak nationalism and helped to educate future Slovak political leaders. In 1864, the Hun arian Parliament passed the L aw of Nationalities. All the inhabitants of the Hungarian lands were to be considered citizens of Hungary. In this way, Hungary formed itself into one political unit. Also, the law specified that all citizens had equal rights, and could express their own nationalist feelings, but within the law, and within reason. The Hungarian government under Ferenc Deak did its best to enforce the law so that it would appear to Vienna that Budapest was quite capable of dealing with its own minority problems on its own, without resorting to force. Thus in 1867, Franz-Jozef, feeling that the only way to ease his fears of another Magyar revolution, granted the Ausgleich. This Ausgleich (compromise) put the Magyars on an even platform with the Germans. The realm was divided into the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary. Franz-Jozef remained head-of-state. There was to be a common army and foreign policy. Hungary was responsible for the internal affairs of the lands of St. Stephen. Slovakia remained under Magyar domination. Beginning in 1871, the Magyars began their policy of Magyarization. At first the moves were subtle. Town council meetings could only be held in Magyar. Any dealings with the railroad service had to be in Magyar. By 1875 the Magyarization policies became more pronounced. The judi- �SL OVAKIA 187 ciary and administration fell to Magyarization. Church documents had to be in Magyar if they were to be considered legal. Eventually all non-Magyar schools were closed, both public and parochial alike. The Matica slovenska was forced to close its doors in 1874. In 1875, the last three Slovak Gymnasia ( high schools) were closed in Klas tor pod Znievom, Revuca and Turciansky Sv. Martin. Only Magyar schools were now to be found in Slovakia and the other non-Magyar areas. The local intelligentsia were advised, in their own best interests, to Magyarize if they wished to keep their position. Professional advancement depended on the amount of support one gave to the Magyar leadership. In all the political elections from 1865 to 1881, the Slovaks ran candidates for parliamentary office. Few, if any, were ever elected. When there were no Slovak representatives, the Croats, Serbs and Rumanians voiced the Slovak appeals inasmuch as the Slovaks and the others shared the same Magyar domination. After 1881, the Slovaks ran no candidates for political office. It was not until 1901 that the Slovaks again ran a list of candidates for parliamentary office. In August 1895, a Congress of Nationalities was held in Budapest, consisting of Slovaks, Serbs and Rumanians. It vigorously denounced the government's Magyarization policies. It demanded that as the Magyars represented less than half of Hungary's population, the other nationalities were entitled to their fair share of representation. ThP. Congress also demanded universal suffrage. Hlas, a monthly Slovak periodical, appeared in 1898. It was published by a group of Slovak Protestants, intellectuals and free-thinkers. They felt that the dangers of Magyarization were so great, that it constituted the necessity of Slovakia's fusion with the Czechs. In the First CzechoSlovak Republic, it would be these same Hlasists who would control the political power in Slovakia. It can be easily seen here that even as early as the 1890's, the Czechs were already planning for a union of the Czech lands and Slovakia. The Slovak Protestants were to be the main tools of Czech imperialism. In 1905, the Slovaks presented a list of t.hirteen parliamentary candidates. Only two were elected, Milan Hodza �188 SLOVAKIA and Ferko Skycak became disenchanted with the Hungarian People's Party, on whose list he was elected, and together with Fr. Andrej Hlinka, formed the Slovak People's Party. In the 1906 elections, the Slovak People's Party managed to elect six of eighteen candidates. In 1907, an incident occurred which united the Slovaks more than ever before to stand firm in the face of Magyar domination and intimidation. In his home village of cernova, Fr. Hlinka was to have consecrated the new church. As he had been called away to Moravia, the Magyar bishop of Spis chose a priest loyal to the regime to consecrate the new church. The Sunday the priest arrived, joined by the subprefect and a group of gendarmes, the populace of cernova attempted to block his way. The gendarmes were ordered to open fire on the people. Fourteen persons were killed and sixty wounded. Others were arrested on trumped up charges and imprisoned. No actions were taken on the gendarmes who were the real perpetrators of this crime. After the massacre of cernova, Hlinka became more determined than ever to obtain some form of independence for his people. By 1910, the Slovak position seemed to deteriorate. The Slovak population reached two million in that year's census. They were entitled by law, to forty representatives in the Hungarian Parliament. However, only three of fifty candidates were elected. Skycak had been reelected, but later resigned his seat. The pro_spects of at least an autonomous Slovak state seemed dim. Hlinka had by now joined forces with Hodza. Together, under the banner of the Slovak People's Party, they formed the first cohesive Slovak nationalist movement. Prior to this, there had been loose national groupings, but they had proved to be ineffective against the Magyars. At least now there was a single, unified movement to press for Slovak demands. In this new organization, Hodza was to develop the political programs of the movement, while Hlinka was to organize the support of the Slovak people. The Slovak political base was built on a coalition of Catholic solidarity, agrarian and workers' movements, and also a Czechophile element, composed mostly of the Hlasists, under T. G. Masaryk's indirect leadership. The loss of �SLOVAKIA 189 one of these elements could possibly bring down the whole Slovak nationalist movement. For without the support of the whole Slovak society, little could be accomplished, and the dreams of Slovak independence and freedom never realized. Between the years 1860 and 1914, 500,000 Slovaks left their ancestral homes to find hope and freedom in the New World. Here they would be able to express the nationalist sentiment which had so long been denied them by the Magyars. They did not forget their homeland. These American Slovaks were to form a base of political and economic support which was vital to Masaryk in order to establish a union of the Slovak and Czech lands following World War I. ( Third place - College) BIBLIOGRAPHY Capek, Tomas, The siovaks ,of Hungary. New York: F. H. Revell Co., 1906. Crankshaw, Edward, The FaU of the House of Hapsburg . New York: Viking Press, 1963. Jaszi, Oscar, Dissoiution of the Hapsburg Monarchy. The University of Chicago Press, 1929. Jelavich, Barbara, The Hapsburg Empire in European Affairs, 1814-1918. Chicago: Rand McNally and Co., 1969. Kirschbaum, Joseph, siovakia. New York: R. Speller and Sons, 1960. siovakia's Struggie for Independence. Canadian Slovak League, 1959. Lutzow, Count, The Hussite Wars. London: Dent, 1914. Mikus, Joseph, siovakia - A Poiiticai History, 1918-1950. Milwaukee: The Marquette University Press, 1963. Oddo, Gilbert, siovakia and Its Peopk New York: R. Speller and Sons, 1960. Palmer, Alan, A History of East-Centrai Europe since the Congress of Vienna. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1970. Seton-Watson, R. W., siovakia - Then and Now. London: G. Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1931. Taylor, A. J. P., The Hapsburg Monarchy, 1809-1918. New York: Harper and Row, 1965. Thomson, S. Harrison, Czechosiovakia in European History. Princeton University Press, 1953. Yurchak, Peter, The siovaks. Scranton, Pa., 1957. Zinner, Paul E., Czechosiovakia. University of Notre Dame Press, 1956. � 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 1975, Vol. 25 Description An account of the resource Vol. 25 (No. 48), 1975. 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 1975 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 180 SLOVAKIA Rusek, Stephanie 0., ''Milan Rastislav Stefanik." Slovakia, March, 1954, pp. 33-47. Kirschbaum, Joseph M., Slovakia in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Toronto: Slovak World Congress 1973. Mikus, Joseph A. , Slovakia: A Political History, 1918-1950. Milwaukee: The Marquette University Press, 1963. Oddo, G. L. , Slovakia and Its People . New York: Robert Speller and Sons, Publishers, 1960. Paufo, Joseph , Six ty Years of the Slovak League of America. Middletown, Pa.: Slovak League of Ame-r ica, 1967. Woytko, Sister Mary Gabrielle, Sl-o vakia's Road to Statehood. Michigan : John J . Lach, Publisher, 1957. Yurchak, P., The Slovaks. Scranton, Pa.: Obrana Press, Inc., 1946. III. SLOVAKIA BEFORE THE CZECHS John Bert a The Slovaks are a Slavic people who settled in the land between the Danube River and the Carpathian Mountains some 1500 years ago. The area had formerly been held by the Marcommani, a Celtic people, who fled the land after several disastrous wars with the armies of the Roman Empire. The Slovaks were hunters turned farmers. Their main enterprises were blacksmithing and potterymaking, while business transactions were done by bartering. They lived in simple mud and wooden huts, and lived in family groupings called clans, of which the oldest was its head. The Slovak gods were as numerous and varied as those of the Greeks and Romans. When a Slovak died, if cremated, the ashes were placed in urns and buried in a mound. If the body was to be buried, food, wine, weapons and jewelry were placed in the grave. The size of the burial site determined the importance of the dead person. The first attempt of the Slavonic peoples, living along the Danube, to unite into a viable force, came after the Avars, a nomadic Asian people, conquered part of their land. In 624, Samo, a Frankish merchant, united the people and led them to victory against the Avars. This victory encouraged them to face the Germanic Franks, who were SLOVAKIA 181 also encroaching on their territory. In 631, the Franks, under Dagobert, were defeated in a three-day battle near Vogaste Castle. The Empire prospered now in peace. In 658, Samo died and his empire soon fell apart. For the next two hundred years the Slovaks were leaderless until in 830, Pribina, ruler of the Slovak city of Nitra, took charge, and created what was to become the Great Moravian Empire. He was a wise ruler. Though not a Christian himself, he allowed the Christians to proselytize in his land. In 836, Mojmir I drove Pribina from his throne . Pribina fled to the Germans from whom he received Pannonia to rule as his own until his death in 861. Mojmir enlarged Pribina's former domain, and tried to maintain friendly relations with the neighboring Germans . He was a Christian and allowed unhampered German missionary activity in his realm. He ruled until 846, when he in turn was unseated by the German king, Louis, and replaced by Rastislav. Rastislav maintained an uneasy truce with the Germans and Bulgarians. In 860, fearing German interference in Slovak affairs, Rastislav requested from Pope Nicholas I, priests with a knowledge of the Slavonic tongue to come among his people. The Pope had no such priests and Rastislav turned to the Byzantine Emperor, Michael III. Michael sent two priests, the brothers Cyril and Methodius. They arrived in 863, and began to convert the Great Moravian Empire to Christianity. They translated the :a:oly Scripture into the Slavonic tongue and formed an alphabet, now known as the Cyrillic alphabet. In 869, the German king, Louis, attacked the Empire. His armies devastated the land, but Rastislav managed to hold out at Devin, and kept the state's independence. That same year, Mojmir's nephew, Svatopluk of Nitra, overthrew Rastislav with German help. In 871, Svatopluk was taken prisoner by the Germans, and Slavomir united the Empire's forces . War soon followed. Svatopluk had managed to escape, and together with Slavomir, destroyed the German army at Devin. Svatopluk regained his throne, and began to enlarge his empire. The German clergy came into conflict with the 182 SLOVAKIA Slovak clergy over control of Church affairs. The Germans held a great amount of influence over Svatopluk, and the Slovaks were often per secuted in their own lands. It is said, that before his death in 894, Svatopluk had retired to a monastery, not revealing his identity until shortly before his death. Svatopluk's oldest son, Mojmir II, assumed his father's throne, while the younger son, Svatopluk II, received a p rincipality to rule, but under his elder brother's domination . In 895, with the secession of the Czech lands and Pannonia, Mojmir's domain shrank to that of Rastislav's. In 901, the Germans and Czechs invaded the Empire. After many fierce battles, Mojmir was forced to sue for peace, again losing territory to his enemies. In 902, the Magyars, an Asiatic people, invaded the Empire. Mojmir's forces suffered heavily. They had managed to rally their forces for a short while, but they could not stem the invading tide. In 906, Mojmir's resistance finally collapsed, and the Great Moravian Empire ceased to exist. The first Slovak state became a part of the Hungarian kingdom. From the tenth through the end of the thirteenth centuries, Slovakia formed an administrative unit known as Upper Hungary. During the Tartar invasions of the thirteenth century, Slovakia suffered as heavily as did the other eastern European peoples. In 1296, Duke Matus cak of Trencin, owing to the dynastic struggle then taking place in Hungary, used the occasion to organize almost the whole Slovakia under his personal rule. For approximately twenty-five years ( 12961321) cak ruled over what was in reality an independent Slovak state. cak formed his own domestic and foreign policies. He maintained his own army, laws, and minted his own currency. The Slovak peasantry suffered greatly at the hands of the great landowners. The Slovak nobility was non-existent. It had either been absorbed by the Magyars or decimated on the battlefield. Peasant revolts were common from the sixteenth century and thereafter, due to the institution of a Hungarian public law codified as the Tripartitum Opus Juris Consuetudinarii Regni Hungariae. It was drawn up SLOVAKIA 183 by Stefan Verboczi, in 1514. It designated the roles in society the different classes would represent. The peasantry (servitus), became a large landless group, tied to the land, and owned by the local noble. The nobility (natio), were to be the only ones allowed citizenship. This document only served to perpetuate serfdom causing class struggles and the struggle for individual rights. It affected all peasants in Hungary-Croat, Serb, Slovak, Rumanian, and Magyar alike. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, universities were established by various religious orders at Bratislava, Nitra, Trencfn, Kosice, zilina, and other Slovak cities. For many years Slovakia served as a refuge for German, Czech, and other nationalities' academicians, who found it necessary, for various reasons, to leave their native lands. During the Protestant Reformation, the Slovaks remained loyal to the Roman Catholic Church, while the Czech Hussites were able to make a considerable number of conversions. During the Hussite wars, the Czech armies under Jiskra made frequent strikes onto Slovak territory, -::ausing considerab e damage to lives and property. After Lhe Hussites were finally beaten, many of their number fled Bohemia to settle in Slovakia. There, they later came to exert a great amount of influence in Slovak and Czech affairs throughout the twentieth century. Hungary proved itself incapable of withstanding the Ottoman onslaught from the Balkans. In 1526, at the Battle of Mohacs, King Louis and his Magyar army were destroyed by the Ottomans. The Ottomans took control of most of Hungary, while leaving a rump Magyar kingdom. It was nothing but a thin strip of territory that divided the Ottoman Empire from the Austrian lands. Most of Slovakia came under Ottoman rule, but it was only temporary. The Hungarian crown was given to Charles V of Austria. It wa3 hoped that he would be able to free the Hungarian lands. After 160 years and two Ottoman attempts to capture Vienna, the Austrians went on the offensive. The Battle of Zenta (1697), found the Ottomans crushed by the Austrians and forced out of Hungary. By the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699) the Ottomans were forced to cede all of Hungary, Transylvania, Croatia, and Slovenia to Austria. Thus, Slo- 184 SLOVAKIA vakia was freed from Ottoman rule, but now found herself under Austrian domination. Though the Habsburgs were now the rulers of Slovakia, the Magyar nobility was able to maintain their power over the Slovaks and the other nationalities within Hungary. Many gifted Slovak children, found educational opportunities available to them, but had to become Magyarized if worldly success was to be achieved. A great number of Magyarized Slovaks found success in the political and clerical fields. However, a number of educated Slovaks, seeing the plight of their fellow Slovaks, made attempts to maintain and develop Slovak culture and nationalism. It was the Slovak Protestants who made the first attempts at developing a Slovak identity. The Catholic Church eventually took over this role and maintained this position of dominance until the end of World War II. Anton Bernolak (1762-1813) first codified the Slovak language. He also fashioned a Slovak dictionary and grammar book to be used in translating the works of other tongues into the Slovak tongue, and vice versa. Many young Slovaks who were able to, went to be educated in Bohemia, feeling that there they would at least be among their fellow Slavs. Many of the leading political writers in Bohemia in the 1830's, such as Kollar and ~afarik, turned out to be Slovaks. In their writings they stressed not Czech nationalism, but the Slavic background of both the Czechs and Slovaks in the Austrian Empire. Some young Slovaks however, turned to and accepted the Magyar nationalism over their own Slovak ancestry. Two of the best known Magyar nationalists were Lajos Kossuth and Gaj Petofi, a nationalist Magyar poet and vehement antiCroat, was half Serb and half Slovak. Lajos Kossuth led the Magyar revolution of 1848-1849. When defeated, Kossuth fled to Paris, London and New York, always looking for an opportunity to restore an independent Hungary. Kossuth had been born of poor Slovak nobility, and was sent to be reared in a Magyar home. It was the Magyar custom to take the most promising children of all the subject nationalities and try to raise them as fervent Magyar nationalists. In May 1848, the Declaration of Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas set forth a program which set the tone of Slovak political SLOVAKIA 185 desires for the next ninety years. Under the leadership of ~udovit stur, the first real Slovak spokesman, the program called for a federative monarchy, a Diet formed by a national council, equality of all nationalities, opening of Slovak primary and secondary schools, a national university and polytechnical school, formation of a national guard with its own command, recognition of the Slovak tongue as the language of administration, universal suffrage, freedom of the press, full legal ownership of lands which peasants owned only by a precarious title, and the right to possess a flag as a symbol of the Slovak Fatherland. When in 1848 Kossuth attempted to set up an independent Hungary, free of Vienna's rule, the Slovak people also rose to revolt, against Budapest. The uprising, led by stur, Jozef Hurban a Michal Hod.fa, was not in support of Viennese centralism, but a hope of a federative monarchy following the war. When at Myjava, September 1848, stur proclaimed Slovak independence from Hungary, he kept in mind the federation proposed. at Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas. While the Slovak regiments were being raised and fielded against the Magyars, two petitions were given to Austrian authorities pledging Slovak support of the Monarchy, in return for recognition of Slovak political desires following the Magyar defea u. The first petition was presented to the Emperor, Franz-Jozef, by°Fr. Jozef Kozacek in March 1849. The Emperor had been visiting in Olomouc at the time. The second petition was presented. in April 1849, to the government in Vienna by stur, Hurban and Hod.fa. Actions were promised. by the Austrian authorities, but after the Austrian victory, more time was spent in placating the Magyars, who had attempted. to destroy the Empire, than to the Slovaks and other nationalities who tried to keep the Empire intact. In February 1861, Hurban presented. to the Viennese government a document which covered the principal demands the Slovaks had sought in 1849. More importance must be given to the Memorandum of the Slovak Nation. It was drawn up in June 1861, by Slovak political leaders in Turciansky Sv. Martin led by Stefan Marko Daxner. This document was presented. to the Hungarian Parliament in the hope of their recognizing the uniqueness of the Slovak region and allowing them autono- 186 SLO V AKIA mous control over its own administration, courts, schools and cultural institutions. The Slovaks realized the dangers of Magyar statism which continued to try and assimilate all non-Magyar nationalities. The Slovaks also felt that only the combined actions of all the Hungarian nationalities could overcome Magyar domination. Slovak political leaders were few and far between. The most promising leaders had been either Magyarized or forced into exile from the homeland. The few who remained found themselves facing great odds. In 1863, the Matica slovenska (Slovak Academy) was established. It afforded the Slovak people the opportunity to rediscover their national heritage. Newpapers, books, schools, cultural and political groups were formed to give new life to the cause of Slovak nationalism and helped to educate future Slovak political leaders. In 1864, the Hun arian Parliament passed the L aw of Nationalities. All the inhabitants of the Hungarian lands were to be considered citizens of Hungary. In this way, Hungary formed itself into one political unit. Also, the law specified that all citizens had equal rights, and could express their own nationalist feelings, but within the law, and within reason. The Hungarian government under Ferenc Deak did its best to enforce the law so that it would appear to Vienna that Budapest was quite capable of dealing with its own minority problems on its own, without resorting to force. Thus in 1867, Franz-Jozef, feeling that the only way to ease his fears of another Magyar revolution, granted the Ausgleich. This Ausgleich (compromise) put the Magyars on an even platform with the Germans. The realm was divided into the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary. Franz-Jozef remained head-of-state. There was to be a common army and foreign policy. Hungary was responsible for the internal affairs of the lands of St. Stephen. Slovakia remained under Magyar domination. Beginning in 1871, the Magyars began their policy of Magyarization. At first the moves were subtle. Town council meetings could only be held in Magyar. Any dealings with the railroad service had to be in Magyar. By 1875 the Magyarization policies became more pronounced. The judi- SL OVAKIA 187 ciary and administration fell to Magyarization. Church documents had to be in Magyar if they were to be considered legal. Eventually all non-Magyar schools were closed, both public and parochial alike. The Matica slovenska was forced to close its doors in 1874. In 1875, the last three Slovak Gymnasia ( high schools) were closed in Klas tor pod Znievom, Revuca and Turciansky Sv. Martin. Only Magyar schools were now to be found in Slovakia and the other non-Magyar areas. The local intelligentsia were advised, in their own best interests, to Magyarize if they wished to keep their position. Professional advancement depended on the amount of support one gave to the Magyar leadership. In all the political elections from 1865 to 1881, the Slovaks ran candidates for parliamentary office. Few, if any, were ever elected. When there were no Slovak representatives, the Croats, Serbs and Rumanians voiced the Slovak appeals inasmuch as the Slovaks and the others shared the same Magyar domination. After 1881, the Slovaks ran no candidates for political office. It was not until 1901 that the Slovaks again ran a list of candidates for parliamentary office. In August 1895, a Congress of Nationalities was held in Budapest, consisting of Slovaks, Serbs and Rumanians. It vigorously denounced the government's Magyarization policies. It demanded that as the Magyars represented less than half of Hungary's population, the other nationalities were entitled to their fair share of representation. ThP. Congress also demanded universal suffrage. Hlas, a monthly Slovak periodical, appeared in 1898. It was published by a group of Slovak Protestants, intellectuals and free-thinkers. They felt that the dangers of Magyarization were so great, that it constituted the necessity of Slovakia's fusion with the Czechs. In the First CzechoSlovak Republic, it would be these same Hlasists who would control the political power in Slovakia. It can be easily seen here that even as early as the 1890's, the Czechs were already planning for a union of the Czech lands and Slovakia. The Slovak Protestants were to be the main tools of Czech imperialism. In 1905, the Slovaks presented a list of t.hirteen parliamentary candidates. Only two were elected, Milan Hodza 188 SLOVAKIA and Ferko Skycak became disenchanted with the Hungarian People's Party, on whose list he was elected, and together with Fr. Andrej Hlinka, formed the Slovak People's Party. In the 1906 elections, the Slovak People's Party managed to elect six of eighteen candidates. In 1907, an incident occurred which united the Slovaks more than ever before to stand firm in the face of Magyar domination and intimidation. In his home village of cernova, Fr. Hlinka was to have consecrated the new church. As he had been called away to Moravia, the Magyar bishop of Spis chose a priest loyal to the regime to consecrate the new church. The Sunday the priest arrived, joined by the subprefect and a group of gendarmes, the populace of cernova attempted to block his way. The gendarmes were ordered to open fire on the people. Fourteen persons were killed and sixty wounded. Others were arrested on trumped up charges and imprisoned. No actions were taken on the gendarmes who were the real perpetrators of this crime. After the massacre of cernova, Hlinka became more determined than ever to obtain some form of independence for his people. By 1910, the Slovak position seemed to deteriorate. The Slovak population reached two million in that year's census. They were entitled by law, to forty representatives in the Hungarian Parliament. However, only three of fifty candidates were elected. Skycak had been reelected, but later resigned his seat. The pro_spects of at least an autonomous Slovak state seemed dim. Hlinka had by now joined forces with Hodza. Together, under the banner of the Slovak People's Party, they formed the first cohesive Slovak nationalist movement. Prior to this, there had been loose national groupings, but they had proved to be ineffective against the Magyars. At least now there was a single, unified movement to press for Slovak demands. In this new organization, Hodza was to develop the political programs of the movement, while Hlinka was to organize the support of the Slovak people. The Slovak political base was built on a coalition of Catholic solidarity, agrarian and workers' movements, and also a Czechophile element, composed mostly of the Hlasists, under T. G. Masaryk's indirect leadership. The loss of SLOVAKIA 189 one of these elements could possibly bring down the whole Slovak nationalist movement. For without the support of the whole Slovak society, little could be accomplished, and the dreams of Slovak independence and freedom never realized. Between the years 1860 and 1914, 500,000 Slovaks left their ancestral homes to find hope and freedom in the New World. Here they would be able to express the nationalist sentiment which had so long been denied them by the Magyars. They did not forget their homeland. These American Slovaks were to form a base of political and economic support which was vital to Masaryk in order to establish a union of the Slovak and Czech lands following World War I. ( Third place - College) BIBLIOGRAPHY Capek, Tomas, The siovaks ,of Hungary. New York: F. H. Revell Co., 1906. Crankshaw, Edward, The FaU of the House of Hapsburg . New York: Viking Press, 1963. Jaszi, Oscar, Dissoiution of the Hapsburg Monarchy. The University of Chicago Press, 1929. Jelavich, Barbara, The Hapsburg Empire in European Affairs, 1814-1918. Chicago: Rand McNally and Co., 1969. Kirschbaum, Joseph, siovakia. New York: R. Speller and Sons, 1960. siovakia's Struggie for Independence. Canadian Slovak League, 1959. Lutzow, Count, The Hussite Wars. London: Dent, 1914. Mikus, Joseph, siovakia - A Poiiticai History, 1918-1950. Milwaukee: The Marquette University Press, 1963. Oddo, Gilbert, siovakia and Its Peopk New York: R. Speller and Sons, 1960. Palmer, Alan, A History of East-Centrai Europe since the Congress of Vienna. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1970. Seton-Watson, R. W., siovakia - Then and Now. London: G. Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1931. Taylor, A. J. P., The Hapsburg Monarchy, 1809-1918. New York: Harper and Row, 1965. Thomson, S. Harrison, Czechosiovakia in European History. Princeton University Press, 1953. Yurchak, Peter, The siovaks. Scranton, Pa., 1957. Zinner, Paul E., Czechosiovakia. University of Notre Dame Press, 1956.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Slovakia Before the Czechs Description An account of the resource John Berta Slovakia, Vol. 25 (No. 48), 1975 pp. 180-189 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Berta, John A. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1975 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/6fbf43c30ea1a69b8bf5ca4a38f7eaae.pdf e0bca1903ec8f6402c47e71ec1ec36a3 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA-2017 105 INVOKING THE NATION, STRENGTHENING DEVOTION: NATIONAL DISCOURSE AT THE SLOVAK NATIONAL PILGRIMAGE 1 Alexander Bielicki "At first glimpse it seems as if Catholicism and nationalism represent two opposite poles that can never level out or meet. And yet, nationalism finds its culmination point in Catholicism." - Jozef Tiso 2 The September 15 th Slovak National Pilgrimage to the National Basilica on the national holiday dedicated to the national patron offers Catholic leaders in Slovakia the rare opportunity to talk about the nation more or less freely in the public sphere. Since Slovakia's independence, several Slovak Catholic leaders have stirred up controversy regarding their stances on the activities of the Catholic Church and its clergy during the World War II semi-independent authoritarian Slovak state, as well as regarding some contemporary clergymen's tacit support for fascist organizations that commemorate the leaders of the WWII state, like the above-quoted President Jozef Tiso. 3 These instances have spurred perceptions of the Catholic Church in Slovakia as nationalist, a perception that reduces the public opportunities during which the Church may legitimately talk about the nation and reflect upon the connections between nation and Church. The annual Slovak national pilgrimage to Sastin provides a unique case study of how Catholic leaders discursively construct and use the concept of the nation in evangelization. Apart from the instances when Church leaders use nationalism in an attempt to reclaim or repaint the history of the Catholic Church during World 1 An earlier version of this article was presented at the ASN World Convention, Columbia University, 18-20 April 2013. 2 Miroslav Kocur, "For God and Nation: Christian National Populism" in National Populism and Slovak - Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006 - 2009 (Forum Minority Research Institute: Samorin - Samorja, 2009), 223 . 3 Ibid. , 221 - 45 . �106 SLOVAKIA-2017 4 War II , the nation is sometimes "talked and performed," not for what might be ca lled nati ona list goals, but instead, for what might be call ed reli gious goa ls. "Talking the nation" is not necessarily done in order to make the nat ion more sa li ent and make people more national. The inclusion of national discourse can be done in order to accomplish a wide variety of goa ls. In instances such as the Slovak National Pilgrimage to Sastin , the nation may be used fo r evangelization. My intention here is not to offer a typology of national discourse in the re ligious field , but rather to point to some of the ways that the concept of the nation can be (and has been) used by Catho lic leaders in Slovakia. The examp les presented herein demonstrate not only the taken-for-granted nature of national frames for viewing and understanding the world, even in the g loba l Catholic Church; they a lso illustrate some of the ways the " nation" can be used . By analyzing materia l from the homili es presented each year at the Slovak National Pilgrim age, I wi ll illustrate these connections between religious devoti on and nationa l fidelity. In foc us are the homilies delivered from the independence of S lovakia in 1993 to 2011. 5 In the se speeches from the pulpit in Sasti n, bishops, archbishops, and occasionally cardina ls address the meaning of the holiday, the perce ived successes and fai lures of society, and the importance of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows for Slovak ia. Because of the nature of these homilies and the ritual focus of thi s holiday, I wi ll here look at the ways in w hi ch the Virgin Mary is connected to th e Slovak nation on these occas ions. Pilgrimage Context In Slovakia, pil grim ages and holidays are two of the most common events through which Marian theology is experienced by devotees and advanced by the c lergy. One can find about a dozen Marian holidays on the Slovak liturgica l ca lendar, but only one of them is connected w ith a state ho liday. The Slovak National Pilgrimage takes place every year on September 15, the Sviatok Sedembolestnej Panny Marie (O ur Lady of the Seven Sorrows Holid ay). It has been 4 The fo rmulati on of "talking, performing, consuming and choosing the nat ion" comes from Fox, Jon and Cynthi a Mil ler- Idriss, " Eve ryday Nati onh ood," Etlinicities, 8 (2008): 536 - 63. 5 This study is based on research an d fieldwork co mpl eted between 2008 and 20 12. �SLOVAKIA-2017 10 7 a national holiday since 1993 (first celebrated as such in 1994). The pilgrimage to the small western Slovak town of Sastin (Sastin-Straze since 1971) traces its roots to a founding miracle in 1564 and the subsequent carving of the Sastin pieta sculpture in thanks to the Virgin Mary, which would eventually become the ritual focus of later pilgrimages. The influence of this site grew rapidly under Empress Maria Theresa and her husband Francis of Lorraine, who partially funded the construction of a cathedral to house the Sastin pieta. In 1927, Pope Pius XI declared Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows as Patron saint of the region of Slovakia. 6 In 1964, Pope Paul VI elevated the Sastin cathedral to the status of Basilica Minor, the first in Slovakia. 7 In the years following, the Sastin cathedral would come to be known as the National Basilica, and more recently, the September 15 event would come to be known as the Slovak National Pilgrimage. Recent pilgrimages at Sastin have drawn approximately 20,000 worshippers per year, the overwhelming majority of whom are Slovaks from Slovakia. In addition, several television and radio stations broadcast the day 's events so that individuals may participate without making the trek to this small town. The event even brings a number of influential clergy, politicians and cultural figures as guests of honor. In fact, one of my respondents stated that the attendance of politicians at Sastin was what set it apart from other pilgrimages: "state representatives even go to this pilgrimage - they do not go to other pilgrimage sites." 8 For all of the differences among the participants in the Sastin pilgrimage, they share a religiously-oriented habitus. 9 By this, I do not mean that they are all Catholic, but that the vast majority of them are socialized into a specifically conservative, Slovak version of Catholicism. It can be understood as an environment where social, moral and linguistic issues expressed in a certain idiom 6 She is referred to as patronka Slovenska (the patroness of Slovakia), though she is more common ly understood as the patron of the Slovak nation as opposed to the Slovak state, an important distinction given the multi-national character of Slovakia. 7 Peter Zubko, "Baziliky mensie na Slovensku: ich prava a povinnosti" (Basilica Minors in Slovakia: Their Rights and Obligations), Nave Horizonty, I (2009): 40 45 . 8 Alexander Bielicki, A Nation in Worship ? Constructing Nationhood and Devotion at the Slovak National Pilgrimage to Sastin, Ph .D. dissertat ion, University of Oslo, 2012. 9 Pierre Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, I 99 I). �108 SLOVAKIA-2017 are easily understood to be a part of the regular (acceptable) di scourse, and are shaped by the conditions and conventions within this particular societal framework. Bourdieu, in his essays on language and power, 10 calls these types of factors "structured dispositions." One of these structured dispositions would be towards Marian devotion. While levels of devotion to Mary differ among Slovak Catholics, the vocabulary of Marianism is ubiquitous throughout the country, and Marian symbols can be easily understood by most Catholics. Throughout Slovakia, there are hundreds of churches and chapels dedicated to the Virgin, and the number of Marian shrines is countless. Controversia l historian Milan Durica places the number of Marian churches and chapels in Slovakia at over 1200, with more than 200 dedicated to Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows. 11 Slovak Cardinal Jozef Tomko, among others, places the number of churches and chapels dedicated to Our Lady of Seven Sorrows at around 250 12 Paintings, statues, prayers and songs heavily feature Mary, especially as the Sorrowful Mother, and she is a frequent subject of Slovak folk art of various media. The pieta is one of the more commonl y found Catholic images in the country. The Virgin Mary has become a powerful national symbol in many Catholic countries. While in Slovakia, the Virgin Mary does not receive any national titles as lofty as "Queen of Poland," "Queen of the Croats" or "Queen of Mexico," her status as national patron has been deeply woven into the fabric of the national canon. As Cardinal Tomko, the long-tenured Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (the office responsible for all missionary activities of the Catholic Church), acknowledged in hi s 1997 homil y, For us Slovaks, Seven Sorrows Day goes ri ght to the heart . For us, the picture of the Sorrowful Mother is engraved on our soul since childhood . We saw it in churches as well as in homes, on the Calvaries and in the chape ls, on the Ways of the Cross, and finall y also on the pl ates and popular embroidery. We rece ived respect fo r Mary of the Seven 10 Ibid. Milan S. Durica, S/owici a Sedembolestna: Kulturno-historicky nacrt (Brati slava: Luc, ustav dej in krest'an stva, 2008). 12 Cardinal Jozef Tomko, Homil y presented at th e Nati onal Bas ili ca in Sastin-Straze, Slovakia, Zivot Crkvi, 17, No. 37 (2010). 11 �SLOVAKIA-2017 109 Sorrows almost with our mother's milk. 13 The connection between Mary and the Slovak nation fostered in these words is very self-aware. Statues, paintings, plates, needlework and other material goods associated with Mary can be found in every comer of Slovakia. Cardinal Tomko notes that the connection between individuals and the Virgin Mary is fostered from childhood and the material reminders found throughout the country are no doubt partly responsible for this transmission between generations. Slovak church leaders use the Virgin Mary (specifically in her incarnation as Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows) in a variety of ways to reify, and even to symbolize, the nation. They use the history of Marian devotion in Slovakia to homogenize Slovak religiosity and to provide justification for the claims of Marianism as a fundamental characteristic of Slovak national identity. However, the Marian aspects of the national pilgrimage do not only relate to the ways in which national identity is portrayed. Many different levels of identity, beyond the national, are referenced in the event and many differrent social groupings find relevance. Gender, family, denomination, moral and social communities all play roles in this event, and they are all tied in one way or another to Marianism. 14 For the purposes of this article, though, I will focus primarily on the discursive connections between Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows and the Slovak nation. The inclusion of all these different roles-these different ways of identifying- demonstrates the clergy's reaction to late modernity. The homilies of the event highlight the challenges to various roles an individual may play in society: those connected with nation, with gender, with family, sometimes even with political affiliation. The Catholic Church, which in many ways appears to cling to out-offashion social models (although this has been somewhat challenged since the election of Pope Francis), utilizes the problems and language of late modernity to reinforce its claims, and one of the ways that this is accomplished is through the manner in which the politics 13 Cardinal Jozef Tomko, "Misijne poslanie a Sedembolestna." Homil y presented at the National Basilica in Sastin-Straze, Slovakia. Katolicke noviny, 112, No. 40 (October 5, 1997). 14 Alexander Bielicki , A Nation in Worship ? Constructing Nationhood and Devotion at the Slovak National Pilgrimage to Sastin, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oslo, 20 12. �110 SLOVAKIA-2017 of identity are framed. If one of the markers of the "modem era" is the insistence on unitary identity, then the corresponding marker of the "late modem era" is the multiplicity of identity, and the fact that the successful person displays competence in navigating through all of their different identity roles. The inclusion of this multiplicity of identity roles in the pilgrimage homilies demonstrates the clergy ' s reaction to the so-called pathologies of the late-modem period, and demonstrates how the symbol of the Virgin Mary can be used as a modem tool to advance traditional goals: by providing a unitary self, guided by Marian devotion, that can be deployed in roles and situations. Suffering as Nexus What sets the Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows homilies apart from the homilies delivered for other Marian celebrations is that the biblical information presented in connection with the holiday and pilgrimage focuses on her sorrows and suffering and not on other aspects of her life and story. Suffering, whether revealed as a tragedy or a gift, is the lynchpin that binds the otherwise diverse elements, both catechismal and historical , of the event's homilies. The importance of this distinction is that it highlights a different side of Mary, a different face . Not that this particular interpretation of the Virgin Mary differs from the overall canon of Marian references, but that it selects certain aspects of it to be given primacy. The presentation of these aspects heightens specific types of responses to Mary: they promote a view of Mary as protector, specifically protecttor of the nation, and as picture of grace under suffering. Other roles such as mother, teacher, etc. are given relatively minor attention, expect for when they are related to suffering. The ubiquitous nature of the Virgin Mary not on ly serves as a constant reminder of the strong tradition of Marian devotion, it encourages her multivocality as a symbol. Religious historian Brian Porter notes that in the Polish Marian cult, one of Mary's most important roles is that of the Hetmanka, or military protector of the nation. 15 In the Netherlands, the Lady of All Nations devotional cult is 15 Brian Porter, " Hetmanka and Mother: Representing the Virgin Mary in Modern Poland," Contemporary European History, 14, No . 2 (2005) : 154 �SLOVAKJA-2017 111 centered on the idea of Mary as redeemer. 16 In the Slovak case, however, the suffering of the Virgin Mary is highlighted above all else when linking her to the nation. This type of discourse is used by the clergy not only for moral and religious lessons, but also to reify the nation by creating what I call a shared vocabulary of suffering, especially in reference to national history and the life of the Virgin Mary. From Bishop Gabris' 1984 homily, Our Slovak nation has suffered terribly. When things were bad for our nation, it could only beseech supernatural aid. Our believers also felt that no one in the world suffered such as Our Lady when she held in her arrn s the dead body of her own son. Therefore, no one in the world 17 18 could understand the suffering of our nation as she does. The theme of suffering creeps into the discourse and symbols of the Sastin pilgrimage, and this is one of the things that sets the event apart from others. In marked contrast to most other Marian events in Slovakia, the national pilgrimage to Sastin is thematically concentrated on suffering. While other pilgrimages may contain references to the suffering of Mary, only events specifically dedicated to the Mater Dolorosa, Our Lady of Sorrows, are discursively framed around suffering to this extent. Her pain peaked when she meets Jesus in the street, on the last day of his life, as a criminal amid a furious crowd, carrying the cross to the gallows-flogged, spat-upon, and crowned with thorns. How can she feel when she hears the sound of the murderous nails being hammered into his hands and feet , when she sees Him in immense pain stretched between heaven and earth? How can her heart endure the endless three hours of His agony? And yet, she, frail woman, standing beneath her son's cross, on whi ch she is also crucified. She stands unbroken in soul, not beaten down by the weight of the relentless pain . She stands under the cross, even when the terrible sword stabs a living wound in the 16 Peter Jan Margry, " Paradoxes of Marian Appariti onal Contestation: Networks, Ideology, Gender, and the Lady of All Nations," in Moved by Mary: The Power of Pilgrimage in the Modern World, Hermkens, Anna-Karina and Willy Jansen, and Catrien otermans, eds. ( Farnham: Ash gate, 2009), I 87 17 Bold typeface, mine. 18 Bishop Julius Gabris, Homily presented at the Natio nal Basilica in Sastin-Straze, Slovakia; September 16, 1984. <htt ://blo 0 .chri st-net.sk/? =node/340 >, accessed February 8, 2009. �112 SLOVAKIA-2017 heart. 19 The theme of suffering allows for discourse and symbols not only concerning Mary's suffering, but suffering in society as well: the crisis of the family, legalized abortion, moral relativism, the suffering of the nation, etc. This is one of the particularities of the Sastin pilgrimage: the focus on Marian suffering in connection with the suffering of everyday life opens up the door to a discussion of the many different forms of societal identity. The ways in which these forms of suffering are presented and the ways in which they are linked together offer some suggestions as to what the employment of Mary as a symbol of suffering might be meant to accomplish. Today we celebrate the holiday of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows and here is an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of our national existence and to ask how is it that we Slovaks, through the long centuries, knew to resist so that the ferocious waves of history would not devour and bury us? We are of a nation who didn't have a kingly dynasty to rule in our castles, and we can ' t boast of famous victories. However, our nation reached one victory that, after a thousand years of silence and living without freedom we were able to overcome, so that today we find ourselves among the nations of Europe. We know from national history how difficult our ancestors fought for their existence, for their living space, for their language, for their faith , for their culture. They fought ; they won, because in this struggle they freely took refuge in the Mother of God. 20 In his 2007 homily (above), Bishop Secka offers the holiday as "an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of our national existence." This suggests that a salience of nation should exist for Slovak Catholics, and that a salience of Catholic identity should be present in Slovakia. His framing of "we" around an ethnic identity assumes an all ethnically Slovak audience, which is in fact not the case at Sastin. His words presume a long, uninterrupted history, but reduce that his19 Tomko, Cardinal Jozef. " Misijne poslanie a Sedembolestna," Homily presented at the National Basilica in SaWn-Straze, Slovakia, Katolicke noviny, 112, No. 40 (October 5, 1997). 20 Bishop Stefan Secka, Homily presented at the National Basilica in Sastin-Straze, Slovakia; September 15, 2007. <http://www.magnificat.sk/htm02/homsas. htn_:i. >, accessed February 8, 2009 . �SLOVAKIA-2017 113 tory to a simple story of hard-working, oppressed, Catholic Slovaks who were victims of constant external pressure. This homily assigns an independent will and desire to the nation, not just individuals. The homily also speaks of a victory for the Slovak nation, a victory that can only be assumed to be the realization of the Slovak state, the ultimate reward for any national project. This type of rhetoric ignores the fact that the creation of the Slovak nation-state resulted from the intractable arguments of a small group of political elites and not from any plebiscite.21 This notion projects backwards in time the seemingly self-evident nature of the Slovak nation requiring a Slovak state, that this process was the unfaltering will and destiny of the nation. Furthermore, it portrays the realization of a Slovak state as an event that can be at least indirectly attributed to the intercession of Mary. Bishop Secka's 2007 homily is not unique among the Sedembolestna homilies. In many ways it echoes the 1984 homily given by Bishop Julius Gabris where he stated: Our nation, dear brothers and sisters, survived the hard times and was saved only because it relied upon Marian devotion. I mentioned only the three incidents: the extinction of the Great Moravian Empire, the invasion of the Tatars and the 150-year plundering of our territory by the Turks. In these times, all preconditions were met by which our Slovak nation should be completely devastated, torn from the earth. And yet still, it was not extinguished! Why not extinguished? Only because it relied on God's help and on the help of the Mother ofGod. 22 These words link the contemporary Catholic Church and the history of the Slovak nation in a chain of suffering. Furthermore, while the history detailed in the homily seeks to present the Slovak nation's suffering and its unwavering devotion to Mary, this version of history also reinforces the continuity and homogeneity of the Slovak nation. Anthropologist Richard Handler notes that a "negative vision of the struggle for survival presupposes the positive vision of collective unity and maturity - for how can an entity that does not in the first 21 Stefan Auer, Liberal Nationalism in Central Europe (New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004). 22 Bi shop Julius Gabris, Homily presented at the National Basilica in Sastin-Straze, Slovakia; September I 6, I 984. <http: //blog.christ-net.sk/?q=node/340 >, accessed February 8, 2009. �114 SLOVAKIA-2017 place exist run the risk of disintegration?"23 However, this is not merely a simple reification of the nation through building a collection of past sufferings. This formulation not only reifies the nation, but it also reifies a contemporary vision of the Slovak nation, imagining it as an unchanged group occupying the same territory since before the Great Moravian Empire in the ninth century. While discursive use of the Virgin Mary might function to construct difference along national lines when these national boundaries also reflect religious boundaries, it is not so effective when constructing difference between Slovaks and non-Slovak coreligionists. Furthermore, discursively constructing the Slovak nation as devotees to Mary ignores the heterodox religious history of Slovakia. Most interestingly, though, the others who are constructed in these homilies are not the most salient ethnic others in the Slovak context. The nationalization of political life in Slovakia is often defined in reference to Slovak-Hungarian national divisions within the country; however, this doe s not appear to be the driving factor behind national differentiation for the Church, at least in regards to how difference is organized in the proceedings of the national pilgrimage to Sastin. In fact, it is not uncommon for homilists to invite ethnic Magyars [Hungarians] into the fold .24 That being said, the use of the national frame by church leaders at the national pilgrimage seems to be constructed in reference to Western Europe, conceived as a group of secular nations, as opposed to being constructed in reference to their Hungarian Catholi c neighbors. In this sense, devotion and devotional practices become a way for the Church to organize not on ly religious difference, but national difference as well. This orientation creates formulations whereby secularized Slovaks are ignored or considered agents of the secular " West. " In other words, these practices of national differentiation more resemble the politics of Slovaks differentiating themselves from Czechs at the beginning of the 1990s than they resemble the patterns of national differentiation from Magyar speakers throughout the 1990s and beyond. 23 Richard Handler, Nationalism and the Politics of Culture in Quebec (Madi son: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988), 5. 24 Ca rdinal Jan Chrzyostom Korec, "Tvorivou lasko u," Kato/icke noviny. I 15, No. 39 (September 24, 2000). �SLOVAKIA-2017 115 Let us entrust to our heavenly patron also the future of Slovakia in the community of European nations with the hope that Europe will be built with the recognition of its Christian roots, as the Holy Father relentlessly reminds us, and that in that our nation maintains its own identity based on Christian culture and its values. We do not want to lose ourselves and to be diluted in such a European community that would be governed by secularized humani sm and liberal individualism, without respect for the principle of Christian so lidarity.25 The further highlighting of issues presented within a national context attests to the way the Church in Slovakia has reacted and continues to react to various factors at the state, supranational and international level. Presenting the national, projecting the national, within the narrative of the Slovak nation as a Catholic nation acting as a minority, a righteous minority (especially against the backdrop of oppression throughout history at the hands of foreign powers), allows for the Church to talk about social issues of Catholic concern - abortion, chief among them - as an extension of the historical battle waged by the Catholic Slovak nation in the name of righteousness. The mill has been started, where they intend to grind the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, the guide for the past and present life of our nation for more than one thousand years. For what is life if a man can kill the terminally ill and the unborn?26 National elements woven into the fabric of the devotional movement to Our Lady of Seven Sorrows recapture the idea of the Slovaks as a small nation , fundamentally Christian if not Catholic, being pushed around by larger powers: those that advocate a program that lessens the emphasis on a Judeo-Christian morality system as the defining characteristic of Europe. Using examples from proposed hi storical sufferings of the Slovak nation, whether at the hands of 25 Bishop Jozef Zlati\ansky, "Zverme sa Sedembolestnej." Homily presented at the National Bas ilica in Sastin-Straze, Slovakia. Katolicke noviny,. 11 8, No. 40 (October 5, 2003). <htt ://www.katnovin .sk/Kn 2003/40 2003/obnova. htm >, accessed on February 8, 2009. 26 Bishop Stefan Secka, "Matka viery, Matka nadeje," Homily presented at the Nati onal Basi lica in Sastin-Straze, Slovakia, September I 5, 2004. <http://www. blu me nta l. sk/caso is/rok 2004/10-2004/cl04.htm>, accessed on September 21 , 2009. �116 SLOVAKIA-2017 Turks, Tatars, Magyars, Czechs or others, homilists propose a continuity of oppression aimed at Slovaks, despite the realization of the ostensibly Slovak nation-state. Indeed, the role of religion and the politics of national identity in any society are heavily contingent upon the form of the state, and in this case, supranational governance. Without the split of Czechoslovakia or the entrance of Slovakia into the European Union, undoubtedly a different structure of whom the Slovak nation is defined against would emerge, thereby influencing how the boundaries between "us" and "them" are drawn. Even though some references to past injustices faced at the hands of European neighbors appear in the homilies, they are rare. Besides those few examples, the nationalizing language of the event is not overly exclusionary in nature. It is of course highly focused on positive portrayals of the in-group, but for the most part, the out-groups (i.e. Western Europe) appear as abstractions. In other words, even though much of the nationalizing language stemming from the homilists promotes something that I wou ld not call an inclusive vision of the nation, it is certainly more inclusive than the militant and chauvinistic national orientations found in some corners of Slovak society. For the homilists, ideology (i.e. religious orientation) seems to have been the primary division; however, religious differrentiation has been communicated through national differentiation - in essence, nationalizing religious life. National History or Catholic History? In many of the examples from the homilies, the historical Slovak nation is presented as in constant battle, or in a constant state of suffering. In 1928, Slovak Catholic priest and politician Ferdis Juriga posited seven sorrows of the Slovak nation to correspond with the seven sorrows of Mary27, and several Sastin homilies reference these periods of suffering, especially the Tatar and Turkish invasions. According to Juriga, the seven sorrows of the Slovak nation were (1) the migration of the Magyars to the Danubian Basin and their defeat of the Slavic peoples who lived there; (2) the repression of Catholics in the Kingdom of Hungary, 1044 - 1046; (3) the Tatar invasion, 27 Jana Moricova, "Sastinska Sedembolestna patr6nka Slovenska," Marianske Putnicke Miesta na Slovensku: Zbornik z vedeckej konferencie konanej (Rufomberok: Katolicka univerzita v Ru fo mberku, 2007), 20 - 26 . �SLOVAKIA-2017 117 1241 - 1242; (4) the Hussite incursions across Upper Hungary, 1431 - 1458; (5) the Turkish wars, 1526 - 1683; (6) the spread of Protestantism and the split of the nation between Catholic and Protestant faiths; (7) and the rampant poverty that led to mass emigration. 28 Mentioning any of these seven moments in the homilies for Our Lady of Seven Sorrows Day discursively connects national suffering and the Virgin Mary, specifically in her incarnation as Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows. They also link historical struggles and the overcoming of those struggles with present day struggles and the possibility of overcoming them. According to tradition, during the Tatar invasion in I 241 our families fled into the forests, to where the hordes would not dare to go; our ancestors carried with them Marian pictures and statues, especially of the Sorrowful Mother. In the 15 th century, families in our lands possessed reliefs of the Sorrowful Virgin Mary, which at that time had been produced from baked clay at the command of King Matthias Corvin us. In 1470, when the Turkish invasion was already threatening, Jan Vitez, the archbishop of Esztergom, specifically recalled as an ancient, historical custom, that in difficult times our ancestors turned to the Sorrowful Virgin Mary for help and appealed to her so that they might devote themselves to her in the time of danger. His successor, Archbishop Juraj Selepceni, before the decisive battle with the Turks near Vienna in 1683, gave his soldiers medallions with a picture of the Sorrowful Mother in order to invoke her assistance. Even the old folk song from the Turkish wars " By Trencin's Gate" is a plea to the Virgin Mary from the Slovak heroes before leaving for battle: "God and Mary help us, to be a happy Slovak land." The tradition of devotion to the Sorrowful Mother stretches across our whole history ... 29 As can be seen in the above excerpt, the homilists construct history around a core of Marian devotion . Historical struggles, whether framed as national, Catholic or Christian, are layered around this central theme of Marian devotion. In Cardinal Tomko 's 2010 homily, the history of the region is portrayed as a series of invasions and invocations of Mary's assistance in prevailing despite the harsh conditions. While these invaders fell upon the Kingdom of Hungary, 28 Ibid. Cardinal Jozef Tomko, Homil y presented at the National Basilica in Sastin-Straze, Slovakia, Zivot Crkvi, 17, No. 37 (20 10). 29 �118 SLOVAKIA-2017 Cardinal Tomko refers repeatedly to the victims of the invasion as "our ancestors," framing the history of the Slovak lands as the history of the Slovaks. The tradition of Marian devotion is "recalled as an ancient, historical custom" of the Slovaks. Cardinal Tomko takes the negative histories of war and struggle and the positive histories of Marian devotion out of their historical context in the Kingdom of Hungary, and makes them exclusive property of the Slovak nation . In other words, the Slovak nation is written into history as a protagonist, even into historical periods during which the nation was not a salient category of identification. The Church, then, uses this opportunity to present a very specific Slovak Catholic version of national history, a version that portrays Marian devotion as a fundamental characteristic of Slovak national identity that is both consistent through time and ubiquitous through the territory of Slovakia. In other words, the national history presented in the Sedembolestna homilies is both essentializing and homogenizing, (so that a more coherent set of narratives can be easily presented). By-and-large, during the event, Slovak national identity and the Slovak nation is not portrayed as under siege, the way that nationalist politicians often paint the picture. Yet it is portrayed as a minority nation, and a suffering nation. Within the framework of Slovakia, those who consider themselves to be ethnically Slovak have a clear majority; however, during the pilgrimage the Slovak nation is often presented in the context of the world stage, or at least the European stage. In other words, the ethno-national situation of Slovaks in Slovakia is omitted from the discourse of the event, and the situation of Slovaks in a broader context is presented instead, so as to highlight Slovaks ' minority status in Europe. Therefore, the episodes of historical suffering mentioned earlier find a new context in which to be expressed in the present structure of governance. This extension of history, for the most part, is not malicious in intent towards its European neighbors (or against the faceless "society" mentioned often in the homilies). However, there are some Slovak nationalists, who use the rhetoric stemming from Church sources as a validation of their claims. Therefore, that is where the de facto national Church and some Slovak nationalists intersect. There is a crossover between their ranks, but these individuals and sub-groups do not usuall y act as the driving forces behind the Church in Slo- �SLOVAKIA-2017 119 vakia or Slovak nationalist organizations. Portraying the Church in Slovakia as nationalist, as often happens, is misleading, or rather, an oversimplification. They produce discourse that may aid some nationalists ( especially those nationalists who find importance in the Catholic nature of the nation), but this is not the primary goal of their discourse. Their primary goal seems to be evangelization and connecting various levels of social identity to the Church. In this process, the nation is just one of many leve ls of identity fostered and connected with the Church. By stepping away from simply labeling certain actions stemming from the Slovak Church as nationalist, and looking to the purpose and function of using the nation, a clearer picture emerges regarding the processes actually occurring. Shared System of Discourse In the celebration of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows as national patron, the dominant themes of the event are that of suffering and sorrow. In a sense, we can envision this as a shared vocabulary of suffering within the larger shared system of discourse. Whether a detailed telling of the Seven Sorrows endured by Mary, the perceived one-thousand years of suffering of the Slovak nation since the end of the Great Moravian Empire or the evils of abortion, the dominant tropes are 'tragic' in nature. This accentuates "an economy that capitalizes on human suffering, valuing it not as the absence or disfavor of God, but as a grace or favor that viscerally connects the devout with the sufferings of Jesus, Mary, and the saints." 30 Essentially, suffering functions as the hub that links all of the spokes of the wheel; it is a gift given and a gift received; but most of all, suffering frames the introduction of social identities to the event. In the homilies of the event, the homilists demonstrate ways of talking about national identity, Catholic identity, Christian identity and even European identity. The ways in which the event is nationnally framed by church leaders- and the ways in which pilgrims talk, choose, perform and consume the nation-provide space for the nationalization of objects, spaces, bodies and symbols. This space 30 David Morgan, "Aura and the Inversion of Marian Pilgrimage: Fatima and Her Statues," Moved by Mary: The Power of Pilgrimage in the Modern World, Hermkens, Anna-Karina and Willy Jansen and Catrien Notermans, eds. (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009), 63 . �120 SLOVAKJA-2017 allocated for nationalization does not exist at many other large-scale Catholic events in the country apart from Sastin, at least during the years surveyed in this study. Furthermore, the homilists build a history that intertwines Catholic and national pasts. They provide pilgrims with the discursive tools to deal with numerous societal issues in a Catholic way. They tum national life, political life and even family life into Catholic life. In other words, they demonstrate a Catholic way of talking about social life that is meant to be transferred outside of the religious field , or at least to broaden the religious field . Pilgrims and church leaders together contribute to the definition of social identities, not necessarily making agreements on how to live these identities, but how to articulate these identities. One elite project found in the discourse of the pilgrimage is the attempt to create a shared system of discourse in order to talk about devotional life and to discuss social issues within a Catholic framework. The pilgrimage at Sastin, then, is one of the large-scale events in which the Church does maintenance work to this shared system of discourse. I would suggest that a shared discourse could buttress the role of the Church and the role of Catholic identity in the country, even if membership in the Church is sometimes considered " lukewarm. " This type of maintenance work is done on every Sunday in the churches and at church-officiated events throughout the lives of people. The Slovak national pilgrimage to Sastin provides a stage on which to address the proposed importance of devotional identity to a large audience at the same time, and to construct a way for Catholics to talk about the social issues that affect them . This type of maintenance is accomplished through countless different pilgrimages; however, it is the peculiarities of the Sastin pilgrimage that allow for a greater opportunity to engage issues of identity outside of devotional identity. Creating a shared discursive system can be seen as one of the byproducts of evangelization, and this system is a prerequisite for most of the pastoral work in which the Church engages. In other words, the Church needs to have this shared discourse in place in order to navigate the challenges of its pastoral care effectively. The pilgrims need to be a part of constructing this discourse, because in order for the Church to be an important identity marker in their lives, they need to be able to find a way to articulate their place in the body of the Church, and likewise their position in society in relationship to �SLOVAKIA-2017 121 the Church. Such a system is created through evangelization and a general socialization into religion; in other words, through creating a religiously literate society. Cultural historian Callum Brown uses the idea of a collapse in shared discourse to explain the fate of Christianity in Britain. 3 1 In Britain, as well as across western and northern Europe, the socialization of young people into Christianity has largely stopped. The Christian cultural forces in society that socialize new generations into recognizing a Christian identity in themselves have lost their voices, with the result that many young people in those countries no longer acquire a basic literacy in Christian symbols and Christian history. In Slovakia, the opposite is the case. Basic cultural competencies in Christianity maintain a shared discourse between Church and society; and in Slovakia, there appears to be a relative strengthening of a shared discourse, which often frames issues, whether political or religious, as national. It is this shared discourse, especially about suffering, that allows for some of these connections between Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows and the Slovak nation. During the pilgrimage, Church leaders present suffering as a gateway to understanding Marian devotion; they extend Marian suffering as a metaphor onto their flock. Coupled with this presentation, the nationally framed aspects of the pilgrimage allow this suffering to be extended via relevant social groupings, like the nation, family and gender. It is presumeptuous to assume that homilists should reference social groupings based on gender, or kinship, or nation, and so on; that they are somehow more natural or salient than other social groupings. We do not see roles connected with class, or the idea of class at all enter into the homilies. However, in religious fields influenced by liberation theology in Central and South American, nothing would be more natural or salient than the reification of class identity. The ability to load Mary with meaning does not assume the successful transmission of those meanings; however, the ways in which Mary is discursively packed with meaning gives us a window into the uses of Marian symbols and the possible lived-in worlds where the symbols and words might have the ability to make an impact. Examining the way that the homilists use the concept of suffering in 31 Grace Davie, Europe: The Exceptional Case (London : Darton, Longman and Todd, 2002), 20. �122 SLOVAKIA-2017 their reaction to the outcomes of modernity, presented in a context where the topic of identity is central to holiday and pilgrimage, shows how a vast number of different identities are related to Mary. The suffering of the nation, the crisis of the family , the widespread legal nature of abortion, the crisis of governance, the intrusion of consumerism, and the relativism of (Western) Europe are all connected to Mary's suffering. Any of these connections between perceived suffering of the individual and the perceived suffering of Mary can serve to reinforce the importance of Marian devotion in the life of the pilgrim. Modernization seems to accentuate the divides regarding gender, class, ethnicity, religion, etc ., and the homilists' discourse does not seek to attenuate them; instead, they are discursively reframed so that each of these identities are reified and simultaneously connected with Mary. The encouragement of communitarianism- be it in family , kin , social community, moral community, nation or other groups- is also consistent with the Church ' s stance against individualism. In that sense, one of the primary functions of this type of pastoralization and evangelization is to combat the so-called cult of the individual and to reinforce membership in social groups that are considered meaningful. By reinforcing membership in social groups consistent with the messages of the Church, so too may they encourage the ro le of Marian devotion in these groups, claiming Marian devotion not just as something which should be a fundamental characteristic of Catholics, but of Europeans, the Slovak nation, the family and even the body politic. Constructing a Theology of the Nation One of the things occurring during this pilgrimage event is that Church leaders are seeking to reinvigorate the societal influence of Catholic teaching and the Catholic Church. Their efforts at evangelization seek to make Catholic doctrine influential in society, and to make Catholicism matter for individuals and institutions beyond the religious field ; in other words, to move beyond the sphere of personal salvation. They are doing so by making Marianism important to social identities outside of religious identity, national identity being one of them . They are weaving national identity into the religious sphere, and in doing so, constructing what I call a theology of the �SLOVAKIA-2017 123 nation. "Grace does not destroy secular realities, or demand abandoning them for religious ones. Rather, grace includes, builds upon and potentially transfigures the sphere of the natural. The implication of this is that nationality can be one of the loci where responsible intelligence can ground theological consideration." 32 Dorian Llywelyn's, Toward a Catholic Theology of Nationality, 33 is one of the first of its kind to explore the connection between nationality and Catholicism in terms of theology. Llywelyn's treatment approaches nationnal identity not simply as subordinate to devotional identity, as has usually been the case in the Catholic Church, but as a locus of devotion. An academic exercise such as this would not have been possible in the past. Several factors account for the feasibi lity of Llywelyn's project in the present, one of which is the reforms of the Second Vatican Council that brought national practices, national languages and national discourse further into the Catholic Church. Perhaps another reason, although I do not have hard evidence to support the claim, is the election of Pope John Paul II in 1978. I would suggest that his election brought nationality into the Church by introducing a Central European, and specifically Polish, understanding of nationality to the papacy, one built on a long tradition of connecting the Church to the nation, which considered the Catholic Church as the repository of the nation in response to the Polish partitions between Orthodox neighbors to the east and Protestant neighbors to the west. In addition, the simple fact that John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope in hundreds of years, and was even commonly referred to as "the Polish pope," made nationality matter in the Church in a way it previously had not. For these reasons and others, positing a theology of nationality, or a theology of the nation as I would prefer to call it, becomes more plausible in the present day. In addition, I believe that Llywelyn ' s choice to academically engage the relationship between nation and religion supports the fact that the Catholic Church, specifically the Slovak Catholic Church, is increasingly engaging social identities outside of purely devotional ones; and that they first connect devotional identities to other social identities, and then must develop theology to substantiate these connections (in this case, the 32 Dori an Ll ywe lyn, Toward a Catholic Theology of Nationality (New York : Lexington Books, 20 I 0), 4. 33 Ibid . �124 SLOVAKIA-2017 nation and national identity). Church leaders foster a communitarian spirit based around many different types of identity, national among them, in order to fight against the crisis of the postmodern (and the relativism and secularism of Europe). In creating a theology of the nation, the Slovak church uses the nation as one of its primary loci for evangelization. This creates a situation where the nation is purported to be a natural place to locate and build devotion; however Church leaders connect the nation and Church in many other instances as we ll. In the media, in cross-border ecumenical counci ls and in other situations, church leaders may talk or act nationally, but that does not mean that they are creating a theology of the nation. A theology of the nation goes a step further, by writing national history, national characteristics and national practices into the teachings of the Church, indeed constructing national history, characteristics and practices in the process. Creating a theology of the nation involves producing the nation, not just using it in discourse. In the Slovak national pilgrimmage to Sastin, these national elements are sacralized in order to support forms of Marian devotion found in the event. As Llywe lyn notes, "revealed Christian truth" not only corresponds to national experience; national experience becomes part of "revealed Christian truth. "34 But this is more than simply sacralizing the nation : it collapses national and devotional values into one another, it creates a shared discourse and it writes the nation into the unofficial theology of the Church: "unofficial," because it cannot be realized in dogma or scriptural accounts, and "theology" because it becomes part of Church doctrine and teaching. "The task of a theology of nationality is to investigate the relationship between the mystery of Christ and the human experience of being a member of the nation."35 In the case of the Slovak national pilgrimage, a theology of the nation explores the connection between the nation and Mary, more so than between the nation and Jesus. The nation protects Mary, and vice-versa. The nation suffers with and for Mary. The nation embodies Mary . The nation becomes part of the Marian narrative, just as Mary has become part of the national narrative. This may seem unusual at first, but as Llywe lyn notes, human 34 35 Ibid. Ibid. �SLOVAKIA-2017 125 experience can indeed be a source for theology.36 When church leaders construct a theology of the nation, something different is happening from when church leaders speak about the nation in other instances, as in the media. In the context of the holiday event, Church leaders can more freely speak about these things because they are addressing these issues in the religious field, not venturing outside their field of competence. But it is not only that. Church leaders act as authorized delegates of the Church, especially in their role during the Pontifical Mass, the ritual focus of the pilgrimage celebration. As such, the delegated authority of the Church is behind them when they connect Church and nation in the ritual event ( outside of Church matters, their authority may be questioned). Church leaders build complex connections between Church doctrine and the nation. Using Mary as a symbol, they connect her suffering with the suffering of the nation. In this sense, just as the Polish nation is often spoken of as the Christ among nations, the Slovak nation could easily be referred to as the Virgin Mary of nations because of the shared vocabulary of suffering. Church leaders intertwine Catholic history of the region with Slovak national history. They use the practices of ancestors to justify the national connection to the Catholic Church. They further justify the connection by citing the Slovak experience under communism, and show the present significance of the connection in relation to new European structures and programs. Homilists construct the national past in a way that it becomes part of a greater narrative of eventual salvation. In other words, national history is the middle part of the salvation story, after biblical accounts and before eventual salvation. In fact, the nation can be envisioned as a vehicle for salvation. The nation is framed as important for the survival of the Church and its values. Catholicism and Marian devotion are defining characteristics of the Slovak nation. Therefore, the event (and especially its discourse) creates a role for the nation in the life of the Church and a role for the Church in the life of the nation. The Church targets national units, as well as other social configurations, because it needs state, national and other established units to activate connections with the Church and connections with Catho36 Ibid. �126 SLOVAKIA-2017 lie identity in ways that are not just personal and refl ective. The Church needs groups to survive, not just individuals;37 therefore, it not only practices communitarianism, it attempts to ground its activation of comm unitarianism in theology. It deploys thi s communitarian discourse over many societal levels (national community, family/kin, gender, local community, the Catholic Church, the Christian world). It posits a relationship between these communities, a relationship that gives added importance to the Church. Therefore, the Church's activation of nationhood in an event such as this is not instigated by some inherent nationalism in the Slovak Church (or nationalist program), but it is mostly pragmatic. It is part of a comprehensive system that uses the discourse and practices of communitarianism across many (crosscutting) societal levels to achieve certain goals. In fact, such a comprehensive system that allows for identification across many levels is from where Mary, as a symbol , derives much of her power. Her multi-vocality is the key to her success as a symbol. But why organize on a national level given the multi-national nature of the country and the international nature of the Catholic Church? Partly, it is because the Church is already divided into territorial units such as dioceses and archdioceses that are frequently bounded within states, and sometimes within formal or informal national territories. In that sense, the Church is merely activating the already instituted divisions within its structure. Also, the language of living nationally has been used for various social projects in the Slovak lands since the mid- I 800s, and it was especially used by Church leaders for social projects in the 1930s and 1940s, and in reaction to Communism. But this construction does not just reflect the convention of using the nation as an organizing principle. The institution of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows as national patron, and the institution of a state holiday celebrating her, give the Church a greater inroad to nationalize the sacred, and sacralize the nation (at least the aspects of the nation institutionally connected with Catholicism and the Church) . Yet another reason for Catholic leaders to organize nationally stems from the way power is distributed in the European environ37 Massimo Rosati , Ritual and the Sacred: A Neo -Durkheimian Analysis of Politics, Religion and the Self (Farnham : As hgate, 2009), 17. �SLOVAKIA-2017 127 ment and the way the nation is constituted in the pilgrimage event. Church leaders can see that successful social action in Europe need not be created through majority will; it can also be organized around minority nations, minority viewpoints, etc. The organization of projects, labeled as minority projects, can sometimes provide access to governmental power that is often otherwise lacking. The narrative of the Slovak nation as a minority (in Europe) despite its own (albeit contested) nation-state discursively creates a situation in which nationhood matters. Nationhood is not frequently salient for most of the population of Slovakia in everyday life, but it can be easily activated (partly because of the multinational nature of the state, which almost constantly reinforces the nation as an organizing principle in politics). Also, the nation is just one facet of this communitarian landscape employed by the church. Apparently, the Catholic Church in Slovakia finds it useful, because the Sastin pilgrimage is growing in numbers, and nationalizing language has become more frequent during the 2000s (not necessarily in connection with rising nationalism). Of course, Church leaders do not construct a theology of the nation in a vacuum. So what is the role of the celebrants of this holiday in the creation of a theology of the nation? I would suggest that they are involved in this process in the ways they talk the nation, perform the nation, choose the nation and consume the nation in relation to this religious event. One of the biggest ways they choose the nation is simply by choosing to take part in the Slovak national pilgrimage, but living nationally for the pilgrims is certainly not limited to that one choice. The nation is reflected and constituted in the symbols that the pilgrims use, in the objects and spaces with which they interact and in the ways that they talk about the event. In addition, they are crucial partners in the exchanges and negotiations between church leaders and pilgrims. Without them, the event has little to no importance. Without them, the voice from the pulpit has no real power, only delegated authority. Constructing a theology of the nation is about creating a future for the connection between nationhood and devotion . Even when church leaders cannot negotiate about the future of the nation or Catholic Church, as visions for both of these vary even among Slovak Catholics, they can manipulate the conditions so that nationhood and devotion will at least be a part of future public conversations and negotiations. Mainly, this is accomplished through the creation of a �128 SLOVAKIA-2017 shared discourse. Constructing a theology of the nation structures the conditions of future exchanges because it institutes national factors into devotional practices, thereby ensuring that these factors and practices will form and inform future discussions that involve national and devotional identity. In other words, constructing a theology of the nation is about organizing the past, legitimizing the present and framing the future. Conclusion I believe that developing concepts such as theology of the nation are important for a few interrelated reasons: one, they point towards the different uses and intentions behind national discourse stemming from the pulpit; two, they highlight that "talking the nation" is used not only for the purpose of making people more national ; and three, they provide conceptual tools with which we can compare the different ways of making the nation relevant across religions. Using national discourse is done for a variety of purposes, be it either to advance a political program, influence people to purchase a product, claim territory, contest space or resources, encourage tourism , justify actions, make historical occurrences relevant to contemporary choices, and countless others. In the case outlined in this article, the nation is invoked in order to strengthen religious devotion. Nationhood is not established and the nation is not constructed solely for its own end . Nationhood and attachment to national identity is always part of a greater project. Establishing nationhood and constructing the nation is not always done with the nation as its endgame. The purpose can usually be found elsewhere. If we look at the when of nationalism, in other words, when do nations matter for people, we find that the nation is only important in specific contexts and situations. The nation may be relevant in our framing of issues that involve family values, economy, immigration, environment, international politics or other issues . Outside of those issues, the nation is not usually our dominant framework for categorizing culture, life, relationships. When we emphasize the discursively constructed nature of the nation and the fact that it functions as a framework for categorizing difference, we view the nation as a project, a series of processes or a practical achievement. This makes it easy to believe that a reified nation is the goal of the national pro- �SLOVAKIA-2017 129 ject. However, I would argue that making the nation (and making people more national) is almost never the sole goal of a national project. The project at Sastin can be understood as a theology of the Slovak nation, created through use of the biblical narratives of Mary ' s suffering. In one sense, the theme of suffering keeps people talking about a connection between Church and nation. In another sense, it creates and recreates a system that structures choice so that the nation and Marian devotion are both valued. The visceral connection through suffering has the capacity of becoming especially strong, because it functions not only on the individual level but on the group level as well, whether one envisions the group as the body of the Church or the nation. For some of the pilgrims who attend the Slovak national pilgrimmage to Sastin, national identity is important, while others would rather emphasize the international nature of the Catholic Church. For some, the fight against abortion takes precedence, while for others the fight against secularization of Europe is the rallying cry that brings them to the event. For countless others, the pilgrimage is simply a celebration of Mary. It may be about sharing individual or group suffering with Mary. It may be about asking Mary for assistance or healing. However, any path chosen that leads the participant to the Slovak national pilgrimage, in the end, provides support for the Catholic Church, Marian devotion and the Slovak nation. Even if pilgrims contest specific aspects of Church power or the validity of certain Marian practices, their participation in the performance of the event makes the Church and Mary prominent focal points. In this specific instance where Catholic leaders claim authority over social life outside of the Church, the ideas of making Catholic teaching and values important in the lives of pilgrims and making the Church a focal point go hand in hand with using the nation as a locus for evangelization. ��LITERATURE �� SLOVAKIA-2017 105 INVOKING THE NATION, STRENGTHENING DEVOTION: NATIONAL DISCOURSE AT THE SLOVAK NATIONAL PILGRIMAGE 1 Alexander Bielicki "At first glimpse it seems as if Catholicism and nationalism represent two opposite poles that can never level out or meet. And yet, nationalism finds its culmination point in Catholicism." - Jozef Tiso 2 The September 15 th Slovak National Pilgrimage to the National Basilica on the national holiday dedicated to the national patron offers Catholic leaders in Slovakia the rare opportunity to talk about the nation more or less freely in the public sphere. Since Slovakia's independence, several Slovak Catholic leaders have stirred up controversy regarding their stances on the activities of the Catholic Church and its clergy during the World War II semi-independent authoritarian Slovak state, as well as regarding some contemporary clergymen's tacit support for fascist organizations that commemorate the leaders of the WWII state, like the above-quoted President Jozef Tiso. 3 These instances have spurred perceptions of the Catholic Church in Slovakia as nationalist, a perception that reduces the public opportunities during which the Church may legitimately talk about the nation and reflect upon the connections between nation and Church. The annual Slovak national pilgrimage to Sastin provides a unique case study of how Catholic leaders discursively construct and use the concept of the nation in evangelization. Apart from the instances when Church leaders use nationalism in an attempt to reclaim or repaint the history of the Catholic Church during World 1 An earlier version of this article was presented at the ASN World Convention, Columbia University, 18-20 April 2013. 2 Miroslav Kocur, "For God and Nation: Christian National Populism" in National Populism and Slovak - Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006 - 2009 (Forum Minority Research Institute: Samorin - Samorja, 2009), 223 . 3 Ibid. , 221 - 45 . �106 SLOVAKIA-2017 4 War II , the nation is sometimes "talked and performed," not for what might be ca lled nati ona list goals, but instead, for what might be call ed reli gious goa ls. "Talking the nation" is not necessarily done in order to make the nat ion more sa li ent and make people more national. The inclusion of national discourse can be done in order to accomplish a wide variety of goa ls. In instances such as the Slovak National Pilgrimage to Sastin , the nation may be used fo r evangelization. My intention here is not to offer a typology of national discourse in the re ligious field , but rather to point to some of the ways that the concept of the nation can be (and has been) used by Catho lic leaders in Slovakia. The examp les presented herein demonstrate not only the taken-for-granted nature of national frames for viewing and understanding the world, even in the g loba l Catholic Church; they a lso illustrate some of the ways the " nation" can be used . By analyzing materia l from the homili es presented each year at the Slovak National Pilgrim age, I wi ll illustrate these connections between religious devoti on and nationa l fidelity. In foc us are the homilies delivered from the independence of S lovakia in 1993 to 2011. 5 In the se speeches from the pulpit in Sasti n, bishops, archbishops, and occasionally cardina ls address the meaning of the holiday, the perce ived successes and fai lures of society, and the importance of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows for Slovak ia. Because of the nature of these homilies and the ritual focus of thi s holiday, I wi ll here look at the ways in w hi ch the Virgin Mary is connected to th e Slovak nation on these occas ions. Pilgrimage Context In Slovakia, pil grim ages and holidays are two of the most common events through which Marian theology is experienced by devotees and advanced by the c lergy. One can find about a dozen Marian holidays on the Slovak liturgica l ca lendar, but only one of them is connected w ith a state ho liday. The Slovak National Pilgrimage takes place every year on September 15, the Sviatok Sedembolestnej Panny Marie (O ur Lady of the Seven Sorrows Holid ay). It has been 4 The fo rmulati on of "talking, performing, consuming and choosing the nat ion" comes from Fox, Jon and Cynthi a Mil ler- Idriss, " Eve ryday Nati onh ood," Etlinicities, 8 (2008): 536 - 63. 5 This study is based on research an d fieldwork co mpl eted between 2008 and 20 12. �SLOVAKIA-2017 10 7 a national holiday since 1993 (first celebrated as such in 1994). The pilgrimage to the small western Slovak town of Sastin (Sastin-Straze since 1971) traces its roots to a founding miracle in 1564 and the subsequent carving of the Sastin pieta sculpture in thanks to the Virgin Mary, which would eventually become the ritual focus of later pilgrimages. The influence of this site grew rapidly under Empress Maria Theresa and her husband Francis of Lorraine, who partially funded the construction of a cathedral to house the Sastin pieta. In 1927, Pope Pius XI declared Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows as Patron saint of the region of Slovakia. 6 In 1964, Pope Paul VI elevated the Sastin cathedral to the status of Basilica Minor, the first in Slovakia. 7 In the years following, the Sastin cathedral would come to be known as the National Basilica, and more recently, the September 15 event would come to be known as the Slovak National Pilgrimage. Recent pilgrimages at Sastin have drawn approximately 20,000 worshippers per year, the overwhelming majority of whom are Slovaks from Slovakia. In addition, several television and radio stations broadcast the day 's events so that individuals may participate without making the trek to this small town. The event even brings a number of influential clergy, politicians and cultural figures as guests of honor. In fact, one of my respondents stated that the attendance of politicians at Sastin was what set it apart from other pilgrimages: "state representatives even go to this pilgrimage - they do not go to other pilgrimage sites." 8 For all of the differences among the participants in the Sastin pilgrimage, they share a religiously-oriented habitus. 9 By this, I do not mean that they are all Catholic, but that the vast majority of them are socialized into a specifically conservative, Slovak version of Catholicism. It can be understood as an environment where social, moral and linguistic issues expressed in a certain idiom 6 She is referred to as patronka Slovenska (the patroness of Slovakia), though she is more common ly understood as the patron of the Slovak nation as opposed to the Slovak state, an important distinction given the multi-national character of Slovakia. 7 Peter Zubko, "Baziliky mensie na Slovensku: ich prava a povinnosti" (Basilica Minors in Slovakia: Their Rights and Obligations), Nave Horizonty, I (2009): 40 45 . 8 Alexander Bielicki, A Nation in Worship ? Constructing Nationhood and Devotion at the Slovak National Pilgrimage to Sastin, Ph .D. dissertat ion, University of Oslo, 2012. 9 Pierre Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, I 99 I). �108 SLOVAKIA-2017 are easily understood to be a part of the regular (acceptable) di scourse, and are shaped by the conditions and conventions within this particular societal framework. Bourdieu, in his essays on language and power, 10 calls these types of factors "structured dispositions." One of these structured dispositions would be towards Marian devotion. While levels of devotion to Mary differ among Slovak Catholics, the vocabulary of Marianism is ubiquitous throughout the country, and Marian symbols can be easily understood by most Catholics. Throughout Slovakia, there are hundreds of churches and chapels dedicated to the Virgin, and the number of Marian shrines is countless. Controversia l historian Milan Durica places the number of Marian churches and chapels in Slovakia at over 1200, with more than 200 dedicated to Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows. 11 Slovak Cardinal Jozef Tomko, among others, places the number of churches and chapels dedicated to Our Lady of Seven Sorrows at around 250 12 Paintings, statues, prayers and songs heavily feature Mary, especially as the Sorrowful Mother, and she is a frequent subject of Slovak folk art of various media. The pieta is one of the more commonl y found Catholic images in the country. The Virgin Mary has become a powerful national symbol in many Catholic countries. While in Slovakia, the Virgin Mary does not receive any national titles as lofty as "Queen of Poland," "Queen of the Croats" or "Queen of Mexico," her status as national patron has been deeply woven into the fabric of the national canon. As Cardinal Tomko, the long-tenured Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (the office responsible for all missionary activities of the Catholic Church), acknowledged in hi s 1997 homil y, For us Slovaks, Seven Sorrows Day goes ri ght to the heart . For us, the picture of the Sorrowful Mother is engraved on our soul since childhood . We saw it in churches as well as in homes, on the Calvaries and in the chape ls, on the Ways of the Cross, and finall y also on the pl ates and popular embroidery. We rece ived respect fo r Mary of the Seven 10 Ibid. Milan S. Durica, S/owici a Sedembolestna: Kulturno-historicky nacrt (Brati slava: Luc, ustav dej in krest'an stva, 2008). 12 Cardinal Jozef Tomko, Homil y presented at th e Nati onal Bas ili ca in Sastin-Straze, Slovakia, Zivot Crkvi, 17, No. 37 (2010). 11 �SLOVAKIA-2017 109 Sorrows almost with our mother's milk. 13 The connection between Mary and the Slovak nation fostered in these words is very self-aware. Statues, paintings, plates, needlework and other material goods associated with Mary can be found in every comer of Slovakia. Cardinal Tomko notes that the connection between individuals and the Virgin Mary is fostered from childhood and the material reminders found throughout the country are no doubt partly responsible for this transmission between generations. Slovak church leaders use the Virgin Mary (specifically in her incarnation as Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows) in a variety of ways to reify, and even to symbolize, the nation. They use the history of Marian devotion in Slovakia to homogenize Slovak religiosity and to provide justification for the claims of Marianism as a fundamental characteristic of Slovak national identity. However, the Marian aspects of the national pilgrimage do not only relate to the ways in which national identity is portrayed. Many different levels of identity, beyond the national, are referenced in the event and many differrent social groupings find relevance. Gender, family, denomination, moral and social communities all play roles in this event, and they are all tied in one way or another to Marianism. 14 For the purposes of this article, though, I will focus primarily on the discursive connections between Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows and the Slovak nation. The inclusion of all these different roles-these different ways of identifying- demonstrates the clergy's reaction to late modernity. The homilies of the event highlight the challenges to various roles an individual may play in society: those connected with nation, with gender, with family, sometimes even with political affiliation. The Catholic Church, which in many ways appears to cling to out-offashion social models (although this has been somewhat challenged since the election of Pope Francis), utilizes the problems and language of late modernity to reinforce its claims, and one of the ways that this is accomplished is through the manner in which the politics 13 Cardinal Jozef Tomko, "Misijne poslanie a Sedembolestna." Homil y presented at the National Basilica in Sastin-Straze, Slovakia. Katolicke noviny, 112, No. 40 (October 5, 1997). 14 Alexander Bielicki , A Nation in Worship ? Constructing Nationhood and Devotion at the Slovak National Pilgrimage to Sastin, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oslo, 20 12. �110 SLOVAKIA-2017 of identity are framed. If one of the markers of the "modem era" is the insistence on unitary identity, then the corresponding marker of the "late modem era" is the multiplicity of identity, and the fact that the successful person displays competence in navigating through all of their different identity roles. The inclusion of this multiplicity of identity roles in the pilgrimage homilies demonstrates the clergy ' s reaction to the so-called pathologies of the late-modem period, and demonstrates how the symbol of the Virgin Mary can be used as a modem tool to advance traditional goals: by providing a unitary self, guided by Marian devotion, that can be deployed in roles and situations. Suffering as Nexus What sets the Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows homilies apart from the homilies delivered for other Marian celebrations is that the biblical information presented in connection with the holiday and pilgrimage focuses on her sorrows and suffering and not on other aspects of her life and story. Suffering, whether revealed as a tragedy or a gift, is the lynchpin that binds the otherwise diverse elements, both catechismal and historical , of the event's homilies. The importance of this distinction is that it highlights a different side of Mary, a different face . Not that this particular interpretation of the Virgin Mary differs from the overall canon of Marian references, but that it selects certain aspects of it to be given primacy. The presentation of these aspects heightens specific types of responses to Mary: they promote a view of Mary as protector, specifically protecttor of the nation, and as picture of grace under suffering. Other roles such as mother, teacher, etc. are given relatively minor attention, expect for when they are related to suffering. The ubiquitous nature of the Virgin Mary not on ly serves as a constant reminder of the strong tradition of Marian devotion, it encourages her multivocality as a symbol. Religious historian Brian Porter notes that in the Polish Marian cult, one of Mary's most important roles is that of the Hetmanka, or military protector of the nation. 15 In the Netherlands, the Lady of All Nations devotional cult is 15 Brian Porter, " Hetmanka and Mother: Representing the Virgin Mary in Modern Poland," Contemporary European History, 14, No . 2 (2005) : 154 �SLOVAKJA-2017 111 centered on the idea of Mary as redeemer. 16 In the Slovak case, however, the suffering of the Virgin Mary is highlighted above all else when linking her to the nation. This type of discourse is used by the clergy not only for moral and religious lessons, but also to reify the nation by creating what I call a shared vocabulary of suffering, especially in reference to national history and the life of the Virgin Mary. From Bishop Gabris' 1984 homily, Our Slovak nation has suffered terribly. When things were bad for our nation, it could only beseech supernatural aid. Our believers also felt that no one in the world suffered such as Our Lady when she held in her arrn s the dead body of her own son. Therefore, no one in the world 17 18 could understand the suffering of our nation as she does. The theme of suffering creeps into the discourse and symbols of the Sastin pilgrimage, and this is one of the things that sets the event apart from others. In marked contrast to most other Marian events in Slovakia, the national pilgrimage to Sastin is thematically concentrated on suffering. While other pilgrimages may contain references to the suffering of Mary, only events specifically dedicated to the Mater Dolorosa, Our Lady of Sorrows, are discursively framed around suffering to this extent. Her pain peaked when she meets Jesus in the street, on the last day of his life, as a criminal amid a furious crowd, carrying the cross to the gallows-flogged, spat-upon, and crowned with thorns. How can she feel when she hears the sound of the murderous nails being hammered into his hands and feet , when she sees Him in immense pain stretched between heaven and earth? How can her heart endure the endless three hours of His agony? And yet, she, frail woman, standing beneath her son's cross, on whi ch she is also crucified. She stands unbroken in soul, not beaten down by the weight of the relentless pain . She stands under the cross, even when the terrible sword stabs a living wound in the 16 Peter Jan Margry, " Paradoxes of Marian Appariti onal Contestation: Networks, Ideology, Gender, and the Lady of All Nations," in Moved by Mary: The Power of Pilgrimage in the Modern World, Hermkens, Anna-Karina and Willy Jansen, and Catrien otermans, eds. ( Farnham: Ash gate, 2009), I 87 17 Bold typeface, mine. 18 Bishop Julius Gabris, Homily presented at the Natio nal Basilica in Sastin-Straze, Slovakia; September 16, 1984. <htt ://blo 0 .chri st-net.sk/? =node/340 >, accessed February 8, 2009. �112 SLOVAKIA-2017 heart. 19 The theme of suffering allows for discourse and symbols not only concerning Mary's suffering, but suffering in society as well: the crisis of the family, legalized abortion, moral relativism, the suffering of the nation, etc. This is one of the particularities of the Sastin pilgrimage: the focus on Marian suffering in connection with the suffering of everyday life opens up the door to a discussion of the many different forms of societal identity. The ways in which these forms of suffering are presented and the ways in which they are linked together offer some suggestions as to what the employment of Mary as a symbol of suffering might be meant to accomplish. Today we celebrate the holiday of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows and here is an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of our national existence and to ask how is it that we Slovaks, through the long centuries, knew to resist so that the ferocious waves of history would not devour and bury us? We are of a nation who didn't have a kingly dynasty to rule in our castles, and we can ' t boast of famous victories. However, our nation reached one victory that, after a thousand years of silence and living without freedom we were able to overcome, so that today we find ourselves among the nations of Europe. We know from national history how difficult our ancestors fought for their existence, for their living space, for their language, for their faith , for their culture. They fought ; they won, because in this struggle they freely took refuge in the Mother of God. 20 In his 2007 homily (above), Bishop Secka offers the holiday as "an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of our national existence." This suggests that a salience of nation should exist for Slovak Catholics, and that a salience of Catholic identity should be present in Slovakia. His framing of "we" around an ethnic identity assumes an all ethnically Slovak audience, which is in fact not the case at Sastin. His words presume a long, uninterrupted history, but reduce that his19 Tomko, Cardinal Jozef. " Misijne poslanie a Sedembolestna," Homily presented at the National Basilica in SaWn-Straze, Slovakia, Katolicke noviny, 112, No. 40 (October 5, 1997). 20 Bishop Stefan Secka, Homily presented at the National Basilica in Sastin-Straze, Slovakia; September 15, 2007. <http://www.magnificat.sk/htm02/homsas. htn_:i. >, accessed February 8, 2009 . �SLOVAKIA-2017 113 tory to a simple story of hard-working, oppressed, Catholic Slovaks who were victims of constant external pressure. This homily assigns an independent will and desire to the nation, not just individuals. The homily also speaks of a victory for the Slovak nation, a victory that can only be assumed to be the realization of the Slovak state, the ultimate reward for any national project. This type of rhetoric ignores the fact that the creation of the Slovak nation-state resulted from the intractable arguments of a small group of political elites and not from any plebiscite.21 This notion projects backwards in time the seemingly self-evident nature of the Slovak nation requiring a Slovak state, that this process was the unfaltering will and destiny of the nation. Furthermore, it portrays the realization of a Slovak state as an event that can be at least indirectly attributed to the intercession of Mary. Bishop Secka's 2007 homily is not unique among the Sedembolestna homilies. In many ways it echoes the 1984 homily given by Bishop Julius Gabris where he stated: Our nation, dear brothers and sisters, survived the hard times and was saved only because it relied upon Marian devotion. I mentioned only the three incidents: the extinction of the Great Moravian Empire, the invasion of the Tatars and the 150-year plundering of our territory by the Turks. In these times, all preconditions were met by which our Slovak nation should be completely devastated, torn from the earth. And yet still, it was not extinguished! Why not extinguished? Only because it relied on God's help and on the help of the Mother ofGod. 22 These words link the contemporary Catholic Church and the history of the Slovak nation in a chain of suffering. Furthermore, while the history detailed in the homily seeks to present the Slovak nation's suffering and its unwavering devotion to Mary, this version of history also reinforces the continuity and homogeneity of the Slovak nation. Anthropologist Richard Handler notes that a "negative vision of the struggle for survival presupposes the positive vision of collective unity and maturity - for how can an entity that does not in the first 21 Stefan Auer, Liberal Nationalism in Central Europe (New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004). 22 Bi shop Julius Gabris, Homily presented at the National Basilica in Sastin-Straze, Slovakia; September I 6, I 984. <http: //blog.christ-net.sk/?q=node/340 >, accessed February 8, 2009. �114 SLOVAKIA-2017 place exist run the risk of disintegration?"23 However, this is not merely a simple reification of the nation through building a collection of past sufferings. This formulation not only reifies the nation, but it also reifies a contemporary vision of the Slovak nation, imagining it as an unchanged group occupying the same territory since before the Great Moravian Empire in the ninth century. While discursive use of the Virgin Mary might function to construct difference along national lines when these national boundaries also reflect religious boundaries, it is not so effective when constructing difference between Slovaks and non-Slovak coreligionists. Furthermore, discursively constructing the Slovak nation as devotees to Mary ignores the heterodox religious history of Slovakia. Most interestingly, though, the others who are constructed in these homilies are not the most salient ethnic others in the Slovak context. The nationalization of political life in Slovakia is often defined in reference to Slovak-Hungarian national divisions within the country; however, this doe s not appear to be the driving factor behind national differentiation for the Church, at least in regards to how difference is organized in the proceedings of the national pilgrimage to Sastin. In fact, it is not uncommon for homilists to invite ethnic Magyars [Hungarians] into the fold .24 That being said, the use of the national frame by church leaders at the national pilgrimage seems to be constructed in reference to Western Europe, conceived as a group of secular nations, as opposed to being constructed in reference to their Hungarian Catholi c neighbors. In this sense, devotion and devotional practices become a way for the Church to organize not on ly religious difference, but national difference as well. This orientation creates formulations whereby secularized Slovaks are ignored or considered agents of the secular " West. " In other words, these practices of national differentiation more resemble the politics of Slovaks differentiating themselves from Czechs at the beginning of the 1990s than they resemble the patterns of national differentiation from Magyar speakers throughout the 1990s and beyond. 23 Richard Handler, Nationalism and the Politics of Culture in Quebec (Madi son: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988), 5. 24 Ca rdinal Jan Chrzyostom Korec, "Tvorivou lasko u," Kato/icke noviny. I 15, No. 39 (September 24, 2000). �SLOVAKIA-2017 115 Let us entrust to our heavenly patron also the future of Slovakia in the community of European nations with the hope that Europe will be built with the recognition of its Christian roots, as the Holy Father relentlessly reminds us, and that in that our nation maintains its own identity based on Christian culture and its values. We do not want to lose ourselves and to be diluted in such a European community that would be governed by secularized humani sm and liberal individualism, without respect for the principle of Christian so lidarity.25 The further highlighting of issues presented within a national context attests to the way the Church in Slovakia has reacted and continues to react to various factors at the state, supranational and international level. Presenting the national, projecting the national, within the narrative of the Slovak nation as a Catholic nation acting as a minority, a righteous minority (especially against the backdrop of oppression throughout history at the hands of foreign powers), allows for the Church to talk about social issues of Catholic concern - abortion, chief among them - as an extension of the historical battle waged by the Catholic Slovak nation in the name of righteousness. The mill has been started, where they intend to grind the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, the guide for the past and present life of our nation for more than one thousand years. For what is life if a man can kill the terminally ill and the unborn?26 National elements woven into the fabric of the devotional movement to Our Lady of Seven Sorrows recapture the idea of the Slovaks as a small nation , fundamentally Christian if not Catholic, being pushed around by larger powers: those that advocate a program that lessens the emphasis on a Judeo-Christian morality system as the defining characteristic of Europe. Using examples from proposed hi storical sufferings of the Slovak nation, whether at the hands of 25 Bishop Jozef Zlati\ansky, "Zverme sa Sedembolestnej." Homily presented at the National Bas ilica in Sastin-Straze, Slovakia. Katolicke noviny,. 11 8, No. 40 (October 5, 2003). <htt ://www.katnovin .sk/Kn 2003/40 2003/obnova. htm >, accessed on February 8, 2009. 26 Bishop Stefan Secka, "Matka viery, Matka nadeje," Homily presented at the Nati onal Basi lica in Sastin-Straze, Slovakia, September I 5, 2004. <http://www. blu me nta l. sk/caso is/rok 2004/10-2004/cl04.htm>, accessed on September 21 , 2009. �116 SLOVAKIA-2017 Turks, Tatars, Magyars, Czechs or others, homilists propose a continuity of oppression aimed at Slovaks, despite the realization of the ostensibly Slovak nation-state. Indeed, the role of religion and the politics of national identity in any society are heavily contingent upon the form of the state, and in this case, supranational governance. Without the split of Czechoslovakia or the entrance of Slovakia into the European Union, undoubtedly a different structure of whom the Slovak nation is defined against would emerge, thereby influencing how the boundaries between "us" and "them" are drawn. Even though some references to past injustices faced at the hands of European neighbors appear in the homilies, they are rare. Besides those few examples, the nationalizing language of the event is not overly exclusionary in nature. It is of course highly focused on positive portrayals of the in-group, but for the most part, the out-groups (i.e. Western Europe) appear as abstractions. In other words, even though much of the nationalizing language stemming from the homilists promotes something that I wou ld not call an inclusive vision of the nation, it is certainly more inclusive than the militant and chauvinistic national orientations found in some corners of Slovak society. For the homilists, ideology (i.e. religious orientation) seems to have been the primary division; however, religious differrentiation has been communicated through national differentiation - in essence, nationalizing religious life. National History or Catholic History? In many of the examples from the homilies, the historical Slovak nation is presented as in constant battle, or in a constant state of suffering. In 1928, Slovak Catholic priest and politician Ferdis Juriga posited seven sorrows of the Slovak nation to correspond with the seven sorrows of Mary27, and several Sastin homilies reference these periods of suffering, especially the Tatar and Turkish invasions. According to Juriga, the seven sorrows of the Slovak nation were (1) the migration of the Magyars to the Danubian Basin and their defeat of the Slavic peoples who lived there; (2) the repression of Catholics in the Kingdom of Hungary, 1044 - 1046; (3) the Tatar invasion, 27 Jana Moricova, "Sastinska Sedembolestna patr6nka Slovenska," Marianske Putnicke Miesta na Slovensku: Zbornik z vedeckej konferencie konanej (Rufomberok: Katolicka univerzita v Ru fo mberku, 2007), 20 - 26 . �SLOVAKIA-2017 117 1241 - 1242; (4) the Hussite incursions across Upper Hungary, 1431 - 1458; (5) the Turkish wars, 1526 - 1683; (6) the spread of Protestantism and the split of the nation between Catholic and Protestant faiths; (7) and the rampant poverty that led to mass emigration. 28 Mentioning any of these seven moments in the homilies for Our Lady of Seven Sorrows Day discursively connects national suffering and the Virgin Mary, specifically in her incarnation as Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows. They also link historical struggles and the overcoming of those struggles with present day struggles and the possibility of overcoming them. According to tradition, during the Tatar invasion in I 241 our families fled into the forests, to where the hordes would not dare to go; our ancestors carried with them Marian pictures and statues, especially of the Sorrowful Mother. In the 15 th century, families in our lands possessed reliefs of the Sorrowful Virgin Mary, which at that time had been produced from baked clay at the command of King Matthias Corvin us. In 1470, when the Turkish invasion was already threatening, Jan Vitez, the archbishop of Esztergom, specifically recalled as an ancient, historical custom, that in difficult times our ancestors turned to the Sorrowful Virgin Mary for help and appealed to her so that they might devote themselves to her in the time of danger. His successor, Archbishop Juraj Selepceni, before the decisive battle with the Turks near Vienna in 1683, gave his soldiers medallions with a picture of the Sorrowful Mother in order to invoke her assistance. Even the old folk song from the Turkish wars " By Trencin's Gate" is a plea to the Virgin Mary from the Slovak heroes before leaving for battle: "God and Mary help us, to be a happy Slovak land." The tradition of devotion to the Sorrowful Mother stretches across our whole history ... 29 As can be seen in the above excerpt, the homilists construct history around a core of Marian devotion . Historical struggles, whether framed as national, Catholic or Christian, are layered around this central theme of Marian devotion. In Cardinal Tomko 's 2010 homily, the history of the region is portrayed as a series of invasions and invocations of Mary's assistance in prevailing despite the harsh conditions. While these invaders fell upon the Kingdom of Hungary, 28 Ibid. Cardinal Jozef Tomko, Homil y presented at the National Basilica in Sastin-Straze, Slovakia, Zivot Crkvi, 17, No. 37 (20 10). 29 �118 SLOVAKIA-2017 Cardinal Tomko refers repeatedly to the victims of the invasion as "our ancestors," framing the history of the Slovak lands as the history of the Slovaks. The tradition of Marian devotion is "recalled as an ancient, historical custom" of the Slovaks. Cardinal Tomko takes the negative histories of war and struggle and the positive histories of Marian devotion out of their historical context in the Kingdom of Hungary, and makes them exclusive property of the Slovak nation . In other words, the Slovak nation is written into history as a protagonist, even into historical periods during which the nation was not a salient category of identification. The Church, then, uses this opportunity to present a very specific Slovak Catholic version of national history, a version that portrays Marian devotion as a fundamental characteristic of Slovak national identity that is both consistent through time and ubiquitous through the territory of Slovakia. In other words, the national history presented in the Sedembolestna homilies is both essentializing and homogenizing, (so that a more coherent set of narratives can be easily presented). By-and-large, during the event, Slovak national identity and the Slovak nation is not portrayed as under siege, the way that nationalist politicians often paint the picture. Yet it is portrayed as a minority nation, and a suffering nation. Within the framework of Slovakia, those who consider themselves to be ethnically Slovak have a clear majority; however, during the pilgrimage the Slovak nation is often presented in the context of the world stage, or at least the European stage. In other words, the ethno-national situation of Slovaks in Slovakia is omitted from the discourse of the event, and the situation of Slovaks in a broader context is presented instead, so as to highlight Slovaks ' minority status in Europe. Therefore, the episodes of historical suffering mentioned earlier find a new context in which to be expressed in the present structure of governance. This extension of history, for the most part, is not malicious in intent towards its European neighbors (or against the faceless "society" mentioned often in the homilies). However, there are some Slovak nationalists, who use the rhetoric stemming from Church sources as a validation of their claims. Therefore, that is where the de facto national Church and some Slovak nationalists intersect. There is a crossover between their ranks, but these individuals and sub-groups do not usuall y act as the driving forces behind the Church in Slo- �SLOVAKIA-2017 119 vakia or Slovak nationalist organizations. Portraying the Church in Slovakia as nationalist, as often happens, is misleading, or rather, an oversimplification. They produce discourse that may aid some nationalists ( especially those nationalists who find importance in the Catholic nature of the nation), but this is not the primary goal of their discourse. Their primary goal seems to be evangelization and connecting various levels of social identity to the Church. In this process, the nation is just one of many leve ls of identity fostered and connected with the Church. By stepping away from simply labeling certain actions stemming from the Slovak Church as nationalist, and looking to the purpose and function of using the nation, a clearer picture emerges regarding the processes actually occurring. Shared System of Discourse In the celebration of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows as national patron, the dominant themes of the event are that of suffering and sorrow. In a sense, we can envision this as a shared vocabulary of suffering within the larger shared system of discourse. Whether a detailed telling of the Seven Sorrows endured by Mary, the perceived one-thousand years of suffering of the Slovak nation since the end of the Great Moravian Empire or the evils of abortion, the dominant tropes are 'tragic' in nature. This accentuates "an economy that capitalizes on human suffering, valuing it not as the absence or disfavor of God, but as a grace or favor that viscerally connects the devout with the sufferings of Jesus, Mary, and the saints." 30 Essentially, suffering functions as the hub that links all of the spokes of the wheel; it is a gift given and a gift received; but most of all, suffering frames the introduction of social identities to the event. In the homilies of the event, the homilists demonstrate ways of talking about national identity, Catholic identity, Christian identity and even European identity. The ways in which the event is nationnally framed by church leaders- and the ways in which pilgrims talk, choose, perform and consume the nation-provide space for the nationalization of objects, spaces, bodies and symbols. This space 30 David Morgan, "Aura and the Inversion of Marian Pilgrimage: Fatima and Her Statues," Moved by Mary: The Power of Pilgrimage in the Modern World, Hermkens, Anna-Karina and Willy Jansen and Catrien Notermans, eds. (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009), 63 . �120 SLOVAKJA-2017 allocated for nationalization does not exist at many other large-scale Catholic events in the country apart from Sastin, at least during the years surveyed in this study. Furthermore, the homilists build a history that intertwines Catholic and national pasts. They provide pilgrims with the discursive tools to deal with numerous societal issues in a Catholic way. They tum national life, political life and even family life into Catholic life. In other words, they demonstrate a Catholic way of talking about social life that is meant to be transferred outside of the religious field , or at least to broaden the religious field . Pilgrims and church leaders together contribute to the definition of social identities, not necessarily making agreements on how to live these identities, but how to articulate these identities. One elite project found in the discourse of the pilgrimage is the attempt to create a shared system of discourse in order to talk about devotional life and to discuss social issues within a Catholic framework. The pilgrimage at Sastin, then, is one of the large-scale events in which the Church does maintenance work to this shared system of discourse. I would suggest that a shared discourse could buttress the role of the Church and the role of Catholic identity in the country, even if membership in the Church is sometimes considered " lukewarm. " This type of maintenance work is done on every Sunday in the churches and at church-officiated events throughout the lives of people. The Slovak national pilgrimage to Sastin provides a stage on which to address the proposed importance of devotional identity to a large audience at the same time, and to construct a way for Catholics to talk about the social issues that affect them . This type of maintenance is accomplished through countless different pilgrimages; however, it is the peculiarities of the Sastin pilgrimage that allow for a greater opportunity to engage issues of identity outside of devotional identity. Creating a shared discursive system can be seen as one of the byproducts of evangelization, and this system is a prerequisite for most of the pastoral work in which the Church engages. In other words, the Church needs to have this shared discourse in place in order to navigate the challenges of its pastoral care effectively. The pilgrims need to be a part of constructing this discourse, because in order for the Church to be an important identity marker in their lives, they need to be able to find a way to articulate their place in the body of the Church, and likewise their position in society in relationship to �SLOVAKIA-2017 121 the Church. Such a system is created through evangelization and a general socialization into religion; in other words, through creating a religiously literate society. Cultural historian Callum Brown uses the idea of a collapse in shared discourse to explain the fate of Christianity in Britain. 3 1 In Britain, as well as across western and northern Europe, the socialization of young people into Christianity has largely stopped. The Christian cultural forces in society that socialize new generations into recognizing a Christian identity in themselves have lost their voices, with the result that many young people in those countries no longer acquire a basic literacy in Christian symbols and Christian history. In Slovakia, the opposite is the case. Basic cultural competencies in Christianity maintain a shared discourse between Church and society; and in Slovakia, there appears to be a relative strengthening of a shared discourse, which often frames issues, whether political or religious, as national. It is this shared discourse, especially about suffering, that allows for some of these connections between Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows and the Slovak nation. During the pilgrimage, Church leaders present suffering as a gateway to understanding Marian devotion; they extend Marian suffering as a metaphor onto their flock. Coupled with this presentation, the nationally framed aspects of the pilgrimage allow this suffering to be extended via relevant social groupings, like the nation, family and gender. It is presumeptuous to assume that homilists should reference social groupings based on gender, or kinship, or nation, and so on; that they are somehow more natural or salient than other social groupings. We do not see roles connected with class, or the idea of class at all enter into the homilies. However, in religious fields influenced by liberation theology in Central and South American, nothing would be more natural or salient than the reification of class identity. The ability to load Mary with meaning does not assume the successful transmission of those meanings; however, the ways in which Mary is discursively packed with meaning gives us a window into the uses of Marian symbols and the possible lived-in worlds where the symbols and words might have the ability to make an impact. Examining the way that the homilists use the concept of suffering in 31 Grace Davie, Europe: The Exceptional Case (London : Darton, Longman and Todd, 2002), 20. �122 SLOVAKIA-2017 their reaction to the outcomes of modernity, presented in a context where the topic of identity is central to holiday and pilgrimage, shows how a vast number of different identities are related to Mary. The suffering of the nation, the crisis of the family , the widespread legal nature of abortion, the crisis of governance, the intrusion of consumerism, and the relativism of (Western) Europe are all connected to Mary's suffering. Any of these connections between perceived suffering of the individual and the perceived suffering of Mary can serve to reinforce the importance of Marian devotion in the life of the pilgrim. Modernization seems to accentuate the divides regarding gender, class, ethnicity, religion, etc ., and the homilists' discourse does not seek to attenuate them; instead, they are discursively reframed so that each of these identities are reified and simultaneously connected with Mary. The encouragement of communitarianism- be it in family , kin , social community, moral community, nation or other groups- is also consistent with the Church ' s stance against individualism. In that sense, one of the primary functions of this type of pastoralization and evangelization is to combat the so-called cult of the individual and to reinforce membership in social groups that are considered meaningful. By reinforcing membership in social groups consistent with the messages of the Church, so too may they encourage the ro le of Marian devotion in these groups, claiming Marian devotion not just as something which should be a fundamental characteristic of Catholics, but of Europeans, the Slovak nation, the family and even the body politic. Constructing a Theology of the Nation One of the things occurring during this pilgrimage event is that Church leaders are seeking to reinvigorate the societal influence of Catholic teaching and the Catholic Church. Their efforts at evangelization seek to make Catholic doctrine influential in society, and to make Catholicism matter for individuals and institutions beyond the religious field ; in other words, to move beyond the sphere of personal salvation. They are doing so by making Marianism important to social identities outside of religious identity, national identity being one of them . They are weaving national identity into the religious sphere, and in doing so, constructing what I call a theology of the �SLOVAKIA-2017 123 nation. "Grace does not destroy secular realities, or demand abandoning them for religious ones. Rather, grace includes, builds upon and potentially transfigures the sphere of the natural. The implication of this is that nationality can be one of the loci where responsible intelligence can ground theological consideration." 32 Dorian Llywelyn's, Toward a Catholic Theology of Nationality, 33 is one of the first of its kind to explore the connection between nationality and Catholicism in terms of theology. Llywelyn's treatment approaches nationnal identity not simply as subordinate to devotional identity, as has usually been the case in the Catholic Church, but as a locus of devotion. An academic exercise such as this would not have been possible in the past. Several factors account for the feasibi lity of Llywelyn's project in the present, one of which is the reforms of the Second Vatican Council that brought national practices, national languages and national discourse further into the Catholic Church. Perhaps another reason, although I do not have hard evidence to support the claim, is the election of Pope John Paul II in 1978. I would suggest that his election brought nationality into the Church by introducing a Central European, and specifically Polish, understanding of nationality to the papacy, one built on a long tradition of connecting the Church to the nation, which considered the Catholic Church as the repository of the nation in response to the Polish partitions between Orthodox neighbors to the east and Protestant neighbors to the west. In addition, the simple fact that John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope in hundreds of years, and was even commonly referred to as "the Polish pope," made nationality matter in the Church in a way it previously had not. For these reasons and others, positing a theology of nationality, or a theology of the nation as I would prefer to call it, becomes more plausible in the present day. In addition, I believe that Llywelyn ' s choice to academically engage the relationship between nation and religion supports the fact that the Catholic Church, specifically the Slovak Catholic Church, is increasingly engaging social identities outside of purely devotional ones; and that they first connect devotional identities to other social identities, and then must develop theology to substantiate these connections (in this case, the 32 Dori an Ll ywe lyn, Toward a Catholic Theology of Nationality (New York : Lexington Books, 20 I 0), 4. 33 Ibid . �124 SLOVAKIA-2017 nation and national identity). Church leaders foster a communitarian spirit based around many different types of identity, national among them, in order to fight against the crisis of the postmodern (and the relativism and secularism of Europe). In creating a theology of the nation, the Slovak church uses the nation as one of its primary loci for evangelization. This creates a situation where the nation is purported to be a natural place to locate and build devotion; however Church leaders connect the nation and Church in many other instances as we ll. In the media, in cross-border ecumenical counci ls and in other situations, church leaders may talk or act nationally, but that does not mean that they are creating a theology of the nation. A theology of the nation goes a step further, by writing national history, national characteristics and national practices into the teachings of the Church, indeed constructing national history, characteristics and practices in the process. Creating a theology of the nation involves producing the nation, not just using it in discourse. In the Slovak national pilgrimmage to Sastin, these national elements are sacralized in order to support forms of Marian devotion found in the event. As Llywe lyn notes, "revealed Christian truth" not only corresponds to national experience; national experience becomes part of "revealed Christian truth. "34 But this is more than simply sacralizing the nation : it collapses national and devotional values into one another, it creates a shared discourse and it writes the nation into the unofficial theology of the Church: "unofficial," because it cannot be realized in dogma or scriptural accounts, and "theology" because it becomes part of Church doctrine and teaching. "The task of a theology of nationality is to investigate the relationship between the mystery of Christ and the human experience of being a member of the nation."35 In the case of the Slovak national pilgrimage, a theology of the nation explores the connection between the nation and Mary, more so than between the nation and Jesus. The nation protects Mary, and vice-versa. The nation suffers with and for Mary. The nation embodies Mary . The nation becomes part of the Marian narrative, just as Mary has become part of the national narrative. This may seem unusual at first, but as Llywe lyn notes, human 34 35 Ibid. Ibid. �SLOVAKIA-2017 125 experience can indeed be a source for theology.36 When church leaders construct a theology of the nation, something different is happening from when church leaders speak about the nation in other instances, as in the media. In the context of the holiday event, Church leaders can more freely speak about these things because they are addressing these issues in the religious field, not venturing outside their field of competence. But it is not only that. Church leaders act as authorized delegates of the Church, especially in their role during the Pontifical Mass, the ritual focus of the pilgrimage celebration. As such, the delegated authority of the Church is behind them when they connect Church and nation in the ritual event ( outside of Church matters, their authority may be questioned). Church leaders build complex connections between Church doctrine and the nation. Using Mary as a symbol, they connect her suffering with the suffering of the nation. In this sense, just as the Polish nation is often spoken of as the Christ among nations, the Slovak nation could easily be referred to as the Virgin Mary of nations because of the shared vocabulary of suffering. Church leaders intertwine Catholic history of the region with Slovak national history. They use the practices of ancestors to justify the national connection to the Catholic Church. They further justify the connection by citing the Slovak experience under communism, and show the present significance of the connection in relation to new European structures and programs. Homilists construct the national past in a way that it becomes part of a greater narrative of eventual salvation. In other words, national history is the middle part of the salvation story, after biblical accounts and before eventual salvation. In fact, the nation can be envisioned as a vehicle for salvation. The nation is framed as important for the survival of the Church and its values. Catholicism and Marian devotion are defining characteristics of the Slovak nation. Therefore, the event (and especially its discourse) creates a role for the nation in the life of the Church and a role for the Church in the life of the nation. The Church targets national units, as well as other social configurations, because it needs state, national and other established units to activate connections with the Church and connections with Catho36 Ibid. �126 SLOVAKIA-2017 lie identity in ways that are not just personal and refl ective. The Church needs groups to survive, not just individuals;37 therefore, it not only practices communitarianism, it attempts to ground its activation of comm unitarianism in theology. It deploys thi s communitarian discourse over many societal levels (national community, family/kin, gender, local community, the Catholic Church, the Christian world). It posits a relationship between these communities, a relationship that gives added importance to the Church. Therefore, the Church's activation of nationhood in an event such as this is not instigated by some inherent nationalism in the Slovak Church (or nationalist program), but it is mostly pragmatic. It is part of a comprehensive system that uses the discourse and practices of communitarianism across many (crosscutting) societal levels to achieve certain goals. In fact, such a comprehensive system that allows for identification across many levels is from where Mary, as a symbol , derives much of her power. Her multi-vocality is the key to her success as a symbol. But why organize on a national level given the multi-national nature of the country and the international nature of the Catholic Church? Partly, it is because the Church is already divided into territorial units such as dioceses and archdioceses that are frequently bounded within states, and sometimes within formal or informal national territories. In that sense, the Church is merely activating the already instituted divisions within its structure. Also, the language of living nationally has been used for various social projects in the Slovak lands since the mid- I 800s, and it was especially used by Church leaders for social projects in the 1930s and 1940s, and in reaction to Communism. But this construction does not just reflect the convention of using the nation as an organizing principle. The institution of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows as national patron, and the institution of a state holiday celebrating her, give the Church a greater inroad to nationalize the sacred, and sacralize the nation (at least the aspects of the nation institutionally connected with Catholicism and the Church) . Yet another reason for Catholic leaders to organize nationally stems from the way power is distributed in the European environ37 Massimo Rosati , Ritual and the Sacred: A Neo -Durkheimian Analysis of Politics, Religion and the Self (Farnham : As hgate, 2009), 17. �SLOVAKIA-2017 127 ment and the way the nation is constituted in the pilgrimage event. Church leaders can see that successful social action in Europe need not be created through majority will; it can also be organized around minority nations, minority viewpoints, etc. The organization of projects, labeled as minority projects, can sometimes provide access to governmental power that is often otherwise lacking. The narrative of the Slovak nation as a minority (in Europe) despite its own (albeit contested) nation-state discursively creates a situation in which nationhood matters. Nationhood is not frequently salient for most of the population of Slovakia in everyday life, but it can be easily activated (partly because of the multinational nature of the state, which almost constantly reinforces the nation as an organizing principle in politics). Also, the nation is just one facet of this communitarian landscape employed by the church. Apparently, the Catholic Church in Slovakia finds it useful, because the Sastin pilgrimage is growing in numbers, and nationalizing language has become more frequent during the 2000s (not necessarily in connection with rising nationalism). Of course, Church leaders do not construct a theology of the nation in a vacuum. So what is the role of the celebrants of this holiday in the creation of a theology of the nation? I would suggest that they are involved in this process in the ways they talk the nation, perform the nation, choose the nation and consume the nation in relation to this religious event. One of the biggest ways they choose the nation is simply by choosing to take part in the Slovak national pilgrimage, but living nationally for the pilgrims is certainly not limited to that one choice. The nation is reflected and constituted in the symbols that the pilgrims use, in the objects and spaces with which they interact and in the ways that they talk about the event. In addition, they are crucial partners in the exchanges and negotiations between church leaders and pilgrims. Without them, the event has little to no importance. Without them, the voice from the pulpit has no real power, only delegated authority. Constructing a theology of the nation is about creating a future for the connection between nationhood and devotion . Even when church leaders cannot negotiate about the future of the nation or Catholic Church, as visions for both of these vary even among Slovak Catholics, they can manipulate the conditions so that nationhood and devotion will at least be a part of future public conversations and negotiations. Mainly, this is accomplished through the creation of a �128 SLOVAKIA-2017 shared discourse. Constructing a theology of the nation structures the conditions of future exchanges because it institutes national factors into devotional practices, thereby ensuring that these factors and practices will form and inform future discussions that involve national and devotional identity. In other words, constructing a theology of the nation is about organizing the past, legitimizing the present and framing the future. Conclusion I believe that developing concepts such as theology of the nation are important for a few interrelated reasons: one, they point towards the different uses and intentions behind national discourse stemming from the pulpit; two, they highlight that "talking the nation" is used not only for the purpose of making people more national ; and three, they provide conceptual tools with which we can compare the different ways of making the nation relevant across religions. Using national discourse is done for a variety of purposes, be it either to advance a political program, influence people to purchase a product, claim territory, contest space or resources, encourage tourism , justify actions, make historical occurrences relevant to contemporary choices, and countless others. In the case outlined in this article, the nation is invoked in order to strengthen religious devotion. Nationhood is not established and the nation is not constructed solely for its own end . Nationhood and attachment to national identity is always part of a greater project. Establishing nationhood and constructing the nation is not always done with the nation as its endgame. The purpose can usually be found elsewhere. If we look at the when of nationalism, in other words, when do nations matter for people, we find that the nation is only important in specific contexts and situations. The nation may be relevant in our framing of issues that involve family values, economy, immigration, environment, international politics or other issues . Outside of those issues, the nation is not usually our dominant framework for categorizing culture, life, relationships. When we emphasize the discursively constructed nature of the nation and the fact that it functions as a framework for categorizing difference, we view the nation as a project, a series of processes or a practical achievement. This makes it easy to believe that a reified nation is the goal of the national pro- �SLOVAKIA-2017 129 ject. However, I would argue that making the nation (and making people more national) is almost never the sole goal of a national project. The project at Sastin can be understood as a theology of the Slovak nation, created through use of the biblical narratives of Mary ' s suffering. In one sense, the theme of suffering keeps people talking about a connection between Church and nation. In another sense, it creates and recreates a system that structures choice so that the nation and Marian devotion are both valued. The visceral connection through suffering has the capacity of becoming especially strong, because it functions not only on the individual level but on the group level as well, whether one envisions the group as the body of the Church or the nation. For some of the pilgrims who attend the Slovak national pilgrimmage to Sastin, national identity is important, while others would rather emphasize the international nature of the Catholic Church. For some, the fight against abortion takes precedence, while for others the fight against secularization of Europe is the rallying cry that brings them to the event. For countless others, the pilgrimage is simply a celebration of Mary. It may be about sharing individual or group suffering with Mary. It may be about asking Mary for assistance or healing. However, any path chosen that leads the participant to the Slovak national pilgrimage, in the end, provides support for the Catholic Church, Marian devotion and the Slovak nation. Even if pilgrims contest specific aspects of Church power or the validity of certain Marian practices, their participation in the performance of the event makes the Church and Mary prominent focal points. In this specific instance where Catholic leaders claim authority over social life outside of the Church, the ideas of making Catholic teaching and values important in the lives of pilgrims and making the Church a focal point go hand in hand with using the nation as a locus for evangelization. ��LITERATURE �� 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 2017, Vol. 43 Description An account of the resource Vol. 43 (No. 80-81), 2017. 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 2017 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-2017 105 INVOKING THE NATION, STRENGTHENING DEVOTION: NATIONAL DISCOURSE AT THE SLOVAK NATIONAL PILGRIMAGE 1 Alexander Bielicki "At first glimpse it seems as if Catholicism and nationalism represent two opposite poles that can never level out or meet. And yet, nationalism finds its culmination point in Catholicism." - Jozef Tiso 2 The September 15 th Slovak National Pilgrimage to the National Basilica on the national holiday dedicated to the national patron offers Catholic leaders in Slovakia the rare opportunity to talk about the nation more or less freely in the public sphere. Since Slovakia's independence, several Slovak Catholic leaders have stirred up controversy regarding their stances on the activities of the Catholic Church and its clergy during the World War II semi-independent authoritarian Slovak state, as well as regarding some contemporary clergymen's tacit support for fascist organizations that commemorate the leaders of the WWII state, like the above-quoted President Jozef Tiso. 3 These instances have spurred perceptions of the Catholic Church in Slovakia as nationalist, a perception that reduces the public opportunities during which the Church may legitimately talk about the nation and reflect upon the connections between nation and Church. The annual Slovak national pilgrimage to Sastin provides a unique case study of how Catholic leaders discursively construct and use the concept of the nation in evangelization. Apart from the instances when Church leaders use nationalism in an attempt to reclaim or repaint the history of the Catholic Church during World 1 An earlier version of this article was presented at the ASN World Convention, Columbia University, 18-20 April 2013. 2 Miroslav Kocur, "For God and Nation: Christian National Populism" in National Populism and Slovak - Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006 - 2009 (Forum Minority Research Institute: Samorin - Samorja, 2009), 223 . 3 Ibid. , 221 - 45 . 106 SLOVAKIA-2017 4 War II , the nation is sometimes "talked and performed," not for what might be ca lled nati ona list goals, but instead, for what might be call ed reli gious goa ls. "Talking the nation" is not necessarily done in order to make the nat ion more sa li ent and make people more national. The inclusion of national discourse can be done in order to accomplish a wide variety of goa ls. In instances such as the Slovak National Pilgrimage to Sastin , the nation may be used fo r evangelization. My intention here is not to offer a typology of national discourse in the re ligious field , but rather to point to some of the ways that the concept of the nation can be (and has been) used by Catho lic leaders in Slovakia. The examp les presented herein demonstrate not only the taken-for-granted nature of national frames for viewing and understanding the world, even in the g loba l Catholic Church; they a lso illustrate some of the ways the " nation" can be used . By analyzing materia l from the homili es presented each year at the Slovak National Pilgrim age, I wi ll illustrate these connections between religious devoti on and nationa l fidelity. In foc us are the homilies delivered from the independence of S lovakia in 1993 to 2011. 5 In the se speeches from the pulpit in Sasti n, bishops, archbishops, and occasionally cardina ls address the meaning of the holiday, the perce ived successes and fai lures of society, and the importance of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows for Slovak ia. Because of the nature of these homilies and the ritual focus of thi s holiday, I wi ll here look at the ways in w hi ch the Virgin Mary is connected to th e Slovak nation on these occas ions. Pilgrimage Context In Slovakia, pil grim ages and holidays are two of the most common events through which Marian theology is experienced by devotees and advanced by the c lergy. One can find about a dozen Marian holidays on the Slovak liturgica l ca lendar, but only one of them is connected w ith a state ho liday. The Slovak National Pilgrimage takes place every year on September 15, the Sviatok Sedembolestnej Panny Marie (O ur Lady of the Seven Sorrows Holid ay). It has been 4 The fo rmulati on of "talking, performing, consuming and choosing the nat ion" comes from Fox, Jon and Cynthi a Mil ler- Idriss, " Eve ryday Nati onh ood," Etlinicities, 8 (2008): 536 - 63. 5 This study is based on research an d fieldwork co mpl eted between 2008 and 20 12. SLOVAKIA-2017 10 7 a national holiday since 1993 (first celebrated as such in 1994). The pilgrimage to the small western Slovak town of Sastin (Sastin-Straze since 1971) traces its roots to a founding miracle in 1564 and the subsequent carving of the Sastin pieta sculpture in thanks to the Virgin Mary, which would eventually become the ritual focus of later pilgrimages. The influence of this site grew rapidly under Empress Maria Theresa and her husband Francis of Lorraine, who partially funded the construction of a cathedral to house the Sastin pieta. In 1927, Pope Pius XI declared Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows as Patron saint of the region of Slovakia. 6 In 1964, Pope Paul VI elevated the Sastin cathedral to the status of Basilica Minor, the first in Slovakia. 7 In the years following, the Sastin cathedral would come to be known as the National Basilica, and more recently, the September 15 event would come to be known as the Slovak National Pilgrimage. Recent pilgrimages at Sastin have drawn approximately 20,000 worshippers per year, the overwhelming majority of whom are Slovaks from Slovakia. In addition, several television and radio stations broadcast the day 's events so that individuals may participate without making the trek to this small town. The event even brings a number of influential clergy, politicians and cultural figures as guests of honor. In fact, one of my respondents stated that the attendance of politicians at Sastin was what set it apart from other pilgrimages: "state representatives even go to this pilgrimage - they do not go to other pilgrimage sites." 8 For all of the differences among the participants in the Sastin pilgrimage, they share a religiously-oriented habitus. 9 By this, I do not mean that they are all Catholic, but that the vast majority of them are socialized into a specifically conservative, Slovak version of Catholicism. It can be understood as an environment where social, moral and linguistic issues expressed in a certain idiom 6 She is referred to as patronka Slovenska (the patroness of Slovakia), though she is more common ly understood as the patron of the Slovak nation as opposed to the Slovak state, an important distinction given the multi-national character of Slovakia. 7 Peter Zubko, "Baziliky mensie na Slovensku: ich prava a povinnosti" (Basilica Minors in Slovakia: Their Rights and Obligations), Nave Horizonty, I (2009): 40 45 . 8 Alexander Bielicki, A Nation in Worship ? Constructing Nationhood and Devotion at the Slovak National Pilgrimage to Sastin, Ph .D. dissertat ion, University of Oslo, 2012. 9 Pierre Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, I 99 I). 108 SLOVAKIA-2017 are easily understood to be a part of the regular (acceptable) di scourse, and are shaped by the conditions and conventions within this particular societal framework. Bourdieu, in his essays on language and power, 10 calls these types of factors "structured dispositions." One of these structured dispositions would be towards Marian devotion. While levels of devotion to Mary differ among Slovak Catholics, the vocabulary of Marianism is ubiquitous throughout the country, and Marian symbols can be easily understood by most Catholics. Throughout Slovakia, there are hundreds of churches and chapels dedicated to the Virgin, and the number of Marian shrines is countless. Controversia l historian Milan Durica places the number of Marian churches and chapels in Slovakia at over 1200, with more than 200 dedicated to Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows. 11 Slovak Cardinal Jozef Tomko, among others, places the number of churches and chapels dedicated to Our Lady of Seven Sorrows at around 250 12 Paintings, statues, prayers and songs heavily feature Mary, especially as the Sorrowful Mother, and she is a frequent subject of Slovak folk art of various media. The pieta is one of the more commonl y found Catholic images in the country. The Virgin Mary has become a powerful national symbol in many Catholic countries. While in Slovakia, the Virgin Mary does not receive any national titles as lofty as "Queen of Poland," "Queen of the Croats" or "Queen of Mexico," her status as national patron has been deeply woven into the fabric of the national canon. As Cardinal Tomko, the long-tenured Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (the office responsible for all missionary activities of the Catholic Church), acknowledged in hi s 1997 homil y, For us Slovaks, Seven Sorrows Day goes ri ght to the heart . For us, the picture of the Sorrowful Mother is engraved on our soul since childhood . We saw it in churches as well as in homes, on the Calvaries and in the chape ls, on the Ways of the Cross, and finall y also on the pl ates and popular embroidery. We rece ived respect fo r Mary of the Seven 10 Ibid. Milan S. Durica, S/owici a Sedembolestna: Kulturno-historicky nacrt (Brati slava: Luc, ustav dej in krest'an stva, 2008). 12 Cardinal Jozef Tomko, Homil y presented at th e Nati onal Bas ili ca in Sastin-Straze, Slovakia, Zivot Crkvi, 17, No. 37 (2010). 11 SLOVAKIA-2017 109 Sorrows almost with our mother's milk. 13 The connection between Mary and the Slovak nation fostered in these words is very self-aware. Statues, paintings, plates, needlework and other material goods associated with Mary can be found in every comer of Slovakia. Cardinal Tomko notes that the connection between individuals and the Virgin Mary is fostered from childhood and the material reminders found throughout the country are no doubt partly responsible for this transmission between generations. Slovak church leaders use the Virgin Mary (specifically in her incarnation as Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows) in a variety of ways to reify, and even to symbolize, the nation. They use the history of Marian devotion in Slovakia to homogenize Slovak religiosity and to provide justification for the claims of Marianism as a fundamental characteristic of Slovak national identity. However, the Marian aspects of the national pilgrimage do not only relate to the ways in which national identity is portrayed. Many different levels of identity, beyond the national, are referenced in the event and many differrent social groupings find relevance. Gender, family, denomination, moral and social communities all play roles in this event, and they are all tied in one way or another to Marianism. 14 For the purposes of this article, though, I will focus primarily on the discursive connections between Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows and the Slovak nation. The inclusion of all these different roles-these different ways of identifying- demonstrates the clergy's reaction to late modernity. The homilies of the event highlight the challenges to various roles an individual may play in society: those connected with nation, with gender, with family, sometimes even with political affiliation. The Catholic Church, which in many ways appears to cling to out-offashion social models (although this has been somewhat challenged since the election of Pope Francis), utilizes the problems and language of late modernity to reinforce its claims, and one of the ways that this is accomplished is through the manner in which the politics 13 Cardinal Jozef Tomko, "Misijne poslanie a Sedembolestna." Homil y presented at the National Basilica in Sastin-Straze, Slovakia. Katolicke noviny, 112, No. 40 (October 5, 1997). 14 Alexander Bielicki , A Nation in Worship ? Constructing Nationhood and Devotion at the Slovak National Pilgrimage to Sastin, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oslo, 20 12. 110 SLOVAKIA-2017 of identity are framed. If one of the markers of the "modem era" is the insistence on unitary identity, then the corresponding marker of the "late modem era" is the multiplicity of identity, and the fact that the successful person displays competence in navigating through all of their different identity roles. The inclusion of this multiplicity of identity roles in the pilgrimage homilies demonstrates the clergy ' s reaction to the so-called pathologies of the late-modem period, and demonstrates how the symbol of the Virgin Mary can be used as a modem tool to advance traditional goals: by providing a unitary self, guided by Marian devotion, that can be deployed in roles and situations. Suffering as Nexus What sets the Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows homilies apart from the homilies delivered for other Marian celebrations is that the biblical information presented in connection with the holiday and pilgrimage focuses on her sorrows and suffering and not on other aspects of her life and story. Suffering, whether revealed as a tragedy or a gift, is the lynchpin that binds the otherwise diverse elements, both catechismal and historical , of the event's homilies. The importance of this distinction is that it highlights a different side of Mary, a different face . Not that this particular interpretation of the Virgin Mary differs from the overall canon of Marian references, but that it selects certain aspects of it to be given primacy. The presentation of these aspects heightens specific types of responses to Mary: they promote a view of Mary as protector, specifically protecttor of the nation, and as picture of grace under suffering. Other roles such as mother, teacher, etc. are given relatively minor attention, expect for when they are related to suffering. The ubiquitous nature of the Virgin Mary not on ly serves as a constant reminder of the strong tradition of Marian devotion, it encourages her multivocality as a symbol. Religious historian Brian Porter notes that in the Polish Marian cult, one of Mary's most important roles is that of the Hetmanka, or military protector of the nation. 15 In the Netherlands, the Lady of All Nations devotional cult is 15 Brian Porter, " Hetmanka and Mother: Representing the Virgin Mary in Modern Poland," Contemporary European History, 14, No . 2 (2005) : 154 SLOVAKJA-2017 111 centered on the idea of Mary as redeemer. 16 In the Slovak case, however, the suffering of the Virgin Mary is highlighted above all else when linking her to the nation. This type of discourse is used by the clergy not only for moral and religious lessons, but also to reify the nation by creating what I call a shared vocabulary of suffering, especially in reference to national history and the life of the Virgin Mary. From Bishop Gabris' 1984 homily, Our Slovak nation has suffered terribly. When things were bad for our nation, it could only beseech supernatural aid. Our believers also felt that no one in the world suffered such as Our Lady when she held in her arrn s the dead body of her own son. Therefore, no one in the world 17 18 could understand the suffering of our nation as she does. The theme of suffering creeps into the discourse and symbols of the Sastin pilgrimage, and this is one of the things that sets the event apart from others. In marked contrast to most other Marian events in Slovakia, the national pilgrimage to Sastin is thematically concentrated on suffering. While other pilgrimages may contain references to the suffering of Mary, only events specifically dedicated to the Mater Dolorosa, Our Lady of Sorrows, are discursively framed around suffering to this extent. Her pain peaked when she meets Jesus in the street, on the last day of his life, as a criminal amid a furious crowd, carrying the cross to the gallows-flogged, spat-upon, and crowned with thorns. How can she feel when she hears the sound of the murderous nails being hammered into his hands and feet , when she sees Him in immense pain stretched between heaven and earth? How can her heart endure the endless three hours of His agony? And yet, she, frail woman, standing beneath her son's cross, on whi ch she is also crucified. She stands unbroken in soul, not beaten down by the weight of the relentless pain . She stands under the cross, even when the terrible sword stabs a living wound in the 16 Peter Jan Margry, " Paradoxes of Marian Appariti onal Contestation: Networks, Ideology, Gender, and the Lady of All Nations," in Moved by Mary: The Power of Pilgrimage in the Modern World, Hermkens, Anna-Karina and Willy Jansen, and Catrien otermans, eds. ( Farnham: Ash gate, 2009), I 87 17 Bold typeface, mine. 18 Bishop Julius Gabris, Homily presented at the Natio nal Basilica in Sastin-Straze, Slovakia; September 16, 1984. <htt ://blo 0 .chri st-net.sk/? =node/340 >, accessed February 8, 2009. 112 SLOVAKIA-2017 heart. 19 The theme of suffering allows for discourse and symbols not only concerning Mary's suffering, but suffering in society as well: the crisis of the family, legalized abortion, moral relativism, the suffering of the nation, etc. This is one of the particularities of the Sastin pilgrimage: the focus on Marian suffering in connection with the suffering of everyday life opens up the door to a discussion of the many different forms of societal identity. The ways in which these forms of suffering are presented and the ways in which they are linked together offer some suggestions as to what the employment of Mary as a symbol of suffering might be meant to accomplish. Today we celebrate the holiday of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows and here is an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of our national existence and to ask how is it that we Slovaks, through the long centuries, knew to resist so that the ferocious waves of history would not devour and bury us? We are of a nation who didn't have a kingly dynasty to rule in our castles, and we can ' t boast of famous victories. However, our nation reached one victory that, after a thousand years of silence and living without freedom we were able to overcome, so that today we find ourselves among the nations of Europe. We know from national history how difficult our ancestors fought for their existence, for their living space, for their language, for their faith , for their culture. They fought ; they won, because in this struggle they freely took refuge in the Mother of God. 20 In his 2007 homily (above), Bishop Secka offers the holiday as "an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of our national existence." This suggests that a salience of nation should exist for Slovak Catholics, and that a salience of Catholic identity should be present in Slovakia. His framing of "we" around an ethnic identity assumes an all ethnically Slovak audience, which is in fact not the case at Sastin. His words presume a long, uninterrupted history, but reduce that his19 Tomko, Cardinal Jozef. " Misijne poslanie a Sedembolestna," Homily presented at the National Basilica in SaWn-Straze, Slovakia, Katolicke noviny, 112, No. 40 (October 5, 1997). 20 Bishop Stefan Secka, Homily presented at the National Basilica in Sastin-Straze, Slovakia; September 15, 2007. <http://www.magnificat.sk/htm02/homsas. htn_:i. >, accessed February 8, 2009 . SLOVAKIA-2017 113 tory to a simple story of hard-working, oppressed, Catholic Slovaks who were victims of constant external pressure. This homily assigns an independent will and desire to the nation, not just individuals. The homily also speaks of a victory for the Slovak nation, a victory that can only be assumed to be the realization of the Slovak state, the ultimate reward for any national project. This type of rhetoric ignores the fact that the creation of the Slovak nation-state resulted from the intractable arguments of a small group of political elites and not from any plebiscite.21 This notion projects backwards in time the seemingly self-evident nature of the Slovak nation requiring a Slovak state, that this process was the unfaltering will and destiny of the nation. Furthermore, it portrays the realization of a Slovak state as an event that can be at least indirectly attributed to the intercession of Mary. Bishop Secka's 2007 homily is not unique among the Sedembolestna homilies. In many ways it echoes the 1984 homily given by Bishop Julius Gabris where he stated: Our nation, dear brothers and sisters, survived the hard times and was saved only because it relied upon Marian devotion. I mentioned only the three incidents: the extinction of the Great Moravian Empire, the invasion of the Tatars and the 150-year plundering of our territory by the Turks. In these times, all preconditions were met by which our Slovak nation should be completely devastated, torn from the earth. And yet still, it was not extinguished! Why not extinguished? Only because it relied on God's help and on the help of the Mother ofGod. 22 These words link the contemporary Catholic Church and the history of the Slovak nation in a chain of suffering. Furthermore, while the history detailed in the homily seeks to present the Slovak nation's suffering and its unwavering devotion to Mary, this version of history also reinforces the continuity and homogeneity of the Slovak nation. Anthropologist Richard Handler notes that a "negative vision of the struggle for survival presupposes the positive vision of collective unity and maturity - for how can an entity that does not in the first 21 Stefan Auer, Liberal Nationalism in Central Europe (New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004). 22 Bi shop Julius Gabris, Homily presented at the National Basilica in Sastin-Straze, Slovakia; September I 6, I 984. <http: //blog.christ-net.sk/?q=node/340 >, accessed February 8, 2009. 114 SLOVAKIA-2017 place exist run the risk of disintegration?"23 However, this is not merely a simple reification of the nation through building a collection of past sufferings. This formulation not only reifies the nation, but it also reifies a contemporary vision of the Slovak nation, imagining it as an unchanged group occupying the same territory since before the Great Moravian Empire in the ninth century. While discursive use of the Virgin Mary might function to construct difference along national lines when these national boundaries also reflect religious boundaries, it is not so effective when constructing difference between Slovaks and non-Slovak coreligionists. Furthermore, discursively constructing the Slovak nation as devotees to Mary ignores the heterodox religious history of Slovakia. Most interestingly, though, the others who are constructed in these homilies are not the most salient ethnic others in the Slovak context. The nationalization of political life in Slovakia is often defined in reference to Slovak-Hungarian national divisions within the country; however, this doe s not appear to be the driving factor behind national differentiation for the Church, at least in regards to how difference is organized in the proceedings of the national pilgrimage to Sastin. In fact, it is not uncommon for homilists to invite ethnic Magyars [Hungarians] into the fold .24 That being said, the use of the national frame by church leaders at the national pilgrimage seems to be constructed in reference to Western Europe, conceived as a group of secular nations, as opposed to being constructed in reference to their Hungarian Catholi c neighbors. In this sense, devotion and devotional practices become a way for the Church to organize not on ly religious difference, but national difference as well. This orientation creates formulations whereby secularized Slovaks are ignored or considered agents of the secular " West. " In other words, these practices of national differentiation more resemble the politics of Slovaks differentiating themselves from Czechs at the beginning of the 1990s than they resemble the patterns of national differentiation from Magyar speakers throughout the 1990s and beyond. 23 Richard Handler, Nationalism and the Politics of Culture in Quebec (Madi son: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988), 5. 24 Ca rdinal Jan Chrzyostom Korec, "Tvorivou lasko u," Kato/icke noviny. I 15, No. 39 (September 24, 2000). SLOVAKIA-2017 115 Let us entrust to our heavenly patron also the future of Slovakia in the community of European nations with the hope that Europe will be built with the recognition of its Christian roots, as the Holy Father relentlessly reminds us, and that in that our nation maintains its own identity based on Christian culture and its values. We do not want to lose ourselves and to be diluted in such a European community that would be governed by secularized humani sm and liberal individualism, without respect for the principle of Christian so lidarity.25 The further highlighting of issues presented within a national context attests to the way the Church in Slovakia has reacted and continues to react to various factors at the state, supranational and international level. Presenting the national, projecting the national, within the narrative of the Slovak nation as a Catholic nation acting as a minority, a righteous minority (especially against the backdrop of oppression throughout history at the hands of foreign powers), allows for the Church to talk about social issues of Catholic concern - abortion, chief among them - as an extension of the historical battle waged by the Catholic Slovak nation in the name of righteousness. The mill has been started, where they intend to grind the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, the guide for the past and present life of our nation for more than one thousand years. For what is life if a man can kill the terminally ill and the unborn?26 National elements woven into the fabric of the devotional movement to Our Lady of Seven Sorrows recapture the idea of the Slovaks as a small nation , fundamentally Christian if not Catholic, being pushed around by larger powers: those that advocate a program that lessens the emphasis on a Judeo-Christian morality system as the defining characteristic of Europe. Using examples from proposed hi storical sufferings of the Slovak nation, whether at the hands of 25 Bishop Jozef Zlati\ansky, "Zverme sa Sedembolestnej." Homily presented at the National Bas ilica in Sastin-Straze, Slovakia. Katolicke noviny,. 11 8, No. 40 (October 5, 2003). <htt ://www.katnovin .sk/Kn 2003/40 2003/obnova. htm >, accessed on February 8, 2009. 26 Bishop Stefan Secka, "Matka viery, Matka nadeje," Homily presented at the Nati onal Basi lica in Sastin-Straze, Slovakia, September I 5, 2004. <http://www. blu me nta l. sk/caso is/rok 2004/10-2004/cl04.htm>, accessed on September 21 , 2009. 116 SLOVAKIA-2017 Turks, Tatars, Magyars, Czechs or others, homilists propose a continuity of oppression aimed at Slovaks, despite the realization of the ostensibly Slovak nation-state. Indeed, the role of religion and the politics of national identity in any society are heavily contingent upon the form of the state, and in this case, supranational governance. Without the split of Czechoslovakia or the entrance of Slovakia into the European Union, undoubtedly a different structure of whom the Slovak nation is defined against would emerge, thereby influencing how the boundaries between "us" and "them" are drawn. Even though some references to past injustices faced at the hands of European neighbors appear in the homilies, they are rare. Besides those few examples, the nationalizing language of the event is not overly exclusionary in nature. It is of course highly focused on positive portrayals of the in-group, but for the most part, the out-groups (i.e. Western Europe) appear as abstractions. In other words, even though much of the nationalizing language stemming from the homilists promotes something that I wou ld not call an inclusive vision of the nation, it is certainly more inclusive than the militant and chauvinistic national orientations found in some corners of Slovak society. For the homilists, ideology (i.e. religious orientation) seems to have been the primary division; however, religious differrentiation has been communicated through national differentiation - in essence, nationalizing religious life. National History or Catholic History? In many of the examples from the homilies, the historical Slovak nation is presented as in constant battle, or in a constant state of suffering. In 1928, Slovak Catholic priest and politician Ferdis Juriga posited seven sorrows of the Slovak nation to correspond with the seven sorrows of Mary27, and several Sastin homilies reference these periods of suffering, especially the Tatar and Turkish invasions. According to Juriga, the seven sorrows of the Slovak nation were (1) the migration of the Magyars to the Danubian Basin and their defeat of the Slavic peoples who lived there; (2) the repression of Catholics in the Kingdom of Hungary, 1044 - 1046; (3) the Tatar invasion, 27 Jana Moricova, "Sastinska Sedembolestna patr6nka Slovenska," Marianske Putnicke Miesta na Slovensku: Zbornik z vedeckej konferencie konanej (Rufomberok: Katolicka univerzita v Ru fo mberku, 2007), 20 - 26 . SLOVAKIA-2017 117 1241 - 1242; (4) the Hussite incursions across Upper Hungary, 1431 - 1458; (5) the Turkish wars, 1526 - 1683; (6) the spread of Protestantism and the split of the nation between Catholic and Protestant faiths; (7) and the rampant poverty that led to mass emigration. 28 Mentioning any of these seven moments in the homilies for Our Lady of Seven Sorrows Day discursively connects national suffering and the Virgin Mary, specifically in her incarnation as Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows. They also link historical struggles and the overcoming of those struggles with present day struggles and the possibility of overcoming them. According to tradition, during the Tatar invasion in I 241 our families fled into the forests, to where the hordes would not dare to go; our ancestors carried with them Marian pictures and statues, especially of the Sorrowful Mother. In the 15 th century, families in our lands possessed reliefs of the Sorrowful Virgin Mary, which at that time had been produced from baked clay at the command of King Matthias Corvin us. In 1470, when the Turkish invasion was already threatening, Jan Vitez, the archbishop of Esztergom, specifically recalled as an ancient, historical custom, that in difficult times our ancestors turned to the Sorrowful Virgin Mary for help and appealed to her so that they might devote themselves to her in the time of danger. His successor, Archbishop Juraj Selepceni, before the decisive battle with the Turks near Vienna in 1683, gave his soldiers medallions with a picture of the Sorrowful Mother in order to invoke her assistance. Even the old folk song from the Turkish wars " By Trencin's Gate" is a plea to the Virgin Mary from the Slovak heroes before leaving for battle: "God and Mary help us, to be a happy Slovak land." The tradition of devotion to the Sorrowful Mother stretches across our whole history ... 29 As can be seen in the above excerpt, the homilists construct history around a core of Marian devotion . Historical struggles, whether framed as national, Catholic or Christian, are layered around this central theme of Marian devotion. In Cardinal Tomko 's 2010 homily, the history of the region is portrayed as a series of invasions and invocations of Mary's assistance in prevailing despite the harsh conditions. While these invaders fell upon the Kingdom of Hungary, 28 Ibid. Cardinal Jozef Tomko, Homil y presented at the National Basilica in Sastin-Straze, Slovakia, Zivot Crkvi, 17, No. 37 (20 10). 29 118 SLOVAKIA-2017 Cardinal Tomko refers repeatedly to the victims of the invasion as "our ancestors," framing the history of the Slovak lands as the history of the Slovaks. The tradition of Marian devotion is "recalled as an ancient, historical custom" of the Slovaks. Cardinal Tomko takes the negative histories of war and struggle and the positive histories of Marian devotion out of their historical context in the Kingdom of Hungary, and makes them exclusive property of the Slovak nation . In other words, the Slovak nation is written into history as a protagonist, even into historical periods during which the nation was not a salient category of identification. The Church, then, uses this opportunity to present a very specific Slovak Catholic version of national history, a version that portrays Marian devotion as a fundamental characteristic of Slovak national identity that is both consistent through time and ubiquitous through the territory of Slovakia. In other words, the national history presented in the Sedembolestna homilies is both essentializing and homogenizing, (so that a more coherent set of narratives can be easily presented). By-and-large, during the event, Slovak national identity and the Slovak nation is not portrayed as under siege, the way that nationalist politicians often paint the picture. Yet it is portrayed as a minority nation, and a suffering nation. Within the framework of Slovakia, those who consider themselves to be ethnically Slovak have a clear majority; however, during the pilgrimage the Slovak nation is often presented in the context of the world stage, or at least the European stage. In other words, the ethno-national situation of Slovaks in Slovakia is omitted from the discourse of the event, and the situation of Slovaks in a broader context is presented instead, so as to highlight Slovaks ' minority status in Europe. Therefore, the episodes of historical suffering mentioned earlier find a new context in which to be expressed in the present structure of governance. This extension of history, for the most part, is not malicious in intent towards its European neighbors (or against the faceless "society" mentioned often in the homilies). However, there are some Slovak nationalists, who use the rhetoric stemming from Church sources as a validation of their claims. Therefore, that is where the de facto national Church and some Slovak nationalists intersect. There is a crossover between their ranks, but these individuals and sub-groups do not usuall y act as the driving forces behind the Church in Slo- SLOVAKIA-2017 119 vakia or Slovak nationalist organizations. Portraying the Church in Slovakia as nationalist, as often happens, is misleading, or rather, an oversimplification. They produce discourse that may aid some nationalists ( especially those nationalists who find importance in the Catholic nature of the nation), but this is not the primary goal of their discourse. Their primary goal seems to be evangelization and connecting various levels of social identity to the Church. In this process, the nation is just one of many leve ls of identity fostered and connected with the Church. By stepping away from simply labeling certain actions stemming from the Slovak Church as nationalist, and looking to the purpose and function of using the nation, a clearer picture emerges regarding the processes actually occurring. Shared System of Discourse In the celebration of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows as national patron, the dominant themes of the event are that of suffering and sorrow. In a sense, we can envision this as a shared vocabulary of suffering within the larger shared system of discourse. Whether a detailed telling of the Seven Sorrows endured by Mary, the perceived one-thousand years of suffering of the Slovak nation since the end of the Great Moravian Empire or the evils of abortion, the dominant tropes are 'tragic' in nature. This accentuates "an economy that capitalizes on human suffering, valuing it not as the absence or disfavor of God, but as a grace or favor that viscerally connects the devout with the sufferings of Jesus, Mary, and the saints." 30 Essentially, suffering functions as the hub that links all of the spokes of the wheel; it is a gift given and a gift received; but most of all, suffering frames the introduction of social identities to the event. In the homilies of the event, the homilists demonstrate ways of talking about national identity, Catholic identity, Christian identity and even European identity. The ways in which the event is nationnally framed by church leaders- and the ways in which pilgrims talk, choose, perform and consume the nation-provide space for the nationalization of objects, spaces, bodies and symbols. This space 30 David Morgan, "Aura and the Inversion of Marian Pilgrimage: Fatima and Her Statues," Moved by Mary: The Power of Pilgrimage in the Modern World, Hermkens, Anna-Karina and Willy Jansen and Catrien Notermans, eds. (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009), 63 . 120 SLOVAKJA-2017 allocated for nationalization does not exist at many other large-scale Catholic events in the country apart from Sastin, at least during the years surveyed in this study. Furthermore, the homilists build a history that intertwines Catholic and national pasts. They provide pilgrims with the discursive tools to deal with numerous societal issues in a Catholic way. They tum national life, political life and even family life into Catholic life. In other words, they demonstrate a Catholic way of talking about social life that is meant to be transferred outside of the religious field , or at least to broaden the religious field . Pilgrims and church leaders together contribute to the definition of social identities, not necessarily making agreements on how to live these identities, but how to articulate these identities. One elite project found in the discourse of the pilgrimage is the attempt to create a shared system of discourse in order to talk about devotional life and to discuss social issues within a Catholic framework. The pilgrimage at Sastin, then, is one of the large-scale events in which the Church does maintenance work to this shared system of discourse. I would suggest that a shared discourse could buttress the role of the Church and the role of Catholic identity in the country, even if membership in the Church is sometimes considered " lukewarm. " This type of maintenance work is done on every Sunday in the churches and at church-officiated events throughout the lives of people. The Slovak national pilgrimage to Sastin provides a stage on which to address the proposed importance of devotional identity to a large audience at the same time, and to construct a way for Catholics to talk about the social issues that affect them . This type of maintenance is accomplished through countless different pilgrimages; however, it is the peculiarities of the Sastin pilgrimage that allow for a greater opportunity to engage issues of identity outside of devotional identity. Creating a shared discursive system can be seen as one of the byproducts of evangelization, and this system is a prerequisite for most of the pastoral work in which the Church engages. In other words, the Church needs to have this shared discourse in place in order to navigate the challenges of its pastoral care effectively. The pilgrims need to be a part of constructing this discourse, because in order for the Church to be an important identity marker in their lives, they need to be able to find a way to articulate their place in the body of the Church, and likewise their position in society in relationship to SLOVAKIA-2017 121 the Church. Such a system is created through evangelization and a general socialization into religion; in other words, through creating a religiously literate society. Cultural historian Callum Brown uses the idea of a collapse in shared discourse to explain the fate of Christianity in Britain. 3 1 In Britain, as well as across western and northern Europe, the socialization of young people into Christianity has largely stopped. The Christian cultural forces in society that socialize new generations into recognizing a Christian identity in themselves have lost their voices, with the result that many young people in those countries no longer acquire a basic literacy in Christian symbols and Christian history. In Slovakia, the opposite is the case. Basic cultural competencies in Christianity maintain a shared discourse between Church and society; and in Slovakia, there appears to be a relative strengthening of a shared discourse, which often frames issues, whether political or religious, as national. It is this shared discourse, especially about suffering, that allows for some of these connections between Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows and the Slovak nation. During the pilgrimage, Church leaders present suffering as a gateway to understanding Marian devotion; they extend Marian suffering as a metaphor onto their flock. Coupled with this presentation, the nationally framed aspects of the pilgrimage allow this suffering to be extended via relevant social groupings, like the nation, family and gender. It is presumeptuous to assume that homilists should reference social groupings based on gender, or kinship, or nation, and so on; that they are somehow more natural or salient than other social groupings. We do not see roles connected with class, or the idea of class at all enter into the homilies. However, in religious fields influenced by liberation theology in Central and South American, nothing would be more natural or salient than the reification of class identity. The ability to load Mary with meaning does not assume the successful transmission of those meanings; however, the ways in which Mary is discursively packed with meaning gives us a window into the uses of Marian symbols and the possible lived-in worlds where the symbols and words might have the ability to make an impact. Examining the way that the homilists use the concept of suffering in 31 Grace Davie, Europe: The Exceptional Case (London : Darton, Longman and Todd, 2002), 20. 122 SLOVAKIA-2017 their reaction to the outcomes of modernity, presented in a context where the topic of identity is central to holiday and pilgrimage, shows how a vast number of different identities are related to Mary. The suffering of the nation, the crisis of the family , the widespread legal nature of abortion, the crisis of governance, the intrusion of consumerism, and the relativism of (Western) Europe are all connected to Mary's suffering. Any of these connections between perceived suffering of the individual and the perceived suffering of Mary can serve to reinforce the importance of Marian devotion in the life of the pilgrim. Modernization seems to accentuate the divides regarding gender, class, ethnicity, religion, etc ., and the homilists' discourse does not seek to attenuate them; instead, they are discursively reframed so that each of these identities are reified and simultaneously connected with Mary. The encouragement of communitarianism- be it in family , kin , social community, moral community, nation or other groups- is also consistent with the Church ' s stance against individualism. In that sense, one of the primary functions of this type of pastoralization and evangelization is to combat the so-called cult of the individual and to reinforce membership in social groups that are considered meaningful. By reinforcing membership in social groups consistent with the messages of the Church, so too may they encourage the ro le of Marian devotion in these groups, claiming Marian devotion not just as something which should be a fundamental characteristic of Catholics, but of Europeans, the Slovak nation, the family and even the body politic. Constructing a Theology of the Nation One of the things occurring during this pilgrimage event is that Church leaders are seeking to reinvigorate the societal influence of Catholic teaching and the Catholic Church. Their efforts at evangelization seek to make Catholic doctrine influential in society, and to make Catholicism matter for individuals and institutions beyond the religious field ; in other words, to move beyond the sphere of personal salvation. They are doing so by making Marianism important to social identities outside of religious identity, national identity being one of them . They are weaving national identity into the religious sphere, and in doing so, constructing what I call a theology of the SLOVAKIA-2017 123 nation. "Grace does not destroy secular realities, or demand abandoning them for religious ones. Rather, grace includes, builds upon and potentially transfigures the sphere of the natural. The implication of this is that nationality can be one of the loci where responsible intelligence can ground theological consideration." 32 Dorian Llywelyn's, Toward a Catholic Theology of Nationality, 33 is one of the first of its kind to explore the connection between nationality and Catholicism in terms of theology. Llywelyn's treatment approaches nationnal identity not simply as subordinate to devotional identity, as has usually been the case in the Catholic Church, but as a locus of devotion. An academic exercise such as this would not have been possible in the past. Several factors account for the feasibi lity of Llywelyn's project in the present, one of which is the reforms of the Second Vatican Council that brought national practices, national languages and national discourse further into the Catholic Church. Perhaps another reason, although I do not have hard evidence to support the claim, is the election of Pope John Paul II in 1978. I would suggest that his election brought nationality into the Church by introducing a Central European, and specifically Polish, understanding of nationality to the papacy, one built on a long tradition of connecting the Church to the nation, which considered the Catholic Church as the repository of the nation in response to the Polish partitions between Orthodox neighbors to the east and Protestant neighbors to the west. In addition, the simple fact that John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope in hundreds of years, and was even commonly referred to as "the Polish pope," made nationality matter in the Church in a way it previously had not. For these reasons and others, positing a theology of nationality, or a theology of the nation as I would prefer to call it, becomes more plausible in the present day. In addition, I believe that Llywelyn ' s choice to academically engage the relationship between nation and religion supports the fact that the Catholic Church, specifically the Slovak Catholic Church, is increasingly engaging social identities outside of purely devotional ones; and that they first connect devotional identities to other social identities, and then must develop theology to substantiate these connections (in this case, the 32 Dori an Ll ywe lyn, Toward a Catholic Theology of Nationality (New York : Lexington Books, 20 I 0), 4. 33 Ibid . 124 SLOVAKIA-2017 nation and national identity). Church leaders foster a communitarian spirit based around many different types of identity, national among them, in order to fight against the crisis of the postmodern (and the relativism and secularism of Europe). In creating a theology of the nation, the Slovak church uses the nation as one of its primary loci for evangelization. This creates a situation where the nation is purported to be a natural place to locate and build devotion; however Church leaders connect the nation and Church in many other instances as we ll. In the media, in cross-border ecumenical counci ls and in other situations, church leaders may talk or act nationally, but that does not mean that they are creating a theology of the nation. A theology of the nation goes a step further, by writing national history, national characteristics and national practices into the teachings of the Church, indeed constructing national history, characteristics and practices in the process. Creating a theology of the nation involves producing the nation, not just using it in discourse. In the Slovak national pilgrimmage to Sastin, these national elements are sacralized in order to support forms of Marian devotion found in the event. As Llywe lyn notes, "revealed Christian truth" not only corresponds to national experience; national experience becomes part of "revealed Christian truth. "34 But this is more than simply sacralizing the nation : it collapses national and devotional values into one another, it creates a shared discourse and it writes the nation into the unofficial theology of the Church: "unofficial," because it cannot be realized in dogma or scriptural accounts, and "theology" because it becomes part of Church doctrine and teaching. "The task of a theology of nationality is to investigate the relationship between the mystery of Christ and the human experience of being a member of the nation."35 In the case of the Slovak national pilgrimage, a theology of the nation explores the connection between the nation and Mary, more so than between the nation and Jesus. The nation protects Mary, and vice-versa. The nation suffers with and for Mary. The nation embodies Mary . The nation becomes part of the Marian narrative, just as Mary has become part of the national narrative. This may seem unusual at first, but as Llywe lyn notes, human 34 35 Ibid. Ibid. SLOVAKIA-2017 125 experience can indeed be a source for theology.36 When church leaders construct a theology of the nation, something different is happening from when church leaders speak about the nation in other instances, as in the media. In the context of the holiday event, Church leaders can more freely speak about these things because they are addressing these issues in the religious field, not venturing outside their field of competence. But it is not only that. Church leaders act as authorized delegates of the Church, especially in their role during the Pontifical Mass, the ritual focus of the pilgrimage celebration. As such, the delegated authority of the Church is behind them when they connect Church and nation in the ritual event ( outside of Church matters, their authority may be questioned). Church leaders build complex connections between Church doctrine and the nation. Using Mary as a symbol, they connect her suffering with the suffering of the nation. In this sense, just as the Polish nation is often spoken of as the Christ among nations, the Slovak nation could easily be referred to as the Virgin Mary of nations because of the shared vocabulary of suffering. Church leaders intertwine Catholic history of the region with Slovak national history. They use the practices of ancestors to justify the national connection to the Catholic Church. They further justify the connection by citing the Slovak experience under communism, and show the present significance of the connection in relation to new European structures and programs. Homilists construct the national past in a way that it becomes part of a greater narrative of eventual salvation. In other words, national history is the middle part of the salvation story, after biblical accounts and before eventual salvation. In fact, the nation can be envisioned as a vehicle for salvation. The nation is framed as important for the survival of the Church and its values. Catholicism and Marian devotion are defining characteristics of the Slovak nation. Therefore, the event (and especially its discourse) creates a role for the nation in the life of the Church and a role for the Church in the life of the nation. The Church targets national units, as well as other social configurations, because it needs state, national and other established units to activate connections with the Church and connections with Catho36 Ibid. 126 SLOVAKIA-2017 lie identity in ways that are not just personal and refl ective. The Church needs groups to survive, not just individuals;37 therefore, it not only practices communitarianism, it attempts to ground its activation of comm unitarianism in theology. It deploys thi s communitarian discourse over many societal levels (national community, family/kin, gender, local community, the Catholic Church, the Christian world). It posits a relationship between these communities, a relationship that gives added importance to the Church. Therefore, the Church's activation of nationhood in an event such as this is not instigated by some inherent nationalism in the Slovak Church (or nationalist program), but it is mostly pragmatic. It is part of a comprehensive system that uses the discourse and practices of communitarianism across many (crosscutting) societal levels to achieve certain goals. In fact, such a comprehensive system that allows for identification across many levels is from where Mary, as a symbol , derives much of her power. Her multi-vocality is the key to her success as a symbol. But why organize on a national level given the multi-national nature of the country and the international nature of the Catholic Church? Partly, it is because the Church is already divided into territorial units such as dioceses and archdioceses that are frequently bounded within states, and sometimes within formal or informal national territories. In that sense, the Church is merely activating the already instituted divisions within its structure. Also, the language of living nationally has been used for various social projects in the Slovak lands since the mid- I 800s, and it was especially used by Church leaders for social projects in the 1930s and 1940s, and in reaction to Communism. But this construction does not just reflect the convention of using the nation as an organizing principle. The institution of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows as national patron, and the institution of a state holiday celebrating her, give the Church a greater inroad to nationalize the sacred, and sacralize the nation (at least the aspects of the nation institutionally connected with Catholicism and the Church) . Yet another reason for Catholic leaders to organize nationally stems from the way power is distributed in the European environ37 Massimo Rosati , Ritual and the Sacred: A Neo -Durkheimian Analysis of Politics, Religion and the Self (Farnham : As hgate, 2009), 17. SLOVAKIA-2017 127 ment and the way the nation is constituted in the pilgrimage event. Church leaders can see that successful social action in Europe need not be created through majority will; it can also be organized around minority nations, minority viewpoints, etc. The organization of projects, labeled as minority projects, can sometimes provide access to governmental power that is often otherwise lacking. The narrative of the Slovak nation as a minority (in Europe) despite its own (albeit contested) nation-state discursively creates a situation in which nationhood matters. Nationhood is not frequently salient for most of the population of Slovakia in everyday life, but it can be easily activated (partly because of the multinational nature of the state, which almost constantly reinforces the nation as an organizing principle in politics). Also, the nation is just one facet of this communitarian landscape employed by the church. Apparently, the Catholic Church in Slovakia finds it useful, because the Sastin pilgrimage is growing in numbers, and nationalizing language has become more frequent during the 2000s (not necessarily in connection with rising nationalism). Of course, Church leaders do not construct a theology of the nation in a vacuum. So what is the role of the celebrants of this holiday in the creation of a theology of the nation? I would suggest that they are involved in this process in the ways they talk the nation, perform the nation, choose the nation and consume the nation in relation to this religious event. One of the biggest ways they choose the nation is simply by choosing to take part in the Slovak national pilgrimage, but living nationally for the pilgrims is certainly not limited to that one choice. The nation is reflected and constituted in the symbols that the pilgrims use, in the objects and spaces with which they interact and in the ways that they talk about the event. In addition, they are crucial partners in the exchanges and negotiations between church leaders and pilgrims. Without them, the event has little to no importance. Without them, the voice from the pulpit has no real power, only delegated authority. Constructing a theology of the nation is about creating a future for the connection between nationhood and devotion . Even when church leaders cannot negotiate about the future of the nation or Catholic Church, as visions for both of these vary even among Slovak Catholics, they can manipulate the conditions so that nationhood and devotion will at least be a part of future public conversations and negotiations. Mainly, this is accomplished through the creation of a 128 SLOVAKIA-2017 shared discourse. Constructing a theology of the nation structures the conditions of future exchanges because it institutes national factors into devotional practices, thereby ensuring that these factors and practices will form and inform future discussions that involve national and devotional identity. In other words, constructing a theology of the nation is about organizing the past, legitimizing the present and framing the future. Conclusion I believe that developing concepts such as theology of the nation are important for a few interrelated reasons: one, they point towards the different uses and intentions behind national discourse stemming from the pulpit; two, they highlight that "talking the nation" is used not only for the purpose of making people more national ; and three, they provide conceptual tools with which we can compare the different ways of making the nation relevant across religions. Using national discourse is done for a variety of purposes, be it either to advance a political program, influence people to purchase a product, claim territory, contest space or resources, encourage tourism , justify actions, make historical occurrences relevant to contemporary choices, and countless others. In the case outlined in this article, the nation is invoked in order to strengthen religious devotion. Nationhood is not established and the nation is not constructed solely for its own end . Nationhood and attachment to national identity is always part of a greater project. Establishing nationhood and constructing the nation is not always done with the nation as its endgame. The purpose can usually be found elsewhere. If we look at the when of nationalism, in other words, when do nations matter for people, we find that the nation is only important in specific contexts and situations. The nation may be relevant in our framing of issues that involve family values, economy, immigration, environment, international politics or other issues . Outside of those issues, the nation is not usually our dominant framework for categorizing culture, life, relationships. When we emphasize the discursively constructed nature of the nation and the fact that it functions as a framework for categorizing difference, we view the nation as a project, a series of processes or a practical achievement. This makes it easy to believe that a reified nation is the goal of the national pro- SLOVAKIA-2017 129 ject. However, I would argue that making the nation (and making people more national) is almost never the sole goal of a national project. The project at Sastin can be understood as a theology of the Slovak nation, created through use of the biblical narratives of Mary ' s suffering. In one sense, the theme of suffering keeps people talking about a connection between Church and nation. In another sense, it creates and recreates a system that structures choice so that the nation and Marian devotion are both valued. The visceral connection through suffering has the capacity of becoming especially strong, because it functions not only on the individual level but on the group level as well, whether one envisions the group as the body of the Church or the nation. For some of the pilgrims who attend the Slovak national pilgrimmage to Sastin, national identity is important, while others would rather emphasize the international nature of the Catholic Church. For some, the fight against abortion takes precedence, while for others the fight against secularization of Europe is the rallying cry that brings them to the event. For countless others, the pilgrimage is simply a celebration of Mary. It may be about sharing individual or group suffering with Mary. It may be about asking Mary for assistance or healing. However, any path chosen that leads the participant to the Slovak national pilgrimage, in the end, provides support for the Catholic Church, Marian devotion and the Slovak nation. Even if pilgrims contest specific aspects of Church power or the validity of certain Marian practices, their participation in the performance of the event makes the Church and Mary prominent focal points. In this specific instance where Catholic leaders claim authority over social life outside of the Church, the ideas of making Catholic teaching and values important in the lives of pilgrims and making the Church a focal point go hand in hand with using the nation as a locus for evangelization. LITERATURE  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 Invoking the Nation, Strengthening Devotion: National Discourse at the Slovak National Pilgrimage Description An account of the resource Alexander Bielicki Slovakia, Vol. 43 (No. 80-81), 2017 pp. 105-129 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bielicki, Alexander Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/08d5dfb27099da59c654353436eae865.pdf f1cfa1368435b9771e0131c6c16f56a1 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 153 An Introduction to Slovak Costume We are guite familiar with the old French proverb, "The habit does not make the monk." This popular adage implies that a man's clothes can be misleading with regard to his personality. When individual cases are concerned, this maxim may be true but taken collectively, national costumes frequently run parallel with the history of a people. This fact can be observed quite readily in the study of Slovak peasant costume. Such research reveals the characteristics of a people deprived of their national freedom and who sought compensation under oppression by dauntlessly expressing their cultural force. When all other means of national self-expression was denied them, the Slovak People relied on the handicrafts of the peasant people to perpetuate the national thought of the race and in this category embroidery and needle work played an important part.I Artistic expression among the Slovaks was not limited to the art academies and cultural institutions. It was developed to a remarkable extent in the home. The pottery, wood-carving and ceramics found there bore the hallmark of distinction. Volumes could be written dealing with the artistic productions of the Slovak people but let it suffice to say that today a great deal of Slovak art is being exhibited in museums throughout Europe and being the work of an oppressed people, there is no indication of their true origin. A study of Slovak costume design can prove to be quite interesting due to its distinctive character, bright colors, variety and uniqueness. A love of color and a sensitivity to its use are part of the Slovak heritage. To the uninitiated, the costumes may appear as a conglomeration of colored fabrics, ribbons, floral patterns and lace but to those who are familiar with Slovak culture, all of these elements are but an outward expression of the inner soul of the people. Basically, in relation to costume design, the Slovaks can be classified into two distinct groups. The Slovaks �154 SLOVAKIA of the mountain districts and the Slovaks of the more prosperous South. It was among the Slovaks of the mountains that the earliest and most characteristic examples of Slovak peasant garb are found. They were patterned in simple straight lines and were decorated with geometrical designs while the natural white color of the material was retained. The Slovaks of the South were distinguished by their use of bright colors. During the course of time their styles were modified by foreign influences but remined effective owing to harmonious color blends. The difference in dress emphasizes the contrast between the fiery temperament of the southern Slovak and the soft, pensive and melancholy character of the mountaineer. The national dress of the peasant originated in the home and each member of the family cooperated in its execution. The women worked on the embroidery and lace during the long winter months when their fingers resumed their dexterity after a busy summer spent in the fields . It was a common sight to see several women of a village combining their talents to produce the bridal attire of a young girl. Every garment was a heirloom passed on to succeeding generations and each contributed its little quota of embellishment or modified whatever was unsuited for the occasion. In Slovak embroidery may be traced the whole technique of artistic needle-work design and one continually comes across articles of clothing, especially baby linens and churching-cloths, which, we are amazed to find , must have taken a life time to prepare.2 In its earliest form, the ordinary costume consisted of an undercloth of hemp, a wooly "halena" and a divided kilt. As time passed this original form was ornamented so that its simple character was shown to the best advantage and it attained its highest aesthetic value . Accompanying the gradual improvements in style and color was the tendency of each village to fashion a costume peculiar to itself. It has been noted by some historians that at one period in history there had been over thirty-five distinct national Slovak costumes. In Slovakia everyone became aware of an approaching holiday. Preparations began weeks in advance and the women vied with each other in exhibiting their holiday �SLOVAKIA Costume from town of Detva 155 �156 SLOVAKIA attire. The underskirts of the women were considered quite fashionable and they were proudly displayed. They were well gathered and often trimmed with lace or seasonal bands of color. To add a touch of variety, the front of the skirt was usually made of printed materials. Over the skirt a kind of dress was worn called a "kabat". The week-day dress was made of dark colors; in holiday outfits brighter colors predominated. The linen waist or bodice was unique. Its white puffed sleeves were trimmed with lace and embroidery from the shoulder to the elbow. The embroidery was so exquisite that the underside was almost as perfect as the upper. In some districts the women pleated their attire in sharp folds while the material was damp and left it to dry crisp in the sun. This fashion is now considered quite archaic and likened to the folds in the clothes of the ancient Greeks. During the penitential seasons of the Church, th~ women modified their costume by wearing subdued colors, drawing their sleeves tightly around the arms and trimmed underskirt in purple or somber colors. It has been remarked that the villagers were prompted by a strong sense of local solidarity and sought distinction in local costume. This distinction became apparent in the headdress worn by the women of each district. Women of the Chod district, for example, were recognized by the black kerchief which they wore tied at the neck with one embroidered and thrown proudly over the left shoulder. Others wore a white turbanlike headdress with complicated binding which is reminiscent of Renaissance fashions. Some others fancied lovely lace caps with scarfs tied loosely under the chin. On more festive occasions, floral wreaths were worn interwoven with gay colored ribbons which hung gracefully over the shoulders. The week day attire of the men was simple. They wore tight fitting trousers made from coarse white linen or wool with little or no decoration. A broad belt was worn around the waist to accommodate such masculine commodities as knives, shears, tobacco-pouch etc. Some of the men wore black felt hats a low crown and an up-turned brim from twelve to eighteen inches wide. The coats or jackets were principally sheep skin and thrown over the left shoulder, leaving the right arm free. �157 SLOVAKIA On Sundays and holidays, however, the men added a note of interest to the festive display. In certain districts their white linen shirtwaists were colorfully embroidered. The young men with their long white linen trousers, colorful fringed sashes and white blouses with long, loose embroidered sleeves, presented a handsome picture. Woolen wests trimmed with intricate geometrical designs were worn with pride. Occasionally loose-fitting white coat of a home-made wool fabric was worn. Frequently the "cakan" or walking stick with an axe-head was carried by the men and rem.i nds us that these are the descendants of a people who formerly guarded frontiers and mountain passes. This report offers a brief glimpse into the distinctive character of Slovak peasant costume. The style presented was of a general type and the reader must bear in mind various regional adaptations. The styles we have considered have been traditional and collected bit by bit during the course of time. How many of us have not gathered souvenirs during the course of our travels? On our return we find our baggage bursting with miscellaneous objects. It is much the same with regard to national costume. With the passing of time, nations not only surround themselves with but wear on their persons a collection of objects the significance of which we are unable to explain at present. It is our fervent prayer that a new dawn of freedom will soon break through the dismal night of oppression and that an oppressed but hopeful people will take the fragments of a broken culture and piece together for our benefit their artistic traditions. Agnes Bo can Danville, Pa. FOOTNO T ES Steph en J . Palickar, Slovakian Culture in t he Light of History ( Cambridge, Mass.: 1' he Hampshire Press, Inc., 1954), p. 202. 2) Scotus Viator, Racial Problems in Hungary (Archib ald Constable and Co., L.T.D., 1908 ) , p. 356. 1) THE SWVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA through its Ladies Awdliary, the " VCIELKY" (Bees), sponsors Slovak cultttrai displays. concerts, lectures, art exhibits, folk festivals, social evenings, etc. Our aim is to have a "Hive" of our "Vc'!ielky" in every large Slovak community. � SLOVAKIA 153 An Introduction to Slovak Costume We are guite familiar with the old French proverb, "The habit does not make the monk." This popular adage implies that a man's clothes can be misleading with regard to his personality. When individual cases are concerned, this maxim may be true but taken collectively, national costumes frequently run parallel with the history of a people. This fact can be observed quite readily in the study of Slovak peasant costume. Such research reveals the characteristics of a people deprived of their national freedom and who sought compensation under oppression by dauntlessly expressing their cultural force. When all other means of national self-expression was denied them, the Slovak People relied on the handicrafts of the peasant people to perpetuate the national thought of the race and in this category embroidery and needle work played an important part.I Artistic expression among the Slovaks was not limited to the art academies and cultural institutions. It was developed to a remarkable extent in the home. The pottery, wood-carving and ceramics found there bore the hallmark of distinction. Volumes could be written dealing with the artistic productions of the Slovak people but let it suffice to say that today a great deal of Slovak art is being exhibited in museums throughout Europe and being the work of an oppressed people, there is no indication of their true origin. A study of Slovak costume design can prove to be quite interesting due to its distinctive character, bright colors, variety and uniqueness. A love of color and a sensitivity to its use are part of the Slovak heritage. To the uninitiated, the costumes may appear as a conglomeration of colored fabrics, ribbons, floral patterns and lace but to those who are familiar with Slovak culture, all of these elements are but an outward expression of the inner soul of the people. Basically, in relation to costume design, the Slovaks can be classified into two distinct groups. The Slovaks �154 SLOVAKIA of the mountain districts and the Slovaks of the more prosperous South. It was among the Slovaks of the mountains that the earliest and most characteristic examples of Slovak peasant garb are found. They were patterned in simple straight lines and were decorated with geometrical designs while the natural white color of the material was retained. The Slovaks of the South were distinguished by their use of bright colors. During the course of time their styles were modified by foreign influences but remined effective owing to harmonious color blends. The difference in dress emphasizes the contrast between the fiery temperament of the southern Slovak and the soft, pensive and melancholy character of the mountaineer. The national dress of the peasant originated in the home and each member of the family cooperated in its execution. The women worked on the embroidery and lace during the long winter months when their fingers resumed their dexterity after a busy summer spent in the fields . It was a common sight to see several women of a village combining their talents to produce the bridal attire of a young girl. Every garment was a heirloom passed on to succeeding generations and each contributed its little quota of embellishment or modified whatever was unsuited for the occasion. In Slovak embroidery may be traced the whole technique of artistic needle-work design and one continually comes across articles of clothing, especially baby linens and churching-cloths, which, we are amazed to find , must have taken a life time to prepare.2 In its earliest form, the ordinary costume consisted of an undercloth of hemp, a wooly "halena" and a divided kilt. As time passed this original form was ornamented so that its simple character was shown to the best advantage and it attained its highest aesthetic value . Accompanying the gradual improvements in style and color was the tendency of each village to fashion a costume peculiar to itself. It has been noted by some historians that at one period in history there had been over thirty-five distinct national Slovak costumes. In Slovakia everyone became aware of an approaching holiday. Preparations began weeks in advance and the women vied with each other in exhibiting their holiday �SLOVAKIA Costume from town of Detva 155 �156 SLOVAKIA attire. The underskirts of the women were considered quite fashionable and they were proudly displayed. They were well gathered and often trimmed with lace or seasonal bands of color. To add a touch of variety, the front of the skirt was usually made of printed materials. Over the skirt a kind of dress was worn called a "kabat". The week-day dress was made of dark colors; in holiday outfits brighter colors predominated. The linen waist or bodice was unique. Its white puffed sleeves were trimmed with lace and embroidery from the shoulder to the elbow. The embroidery was so exquisite that the underside was almost as perfect as the upper. In some districts the women pleated their attire in sharp folds while the material was damp and left it to dry crisp in the sun. This fashion is now considered quite archaic and likened to the folds in the clothes of the ancient Greeks. During the penitential seasons of the Church, th~ women modified their costume by wearing subdued colors, drawing their sleeves tightly around the arms and trimmed underskirt in purple or somber colors. It has been remarked that the villagers were prompted by a strong sense of local solidarity and sought distinction in local costume. This distinction became apparent in the headdress worn by the women of each district. Women of the Chod district, for example, were recognized by the black kerchief which they wore tied at the neck with one embroidered and thrown proudly over the left shoulder. Others wore a white turbanlike headdress with complicated binding which is reminiscent of Renaissance fashions. Some others fancied lovely lace caps with scarfs tied loosely under the chin. On more festive occasions, floral wreaths were worn interwoven with gay colored ribbons which hung gracefully over the shoulders. The week day attire of the men was simple. They wore tight fitting trousers made from coarse white linen or wool with little or no decoration. A broad belt was worn around the waist to accommodate such masculine commodities as knives, shears, tobacco-pouch etc. Some of the men wore black felt hats a low crown and an up-turned brim from twelve to eighteen inches wide. The coats or jackets were principally sheep skin and thrown over the left shoulder, leaving the right arm free. �157 SLOVAKIA On Sundays and holidays, however, the men added a note of interest to the festive display. In certain districts their white linen shirtwaists were colorfully embroidered. The young men with their long white linen trousers, colorful fringed sashes and white blouses with long, loose embroidered sleeves, presented a handsome picture. Woolen wests trimmed with intricate geometrical designs were worn with pride. Occasionally loose-fitting white coat of a home-made wool fabric was worn. Frequently the "cakan" or walking stick with an axe-head was carried by the men and rem.i nds us that these are the descendants of a people who formerly guarded frontiers and mountain passes. This report offers a brief glimpse into the distinctive character of Slovak peasant costume. The style presented was of a general type and the reader must bear in mind various regional adaptations. The styles we have considered have been traditional and collected bit by bit during the course of time. How many of us have not gathered souvenirs during the course of our travels? On our return we find our baggage bursting with miscellaneous objects. It is much the same with regard to national costume. With the passing of time, nations not only surround themselves with but wear on their persons a collection of objects the significance of which we are unable to explain at present. It is our fervent prayer that a new dawn of freedom will soon break through the dismal night of oppression and that an oppressed but hopeful people will take the fragments of a broken culture and piece together for our benefit their artistic traditions. Agnes Bo can Danville, Pa. FOOTNO T ES Steph en J . Palickar, Slovakian Culture in t he Light of History ( Cambridge, Mass.: 1' he Hampshire Press, Inc., 1954), p. 202. 2) Scotus Viator, Racial Problems in Hungary (Archib ald Constable and Co., L.T.D., 1908 ) , p. 356. 1) THE SWVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA through its Ladies Awdliary, the " VCIELKY" (Bees), sponsors Slovak cultttrai displays. concerts, lectures, art exhibits, folk festivals, social evenings, etc. Our aim is to have a "Hive" of our "Vc'!ielky" in every large Slovak community. � 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 1972, Vol. 22 Description An account of the resource Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972. 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 1972 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 153 An Introduction to Slovak Costume We are guite familiar with the old French proverb, "The habit does not make the monk." This popular adage implies that a man's clothes can be misleading with regard to his personality. When individual cases are concerned, this maxim may be true but taken collectively, national costumes frequently run parallel with the history of a people. This fact can be observed quite readily in the study of Slovak peasant costume. Such research reveals the characteristics of a people deprived of their national freedom and who sought compensation under oppression by dauntlessly expressing their cultural force. When all other means of national self-expression was denied them, the Slovak People relied on the handicrafts of the peasant people to perpetuate the national thought of the race and in this category embroidery and needle work played an important part.I Artistic expression among the Slovaks was not limited to the art academies and cultural institutions. It was developed to a remarkable extent in the home. The pottery, wood-carving and ceramics found there bore the hallmark of distinction. Volumes could be written dealing with the artistic productions of the Slovak people but let it suffice to say that today a great deal of Slovak art is being exhibited in museums throughout Europe and being the work of an oppressed people, there is no indication of their true origin. A study of Slovak costume design can prove to be quite interesting due to its distinctive character, bright colors, variety and uniqueness. A love of color and a sensitivity to its use are part of the Slovak heritage. To the uninitiated, the costumes may appear as a conglomeration of colored fabrics, ribbons, floral patterns and lace but to those who are familiar with Slovak culture, all of these elements are but an outward expression of the inner soul of the people. Basically, in relation to costume design, the Slovaks can be classified into two distinct groups. The Slovaks 154 SLOVAKIA of the mountain districts and the Slovaks of the more prosperous South. It was among the Slovaks of the mountains that the earliest and most characteristic examples of Slovak peasant garb are found. They were patterned in simple straight lines and were decorated with geometrical designs while the natural white color of the material was retained. The Slovaks of the South were distinguished by their use of bright colors. During the course of time their styles were modified by foreign influences but remined effective owing to harmonious color blends. The difference in dress emphasizes the contrast between the fiery temperament of the southern Slovak and the soft, pensive and melancholy character of the mountaineer. The national dress of the peasant originated in the home and each member of the family cooperated in its execution. The women worked on the embroidery and lace during the long winter months when their fingers resumed their dexterity after a busy summer spent in the fields . It was a common sight to see several women of a village combining their talents to produce the bridal attire of a young girl. Every garment was a heirloom passed on to succeeding generations and each contributed its little quota of embellishment or modified whatever was unsuited for the occasion. In Slovak embroidery may be traced the whole technique of artistic needle-work design and one continually comes across articles of clothing, especially baby linens and churching-cloths, which, we are amazed to find , must have taken a life time to prepare.2 In its earliest form, the ordinary costume consisted of an undercloth of hemp, a wooly "halena" and a divided kilt. As time passed this original form was ornamented so that its simple character was shown to the best advantage and it attained its highest aesthetic value . Accompanying the gradual improvements in style and color was the tendency of each village to fashion a costume peculiar to itself. It has been noted by some historians that at one period in history there had been over thirty-five distinct national Slovak costumes. In Slovakia everyone became aware of an approaching holiday. Preparations began weeks in advance and the women vied with each other in exhibiting their holiday SLOVAKIA Costume from town of Detva 155 156 SLOVAKIA attire. The underskirts of the women were considered quite fashionable and they were proudly displayed. They were well gathered and often trimmed with lace or seasonal bands of color. To add a touch of variety, the front of the skirt was usually made of printed materials. Over the skirt a kind of dress was worn called a "kabat". The week-day dress was made of dark colors; in holiday outfits brighter colors predominated. The linen waist or bodice was unique. Its white puffed sleeves were trimmed with lace and embroidery from the shoulder to the elbow. The embroidery was so exquisite that the underside was almost as perfect as the upper. In some districts the women pleated their attire in sharp folds while the material was damp and left it to dry crisp in the sun. This fashion is now considered quite archaic and likened to the folds in the clothes of the ancient Greeks. During the penitential seasons of the Church, th~ women modified their costume by wearing subdued colors, drawing their sleeves tightly around the arms and trimmed underskirt in purple or somber colors. It has been remarked that the villagers were prompted by a strong sense of local solidarity and sought distinction in local costume. This distinction became apparent in the headdress worn by the women of each district. Women of the Chod district, for example, were recognized by the black kerchief which they wore tied at the neck with one embroidered and thrown proudly over the left shoulder. Others wore a white turbanlike headdress with complicated binding which is reminiscent of Renaissance fashions. Some others fancied lovely lace caps with scarfs tied loosely under the chin. On more festive occasions, floral wreaths were worn interwoven with gay colored ribbons which hung gracefully over the shoulders. The week day attire of the men was simple. They wore tight fitting trousers made from coarse white linen or wool with little or no decoration. A broad belt was worn around the waist to accommodate such masculine commodities as knives, shears, tobacco-pouch etc. Some of the men wore black felt hats a low crown and an up-turned brim from twelve to eighteen inches wide. The coats or jackets were principally sheep skin and thrown over the left shoulder, leaving the right arm free. 157 SLOVAKIA On Sundays and holidays, however, the men added a note of interest to the festive display. In certain districts their white linen shirtwaists were colorfully embroidered. The young men with their long white linen trousers, colorful fringed sashes and white blouses with long, loose embroidered sleeves, presented a handsome picture. Woolen wests trimmed with intricate geometrical designs were worn with pride. Occasionally loose-fitting white coat of a home-made wool fabric was worn. Frequently the "cakan" or walking stick with an axe-head was carried by the men and rem.i nds us that these are the descendants of a people who formerly guarded frontiers and mountain passes. This report offers a brief glimpse into the distinctive character of Slovak peasant costume. The style presented was of a general type and the reader must bear in mind various regional adaptations. The styles we have considered have been traditional and collected bit by bit during the course of time. How many of us have not gathered souvenirs during the course of our travels? On our return we find our baggage bursting with miscellaneous objects. It is much the same with regard to national costume. With the passing of time, nations not only surround themselves with but wear on their persons a collection of objects the significance of which we are unable to explain at present. It is our fervent prayer that a new dawn of freedom will soon break through the dismal night of oppression and that an oppressed but hopeful people will take the fragments of a broken culture and piece together for our benefit their artistic traditions. Agnes Bo can Danville, Pa. FOOTNO T ES Steph en J . Palickar, Slovakian Culture in t he Light of History ( Cambridge, Mass.: 1' he Hampshire Press, Inc., 1954), p. 202. 2) Scotus Viator, Racial Problems in Hungary (Archib ald Constable and Co., L.T.D., 1908 ) , p. 356. 1) THE SWVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA through its Ladies Awdliary, the " VCIELKY" (Bees), sponsors Slovak cultttrai displays. concerts, lectures, art exhibits, folk festivals, social evenings, etc. Our aim is to have a "Hive" of our "Vc'!ielky" in every large Slovak community.  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 An Introduction to Slovak Costume Description An account of the resource Agnes Bocaň Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 153-157 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bocaň, Agnes Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/6ecb9a8a1a3ae244eaea5fd8670bbade.pdf 60b590a5785e269d2a32bdb8fb90bda1 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 21 Materialism and Morality: Slavic-America'n Immigrants and Education, 1890-1940 BY JOHN BODNAR Prevailing American scholarship has credited immigrants to America with cherishing the idea of free public education and the promise it offered for social success. Scholars studying the attitudes of immigrants toward public education have portrayed immigrants as "true believers" in the potential of the American school. The widely accepted interpretation of Timothy Smith, for instance, argues forcefully that newcomers from southern and eastern Europe displayed a passionate and "intensified concern" for schooling in America. "That indigenous thrust for education," Smith asserted, "explains far better than any contributions of the Americanization movement the remarkable success in this country of Central European Slavs, Magyars, Rumanians, Jews, Greeks, and Italians." Smith argued that these immigrants had a "commitment" to the American dream of personal advancement through schooling. (1) Certainly some immigrant groups, such as Scandinavians, Jews, and Rumanians, displayed strong beliefs in the value of public schooling. (2) But the attempt to generalize about the immigrant experience obscures the variety of cultures and views newcomers brought to America. Studies of occupational mobility, for instance, are beginning to suggest that immigrants revealed divergent patterns of social attainment in America. (3) It remains to be seen, however, whether all newcomers embraced the ethic of success through public schooling. This study hopes to suggest that a consensus did not exist among immigrants in the worshipping of American schools and their potentiality. By focusing on Slavic-Americans, this essay will test the hypothesis that the American experience of southern and eastern Europeans "intensified the concern for learning." (4) Slavic immigrants to America and their children never denied the value of education itself. They did, however, conceive of education as having specific functions which were unrelated to social advancement. Above all else, education for immigrant children was for the purpose of retaining the cultural, linguistic, and religious values of the ethnic group. This message pervaded immigrant literature and was made unmistakably clear to the second generation. Cultural continuity was an overriding concern in America. Language and customs were threatened by Americanization just as Magyarization had threatened Slavic culture in the Austro-Hungarian �22 SLOVAKIA Empire. A Polish editor in Chicago explained that the major reason for the existence of the Polish National Alliance and parochial schools was to inculcate the use of the Polish language in the young. (5) Language preservation acquired a sense of importance before 1918 because of the European heritage of foreign domination, a heritage shared by Poles, Slovaks , Ukrainians, Croats,and Slovenes. Since Polish culture was threatened not only by Americanization but, in Europe, by Germany and Russia , its preservation in America seemed essential. (6) The necessity of this course became even more urgent when immigration was restricted in the 1920s. Osadne Hlasy, a Slovak publication, argued that with immigration restricted little assistance could be expected from ''the outside. ' ' It was now imperative, the newspaper stressed, to send children to Slovak schools where the "Slovak spirit" and language would be cultivated . (7) The efforts .at language maintenance were constantly in conflict with attacks of Americanizers. But immigrants reacted almost defiantly . A Croatian editor criticized Americans for not caring for foreign languages. He labeled the American desire to have all newcomers speak English fanatical and chauvinistic. Jednota, the organ of the First Catholic Slovak Union, concurred and told all Slovaks to disregard Americans who ridiculed their language because bilingualism was something of which to be proud. (8) Immigrants did more than preach language maintenance. In numerous communities such as Milwaukee and New York, Poles initiated movements to teach Polish in public schools. During the 1930s the Polish Felician Sisters in the Buffalo area launched programs to restore the teaching of the Polish language. The Polish National Church replaced Latin with Polish in its religious services after separating from the Roman Catholic Church in 1897. (9) Language schools proliferated in Slavic colonies beginning in the 1920s. In 1925 the Croatian fraternal lodges of Chicago initiated a school for children to learn to read and write Croatian . The Croatian Women 's Clubs of America ("Hrvatska Zena") launched widespread programs in 1929 to promote the preservation of the Croatian language. (10) While cultural preservation was important, however, a new transformative force was encountered in America - modem, urban society . Thus the retention of language was equalled in importance by the maintenance of religious ways. Slavic Catholics continually insisted that early childhood education should be in parochial schools. Invariably all Slavic groups were unanimous in their advocacy of religious over secular schools. '' A Catholic education is the best education in the world,'' Jednota claimed , ' 'because it prepares one for the main business of life: the saving of one's soul." On another occasion, the Slovak journal proclaimed that Catholic schools were the only "real" schools . (11) Slovene periodicals concurred that only Catholic schools could give children the " right kind of education. " (12) Polish �SLOVAKIA 23 newcomers were instructed that if children attended public schools and failed to receive instruction in the Polish language and religion, they were a' 'total loss to the Polish people .'' (13) It is important to remember that language-loyalty and religion were inseparable. Slavs felt that one could not exist without the other. '' A Pole who says he is a Catholic but who is ashamed of or neglects the Polish language," a Polish writer insisted, "is not a true Catholic." Conversely, when the National Slovak Society organized a school for young Slovaks in Chicago~in 1904, which stressed Slovak language instructions, it received little support. Slovak Catholics claimed they would not support a school which failed to offer any religious teachings. Indeed, Jednota, in an editorial entitled "Educational Rights of Parents,'' held that parents have the basic right to send their children to schools where love of God and homeland is taught. (14) Slovak schools were viewed as places where children would learn ''to think in Slovak, talk in Slovak,and know the culture of their nation and love for their people." Slovaks were even instructed in how to give graduation speeches to the young since such addresses would offer a final opportunity to admonish the young to conduct themselves as good Slovaks and good Catholics. (15) If early schooling was to center on ''God and country,'' higher education also had its limits. Ivan Kramoris, a Slovak writer, admitted in 1939 that most Slovaks had been adverse to giving their sons higher education unless it involved study for the priesthood . (16) Actually many Slavs were skeptical of the possibilities of "modem education." John Lesko, a Slovak, wrote in Jednota that it was not clearly evident that "modem education" would guarantee progress. "A university education may bring one worldly position and prestige,'' Lesko argued, ''but peace and well-being and genuine progess come only from good will. '' Even Jednota admitted in 1939 that Slovaks in America ''lacked the generosity of the Jews'' in supporting education. (17) To be sure, numerous Slavic groups established plans for colleges and several were actually initiated. Their function, however, was clearly defined. When Alliance College in Pennsylvania was launched by Poles in 1911, it was conceived to be an institution whereby young Poles could become good Polish citizens, something which was thought unattainable in the homeland under foreign rule. On the opening of a Slovene college in Lemont, Illinois, Slovenes rejoiced over the fact that they now had both a college to educate spiritual leaders and priests, and a cultural center to guard "our religious standard" from the "destructive" work of the Yugoslav Socialist Federation. (18) Other Slavic groups echoed the thrust of the Slovenes and Poles. Slovaks planned a Slovak Catholic College in the late 1930s as a home for all Slavic cultures and an "arsenal" in the fight against atheistic communism. The Serbian National Federation created a college scholarship program in 1933 which required Serbian-American youth to �24 SLOVAKIA attend universities in Yugoslavia to study the Serbian language, history, and literature. (19) Wiadomosc Codzienne actually told Polish parents in Cleveland not to have their sons study for professions but rather to become skilled artisans since it would be easier to find a job. (20) Indeed, adjacent to Alliance College, Poles established the Alliance Trade Institute to train youth in mechanical trades. The graduates of the institute would not be professionals, according to Dziennik Zwiazowy, ''but skilled labor is just as useful and necessary as mental labor." A Slovak journal went further by suggesting that since opportunities were limited, young men should learn a skill. (21) While a good deal of effort was invested in instructing the second generation to retain the various ethnic cultures and eschew secular education, some immigrant children differed. Inevitably the relatively few Slavic children who moved through the American school system modified their parents' instructions considerably. Some attacked the views of the first generation, and their criticism revealed much about their parents' minds. A second generation Polish education group, for instance, explained that their parents' preoccupation with Polish nationalism was noble but, as a result, ''it lowered interest in making a place for Poles in this country." The New American argued that the progress of Poles in this country was sacrificed in order to settle a historical debt (free Poland). (22) The young Poles, in another editorial, criticized other Polish-Americans for possessing "an attitude of obliviousness to education and a lack of appreciation for a sense of deferred values.'' The essay concluded: There exists a tendency among a large number of Polish young men and women to be easily satis'fied with a mediocre position, sometimes to a point of servitutle in a routine job with a remote chance for advancement. (23) Other educated immigrant children echoed the critique of young Poles. Stephen Mamchur, in an address to the Ukrainian Youth Congress in 1935, criticized the policy of Ukrainians who foster ethnic isolation by socializing "students in Ukrainian culture." Mamchur felt Ukrainian children should spend less time in studying Ukrainian and pay more attention to secular education if Ukrainians were to rise in the American social structure. If the "isolationist" policy continued, Mamchur predicted that Ukrainians would remain a "caste" and never assume ''that place in the American social order to which our abilities entitle us.'' (24) While a few immigrant children had acquired American middleclass notions of education and mobility and attempted to inculcate their views to the Slavic masses, however, most, thoroughly socialized by their parents, shared their parents' views on cultural maintenance. Consider the activities of American-born Ukrainians. By the early 1930s the second generation had established the Ukrainian Youth League of �SLOVAKIA 25 North America, the Ukrainian Catholic Youth of North America and the Ukrainian Orthodox League of North America. A vast network of neighborhood centers, athletic and cultural programs and publications such as the Ukrainian Chronicle and The Ukrainian Weekly appeared. (25) The Ukrainian Youth League of North America was typical. Organized in 1933, it contained four divisions: social, athletic, educational (Ukrainian history and language), and cultural (dramas). Its main objectives were t\) organize Ukrainian-American youth and disseminate among them a knowledge of the Ukrainian people, to promote moral and physical talents, and to support all Ukrainian national and cultural institutions. One delegate to the Ukrainian Catholic League's convention in 1938 contended that young Ukrainians could not deny the existence of their forefathers or their heritage and that it was imperative ''to carry on the work of keeping alive the culture of our predecessors.'' (26) Annual conventions, in fact, often witnessed debate over the extent young Ukrainians should Americanize. A consensus at the 1936 meeting, for instance, agreed that Ukrainian youth should '' live up to their promise'' by keeping the traditions of our ''beloved Ukraine, whether they be religious or otherwise.'' (27) The youth leagues also established a diverse program of plays, dances, history and language instruction, and athletic competition. The First Ukrainian Catholic National Track and Field Championships were held in Philadelphia in 1936 and attracted participants from Bridgeport, Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia. Vasile Avramenko and his Ukrainian Folk Ballet became extremely popular among both Ukrainian generations in America in the early 1930s and were sponsored in numerous localities by local youth leagues. In 1939, over 50,000 people attended the American-Ukrainian Folk Festival at the New York World's Fair which was sponsored by the Ukrainian American Youth League. (28) Immigrant children were also influenced by their parents in subtle ways to value immediate work above a lengthy education. Some viewed their immigrant fathers as, above all else, hard workers. If sons had any image of their fathers it included manual work as an inevitable aspect of life. A Polish-American described his parents as individuals who believed in ''work, work, work, and work.'' A Bethlehem Slovak recalled that his father never talked of changing jobs but only of doing a good day's work for the company. (29) A Serbian son in Pittsburgh remembered his father as a man esteemed by fellow Serbs for his dedication to his job. The Serbian son claimed his father's characteristics were representative of most Serbs. He argued: Those men were tireless. They did hard work. They stuck with their job; they didn't have to be driven. They were tireless and always feared the loss of their jobs since they had nothing to fall back on. (30) �26 SLOVAKIA Slavic parents also held definite ideas concerning work which influenced the educational prospects of their children drastically . The individualistic approach to child rearing was an anathema to Slavs. They viewed their children as part of a collective whose work was necessary for family survival. (31) As a young man, John Smitko wanted to be a Slovak priest. His mother argued that religious training would not provide an adequate income and insisted he work in the mill. Smitko became a pit careman in a Duquesne mill for forty-five years . (32) Joseph Slater, the son of a Polish miner, was taken to work in an Ohio coal mine by his father at age sixteen. Nick Kiak's first job was learning the operation of a crane from his father at the Bethlehem mill. (33) Working-class parents encouraged child labor rather than schooling as necessary for family survival. In the 1920s, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, thirty-five percent of Polish family income was provided by child labor. Before Pennsylvania restricted child labor in the 1920s, Slavic parents routinely falsified working permits so that their children could begin work at fourteen instead of the legal age of sixteen. Sam Davich was required to work at age fourteen in a glass factory in Pittsburgh and turn over his earnings to his mother. Michael Komernitski worked as a teenager when his father's illness reduced family income . In Lyndora, in western Pennsylvania, most Polish children were sent to Detroit in the late 1920s when news of jobs in the expanding automobile industry was received. One Ukrainian-American son explained that it was understood that a child helped his father because the parent " couldn 't make out. " (34) Slavic parents not only influenced their children by the example of hard work and the demands of family survival but imparted definite views concerning education. A typical Slovak father stressed to his son that it was more important to learn a manual skill than attend school. Michael Zahorsky was assured by his father that if he learned a trade he would never go hungry. Zahorsky became a blacksmith. Frank Horvath quit school at age sixteen to work in a Bethlehem furniture factory. His brothers had already started peddling milk to help pay the family milk bill. Horvath's parents questioned whether school helped anyone survive. They argued that an opportl\nity to leave school and make money should never be avoided. (35) When Slavic newcomers did insist on education, religious vocation and ethnic cultures were usually stressed. Michael Labeka's father taught him the role of cantor in the Ukrainian church. A cantor was paid to sing religious responses in many Slavic churches. Labeka later supplemented his income as a mill worker in Monessen with his earnings as a cantor. Bernard Gorcyca's parents sent him to a Polish seminary in Michigan at age fourteen. Other parents admonished their children to study their native tongue and religious instruction. (36) The tension between the ostensible promise of American �SLOVAKIA 27 \ education and success, something which divided the immigrant children, and the wishes of the immigrants reached a classic confrontation among Croatians. In 1940, a professor of Croatian extraction at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Francis Preveden, presented a comprehensive plan to the Supreme Board of the Croatian Fraternal Union of America (CFU). Preveden asked the fraternal union to institute a monthly assessment of one cent per member to support the creation of Croatian National Alliance for Schooling and Education of Youth at Duquesne. While Preveden was motivated partly by a desire to create an enhanced institutional position for himself, his argument was clearly presented to the Croatian leaders and public. The Croatian center, according to Preveden, would '' open the gates of the temples of knowledge" to Croatian children who had "been denied the advantages of higher education." Preveden stated his goal succinctly: In its full extent this plan aims at the gradual transformation of our immigrants from a class of laborers to a class of intellectuals. This change should come through encouragement of secondary and higher education among our younger ·generation. (37) Preveden attributed a perceived lack of educational attainment and ' 'intellectual stagnation' ' among Croatians to the ''ignorance and criminal neglect" of Croatian leaders who worried more over the internal politics of the ethnic organization and "evil genius" of the last two generations of the Croatian people in America. Preveden equated the status of the Croatian people in America to that of the Negro and placed Croats decidedly behind the Irish whose educational network he admired. And he argued that· the additional assessment required for the center would not lead to deprivation . (38) The reaction of the CFU leaders was to call for a referendum of the union's membership on the issue of initiating a monthly assessment to support the Croatian educational center. (39) By 1940 the CFU was divided into Croatian-speaking lodges, which predominated and consisted of both first and second generation Croats, and English-speaking lodges , which were fewer in number and were composed entirely of American-born Croats. It was from the Croatianspeaking lodges that Preveden encountered his severest opposition . Many immigrant Croats, including those in the supreme board of the CFU , were opposed to increased assessments for education , especially because numerous immigrants were retiring by 1940 and needed financial assistance. Adam Sudetic, a senior CFU member from Detroit, was critical of any plan that represented a drift away from the Croatian language. Sudetic further felt that the stress on "educated Croats " discouraged other young Croats from joining the fraternal union . (40) �28 SLOVAKIA Preveden's strongest support, not unexpectedly, came from the English-speaking lodges. English lodges in Gary, Indiana; Lackawanna, New York; and Pittsburgh sent strong endorsements to Zajednicar, the organ of the CFU. (41) Michael Horvath, the editor for the English section of Zajednicar, argued vigorously for the plan. Horvath insisted that the center: is the one concrete manner in which we can prove to our young that we are willing to do for them what was denied us in the past and that is to extend to them a decent opportunity of educating themselves in the better fields of learning. (42) Horvath and other proponents of the plan initiated a strategically designed series in Zajednicar during the spring and summer of 1940 entitled "Survey of College Educated and Professional Croatians." Croatian Americans who graduated from college were identified and their life histories were published. It was hoped that such examples "of the success of our youth'' in education would spread interest in education and progress throughout all Croatian youth in America. Questionnaires were mailed to every lodge and to over seven hundred colleges in the United States and Canada seeking information on Croatians in college. Weekly lists were published of those in college and in professions. A reference file was started for future students to learn from the experience of other Croats "in the never ceasing struggle to attain success." After nearly four months, the survey was ended on the eve on the referendum to decide the fate of the Preveden plan. What it had demonstrated was the exceedingly low rate of educational attainment and mobility by Croats by 1940. With nearly 400,000 Croats in America only 135 college students were identified and 150 "professionals" including receptionists, stenographers, mail carriers, and one professional boxer. (43) By late September the results of the referendum were clear. Over 10,000 votes were cast out of 58,000 eligible voters in the CFU. The Preveden education plan was defeated by;._ more than a two to one margin. The series on educational attainments was abruptly stopped and the sections devoted to Croatian youth in Zajednicar quickly returned to a "complete focus on sports," something which had been noticeably absent during the summer of 1940. The immigrants and a good representation of their children had spoken. The surrender to American middle-class values would not be that easy. (44) Clearly the Slavic immigrant had misgivings about American schooling and the promise it ostensibly offered. In part, his hostility to education stemmed from the threat public schooling posed to his cultural heritage and language. Certp.inly his working-class status reinforced these educational views. But an examination of immigrant literature revealed a deeper motive for explaining the orientation of �SLOVAKIA 29 Slavic newcomers. Ultimately Slavs were troubled by the materialistic, acquisitive thrust of Amarican life. Poles, Slovaks, Croats, and Ukrainians not only resisted Americanization but they also were reluctant to embrace the secular aspect of modern urban industrial society. Ultimately, the Slav would not only resist pressures to Americanize but he would offer a critique of the moral quality of modern industrial America. Throughout the first half century of large scale Slavic settlement in America, a consistent anti-materialistic bias permeated the immigrants' thought. In the early 1890s, Polish newspapers were already mounting a strong assault on the ''Dollar God'' of American culture. A Pole from Priceburg, Pennsylvania, wrote a letter to Dziennik Chicagoski criticizing American society for straining parental-child relationships by stressing "excess and wantonness." The "struggle for the dollar'' facilitated the losing of ''religion and patriotism so dear to us.'' Numerous editorials and articles emphasized the evil effects of the pursuit of material wealth. In an 1894 editorial Zgoda told Poles that a ''reasonable honest drive'' to improve your material being was good, but the "idolistic pursuit' of money at the expense of your soul would bring "hatred and desperation." Zgoda continued, "good character and work are the greatest wealth." (45) It was precisely because of this skepticism of the promise of American life that Poles emphasized Polish over American schools. Dziennik Chicagoski called Polish schools the ''watch-tower'' of the Polish spirit. American schools were felt to be a "horrible example" where children learn little but disrespect for their parents. American schools were not considered ''adequate'' for Polish children not only because they were "irreligious" but because they were thought to be permeated with secularism. (46) Poles, in fact, attacked other areas of American life. The popular literature of America, such as magazines and ''love stories and the like" which were printed for profit, was sharply attacked for lowering moral standards. Again the Polish press articulated the feeling: . . . have we fallen so low that we cannot pursue something better (than Americans). Let us concentrate our thoughts and spirits in a direction that will be worthy of us - toward better spiritual and moral standards which will place us above all others. In order to maintain the purity of the Polish spirit, we must stay clear of the present course of the American generation. (47) Slovaks invariably echoed the Polish sentiments. In a series of essays in Jednota by the Slovak writer, Ivan Kramoris, the Slovak immigrant situation was analyzed. Kramoris posed the question, "But what are we going to do in America?" He explained that such a choice �30 SLOVAKIA should be made in the framework of economic versus moral standards. Kramoris argued that an individual's morality actually influenced his economic life . Little doubt existed in Kramoris' mind that the eventual emphasis should be placed upon morality. Other writers in Jednota concurred: " So many are cursed with the lust of acquiring things they see no further ahead than their own selfish self''; a Slovak editor exclaimed , ''those who measure success by the material things acquired are lost in the fog of life.' ' (48) Characteristically, the anti-materialistic bias influenced Slovak views on education. Osadne Hlasy illustrated the drawbacks of the public schools in 1929. Children were taught but not "reared" in American schools; according to the Slovak journal, "they educate the mind but not the heart." J. T. Porincak, a Slovak, clarified the argument: With a public school education they (children) go forth into the world, lost completely to the Slovaks. Their idea of life is a breezy and snappy novel, a blood curdling movie and lots of money. But our duty to our people commands us to save our youth from the moral catastrophe that is confronting it. (49) Slovaks also revealed a collective self-perception of themselves as moral people. A Jednota article compared Slovaks to Quakers . Unlike the British and Italians who were felt to the militaristic, Slovaks, like Quakers, represented "endurance and strength, not progress and conquest." In a clear display of working-class resignation and futility, the Jednota writer concluded that Slovaks know what ''life is worth and do not strive for the unobtainable." At his retirement as editor of Jednota in 1937, Joseph Rusek made a farewell speech in which he analyzed the contribution of Slovaks to American life. What Slovaks , he concluded, could give America was a "moral legacy." Rusek thought Slovak identity would eventually be lost in America but '' our moral values will contribute to the creation of the American nation.'' (50) Similar currents were found in the res\ of Slavic America. George Mamek told a Chicago Croatian youth club in 1931 that most Americans shared a '' cruel materialistic philosophy'' ahd thought more of their dollars than their souls. Mamek saw immigrants who came to America to improve their material condition especially susceptible to the idolization of material ends. Mamek's address so stirred the young Croatians that they passed resolutions supporting the right of children to be raised " distinctively and different" in America and the beneficial effects of cultural pluralism as the "philosophy best for our children." Arguments on the moral responsibilities of parents were found throughout Croatian and Serbian journals. (51) �SLOVAKIA 31 A potential danger in presenting the ' ' Slavic view'' is to suggest that the Slavic immigrant communities were ideologically monolithic. The groups and data examined in this study reflected the prevailing views of Poles, Slovaks, Croatians, Serbs, and Ukrainians who, with the exception of Serbian Orthodox, were primarily Catholic, of peasant background, and composed the vast majority of Slavic newcomers to America. Some Slavs, such as Poles from Germany, Czechs and Slovenes, often encountered a greater degree of industrialization in Europe and brought strong ~raditions of socialism and ''free thought.'' Actually considerable dialogue existed within most Slavic communities between the Catholic majority and the ubiquitous socialist minority. Socialists were more numerous among certain groups, such as the Slovenes and Czechs, than among Poles, Slovaks, Ukrainians, or Croats. Partially this situation existed because of greater incursions of industrialization and socialist thought into Czech and Slovene homelands than in more economically backward areas like southern Poland and eastern Slovakia. (52) The socialists in the old country were in continual contact with the American communities and many joined the immigrant waves. Socialism was never embraced by the peasant Slavs to the extent that it was by groups who brought strong socialists traditions to America, such as the Jews and Finns. The outstanding differences between the Slavic Catholics and socialists were their opposite views concerning the material, secular world. Slavic socialists departed markedly from their fellow countrymen in their assessment of education. Proletarec, a Slovene socialist organ, argued that Slovene workers badly need professional education to develop skills that would facilitate the finding of jobs. Proletarec, echoing the criticism of some Catholic immigrant children, sought to infuse Slavic children with initiative and' 'a new horizon for ambition the modem school, supported by scientists of reputation, is exactly what we want." (53) Education was perceived as necessary for economic progress and as a defense against exploitation of the worker. Organizations such as the J ugoslav Educational Association eventually offered free lectures and literature on topics such as "The Value of Education," "Birth Control," and "Health and Welfare." (54) The Slavic socialists embellished their advocacy of secular education with a simultaneous attack on the religious values and leaders of the Slavic majority. A Serb socialist spokesman complained that Serbians needed more professors and doctors but got only '' soul savers." Slovak socialist organs urged "poor working Slovaks" not to "throw their money" away by giving it to churches. In a similar vein, Proletarec claimed that clergy were using ''pious sentiments'' as a means of extracting money from the workers. When Slavs were asked by their religious leaders to pray for an end to the depression in 1931, Novi Svijet countered with a lengthy assault upon the clergy. The newspaper explained: �32 SLOVAKIA Such comedy with prayer is being prepared to show seemingly sympathy toward workers and to keep believers in the ancient darkness of faith in whose name the worst kind of exploitation is committed . . . The salvation of the working class is not in prayer but in education and organization. (55) Even Slavic socialists, however, despite their secular orientation, were unable to completely surmount ethnic tensions among themselves and achieve a semblance of working-class solidarity. The largest Slavic socialist movement was found among the South Slavs and was institutionalized, in 1910, in the creation of the Yugoslav Socialist Federation. The organization, however, was continually weakened by disputes between Serbs , Croats, and Slovenes . The organization had three newspapers: Proletarec for the Slovenes, Radnicka Straza for the Croats, and Narodni Glas for the Serbs. At the annual meeting in 1912, Frank Petrich, the editor of Proletarec, proposed that all three papers be merged and published in the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. The plan was soundly defeated then, and on subsequent occasions when it was introduced. (56) At times, Slavic socialists themselves exhibited concerns which were highly non-secular and revealed a lingering ambiguity toward materialism. A Croat socialist spokesman complained that too many newcomers are interested only in "high wages" and forget the extensive suffering and exploitation endured by workers. A number of other comments attacked American societies for fostering divorce and a decline in family relationships. (57) The Slavic-American skepticism toward public school was clearly manifested in various studies of school attendance and progress. In a 1911 study released by the United States Immigration Commission, Poles and Slovaks ranked lowest among ethnic groups in the largest urban centers. The percentage of Slavic children in school beyond the sixth grade was lower than the rate for the progeny of Irish and Jewish newcomers and Negroes. Beyond grade six, the group with the smallest percentage of children in the public schools of Chicago and Cleveland in 1911 were the Slovaks (4 percent). Poles were lowest in Buffalo, New Britain and Scranton and next to the last in Cleveland and Milwaukee. , In computing public high school att~dance in 1910, Slavic children were noticeably absent. In Chicago, while five percent of Black children and six percent of Polish Jewish children were attending the secondary schools, only one percent of the Poles and Slovaks were doing so. In Cleveland only one-half of one percent of Slovak children were in high school in 1910 as compared with eleven percent of Irish immigrant children and seven percent of Polish Jews who arrived in America at the same time . �33 \ SLOVAKIA TABLE 1 * PCBLIC SCHOOL ATTENDANCE OF NATIVE & IMMIGRANT CHILDREN BEYOND GRADE 6, 191 0 New Buffalo Chicago C leve land Milwaukee Britain Scranton Shenandoah 16% 40 <;; 23"/ 26';, 24% 3 1';; 16 17 15 18 NB\V Negro Heb r ew 31 26 -10 German Heb r e w 22 23 20 Polish 39 28 61 24 32 25 19 Iri sh South 2 7 11 10 It :1li:1.n 5 (j 1 4 6 10 7 6 Polis h 5 5 Slovak -I 6 Croat 7 8 Slovene *St ati s ti cs computed from Gl Cong ., :3 rd scss . ; serial 58 75, T he Children of Immig rants in Schools (5 vo ls ., Washington, 1911) , II, 3 78 , 648 , 848; IV, 77, 4 77; V, 4 18 , 50 8 , TABLE 2* HIGH SCHOOL ATTENDANCE: , NAT IVE & IMMIGRANT CHILDREN, 19 10 Buffalo 12 8 19 lG Chicago 9 5 10 6 C level and 12 8 13 7 Milwaukee 10 9 New Britain 19 NBW Negr o Heb r ew Greman 9 Hebrew Polish 3 Hebrew Russian 43 12 11 G 13 Irish 1 1 l 3 South Italian 1 2 1 2 2 Polish 1 .5 Slovak *Statist ics co mputed from 61 Cong. , 3 rd sess .; serial 58 75 (5 vo ls ., Was hington, 1911) , II, 378 , G..J.8 , 8-1 8; I\', 77, -1 77; V, 41 8 , 508 . Where parochial school attendance figures were available, Slavic attendance invariably ranked behind native-born and second generation Irish children. In Milwaukee parochial schools in 1910, fifteen percent of the children of native-born Catholics were in school and ten percent of the second generation Irish. Only two percent of the Poles were attending, however, and no Slovaks. Polish and Slovak �SLOVAKIA 34 representation in Cleveland's parochial schools were better but considerably behind the native-born and Irish . New Britain had nineteen percent of its Irish youth in Catholic schools after the sixth grade but none of its Polish youth. In Scranton ninety-nine percent of all Polish immigrant children in parochial schools were in grades one to five only. In Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, thirty-two percent of the children of native-born Catholics were beyond the fourth grade . No Poles had advanced that far despite being in Shenandoah for over thirty years as of 1910. (58) Tab le 3* PAROCHIAL SCHOOL ATTENDANCE BY ETHNIC GROUP BEYOND GRADE G Native -born white Milwaukee New Britain Cleveland Irish Polish 14. 9% 10';{ 22 17 26 1. 6% 0 5 H.) Slovak 0 1¾ 10 *6lst Cong., 3rd sess., serial 5 875, The Children of Immigrants in Schools (5 vols .; Washington, 1911), V, 95,515, 909. As late as 1950, census data revealed the effect of the educational patterns of Slavs. In focusing on Pennsylvania, the state that received the largest influx of Slavs, their median years of completed schooling was the lowest of any ethnic group in the state . The following list ranks the towns in Pennsylvania with the lowest median years of school completed by their citizens and identifies the largest ethnic concentrations in those communities. Clearly, the small industrial towns which covered the state and housed its Slavic concentrations were behind the rest of the Commonwealth in educational progress. (59) Median Years of Schoo ling, 1950 (persons over 25) Gilberton Marshalltown Dupont Shenandoah Dickson City West Washington Swoyersville Edwardsv ille Glen Lyon Throop Pennsylvania (state average) 7.2 7.3 7.4 7. 7 7. 7 7. 8 7. 8 7.9 7.9 7.9 9. 0 \ Ethnic Concentration Lithuanian-Slovak Polish-Lithuanian Slovak-Italian Polish Polish-Slovak Polish-Italian Polish-Slovak Polish-Slovak Polish-Italian Polish-It a Li an �SLOVAKIA 35 The evidence on Slavic views towards American schools suggests that no great consensus existed among immigrants. Slavs did not share the preferences of many other immigrant groups and wholeheartedly embrace the expectations of American education. Schools were suspect not only for the threat they posed to Slavic culture but for the material reward they ostensibly promised. Influenced partially by the spiritualistic thrust of their premodem culture, Slavs did not immediately accept the modem notion of the pursuit of upward success. Some immigrant children who were exposed to American higher education attempted to infuse other Slavs with a middle-class faith in public schooling and bitterly criticized the stance of their parents. But they were a definite minority as most of the second generation were socialized in the attitudes of their parents. Slavic socialists who favored public schooling were only a fraction of the Slav Catholic population and were frequently preoccupied with moral and ethnic concerns of their own. To most Slavic Americans before 1940, education was intended for the preservation of culture and morality, not social mobility. The skepticism toward education and success displayed by SlavicAmericans during the first half-century of extensive settlement in America emerged from two sources. Most Slavs were drawn into unskilled, industrial pursuits which offered few opportunities for occupational mobility. (60) Their working class status, as the interviews in this paper suggested, encouraged a preoccupation with steady work. Public education simply did not offer skills that were useful to blast fumances, open hearths, mines, or textile mills. Practical considerations of getting a job and keeping it were not only paramount but essential for survival. Even more importantly, this emerging working-class pragmatism reinforced elements of traditional peasant culture, such as concerns with survival, limited visions of the future and spiritual rather than material ends. (61) Modem notions of acquisitiveness had neither immediate acceptance nor historical antecedents within the immigrant mind. Furthermore, constant attempts by Magyars in Europe and Americanizers in this country to subjugate Slavic cultures made their preservation an important consideration. And within that culture, language, religious values, and spiritual concern were intertwined and deemed worthy of maintenance. When this cultural constellation was fused with working-class realism, Slavic attitudes toward education became inevitable. (Reprinted with the permission of: The Journal of Ethnic Studies, 3:4 (Winter 1976).) NOTES Research for this article was made possible by grants from the American Council of Learned Societies and the Immigration History Research Center, University of Minnesota. �36 SLOVAKIA (1) Timothy Smith , " Immigrant Social Aspirations and American Education , 18801930," American Quarterly, 21 (Fall, 1969) , 522-25 . Smith, " Native Blacks and Foreign Whites : Varying Responses to Educational Opportunity in America, 18801950," in Perspectives in American History, VI (1972), 311-313. (2) David Tyack , The One Best System, A History of American Urban Education (Cambridge, Mass ., 1974) , 241-48; David W . Cohen, "Immigrants and the Schools," Revie ws of Educational Research, 40 (Fall , 1940), 13-28; Michael Olneck and Marvin Lazerson , " The School Achievement of Immigrant Children, 1900-1930," History of Education Quarterly, 15 (Winter, 1975), 453 , 474-77 . (3) Josef Barton, Peasants and Strangers: Italians, Rumanians, and Slovaks in an American City, 1840-1950 (Cambridge, Mass. , 1975), Chapter V; Stephan Thernstrom , The Other Bostonians (Cambridge, Mass ., 1973), pp . 145 ff; Andrew Greeley, Ethnicity in the United States (New York, 1974) , pp . 53-56, 181. (4) Smith, '' Immigrant Social Aspirations and American Education , 1880-1930, '' p. 525. (5) Dzie nnik Zwiazowy, Nov. 27, 1911, Chicago Foreign Language Press Survey (CFLPS), reel 49; Wiadomosci Codzienne, October 11, 1937, p. 2 (6) Dziennik Zwiazowy, Nov. 27, 1911, CFLOS, reel 49; Wiadomosci Codzi,mne, Jan. 25, 1938, p. 2. (7) Osadne Hlasy , June 27 , 1930, pp . 4-5. (8) Zanje, Oct. 2, 1920, p. 4; Jednota, Mar. 18, 1936, p. 9; American Srbobran, Aug. 12, 1933, p . 3. (9) Wiadomosci Codzienne, Apr. 9, 1938, p. 2; Gerd Korman, Industrialization, Immigrants, andAmericanizers (Madison, Wis. , 1967), pp. 167-68; Ellen M . Kuznicki, ' ' An Ethnic School in American Education: A Study of the Origin, Development, and Merits of the Educational System of the Felican Sisters in Polish American Catholic Schools of Western New York" (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Kansas State Univ. , 1973); Stephen Wlodarski , The Origin and Growth of the Polish National Church (Scranton, 1974), p. 225. (10) Novi Svijet, Mar. 19, 1925, p. 1; Memorial Book and Fifth Anniversary, 1929-1934, Hrvatska Zena (Chicago, 1934). (11) Jednota, Sept. 21, 1938, p. 10; Sept. 8, 1937, p. 3. (12) Amerikanski Slovenec, Aug. 26, 1925, p . 4. See Giles Gobetz, "Slovenian Americans in Greater, Cleveland, Ohio" (typescript, Kent, Ohio, 1973), pp. 47-49, copy available at Immigration History Research Center, University of Minnesota (IHRC) . (13) Dziennik Chicagoski, May 27, 1904 ; June 30, 1897, reel 49, CFLPS. (14) Ibid ; Rovnost Ludu, Sept: 1, 1907, p . 1; Jednota, July 22, 1936, p. 9. (15) Hlas (Mar., 1938), p . 2 ; Osadne H/,asy, June 22, 1932 , p . 4. (16) Jednota, Apr. 26, 1939, p . 5. (17) Ibid. , Feb. 17, 1937, p. 10 ; Jan. 25 , 1939, p. 10. (18) Dziennik Zwiazowy, Dec. 11 , 1911 , p. 2; July 2, llm7, CFLPS, reel 49; Amerikanski Slovenec, June 11, 1925, pp. 1-3. (19) Jednota, Jan. 25 , 1939, p . 10 ; American Srbobran, Aug. 26, 1933 , p . 3; Aug. 12, 1933 , p . 3. (20) Wiadomosci Codzienne, July 28, 1937, p. 2; see the organ of the Polish Students Association of America, The New American, VII (June-July , 1939) , 1, for additional evidence that cultural maintenance was valued over "money." Stephen Vesko, ''Value of Higher Catholic Education,'' Jednota Kato/icky Kalendar, 1939. (21) Dziennik Zwiazowy, Aug . 5, 1918, CFLPS, reel 49. �' SLOVAKIA 37 (221 The New American, III (Sept. 19361; p. 4. (231 Ibid., V (Mar., 19391; II (Jan.-Feb.; 19361, p. 3. (24) Stephen Manchur, "Orientation of Ukrainian American Student," Ukrainian Youth, II (Oct., 1935), pp.5-11. (251 Filed Ukrainian Youth League minutes of meetings are in Alex Yarernko Papers, Box 1, IHRC; John Panchuk Papers, Boxes 3-5, IHRC; Sixty Years of the Ukranian Community in Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 1944). (261Minutes of the First Ukrainian Youth Congress, 1933 (typescriptl and Program, Sixth Annual Convention, Ukranian Catholic Youth League of North America, Alex Yaremko Papers, box 1, IHRC. (27) Minutes of Annual Meeting, 1936, (typescriptl, and Ukrainian Weekly Mar. 28, 1936, p. 4 (clipping) in Yarernko Papers, box 1, IHRC. (28) Ukrainian Cultural Center of Philadelphia, Guide to Program, Activities, and Policy, Yaremko Papers, box 1. This collection also contains numerous souvenir programs and describing the Vasile Avramenko folk ballet and the American Ukrainian Folk Festival in 1939. (291 Interviews with Bernard Gorczyca, Pittsburgh, June 20, 1974, Pittsburgh Oral History Project (POHP) reel 4; Frank Horvath, Bethlehem, July 16, 1974, Bethlehem Oral History Project (BOHPI, reel 3. All interviews are on file at the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg. (301 Interviews with Anton Cindrich, Pittsburgh, June 25, 1974, POHP, reel 17. Similar statements were made by Walter Klis, Pittsburgh, July 2, 1974, POHP, reel 15. (311 Geoffrey H. Steers, "Child-rearing Literature and Modernization Theory," The Family in Historical Perspective, Newsletter (Winter, 1974), pp. 8-9. Benjamin Spock, Baby and Child Care (New York, 1968), p. 12; Philip Slater, The Pursuit of Loneliness (Boston, 1970), pp. 62-64. (32) Interviews with John Smitko, McKeesport, June 22, 1974, POHP, reel 34. (33) Interviews with Joseph Slater, Dravosburg, July 2, 1974, POHP, reel 35. Nick Kiak, Bethlehem, July 11, 1974, BOHP, reel 9. (34) Interviews with Sam Davich, Pittsburgh, June 24, 1974, POHP, reel 17; Michael Komernitski, McKees Rocks, June 17, 1974, POHP, reel 16; Joe Rudiak, Pittsburgh, July 21, 1974, POHP, reel 19; John Wolota, Pittsburgh, June 14, 1974, POHP, reel 14. See John Bodnar, "Socialization and Adaptation: The Immigrant Families of Scranton," Pennsylvania History (forthcoming, Jan., 19761. (351 Interviews with Michael Zahorsky, Aliquippa, June 21, 1974, POHP, reel 7; Frank Horvath, Bethlehem, July 16, 1974, POHP, reel 3. (36) Interviews with Michael Labeka, McKees Rocks, June 18, 1974, POHP, reel 4; Bernard Gorczyca, Pittsburgh June 20, 1974, POHP, reel 15. Joe Rudiak, Pittsburgh, July 21, 1974, POHP, reel 19. (37) Francis Preveden, "Otuorirno Hram Znanja Nasoj Ornladini: Vasoj dieci," Francis Preveden Papers, folder 14, IHRC; "Review of Facts and Documents Concerning the Establishment of a Croatian University Chair in America (typescript), Preveden Papers, folder 14. (381 Preveden, "Otuorimo Hram Znanja Nasoj Omladini: Vasoj dieci," and "Project of a History of the Croatian People in America" (typescriptl, Preveden Papers, folder 14. (39) Zajednicar, Mar. 20, 1940, p. 10. See Preveden, "Napredak Nase Omladine I Buducnost Hrvata U Arnerici," Zajednicar, June 5, 1940, p. 4. (401 Zajednicar, Dec. 20, 1939, p. 12; May 29, 1940, p. 10; May 15, 1940, p. 10; Croatian Fraternal Union of America, Kratki Pregled Povijesti Hrvatske Bratske Zajednice, �38 SLOVAKIA 1894-1949 (Pittsburgh, 1949), pp. 198-99. (41) Zajednicar, May 22, 1940, p. 11; May 29, 1940, p . 12; June 26, 1940, p . 11. (42) Ibid ., July 17, 1940, p . 11; May 29, 1940. (43) Ibid ., Apr. 3, 1940, p . 1, 11-12; June 19, 1940, pp. 1-2, 11-12 ; June 26, 1940, p. 10; July 24, 1940, p . 11; Aug. 7, 1940, p. 11; Aug. 28, 1940, p . 11. (44) Ibid., Sept. 25, 1940, p. 10. (45) F . Majer letter in Dziennik Chicagoski, July 22, 1892, p. 4; Aug. 27, 1892, CFLPS, reel 49. Zgoda, Nov. 14, 1894 , p. 4; Jan. 19, 1899, p. 6. (46) Dziennik Chicagoski, June 6, 1896, Sept. 1, 1908, CFLPS, reel 49. (47) Ibid., Jan. 3, 1938, CFLPS, reel 49. The overtness of anti-Semitism which pervaded the Polish ethnic press often focused on the alleged materialistic aims of the Jews, although Polish anti-Semitism had deep historical roots in Poland which explains Polish-Jewish relations in America; see Narod Polski, Aug . 6, 1919, CFLPS, reel 49. (48) Ivan Kramoris , "The Slovak Immigrant Situation," Jednota, Apr. 19, 1939, p. 3; Jednota, June 10, 1936, p. 9. Jane Adams related the distress of a visiting Czech professor in Chicago over the "materialism " of America including several Bohemian newcomers; see Twenty Years at Hull House (New York, 1910), p . 171. Slovaks expressed attitudes similar to Poles in regard to Jewish sterotypes and the pursuit of wealth. See Jednota, Sept. 8, 1937, p . 3. (49) Osadne Hlasy (September 1929), 8-11; Jednota, April 22, 1936, p . 9; May 8, 1936, pp. 8-9. (50) Jednota, Jan. 29 , 1936, p . 9 , Sept. 29 , 1937, p . 8 . (51) Novi Svijet, Mar. 7, 1931, pp. 1-4. For similar statements see American Srbobran, August 26, 1933 , p. 3. Stephen Ilich, " The Moral Responsibilities of Parents and Children," Jugoslavia, March 3, 1923, pp . 1-7; Americanski Slovenec, July 6, 1929, p . 4. (52) Johann Chmelar, "The Austrian Emigration, 1900-1914, " Perspectives in American History, VII (1973). 275-378. (53) Proletarec, Mar. 27, 1919, pp. 1-4. (54) Novi Svijet, Jan. 30 , 1930, pp. 1-3; Jan. 19, 1927, pp. 2-3; Proletarec, Mar. 27, 1919, p. 4; Apr. 26, 1928; Zanje, Nov. 24, 1919, pp. 1-4; Radnicka Straza, Oct. 1, 1909, pp. 1-2 described free Croatian socialist schools. See Frank Bohn, Katoliska Cerkev in Socializem (Chicago, 1914) . (55) D. Popovich, "Noble Souls ," in Scrapbook of D. Popovich, IHRC . Rovnost Ludu (Slovak socialist paper). Apr. 10, 1912, p . 4; Proletarec, Dec. 11, 1918, pp . 3-5; NOvi Svijet, Nov. 14 , 1931, p. 4, 6; Radnik, Aug. 8, 1925, p. 4. (56) RadnickaStraza, Dec. 19, 1912, p. 1; Jan . 2, 1913, p. 1. By 1924 the membership of the Jugoslav Socialist Federation totaled only 1,500 and over 80 percent of its membership was Slovene. In Pennsylvania, for instance, the active South Slav socialists were almost all in small mining towns and settlements. Few were found in large urban areas and mill towns with sizeable Yugoslav colonies. Two mining communities, Strabane and Forest City, had a quarter of the read~rship of Proletarec between 1915 and 1940, mostly in the 1930s. Pittsburgh, which haa large Croatian and Serbian and Slovene communities, had relatively few socialist organizations, although the first Croatian Socialist Club in America began there in 1903. Chicago, as late as 1937, had less than 300 Slovene socialists. Finns, on the other hand, had over 15,000 socialists, a figure considerably higher than the Yugoslavs. See Jugoslovanska Socialisticna Zveza Papers , Box 176, IHRC for membership lists. See also Majski Glas, XV (1935). p. 50; XVII (May, 1937). pp. 40-49;RadnickaStraza, July 15, 1910, p . 1. (57) Radnicka Straza, Mar. 3, 1911, p. 3; Nov. 18, 1914, p . 3 Slobodna Rec, July 14, �SLOVAKIA 39 1940, p. 6. (58) 61st cong., 3rd sess., serial 5875, The Children of Immigrants (5 vols., Washington, 1911), V, 470, 516. U.S. Bureau of Census, Seventeenth Census of the United States, Census of the Population, 1950, II, 115-120, 159. Andrew Greeley, Ethnicity in the United States (New York, 1971), p. 52 found Slavic Catholics to have less college graduates than Jews, Germans, British and Scandinavians, Protestants and Irish, German and Italian Catholics. (59) U.S. Census, Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950 Population. (60) The low rate of Slavic mobility and their occupational patterns are described in Joe Barton, Peasants and Strangers and John Bodnar, "Steelton's Immigrants : Social Relationships in a Pennsylvania Mill Town, 1870-1940" (unpublished Ph.D . dissertation, University of Connecticut, 1974). (61) See George Foster, "Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good," American Anthropologist, 67 (April, 1965), 293-315; Rudolph M. Bell, 'The Transformation of a Rural Village: Istria, 1870-1972,'' Journal of Social History, 7 (Spring, 1974). 251-52. � SLOVAKIA 21 Materialism and Morality: Slavic-America'n Immigrants and Education, 1890-1940 BY JOHN BODNAR Prevailing American scholarship has credited immigrants to America with cherishing the idea of free public education and the promise it offered for social success. Scholars studying the attitudes of immigrants toward public education have portrayed immigrants as "true believers" in the potential of the American school. The widely accepted interpretation of Timothy Smith, for instance, argues forcefully that newcomers from southern and eastern Europe displayed a passionate and "intensified concern" for schooling in America. "That indigenous thrust for education," Smith asserted, "explains far better than any contributions of the Americanization movement the remarkable success in this country of Central European Slavs, Magyars, Rumanians, Jews, Greeks, and Italians." Smith argued that these immigrants had a "commitment" to the American dream of personal advancement through schooling. (1) Certainly some immigrant groups, such as Scandinavians, Jews, and Rumanians, displayed strong beliefs in the value of public schooling. (2) But the attempt to generalize about the immigrant experience obscures the variety of cultures and views newcomers brought to America. Studies of occupational mobility, for instance, are beginning to suggest that immigrants revealed divergent patterns of social attainment in America. (3) It remains to be seen, however, whether all newcomers embraced the ethic of success through public schooling. This study hopes to suggest that a consensus did not exist among immigrants in the worshipping of American schools and their potentiality. By focusing on Slavic-Americans, this essay will test the hypothesis that the American experience of southern and eastern Europeans "intensified the concern for learning." (4) Slavic immigrants to America and their children never denied the value of education itself. They did, however, conceive of education as having specific functions which were unrelated to social advancement. Above all else, education for immigrant children was for the purpose of retaining the cultural, linguistic, and religious values of the ethnic group. This message pervaded immigrant literature and was made unmistakably clear to the second generation. Cultural continuity was an overriding concern in America. Language and customs were threatened by Americanization just as Magyarization had threatened Slavic culture in the Austro-Hungarian �22 SLOVAKIA Empire. A Polish editor in Chicago explained that the major reason for the existence of the Polish National Alliance and parochial schools was to inculcate the use of the Polish language in the young. (5) Language preservation acquired a sense of importance before 1918 because of the European heritage of foreign domination, a heritage shared by Poles, Slovaks , Ukrainians, Croats,and Slovenes. Since Polish culture was threatened not only by Americanization but, in Europe, by Germany and Russia , its preservation in America seemed essential. (6) The necessity of this course became even more urgent when immigration was restricted in the 1920s. Osadne Hlasy, a Slovak publication, argued that with immigration restricted little assistance could be expected from ''the outside. ' ' It was now imperative, the newspaper stressed, to send children to Slovak schools where the "Slovak spirit" and language would be cultivated . (7) The efforts .at language maintenance were constantly in conflict with attacks of Americanizers. But immigrants reacted almost defiantly . A Croatian editor criticized Americans for not caring for foreign languages. He labeled the American desire to have all newcomers speak English fanatical and chauvinistic. Jednota, the organ of the First Catholic Slovak Union, concurred and told all Slovaks to disregard Americans who ridiculed their language because bilingualism was something of which to be proud. (8) Immigrants did more than preach language maintenance. In numerous communities such as Milwaukee and New York, Poles initiated movements to teach Polish in public schools. During the 1930s the Polish Felician Sisters in the Buffalo area launched programs to restore the teaching of the Polish language. The Polish National Church replaced Latin with Polish in its religious services after separating from the Roman Catholic Church in 1897. (9) Language schools proliferated in Slavic colonies beginning in the 1920s. In 1925 the Croatian fraternal lodges of Chicago initiated a school for children to learn to read and write Croatian . The Croatian Women 's Clubs of America ("Hrvatska Zena") launched widespread programs in 1929 to promote the preservation of the Croatian language. (10) While cultural preservation was important, however, a new transformative force was encountered in America - modem, urban society . Thus the retention of language was equalled in importance by the maintenance of religious ways. Slavic Catholics continually insisted that early childhood education should be in parochial schools. Invariably all Slavic groups were unanimous in their advocacy of religious over secular schools. '' A Catholic education is the best education in the world,'' Jednota claimed , ' 'because it prepares one for the main business of life: the saving of one's soul." On another occasion, the Slovak journal proclaimed that Catholic schools were the only "real" schools . (11) Slovene periodicals concurred that only Catholic schools could give children the " right kind of education. " (12) Polish �SLOVAKIA 23 newcomers were instructed that if children attended public schools and failed to receive instruction in the Polish language and religion, they were a' 'total loss to the Polish people .'' (13) It is important to remember that language-loyalty and religion were inseparable. Slavs felt that one could not exist without the other. '' A Pole who says he is a Catholic but who is ashamed of or neglects the Polish language," a Polish writer insisted, "is not a true Catholic." Conversely, when the National Slovak Society organized a school for young Slovaks in Chicago~in 1904, which stressed Slovak language instructions, it received little support. Slovak Catholics claimed they would not support a school which failed to offer any religious teachings. Indeed, Jednota, in an editorial entitled "Educational Rights of Parents,'' held that parents have the basic right to send their children to schools where love of God and homeland is taught. (14) Slovak schools were viewed as places where children would learn ''to think in Slovak, talk in Slovak,and know the culture of their nation and love for their people." Slovaks were even instructed in how to give graduation speeches to the young since such addresses would offer a final opportunity to admonish the young to conduct themselves as good Slovaks and good Catholics. (15) If early schooling was to center on ''God and country,'' higher education also had its limits. Ivan Kramoris, a Slovak writer, admitted in 1939 that most Slovaks had been adverse to giving their sons higher education unless it involved study for the priesthood . (16) Actually many Slavs were skeptical of the possibilities of "modem education." John Lesko, a Slovak, wrote in Jednota that it was not clearly evident that "modem education" would guarantee progress. "A university education may bring one worldly position and prestige,'' Lesko argued, ''but peace and well-being and genuine progess come only from good will. '' Even Jednota admitted in 1939 that Slovaks in America ''lacked the generosity of the Jews'' in supporting education. (17) To be sure, numerous Slavic groups established plans for colleges and several were actually initiated. Their function, however, was clearly defined. When Alliance College in Pennsylvania was launched by Poles in 1911, it was conceived to be an institution whereby young Poles could become good Polish citizens, something which was thought unattainable in the homeland under foreign rule. On the opening of a Slovene college in Lemont, Illinois, Slovenes rejoiced over the fact that they now had both a college to educate spiritual leaders and priests, and a cultural center to guard "our religious standard" from the "destructive" work of the Yugoslav Socialist Federation. (18) Other Slavic groups echoed the thrust of the Slovenes and Poles. Slovaks planned a Slovak Catholic College in the late 1930s as a home for all Slavic cultures and an "arsenal" in the fight against atheistic communism. The Serbian National Federation created a college scholarship program in 1933 which required Serbian-American youth to �24 SLOVAKIA attend universities in Yugoslavia to study the Serbian language, history, and literature. (19) Wiadomosc Codzienne actually told Polish parents in Cleveland not to have their sons study for professions but rather to become skilled artisans since it would be easier to find a job. (20) Indeed, adjacent to Alliance College, Poles established the Alliance Trade Institute to train youth in mechanical trades. The graduates of the institute would not be professionals, according to Dziennik Zwiazowy, ''but skilled labor is just as useful and necessary as mental labor." A Slovak journal went further by suggesting that since opportunities were limited, young men should learn a skill. (21) While a good deal of effort was invested in instructing the second generation to retain the various ethnic cultures and eschew secular education, some immigrant children differed. Inevitably the relatively few Slavic children who moved through the American school system modified their parents' instructions considerably. Some attacked the views of the first generation, and their criticism revealed much about their parents' minds. A second generation Polish education group, for instance, explained that their parents' preoccupation with Polish nationalism was noble but, as a result, ''it lowered interest in making a place for Poles in this country." The New American argued that the progress of Poles in this country was sacrificed in order to settle a historical debt (free Poland). (22) The young Poles, in another editorial, criticized other Polish-Americans for possessing "an attitude of obliviousness to education and a lack of appreciation for a sense of deferred values.'' The essay concluded: There exists a tendency among a large number of Polish young men and women to be easily satis'fied with a mediocre position, sometimes to a point of servitutle in a routine job with a remote chance for advancement. (23) Other educated immigrant children echoed the critique of young Poles. Stephen Mamchur, in an address to the Ukrainian Youth Congress in 1935, criticized the policy of Ukrainians who foster ethnic isolation by socializing "students in Ukrainian culture." Mamchur felt Ukrainian children should spend less time in studying Ukrainian and pay more attention to secular education if Ukrainians were to rise in the American social structure. If the "isolationist" policy continued, Mamchur predicted that Ukrainians would remain a "caste" and never assume ''that place in the American social order to which our abilities entitle us.'' (24) While a few immigrant children had acquired American middleclass notions of education and mobility and attempted to inculcate their views to the Slavic masses, however, most, thoroughly socialized by their parents, shared their parents' views on cultural maintenance. Consider the activities of American-born Ukrainians. By the early 1930s the second generation had established the Ukrainian Youth League of �SLOVAKIA 25 North America, the Ukrainian Catholic Youth of North America and the Ukrainian Orthodox League of North America. A vast network of neighborhood centers, athletic and cultural programs and publications such as the Ukrainian Chronicle and The Ukrainian Weekly appeared. (25) The Ukrainian Youth League of North America was typical. Organized in 1933, it contained four divisions: social, athletic, educational (Ukrainian history and language), and cultural (dramas). Its main objectives were t\) organize Ukrainian-American youth and disseminate among them a knowledge of the Ukrainian people, to promote moral and physical talents, and to support all Ukrainian national and cultural institutions. One delegate to the Ukrainian Catholic League's convention in 1938 contended that young Ukrainians could not deny the existence of their forefathers or their heritage and that it was imperative ''to carry on the work of keeping alive the culture of our predecessors.'' (26) Annual conventions, in fact, often witnessed debate over the extent young Ukrainians should Americanize. A consensus at the 1936 meeting, for instance, agreed that Ukrainian youth should '' live up to their promise'' by keeping the traditions of our ''beloved Ukraine, whether they be religious or otherwise.'' (27) The youth leagues also established a diverse program of plays, dances, history and language instruction, and athletic competition. The First Ukrainian Catholic National Track and Field Championships were held in Philadelphia in 1936 and attracted participants from Bridgeport, Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia. Vasile Avramenko and his Ukrainian Folk Ballet became extremely popular among both Ukrainian generations in America in the early 1930s and were sponsored in numerous localities by local youth leagues. In 1939, over 50,000 people attended the American-Ukrainian Folk Festival at the New York World's Fair which was sponsored by the Ukrainian American Youth League. (28) Immigrant children were also influenced by their parents in subtle ways to value immediate work above a lengthy education. Some viewed their immigrant fathers as, above all else, hard workers. If sons had any image of their fathers it included manual work as an inevitable aspect of life. A Polish-American described his parents as individuals who believed in ''work, work, work, and work.'' A Bethlehem Slovak recalled that his father never talked of changing jobs but only of doing a good day's work for the company. (29) A Serbian son in Pittsburgh remembered his father as a man esteemed by fellow Serbs for his dedication to his job. The Serbian son claimed his father's characteristics were representative of most Serbs. He argued: Those men were tireless. They did hard work. They stuck with their job; they didn't have to be driven. They were tireless and always feared the loss of their jobs since they had nothing to fall back on. (30) �26 SLOVAKIA Slavic parents also held definite ideas concerning work which influenced the educational prospects of their children drastically . The individualistic approach to child rearing was an anathema to Slavs. They viewed their children as part of a collective whose work was necessary for family survival. (31) As a young man, John Smitko wanted to be a Slovak priest. His mother argued that religious training would not provide an adequate income and insisted he work in the mill. Smitko became a pit careman in a Duquesne mill for forty-five years . (32) Joseph Slater, the son of a Polish miner, was taken to work in an Ohio coal mine by his father at age sixteen. Nick Kiak's first job was learning the operation of a crane from his father at the Bethlehem mill. (33) Working-class parents encouraged child labor rather than schooling as necessary for family survival. In the 1920s, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, thirty-five percent of Polish family income was provided by child labor. Before Pennsylvania restricted child labor in the 1920s, Slavic parents routinely falsified working permits so that their children could begin work at fourteen instead of the legal age of sixteen. Sam Davich was required to work at age fourteen in a glass factory in Pittsburgh and turn over his earnings to his mother. Michael Komernitski worked as a teenager when his father's illness reduced family income . In Lyndora, in western Pennsylvania, most Polish children were sent to Detroit in the late 1920s when news of jobs in the expanding automobile industry was received. One Ukrainian-American son explained that it was understood that a child helped his father because the parent " couldn 't make out. " (34) Slavic parents not only influenced their children by the example of hard work and the demands of family survival but imparted definite views concerning education. A typical Slovak father stressed to his son that it was more important to learn a manual skill than attend school. Michael Zahorsky was assured by his father that if he learned a trade he would never go hungry. Zahorsky became a blacksmith. Frank Horvath quit school at age sixteen to work in a Bethlehem furniture factory. His brothers had already started peddling milk to help pay the family milk bill. Horvath's parents questioned whether school helped anyone survive. They argued that an opportl\nity to leave school and make money should never be avoided. (35) When Slavic newcomers did insist on education, religious vocation and ethnic cultures were usually stressed. Michael Labeka's father taught him the role of cantor in the Ukrainian church. A cantor was paid to sing religious responses in many Slavic churches. Labeka later supplemented his income as a mill worker in Monessen with his earnings as a cantor. Bernard Gorcyca's parents sent him to a Polish seminary in Michigan at age fourteen. Other parents admonished their children to study their native tongue and religious instruction. (36) The tension between the ostensible promise of American �SLOVAKIA 27 \ education and success, something which divided the immigrant children, and the wishes of the immigrants reached a classic confrontation among Croatians. In 1940, a professor of Croatian extraction at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Francis Preveden, presented a comprehensive plan to the Supreme Board of the Croatian Fraternal Union of America (CFU). Preveden asked the fraternal union to institute a monthly assessment of one cent per member to support the creation of Croatian National Alliance for Schooling and Education of Youth at Duquesne. While Preveden was motivated partly by a desire to create an enhanced institutional position for himself, his argument was clearly presented to the Croatian leaders and public. The Croatian center, according to Preveden, would '' open the gates of the temples of knowledge" to Croatian children who had "been denied the advantages of higher education." Preveden stated his goal succinctly: In its full extent this plan aims at the gradual transformation of our immigrants from a class of laborers to a class of intellectuals. This change should come through encouragement of secondary and higher education among our younger ·generation. (37) Preveden attributed a perceived lack of educational attainment and ' 'intellectual stagnation' ' among Croatians to the ''ignorance and criminal neglect" of Croatian leaders who worried more over the internal politics of the ethnic organization and "evil genius" of the last two generations of the Croatian people in America. Preveden equated the status of the Croatian people in America to that of the Negro and placed Croats decidedly behind the Irish whose educational network he admired. And he argued that· the additional assessment required for the center would not lead to deprivation . (38) The reaction of the CFU leaders was to call for a referendum of the union's membership on the issue of initiating a monthly assessment to support the Croatian educational center. (39) By 1940 the CFU was divided into Croatian-speaking lodges, which predominated and consisted of both first and second generation Croats, and English-speaking lodges , which were fewer in number and were composed entirely of American-born Croats. It was from the Croatianspeaking lodges that Preveden encountered his severest opposition . Many immigrant Croats, including those in the supreme board of the CFU , were opposed to increased assessments for education , especially because numerous immigrants were retiring by 1940 and needed financial assistance. Adam Sudetic, a senior CFU member from Detroit, was critical of any plan that represented a drift away from the Croatian language. Sudetic further felt that the stress on "educated Croats " discouraged other young Croats from joining the fraternal union . (40) �28 SLOVAKIA Preveden's strongest support, not unexpectedly, came from the English-speaking lodges. English lodges in Gary, Indiana; Lackawanna, New York; and Pittsburgh sent strong endorsements to Zajednicar, the organ of the CFU. (41) Michael Horvath, the editor for the English section of Zajednicar, argued vigorously for the plan. Horvath insisted that the center: is the one concrete manner in which we can prove to our young that we are willing to do for them what was denied us in the past and that is to extend to them a decent opportunity of educating themselves in the better fields of learning. (42) Horvath and other proponents of the plan initiated a strategically designed series in Zajednicar during the spring and summer of 1940 entitled "Survey of College Educated and Professional Croatians." Croatian Americans who graduated from college were identified and their life histories were published. It was hoped that such examples "of the success of our youth'' in education would spread interest in education and progress throughout all Croatian youth in America. Questionnaires were mailed to every lodge and to over seven hundred colleges in the United States and Canada seeking information on Croatians in college. Weekly lists were published of those in college and in professions. A reference file was started for future students to learn from the experience of other Croats "in the never ceasing struggle to attain success." After nearly four months, the survey was ended on the eve on the referendum to decide the fate of the Preveden plan. What it had demonstrated was the exceedingly low rate of educational attainment and mobility by Croats by 1940. With nearly 400,000 Croats in America only 135 college students were identified and 150 "professionals" including receptionists, stenographers, mail carriers, and one professional boxer. (43) By late September the results of the referendum were clear. Over 10,000 votes were cast out of 58,000 eligible voters in the CFU. The Preveden education plan was defeated by;._ more than a two to one margin. The series on educational attainments was abruptly stopped and the sections devoted to Croatian youth in Zajednicar quickly returned to a "complete focus on sports," something which had been noticeably absent during the summer of 1940. The immigrants and a good representation of their children had spoken. The surrender to American middle-class values would not be that easy. (44) Clearly the Slavic immigrant had misgivings about American schooling and the promise it ostensibly offered. In part, his hostility to education stemmed from the threat public schooling posed to his cultural heritage and language. Certp.inly his working-class status reinforced these educational views. But an examination of immigrant literature revealed a deeper motive for explaining the orientation of �SLOVAKIA 29 Slavic newcomers. Ultimately Slavs were troubled by the materialistic, acquisitive thrust of Amarican life. Poles, Slovaks, Croats, and Ukrainians not only resisted Americanization but they also were reluctant to embrace the secular aspect of modern urban industrial society. Ultimately, the Slav would not only resist pressures to Americanize but he would offer a critique of the moral quality of modern industrial America. Throughout the first half century of large scale Slavic settlement in America, a consistent anti-materialistic bias permeated the immigrants' thought. In the early 1890s, Polish newspapers were already mounting a strong assault on the ''Dollar God'' of American culture. A Pole from Priceburg, Pennsylvania, wrote a letter to Dziennik Chicagoski criticizing American society for straining parental-child relationships by stressing "excess and wantonness." The "struggle for the dollar'' facilitated the losing of ''religion and patriotism so dear to us.'' Numerous editorials and articles emphasized the evil effects of the pursuit of material wealth. In an 1894 editorial Zgoda told Poles that a ''reasonable honest drive'' to improve your material being was good, but the "idolistic pursuit' of money at the expense of your soul would bring "hatred and desperation." Zgoda continued, "good character and work are the greatest wealth." (45) It was precisely because of this skepticism of the promise of American life that Poles emphasized Polish over American schools. Dziennik Chicagoski called Polish schools the ''watch-tower'' of the Polish spirit. American schools were felt to be a "horrible example" where children learn little but disrespect for their parents. American schools were not considered ''adequate'' for Polish children not only because they were "irreligious" but because they were thought to be permeated with secularism. (46) Poles, in fact, attacked other areas of American life. The popular literature of America, such as magazines and ''love stories and the like" which were printed for profit, was sharply attacked for lowering moral standards. Again the Polish press articulated the feeling: . . . have we fallen so low that we cannot pursue something better (than Americans). Let us concentrate our thoughts and spirits in a direction that will be worthy of us - toward better spiritual and moral standards which will place us above all others. In order to maintain the purity of the Polish spirit, we must stay clear of the present course of the American generation. (47) Slovaks invariably echoed the Polish sentiments. In a series of essays in Jednota by the Slovak writer, Ivan Kramoris, the Slovak immigrant situation was analyzed. Kramoris posed the question, "But what are we going to do in America?" He explained that such a choice �30 SLOVAKIA should be made in the framework of economic versus moral standards. Kramoris argued that an individual's morality actually influenced his economic life . Little doubt existed in Kramoris' mind that the eventual emphasis should be placed upon morality. Other writers in Jednota concurred: " So many are cursed with the lust of acquiring things they see no further ahead than their own selfish self''; a Slovak editor exclaimed , ''those who measure success by the material things acquired are lost in the fog of life.' ' (48) Characteristically, the anti-materialistic bias influenced Slovak views on education. Osadne Hlasy illustrated the drawbacks of the public schools in 1929. Children were taught but not "reared" in American schools; according to the Slovak journal, "they educate the mind but not the heart." J. T. Porincak, a Slovak, clarified the argument: With a public school education they (children) go forth into the world, lost completely to the Slovaks. Their idea of life is a breezy and snappy novel, a blood curdling movie and lots of money. But our duty to our people commands us to save our youth from the moral catastrophe that is confronting it. (49) Slovaks also revealed a collective self-perception of themselves as moral people. A Jednota article compared Slovaks to Quakers . Unlike the British and Italians who were felt to the militaristic, Slovaks, like Quakers, represented "endurance and strength, not progress and conquest." In a clear display of working-class resignation and futility, the Jednota writer concluded that Slovaks know what ''life is worth and do not strive for the unobtainable." At his retirement as editor of Jednota in 1937, Joseph Rusek made a farewell speech in which he analyzed the contribution of Slovaks to American life. What Slovaks , he concluded, could give America was a "moral legacy." Rusek thought Slovak identity would eventually be lost in America but '' our moral values will contribute to the creation of the American nation.'' (50) Similar currents were found in the res\ of Slavic America. George Mamek told a Chicago Croatian youth club in 1931 that most Americans shared a '' cruel materialistic philosophy'' ahd thought more of their dollars than their souls. Mamek saw immigrants who came to America to improve their material condition especially susceptible to the idolization of material ends. Mamek's address so stirred the young Croatians that they passed resolutions supporting the right of children to be raised " distinctively and different" in America and the beneficial effects of cultural pluralism as the "philosophy best for our children." Arguments on the moral responsibilities of parents were found throughout Croatian and Serbian journals. (51) �SLOVAKIA 31 A potential danger in presenting the ' ' Slavic view'' is to suggest that the Slavic immigrant communities were ideologically monolithic. The groups and data examined in this study reflected the prevailing views of Poles, Slovaks, Croatians, Serbs, and Ukrainians who, with the exception of Serbian Orthodox, were primarily Catholic, of peasant background, and composed the vast majority of Slavic newcomers to America. Some Slavs, such as Poles from Germany, Czechs and Slovenes, often encountered a greater degree of industrialization in Europe and brought strong ~raditions of socialism and ''free thought.'' Actually considerable dialogue existed within most Slavic communities between the Catholic majority and the ubiquitous socialist minority. Socialists were more numerous among certain groups, such as the Slovenes and Czechs, than among Poles, Slovaks, Ukrainians, or Croats. Partially this situation existed because of greater incursions of industrialization and socialist thought into Czech and Slovene homelands than in more economically backward areas like southern Poland and eastern Slovakia. (52) The socialists in the old country were in continual contact with the American communities and many joined the immigrant waves. Socialism was never embraced by the peasant Slavs to the extent that it was by groups who brought strong socialists traditions to America, such as the Jews and Finns. The outstanding differences between the Slavic Catholics and socialists were their opposite views concerning the material, secular world. Slavic socialists departed markedly from their fellow countrymen in their assessment of education. Proletarec, a Slovene socialist organ, argued that Slovene workers badly need professional education to develop skills that would facilitate the finding of jobs. Proletarec, echoing the criticism of some Catholic immigrant children, sought to infuse Slavic children with initiative and' 'a new horizon for ambition the modem school, supported by scientists of reputation, is exactly what we want." (53) Education was perceived as necessary for economic progress and as a defense against exploitation of the worker. Organizations such as the J ugoslav Educational Association eventually offered free lectures and literature on topics such as "The Value of Education," "Birth Control," and "Health and Welfare." (54) The Slavic socialists embellished their advocacy of secular education with a simultaneous attack on the religious values and leaders of the Slavic majority. A Serb socialist spokesman complained that Serbians needed more professors and doctors but got only '' soul savers." Slovak socialist organs urged "poor working Slovaks" not to "throw their money" away by giving it to churches. In a similar vein, Proletarec claimed that clergy were using ''pious sentiments'' as a means of extracting money from the workers. When Slavs were asked by their religious leaders to pray for an end to the depression in 1931, Novi Svijet countered with a lengthy assault upon the clergy. The newspaper explained: �32 SLOVAKIA Such comedy with prayer is being prepared to show seemingly sympathy toward workers and to keep believers in the ancient darkness of faith in whose name the worst kind of exploitation is committed . . . The salvation of the working class is not in prayer but in education and organization. (55) Even Slavic socialists, however, despite their secular orientation, were unable to completely surmount ethnic tensions among themselves and achieve a semblance of working-class solidarity. The largest Slavic socialist movement was found among the South Slavs and was institutionalized, in 1910, in the creation of the Yugoslav Socialist Federation. The organization, however, was continually weakened by disputes between Serbs , Croats, and Slovenes . The organization had three newspapers: Proletarec for the Slovenes, Radnicka Straza for the Croats, and Narodni Glas for the Serbs. At the annual meeting in 1912, Frank Petrich, the editor of Proletarec, proposed that all three papers be merged and published in the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. The plan was soundly defeated then, and on subsequent occasions when it was introduced. (56) At times, Slavic socialists themselves exhibited concerns which were highly non-secular and revealed a lingering ambiguity toward materialism. A Croat socialist spokesman complained that too many newcomers are interested only in "high wages" and forget the extensive suffering and exploitation endured by workers. A number of other comments attacked American societies for fostering divorce and a decline in family relationships. (57) The Slavic-American skepticism toward public school was clearly manifested in various studies of school attendance and progress. In a 1911 study released by the United States Immigration Commission, Poles and Slovaks ranked lowest among ethnic groups in the largest urban centers. The percentage of Slavic children in school beyond the sixth grade was lower than the rate for the progeny of Irish and Jewish newcomers and Negroes. Beyond grade six, the group with the smallest percentage of children in the public schools of Chicago and Cleveland in 1911 were the Slovaks (4 percent). Poles were lowest in Buffalo, New Britain and Scranton and next to the last in Cleveland and Milwaukee. , In computing public high school att~dance in 1910, Slavic children were noticeably absent. In Chicago, while five percent of Black children and six percent of Polish Jewish children were attending the secondary schools, only one percent of the Poles and Slovaks were doing so. In Cleveland only one-half of one percent of Slovak children were in high school in 1910 as compared with eleven percent of Irish immigrant children and seven percent of Polish Jews who arrived in America at the same time . �33 \ SLOVAKIA TABLE 1 * PCBLIC SCHOOL ATTENDANCE OF NATIVE & IMMIGRANT CHILDREN BEYOND GRADE 6, 191 0 New Buffalo Chicago C leve land Milwaukee Britain Scranton Shenandoah 16% 40 <;; 23"/ 26';, 24% 3 1';; 16 17 15 18 NB\V Negro Heb r ew 31 26 -10 German Heb r e w 22 23 20 Polish 39 28 61 24 32 25 19 Iri sh South 2 7 11 10 It :1li:1.n 5 (j 1 4 6 10 7 6 Polis h 5 5 Slovak -I 6 Croat 7 8 Slovene *St ati s ti cs computed from Gl Cong ., :3 rd scss . ; serial 58 75, T he Children of Immig rants in Schools (5 vo ls ., Washington, 1911) , II, 3 78 , 648 , 848; IV, 77, 4 77; V, 4 18 , 50 8 , TABLE 2* HIGH SCHOOL ATTENDANCE: , NAT IVE & IMMIGRANT CHILDREN, 19 10 Buffalo 12 8 19 lG Chicago 9 5 10 6 C level and 12 8 13 7 Milwaukee 10 9 New Britain 19 NBW Negr o Heb r ew Greman 9 Hebrew Polish 3 Hebrew Russian 43 12 11 G 13 Irish 1 1 l 3 South Italian 1 2 1 2 2 Polish 1 .5 Slovak *Statist ics co mputed from 61 Cong. , 3 rd sess .; serial 58 75 (5 vo ls ., Was hington, 1911) , II, 378 , G..J.8 , 8-1 8; I\', 77, -1 77; V, 41 8 , 508 . Where parochial school attendance figures were available, Slavic attendance invariably ranked behind native-born and second generation Irish children. In Milwaukee parochial schools in 1910, fifteen percent of the children of native-born Catholics were in school and ten percent of the second generation Irish. Only two percent of the Poles were attending, however, and no Slovaks. Polish and Slovak �SLOVAKIA 34 representation in Cleveland's parochial schools were better but considerably behind the native-born and Irish . New Britain had nineteen percent of its Irish youth in Catholic schools after the sixth grade but none of its Polish youth. In Scranton ninety-nine percent of all Polish immigrant children in parochial schools were in grades one to five only. In Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, thirty-two percent of the children of native-born Catholics were beyond the fourth grade . No Poles had advanced that far despite being in Shenandoah for over thirty years as of 1910. (58) Tab le 3* PAROCHIAL SCHOOL ATTENDANCE BY ETHNIC GROUP BEYOND GRADE G Native -born white Milwaukee New Britain Cleveland Irish Polish 14. 9% 10';{ 22 17 26 1. 6% 0 5 H.) Slovak 0 1¾ 10 *6lst Cong., 3rd sess., serial 5 875, The Children of Immigrants in Schools (5 vols .; Washington, 1911), V, 95,515, 909. As late as 1950, census data revealed the effect of the educational patterns of Slavs. In focusing on Pennsylvania, the state that received the largest influx of Slavs, their median years of completed schooling was the lowest of any ethnic group in the state . The following list ranks the towns in Pennsylvania with the lowest median years of school completed by their citizens and identifies the largest ethnic concentrations in those communities. Clearly, the small industrial towns which covered the state and housed its Slavic concentrations were behind the rest of the Commonwealth in educational progress. (59) Median Years of Schoo ling, 1950 (persons over 25) Gilberton Marshalltown Dupont Shenandoah Dickson City West Washington Swoyersville Edwardsv ille Glen Lyon Throop Pennsylvania (state average) 7.2 7.3 7.4 7. 7 7. 7 7. 8 7. 8 7.9 7.9 7.9 9. 0 \ Ethnic Concentration Lithuanian-Slovak Polish-Lithuanian Slovak-Italian Polish Polish-Slovak Polish-Italian Polish-Slovak Polish-Slovak Polish-Italian Polish-It a Li an �SLOVAKIA 35 The evidence on Slavic views towards American schools suggests that no great consensus existed among immigrants. Slavs did not share the preferences of many other immigrant groups and wholeheartedly embrace the expectations of American education. Schools were suspect not only for the threat they posed to Slavic culture but for the material reward they ostensibly promised. Influenced partially by the spiritualistic thrust of their premodem culture, Slavs did not immediately accept the modem notion of the pursuit of upward success. Some immigrant children who were exposed to American higher education attempted to infuse other Slavs with a middle-class faith in public schooling and bitterly criticized the stance of their parents. But they were a definite minority as most of the second generation were socialized in the attitudes of their parents. Slavic socialists who favored public schooling were only a fraction of the Slav Catholic population and were frequently preoccupied with moral and ethnic concerns of their own. To most Slavic Americans before 1940, education was intended for the preservation of culture and morality, not social mobility. The skepticism toward education and success displayed by SlavicAmericans during the first half-century of extensive settlement in America emerged from two sources. Most Slavs were drawn into unskilled, industrial pursuits which offered few opportunities for occupational mobility. (60) Their working class status, as the interviews in this paper suggested, encouraged a preoccupation with steady work. Public education simply did not offer skills that were useful to blast fumances, open hearths, mines, or textile mills. Practical considerations of getting a job and keeping it were not only paramount but essential for survival. Even more importantly, this emerging working-class pragmatism reinforced elements of traditional peasant culture, such as concerns with survival, limited visions of the future and spiritual rather than material ends. (61) Modem notions of acquisitiveness had neither immediate acceptance nor historical antecedents within the immigrant mind. Furthermore, constant attempts by Magyars in Europe and Americanizers in this country to subjugate Slavic cultures made their preservation an important consideration. And within that culture, language, religious values, and spiritual concern were intertwined and deemed worthy of maintenance. When this cultural constellation was fused with working-class realism, Slavic attitudes toward education became inevitable. (Reprinted with the permission of: The Journal of Ethnic Studies, 3:4 (Winter 1976).) NOTES Research for this article was made possible by grants from the American Council of Learned Societies and the Immigration History Research Center, University of Minnesota. �36 SLOVAKIA (1) Timothy Smith , " Immigrant Social Aspirations and American Education , 18801930," American Quarterly, 21 (Fall, 1969) , 522-25 . Smith, " Native Blacks and Foreign Whites : Varying Responses to Educational Opportunity in America, 18801950," in Perspectives in American History, VI (1972), 311-313. (2) David Tyack , The One Best System, A History of American Urban Education (Cambridge, Mass ., 1974) , 241-48; David W . Cohen, "Immigrants and the Schools," Revie ws of Educational Research, 40 (Fall , 1940), 13-28; Michael Olneck and Marvin Lazerson , " The School Achievement of Immigrant Children, 1900-1930," History of Education Quarterly, 15 (Winter, 1975), 453 , 474-77 . (3) Josef Barton, Peasants and Strangers: Italians, Rumanians, and Slovaks in an American City, 1840-1950 (Cambridge, Mass. , 1975), Chapter V; Stephan Thernstrom , The Other Bostonians (Cambridge, Mass ., 1973), pp . 145 ff; Andrew Greeley, Ethnicity in the United States (New York, 1974) , pp . 53-56, 181. (4) Smith, '' Immigrant Social Aspirations and American Education , 1880-1930, '' p. 525. (5) Dzie nnik Zwiazowy, Nov. 27, 1911, Chicago Foreign Language Press Survey (CFLPS), reel 49; Wiadomosci Codzienne, October 11, 1937, p. 2 (6) Dziennik Zwiazowy, Nov. 27, 1911, CFLOS, reel 49; Wiadomosci Codzi,mne, Jan. 25, 1938, p. 2. (7) Osadne Hlasy , June 27 , 1930, pp . 4-5. (8) Zanje, Oct. 2, 1920, p. 4; Jednota, Mar. 18, 1936, p. 9; American Srbobran, Aug. 12, 1933, p . 3. (9) Wiadomosci Codzienne, Apr. 9, 1938, p. 2; Gerd Korman, Industrialization, Immigrants, andAmericanizers (Madison, Wis. , 1967), pp. 167-68; Ellen M . Kuznicki, ' ' An Ethnic School in American Education: A Study of the Origin, Development, and Merits of the Educational System of the Felican Sisters in Polish American Catholic Schools of Western New York" (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Kansas State Univ. , 1973); Stephen Wlodarski , The Origin and Growth of the Polish National Church (Scranton, 1974), p. 225. (10) Novi Svijet, Mar. 19, 1925, p. 1; Memorial Book and Fifth Anniversary, 1929-1934, Hrvatska Zena (Chicago, 1934). (11) Jednota, Sept. 21, 1938, p. 10; Sept. 8, 1937, p. 3. (12) Amerikanski Slovenec, Aug. 26, 1925, p . 4. See Giles Gobetz, "Slovenian Americans in Greater, Cleveland, Ohio" (typescript, Kent, Ohio, 1973), pp. 47-49, copy available at Immigration History Research Center, University of Minnesota (IHRC) . (13) Dziennik Chicagoski, May 27, 1904 ; June 30, 1897, reel 49, CFLPS. (14) Ibid ; Rovnost Ludu, Sept: 1, 1907, p . 1; Jednota, July 22, 1936, p. 9. (15) Hlas (Mar., 1938), p . 2 ; Osadne H/,asy, June 22, 1932 , p . 4. (16) Jednota, Apr. 26, 1939, p . 5. (17) Ibid. , Feb. 17, 1937, p. 10 ; Jan. 25 , 1939, p. 10. (18) Dziennik Zwiazowy, Dec. 11 , 1911 , p. 2; July 2, llm7, CFLPS, reel 49; Amerikanski Slovenec, June 11, 1925, pp. 1-3. (19) Jednota, Jan. 25 , 1939, p . 10 ; American Srbobran, Aug. 26, 1933 , p . 3; Aug. 12, 1933 , p . 3. (20) Wiadomosci Codzienne, July 28, 1937, p. 2; see the organ of the Polish Students Association of America, The New American, VII (June-July , 1939) , 1, for additional evidence that cultural maintenance was valued over "money." Stephen Vesko, ''Value of Higher Catholic Education,'' Jednota Kato/icky Kalendar, 1939. (21) Dziennik Zwiazowy, Aug . 5, 1918, CFLPS, reel 49. �' SLOVAKIA 37 (221 The New American, III (Sept. 19361; p. 4. (231 Ibid., V (Mar., 19391; II (Jan.-Feb.; 19361, p. 3. (24) Stephen Manchur, "Orientation of Ukrainian American Student," Ukrainian Youth, II (Oct., 1935), pp.5-11. (251 Filed Ukrainian Youth League minutes of meetings are in Alex Yarernko Papers, Box 1, IHRC; John Panchuk Papers, Boxes 3-5, IHRC; Sixty Years of the Ukranian Community in Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 1944). (261Minutes of the First Ukrainian Youth Congress, 1933 (typescriptl and Program, Sixth Annual Convention, Ukranian Catholic Youth League of North America, Alex Yaremko Papers, box 1, IHRC. (27) Minutes of Annual Meeting, 1936, (typescriptl, and Ukrainian Weekly Mar. 28, 1936, p. 4 (clipping) in Yarernko Papers, box 1, IHRC. (28) Ukrainian Cultural Center of Philadelphia, Guide to Program, Activities, and Policy, Yaremko Papers, box 1. This collection also contains numerous souvenir programs and describing the Vasile Avramenko folk ballet and the American Ukrainian Folk Festival in 1939. (291 Interviews with Bernard Gorczyca, Pittsburgh, June 20, 1974, Pittsburgh Oral History Project (POHP) reel 4; Frank Horvath, Bethlehem, July 16, 1974, Bethlehem Oral History Project (BOHPI, reel 3. All interviews are on file at the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg. (301 Interviews with Anton Cindrich, Pittsburgh, June 25, 1974, POHP, reel 17. Similar statements were made by Walter Klis, Pittsburgh, July 2, 1974, POHP, reel 15. (311 Geoffrey H. Steers, "Child-rearing Literature and Modernization Theory," The Family in Historical Perspective, Newsletter (Winter, 1974), pp. 8-9. Benjamin Spock, Baby and Child Care (New York, 1968), p. 12; Philip Slater, The Pursuit of Loneliness (Boston, 1970), pp. 62-64. (32) Interviews with John Smitko, McKeesport, June 22, 1974, POHP, reel 34. (33) Interviews with Joseph Slater, Dravosburg, July 2, 1974, POHP, reel 35. Nick Kiak, Bethlehem, July 11, 1974, BOHP, reel 9. (34) Interviews with Sam Davich, Pittsburgh, June 24, 1974, POHP, reel 17; Michael Komernitski, McKees Rocks, June 17, 1974, POHP, reel 16; Joe Rudiak, Pittsburgh, July 21, 1974, POHP, reel 19; John Wolota, Pittsburgh, June 14, 1974, POHP, reel 14. See John Bodnar, "Socialization and Adaptation: The Immigrant Families of Scranton," Pennsylvania History (forthcoming, Jan., 19761. (351 Interviews with Michael Zahorsky, Aliquippa, June 21, 1974, POHP, reel 7; Frank Horvath, Bethlehem, July 16, 1974, POHP, reel 3. (36) Interviews with Michael Labeka, McKees Rocks, June 18, 1974, POHP, reel 4; Bernard Gorczyca, Pittsburgh June 20, 1974, POHP, reel 15. Joe Rudiak, Pittsburgh, July 21, 1974, POHP, reel 19. (37) Francis Preveden, "Otuorirno Hram Znanja Nasoj Ornladini: Vasoj dieci," Francis Preveden Papers, folder 14, IHRC; "Review of Facts and Documents Concerning the Establishment of a Croatian University Chair in America (typescript), Preveden Papers, folder 14. (381 Preveden, "Otuorimo Hram Znanja Nasoj Omladini: Vasoj dieci," and "Project of a History of the Croatian People in America" (typescriptl, Preveden Papers, folder 14. (39) Zajednicar, Mar. 20, 1940, p. 10. See Preveden, "Napredak Nase Omladine I Buducnost Hrvata U Arnerici," Zajednicar, June 5, 1940, p. 4. (401 Zajednicar, Dec. 20, 1939, p. 12; May 29, 1940, p. 10; May 15, 1940, p. 10; Croatian Fraternal Union of America, Kratki Pregled Povijesti Hrvatske Bratske Zajednice, �38 SLOVAKIA 1894-1949 (Pittsburgh, 1949), pp. 198-99. (41) Zajednicar, May 22, 1940, p. 11; May 29, 1940, p . 12; June 26, 1940, p . 11. (42) Ibid ., July 17, 1940, p . 11; May 29, 1940. (43) Ibid ., Apr. 3, 1940, p . 1, 11-12; June 19, 1940, pp. 1-2, 11-12 ; June 26, 1940, p. 10; July 24, 1940, p . 11; Aug. 7, 1940, p. 11; Aug. 28, 1940, p . 11. (44) Ibid., Sept. 25, 1940, p. 10. (45) F . Majer letter in Dziennik Chicagoski, July 22, 1892, p. 4; Aug. 27, 1892, CFLPS, reel 49. Zgoda, Nov. 14, 1894 , p. 4; Jan. 19, 1899, p. 6. (46) Dziennik Chicagoski, June 6, 1896, Sept. 1, 1908, CFLPS, reel 49. (47) Ibid., Jan. 3, 1938, CFLPS, reel 49. The overtness of anti-Semitism which pervaded the Polish ethnic press often focused on the alleged materialistic aims of the Jews, although Polish anti-Semitism had deep historical roots in Poland which explains Polish-Jewish relations in America; see Narod Polski, Aug . 6, 1919, CFLPS, reel 49. (48) Ivan Kramoris , "The Slovak Immigrant Situation," Jednota, Apr. 19, 1939, p. 3; Jednota, June 10, 1936, p. 9. Jane Adams related the distress of a visiting Czech professor in Chicago over the "materialism " of America including several Bohemian newcomers; see Twenty Years at Hull House (New York, 1910), p . 171. Slovaks expressed attitudes similar to Poles in regard to Jewish sterotypes and the pursuit of wealth. See Jednota, Sept. 8, 1937, p . 3. (49) Osadne Hlasy (September 1929), 8-11; Jednota, April 22, 1936, p . 9; May 8, 1936, pp. 8-9. (50) Jednota, Jan. 29 , 1936, p . 9 , Sept. 29 , 1937, p . 8 . (51) Novi Svijet, Mar. 7, 1931, pp. 1-4. For similar statements see American Srbobran, August 26, 1933 , p. 3. Stephen Ilich, " The Moral Responsibilities of Parents and Children," Jugoslavia, March 3, 1923, pp . 1-7; Americanski Slovenec, July 6, 1929, p . 4. (52) Johann Chmelar, "The Austrian Emigration, 1900-1914, " Perspectives in American History, VII (1973). 275-378. (53) Proletarec, Mar. 27, 1919, pp. 1-4. (54) Novi Svijet, Jan. 30 , 1930, pp. 1-3; Jan. 19, 1927, pp. 2-3; Proletarec, Mar. 27, 1919, p. 4; Apr. 26, 1928; Zanje, Nov. 24, 1919, pp. 1-4; Radnicka Straza, Oct. 1, 1909, pp. 1-2 described free Croatian socialist schools. See Frank Bohn, Katoliska Cerkev in Socializem (Chicago, 1914) . (55) D. Popovich, "Noble Souls ," in Scrapbook of D. Popovich, IHRC . Rovnost Ludu (Slovak socialist paper). Apr. 10, 1912, p . 4; Proletarec, Dec. 11, 1918, pp . 3-5; NOvi Svijet, Nov. 14 , 1931, p. 4, 6; Radnik, Aug. 8, 1925, p. 4. (56) RadnickaStraza, Dec. 19, 1912, p. 1; Jan . 2, 1913, p. 1. By 1924 the membership of the Jugoslav Socialist Federation totaled only 1,500 and over 80 percent of its membership was Slovene. In Pennsylvania, for instance, the active South Slav socialists were almost all in small mining towns and settlements. Few were found in large urban areas and mill towns with sizeable Yugoslav colonies. Two mining communities, Strabane and Forest City, had a quarter of the read~rship of Proletarec between 1915 and 1940, mostly in the 1930s. Pittsburgh, which haa large Croatian and Serbian and Slovene communities, had relatively few socialist organizations, although the first Croatian Socialist Club in America began there in 1903. Chicago, as late as 1937, had less than 300 Slovene socialists. Finns, on the other hand, had over 15,000 socialists, a figure considerably higher than the Yugoslavs. See Jugoslovanska Socialisticna Zveza Papers , Box 176, IHRC for membership lists. See also Majski Glas, XV (1935). p. 50; XVII (May, 1937). pp. 40-49;RadnickaStraza, July 15, 1910, p . 1. (57) Radnicka Straza, Mar. 3, 1911, p. 3; Nov. 18, 1914, p . 3 Slobodna Rec, July 14, �SLOVAKIA 39 1940, p. 6. (58) 61st cong., 3rd sess., serial 5875, The Children of Immigrants (5 vols., Washington, 1911), V, 470, 516. U.S. Bureau of Census, Seventeenth Census of the United States, Census of the Population, 1950, II, 115-120, 159. Andrew Greeley, Ethnicity in the United States (New York, 1971), p. 52 found Slavic Catholics to have less college graduates than Jews, Germans, British and Scandinavians, Protestants and Irish, German and Italian Catholics. (59) U.S. Census, Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950 Population. (60) The low rate of Slavic mobility and their occupational patterns are described in Joe Barton, Peasants and Strangers and John Bodnar, "Steelton's Immigrants : Social Relationships in a Pennsylvania Mill Town, 1870-1940" (unpublished Ph.D . dissertation, University of Connecticut, 1974). (61) See George Foster, "Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good," American Anthropologist, 67 (April, 1965), 293-315; Rudolph M. Bell, 'The Transformation of a Rural Village: Istria, 1870-1972,'' Journal of Social History, 7 (Spring, 1974). 251-52. � 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 1976, Vol. 26 Description An account of the resource Vol. 26 (No. 49), 1976. 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 1976 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 21 Materialism and Morality: Slavic-America'n Immigrants and Education, 1890-1940 BY JOHN BODNAR Prevailing American scholarship has credited immigrants to America with cherishing the idea of free public education and the promise it offered for social success. Scholars studying the attitudes of immigrants toward public education have portrayed immigrants as "true believers" in the potential of the American school. The widely accepted interpretation of Timothy Smith, for instance, argues forcefully that newcomers from southern and eastern Europe displayed a passionate and "intensified concern" for schooling in America. "That indigenous thrust for education," Smith asserted, "explains far better than any contributions of the Americanization movement the remarkable success in this country of Central European Slavs, Magyars, Rumanians, Jews, Greeks, and Italians." Smith argued that these immigrants had a "commitment" to the American dream of personal advancement through schooling. (1) Certainly some immigrant groups, such as Scandinavians, Jews, and Rumanians, displayed strong beliefs in the value of public schooling. (2) But the attempt to generalize about the immigrant experience obscures the variety of cultures and views newcomers brought to America. Studies of occupational mobility, for instance, are beginning to suggest that immigrants revealed divergent patterns of social attainment in America. (3) It remains to be seen, however, whether all newcomers embraced the ethic of success through public schooling. This study hopes to suggest that a consensus did not exist among immigrants in the worshipping of American schools and their potentiality. By focusing on Slavic-Americans, this essay will test the hypothesis that the American experience of southern and eastern Europeans "intensified the concern for learning." (4) Slavic immigrants to America and their children never denied the value of education itself. They did, however, conceive of education as having specific functions which were unrelated to social advancement. Above all else, education for immigrant children was for the purpose of retaining the cultural, linguistic, and religious values of the ethnic group. This message pervaded immigrant literature and was made unmistakably clear to the second generation. Cultural continuity was an overriding concern in America. Language and customs were threatened by Americanization just as Magyarization had threatened Slavic culture in the Austro-Hungarian 22 SLOVAKIA Empire. A Polish editor in Chicago explained that the major reason for the existence of the Polish National Alliance and parochial schools was to inculcate the use of the Polish language in the young. (5) Language preservation acquired a sense of importance before 1918 because of the European heritage of foreign domination, a heritage shared by Poles, Slovaks , Ukrainians, Croats,and Slovenes. Since Polish culture was threatened not only by Americanization but, in Europe, by Germany and Russia , its preservation in America seemed essential. (6) The necessity of this course became even more urgent when immigration was restricted in the 1920s. Osadne Hlasy, a Slovak publication, argued that with immigration restricted little assistance could be expected from ''the outside. ' ' It was now imperative, the newspaper stressed, to send children to Slovak schools where the "Slovak spirit" and language would be cultivated . (7) The efforts .at language maintenance were constantly in conflict with attacks of Americanizers. But immigrants reacted almost defiantly . A Croatian editor criticized Americans for not caring for foreign languages. He labeled the American desire to have all newcomers speak English fanatical and chauvinistic. Jednota, the organ of the First Catholic Slovak Union, concurred and told all Slovaks to disregard Americans who ridiculed their language because bilingualism was something of which to be proud. (8) Immigrants did more than preach language maintenance. In numerous communities such as Milwaukee and New York, Poles initiated movements to teach Polish in public schools. During the 1930s the Polish Felician Sisters in the Buffalo area launched programs to restore the teaching of the Polish language. The Polish National Church replaced Latin with Polish in its religious services after separating from the Roman Catholic Church in 1897. (9) Language schools proliferated in Slavic colonies beginning in the 1920s. In 1925 the Croatian fraternal lodges of Chicago initiated a school for children to learn to read and write Croatian . The Croatian Women 's Clubs of America ("Hrvatska Zena") launched widespread programs in 1929 to promote the preservation of the Croatian language. (10) While cultural preservation was important, however, a new transformative force was encountered in America - modem, urban society . Thus the retention of language was equalled in importance by the maintenance of religious ways. Slavic Catholics continually insisted that early childhood education should be in parochial schools. Invariably all Slavic groups were unanimous in their advocacy of religious over secular schools. '' A Catholic education is the best education in the world,'' Jednota claimed , ' 'because it prepares one for the main business of life: the saving of one's soul." On another occasion, the Slovak journal proclaimed that Catholic schools were the only "real" schools . (11) Slovene periodicals concurred that only Catholic schools could give children the " right kind of education. " (12) Polish SLOVAKIA 23 newcomers were instructed that if children attended public schools and failed to receive instruction in the Polish language and religion, they were a' 'total loss to the Polish people .'' (13) It is important to remember that language-loyalty and religion were inseparable. Slavs felt that one could not exist without the other. '' A Pole who says he is a Catholic but who is ashamed of or neglects the Polish language," a Polish writer insisted, "is not a true Catholic." Conversely, when the National Slovak Society organized a school for young Slovaks in Chicago~in 1904, which stressed Slovak language instructions, it received little support. Slovak Catholics claimed they would not support a school which failed to offer any religious teachings. Indeed, Jednota, in an editorial entitled "Educational Rights of Parents,'' held that parents have the basic right to send their children to schools where love of God and homeland is taught. (14) Slovak schools were viewed as places where children would learn ''to think in Slovak, talk in Slovak,and know the culture of their nation and love for their people." Slovaks were even instructed in how to give graduation speeches to the young since such addresses would offer a final opportunity to admonish the young to conduct themselves as good Slovaks and good Catholics. (15) If early schooling was to center on ''God and country,'' higher education also had its limits. Ivan Kramoris, a Slovak writer, admitted in 1939 that most Slovaks had been adverse to giving their sons higher education unless it involved study for the priesthood . (16) Actually many Slavs were skeptical of the possibilities of "modem education." John Lesko, a Slovak, wrote in Jednota that it was not clearly evident that "modem education" would guarantee progress. "A university education may bring one worldly position and prestige,'' Lesko argued, ''but peace and well-being and genuine progess come only from good will. '' Even Jednota admitted in 1939 that Slovaks in America ''lacked the generosity of the Jews'' in supporting education. (17) To be sure, numerous Slavic groups established plans for colleges and several were actually initiated. Their function, however, was clearly defined. When Alliance College in Pennsylvania was launched by Poles in 1911, it was conceived to be an institution whereby young Poles could become good Polish citizens, something which was thought unattainable in the homeland under foreign rule. On the opening of a Slovene college in Lemont, Illinois, Slovenes rejoiced over the fact that they now had both a college to educate spiritual leaders and priests, and a cultural center to guard "our religious standard" from the "destructive" work of the Yugoslav Socialist Federation. (18) Other Slavic groups echoed the thrust of the Slovenes and Poles. Slovaks planned a Slovak Catholic College in the late 1930s as a home for all Slavic cultures and an "arsenal" in the fight against atheistic communism. The Serbian National Federation created a college scholarship program in 1933 which required Serbian-American youth to 24 SLOVAKIA attend universities in Yugoslavia to study the Serbian language, history, and literature. (19) Wiadomosc Codzienne actually told Polish parents in Cleveland not to have their sons study for professions but rather to become skilled artisans since it would be easier to find a job. (20) Indeed, adjacent to Alliance College, Poles established the Alliance Trade Institute to train youth in mechanical trades. The graduates of the institute would not be professionals, according to Dziennik Zwiazowy, ''but skilled labor is just as useful and necessary as mental labor." A Slovak journal went further by suggesting that since opportunities were limited, young men should learn a skill. (21) While a good deal of effort was invested in instructing the second generation to retain the various ethnic cultures and eschew secular education, some immigrant children differed. Inevitably the relatively few Slavic children who moved through the American school system modified their parents' instructions considerably. Some attacked the views of the first generation, and their criticism revealed much about their parents' minds. A second generation Polish education group, for instance, explained that their parents' preoccupation with Polish nationalism was noble but, as a result, ''it lowered interest in making a place for Poles in this country." The New American argued that the progress of Poles in this country was sacrificed in order to settle a historical debt (free Poland). (22) The young Poles, in another editorial, criticized other Polish-Americans for possessing "an attitude of obliviousness to education and a lack of appreciation for a sense of deferred values.'' The essay concluded: There exists a tendency among a large number of Polish young men and women to be easily satis'fied with a mediocre position, sometimes to a point of servitutle in a routine job with a remote chance for advancement. (23) Other educated immigrant children echoed the critique of young Poles. Stephen Mamchur, in an address to the Ukrainian Youth Congress in 1935, criticized the policy of Ukrainians who foster ethnic isolation by socializing "students in Ukrainian culture." Mamchur felt Ukrainian children should spend less time in studying Ukrainian and pay more attention to secular education if Ukrainians were to rise in the American social structure. If the "isolationist" policy continued, Mamchur predicted that Ukrainians would remain a "caste" and never assume ''that place in the American social order to which our abilities entitle us.'' (24) While a few immigrant children had acquired American middleclass notions of education and mobility and attempted to inculcate their views to the Slavic masses, however, most, thoroughly socialized by their parents, shared their parents' views on cultural maintenance. Consider the activities of American-born Ukrainians. By the early 1930s the second generation had established the Ukrainian Youth League of SLOVAKIA 25 North America, the Ukrainian Catholic Youth of North America and the Ukrainian Orthodox League of North America. A vast network of neighborhood centers, athletic and cultural programs and publications such as the Ukrainian Chronicle and The Ukrainian Weekly appeared. (25) The Ukrainian Youth League of North America was typical. Organized in 1933, it contained four divisions: social, athletic, educational (Ukrainian history and language), and cultural (dramas). Its main objectives were t\) organize Ukrainian-American youth and disseminate among them a knowledge of the Ukrainian people, to promote moral and physical talents, and to support all Ukrainian national and cultural institutions. One delegate to the Ukrainian Catholic League's convention in 1938 contended that young Ukrainians could not deny the existence of their forefathers or their heritage and that it was imperative ''to carry on the work of keeping alive the culture of our predecessors.'' (26) Annual conventions, in fact, often witnessed debate over the extent young Ukrainians should Americanize. A consensus at the 1936 meeting, for instance, agreed that Ukrainian youth should '' live up to their promise'' by keeping the traditions of our ''beloved Ukraine, whether they be religious or otherwise.'' (27) The youth leagues also established a diverse program of plays, dances, history and language instruction, and athletic competition. The First Ukrainian Catholic National Track and Field Championships were held in Philadelphia in 1936 and attracted participants from Bridgeport, Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia. Vasile Avramenko and his Ukrainian Folk Ballet became extremely popular among both Ukrainian generations in America in the early 1930s and were sponsored in numerous localities by local youth leagues. In 1939, over 50,000 people attended the American-Ukrainian Folk Festival at the New York World's Fair which was sponsored by the Ukrainian American Youth League. (28) Immigrant children were also influenced by their parents in subtle ways to value immediate work above a lengthy education. Some viewed their immigrant fathers as, above all else, hard workers. If sons had any image of their fathers it included manual work as an inevitable aspect of life. A Polish-American described his parents as individuals who believed in ''work, work, work, and work.'' A Bethlehem Slovak recalled that his father never talked of changing jobs but only of doing a good day's work for the company. (29) A Serbian son in Pittsburgh remembered his father as a man esteemed by fellow Serbs for his dedication to his job. The Serbian son claimed his father's characteristics were representative of most Serbs. He argued: Those men were tireless. They did hard work. They stuck with their job; they didn't have to be driven. They were tireless and always feared the loss of their jobs since they had nothing to fall back on. (30) 26 SLOVAKIA Slavic parents also held definite ideas concerning work which influenced the educational prospects of their children drastically . The individualistic approach to child rearing was an anathema to Slavs. They viewed their children as part of a collective whose work was necessary for family survival. (31) As a young man, John Smitko wanted to be a Slovak priest. His mother argued that religious training would not provide an adequate income and insisted he work in the mill. Smitko became a pit careman in a Duquesne mill for forty-five years . (32) Joseph Slater, the son of a Polish miner, was taken to work in an Ohio coal mine by his father at age sixteen. Nick Kiak's first job was learning the operation of a crane from his father at the Bethlehem mill. (33) Working-class parents encouraged child labor rather than schooling as necessary for family survival. In the 1920s, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, thirty-five percent of Polish family income was provided by child labor. Before Pennsylvania restricted child labor in the 1920s, Slavic parents routinely falsified working permits so that their children could begin work at fourteen instead of the legal age of sixteen. Sam Davich was required to work at age fourteen in a glass factory in Pittsburgh and turn over his earnings to his mother. Michael Komernitski worked as a teenager when his father's illness reduced family income . In Lyndora, in western Pennsylvania, most Polish children were sent to Detroit in the late 1920s when news of jobs in the expanding automobile industry was received. One Ukrainian-American son explained that it was understood that a child helped his father because the parent " couldn 't make out. " (34) Slavic parents not only influenced their children by the example of hard work and the demands of family survival but imparted definite views concerning education. A typical Slovak father stressed to his son that it was more important to learn a manual skill than attend school. Michael Zahorsky was assured by his father that if he learned a trade he would never go hungry. Zahorsky became a blacksmith. Frank Horvath quit school at age sixteen to work in a Bethlehem furniture factory. His brothers had already started peddling milk to help pay the family milk bill. Horvath's parents questioned whether school helped anyone survive. They argued that an opportl\nity to leave school and make money should never be avoided. (35) When Slavic newcomers did insist on education, religious vocation and ethnic cultures were usually stressed. Michael Labeka's father taught him the role of cantor in the Ukrainian church. A cantor was paid to sing religious responses in many Slavic churches. Labeka later supplemented his income as a mill worker in Monessen with his earnings as a cantor. Bernard Gorcyca's parents sent him to a Polish seminary in Michigan at age fourteen. Other parents admonished their children to study their native tongue and religious instruction. (36) The tension between the ostensible promise of American SLOVAKIA 27 \ education and success, something which divided the immigrant children, and the wishes of the immigrants reached a classic confrontation among Croatians. In 1940, a professor of Croatian extraction at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Francis Preveden, presented a comprehensive plan to the Supreme Board of the Croatian Fraternal Union of America (CFU). Preveden asked the fraternal union to institute a monthly assessment of one cent per member to support the creation of Croatian National Alliance for Schooling and Education of Youth at Duquesne. While Preveden was motivated partly by a desire to create an enhanced institutional position for himself, his argument was clearly presented to the Croatian leaders and public. The Croatian center, according to Preveden, would '' open the gates of the temples of knowledge" to Croatian children who had "been denied the advantages of higher education." Preveden stated his goal succinctly: In its full extent this plan aims at the gradual transformation of our immigrants from a class of laborers to a class of intellectuals. This change should come through encouragement of secondary and higher education among our younger ·generation. (37) Preveden attributed a perceived lack of educational attainment and ' 'intellectual stagnation' ' among Croatians to the ''ignorance and criminal neglect" of Croatian leaders who worried more over the internal politics of the ethnic organization and "evil genius" of the last two generations of the Croatian people in America. Preveden equated the status of the Croatian people in America to that of the Negro and placed Croats decidedly behind the Irish whose educational network he admired. And he argued that· the additional assessment required for the center would not lead to deprivation . (38) The reaction of the CFU leaders was to call for a referendum of the union's membership on the issue of initiating a monthly assessment to support the Croatian educational center. (39) By 1940 the CFU was divided into Croatian-speaking lodges, which predominated and consisted of both first and second generation Croats, and English-speaking lodges , which were fewer in number and were composed entirely of American-born Croats. It was from the Croatianspeaking lodges that Preveden encountered his severest opposition . Many immigrant Croats, including those in the supreme board of the CFU , were opposed to increased assessments for education , especially because numerous immigrants were retiring by 1940 and needed financial assistance. Adam Sudetic, a senior CFU member from Detroit, was critical of any plan that represented a drift away from the Croatian language. Sudetic further felt that the stress on "educated Croats " discouraged other young Croats from joining the fraternal union . (40) 28 SLOVAKIA Preveden's strongest support, not unexpectedly, came from the English-speaking lodges. English lodges in Gary, Indiana; Lackawanna, New York; and Pittsburgh sent strong endorsements to Zajednicar, the organ of the CFU. (41) Michael Horvath, the editor for the English section of Zajednicar, argued vigorously for the plan. Horvath insisted that the center: is the one concrete manner in which we can prove to our young that we are willing to do for them what was denied us in the past and that is to extend to them a decent opportunity of educating themselves in the better fields of learning. (42) Horvath and other proponents of the plan initiated a strategically designed series in Zajednicar during the spring and summer of 1940 entitled "Survey of College Educated and Professional Croatians." Croatian Americans who graduated from college were identified and their life histories were published. It was hoped that such examples "of the success of our youth'' in education would spread interest in education and progress throughout all Croatian youth in America. Questionnaires were mailed to every lodge and to over seven hundred colleges in the United States and Canada seeking information on Croatians in college. Weekly lists were published of those in college and in professions. A reference file was started for future students to learn from the experience of other Croats "in the never ceasing struggle to attain success." After nearly four months, the survey was ended on the eve on the referendum to decide the fate of the Preveden plan. What it had demonstrated was the exceedingly low rate of educational attainment and mobility by Croats by 1940. With nearly 400,000 Croats in America only 135 college students were identified and 150 "professionals" including receptionists, stenographers, mail carriers, and one professional boxer. (43) By late September the results of the referendum were clear. Over 10,000 votes were cast out of 58,000 eligible voters in the CFU. The Preveden education plan was defeated by;._ more than a two to one margin. The series on educational attainments was abruptly stopped and the sections devoted to Croatian youth in Zajednicar quickly returned to a "complete focus on sports," something which had been noticeably absent during the summer of 1940. The immigrants and a good representation of their children had spoken. The surrender to American middle-class values would not be that easy. (44) Clearly the Slavic immigrant had misgivings about American schooling and the promise it ostensibly offered. In part, his hostility to education stemmed from the threat public schooling posed to his cultural heritage and language. Certp.inly his working-class status reinforced these educational views. But an examination of immigrant literature revealed a deeper motive for explaining the orientation of SLOVAKIA 29 Slavic newcomers. Ultimately Slavs were troubled by the materialistic, acquisitive thrust of Amarican life. Poles, Slovaks, Croats, and Ukrainians not only resisted Americanization but they also were reluctant to embrace the secular aspect of modern urban industrial society. Ultimately, the Slav would not only resist pressures to Americanize but he would offer a critique of the moral quality of modern industrial America. Throughout the first half century of large scale Slavic settlement in America, a consistent anti-materialistic bias permeated the immigrants' thought. In the early 1890s, Polish newspapers were already mounting a strong assault on the ''Dollar God'' of American culture. A Pole from Priceburg, Pennsylvania, wrote a letter to Dziennik Chicagoski criticizing American society for straining parental-child relationships by stressing "excess and wantonness." The "struggle for the dollar'' facilitated the losing of ''religion and patriotism so dear to us.'' Numerous editorials and articles emphasized the evil effects of the pursuit of material wealth. In an 1894 editorial Zgoda told Poles that a ''reasonable honest drive'' to improve your material being was good, but the "idolistic pursuit' of money at the expense of your soul would bring "hatred and desperation." Zgoda continued, "good character and work are the greatest wealth." (45) It was precisely because of this skepticism of the promise of American life that Poles emphasized Polish over American schools. Dziennik Chicagoski called Polish schools the ''watch-tower'' of the Polish spirit. American schools were felt to be a "horrible example" where children learn little but disrespect for their parents. American schools were not considered ''adequate'' for Polish children not only because they were "irreligious" but because they were thought to be permeated with secularism. (46) Poles, in fact, attacked other areas of American life. The popular literature of America, such as magazines and ''love stories and the like" which were printed for profit, was sharply attacked for lowering moral standards. Again the Polish press articulated the feeling: . . . have we fallen so low that we cannot pursue something better (than Americans). Let us concentrate our thoughts and spirits in a direction that will be worthy of us - toward better spiritual and moral standards which will place us above all others. In order to maintain the purity of the Polish spirit, we must stay clear of the present course of the American generation. (47) Slovaks invariably echoed the Polish sentiments. In a series of essays in Jednota by the Slovak writer, Ivan Kramoris, the Slovak immigrant situation was analyzed. Kramoris posed the question, "But what are we going to do in America?" He explained that such a choice 30 SLOVAKIA should be made in the framework of economic versus moral standards. Kramoris argued that an individual's morality actually influenced his economic life . Little doubt existed in Kramoris' mind that the eventual emphasis should be placed upon morality. Other writers in Jednota concurred: " So many are cursed with the lust of acquiring things they see no further ahead than their own selfish self''; a Slovak editor exclaimed , ''those who measure success by the material things acquired are lost in the fog of life.' ' (48) Characteristically, the anti-materialistic bias influenced Slovak views on education. Osadne Hlasy illustrated the drawbacks of the public schools in 1929. Children were taught but not "reared" in American schools; according to the Slovak journal, "they educate the mind but not the heart." J. T. Porincak, a Slovak, clarified the argument: With a public school education they (children) go forth into the world, lost completely to the Slovaks. Their idea of life is a breezy and snappy novel, a blood curdling movie and lots of money. But our duty to our people commands us to save our youth from the moral catastrophe that is confronting it. (49) Slovaks also revealed a collective self-perception of themselves as moral people. A Jednota article compared Slovaks to Quakers . Unlike the British and Italians who were felt to the militaristic, Slovaks, like Quakers, represented "endurance and strength, not progress and conquest." In a clear display of working-class resignation and futility, the Jednota writer concluded that Slovaks know what ''life is worth and do not strive for the unobtainable." At his retirement as editor of Jednota in 1937, Joseph Rusek made a farewell speech in which he analyzed the contribution of Slovaks to American life. What Slovaks , he concluded, could give America was a "moral legacy." Rusek thought Slovak identity would eventually be lost in America but '' our moral values will contribute to the creation of the American nation.'' (50) Similar currents were found in the res\ of Slavic America. George Mamek told a Chicago Croatian youth club in 1931 that most Americans shared a '' cruel materialistic philosophy'' ahd thought more of their dollars than their souls. Mamek saw immigrants who came to America to improve their material condition especially susceptible to the idolization of material ends. Mamek's address so stirred the young Croatians that they passed resolutions supporting the right of children to be raised " distinctively and different" in America and the beneficial effects of cultural pluralism as the "philosophy best for our children." Arguments on the moral responsibilities of parents were found throughout Croatian and Serbian journals. (51) SLOVAKIA 31 A potential danger in presenting the ' ' Slavic view'' is to suggest that the Slavic immigrant communities were ideologically monolithic. The groups and data examined in this study reflected the prevailing views of Poles, Slovaks, Croatians, Serbs, and Ukrainians who, with the exception of Serbian Orthodox, were primarily Catholic, of peasant background, and composed the vast majority of Slavic newcomers to America. Some Slavs, such as Poles from Germany, Czechs and Slovenes, often encountered a greater degree of industrialization in Europe and brought strong ~raditions of socialism and ''free thought.'' Actually considerable dialogue existed within most Slavic communities between the Catholic majority and the ubiquitous socialist minority. Socialists were more numerous among certain groups, such as the Slovenes and Czechs, than among Poles, Slovaks, Ukrainians, or Croats. Partially this situation existed because of greater incursions of industrialization and socialist thought into Czech and Slovene homelands than in more economically backward areas like southern Poland and eastern Slovakia. (52) The socialists in the old country were in continual contact with the American communities and many joined the immigrant waves. Socialism was never embraced by the peasant Slavs to the extent that it was by groups who brought strong socialists traditions to America, such as the Jews and Finns. The outstanding differences between the Slavic Catholics and socialists were their opposite views concerning the material, secular world. Slavic socialists departed markedly from their fellow countrymen in their assessment of education. Proletarec, a Slovene socialist organ, argued that Slovene workers badly need professional education to develop skills that would facilitate the finding of jobs. Proletarec, echoing the criticism of some Catholic immigrant children, sought to infuse Slavic children with initiative and' 'a new horizon for ambition the modem school, supported by scientists of reputation, is exactly what we want." (53) Education was perceived as necessary for economic progress and as a defense against exploitation of the worker. Organizations such as the J ugoslav Educational Association eventually offered free lectures and literature on topics such as "The Value of Education," "Birth Control," and "Health and Welfare." (54) The Slavic socialists embellished their advocacy of secular education with a simultaneous attack on the religious values and leaders of the Slavic majority. A Serb socialist spokesman complained that Serbians needed more professors and doctors but got only '' soul savers." Slovak socialist organs urged "poor working Slovaks" not to "throw their money" away by giving it to churches. In a similar vein, Proletarec claimed that clergy were using ''pious sentiments'' as a means of extracting money from the workers. When Slavs were asked by their religious leaders to pray for an end to the depression in 1931, Novi Svijet countered with a lengthy assault upon the clergy. The newspaper explained: 32 SLOVAKIA Such comedy with prayer is being prepared to show seemingly sympathy toward workers and to keep believers in the ancient darkness of faith in whose name the worst kind of exploitation is committed . . . The salvation of the working class is not in prayer but in education and organization. (55) Even Slavic socialists, however, despite their secular orientation, were unable to completely surmount ethnic tensions among themselves and achieve a semblance of working-class solidarity. The largest Slavic socialist movement was found among the South Slavs and was institutionalized, in 1910, in the creation of the Yugoslav Socialist Federation. The organization, however, was continually weakened by disputes between Serbs , Croats, and Slovenes . The organization had three newspapers: Proletarec for the Slovenes, Radnicka Straza for the Croats, and Narodni Glas for the Serbs. At the annual meeting in 1912, Frank Petrich, the editor of Proletarec, proposed that all three papers be merged and published in the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. The plan was soundly defeated then, and on subsequent occasions when it was introduced. (56) At times, Slavic socialists themselves exhibited concerns which were highly non-secular and revealed a lingering ambiguity toward materialism. A Croat socialist spokesman complained that too many newcomers are interested only in "high wages" and forget the extensive suffering and exploitation endured by workers. A number of other comments attacked American societies for fostering divorce and a decline in family relationships. (57) The Slavic-American skepticism toward public school was clearly manifested in various studies of school attendance and progress. In a 1911 study released by the United States Immigration Commission, Poles and Slovaks ranked lowest among ethnic groups in the largest urban centers. The percentage of Slavic children in school beyond the sixth grade was lower than the rate for the progeny of Irish and Jewish newcomers and Negroes. Beyond grade six, the group with the smallest percentage of children in the public schools of Chicago and Cleveland in 1911 were the Slovaks (4 percent). Poles were lowest in Buffalo, New Britain and Scranton and next to the last in Cleveland and Milwaukee. , In computing public high school att~dance in 1910, Slavic children were noticeably absent. In Chicago, while five percent of Black children and six percent of Polish Jewish children were attending the secondary schools, only one percent of the Poles and Slovaks were doing so. In Cleveland only one-half of one percent of Slovak children were in high school in 1910 as compared with eleven percent of Irish immigrant children and seven percent of Polish Jews who arrived in America at the same time . 33 \ SLOVAKIA TABLE 1 * PCBLIC SCHOOL ATTENDANCE OF NATIVE & IMMIGRANT CHILDREN BEYOND GRADE 6, 191 0 New Buffalo Chicago C leve land Milwaukee Britain Scranton Shenandoah 16% 40 <;; 23"/ 26';, 24% 3 1';; 16 17 15 18 NB\V Negro Heb r ew 31 26 -10 German Heb r e w 22 23 20 Polish 39 28 61 24 32 25 19 Iri sh South 2 7 11 10 It :1li:1.n 5 (j 1 4 6 10 7 6 Polis h 5 5 Slovak -I 6 Croat 7 8 Slovene *St ati s ti cs computed from Gl Cong ., :3 rd scss . ; serial 58 75, T he Children of Immig rants in Schools (5 vo ls ., Washington, 1911) , II, 3 78 , 648 , 848; IV, 77, 4 77; V, 4 18 , 50 8 , TABLE 2* HIGH SCHOOL ATTENDANCE: , NAT IVE & IMMIGRANT CHILDREN, 19 10 Buffalo 12 8 19 lG Chicago 9 5 10 6 C level and 12 8 13 7 Milwaukee 10 9 New Britain 19 NBW Negr o Heb r ew Greman 9 Hebrew Polish 3 Hebrew Russian 43 12 11 G 13 Irish 1 1 l 3 South Italian 1 2 1 2 2 Polish 1 .5 Slovak *Statist ics co mputed from 61 Cong. , 3 rd sess .; serial 58 75 (5 vo ls ., Was hington, 1911) , II, 378 , G..J.8 , 8-1 8; I\', 77, -1 77; V, 41 8 , 508 . Where parochial school attendance figures were available, Slavic attendance invariably ranked behind native-born and second generation Irish children. In Milwaukee parochial schools in 1910, fifteen percent of the children of native-born Catholics were in school and ten percent of the second generation Irish. Only two percent of the Poles were attending, however, and no Slovaks. Polish and Slovak SLOVAKIA 34 representation in Cleveland's parochial schools were better but considerably behind the native-born and Irish . New Britain had nineteen percent of its Irish youth in Catholic schools after the sixth grade but none of its Polish youth. In Scranton ninety-nine percent of all Polish immigrant children in parochial schools were in grades one to five only. In Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, thirty-two percent of the children of native-born Catholics were beyond the fourth grade . No Poles had advanced that far despite being in Shenandoah for over thirty years as of 1910. (58) Tab le 3* PAROCHIAL SCHOOL ATTENDANCE BY ETHNIC GROUP BEYOND GRADE G Native -born white Milwaukee New Britain Cleveland Irish Polish 14. 9% 10';{ 22 17 26 1. 6% 0 5 H.) Slovak 0 1¾ 10 *6lst Cong., 3rd sess., serial 5 875, The Children of Immigrants in Schools (5 vols .; Washington, 1911), V, 95,515, 909. As late as 1950, census data revealed the effect of the educational patterns of Slavs. In focusing on Pennsylvania, the state that received the largest influx of Slavs, their median years of completed schooling was the lowest of any ethnic group in the state . The following list ranks the towns in Pennsylvania with the lowest median years of school completed by their citizens and identifies the largest ethnic concentrations in those communities. Clearly, the small industrial towns which covered the state and housed its Slavic concentrations were behind the rest of the Commonwealth in educational progress. (59) Median Years of Schoo ling, 1950 (persons over 25) Gilberton Marshalltown Dupont Shenandoah Dickson City West Washington Swoyersville Edwardsv ille Glen Lyon Throop Pennsylvania (state average) 7.2 7.3 7.4 7. 7 7. 7 7. 8 7. 8 7.9 7.9 7.9 9. 0 \ Ethnic Concentration Lithuanian-Slovak Polish-Lithuanian Slovak-Italian Polish Polish-Slovak Polish-Italian Polish-Slovak Polish-Slovak Polish-Italian Polish-It a Li an SLOVAKIA 35 The evidence on Slavic views towards American schools suggests that no great consensus existed among immigrants. Slavs did not share the preferences of many other immigrant groups and wholeheartedly embrace the expectations of American education. Schools were suspect not only for the threat they posed to Slavic culture but for the material reward they ostensibly promised. Influenced partially by the spiritualistic thrust of their premodem culture, Slavs did not immediately accept the modem notion of the pursuit of upward success. Some immigrant children who were exposed to American higher education attempted to infuse other Slavs with a middle-class faith in public schooling and bitterly criticized the stance of their parents. But they were a definite minority as most of the second generation were socialized in the attitudes of their parents. Slavic socialists who favored public schooling were only a fraction of the Slav Catholic population and were frequently preoccupied with moral and ethnic concerns of their own. To most Slavic Americans before 1940, education was intended for the preservation of culture and morality, not social mobility. The skepticism toward education and success displayed by SlavicAmericans during the first half-century of extensive settlement in America emerged from two sources. Most Slavs were drawn into unskilled, industrial pursuits which offered few opportunities for occupational mobility. (60) Their working class status, as the interviews in this paper suggested, encouraged a preoccupation with steady work. Public education simply did not offer skills that were useful to blast fumances, open hearths, mines, or textile mills. Practical considerations of getting a job and keeping it were not only paramount but essential for survival. Even more importantly, this emerging working-class pragmatism reinforced elements of traditional peasant culture, such as concerns with survival, limited visions of the future and spiritual rather than material ends. (61) Modem notions of acquisitiveness had neither immediate acceptance nor historical antecedents within the immigrant mind. Furthermore, constant attempts by Magyars in Europe and Americanizers in this country to subjugate Slavic cultures made their preservation an important consideration. And within that culture, language, religious values, and spiritual concern were intertwined and deemed worthy of maintenance. When this cultural constellation was fused with working-class realism, Slavic attitudes toward education became inevitable. (Reprinted with the permission of: The Journal of Ethnic Studies, 3:4 (Winter 1976).) NOTES Research for this article was made possible by grants from the American Council of Learned Societies and the Immigration History Research Center, University of Minnesota. 36 SLOVAKIA (1) Timothy Smith , " Immigrant Social Aspirations and American Education , 18801930," American Quarterly, 21 (Fall, 1969) , 522-25 . Smith, " Native Blacks and Foreign Whites : Varying Responses to Educational Opportunity in America, 18801950," in Perspectives in American History, VI (1972), 311-313. (2) David Tyack , The One Best System, A History of American Urban Education (Cambridge, Mass ., 1974) , 241-48; David W . Cohen, "Immigrants and the Schools," Revie ws of Educational Research, 40 (Fall , 1940), 13-28; Michael Olneck and Marvin Lazerson , " The School Achievement of Immigrant Children, 1900-1930," History of Education Quarterly, 15 (Winter, 1975), 453 , 474-77 . (3) Josef Barton, Peasants and Strangers: Italians, Rumanians, and Slovaks in an American City, 1840-1950 (Cambridge, Mass. , 1975), Chapter V; Stephan Thernstrom , The Other Bostonians (Cambridge, Mass ., 1973), pp . 145 ff; Andrew Greeley, Ethnicity in the United States (New York, 1974) , pp . 53-56, 181. (4) Smith, '' Immigrant Social Aspirations and American Education , 1880-1930, '' p. 525. (5) Dzie nnik Zwiazowy, Nov. 27, 1911, Chicago Foreign Language Press Survey (CFLPS), reel 49; Wiadomosci Codzienne, October 11, 1937, p. 2 (6) Dziennik Zwiazowy, Nov. 27, 1911, CFLOS, reel 49; Wiadomosci Codzi,mne, Jan. 25, 1938, p. 2. (7) Osadne Hlasy , June 27 , 1930, pp . 4-5. (8) Zanje, Oct. 2, 1920, p. 4; Jednota, Mar. 18, 1936, p. 9; American Srbobran, Aug. 12, 1933, p . 3. (9) Wiadomosci Codzienne, Apr. 9, 1938, p. 2; Gerd Korman, Industrialization, Immigrants, andAmericanizers (Madison, Wis. , 1967), pp. 167-68; Ellen M . Kuznicki, ' ' An Ethnic School in American Education: A Study of the Origin, Development, and Merits of the Educational System of the Felican Sisters in Polish American Catholic Schools of Western New York" (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Kansas State Univ. , 1973); Stephen Wlodarski , The Origin and Growth of the Polish National Church (Scranton, 1974), p. 225. (10) Novi Svijet, Mar. 19, 1925, p. 1; Memorial Book and Fifth Anniversary, 1929-1934, Hrvatska Zena (Chicago, 1934). (11) Jednota, Sept. 21, 1938, p. 10; Sept. 8, 1937, p. 3. (12) Amerikanski Slovenec, Aug. 26, 1925, p . 4. See Giles Gobetz, "Slovenian Americans in Greater, Cleveland, Ohio" (typescript, Kent, Ohio, 1973), pp. 47-49, copy available at Immigration History Research Center, University of Minnesota (IHRC) . (13) Dziennik Chicagoski, May 27, 1904 ; June 30, 1897, reel 49, CFLPS. (14) Ibid ; Rovnost Ludu, Sept: 1, 1907, p . 1; Jednota, July 22, 1936, p. 9. (15) Hlas (Mar., 1938), p . 2 ; Osadne H/,asy, June 22, 1932 , p . 4. (16) Jednota, Apr. 26, 1939, p . 5. (17) Ibid. , Feb. 17, 1937, p. 10 ; Jan. 25 , 1939, p. 10. (18) Dziennik Zwiazowy, Dec. 11 , 1911 , p. 2; July 2, llm7, CFLPS, reel 49; Amerikanski Slovenec, June 11, 1925, pp. 1-3. (19) Jednota, Jan. 25 , 1939, p . 10 ; American Srbobran, Aug. 26, 1933 , p . 3; Aug. 12, 1933 , p . 3. (20) Wiadomosci Codzienne, July 28, 1937, p. 2; see the organ of the Polish Students Association of America, The New American, VII (June-July , 1939) , 1, for additional evidence that cultural maintenance was valued over "money." Stephen Vesko, ''Value of Higher Catholic Education,'' Jednota Kato/icky Kalendar, 1939. (21) Dziennik Zwiazowy, Aug . 5, 1918, CFLPS, reel 49. ' SLOVAKIA 37 (221 The New American, III (Sept. 19361; p. 4. (231 Ibid., V (Mar., 19391; II (Jan.-Feb.; 19361, p. 3. (24) Stephen Manchur, "Orientation of Ukrainian American Student," Ukrainian Youth, II (Oct., 1935), pp.5-11. (251 Filed Ukrainian Youth League minutes of meetings are in Alex Yarernko Papers, Box 1, IHRC; John Panchuk Papers, Boxes 3-5, IHRC; Sixty Years of the Ukranian Community in Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 1944). (261Minutes of the First Ukrainian Youth Congress, 1933 (typescriptl and Program, Sixth Annual Convention, Ukranian Catholic Youth League of North America, Alex Yaremko Papers, box 1, IHRC. (27) Minutes of Annual Meeting, 1936, (typescriptl, and Ukrainian Weekly Mar. 28, 1936, p. 4 (clipping) in Yarernko Papers, box 1, IHRC. (28) Ukrainian Cultural Center of Philadelphia, Guide to Program, Activities, and Policy, Yaremko Papers, box 1. This collection also contains numerous souvenir programs and describing the Vasile Avramenko folk ballet and the American Ukrainian Folk Festival in 1939. (291 Interviews with Bernard Gorczyca, Pittsburgh, June 20, 1974, Pittsburgh Oral History Project (POHP) reel 4; Frank Horvath, Bethlehem, July 16, 1974, Bethlehem Oral History Project (BOHPI, reel 3. All interviews are on file at the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg. (301 Interviews with Anton Cindrich, Pittsburgh, June 25, 1974, POHP, reel 17. Similar statements were made by Walter Klis, Pittsburgh, July 2, 1974, POHP, reel 15. (311 Geoffrey H. Steers, "Child-rearing Literature and Modernization Theory," The Family in Historical Perspective, Newsletter (Winter, 1974), pp. 8-9. Benjamin Spock, Baby and Child Care (New York, 1968), p. 12; Philip Slater, The Pursuit of Loneliness (Boston, 1970), pp. 62-64. (32) Interviews with John Smitko, McKeesport, June 22, 1974, POHP, reel 34. (33) Interviews with Joseph Slater, Dravosburg, July 2, 1974, POHP, reel 35. Nick Kiak, Bethlehem, July 11, 1974, BOHP, reel 9. (34) Interviews with Sam Davich, Pittsburgh, June 24, 1974, POHP, reel 17; Michael Komernitski, McKees Rocks, June 17, 1974, POHP, reel 16; Joe Rudiak, Pittsburgh, July 21, 1974, POHP, reel 19; John Wolota, Pittsburgh, June 14, 1974, POHP, reel 14. See John Bodnar, "Socialization and Adaptation: The Immigrant Families of Scranton," Pennsylvania History (forthcoming, Jan., 19761. (351 Interviews with Michael Zahorsky, Aliquippa, June 21, 1974, POHP, reel 7; Frank Horvath, Bethlehem, July 16, 1974, POHP, reel 3. (36) Interviews with Michael Labeka, McKees Rocks, June 18, 1974, POHP, reel 4; Bernard Gorczyca, Pittsburgh June 20, 1974, POHP, reel 15. Joe Rudiak, Pittsburgh, July 21, 1974, POHP, reel 19. (37) Francis Preveden, "Otuorirno Hram Znanja Nasoj Ornladini: Vasoj dieci," Francis Preveden Papers, folder 14, IHRC; "Review of Facts and Documents Concerning the Establishment of a Croatian University Chair in America (typescript), Preveden Papers, folder 14. (381 Preveden, "Otuorimo Hram Znanja Nasoj Omladini: Vasoj dieci," and "Project of a History of the Croatian People in America" (typescriptl, Preveden Papers, folder 14. (39) Zajednicar, Mar. 20, 1940, p. 10. See Preveden, "Napredak Nase Omladine I Buducnost Hrvata U Arnerici," Zajednicar, June 5, 1940, p. 4. (401 Zajednicar, Dec. 20, 1939, p. 12; May 29, 1940, p. 10; May 15, 1940, p. 10; Croatian Fraternal Union of America, Kratki Pregled Povijesti Hrvatske Bratske Zajednice, 38 SLOVAKIA 1894-1949 (Pittsburgh, 1949), pp. 198-99. (41) Zajednicar, May 22, 1940, p. 11; May 29, 1940, p . 12; June 26, 1940, p . 11. (42) Ibid ., July 17, 1940, p . 11; May 29, 1940. (43) Ibid ., Apr. 3, 1940, p . 1, 11-12; June 19, 1940, pp. 1-2, 11-12 ; June 26, 1940, p. 10; July 24, 1940, p . 11; Aug. 7, 1940, p. 11; Aug. 28, 1940, p . 11. (44) Ibid., Sept. 25, 1940, p. 10. (45) F . Majer letter in Dziennik Chicagoski, July 22, 1892, p. 4; Aug. 27, 1892, CFLPS, reel 49. Zgoda, Nov. 14, 1894 , p. 4; Jan. 19, 1899, p. 6. (46) Dziennik Chicagoski, June 6, 1896, Sept. 1, 1908, CFLPS, reel 49. (47) Ibid., Jan. 3, 1938, CFLPS, reel 49. The overtness of anti-Semitism which pervaded the Polish ethnic press often focused on the alleged materialistic aims of the Jews, although Polish anti-Semitism had deep historical roots in Poland which explains Polish-Jewish relations in America; see Narod Polski, Aug . 6, 1919, CFLPS, reel 49. (48) Ivan Kramoris , "The Slovak Immigrant Situation," Jednota, Apr. 19, 1939, p. 3; Jednota, June 10, 1936, p. 9. Jane Adams related the distress of a visiting Czech professor in Chicago over the "materialism " of America including several Bohemian newcomers; see Twenty Years at Hull House (New York, 1910), p . 171. Slovaks expressed attitudes similar to Poles in regard to Jewish sterotypes and the pursuit of wealth. See Jednota, Sept. 8, 1937, p . 3. (49) Osadne Hlasy (September 1929), 8-11; Jednota, April 22, 1936, p . 9; May 8, 1936, pp. 8-9. (50) Jednota, Jan. 29 , 1936, p . 9 , Sept. 29 , 1937, p . 8 . (51) Novi Svijet, Mar. 7, 1931, pp. 1-4. For similar statements see American Srbobran, August 26, 1933 , p. 3. Stephen Ilich, " The Moral Responsibilities of Parents and Children," Jugoslavia, March 3, 1923, pp . 1-7; Americanski Slovenec, July 6, 1929, p . 4. (52) Johann Chmelar, "The Austrian Emigration, 1900-1914, " Perspectives in American History, VII (1973). 275-378. (53) Proletarec, Mar. 27, 1919, pp. 1-4. (54) Novi Svijet, Jan. 30 , 1930, pp. 1-3; Jan. 19, 1927, pp. 2-3; Proletarec, Mar. 27, 1919, p. 4; Apr. 26, 1928; Zanje, Nov. 24, 1919, pp. 1-4; Radnicka Straza, Oct. 1, 1909, pp. 1-2 described free Croatian socialist schools. See Frank Bohn, Katoliska Cerkev in Socializem (Chicago, 1914) . (55) D. Popovich, "Noble Souls ," in Scrapbook of D. Popovich, IHRC . Rovnost Ludu (Slovak socialist paper). Apr. 10, 1912, p . 4; Proletarec, Dec. 11, 1918, pp . 3-5; NOvi Svijet, Nov. 14 , 1931, p. 4, 6; Radnik, Aug. 8, 1925, p. 4. (56) RadnickaStraza, Dec. 19, 1912, p. 1; Jan . 2, 1913, p. 1. By 1924 the membership of the Jugoslav Socialist Federation totaled only 1,500 and over 80 percent of its membership was Slovene. In Pennsylvania, for instance, the active South Slav socialists were almost all in small mining towns and settlements. Few were found in large urban areas and mill towns with sizeable Yugoslav colonies. Two mining communities, Strabane and Forest City, had a quarter of the read~rship of Proletarec between 1915 and 1940, mostly in the 1930s. Pittsburgh, which haa large Croatian and Serbian and Slovene communities, had relatively few socialist organizations, although the first Croatian Socialist Club in America began there in 1903. Chicago, as late as 1937, had less than 300 Slovene socialists. Finns, on the other hand, had over 15,000 socialists, a figure considerably higher than the Yugoslavs. See Jugoslovanska Socialisticna Zveza Papers , Box 176, IHRC for membership lists. See also Majski Glas, XV (1935). p. 50; XVII (May, 1937). pp. 40-49;RadnickaStraza, July 15, 1910, p . 1. (57) Radnicka Straza, Mar. 3, 1911, p. 3; Nov. 18, 1914, p . 3 Slobodna Rec, July 14, SLOVAKIA 39 1940, p. 6. (58) 61st cong., 3rd sess., serial 5875, The Children of Immigrants (5 vols., Washington, 1911), V, 470, 516. U.S. Bureau of Census, Seventeenth Census of the United States, Census of the Population, 1950, II, 115-120, 159. Andrew Greeley, Ethnicity in the United States (New York, 1971), p. 52 found Slavic Catholics to have less college graduates than Jews, Germans, British and Scandinavians, Protestants and Irish, German and Italian Catholics. (59) U.S. Census, Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950 Population. (60) The low rate of Slavic mobility and their occupational patterns are described in Joe Barton, Peasants and Strangers and John Bodnar, "Steelton's Immigrants : Social Relationships in a Pennsylvania Mill Town, 1870-1940" (unpublished Ph.D . dissertation, University of Connecticut, 1974). (61) See George Foster, "Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good," American Anthropologist, 67 (April, 1965), 293-315; Rudolph M. Bell, 'The Transformation of a Rural Village: Istria, 1870-1972,'' Journal of Social History, 7 (Spring, 1974). 251-52.  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 Materialism and Morality: Slavic-American Immigrants and Education, 1890-1940 Description An account of the resource John Bodnar Slovakia, Vol. 26 (No. 49), 1976 pp. 21-39 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bodnar, John E., 1944- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1976 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/cfb74545363a15c4834be07ad31595d9.pdf da2c423b0a22dae27b6546be1de3d645 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 59 SELF-DETERMINATION FOR SLOVAKIA Hon. Edward J. Bonin I am very happy to substitute this evening in the place of Ambassador Lodge who was originally scheduled to give the principal address before this great Conference of the Slovak League of America. I consider it an honor and privilege that the members of the Slovak League of America saw fit to bring your Convention to the capital city of the United States which is oftentimes considered as the present capital of the world. As a Member of Congress from the 11th Congressional District of Pennsylvania, I welcome you to this great city and I sincerely hope that your deliberations for a free and independent Slovakia may soon materialize. I have often said before, and I shall continue to say, that from the beginning of recorded time the force that has propelled civilization onward has been man's desire for freedom and, when that desire fails, the wheels of progress cease their turning; but when it is most active, civilization makes the most advancement. It seems apparent that the desire for freedom has virtually come to a standstill among certain elements and nationalities throughout the free world; however, the Conference of the Slovak League of America clearly demonstrates to the people o.f the world that the burning desire o.f the Slovak people for freedom, liberty and justice has not been extinguished and will never be extinguished so long as we have individuals who are ready, willing and able to fight for a cause which is right. During the last century, the life of the Slovak people has been difficult Many of you recall how the Magyars tried to engulf them in their internationalistic concept of the Hungarian state and, more recently, your Slovak brothers, the Czechs, sought to make the Slovak people disappear. Now the present Communist regime in Prague would like to dissolve Slovakia under the banners of the Kremlin. The achievement is the complete disintegration of the natural will and consciousness of the Slovak people. If this �60 SLOVAKIA socialistic concept is permitted to continue it will deprive the Slovak people of its individuality and national interest and pride. The cause for which you plead today, jUSlt as other countries now behind the Iron Curtain yearn for freedom, justice and independence after experiencing oppression, pain and suffering under foreign government, is the conviction that the Slovak people will still preserve their traditional ways of life in spite of the ruthless dictators who seek to destroy them. As a member of the Select Committee of the House often known as the Baltic Committee, I have heard eyewitness accounts of the pain and the suffering, the torture and the murder of innocent human beings. We have heard from witnesses who went through these trying ordeals - · we have been told of the persecution of the church, the clergy, and the people who refused to give up the Godgiven right of worship as they see fit. The Slovak people in Europe and in America will never relinquish their right to worship as they see fit regardless of how long the oppressors may keep them enslaved. In my work as a Congressman, I have spoken on many and many an occasion of the aspirations of the Slovak people for their right of self-determination which was so clearly and specifically set forth in the Atlantic Charter. I have spoken against the secret treaties entered into at Yalta and Teheran. The evil results of these secret agreements is causing us trouble and agony today. I commend the Slovak people for their valiant fight and I shall continue to fight along with you to eliminate the Communist threat here and abroad. There is a duty and an obligation on our part to see that Slovakia resumes its rightful place among the free nations of the world With constant prayer, and fervent appeal to Almighty God, I am certain that the des-ires of the Slovak people will eventually be accomplished. • • • � SLOVAKIA 59 SELF-DETERMINATION FOR SLOVAKIA Hon. Edward J. Bonin I am very happy to substitute this evening in the place of Ambassador Lodge who was originally scheduled to give the principal address before this great Conference of the Slovak League of America. I consider it an honor and privilege that the members of the Slovak League of America saw fit to bring your Convention to the capital city of the United States which is oftentimes considered as the present capital of the world. As a Member of Congress from the 11th Congressional District of Pennsylvania, I welcome you to this great city and I sincerely hope that your deliberations for a free and independent Slovakia may soon materialize. I have often said before, and I shall continue to say, that from the beginning of recorded time the force that has propelled civilization onward has been man's desire for freedom and, when that desire fails, the wheels of progress cease their turning; but when it is most active, civilization makes the most advancement. It seems apparent that the desire for freedom has virtually come to a standstill among certain elements and nationalities throughout the free world; however, the Conference of the Slovak League of America clearly demonstrates to the people o.f the world that the burning desire o.f the Slovak people for freedom, liberty and justice has not been extinguished and will never be extinguished so long as we have individuals who are ready, willing and able to fight for a cause which is right. During the last century, the life of the Slovak people has been difficult Many of you recall how the Magyars tried to engulf them in their internationalistic concept of the Hungarian state and, more recently, your Slovak brothers, the Czechs, sought to make the Slovak people disappear. Now the present Communist regime in Prague would like to dissolve Slovakia under the banners of the Kremlin. The achievement is the complete disintegration of the natural will and consciousness of the Slovak people. If this �60 SLOVAKIA socialistic concept is permitted to continue it will deprive the Slovak people of its individuality and national interest and pride. The cause for which you plead today, jUSlt as other countries now behind the Iron Curtain yearn for freedom, justice and independence after experiencing oppression, pain and suffering under foreign government, is the conviction that the Slovak people will still preserve their traditional ways of life in spite of the ruthless dictators who seek to destroy them. As a member of the Select Committee of the House often known as the Baltic Committee, I have heard eyewitness accounts of the pain and the suffering, the torture and the murder of innocent human beings. We have heard from witnesses who went through these trying ordeals - · we have been told of the persecution of the church, the clergy, and the people who refused to give up the Godgiven right of worship as they see fit. The Slovak people in Europe and in America will never relinquish their right to worship as they see fit regardless of how long the oppressors may keep them enslaved. In my work as a Congressman, I have spoken on many and many an occasion of the aspirations of the Slovak people for their right of self-determination which was so clearly and specifically set forth in the Atlantic Charter. I have spoken against the secret treaties entered into at Yalta and Teheran. The evil results of these secret agreements is causing us trouble and agony today. I commend the Slovak people for their valiant fight and I shall continue to fight along with you to eliminate the Communist threat here and abroad. There is a duty and an obligation on our part to see that Slovakia resumes its rightful place among the free nations of the world With constant prayer, and fervent appeal to Almighty God, I am certain that the des-ires of the Slovak people will eventually be accomplished. • • • � 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 1954, Vol. 4 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 10), March 1954.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 11), June 1954.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 12-13), Sept.-Dec. 1954.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1954 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 59 SELF-DETERMINATION FOR SLOVAKIA Hon. Edward J. Bonin I am very happy to substitute this evening in the place of Ambassador Lodge who was originally scheduled to give the principal address before this great Conference of the Slovak League of America. I consider it an honor and privilege that the members of the Slovak League of America saw fit to bring your Convention to the capital city of the United States which is oftentimes considered as the present capital of the world. As a Member of Congress from the 11th Congressional District of Pennsylvania, I welcome you to this great city and I sincerely hope that your deliberations for a free and independent Slovakia may soon materialize. I have often said before, and I shall continue to say, that from the beginning of recorded time the force that has propelled civilization onward has been man's desire for freedom and, when that desire fails, the wheels of progress cease their turning; but when it is most active, civilization makes the most advancement. It seems apparent that the desire for freedom has virtually come to a standstill among certain elements and nationalities throughout the free world; however, the Conference of the Slovak League of America clearly demonstrates to the people o.f the world that the burning desire o.f the Slovak people for freedom, liberty and justice has not been extinguished and will never be extinguished so long as we have individuals who are ready, willing and able to fight for a cause which is right. During the last century, the life of the Slovak people has been difficult Many of you recall how the Magyars tried to engulf them in their internationalistic concept of the Hungarian state and, more recently, your Slovak brothers, the Czechs, sought to make the Slovak people disappear. Now the present Communist regime in Prague would like to dissolve Slovakia under the banners of the Kremlin. The achievement is the complete disintegration of the natural will and consciousness of the Slovak people. If this 60 SLOVAKIA socialistic concept is permitted to continue it will deprive the Slovak people of its individuality and national interest and pride. The cause for which you plead today, jUSlt as other countries now behind the Iron Curtain yearn for freedom, justice and independence after experiencing oppression, pain and suffering under foreign government, is the conviction that the Slovak people will still preserve their traditional ways of life in spite of the ruthless dictators who seek to destroy them. As a member of the Select Committee of the House often known as the Baltic Committee, I have heard eyewitness accounts of the pain and the suffering, the torture and the murder of innocent human beings. We have heard from witnesses who went through these trying ordeals - · we have been told of the persecution of the church, the clergy, and the people who refused to give up the Godgiven right of worship as they see fit. The Slovak people in Europe and in America will never relinquish their right to worship as they see fit regardless of how long the oppressors may keep them enslaved. In my work as a Congressman, I have spoken on many and many an occasion of the aspirations of the Slovak people for their right of self-determination which was so clearly and specifically set forth in the Atlantic Charter. I have spoken against the secret treaties entered into at Yalta and Teheran. The evil results of these secret agreements is causing us trouble and agony today. I commend the Slovak people for their valiant fight and I shall continue to fight along with you to eliminate the Communist threat here and abroad. There is a duty and an obligation on our part to see that Slovakia resumes its rightful place among the free nations of the world With constant prayer, and fervent appeal to Almighty God, I am certain that the des-ires of the Slovak people will eventually be accomplished. • • •  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 Self-Determination for Slovakia Description An account of the resource Hon. Edward J. Bonin Slovakia, Vol. 4, No. 3-4 (12-13), Sept.-Dec. 1954 pp. 59-60 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bonin, Edward John, 1904-1990 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Sept.-Dec. 1954 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/087ee42d27cbceeadc3364c8bed177a7.pdf e27f8bd5d3768bdaec78ee01b75d1158 PDF Text Text " Logan Place." September 26, 1935. All ey Dwellin g Authority. Nati onal Capital H ousin g Authorit y Collection . Library, D e pa rtm ent of H ou sin g and Com munit y D evelo pm ent. W as hin gto n, D .C . ► ► ;,::; ...... < 0 L' (/) 0::, �SLOVAKIA 9 Migrant Responses To The City: The Neighborhood, Case Studies in Black and White, 1870-1940* James Borchert and Susan Danziger-Borchert Th ey tend to reproduce spontaneously the home community and to live in it. L etters show that they frequently reply to inquiries from home for a description of America, " I have yet been able to see America." W.I. Thomas, "The Immigrant Community" Students of migration to American cities have, over the years, produ ced a large library of studies. The greatest outpouring of work has co ncentra ted on the migration of southern and eastern European immigrants during the years from 1880 to 1920, and the "great migrati o n " of blacks from the rural South. This profusion of work has not produced any final conclusions on the migrant experience, although there a re a number of schools of thought about what happen ed to migrants . Th e first group of scholars who considered European migrants of this pe riod concl uded that d espite efforts to re- establish their rural ways of life, the city proved too poor a soil for such institutions to ta ke root. Thus extended family , kinship network , neighborhood , and community 1 • A ve rsio n of this paper was prese nted a t th e Nin ety-Seve nth Annu al M ee tin g of th e Am eri ca n Hi sto ri cal Associa ti o n held in Washin gton, D .C. in D ece mb er 198 2. The authors are indebted to th e Am erican Hi to ri cal Associati on for a n Albert J. Beveridge M em o ri a l Fund Grant and the Smithson ian In sti tuti on for a fellowship, whi ch provided esse nti al fundin g in conn ec tion with th e preparation of th e original presenta tion. �10 SLOVAKIA withered ; a pe riod of disorde r a nd co nfu sion foll owed u nt il mi grant s discovered the " urba n way of life. " 1 Accordin g to the theory, thi s d iscovery , synonymous with the beginnings of assimil a tion a nd accultu ration, provided migrants with the form s of order a nd organization tha t would m ake success in America (and cities) possible and p rob able . After a n appropriate period of apprenticeship in the " zon e in transition " a nd the " zone of workingmen ' s homes, " the urba nized mi grant began to m ove to middle-class status a nd suburban h om es. 3 M ore recent scholars, a n alyzing a ggregate cen sus d a ta (fo r indi ces of di ssimil a rity) a nd city directories (for spa tial a nd occupa tional m obility), have questioned the notion that European mi gra nts spent mu ch tim e in the zon e in tran sition . Based on this d a ta, they contend tha t individu al m igra nts from diffe rent immi grant groups lived widely scattered acro ss workin g-class residential a reas . Few con centration s we re great e nou gh to permit the development of urba n vill ages or ghet toes. Where they ex isted, mi grant s passed through so quickl y th a t their importa n ce as a n institution was minimized for most. 4 In contrast , until recently , most observers of black migran ts in the city concluded tha t folk breakdown was extensive. Moreover , whil e new bl ack residents seem ed to m ove as frequ ently as white mi gra nts, they did so within a n increasingly restrictive ghetto area . 5 Thu s, whe re a disorganized ghetto confronted black migrants, white migrants ex peri en ced greater spa tial and (implicitly) m ore occupa tional mobility. Whi te migrants m elted to gether into a working cl ass div ided by reli gion (P rotestant , Catholi c, and J ew) , 6 while blacks confronted a n earl y caste-like experien ce. 7 The m ost recent work by students of Eu ro pean a nd bl ack mi gra nt s of the 1880 to 1930 period h as b egun to challen ge som e of these findin gs . Students of urba n bl ack communi ties h ave foc u sed on the exte nsive presen ce of fo rm al organi zati ons to dem onstra te the exten t of order in black life. 8 Simila rl y, studies of E u rop ean immi grant group s h ave demon stra ted the persisten ce of ethni c life in th e city throu gh the in stituti on s of church , b e nevolen t groups, lod ges, politi cal ac tivity, a nd a n active press. 9 M oreove r , both se ts of studi es presum e th e prese nce of a recogni zable geogra phical b ase upon whi ch these fo rm al or gani zations operate . In the case of black communities, the ghetto explicity fo rm s the b ounda ries; fo r white immi gra nt s, th e pa rish or" immi gran t n eighborhood " implicitly serves as the turf around which the story of organi za- �SLOVAKIA 11 tional life unfolds. Unfortunately, in either case, the empirical demonstration of this critical base and its role is often assumed as given. Few have sought to consider the role of neighborhood and community development as a crucial framework for their analyses. 10 • Because this literature provides little basis for analysis or comparison, it is necessary to turn to the work of sociologists for a framework. 11 While there is little work on scale and its impact on the nature of neighborhood, 11 more has been done on neighborhood typologies. Gerald Suttles suggests three: the defended neighborhood, the community oflimited liability, and the contrived community. The first is most pertinent to the discussion here: "a residential group which seals itself off through the efforts of delinquent gangs, . . . by sharp boundaries, or by forbidding reputation." 13 The elements of the defended community are: "a recognizable identity, a consensus among residents of a common fate, and a 'positive' and sentimental attachment to neighbors, local establishments, and local traditions to the exclusion of other persons, establishments, and traditions . '' 14 Another set of issues that the current literature ignores concerns the distinction between primary or informal groups (family, neighborhood, community) and formal organization. Historians' concentration on formal group life represents a great limitation on their work, since these groups represent only one level of response migrants made to the city. 15 In part, these formal groups reflect most fully the experiences of the most successful: those who are largely "a-typical" of the larger group's experience. 16 More importantly, informal groups played a critical role in the life of the folk migrants prior to their move to the city. 17 Their presence and roles in the city represent important elements to test to determine the nature and extent of changes that resulted from migration, urbanization, industrialization, and modernization. Since earlier observers pointed to these informal groups as the institutions that underwent the most complete and severe change, with formal groups replacing them, it seems central to the discussion of the persistency of ethnic group life that primary group life be given careful analysis. This is especially so since it is the family, neighborhood, and community that are so central for the socialization and identity of the young. 18 There are other reasons for considering the issue of informal group life. Recent studies of both European and black migrant areas have reported population turnover that was thought to undermine the develop- �12 SLOVAKIA ment and impact of ethnic enclaves; proximity to many other groups diminished European ethnicity to one of the three major religions. While recent studies demonstrate the importance of chain-migration for both black and white migrants, little effort has been made to determine what effect this chain migration had on the formation of groups in the city. 19 In contrast, the presence ( or absence) of a neighborhood in proximity to formal institutions of an ethnic group represents theoretically a very different experience than that postulated by studies of movement and mobility . Rather than seemingly random movement, it would be possible to hypothesize the informal neighborhood providing important sets of support for the church (parish), businesses, beneficial organizations, press, and national organizations. While it may be difficult to determine which came first, it seems likely that informal neighborhood lies at the base of the ethnic urban village. Moreover, despite the mobility, the presence of an ethnic village that provides important goods and services for "members," whatever the place of residence, plays an important role in the "maintenance" of ethnicity and identity. 20 Thus, while it may have have served every member of a given ethnic group in its particular part of the city, the neighborhood/urban village fostered important networks of institutions for migrants; dominance of a section of the city permitted residents a chance to be "themselves" within the confines of a turf dominated by persons from the same kin network, town, region, and country. In these neighborhoods, residents hammered out their own identities, consciousness, and relations with the larger world. Without this envelope, it is hard to imagine how so many informal and formal groups could have persisted and prospered . 21 It is the purpose of this article to examine the development of residential neighborhoods and communities by two different groups of migrants in different environments. While these are far from "random" selections, 22 we do feel that they represent two different kinds of migrant settlements, one very small, the other fairly large. Both neighborhoods conform roughly to Suttles' definition of a defended neighborhood; both represent an important migrant response to the urban environment, a response that has been passed over all too briefly by past work. The article focuses on the efforts of two different groups of folk migrants to establish a "turf" in the city: Black migrants settled in the inhabited alleys of Washington, D .C ., and the eastern European migrants settled in the "Bird's Nest" on the fringe of Cleveland, Ohio. �SLOVAKIA 13 In m a ny ways the social co nditions migrants faced in these two environments were dramatically different; each cam e with a different set of experie nces and cultural baggage, and each faced very different conditions in the cities they settled despite the fact that both entered the urban marketpl ace at the ' 'bottom .' ' 23 While these differences are critical to understand what happened to each group, it is also important to see in general term s what migrants shared in their struggle with the urban-industrial environment. The article begins with a consideration of similarities and differences between the two communities in terms of physical form , population , occupations, and living conditions. The major part of the article focuses on the development and form each neighborhood took . The conclusions seek to compa re these two experien ces and suggest their implicat ions for othe r migrant experien ces and for the study of migrants . II. Descriptive Comparison of Neighborhoods: Alley Communities and The Bird 's Nest Physical Form and Isolation . Alley communities of Washington, like their counterparts throughout the urban United States and Europe , were small, relatively circumscribed , and isola ted neighborhoods spread throu ghout the central city 24 (see Map 1) . In Washington , alley house co nstru ction fell largely in the period from the end of the Civil War until 1892, when Congress banned new construction. D eveloped on narrow st reets or alleys inside a large city block , the tiny, two-story fram e or brick row houses faced inwa rd onto the interior alley, while larger, more expensive row houses lined the outside of the block and faced onto the street (M ap 2). W ell-to-do residents of the street-front property were separated from their poor and often black, backyard neighbors physically, sociall y, and culturally. D evelopers and owne rs of alley property , often well to do , generally lived outside the immediate section of the city where their all ey property was located, thus furth er isolating the alley n eighborhood . 25 The Bird 's N est, a single neighborhood , was equ ally isolated , but shared much more in co mmon with the la rge ethnic enclaves in urban indu st ri al areas throu ghout the United States. In 1892 , a land company sub sidary (Pleasant Hill L and Company-PHLC) of the National Carbon Company laid out the eight n a rrow stree ts (five n a m ed for birds), a nd 424 lots to provide hous in g for workers at its new facto ry n earby. 26 �SLOVAKIA 14 INHABITED ALLEYS 1897 POPUATION 0 1- ,. 0 0 0 JOO - ... 0 RKE • • 0 MAP 1 - 1/l or mor, 81,il(: k 2/lormor,\Nhct C ommi ssione rs of the District of Columbia, Annual R eport (W ashin gton , 189 7), 195-202. 1897 �SLOVAKIA 15 N STREET [ fr" I l'Fif =! .J.Jo . a--1 II ' ' .. ~ • II - '-M STREET L STREET D BUILDINGS HEADS Of HOUSEHOLD Native Born Whites S.ablo Foreign Born \\'hites (born outside Ncw1h America or p,uenc~ born outside Othe<Buldir@ Store o, AmYm Shop North Amtfil:a) • •• !lacks ~ (when lhan l) more MAP 2 - Sanborn Map Publishin g Company, In surance M aps of Washington , D .C. (New York , N . Y., 1888) ; and Fed eral Populat ion Census Schedules, I 880 W ashington , D .C., V ol. 2 pan 2, R eco rd Group 29 National Archi ves. �SLOVAKIA 16 \~ PART Of" L.\I(E,ro on .>. ' -~ I I .A 11 LE 1 1 ROCKPORT TOWNSHIP. \~_. ~':. ~ \" \ ... ~7;:... MAP .3 - Pleasa nt Hill La nd C ompan y subdi vision of th e " Bird 's Nes t " a nd th e adjoining Na ti on al Ca rbon Facto r y, 1898 . Thom as Fl ynn , Ott o Ba rth el, R .H . Bunni ng , and Thomas H assa n , Atlas o[ th e Suburbs o[ Cleveland, Ohio ( Phil ad elphia , 1898), Plate 24 . �SLOVAKIA 17 The neighborhood was circumscribed by railroad tracks, th e factory , a nd a wood s (later d eveloped for a factory and park) on three sides; the fourth side, a secondary comme rcial artery, p ermitted some overflow into the immediate n eighborhood to the north (see Map 3). While Bird's Nest workers were able to gain ownership of the area, it remained isolated from the surrounding area which was developin g as a middl e-class suburb. 2 7 Like the inward facing alley, th e neighborhood also turned in ward with its " main street," Plover , being the most isol a ted of its streets. 28 Migration and Neighborhood Size. Black migrants from the surrounding states of Virginia and Maryland, coming largely in cha ins of family, fri ends , and neighbors, settled into the alley communities. 29 Predominantl y from rural areas, these mi grants mainta ined ties to the countryside a nd encouraged furth er m ove me nt from those areas . While rural migrants had a number of differe nt res id enti al environm e nts to chose from in the city, a nd often m oved b ack a nd forth betwee n these , m an y se ttled initially in the alleys . Alley popu lations varied co nsiderabl y in size within a given year and over tim e . The smallest held one or two famil ies, the largest ove r 400 peopl e (see Map 1). Most all eys fell so m ewhere in be tween , with the average all ey size in 1880 bein g 50 residents ; at the peak of alley population in 1897, when there were nearl y 20 ,000 all ey res idents living in 240 all eys, th e average all ey size was 73. Th ese were, th e n , very small , face-to-face co mmunities of bl ack rural migrants. 3° In contrast, migra nts to the Bird 's N es t cam e from rural a reas in Easte rn Europe; most id entifi ed th emselves as " Hun garian Slovaks ," alth ou gh some were from P ola nd a nd Ru ss ia . 31 Th ey also mi grated in cha in s of relat ives, fri end s, and n eighbors as well as by region. 32 Like bl ack mi gra ti on to th e all eys, th e re was cons iderab le movem ent back a nd forth betwee n th e Old W o rld a nd th e New. Un like th e all ey populat ion th at reached its peak in 1900 a nd began to drop off, with each alley being a small isola ted community onto itself, the Bird 's N est populati on of 429 in 1900 in creased fi ve -fold by 19 10 a nd then doubled by 1920 at its peak ( see T able 1.) Thi s represe nts a different kind of ethni c encl ave with pote nti al for m o re sub sta nti ve inst itu tion al d evelopme nt. Occupations and Workplace. Black residents of W ashin gton alleys co nfronted profound limita ti ons in their search for work. R ac ism limi ted �18 SLOVAKIA employment of black males largely to day labor and black women to dom estic or laundry work; none had access to the limited industrial occupations in Washington 33 (see Table 2). The employment open to alley dwell ers, then, represented the worst paid , least secure, and often the m ost physically demanding and dangerous positions available. Moreover, despite long residence in the ci ty, black alley dwellers experienced little if any upward occupational mobility ; a color bar en sured that any movem ent would be minimal. 3 4 In contrast , while migrants from Eastern Europe came with similar skills as rural blacks , they often found industrial employment available to them, even though it was nearly always at the bottom . In 1900, most male residents of the Bird 's Nest were laborers working at the adjacent National Carbon factory; by 1910, a number of residents had gained som e mobility by gaining access to semi-skilled industrial occupations. Moreover, a number of women were able to gain indu strial employment, although usually a t the lowest levels ; many others earn ed incom e by runnin g boarding houses or taking in boarders. While this work was long, hard , physically demanding , and often dangerous , it was also more secure and better paying than anything available to alley dwellers . By 1940 , em ployed male a nd female workers of the Bird 's Nest were concentrated in semi-skilled pos itions ( 44 percent), with another 10 percent skilled and 13 percent proprietarial or white collar employees; only a third remained as unskill ed or service workers 35 (see Table 3). Living Conditions. Living conditions in most D .C. alleys were far from wholesome; crowding, poorly maintained buildings and outhouses, piles of uncollected trash in alleys, and the co nstant d anger of contagious disease plagued residents. D espite the limited space inside the two-story 12x30 foot alley house, man y were shared by more than one hou sehold unit ; in some cases four family units lived in one small room each . 36 These crowded cond itions made residents m ore susceptible to di sease, while landl ord s' lack of co ncern for maintenance and the city's di sinterest in coll ect in g trash from the alleys exposed residents to di sease in other ways. Limited and unstable income restricted diets while d angerou s, outdoor work further taxed alley dwellers' health . Ultimately these cond iti ons led to death rates for alley dwell ers th at were twice th at for residents of the streets; the major causes were diseases that cou ld clearly be linked to socio-economic status . 3 7 Children under the age of one year acco unted for much of the high death rate. 38 �SLOVAKIA 19 While the Bird's Nest developed in a suburban setting and lacked the extreme density of the alley community, living conditions were little better. While outside the multi-family homes "everything was mud," inside the long, narrow two - and three-story buildings many families lived in tiny cold water flats 39 (see Map 4) . Whereas alley dwellers had to go outside for water and toilets, Bird's Nesters shared "indoor water closets .' ' 40 Residents of the latter community, however, were more likely to share their tiny apartments with boarders; 32 percent of households had boarders in 1910 (boarders made up one-fourth of the total population), 41 while only 13 percent of 1880 alley households were augmented. 41 The crowded living conditions in the Bird's Nest, along with the long hours at work and limited income, led to high death rates, especially for the very young. 43 In 1900, women reported over one-fourth of the children they had borne were dead, 44 a condition that continued in later years. There are, then, substantial similarities between the two populations; Both came into the urban marketplace at the bottom; both lived in housing conditions that were crowded and dangerous ; the "communities" were isolated physically and socially from the surrounding populations; both were made up of groups that had migrated in chains to the city. Nevertheless , residents of the Bird's Nest did have access to industrial jobs that were more stable and better paying; and these positions permitted some mobility from unskilled labor to semi- and eventually skilled jobs. In addition, where alley communities were largely limited in size by the number of houses built in each alley , and ultimately by the limited interior space of the block itself, the Bird's Nest faced less spatial constriction. This afforded the potential for more complete development. Finally, while alley dwellers seldom had the resources to purchase their alley homes from absentee landlords , res idents of the Bird's Nest were encouraged to do so by the industrial developer of their community . Where ownership always remained external to the alley community , the Bird 's N est quickly becam e locally owned. Despite these differences, each area developed a se ries of informal groups that provided the base for the formation of a neighborhood . That neighborhood , in turn , provided the foundation for the d evelopment of more formal organizations. Given the differe nt resources and scale, however, residents d eveloped different kinds of ne ighborhoods. �10 FAM ILY UNtTS .I H oward Whipple G ree n , Plan es of Living in C uyah oga County: as D epicted by th e R eal Property Survey (C leveland , 1940), 65. Bird ' s Nest = LW18 MAP 4 - e 6.5 o/o OF ALL FAMILY UNITS 2 1,953 IN COUNT Y COLD WATER FLATS ~ ► ~ < >- 0 r< (./J 0 �SLOVAKIA 21 III. Neighborhoods Alley Communities. Black migrants who came to Washington alleys re-established their kin and friendship networks in the alley; they continued to use these networks for emotional and financial support. Because their resources were so marginal, only reliance on these groups made survival more likely. Each alley then, had several or more such networks into which "fictive kin" were also drawn. They provided the most basic form of social organization, albeit informal, in the alley . 45 It was the alley neighborhood, itself, that brought these kin groups together into a loose , but cohesive unit . Since alleys were isolated from the surrounding neighborhood and often some distance from the emerging black enclaves of the city where the major institutions of black life were located, alley residents often had to fall back on themselves for help and support. Drawing on their rural experience, migrants constructed informal defended neighborhoods to provide for their needs. In many respects, however, this informal community became much more important in the city because residents were more dependent on each other, especially in the period just following their migration. Since migration to the city (and alleys) continued throughout the period, and since there were always some "native" alley residents as well as some migrants who had lived in a given alley for many years, new migrants did not have to confront the urban environment alone . New neighbors, kin, and old friends helped ease the transition from country to city. 46 The alley itself' 7 was the center of the alley community; residents congregated there, save in the worst weather, to meet with friends and neighbors. 48 A major location for informal meeting took place at the intersection of the two main alleys . All residents passed this point on their way into and out of the alleys; neighbors met each other here as they returned home from work each day, or hung out there during the day if there was no work available . In addition , residents generally sat in front of their homes and talked to neighbors who joined them on the steps, benches, or chairs set out for this purpose . 49 It is impossible to overestimate the value and import of this activity, for virtually every aspect of the alley community was based on this interaction . If neighboring provided an important element of entertainment, it also provided information on which neighbors needed help and where jobs were available. A critical function of the alley community �22 SLOVAKIA involved help and support for those in need; neighbors aided each other by providing money, food, and shelter while in some cases they took in friends' children and cared for them, in others they let neighborhood children sleep at their house '' because they had more room.'' 50 A third function neighboring and the alley community provided was the maintenance of internal social control. Part of this came as a result of the positive support neighbors gave each other; they also used gossip and more formal sanctions to maintain order. 51 Ultimately, these daily discussions about ' ' appropriate behavior'' by residents resulted in the hammering out of a common philosophy and world view; a world view that was shared by members of the community and differed from that of outsiders. 52 Finally, alley dwellers defended their neighborhood against outsiders . Part of this resulted from their intensive use of alley space for neighboring , thus discouraging others from entering the area . When outsiders did enter they were confronted by residents and watched throughout their alley visit, an experience that unnerved many observers of alley life. 53 Alley dwellers had good reason to watch "outsiders"; other Washingtonians, black and white, generally viewed residents of the alleys with great disdain. While the police were especially harsh in their attempts to control alley populations, other residents, though less overt in their actions, expressed nearly universal condemnation of alley dwellers. 54 This external hostility helped hold the alley community together, despite its internal dissension . Disputes over life style dominated these schisms, but the small scale of the neighborhood, the necessity to cooperate to survive, and the external threats effectively held residents together. Because of its small size and very limited resources, however, the alley community was not able to develop or support a very extensive set of formal organizations. It did provide an excellent medium for small alley churches, which were simply alley houses residents rented "for Jesus. " They were kept going by neighbors' contributions and the pastors ' earnings from "doing occasional laundry" or other work . 55 While most alleys seem to have had at least one of these churches, their small size - "Ten chairs and a pulpit, and an improvised altar" - makes the extent of participation problematic . 56 Alley businesses were equally marginal, and often involved in illegal activity. Like the semi-formal alley church, these businesses required conversion of part ofan alley house into a " speak-easy" or "fac- �SLOVAKIA 23 tory" for the m a nufacture of illegal alcohol , or oft en both . While these were cl early ill egal and we re often closed down by law e nforcem ent offi cia ls, th ey provided an importa nt service for the alley ne ighborhood in representin g a " proto " ne ighborhood tave rn a nd community ce nter where residents co uld m eet. 57 The Bird 's Nest. A s earl y as 1889 , Slovak mi gran ts b egan work on the construction of the n ew National Carbon factory . 58 After the factory was co mpl eted , these worke rs and their fri ends were hired to work in th e factory . 59 Like alley dwellers, initial settle rs in the Bird 's N est began a cha in mi gration , at first drawing from the oth er Slovak enclaves throughout the city and eventuall y reaching back to Hun gary. This process resu lted in ex tended kin n etworks bein g refo rmul a ted in th e n ew neighborhood . In a number of cases, this reformu la tion extended to Old World v ill age pa rishes. Within th e fir st few years, m a n y of the core famili es had m oved in and esta blished them selves. Fri end s, ne ighbors, a nd co -reli gionists followed . As o ne oral history repo rted, " m a n y times the m en came along first , leaving wives a nd children behind in Slovakia, until they h ad found work a nd could send back for th eir families. When they cam e first, they sought out others from the sam e village who were alread y" in the neighborhood . 60 The most criti cal form of organization , however, was the neighborhood it self. Like the all ey community , the n eighborhood rem a ined largely inform al; initiall y it w as a grouping of kin n etworks largely of Slovak a n cestry. Y e t this inform a l " institution " p rovided the precon dition s necessary for the con structio n of other aspects of the community. In large p a rt the migrants es tablished th eir co ntrol over th e ne ighborhood in the first years of settle m e nt , 1892- 1900 . A lthough the a rea was th en only sli ghtl y bigge r tha n th e largest all ey, these earl y migrants a nd th eir famili es esta blish ed a beachhead that was neve r chall en ged . Unlike alley dwell ers who neve r gained ow nership of th eir ne ighborhood , res idents of the Bird 's N est quickly bou ght up th e small parcels o f la nd (wheth er simpl y cl eared b y the PHLC, or built upon ) , 6 1 as soo n as th eir fin ances m ad e it possibl e. 61 A lon g Pl ove r , migrant s purch ased 43 perce nt of the lots prior to 1900; o nl y three of th e 35 lots o n the street m ay h ave been ini tiall y purchased by non-Sl avs. 63 R es id ent s gain ed ow ners hi p o f m ost of th e 424 lots in the subdi vion s on initi a l sale; w ith few exce ptio n s, th ey eve ntuall y ga in ed co ntrol ove r th e rem a ining o nes as well. �24 SLOVAKIA P e rhaps the most striking aspect of n eighborhood d evelopment is the extent to which residents drew on each other's skill s and resources to construct houses, stores, a nd shops. Of the 171 lots for which information is available on th e initial con struction , 92 perce nt of the owners were alread y residents of the neighborhood. While m a n y built their own hom e (or a building to rent), those owners who hired a builde r to co nstruct their houses overwhelmingly chose a resident of the neighborhood (64 percent). Many of the non-resident builders were also of Slavic origin , but lived in one of the other encl aves spread throughout the city. 64 T o an impressive ex tent , th en , residents bought up the neighbo rhood la nd, and per son ally built th eir own hom e or a home to sell to more rece nt migra nts ; when they did not do their own co nstru ction they hired neighbors . In doing so, they establi shed an impress ive investm ent upon which they could draw or build on in the future. 65 H av in g es tablish ed a turf a nd access to employ m ent , residents encouraged n ew migra nt s to join them. Whe reas the m ajo rity of th e first res idents ha d migrated to the United Sta tes in the ten years prior to the building of th e factory, the massive influx of n ew migrants in the fir st two d ecad es of the twenti eth century cam e direc tl y to the n eigh bo rhood. Slovaks continu ed their d omination of the n eighborhood (70 perce nt) , whil e Slovak was the most common la ngu age. 66 One of the key attractions of thi s N ew Slovak/ Slav ic village, in a d dition to the presen ce of fri ends , relatives, and an ethni c ne ighborhood , was the prese nce of employm ent possibilities in industry. H av ing mad e important inroads from th e beginnin g of the constru ction o f the new factory, Slovaks , a nd to a lesse r extent P oles a nd Ru ssians, dominated the lowest level of empl oym e nt in the facto ry. 67 Th ere is so m e indi cation th a t the original pl a nt o n the east side of Clevela nd may also h ave empl oyed workers from a nearb y Slovak e nclave. These employees m ay have been attrac ted to th e new factory b y the avail ab ilit y of la nd ; a disastrous fire a t the old e r pl a nt in 1893 m ay well have speed ed up this process. 68 Wh a teve r the initi a l co nnection, Slovaks a nd oth er Sl av ic mi gra nt s establi shed a beachh ead in th e factory from th e beginnin g b y drawin g o n th eir inform a l networks . 69 Jun e Alexand er found a similar co nditio n for Slovaks in Pittsburgh , namely that "factori es relied o n their fore m e n to hire workers and foreme n, in turn, reli ed o n th e ir workers as intermedi a ries to find la borers. " 70 As mi grants worked their way slowly up the ranks to semi-skilled a nd occasion all y forem en positions , th ey �SLOVAKIA 25 gain ed m ore direct access to the hiring process. With the informal neighborhood networks , Slovaks came to dominate both workplace and neighborhood . 7 1 Whil e info rm al social cont rol and aid permeated th e early years of the Bird's N est as it did in the alleys, the ra pid growth of the neighborhood in the first decade of the twentieth cen tury permitted the developme nt of m ore form al organiza tions . R esidents of different reli gious persuas ion s m et sepa rately; initially these m ee tings, like the alley church , were worshi p serv ices held in co-reli gioni sts' hom es. Eve ntu ally these m eetin gs led to the fo rmation of lod ges and other m ore form al organizations designed to bring about the formation of a parish and the building of a church . 72 The first parish , Sts. Peter and P aul Lutheran , was offi cially form ed in 1901 ( church building-1 902/school som e years later) ; it was followed by Sts. Cyril and M ethod ius R om an Catholic Church in 1903 (church building and school-1905); St. Gregory ' s Byzantine Rite Catholic Church in 1905 ( chu rch building 1906/school som e years later); and the C alvin Presbyterian C hurch in 19 17 (church buildin g-19 2 1) . Ca lvin Presbyte ri a n C h urch in th e foreg round occupi es th e first sit e of Sts. Pe te r a nd Pau l Luth era n C hurch . In th e b ac kg round is St . Grego ry's Byza nti e n Rit e Ca th oli c C hurch . (Ph ot0g ra ph by a ut ho rs, J a nu a ry , 1984). �26 SLOVAKIA Sts. Peter and Paul Luthera n. (Photograph by au thors, January, 1984). SS. Cyril a nd M eth odi us R om an Ca th oli c C hurch . (Ph otog raph by au th ors, J anua ry, I 984). �SLOVAKIA 27 These "predominantly" Slovak parishes were joined by those of the other ethnic groups sharing the neighborhood, the first of which was St. Hedwig's Church (Roman Catholic Polish Parish) in 1905 ( church building-l 914/school-1926). Because residents took the initiative in the formation of these parishes and schools, they often had considerable control over their direction, especially in the early years. 73 These parishes made the neighborhood even more attractive to potential migrants; their founding at the beginning of the decade undoubtedly encouraged many others to migrate. Religious schools provided another incentive, especially to Slovaks who witnessed their own schools closed or "converted for Magyarization" in the homeland. For residents in the Bird's Nest, these schools represented a way to avoid efforts at Americanization promoted by the public schools. As a result many children from the neighborhood attended these parochial schools. 74 Drawing on their growing neighborhood and its greater resources (compared to alley communities), residents of the Bird's Nest also started an incredible number of businesses. While most of these were small stores and shops that served the immediate neighborhood , several developed into substantial businesses that provided necessary goods and services for ethnic and religious needs . 75 Most important, however, was the formation of Eagle Building and Loan Company in 1911 . Controlled from within the neighborhood, residents built an institution that made possible complete acquisition and building of the area, and expansion beyond . 76 The building and loan was critical since over fifty percent of the neighborhood's lots were sold by the PHLC during the 1910s, while the period from 1912 to 191 7 was the period of greatest home construction. 77 Although the neighborhood was divided by ethnicity, religion, and class , as well as by very different attitudes on assimilation, 78 these divisions were subsumed by the needs of the neighborhood and the workings of informal groups. For some, the community revolved around the parish ; Peter Glovna remembered that "it was just like a little village, and the pillar was St. Cyril. " 79 Nevertheless , they were a series of co mmunity-wide activities that drew residents together. 80 Most important , " the first settlers tried to reconstruct , as closely as possible , the village system they were so accustomed to in Poland , Russia, and Slovakia. The close-knit warmth a nd familiarity of the village provided security and a sense of home to the recently displaced immigrants. " 81 �28 SLOVAKIA Ultimately , residents used the neighborhood as alley residents did theirs; everyone knew everyone else and interaction on the streets, front yards, and porches was extensive, especially in warm weather. 82 This neighboring activity , largely through informal, small groups of relatives and friends, made up a critical element in the neighborhood life . It provided the first level (past kin network) of organization, one that replicated itself as formal groups began in the churches, lodges, and benevolent associations as well as the workplace. These primary groups provided members with an immediate sense of belonging, a connection with larger, more formal organizations, and a way by which members of the primary group could collectively continue to co nstru ct a world view, maintain social control , and provide help and support for the needy. 83 Like the alley community, the Bird's Nest found that the external threat was often sufficient to contain internal conflict. Hostility , both formal (from police and other official sources) and informal (from personal prejudice directed at residents), was extensive throughout the period. Outsiders, as in the case of alley communities, targeted the neighborhood as an eyesore and danger to the rest of the community; and police exercised their authority to "maintain social control by overenforcing the law .' ' 84 IV. Conclusions Based on these examples, it seems clear that migrants, via chain migration and efforts to gain entry/control over admission to a j ob market , began to establish residential enclaves. 85 If the process of neighborhood formation appears to have begun almost unconsciously, its development was quite conscious. While the presence of such neighborhoods is taken as given to most studies, what stands out in these two examples is the extent to which migrants took over their respective turfs, defended them, and built informal and formal institutions around them. In fact , the clustering provided the necessary context for virtually every further institutional development. If some or many migrants eventually passed through and out of the neighborhood , it remained(s) an important focal point in the lives of many , even those who could "escape" to more affluent suburban settlements. 86 The neighborhood , then , must be taken more fully into account as one, if not the most critical, of migrant institutions. �SLOVAKI A 29 T hese neighborhood s provided the b ase fo r su rvival in the new urban en vironment. They were the source of housing, employm ent , mutual aid , p rotection , famil y, and friends . They permitted pa rents to raise their children in a n en v iro nment a nd throu gh in stitutio n s ove r w hich the fam ili es exerted som e co ntrol. They also provided a safe ha rbor from whi ch m igrants confro n ted the confu sin g city . M o reove r , ne ighbor s worked out their respo n ses to the issu es o f ethnicity, accultu ratio n , a nd ass im il at ion in this con text of everyd ay life. If n eighbo r s chose diver ging path s, they were n eve rtheless path s th a t d evelo ped w ithin the confines a nd con text of the ethnic en clave. R a ther th a n the stilted b ackwaters th a t R o bert P a rk a nd other s saw, th ese e ncl aves we re vibrant wi th conflicts over life style, ch a n gin g ethnic ide n tity, a d a pta tion , a nd eve n interna tio n al issu es . 8 7 T hu s, to under stand migrant organization s a nd the role they played in accul tu rat io n and et h nic ident ity, it is necessary to con sider th e first in st ituti on m igran ts created in th e city, th e neighbo rhood . 88 W hile these two n eigh borhood s were dram aticall y d ifferent, they both fi t well into Suttles' d efinition of a defended neighbo rhood . I t seem s q uite likely tha t m os t imm igrant e nclaves also fit thi s descri ption , even in cases where the areas was no t so highly segregated fro m the surroundin g city b y either physical ba rrier s or class differen ces. A number o f rece nt studies d em o n stra te tha t d efended n eighborhood s can hold up without these two elem ents. 89 H oweve r , wha t seem s m ost important here is the signifi cance of scale . Becau se alley neighbo rhood s we re sm all a nd u nable to develop ex ten sive for m al o rganizat io n s d oes no t m ean tha t they we re a n y less impor tant for m a inta inin g a nd d evelopin g a n e thnic consciousness and way of life. R a ther, wha t the alley neighborhood seem s to suggest is that smal l scale e nclaves, w hethe r hidden in alleys, or scatte red alo n g stree t fro nt s, co n tin ue to have fl ouri shin g p r im a ry group li fe : in tern al orde r and co n trol, social serv ice act ivities, a nd eve n som e p roto in stitu tio n al li fe. M oreove r , it is likely tha t ethnic identity is heigh te ned in those situ at io ns w hen other groups are in su ch close proxim ity . 90 In the case of the Bi rd 's Nest o r la rge r ethnic co mmuni ties,9 1 the sig nifi cance of the ne ighborhood is often overlooked because of the exte n t of ethni c organ izat io n al a nd b u siness li fe. H oweve r , it is the pop u la ti o n scale tha t makes poss ible this d evelopment. Nevert heless, these a reas con tinue to be marked by extensive informal groups ; their aggregate �30 SLOVAKIA makes the neighborhood and keeps it operating, althou gh formal associations play an important role. Ultimately, then , we should exp ect smalle r settlem ents to develop strong informal groups but few formal ones; the larger the co mmunity , the greater the potential for formal organizations to develop , although infor mal group life rema ins active and important. It may well be, as Fischer suggests, that ethnic ide ntity is greatest in these smaller areas, less able to adapt or adjust to the n ew world . In larger enclaves, migrants have more space to consider alternatives , to pick and chose from diverging paths, m ore a bility to ad a pt or adjust to things "Am e rican " b y in corporating them into their repertoire a nd making them " their own. " 91 Finally, in addition to the observations con ce rnin g the importance of neighborhood as a mi grant institution , it is worth noting the different conditions white and bl ack migrants confronted. The caste barrier blacks confronted in Washington as well as the severely restricted housing m arket limited the potential for comm unity d evelopment. Alley dwellers utilized highly creative methods to circumvent the nearly impossible conditions they confronted . To surv ive in this enviro nment was success. In contrast, Slovak men and women were able to gain e nt ry to more stable a nd be tte r paying industrial jobs; eventu ally they secured so me m ovemen t into semi- a nd even skilled positions as a resu lt of their tenacious hold over jobs in their neighborhood. By doing so, they es ta blished ethnic occupation al beachheads for their kin a nd progeny , whil e blacks we re limited to day la bor a nd positions in the secondary labor market. 93 Similarly, Slovaks a nd other white ethnics through considerable personal and fami ly sacrifice were able to purchase their turf; few black alley dwellers were ever so fort un a te. In short , Bird Nesters could use their ethnic ties to establish and maintain occupational and property turf; blacks were "permitted " those jobs and hou sin g no one else wanted. D ominance of these turfs, occupational and residential, were always transitory, requiring incred ible hum an effort to m ainta in th em or develop n ew ones. They seldom permitted a n opportunity to grow or expand. �SLOVAKIA 31 NOTES ' O scar Handlin concludes that "wherever the immigrants went , th ere was one com mon ex peri ence th ey shared: nowhere could they transplant the European village . Wh atever th e va riati ons among environments in America , none was familiar. The pressure of th at stran geness exe rted a dee p influence upon th e character of rese ttlement , upon the usual forms of behavior , and upon the notes of communal action th a t emerged as th e immigrants beca me Americans .'' Th e Uprooted (2nd edn., Boston, 1973) , 129 . ' Loui s Wirth noted that the "shift from a rural to a predominantly urban society .. has bee n acco mpa ni ed by profound changes in virtually every phase of social life, '' with th e "substituti on of seconda ry for primary contacts , th e weakening of bonds of kin ship , and the declining social significance of the famil y, the disappearance of the neighborhood , and th e undermining of the tradition al bas is of social solidarity." On Cities and Social Life , ed . by Albert R eiss, Jr . (Chicago, 1964) , 79-80. See also Wirth, " Urbanism as a Way of Life , " American Journal of Sociology, 44 Ouly , 1938) , 1-24 . ' Ernes t Burgess , who devised the co nce ntri c zone th eory from which this co mes, concluded th a t ' 'disorganization as preliminary to reorgani za ti on of attitud es and condu ct is almost invariably th e lot of th e newcomer to the cit y.'' ' ' The Growth of the City," in Robert E. Park a nd Ernest Burgess, Th e City (Chicago, 1967), 54, 47-62 . • Howa rd Chudacoff found th at while foreign born migrants " m ay have retained their social , eco nomic , and religious commun iti es, their incidence of move ment out of th e old neighborhoods and a round the city make residential coherence a ve ry temporary experience." " A New Look at Ethnic Neighborhoods: Residential Dispersion and th e Concept of Visibilit y in a M edium-Sized City,'' Journal of America n History , 60 Oune , 1973), 91. See also Chudacoff, Mobile Americans: Residential and Social Mobility in Om ah a, 1880- 1920 (New York , 1972), 154-55; Humbert S . N elli, The Italians in Chicago: 1880-1 930( N ew York, 1970), xi i-xiii; Sam Bass Warner and Colin B. Burke, " Cultural Change and th e Ghetto," Journal of Contempnrary History, 4 (O ctober , 1969) , 173 -88 ; David W ard, " The Internal Spatial Different iat ion of Immi grant R esiden ti al Distri cts ,'' in Geographic Perspectives on America's Past , ed. by Dav id Ward ( ew York , 1979) , 335 -43; and Ward , " The Emergence of Central Immi gra nt Ghettoes in American Cities: 1840-1920, " Annals of th e A ssociation of America n Geographers , 38 ( 1968) , 343-59. ' The most class ic stateme nt of this positi on was that of E . Franklin Fraz ier: Southern black mi gra nts to north ern cities los t " res tra ints imposed by a simple folk culture" and creat ed a "class of rovi ng Negroes who will li ve a lawless sex a nd quasi-family life ." " The Impac t of U rba n Civilization upon Negro Family Life, " American Sociological R el'iew , 2 (October , 1937), 6 18. See also Frazier's The Negro Family in the United States (Chicago, 1966), 207-92; Cl yd e Vernon Ki se r , Sea Island co City ( New York, 1968), 223; Gilbert O sofsky, H arlem : Th e Making of a Ghetro (N ew York , 1964) , 135-49 ; Allen H . Spear, Black Chicago: Th e M aking of a Negro Gherto (C hi cago , 1967), 167-80 , x; Constance M cLaughlin Green, Th e Secret Ciry �32 SLOVAKIA (Prince ton, 1967); a nd D av id K atzm a n , Befor e th e Gh etto (U rba na, 1973). 6 W a rn er notes that reli gious co nfli cts in Am eri ca n cities "forced a ll cit y dwellers to think of th em selves either as Protestant s o r Ca th olics ' ' o r J ews, not as members of spec ific ethni c group s. " Cu ltural Cha nge a nd Ghett o," 178. See also Will H erberg, Prot estant , Cath olic, J ew (New York , 1955). ' G ilbert O sofsky, " The Endurin g Ghetto," J ournal of Am erica n History, 55 (September , 1968). ' 8 K enn eth Ku smer , A Ghetto T ak es Shap e: Black C leveland 1870- 1930 (Urbana, Ill ., 1976); D ou glas D a ni els, Pioneer Urbanites: A Social and C ultural History of Black San Fran cisco (Philadelphi a, 1980); and Thomas Cox , Bla cks in T op ek a, K ansas : A Social History (Baton R ouge, La., 1982). 9 Josef J. Barton , Peasants and Strangers: Italians, Rumanians, and Slovaks in an Am erica n C ity, 1890-1950 (Cambrid ge , M ass. , 1975), 64-90 ; M . Mark Stola rik , " Immigration a nd Urban izati on: The Slova k Experi ence, 1870-1 9 18" (Ph .D . di sse rtat ion, Universit y of Minneso ta , 1974), 69 -109; Sylvia June G ranatir Al exander , "The Immi gra nt C hurch a nd Co mmunit y: The Forma ti o n of Pittsburgh 's Slova k R eli gio us In stitution s, 1880- 19 14" (Ph .D . disse rta ti on, Uni vers it y of Minneso ta , 1980), 209-355, 443-5 18 ; Al exa nder , " Stay in g Togeth er : Chain Mi gration and Pattern s of Slovak Settl em ent in Pittsburgh Prio r to World W ar I , '' J ournal of Am erican Echnic History, I (Fall, 198 1), 56-83; K athleen Neils Conze n, Immigrant Milwa ukee: 1836-1 860 (Cambridge, M ass., 19 76) , 154-191 ; and V irginia Vans-M cLaughlin , Family and Commu nicy: Italian Immigranc s in Buffalo, 1880- 1930 (Ith aca, N. Y ., 1977). 0 A numb er of studi es do develop th e role of famil y life in mi gra nt se ttlements; thi s wo rk represe nts a m ajo r co ntribution to th e a nalys is of " inform al" o r prim ary gro up life in th e cit y. For exa mple , see T ama ra K . H a reve n , " Th e Histo ri cal Study of th e Fa mil y in Urban Society , " J ourn al of Urba n History , I (M ay , 1975 ). Unfortuna tely, such studi es neglect th e relati on ship of fa mil y a nd extended kin netwo rk to other inform al-primary groups of neighbo rh ood a nd communit y. Wh at is mi ss in g here is a discussion of th e informal social organi zat ion that makes up the nei ghborh ood . Fo r m o re co mpl ete ana lyses of social netwo rk s, see J . C lyde Mit chell , ed. , Social N ecworks in Urban Situation (M anches ter, 1969); Eli zabet h Bott , Family and Social N etwork (N ew Yo rk , 197 1); and C la ud e S. Fischer, To Dwell Among Friends: Personal N etwo rk s in T own and Cicy (C hi cago, 1982). " For exa mp le, see K a thl ee n Neil s Co nze n , " Commentary: Immi grants , Im mi g ra nt Neighborhoods, and Ethni c Identit y: Histo ri cal Issues, " J ourn al or Am erica n History, 66 (D ece mbe r, 1979), 603 -15. " Su za nn e Keller , Th e Urba n N eig hborh ood (N ew Yo rk , 1968). " Gera ld Sut tl es , Tn e S ocial Constru ction or Communicies (C hi cago, I 972 ), 2 I , 3- I 07 . " R o m a n A. C ybri ws ky, "Soc ia l Aspec ts of Ne ighbo rh ood Change ," Annals or th e Associa tion of Am erica n Geograph ers, 68 ( I 978) , 2 7. In co ntras t , th e co nce pt of th e co mmunit y of limi ted liab ilit y, o ri ginall y developed by M o rri s j a now it z, emp hasizes " th e int enti o na l, vo lunt a ry, a nd es peciall y, th e pa rtial a nd d ifferenti ated in vo lve- �SLOVAKIA 33 ment of res ident s in th eir local comm uniti es.'' Suttles, Social Construction of Communities , 47 , 44-81. See also Morris J anow it z, Th e Community Press in an Urban Setting: The Social Elements of Urbanism (Chicago, 1952). The contrived community is one that is pla nn ed , at leas t in part, with a d es ign to prom ote a ce rt ain kind of co mmunit y. New towns probabl y fall most closely in to thi s catego ry. See Suttles, Social Constru ction of Commun ities, 82-107 . " Formal o rgan ization is an assoc iation th at " is more or less purposefully created for th e at ta inmen t of rela tiv ely specific and limi ted goals.'' M a rvin E. Olsen , Th e Process of Social Organization (New York , 1968) , 92. M em bers are only partiall y involved a nd co mmitted to such " limited-li a bilit y" o rga ni zati on s; th ey rela te to each oth er largely in terms of the organization and th eir spec ific interest in its goals. Whi le members m ay beco m e " fri end s, " impl yin g a mu ch m ore inten se relations hip , and perh aps the development of a prima ry group or netwo rk , thi s is not the goal of the formal o rgani zati on . Primary or inform al gro up s, on th e ot her hand , are " those characteri zed by intimate, face-to-face aswciati on and co-operation, " i.e., " the family , th e play-group of children , a nd th e neighbo rh ood o r co mmunit y of elders. ' ' C ha rl es Cooley, Social Organization (New Yo rk , 1923), 23, 24. Fo r a rev iew of th e significant roles of informal groups, see Elihu K atz and Paul Lazarsfeld , Personal Influen ces (New York, 1955), 3 1-42. 16 For a discussion of this point , see J am es Bo rchert , " Urban Neighborhood and Communit y: Informal Group Life, 1850-1970, ' ' Journ al of Interdisciplin ary History , 11 (Sprin g, 1981 ), 607-3 1; Floyd Dodson, " Pa tt ern s of Volu nta ry Association among W o rkin g-C lass Families," America n Sociological R evie w , 16 (1951), 687-93; and Benn ett Berge r , W orking Class Suburb (Berkeley, Ca. , 1971 ) , 59-73. " R obert R edfi eld , "The Folk Society ," America njournal of Sociology, 52 Qanua ry, 1947) , 293-308. Thi s is not to su gges t that mi gra nts had no experience with forma l groups prior to mi gra ti on. As Ba rt o n , Stola rik , and oth ers have demonstrated , migrants brought both forma l and in formal group s with them. Whil e few have m ade d irec t comp a ri so ns of formal group s in th eir two se ttings (Ba rt on is an importa nt pa rti al except io n here), virtua ll y no o ne has co mpared informal grou ps. " J a m es S. Pil an t, Th e Envelope: A Study of the Imp act of th e World upon th e C hild (New Yo rk , 1950); Suttles, Th e Social Constru ction of Communities, 2 1- 43. 19 C hain migrat ion has bee n defin ed as " th at m ove m ent in which prospecti ve mi grants lea rn of oppo rtuniti es, a re provided with transporta ti on , and have initi al accommodati on and employment a rranged by m ea ns of primary social relationships with previous migra nts" (aut hors' itali cs). J ohn S. M acdon ald a nd Leatri ce D. M acdonald , "Chain Mi gra ti on , Ethn ic Neighborhood Fo rm ati on , and Social Netwo rks," Milbank M emorial Fund Quart erly, 42 Q anu a ry, 1964) , 82. 0 T hese vary, of course , by ethni c gro ups, circum stances , a nd over time , as well as by cl ass. Specia l foods a nd restaurants a re probably th e most obviou s exa mpl es, but churches and lodges a re probably the m ost uni ve rsal ''se rvices. '' Profess ionals a nd ethni c bu siness a re also important elements of th e urba n village, especiall y fun eral homes; th ey con tinu e to draw former res idents a nd th eir children bac k to th e urba n ' �34 SLOVAKIA vi llage, a t leas t on special occasions. Finall y, ma ny wh o left th e "village" continu e to own buildings there; their rental income made "escape" easier; it di d nm , however, break th e ties. " See Suttles, T he Social C onstru ction of C ommunities, 2 1-43. " These environments a re strikin gly different ; th e two group s a re eve n more different in term s of their past ex peri ences, institutional life, and cultural baggage. Co mparison, th en , prese nts considerable problems; limited da ta make thi s eve n more problema ti c. " For oth er effort s to co mpa re th e bl ac k and white ex peri ence, see ta nl ey Lieberso n , A Piece of th e Pie: Black s and Whit e Immigranrs Since 1880 ( Berkeley, Ca ., 1980); J ohn Bodn a r , Michael W eber , and R oge r Simon , " Mi gra ti on , Kin ship , a nd U rba n Adjustm ent : Blac ks a nd Poles in Pitt sb urgh , 1900- 1930," j ournal o f America n History, 66 (Dece mber , 19 79) , 548-565; a nd Bodnar , Sim on , W eber , Lives o f th eir Own : Black s, Italians, and Poles in Piusburgh , 1900- 1960 (Urbana, Ill. , 1982). " For a more compl ete di scussion, ee Borchert, Alley Life in W ashing ton ( Urbana , Ill. , 1980) . For a d iscussion of alleys else wh ere, see 223-37 , 3 12- 17. " Ibid . , 1-56 . ' 6 C u yahoga C ount y Treasure r's Depa rtm ent T ax Duplica tes , I 894- 1923 . C uyahoga Count y Archi ves; M a rgare t M anor Bu tle r, Th e Lakewood tory ( ew York , 1949); 228 ; " City Plays Vital R ole," newspa per clipping-source unkn ow n , M ay 5, 1955 . Lakewood Historical Society; " ati onal Carbon C om pany," C leveland Plain D ealer , September 10, 19 77 . The neighbo rhood has been kn own by a se ri es of names; Bird's Nes t and Bird T own deri ve from th e predominance of stree t with bi rd na me . Other na mes suggest how th e neighborh ood has bee n viewed by outsid er : T he Settl ement, th e Village , " Dago Forum , " C a rbon T own , " Little Slova ki a," a nd th e Carbon Distri ct. John Fedor , "Ju st Loo k at th e Stree t Signs to Find Bird T own ," Lakewood L edger , Dece mber 14, 1967; Butler, Lakewood Story, 188, 228-29; Butler, R om ance in Lakewood Streets (C leve la nd , 1962), 41 ; C ynthi a A. Rud e r, " Th e Imprint of C ultura l V alues on Birdtow n , La kewood, Ohio, " un publi shed typesc ript , M ay 1, 1978. Lakewood Hi stori cal Society. " C uyahoga Count y Au d ito r's T ax M aps , Cuyahoga Coun ty Adm inistrat ion Bu ild ing. Vol. 35-C it y of La kewood. 1890- 1982. " Fed or , " Just Loo k a t th e tree t igns " R eco rd s of th e Distri ct of Colu mb ia , Reco rd Grou p 35 1. Na ti onal Archi ves. Boa rd of C hi ldren ' s Guardi ans, C hildren 's History , I ll : I 129, I 162 , 1392; IV: 158 1. See also Bo rchert , " Survivin g th e C it y: Persistence a nd C ha nge in Bl ac k Folkways of Life in a N ew Environment ," pa per prese nt ed a t th e Associa ti on for th e Stud y of Afro-Ameri ca n Life a nd Hi sto ry, O ctober 2 1- 24, 1982, Baltim ore, M a ryla nd, 8. '° 31 Federal Population Ce nsus Schedul es, 1880, W ashin gto n , D .C., R eco rd Group 29 . ati onal Archi ves; a nd Com missioner of th e Di trict of Colum bia , Ann ual R ep orc -1897 (W as hin gto n , 1897), 195-202. Fed eral Popul ati on C ensus ched ul es, 19 I 0 , La kewood, Ohio. at ional Archives . See also Fed eral Popula ti on Ce nsus Sched ul es, 1900 , Lakewood, Ohio . ational Ar- �SLOVAKIA 35 chi ves. The less precise category "country of origin" makes it impossible to know , oth er than Hun ga ry, where migra nts came from. The 1910 ce nsus clea rs this matter up through more precise desi gnati on ; in this case 70 perce nt listed th emselves as " Hunga rian Slovaks" rath er th a n merely" Hun gary," as in 1900 . "Language" also permit s more precise determination . " While J osef Barton has co ncluded that Slovak migration to C leveland was from more gene rall y dispersed areas in Slovakia, migrating more by district than personal or village chains, oth er studies report considerably more personal co ntacts in the migrati on process, both generally a mong lovak migra nts and specificall y for Cleveland. Peasa ncs and Strangers , 50-51, 54, 59, 63. Emily Greene Balch reports that nearly 99 percent of Slovaks en terin g the United States in 1907-1908 planned to join relatives or friends . Our Slavic Fellow Citizens (New York , 1910), 433. Al exander repo rts that whi le Slovak mi gran ts to Pittsburgh did mi grate in cha ins either by village, or by th e more loose " district" pattern Ba rton found, th e selecti on of one's res idence in a give n cit y was strongly influenced by fri end s and rela tives . " Th e Immi grant C hurch ," 55, 68. M a rk Stolarik also found "Slovaks in the Un ited States and Canada originall y reside(d) in distinct neighborhoods nea r their parish ch urches . most of these in each co ngregation ha iled from the same cluster of villages in the old country." " Immi grat ion a nd Urbanization, " 40. Stolarik a nd his co-authors of a st ud y of C leveland Slovaks reported simila r findings for th at cit y. Susi Megles, Mark Stolarik, and Martina Tybor, Slovak Americans and th eir Communities of Cleveland (C levela nd , 1979), 132. M ore importa nt for this study, Stolarik's analysis of parish reco rds of one Bird 's Nest church found 68 percent were from the ext reme end of one Slovak county; " nearly ha lf of the group was from . . three neighboring villages . " " Immi grat ion a nd Urbanization, " 41. For other informa ti on on chain mi gra ti on of Bird 's Nest residents, see Mary Towarni cky, " Helping One Another in the New Land: The Old Timers R emem ber," in SS. Cyril and M ethodius Church , Diamond Jubilee, 1903 -1 978 (La kewood, 1978), 67; and Common Pleas Court, Records of Declaration of Intention , Cuyahoga County Archives. Vo ls. 1- 30, Octobe r 10 , 1906-Sep tember 8, 19 13. " Lo renzo] . Greene and Myra Colso n Callis, The Employment of Negroes in th e District of Columbia (Washington, I 930), 65. " Borchert, Alley Life, 166-77. " Fed eral Popu lat ion Ce nsus Schedul es, I 900, 1910, La kewood, Ohio ; U.S . Bureau of th e Ce nsus, Population and H ousing- 1940: Cleveland, Ohio and Adjacent Area (Was hin gto n , 1942), 106. This is not to suggest that co nditions were easy o r wages hi gh. J an Pa nku ch notes that " during the first years their wages barely met their needs .'' Dejin y Clevelandskych a Lakewoodsk ych Slovakov (C leveland, 1930), 24. ' 6 Borchert, Alley Life, 85. " Ibid., l 83. The impact of a lley co nditions can be seen most clearly in co mparison to nati onal statisti cs. In 1910 the death rate for urban whit es was 14.6 per thousand ; for urba n blacks, 24.3. James H. Jones , Bad Blood ( ew York, 198 I), 37 . For street �36 SLOVAKIA dwelling W ashin gtoni an s (whit e and black), the dea th rate per thousand was 17 .56 ; for alley residents it was 30 .09 . Willia m H enry J ones, Th e H ousing of Negroes in W ashington , D.C. (Washington, 1929), 45 . " Borchert , Alley Life, 183 . 39 ' 0 41 Albina M olek, " Builders of the Spirit ," C leveland News, November 18, 1949 ; H oward Whipple Green , Plan es of Living in C uyah oga Co unty: as D epicted by th e Real Prop erty Survey (Cleveland , 1940), 65 . Green, Planes of Living, 58. Federal Population C ensu s Schedul es, 1910, Lakewood , Ohio. " Fed eral Population Census Schedul es, 1880, W as hin gton , D .C. See Borchert , Alley Life , 68. 43 Butler, Lakewood Story, 188. " Federal Populaton Census Schedul es, 19 10 , Lakewood, Ohio. In 1911 , residents of the larger community , led by a prominent member of the Rhodes family , established a clinic in the neighborhood becau se of the seve re health conditions, es peciall y the hi gh infant mortality . " Dispensary," in " History of Lakewood ," C lipping fil e, Lakewood Histo rical Society; a nd Butler , L ak ewood Story, 188-89. 45 Borchert , Alley Life , 69-85. •• It is important to note th a t the household unit , whi ch is usually considered th e base of the urban nei ghborh ood , was only part of a m ore important ex tend ed kin ship network whi ch included fi ctive kin adopted in the count rys ide or city. These ext ra- household units ti e re sidents of the alley together into " cliques" th at m ake up the large r alley communit y. Alley residents were linked together in other ways ; marriage of two alley residents linked two fa mil ies and kin networks together . After so me tim e , it is possible that mos t lon g-term residents in a given alley were linked by kinship to each ot her in multiple ways. 47 Becau se th e alley neighb orh ood/comm unity rema ined an informal inst itut ion with no " reco rd s" of its act ivities, it is ve ry difficult to determin e the full ex tent of neighborhood act ivities and their import . Nevertheless , some as pects do seem to stand out : neighborin g a nd ent erta inin g, a id to the needy, commo n action on com munit y need s, intern al social co nt rol, a nd defense of the neighborhood again st outsiders. 48 For a desc ription of the alley as meeting place , see W as hin gton National lnte1ligencer , Jul y 25, 1865; W ashington Times, Septembe r 11, 1904; Washington S tar , Jun e 6, 1930; W ashin gton D aily N ews, April 15, 1954; Charles W eller , Neglected Neighbors (Philadelphi a, 1909), 17 , 82; Wilbur V . Mallalieu , "A W ashin gton Alley," Survey , 28 (October 19, 19 12), 71; Gladys Sellew, A D eviant Social Situation: A Cou rr (Washin gton , 1938), 17 ; a nd D a ni el D. Swinney, " Alley Dwellings a nd H ousing R eform in the Di stri ct of Columbia " (M .A . th esis, University of C hi cago, 1938) , 141 -42. During the winter , several homes in a give n all ey see m to have se rved as mee ting spots. Dora Bessie Somerville , " A Study of a Group of Negro C hildren Li ving in an Alley C ulture" (M.A. th esis, Cat holic U ni ve rsit y of Ameri ca, 1941 ), 20. These homes usually di spensed liquor , oft en homemade , providing resid ents wit h a social �SLOVAKIA 37 ce nt er a nd tenants with a "second in co me . " For a discu ssio n based on a n a nalysis o f histori cal photog raphs , see " Photographs a nd th e Study of th e Pas t, " in Borchert, Alley Life , 291-93; Borche rt , "Analysis of Histo ri cal Photographs," Srudies in Visual Communication, 7 (Fall , 1981 ), 51-56; and Borchert , " Alley Landscapes of Washington, " Landscape , 23 (No. 3, 1979), 6-8. 0 ' Marion M . Ratigan, A Sociological Survey of Disease in Four Alleys in the National Capital (Was hin gton , 1946), 59 ; Mary R edempta Fores tall , "Trend s in Housing, Delinquency, and H ealth in the Central Northwest Area in Washington, D.C." (M.A . th es is , Catholic University of Ame ri ca, 1938), 32; Grace Vawter Bicknell , The Inhabited Alleys o f Washington, D .C. (W ashington , 1912), 31; Well er, Neglected Neighbors, 47 ; Leonise Ruth Aubry, "A mbitions of Youth in a Poo r Economic Status " (M.A. thes is , Catholic University of America, 1938), 3; Sellew, Deviant Social Siruarion, 46, 54; Sommerville, " Study of a Group of Negro Children," 24; Washington Daily News, Augu st 29, 1941; Swinney , "Alley Dwellings and Housin g R efo rm, " 50, 73; Leono r Enriquez Pablo , " The Housing Needs and Social Problems of Residen ts in a Deteriorated Area" (M .S.W. thesis , Catholic University of America , I 953), 56; Board of Children's Guardians , Children's History, I-VII (see especia ll y I:2 33-34 ; II : 657, 667, 801); Washington National R ep ublican , March 24 , 1862 ; a nd Washington Times , September 11, 1904 . " Whil e it is impossible to recreate co nversations between res idents from the ex isting hi sto ri cal records, it is clear from a large body of literatu re in sociology and anthropology that goss ip plays a critical role in the ma intena nce of order as well as the development of a commo n world view. Scholars of black rural and small town life in th e South noted th e importance of goss ip; CharlesJohnson found that "communit y gossi p exercises restraint . . There are limits ... and when th ese limits are reached violators a re treated with unmi stakable group disapproval.'' Shadow of the Plan cation (Chicago, I 94 1), 81, 82. Similarly , H ylan Lewis concluded that " gossip, or th e possibility of gossip " m a kes residents " more careful of th eir behavior." Blackways of Kent (New H ave n , Conn., 1962) , 193. " Those who show signs of group status de via tion . . are subject of a kind of gro up pressure marked by resentment and cri ti cism." Ibid ., 191 . " See Al. L. Epstein , " Gossip , Norms , a nd Social Network," in Social Networks in Urban Situ ations, 117-27. " For example , see Swinney , "Alley Dwellings and H ous in g R efo rm , " 136-37; and Pablo, " H ousin g Needs and Social Problems," 42. " Bo rchert , "U rban Neighborhood a nd Community," 615-18. " Swinney, " Alley Dwellings and H ousin g R eform, " 121 . " Ibid.; W ashington Post , D ece mber 26, 1948; Well er , Neglected Neighbors, 17, 22, 97 ; Mallalieu, " Washington Alley , " 71 ; a nd the R ev . Daniel O'Connell, "The Inhabit ed Alleys of Washington and the Early Social Hi story of One Alley" (M .A. thesis, Ca th oli c University of Ameri ca , 1953) , 110 . It is importa nt to note that attendan ce in the rural South does not seem to have been especially la rge based on Lewi s' findin gs for K ent . Lewis, B/ackways of Kent , 129-30. �38 SLOVAKIA " Borchert, Alley Life, 185-86. 58 Pankuch, Dejiny , 22. " Ibid .; Mary Towarnicky , "Slovak Newcomers to America, " in SS. Cyril and Methodius Church, Diamondjubilee, 1903-1978 (Lakewood, 1978), 66; Towarnicky , " Helping One Another," 67 . 60 Towarnicky, " Helping One Another," 67. 61 The Pleasant Hill Land Company was owned and run by Washington H. Lawrence, the president of the National Carbon Company. It seems clear that Lawrence purchased an extra large parcel ofland from the Case Estate with the intention of developing a residential area for workers . Butler, Lakewood Story, 228; "C ity Plays Vital Role, " "National Carbon Company," Plain Dealer; and G . Frederick Wright, Representative Citizens of Ohio: Memorial-Biographical (Cleveland, 1914) , 181-84. Since the factory was well outside the built-up parts of C leveland, Lawrence may well have considered this development a necessity to attract workers; he must also have planned to make a good return on his investment. The difficulty of the commute from in-city residences to the plant prior to the completion of a street car line in 1898 was incredible . For examples, see "City Plays a Vital Role" and Pankuch , Dejiny, 23. 61 Initially the early buildings were rented to workers; however, the PHLC sold off most of the improved lots within a couple years of construction. Cuyahoga County Treasurer's Tax Duplicates , 1894- 1923. There is some indication that the Na tional Carbon Company (via PHLC) "sold lots to ... immigrants on installments. " Loretta l vany, " 'Birdtown' Became C ity's Ethnic Center," Sun Post , Jun e 30, 1979 . •• Cuyahoga County Auditor's Tax Maps, Cuyahoga County Administration Building. Migrants bought up lots on Plover first because they were cheaper du e to their proximity to th e railroad tracks. Pankuch, Dejiny , 23. R esidents not only bought up land in the neighborhood as soon as they could afford to, they also held on to th e land, passing it on to relatives or selling it with in the community. Paul Wrobel found a sim ila r practice when he did an extensive participant-observation study of a Polish-American parish in D etroit. Our Way: Family, Parish and Neighborhood in a Polish-American Community (Notre Dame, Ind ., 1979), 5. 6 ' City of Lakewood, Building Department, Building Permits , 1900(?)-1982. It is interesting to note that no building permits a ppear to have been taken out by the PHLC, des pite the fact that they clea rl y improved and built on one-fifth of th e lots over the thirt y year period before the last lot was sold ( 1923). Although the city records are incomplete , and use of building permits seems to have been casual in the earl y years, as well as the fact th at many early reco rd s have not survived, it is strange that no PHLC perm its remain in the records. Insurance maps and descriptive sources do confirm the com pany 's activity in th is area prior to 1900. Thomas Flynn, Otto Barthel, R.H. Bunning, and Thomas H assan , Atlas of the Suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio (Philadelphia, 1898), Plate 24; M argaret Butler, R omance in Lakewood's Streets 41; lvany, " 'Birdtown' Became City's Ethnic Center"; and Cynthia A. Rud er , "The Imprint of Cultural Values.'' �SLOVAKIA 39 " As Stephan Thernstrom found in Newburyport , however, home ownership came a t a high price : " To cut family co nsumption expenditures to the bone was one such sac rifice. To withdraw the children from school and to put them to work at the age of ten or twelve was another.'' Poverty and Progress: Social Mobility in a Nin eteenth Century City (New York , 1969), 155. 66 Federal Population Census Schedules, 1910, Lakewood , Ohio. 67 Pankuch , D ejin y, 22; Towarnicky, "Slova k Newcomers to America," 66 ; Towarnicky, " H elping One An other," 67; and Ivany, " 'Birdtown' Became City's Ethnic Center . " 68 M egles, Stolarik , and T ybor, Slo vak Americans and their Communities, 132; Sts. Peter and Paul Lutheran Church , Seventy-Fifth Anniversary (Lakewood, 1976), 3; and Towarnicky , " H elping One Another," 67. 6 ' One of the first Slovak employees recalled th at he " ' got a job in the construction of the . factory. After I had worked th ere for a couple days, the boss told me to bring in a couple more men. I asked him how many I should bring; he answered as man y as I could, even a dozen would do, he said . So I called up my brothers: Juraj, and J an, also Jan andJuraj Nemec, A. Chovana and a bunch of others; Michael Urban and A. Goda all got hired. All the Scerbas; J an Scerba, Jan Scerba, Jr. , Adam Scerba, Andrej R yba nik and many others ca me in later.' " Andrej Babej, quoted in Pank uch, Dejin y, 22. ' 0 Alexander, "The Immigrant Church and Community, " 56-57. More importantl y she notes that "at tim es, when firms desperately needed labor, foremen promised jobs to employees' fri end s or relati ves if th ey would send for them." Ibid ., 57. " Ibid ., 57. She also notes that "Slovaks and other immigra nt groups came to rely on a sys tem of personal relationships in order to get jobs. '' Ibid. For more recent discussions of this process, see Ri chard M yer, " Interpersonal R elations in the Building Indu stry," Man , Work , and Society, ed . by Sigmond Nosow and William Form (New York , 1962) and William K ornblum , Blue Collar Community (C hi cago, 1974). " Sts . Pete r and Paul Lutheran Church, Seventy-Fifth Anniversary , 2-3; Megles , Stolarik , and Tybor, Slovak Americans and their Communities , 13 3; Peter M . Glovna, Sr., " Hi story of SS. Cyril and Methodius Pari sh ," in SS. Cyril and Methodius Church , Diamond Jubilee, 33; " Sts. Peter and Paul Russian Orthodox Church, " undat ed news paper clipping in Margaret Butler, " Hi story of Churches" fil e, Lakewood Hi storical Society; " Ukrainian Church Ded ication Is Set ," undated newspaper clipping in Butl er, ' ' Hi sto ry of Churches . ' ' " Stolarik , " Immigration and Urbanization, " 85-97. It is usefu l to note here that three of the first four Slovak churches in the neighborhood still have services in Slovak, althou gh the y have th em in English as well. " Ru de r , " Imprint of Cultural Values" ; Butler, Lakewood Story, 20,7. In a fine stud y of Slova k Cat holi c lead ers' at titud es toward public ed uca ti on , Mark Stolarik found th ey "valued parochial schools above all else worried mu ch m ore about their children 's moral a nd national upbringing th a n about social mobility . . had no u se �40 SLOVAKIA for publi c schools . . (which) ' den a ti onali ze ou r children . ' " " Immi gra ti on , Education, and the Social Mobilit y of Slova ks, 1870- 1930, " in R a nd all M. Mill e r a nd Thomas D . Marzik, ed s., Immigrants and R eligion in Urban America (Phil adelphia, 19 77) , 107 , 106 . Both Ba rton and Stolarik report th a t 60 to 80 percent of Slovak children a ttended parochi al schools. Ba rto n, Peasa nts and Strangers, 145-46; Stola rik , " Immi grati on and Urban ization ," 165-66. Th e public elem ent a ry school in th e Bird ' s Nest had no teachers wh o co uld speak Slovak ; of those children who did att end , few, if any , spoke Engli sh. Rud e r , "Imprint of C ultural V alu es." 75 The 1930 City Directory includes over 75 bu sinesses (17 local groce rs) and 16 profess ionals a nd se rvi ces avai lable to th e neighborh ood run by local res id ent s (or fo rme r resid ent s). C leveland Directory Compan y, C leveland, Ohio C ity Directory- I 930 (C levela nd , 1930). 76 Inspec to r , Building and Loa n Associat io n , 22nd Annual R ep ort far th e Y ea r Ending D ecember 31, 19 12 (Springfi eld , Ohio, 19 13) , 165 . Oro! Buildin g and Loa n Co. The founding preside nt a nd sec re tary both li ved on Plover , while o nl y th e treas ure r li ved outsid e th e immediat e neighborh ood. H e li ved , howeve r , ju st on th e o th e r sid e (north) of Madison Ave nu e, an a rea th a t Slova ks a nd other mi g ra nt s expand ed int o. Panku ch noted that th e Sav ings a nd Loa n wa s in ex ist ence by 1902 , so it may well have been operating to help res idents long before its offi cial cha rt er in 19 11 . D ejin y, 24. 77 Cuyahoga Count y Treasu re r 's Tax Duplica tes a nd Ci ty of La kewood, Building Permits. 78 For a n excellent discu ssion o n th e conflict be twee n "accult u ra ti o ni sts a nd tradition ali sts , " sec Howard F . Stein , " An Ethnohistory of Slova k-Am e ri ca n R eli gio us and Frate rnal Associations: A Study in Cultural M eanin g, Group Identit y, and Soc ial Instituti o ns," Slo va kia, 29 ( 1980-1 98 1) , 53 -101 . 19 Peter Glovna, as quoted in l vany, " ' Birdtown ' Beca me City 's Ethn ic Center ." G lovna's fath e r m oved to the neighborhood in 1893 a nd was a founder of SS. Cyril and M e thodius , whi le hi s son li ved on Plove r for 40 yea rs. D es pite hi s rece nt m ove out of the area, he still maint ains contacts and serves as pa rish hi sto ri a n . Glovna, "H istory of SS . Cyril and M e th odiu s Pa rish. " 0 " R esidents of Birdtown also enjoyed neighborh ood picnics a nd dancing to th e sound s of bands which were se t up on M a gee and M adison Av enu es.' ' l va ny , '' ' Birdt own ' Beca m e C ity's Ethnic Center.' ' 81 Ruder, " Im print of Cultural Valu es," 5. See also l van y , " ' Birdtown ' Beca me C it y's Ethni c Center ," and 1941 survey quoted extensively in Butler , L akewood St an ·, 229. ' " Rud e r, " Imprint of Cultural V alu es," 18. " Al exa nd e r ' s comment cit ed ea rli e r th a t Slovaks ca m e to rely o n a sys te m of pe rsonal relationships in order to get j obs (see not e 70) needs to be put in a la rge con text he re. Social scienti sts have not ed the impo rt a nce of informal groups in a variety of settings from factory, army, stree t co rn e r gang , a nd neighbo rh ood . Fo r exa mpl e , see F.j . R oet hli sberger a nd W.J . Dickson, M an agem ent and th e W orker (Cam bridge , M ass., 1939); Samuel A. Stoffe r , et. al . , Th e America n Soldier: Studies in Social Psvcholog1· �SLOVAKIA 41 in W orld W ar II , 2 vols (P rin ceto n , .J ., 1949); Edwa rd Shil s, " Prima ry Groups in th e Am eri can Arm y," in R obert M erton and Paul Laza rsfeld, ed s., Studies in ch e S cope and M ech od ofch e " Th e American Soldier " (Gl enoce, Ill. , 1951) ; W . Ll oyd Warn er and Paul S. Lunt , Th e S ocial Life of a M od ern C ommunicy (New H ave n , C onn . , 1941 ); Willi a m Foote Wh yte, Screet Com er Sociecy (Chicago, 1943); a nd K ornblum , Blue Collar Community. 14 Butler, Lakewood S cory , 228 , 188; C leveland Press , M ay 13 , 1947 ; and Rud er, " Imprint of Cultural V alues," 1, 3, 18 . " An impo rtant pa rt of th e p rocess, of course, invol ved co mpetiti o n for hou sing with oth er groups, a res tri cted housin g m a rket accessible to mi g rant s a nd their work . 16 M a ny form er res ident s of th e neighbo rh ood return a t least once a week fo r religious se rvices on Sunday; m a n y d o so m o re often . See al so Wrobel, Our Wa y. " R obert Park obse rved th at "certain urban neighborhoods suffer from isolation ." "The Ci ty," in Park and Burgess , Th e C it y, 8 . Fo r a different view, see Alfr ed Kazin , A W alk er in ch e C ic y (New Yo rk , 195 1). " The persistence of these a reas, outli vin g in som e cases th e in stituti ons th at ca m e aft er th em , att es ts to th eir vit alit y. " In th e Bird 's Nes t th e co ntinuin g prese nce of churches of eac h ethni c group suggests th e continuin g vit alit y of each group . Fo r other exampl es, see Cybriwsky, " Social Aspec ts of N eighbo rhood C ha nge"; Cybriwsky and D avid Ley, " Urba n Graffiti as T erri tori al M a rkers,'' Annals of ch e A ssociacion of American Geographers, 64 (1974) , 475-505; and K ornblum , Blue Collar Community . Some older studies infer the same conclu sion s: H elen L. Wilson and Eunice W . Smith , " Chicago H ou sin g Conditions, VIII : Am ong th e Slova ks in th e Twenti eth Ward ," America n j ourn al of S ociology, 20 (September , 19 14), 145-69 ; Emil y W. Dinwiddie, H ousing Condicions in Philadelphia (Philadelphi a, 1904); J a net K emp , R epore of ch e T en em enc H ouse Commission o f L ouisville (Loui sville, 1_909); Ulf H a nn erz, S ou/side ( ew Yo rk , 1969) ; and Wh yte, Scree/ Corn er Sociecy. •o Sec C la ud e Fi sc her , Th e Urban Experien ce ( ew Yo rk , 19 76) . In hi s m o re recent stud y, Fi sc her has fo un d th e current cit y '' a m osaic of inten se ethni c wo rld s rather th a n . . a la ndsca pe of ethni c di sintegra tion ." M o reo ver , " urba ni sm - or at least th e co nce ntrati o n of spec ific ethni c g roup s - m o re oft en bolsters th a n brea ks down ethni cit y. As the urbani sm of th e communit y increased , respo nd ent s were m ore likely to be ' ethni cs.' " T o Dwell Am ong Friends, 204 , 206 . " For example , H am tramck is an ex treme case where Polish-Am eri cans developed their ow n co mmunit y o n a m ass ive scale . In 1950 , 70 perce nt of th e 44 ,000 res idents of thi s inde pend ent co mmunit y in D etro it were of Poli sh-Am eri ca n ancestry. Arthur Eva ns W ood , H amcram ck : A S ociological Scudy of a Polish -America n Communicy (New H ave n , Conn ., 1955) , 13-28 . " Fisc her, T o D well Among Friends, 207 . See also Peter R ose, S crangers in Th eir Midsc: Small T own J ews and T h eir Neigh bors (M erri ck , New Yo rk , 1977). " Sec note 23. �SLOVAKIA 42 TABLE 1 Bird's Nest Population 1900-1940 Population i900· 1910 .. 429 2,186 1920 ± 4, 145 19.30t 3,729 1940# 3,125 •M a nusc ript Census- Federal Po pul atio n Census Sched ules , 1900 La kewood, O hio . '"Ma nuscript Census-Federal Popula ti o n Census Schedul es, 19 10 Lakewood , O hio . ± Federal Po pulation C ensus Schedules, 1920 Lakewood, O hio for census trac t LW 18. Unfo rtu na tely. the cen· su s tract leaves out one side of one stree t in the neighbo rh ood . tFede ral Po pul ati on C ensus Schedul es , 1930 La kewood, O hio fo r census tract LW1 8. U nfo rtun ately. the cen· sus tract leaves out one side Of one stree t in the neighborhood . #Bu rea u of the Census, Popula tion and H ousing - 1940: Cle,·eland. O hio and Adj acent Arca (Washingto n , 1941), 106. U nfo rtun a tely, the ce nsus trac t leaves out o ne side of one street in 1hc neighborhood . �SLOVAKIA 43 TABLE 2 Occupations of Alley Dwellers 1880 Federal Population Census Schedules , 1880 . Washington, D .C. Record Group 29. National Archives Occupations , 1880 • Adult Males (16 or older) Occupacion N % Unski lled Service Semi-skilled Skilled White-collar Proprieto r (and self-employed) Professional Agriculture/Fishing None 1,641 251 318 233 50 112 28 17 124 59 TOTAL 2,774 100 N % 9 12 8 2 4 4 Adule Females (16 or older) Occupacion Unskilled Service Semi-skilled Skilled White-collar Proprietor None (includes "at home ," "keeping house , " and "at school" ) TOTAL 4 1,742 70 6 10 8 49 1, 780 49 3 ,620 100 2 •Th e substanti al numbe rs of a lley d we ll ers in skilled throu gh professi onal ac tivities is th e res ult of a classifica1io n system th at is ma rk edl y diffe re nt fro m the ones ge nerall y used . It was used here to detec t " class" differen ces within the alley po pula ti on . Thu s, ba rbers a re class ified as skilled , while a number of " proprietors " a rc , in fac 1,ju nkmen . V irtu all y all the adult alley po pula ti o n sho uld fall in the unskilled , se rvice, o r semi- skilled a reas. See Bo rchert, Alley Life, 306-08 . �SLOVAKIA 44 TABLE 3 Occupations of Residents of the Bird 's Nest 1900 A. Adult Males - 15 yea rs of age or older. Occupation Unskill ed .. . . . . . . .. .. .. .. ........ . . . . ... .. ... .... . Service ............ . .... . ... . . . . .... . .. . .. .. .. . . . Semi-skilled .. . ... . . ... . . . . . . . . Skilled ... . . ... .. .... . . . White-collar Proprietor Professional Agricultural T otal B. Adult W omen - Number Percent 147 92 % 3 2 0 5 0 3 2 0 3 2 160 15 yea rs of age or older . Occupation Number 2 2 Unskilled Service ... Semi- skill ed Skill ed White-colla r Proprietor Agri cultural Percent 50 % 50 % 0 0 0 0 0 T otal 4 100 % TABLE 3 Occupations of Residents of the Bird's Nest 1910 A . Adult M ales - 15 yea rs of age or older. Occupation Number Un skill ed 79 1 Se rvice 19 Semi-skilled . .. .. . . .... .. ... . ...... . .. . ... ... .... . 38 Skill ed ...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 White-co ll a r 10 P roprietor 11 P rofessional 1 Agri cul tural To tal 949 Percent 84 % 2 4 8 100 % �SLOVAKIA B. Ad u lt Wom en - 45 15 ye ars of age or olde r. Occupation Number 75 Un ski lled ....... . . Service Semi- ski lled Ski lled W hi te-coll ar P ro prieto r Profess io nal Agricultu ral 33 Percent 66 % 29 % 0 4 4 1 0 0 0 11 3 T otal 100 % TABLE 3 Occupations of Residents of the Bird 's Nest 1940 Occupations Number O cc u pa ti ons not repo rt ed U nskilled Service wo rkers D om es ti c se rvi ce wo rkers Opera ti ves a nd kind red wo rkers C ra ft sm en , fo rem en , a nd kindred wo rkers . ... . .... . . . .. . . . C leri cal, sales , and kind red wo rkers . .. . . P ro pri etors, m a nage rs, and offi cials . ... . .. . Se mi -pro fess io nal Pro fess ional T otal Percent 2 184 83 98 17% 8 9 478 44 105 10 9 3 96 29 4 13 1,092 100 % Bu reau of the Ce nsus, Populat ion and Housing - 1940: Cleveland , Ohio and Adjacent A rea (W as hin gton , 1942) , 106 . Ce nsus tract leaves o ut o ne side of one street of neighbo rhood . �� " Logan Place." September 26, 1935. All ey Dwellin g Authority. Nati onal Capital H ousin g Authorit y Collection . Library, D e pa rtm ent of H ou sin g and Com munit y D evelo pm ent. W as hin gto n, D .C . ► ► ;,::; ...... < 0 L' (/) 0::, �SLOVAKIA 9 Migrant Responses To The City: The Neighborhood, Case Studies in Black and White, 1870-1940* James Borchert and Susan Danziger-Borchert Th ey tend to reproduce spontaneously the home community and to live in it. L etters show that they frequently reply to inquiries from home for a description of America, " I have yet been able to see America." W.I. Thomas, "The Immigrant Community" Students of migration to American cities have, over the years, produ ced a large library of studies. The greatest outpouring of work has co ncentra ted on the migration of southern and eastern European immigrants during the years from 1880 to 1920, and the "great migrati o n " of blacks from the rural South. This profusion of work has not produced any final conclusions on the migrant experience, although there a re a number of schools of thought about what happen ed to migrants . Th e first group of scholars who considered European migrants of this pe riod concl uded that d espite efforts to re- establish their rural ways of life, the city proved too poor a soil for such institutions to ta ke root. Thus extended family , kinship network , neighborhood , and community 1 • A ve rsio n of this paper was prese nted a t th e Nin ety-Seve nth Annu al M ee tin g of th e Am eri ca n Hi sto ri cal Associa ti o n held in Washin gton, D .C. in D ece mb er 198 2. The authors are indebted to th e Am erican Hi to ri cal Associati on for a n Albert J. Beveridge M em o ri a l Fund Grant and the Smithson ian In sti tuti on for a fellowship, whi ch provided esse nti al fundin g in conn ec tion with th e preparation of th e original presenta tion. �10 SLOVAKIA withered ; a pe riod of disorde r a nd co nfu sion foll owed u nt il mi grant s discovered the " urba n way of life. " 1 Accordin g to the theory, thi s d iscovery , synonymous with the beginnings of assimil a tion a nd accultu ration, provided migrants with the form s of order a nd organization tha t would m ake success in America (and cities) possible and p rob able . After a n appropriate period of apprenticeship in the " zon e in transition " a nd the " zone of workingmen ' s homes, " the urba nized mi grant began to m ove to middle-class status a nd suburban h om es. 3 M ore recent scholars, a n alyzing a ggregate cen sus d a ta (fo r indi ces of di ssimil a rity) a nd city directories (for spa tial a nd occupa tional m obility), have questioned the notion that European mi gra nts spent mu ch tim e in the zon e in tran sition . Based on this d a ta, they contend tha t individu al m igra nts from diffe rent immi grant groups lived widely scattered acro ss workin g-class residential a reas . Few con centration s we re great e nou gh to permit the development of urba n vill ages or ghet toes. Where they ex isted, mi grant s passed through so quickl y th a t their importa n ce as a n institution was minimized for most. 4 In contrast , until recently , most observers of black migran ts in the city concluded tha t folk breakdown was extensive. Moreover , whil e new bl ack residents seem ed to m ove as frequ ently as white mi gra nts, they did so within a n increasingly restrictive ghetto area . 5 Thu s, whe re a disorganized ghetto confronted black migrants, white migrants ex peri en ced greater spa tial and (implicitly) m ore occupa tional mobility. Whi te migrants m elted to gether into a working cl ass div ided by reli gion (P rotestant , Catholi c, and J ew) , 6 while blacks confronted a n earl y caste-like experien ce. 7 The m ost recent work by students of Eu ro pean a nd bl ack mi gra nt s of the 1880 to 1930 period h as b egun to challen ge som e of these findin gs . Students of urba n bl ack communi ties h ave foc u sed on the exte nsive presen ce of fo rm al organi zati ons to dem onstra te the exten t of order in black life. 8 Simila rl y, studies of E u rop ean immi grant group s h ave demon stra ted the persisten ce of ethni c life in th e city throu gh the in stituti on s of church , b e nevolen t groups, lod ges, politi cal ac tivity, a nd a n active press. 9 M oreove r , both se ts of studi es presum e th e prese nce of a recogni zable geogra phical b ase upon whi ch these fo rm al or gani zations operate . In the case of black communities, the ghetto explicity fo rm s the b ounda ries; fo r white immi gra nt s, th e pa rish or" immi gran t n eighborhood " implicitly serves as the turf around which the story of organi za- �SLOVAKIA 11 tional life unfolds. Unfortunately, in either case, the empirical demonstration of this critical base and its role is often assumed as given. Few have sought to consider the role of neighborhood and community development as a crucial framework for their analyses. 10 • Because this literature provides little basis for analysis or comparison, it is necessary to turn to the work of sociologists for a framework. 11 While there is little work on scale and its impact on the nature of neighborhood, 11 more has been done on neighborhood typologies. Gerald Suttles suggests three: the defended neighborhood, the community oflimited liability, and the contrived community. The first is most pertinent to the discussion here: "a residential group which seals itself off through the efforts of delinquent gangs, . . . by sharp boundaries, or by forbidding reputation." 13 The elements of the defended community are: "a recognizable identity, a consensus among residents of a common fate, and a 'positive' and sentimental attachment to neighbors, local establishments, and local traditions to the exclusion of other persons, establishments, and traditions . '' 14 Another set of issues that the current literature ignores concerns the distinction between primary or informal groups (family, neighborhood, community) and formal organization. Historians' concentration on formal group life represents a great limitation on their work, since these groups represent only one level of response migrants made to the city. 15 In part, these formal groups reflect most fully the experiences of the most successful: those who are largely "a-typical" of the larger group's experience. 16 More importantly, informal groups played a critical role in the life of the folk migrants prior to their move to the city. 17 Their presence and roles in the city represent important elements to test to determine the nature and extent of changes that resulted from migration, urbanization, industrialization, and modernization. Since earlier observers pointed to these informal groups as the institutions that underwent the most complete and severe change, with formal groups replacing them, it seems central to the discussion of the persistency of ethnic group life that primary group life be given careful analysis. This is especially so since it is the family, neighborhood, and community that are so central for the socialization and identity of the young. 18 There are other reasons for considering the issue of informal group life. Recent studies of both European and black migrant areas have reported population turnover that was thought to undermine the develop- �12 SLOVAKIA ment and impact of ethnic enclaves; proximity to many other groups diminished European ethnicity to one of the three major religions. While recent studies demonstrate the importance of chain-migration for both black and white migrants, little effort has been made to determine what effect this chain migration had on the formation of groups in the city. 19 In contrast, the presence ( or absence) of a neighborhood in proximity to formal institutions of an ethnic group represents theoretically a very different experience than that postulated by studies of movement and mobility . Rather than seemingly random movement, it would be possible to hypothesize the informal neighborhood providing important sets of support for the church (parish), businesses, beneficial organizations, press, and national organizations. While it may be difficult to determine which came first, it seems likely that informal neighborhood lies at the base of the ethnic urban village. Moreover, despite the mobility, the presence of an ethnic village that provides important goods and services for "members," whatever the place of residence, plays an important role in the "maintenance" of ethnicity and identity. 20 Thus, while it may have have served every member of a given ethnic group in its particular part of the city, the neighborhood/urban village fostered important networks of institutions for migrants; dominance of a section of the city permitted residents a chance to be "themselves" within the confines of a turf dominated by persons from the same kin network, town, region, and country. In these neighborhoods, residents hammered out their own identities, consciousness, and relations with the larger world. Without this envelope, it is hard to imagine how so many informal and formal groups could have persisted and prospered . 21 It is the purpose of this article to examine the development of residential neighborhoods and communities by two different groups of migrants in different environments. While these are far from "random" selections, 22 we do feel that they represent two different kinds of migrant settlements, one very small, the other fairly large. Both neighborhoods conform roughly to Suttles' definition of a defended neighborhood; both represent an important migrant response to the urban environment, a response that has been passed over all too briefly by past work. The article focuses on the efforts of two different groups of folk migrants to establish a "turf" in the city: Black migrants settled in the inhabited alleys of Washington, D .C ., and the eastern European migrants settled in the "Bird's Nest" on the fringe of Cleveland, Ohio. �SLOVAKIA 13 In m a ny ways the social co nditions migrants faced in these two environments were dramatically different; each cam e with a different set of experie nces and cultural baggage, and each faced very different conditions in the cities they settled despite the fact that both entered the urban marketpl ace at the ' 'bottom .' ' 23 While these differences are critical to understand what happened to each group, it is also important to see in general term s what migrants shared in their struggle with the urban-industrial environment. The article begins with a consideration of similarities and differences between the two communities in terms of physical form , population , occupations, and living conditions. The major part of the article focuses on the development and form each neighborhood took . The conclusions seek to compa re these two experien ces and suggest their implicat ions for othe r migrant experien ces and for the study of migrants . II. Descriptive Comparison of Neighborhoods: Alley Communities and The Bird 's Nest Physical Form and Isolation . Alley communities of Washington, like their counterparts throughout the urban United States and Europe , were small, relatively circumscribed , and isola ted neighborhoods spread throu ghout the central city 24 (see Map 1) . In Washington , alley house co nstru ction fell largely in the period from the end of the Civil War until 1892, when Congress banned new construction. D eveloped on narrow st reets or alleys inside a large city block , the tiny, two-story fram e or brick row houses faced inwa rd onto the interior alley, while larger, more expensive row houses lined the outside of the block and faced onto the street (M ap 2). W ell-to-do residents of the street-front property were separated from their poor and often black, backyard neighbors physically, sociall y, and culturally. D evelopers and owne rs of alley property , often well to do , generally lived outside the immediate section of the city where their all ey property was located, thus furth er isolating the alley n eighborhood . 25 The Bird 's N est, a single neighborhood , was equ ally isolated , but shared much more in co mmon with the la rge ethnic enclaves in urban indu st ri al areas throu ghout the United States. In 1892 , a land company sub sidary (Pleasant Hill L and Company-PHLC) of the National Carbon Company laid out the eight n a rrow stree ts (five n a m ed for birds), a nd 424 lots to provide hous in g for workers at its new facto ry n earby. 26 �SLOVAKIA 14 INHABITED ALLEYS 1897 POPUATION 0 1- ,. 0 0 0 JOO - ... 0 RKE • • 0 MAP 1 - 1/l or mor, 81,il(: k 2/lormor,\Nhct C ommi ssione rs of the District of Columbia, Annual R eport (W ashin gton , 189 7), 195-202. 1897 �SLOVAKIA 15 N STREET [ fr" I l'Fif =! .J.Jo . a--1 II ' ' .. ~ • II - '-M STREET L STREET D BUILDINGS HEADS Of HOUSEHOLD Native Born Whites S.ablo Foreign Born \\'hites (born outside Ncw1h America or p,uenc~ born outside Othe<Buldir@ Store o, AmYm Shop North Amtfil:a) • •• !lacks ~ (when lhan l) more MAP 2 - Sanborn Map Publishin g Company, In surance M aps of Washington , D .C. (New York , N . Y., 1888) ; and Fed eral Populat ion Census Schedules, I 880 W ashington , D .C., V ol. 2 pan 2, R eco rd Group 29 National Archi ves. �SLOVAKIA 16 \~ PART Of" L.\I(E,ro on .>. ' -~ I I .A 11 LE 1 1 ROCKPORT TOWNSHIP. \~_. ~':. ~ \" \ ... ~7;:... MAP .3 - Pleasa nt Hill La nd C ompan y subdi vision of th e " Bird 's Nes t " a nd th e adjoining Na ti on al Ca rbon Facto r y, 1898 . Thom as Fl ynn , Ott o Ba rth el, R .H . Bunni ng , and Thomas H assa n , Atlas o[ th e Suburbs o[ Cleveland, Ohio ( Phil ad elphia , 1898), Plate 24 . �SLOVAKIA 17 The neighborhood was circumscribed by railroad tracks, th e factory , a nd a wood s (later d eveloped for a factory and park) on three sides; the fourth side, a secondary comme rcial artery, p ermitted some overflow into the immediate n eighborhood to the north (see Map 3). While Bird's Nest workers were able to gain ownership of the area, it remained isolated from the surrounding area which was developin g as a middl e-class suburb. 2 7 Like the inward facing alley, th e neighborhood also turned in ward with its " main street," Plover , being the most isol a ted of its streets. 28 Migration and Neighborhood Size. Black migrants from the surrounding states of Virginia and Maryland, coming largely in cha ins of family, fri ends , and neighbors, settled into the alley communities. 29 Predominantl y from rural areas, these mi grants mainta ined ties to the countryside a nd encouraged furth er m ove me nt from those areas . While rural migrants had a number of differe nt res id enti al environm e nts to chose from in the city, a nd often m oved b ack a nd forth betwee n these , m an y se ttled initially in the alleys . Alley popu lations varied co nsiderabl y in size within a given year and over tim e . The smallest held one or two famil ies, the largest ove r 400 peopl e (see Map 1). Most all eys fell so m ewhere in be tween , with the average all ey size in 1880 bein g 50 residents ; at the peak of alley population in 1897, when there were nearl y 20 ,000 all ey res idents living in 240 all eys, th e average all ey size was 73. Th ese were, th e n , very small , face-to-face co mmunities of bl ack rural migrants. 3° In contrast, migra nts to the Bird 's N es t cam e from rural a reas in Easte rn Europe; most id entifi ed th emselves as " Hun garian Slovaks ," alth ou gh some were from P ola nd a nd Ru ss ia . 31 Th ey also mi grated in cha in s of relat ives, fri end s, and n eighbors as well as by region. 32 Like bl ack mi gra ti on to th e all eys, th e re was cons iderab le movem ent back a nd forth betwee n th e Old W o rld a nd th e New. Un like th e all ey populat ion th at reached its peak in 1900 a nd began to drop off, with each alley being a small isola ted community onto itself, the Bird 's N est populati on of 429 in 1900 in creased fi ve -fold by 19 10 a nd then doubled by 1920 at its peak ( see T able 1.) Thi s represe nts a different kind of ethni c encl ave with pote nti al for m o re sub sta nti ve inst itu tion al d evelopme nt. Occupations and Workplace. Black residents of W ashin gton alleys co nfronted profound limita ti ons in their search for work. R ac ism limi ted �18 SLOVAKIA employment of black males largely to day labor and black women to dom estic or laundry work; none had access to the limited industrial occupations in Washington 33 (see Table 2). The employment open to alley dwell ers, then, represented the worst paid , least secure, and often the m ost physically demanding and dangerous positions available. Moreover, despite long residence in the ci ty, black alley dwellers experienced little if any upward occupational mobility ; a color bar en sured that any movem ent would be minimal. 3 4 In contrast , while migrants from Eastern Europe came with similar skills as rural blacks , they often found industrial employment available to them, even though it was nearly always at the bottom . In 1900, most male residents of the Bird 's Nest were laborers working at the adjacent National Carbon factory; by 1910, a number of residents had gained som e mobility by gaining access to semi-skilled industrial occupations. Moreover, a number of women were able to gain indu strial employment, although usually a t the lowest levels ; many others earn ed incom e by runnin g boarding houses or taking in boarders. While this work was long, hard , physically demanding , and often dangerous , it was also more secure and better paying than anything available to alley dwellers . By 1940 , em ployed male a nd female workers of the Bird 's Nest were concentrated in semi-skilled pos itions ( 44 percent), with another 10 percent skilled and 13 percent proprietarial or white collar employees; only a third remained as unskill ed or service workers 35 (see Table 3). Living Conditions. Living conditions in most D .C. alleys were far from wholesome; crowding, poorly maintained buildings and outhouses, piles of uncollected trash in alleys, and the co nstant d anger of contagious disease plagued residents. D espite the limited space inside the two-story 12x30 foot alley house, man y were shared by more than one hou sehold unit ; in some cases four family units lived in one small room each . 36 These crowded cond itions made residents m ore susceptible to di sease, while landl ord s' lack of co ncern for maintenance and the city's di sinterest in coll ect in g trash from the alleys exposed residents to di sease in other ways. Limited and unstable income restricted diets while d angerou s, outdoor work further taxed alley dwellers' health . Ultimately these cond iti ons led to death rates for alley dwell ers th at were twice th at for residents of the streets; the major causes were diseases that cou ld clearly be linked to socio-economic status . 3 7 Children under the age of one year acco unted for much of the high death rate. 38 �SLOVAKIA 19 While the Bird's Nest developed in a suburban setting and lacked the extreme density of the alley community, living conditions were little better. While outside the multi-family homes "everything was mud," inside the long, narrow two - and three-story buildings many families lived in tiny cold water flats 39 (see Map 4) . Whereas alley dwellers had to go outside for water and toilets, Bird's Nesters shared "indoor water closets .' ' 40 Residents of the latter community, however, were more likely to share their tiny apartments with boarders; 32 percent of households had boarders in 1910 (boarders made up one-fourth of the total population), 41 while only 13 percent of 1880 alley households were augmented. 41 The crowded living conditions in the Bird's Nest, along with the long hours at work and limited income, led to high death rates, especially for the very young. 43 In 1900, women reported over one-fourth of the children they had borne were dead, 44 a condition that continued in later years. There are, then, substantial similarities between the two populations; Both came into the urban marketplace at the bottom; both lived in housing conditions that were crowded and dangerous ; the "communities" were isolated physically and socially from the surrounding populations; both were made up of groups that had migrated in chains to the city. Nevertheless , residents of the Bird's Nest did have access to industrial jobs that were more stable and better paying; and these positions permitted some mobility from unskilled labor to semi- and eventually skilled jobs. In addition, where alley communities were largely limited in size by the number of houses built in each alley , and ultimately by the limited interior space of the block itself, the Bird's Nest faced less spatial constriction. This afforded the potential for more complete development. Finally, while alley dwellers seldom had the resources to purchase their alley homes from absentee landlords , res idents of the Bird's Nest were encouraged to do so by the industrial developer of their community . Where ownership always remained external to the alley community , the Bird 's N est quickly becam e locally owned. Despite these differences, each area developed a se ries of informal groups that provided the base for the formation of a neighborhood . That neighborhood , in turn , provided the foundation for the d evelopment of more formal organizations. Given the differe nt resources and scale, however, residents d eveloped different kinds of ne ighborhoods. �10 FAM ILY UNtTS .I H oward Whipple G ree n , Plan es of Living in C uyah oga County: as D epicted by th e R eal Property Survey (C leveland , 1940), 65. Bird ' s Nest = LW18 MAP 4 - e 6.5 o/o OF ALL FAMILY UNITS 2 1,953 IN COUNT Y COLD WATER FLATS ~ ► ~ < >- 0 r< (./J 0 �SLOVAKIA 21 III. Neighborhoods Alley Communities. Black migrants who came to Washington alleys re-established their kin and friendship networks in the alley; they continued to use these networks for emotional and financial support. Because their resources were so marginal, only reliance on these groups made survival more likely. Each alley then, had several or more such networks into which "fictive kin" were also drawn. They provided the most basic form of social organization, albeit informal, in the alley . 45 It was the alley neighborhood, itself, that brought these kin groups together into a loose , but cohesive unit . Since alleys were isolated from the surrounding neighborhood and often some distance from the emerging black enclaves of the city where the major institutions of black life were located, alley residents often had to fall back on themselves for help and support. Drawing on their rural experience, migrants constructed informal defended neighborhoods to provide for their needs. In many respects, however, this informal community became much more important in the city because residents were more dependent on each other, especially in the period just following their migration. Since migration to the city (and alleys) continued throughout the period, and since there were always some "native" alley residents as well as some migrants who had lived in a given alley for many years, new migrants did not have to confront the urban environment alone . New neighbors, kin, and old friends helped ease the transition from country to city. 46 The alley itself' 7 was the center of the alley community; residents congregated there, save in the worst weather, to meet with friends and neighbors. 48 A major location for informal meeting took place at the intersection of the two main alleys . All residents passed this point on their way into and out of the alleys; neighbors met each other here as they returned home from work each day, or hung out there during the day if there was no work available . In addition , residents generally sat in front of their homes and talked to neighbors who joined them on the steps, benches, or chairs set out for this purpose . 49 It is impossible to overestimate the value and import of this activity, for virtually every aspect of the alley community was based on this interaction . If neighboring provided an important element of entertainment, it also provided information on which neighbors needed help and where jobs were available. A critical function of the alley community �22 SLOVAKIA involved help and support for those in need; neighbors aided each other by providing money, food, and shelter while in some cases they took in friends' children and cared for them, in others they let neighborhood children sleep at their house '' because they had more room.'' 50 A third function neighboring and the alley community provided was the maintenance of internal social control. Part of this came as a result of the positive support neighbors gave each other; they also used gossip and more formal sanctions to maintain order. 51 Ultimately, these daily discussions about ' ' appropriate behavior'' by residents resulted in the hammering out of a common philosophy and world view; a world view that was shared by members of the community and differed from that of outsiders. 52 Finally, alley dwellers defended their neighborhood against outsiders . Part of this resulted from their intensive use of alley space for neighboring , thus discouraging others from entering the area . When outsiders did enter they were confronted by residents and watched throughout their alley visit, an experience that unnerved many observers of alley life. 53 Alley dwellers had good reason to watch "outsiders"; other Washingtonians, black and white, generally viewed residents of the alleys with great disdain. While the police were especially harsh in their attempts to control alley populations, other residents, though less overt in their actions, expressed nearly universal condemnation of alley dwellers. 54 This external hostility helped hold the alley community together, despite its internal dissension . Disputes over life style dominated these schisms, but the small scale of the neighborhood, the necessity to cooperate to survive, and the external threats effectively held residents together. Because of its small size and very limited resources, however, the alley community was not able to develop or support a very extensive set of formal organizations. It did provide an excellent medium for small alley churches, which were simply alley houses residents rented "for Jesus. " They were kept going by neighbors' contributions and the pastors ' earnings from "doing occasional laundry" or other work . 55 While most alleys seem to have had at least one of these churches, their small size - "Ten chairs and a pulpit, and an improvised altar" - makes the extent of participation problematic . 56 Alley businesses were equally marginal, and often involved in illegal activity. Like the semi-formal alley church, these businesses required conversion of part ofan alley house into a " speak-easy" or "fac- �SLOVAKIA 23 tory" for the m a nufacture of illegal alcohol , or oft en both . While these were cl early ill egal and we re often closed down by law e nforcem ent offi cia ls, th ey provided an importa nt service for the alley ne ighborhood in representin g a " proto " ne ighborhood tave rn a nd community ce nter where residents co uld m eet. 57 The Bird 's Nest. A s earl y as 1889 , Slovak mi gran ts b egan work on the construction of the n ew National Carbon factory . 58 After the factory was co mpl eted , these worke rs and their fri ends were hired to work in th e factory . 59 Like alley dwellers, initial settle rs in the Bird 's N est began a cha in mi gration , at first drawing from the oth er Slovak enclaves throughout the city and eventuall y reaching back to Hun gary. This process resu lted in ex tended kin n etworks bein g refo rmul a ted in th e n ew neighborhood . In a number of cases, this reformu la tion extended to Old World v ill age pa rishes. Within th e fir st few years, m a n y of the core famili es had m oved in and esta blished them selves. Fri end s, ne ighbors, a nd co -reli gionists followed . As o ne oral history repo rted, " m a n y times the m en came along first , leaving wives a nd children behind in Slovakia, until they h ad found work a nd could send back for th eir families. When they cam e first, they sought out others from the sam e village who were alread y" in the neighborhood . 60 The most criti cal form of organization , however, was the neighborhood it self. Like the all ey community , the n eighborhood rem a ined largely inform al; initiall y it w as a grouping of kin n etworks largely of Slovak a n cestry. Y e t this inform a l " institution " p rovided the precon dition s necessary for the con structio n of other aspects of the community. In large p a rt the migrants es tablished th eir co ntrol over th e ne ighborhood in the first years of settle m e nt , 1892- 1900 . A lthough the a rea was th en only sli ghtl y bigge r tha n th e largest all ey, these earl y migrants a nd th eir famili es esta blish ed a beachhead that was neve r chall en ged . Unlike alley dwell ers who neve r gained ow nership of th eir ne ighborhood , res idents of the Bird 's N est quickly bou ght up th e small parcels o f la nd (wheth er simpl y cl eared b y the PHLC, or built upon ) , 6 1 as soo n as th eir fin ances m ad e it possibl e. 61 A lon g Pl ove r , migrant s purch ased 43 perce nt of the lots prior to 1900; o nl y three of th e 35 lots o n the street m ay h ave been ini tiall y purchased by non-Sl avs. 63 R es id ent s gain ed ow ners hi p o f m ost of th e 424 lots in the subdi vion s on initi a l sale; w ith few exce ptio n s, th ey eve ntuall y ga in ed co ntrol ove r th e rem a ining o nes as well. �24 SLOVAKIA P e rhaps the most striking aspect of n eighborhood d evelopment is the extent to which residents drew on each other's skill s and resources to construct houses, stores, a nd shops. Of the 171 lots for which information is available on th e initial con struction , 92 perce nt of the owners were alread y residents of the neighborhood. While m a n y built their own hom e (or a building to rent), those owners who hired a builde r to co nstruct their houses overwhelmingly chose a resident of the neighborhood (64 percent). Many of the non-resident builders were also of Slavic origin , but lived in one of the other encl aves spread throughout the city. 64 T o an impressive ex tent , th en , residents bought up the neighbo rhood la nd, and per son ally built th eir own hom e or a home to sell to more rece nt migra nts ; when they did not do their own co nstru ction they hired neighbors . In doing so, they establi shed an impress ive investm ent upon which they could draw or build on in the future. 65 H av in g es tablish ed a turf a nd access to employ m ent , residents encouraged n ew migra nt s to join them. Whe reas the m ajo rity of th e first res idents ha d migrated to the United Sta tes in the ten years prior to the building of th e factory, the massive influx of n ew migrants in the fir st two d ecad es of the twenti eth century cam e direc tl y to the n eigh bo rhood. Slovaks continu ed their d omination of the n eighborhood (70 perce nt) , whil e Slovak was the most common la ngu age. 66 One of the key attractions of thi s N ew Slovak/ Slav ic village, in a d dition to the presen ce of fri ends , relatives, and an ethni c ne ighborhood , was the prese nce of employm ent possibilities in industry. H av ing mad e important inroads from th e beginnin g of the constru ction o f the new factory, Slovaks , a nd to a lesse r extent P oles a nd Ru ssians, dominated the lowest level of empl oym e nt in the facto ry. 67 Th ere is so m e indi cation th a t the original pl a nt o n the east side of Clevela nd may also h ave empl oyed workers from a nearb y Slovak e nclave. These employees m ay have been attrac ted to th e new factory b y the avail ab ilit y of la nd ; a disastrous fire a t the old e r pl a nt in 1893 m ay well have speed ed up this process. 68 Wh a teve r the initi a l co nnection, Slovaks a nd oth er Sl av ic mi gra nt s establi shed a beachh ead in th e factory from th e beginnin g b y drawin g o n th eir inform a l networks . 69 Jun e Alexand er found a similar co nditio n for Slovaks in Pittsburgh , namely that "factori es relied o n their fore m e n to hire workers and foreme n, in turn, reli ed o n th e ir workers as intermedi a ries to find la borers. " 70 As mi grants worked their way slowly up the ranks to semi-skilled a nd occasion all y forem en positions , th ey �SLOVAKIA 25 gain ed m ore direct access to the hiring process. With the informal neighborhood networks , Slovaks came to dominate both workplace and neighborhood . 7 1 Whil e info rm al social cont rol and aid permeated th e early years of the Bird's N est as it did in the alleys, the ra pid growth of the neighborhood in the first decade of the twentieth cen tury permitted the developme nt of m ore form al organiza tions . R esidents of different reli gious persuas ion s m et sepa rately; initially these m ee tings, like the alley church , were worshi p serv ices held in co-reli gioni sts' hom es. Eve ntu ally these m eetin gs led to the fo rmation of lod ges and other m ore form al organizations designed to bring about the formation of a parish and the building of a church . 72 The first parish , Sts. Peter and P aul Lutheran , was offi cially form ed in 1901 ( church building-1 902/school som e years later) ; it was followed by Sts. Cyril and M ethod ius R om an Catholic Church in 1903 (church building and school-1905); St. Gregory ' s Byzantine Rite Catholic Church in 1905 ( chu rch building 1906/school som e years later); and the C alvin Presbyterian C hurch in 19 17 (church buildin g-19 2 1) . Ca lvin Presbyte ri a n C h urch in th e foreg round occupi es th e first sit e of Sts. Pe te r a nd Pau l Luth era n C hurch . In th e b ac kg round is St . Grego ry's Byza nti e n Rit e Ca th oli c C hurch . (Ph ot0g ra ph by a ut ho rs, J a nu a ry , 1984). �26 SLOVAKIA Sts. Peter and Paul Luthera n. (Photograph by au thors, January, 1984). SS. Cyril a nd M eth odi us R om an Ca th oli c C hurch . (Ph otog raph by au th ors, J anua ry, I 984). �SLOVAKIA 27 These "predominantly" Slovak parishes were joined by those of the other ethnic groups sharing the neighborhood, the first of which was St. Hedwig's Church (Roman Catholic Polish Parish) in 1905 ( church building-l 914/school-1926). Because residents took the initiative in the formation of these parishes and schools, they often had considerable control over their direction, especially in the early years. 73 These parishes made the neighborhood even more attractive to potential migrants; their founding at the beginning of the decade undoubtedly encouraged many others to migrate. Religious schools provided another incentive, especially to Slovaks who witnessed their own schools closed or "converted for Magyarization" in the homeland. For residents in the Bird's Nest, these schools represented a way to avoid efforts at Americanization promoted by the public schools. As a result many children from the neighborhood attended these parochial schools. 74 Drawing on their growing neighborhood and its greater resources (compared to alley communities), residents of the Bird's Nest also started an incredible number of businesses. While most of these were small stores and shops that served the immediate neighborhood , several developed into substantial businesses that provided necessary goods and services for ethnic and religious needs . 75 Most important, however, was the formation of Eagle Building and Loan Company in 1911 . Controlled from within the neighborhood, residents built an institution that made possible complete acquisition and building of the area, and expansion beyond . 76 The building and loan was critical since over fifty percent of the neighborhood's lots were sold by the PHLC during the 1910s, while the period from 1912 to 191 7 was the period of greatest home construction. 77 Although the neighborhood was divided by ethnicity, religion, and class , as well as by very different attitudes on assimilation, 78 these divisions were subsumed by the needs of the neighborhood and the workings of informal groups. For some, the community revolved around the parish ; Peter Glovna remembered that "it was just like a little village, and the pillar was St. Cyril. " 79 Nevertheless , they were a series of co mmunity-wide activities that drew residents together. 80 Most important , " the first settlers tried to reconstruct , as closely as possible , the village system they were so accustomed to in Poland , Russia, and Slovakia. The close-knit warmth a nd familiarity of the village provided security and a sense of home to the recently displaced immigrants. " 81 �28 SLOVAKIA Ultimately , residents used the neighborhood as alley residents did theirs; everyone knew everyone else and interaction on the streets, front yards, and porches was extensive, especially in warm weather. 82 This neighboring activity , largely through informal, small groups of relatives and friends, made up a critical element in the neighborhood life . It provided the first level (past kin network) of organization, one that replicated itself as formal groups began in the churches, lodges, and benevolent associations as well as the workplace. These primary groups provided members with an immediate sense of belonging, a connection with larger, more formal organizations, and a way by which members of the primary group could collectively continue to co nstru ct a world view, maintain social control , and provide help and support for the needy. 83 Like the alley community, the Bird's Nest found that the external threat was often sufficient to contain internal conflict. Hostility , both formal (from police and other official sources) and informal (from personal prejudice directed at residents), was extensive throughout the period. Outsiders, as in the case of alley communities, targeted the neighborhood as an eyesore and danger to the rest of the community; and police exercised their authority to "maintain social control by overenforcing the law .' ' 84 IV. Conclusions Based on these examples, it seems clear that migrants, via chain migration and efforts to gain entry/control over admission to a j ob market , began to establish residential enclaves. 85 If the process of neighborhood formation appears to have begun almost unconsciously, its development was quite conscious. While the presence of such neighborhoods is taken as given to most studies, what stands out in these two examples is the extent to which migrants took over their respective turfs, defended them, and built informal and formal institutions around them. In fact , the clustering provided the necessary context for virtually every further institutional development. If some or many migrants eventually passed through and out of the neighborhood , it remained(s) an important focal point in the lives of many , even those who could "escape" to more affluent suburban settlements. 86 The neighborhood , then , must be taken more fully into account as one, if not the most critical, of migrant institutions. �SLOVAKI A 29 T hese neighborhood s provided the b ase fo r su rvival in the new urban en vironment. They were the source of housing, employm ent , mutual aid , p rotection , famil y, and friends . They permitted pa rents to raise their children in a n en v iro nment a nd throu gh in stitutio n s ove r w hich the fam ili es exerted som e co ntrol. They also provided a safe ha rbor from whi ch m igrants confro n ted the confu sin g city . M o reove r , ne ighbor s worked out their respo n ses to the issu es o f ethnicity, accultu ratio n , a nd ass im il at ion in this con text of everyd ay life. If n eighbo r s chose diver ging path s, they were n eve rtheless path s th a t d evelo ped w ithin the confines a nd con text of the ethnic en clave. R a ther th a n the stilted b ackwaters th a t R o bert P a rk a nd other s saw, th ese e ncl aves we re vibrant wi th conflicts over life style, ch a n gin g ethnic ide n tity, a d a pta tion , a nd eve n interna tio n al issu es . 8 7 T hu s, to under stand migrant organization s a nd the role they played in accul tu rat io n and et h nic ident ity, it is necessary to con sider th e first in st ituti on m igran ts created in th e city, th e neighbo rhood . 88 W hile these two n eigh borhood s were dram aticall y d ifferent, they both fi t well into Suttles' d efinition of a defended neighbo rhood . I t seem s q uite likely tha t m os t imm igrant e nclaves also fit thi s descri ption , even in cases where the areas was no t so highly segregated fro m the surroundin g city b y either physical ba rrier s or class differen ces. A number o f rece nt studies d em o n stra te tha t d efended n eighborhood s can hold up without these two elem ents. 89 H oweve r , wha t seem s m ost important here is the signifi cance of scale . Becau se alley neighbo rhood s we re sm all a nd u nable to develop ex ten sive for m al o rganizat io n s d oes no t m ean tha t they we re a n y less impor tant for m a inta inin g a nd d evelopin g a n e thnic consciousness and way of life. R a ther, wha t the alley neighborhood seem s to suggest is that smal l scale e nclaves, w hethe r hidden in alleys, or scatte red alo n g stree t fro nt s, co n tin ue to have fl ouri shin g p r im a ry group li fe : in tern al orde r and co n trol, social serv ice act ivities, a nd eve n som e p roto in stitu tio n al li fe. M oreove r , it is likely tha t ethnic identity is heigh te ned in those situ at io ns w hen other groups are in su ch close proxim ity . 90 In the case of the Bi rd 's Nest o r la rge r ethnic co mmuni ties,9 1 the sig nifi cance of the ne ighborhood is often overlooked because of the exte n t of ethni c organ izat io n al a nd b u siness li fe. H oweve r , it is the pop u la ti o n scale tha t makes poss ible this d evelopment. Nevert heless, these a reas con tinue to be marked by extensive informal groups ; their aggregate �30 SLOVAKIA makes the neighborhood and keeps it operating, althou gh formal associations play an important role. Ultimately, then , we should exp ect smalle r settlem ents to develop strong informal groups but few formal ones; the larger the co mmunity , the greater the potential for formal organizations to develop , although infor mal group life rema ins active and important. It may well be, as Fischer suggests, that ethnic ide ntity is greatest in these smaller areas, less able to adapt or adjust to the n ew world . In larger enclaves, migrants have more space to consider alternatives , to pick and chose from diverging paths, m ore a bility to ad a pt or adjust to things "Am e rican " b y in corporating them into their repertoire a nd making them " their own. " 91 Finally, in addition to the observations con ce rnin g the importance of neighborhood as a mi grant institution , it is worth noting the different conditions white and bl ack migrants confronted. The caste barrier blacks confronted in Washington as well as the severely restricted housing m arket limited the potential for comm unity d evelopment. Alley dwellers utilized highly creative methods to circumvent the nearly impossible conditions they confronted . To surv ive in this enviro nment was success. In contrast, Slovak men and women were able to gain e nt ry to more stable a nd be tte r paying industrial jobs; eventu ally they secured so me m ovemen t into semi- a nd even skilled positions as a resu lt of their tenacious hold over jobs in their neighborhood. By doing so, they es ta blished ethnic occupation al beachheads for their kin a nd progeny , whil e blacks we re limited to day la bor a nd positions in the secondary labor market. 93 Similarly, Slovaks a nd other white ethnics through considerable personal and fami ly sacrifice were able to purchase their turf; few black alley dwellers were ever so fort un a te. In short , Bird Nesters could use their ethnic ties to establish and maintain occupational and property turf; blacks were "permitted " those jobs and hou sin g no one else wanted. D ominance of these turfs, occupational and residential, were always transitory, requiring incred ible hum an effort to m ainta in th em or develop n ew ones. They seldom permitted a n opportunity to grow or expand. �SLOVAKIA 31 NOTES ' O scar Handlin concludes that "wherever the immigrants went , th ere was one com mon ex peri ence th ey shared: nowhere could they transplant the European village . Wh atever th e va riati ons among environments in America , none was familiar. The pressure of th at stran geness exe rted a dee p influence upon th e character of rese ttlement , upon the usual forms of behavior , and upon the notes of communal action th a t emerged as th e immigrants beca me Americans .'' Th e Uprooted (2nd edn., Boston, 1973) , 129 . ' Loui s Wirth noted that the "shift from a rural to a predominantly urban society .. has bee n acco mpa ni ed by profound changes in virtually every phase of social life, '' with th e "substituti on of seconda ry for primary contacts , th e weakening of bonds of kin ship , and the declining social significance of the famil y, the disappearance of the neighborhood , and th e undermining of the tradition al bas is of social solidarity." On Cities and Social Life , ed . by Albert R eiss, Jr . (Chicago, 1964) , 79-80. See also Wirth, " Urbanism as a Way of Life , " American Journal of Sociology, 44 Ouly , 1938) , 1-24 . ' Ernes t Burgess , who devised the co nce ntri c zone th eory from which this co mes, concluded th a t ' 'disorganization as preliminary to reorgani za ti on of attitud es and condu ct is almost invariably th e lot of th e newcomer to the cit y.'' ' ' The Growth of the City," in Robert E. Park a nd Ernest Burgess, Th e City (Chicago, 1967), 54, 47-62 . • Howa rd Chudacoff found th at while foreign born migrants " m ay have retained their social , eco nomic , and religious commun iti es, their incidence of move ment out of th e old neighborhoods and a round the city make residential coherence a ve ry temporary experience." " A New Look at Ethnic Neighborhoods: Residential Dispersion and th e Concept of Visibilit y in a M edium-Sized City,'' Journal of America n History , 60 Oune , 1973), 91. See also Chudacoff, Mobile Americans: Residential and Social Mobility in Om ah a, 1880- 1920 (New York , 1972), 154-55; Humbert S . N elli, The Italians in Chicago: 1880-1 930( N ew York, 1970), xi i-xiii; Sam Bass Warner and Colin B. Burke, " Cultural Change and th e Ghetto," Journal of Contempnrary History, 4 (O ctober , 1969) , 173 -88 ; David W ard, " The Internal Spatial Different iat ion of Immi grant R esiden ti al Distri cts ,'' in Geographic Perspectives on America's Past , ed. by Dav id Ward ( ew York , 1979) , 335 -43; and Ward , " The Emergence of Central Immi gra nt Ghettoes in American Cities: 1840-1920, " Annals of th e A ssociation of America n Geographers , 38 ( 1968) , 343-59. ' The most class ic stateme nt of this positi on was that of E . Franklin Fraz ier: Southern black mi gra nts to north ern cities los t " res tra ints imposed by a simple folk culture" and creat ed a "class of rovi ng Negroes who will li ve a lawless sex a nd quasi-family life ." " The Impac t of U rba n Civilization upon Negro Family Life, " American Sociological R el'iew , 2 (October , 1937), 6 18. See also Frazier's The Negro Family in the United States (Chicago, 1966), 207-92; Cl yd e Vernon Ki se r , Sea Island co City ( New York, 1968), 223; Gilbert O sofsky, H arlem : Th e Making of a Ghetro (N ew York , 1964) , 135-49 ; Allen H . Spear, Black Chicago: Th e M aking of a Negro Gherto (C hi cago , 1967), 167-80 , x; Constance M cLaughlin Green, Th e Secret Ciry �32 SLOVAKIA (Prince ton, 1967); a nd D av id K atzm a n , Befor e th e Gh etto (U rba na, 1973). 6 W a rn er notes that reli gious co nfli cts in Am eri ca n cities "forced a ll cit y dwellers to think of th em selves either as Protestant s o r Ca th olics ' ' o r J ews, not as members of spec ific ethni c group s. " Cu ltural Cha nge a nd Ghett o," 178. See also Will H erberg, Prot estant , Cath olic, J ew (New York , 1955). ' G ilbert O sofsky, " The Endurin g Ghetto," J ournal of Am erica n History, 55 (September , 1968). ' 8 K enn eth Ku smer , A Ghetto T ak es Shap e: Black C leveland 1870- 1930 (Urbana, Ill ., 1976); D ou glas D a ni els, Pioneer Urbanites: A Social and C ultural History of Black San Fran cisco (Philadelphi a, 1980); and Thomas Cox , Bla cks in T op ek a, K ansas : A Social History (Baton R ouge, La., 1982). 9 Josef J. Barton , Peasants and Strangers: Italians, Rumanians, and Slovaks in an Am erica n C ity, 1890-1950 (Cambrid ge , M ass. , 1975), 64-90 ; M . Mark Stola rik , " Immigration a nd Urban izati on: The Slova k Experi ence, 1870-1 9 18" (Ph .D . di sse rtat ion, Universit y of Minneso ta , 1974), 69 -109; Sylvia June G ranatir Al exander , "The Immi gra nt C hurch a nd Co mmunit y: The Forma ti o n of Pittsburgh 's Slova k R eli gio us In stitution s, 1880- 19 14" (Ph .D . disse rta ti on, Uni vers it y of Minneso ta , 1980), 209-355, 443-5 18 ; Al exa nder , " Stay in g Togeth er : Chain Mi gration and Pattern s of Slovak Settl em ent in Pittsburgh Prio r to World W ar I , '' J ournal of Am erican Echnic History, I (Fall, 198 1), 56-83; K athleen Neils Conze n, Immigrant Milwa ukee: 1836-1 860 (Cambridge, M ass., 19 76) , 154-191 ; and V irginia Vans-M cLaughlin , Family and Commu nicy: Italian Immigranc s in Buffalo, 1880- 1930 (Ith aca, N. Y ., 1977). 0 A numb er of studi es do develop th e role of famil y life in mi gra nt se ttlements; thi s wo rk represe nts a m ajo r co ntribution to th e a nalys is of " inform al" o r prim ary gro up life in th e cit y. For exa mple , see T ama ra K . H a reve n , " Th e Histo ri cal Study of th e Fa mil y in Urban Society , " J ourn al of Urba n History , I (M ay , 1975 ). Unfortuna tely, such studi es neglect th e relati on ship of fa mil y a nd extended kin netwo rk to other inform al-primary groups of neighbo rh ood a nd communit y. Wh at is mi ss in g here is a discussion of th e informal social organi zat ion that makes up the nei ghborh ood . Fo r m o re co mpl ete ana lyses of social netwo rk s, see J . C lyde Mit chell , ed. , Social N ecworks in Urban Situation (M anches ter, 1969); Eli zabet h Bott , Family and Social N etwork (N ew Yo rk , 197 1); and C la ud e S. Fischer, To Dwell Among Friends: Personal N etwo rk s in T own and Cicy (C hi cago, 1982). " For exa mp le, see K a thl ee n Neil s Co nze n , " Commentary: Immi grants , Im mi g ra nt Neighborhoods, and Ethni c Identit y: Histo ri cal Issues, " J ourn al or Am erica n History, 66 (D ece mbe r, 1979), 603 -15. " Su za nn e Keller , Th e Urba n N eig hborh ood (N ew Yo rk , 1968). " Gera ld Sut tl es , Tn e S ocial Constru ction or Communicies (C hi cago, I 972 ), 2 I , 3- I 07 . " R o m a n A. C ybri ws ky, "Soc ia l Aspec ts of Ne ighbo rh ood Change ," Annals or th e Associa tion of Am erica n Geograph ers, 68 ( I 978) , 2 7. In co ntras t , th e co nce pt of th e co mmunit y of limi ted liab ilit y, o ri ginall y developed by M o rri s j a now it z, emp hasizes " th e int enti o na l, vo lunt a ry, a nd es peciall y, th e pa rtial a nd d ifferenti ated in vo lve- �SLOVAKIA 33 ment of res ident s in th eir local comm uniti es.'' Suttles, Social Construction of Communities , 47 , 44-81. See also Morris J anow it z, Th e Community Press in an Urban Setting: The Social Elements of Urbanism (Chicago, 1952). The contrived community is one that is pla nn ed , at leas t in part, with a d es ign to prom ote a ce rt ain kind of co mmunit y. New towns probabl y fall most closely in to thi s catego ry. See Suttles, Social Constru ction of Commun ities, 82-107 . " Formal o rgan ization is an assoc iation th at " is more or less purposefully created for th e at ta inmen t of rela tiv ely specific and limi ted goals.'' M a rvin E. Olsen , Th e Process of Social Organization (New York , 1968) , 92. M em bers are only partiall y involved a nd co mmitted to such " limited-li a bilit y" o rga ni zati on s; th ey rela te to each oth er largely in terms of the organization and th eir spec ific interest in its goals. Whi le members m ay beco m e " fri end s, " impl yin g a mu ch m ore inten se relations hip , and perh aps the development of a prima ry group or netwo rk , thi s is not the goal of the formal o rgani zati on . Primary or inform al gro up s, on th e ot her hand , are " those characteri zed by intimate, face-to-face aswciati on and co-operation, " i.e., " the family , th e play-group of children , a nd th e neighbo rh ood o r co mmunit y of elders. ' ' C ha rl es Cooley, Social Organization (New Yo rk , 1923), 23, 24. Fo r a rev iew of th e significant roles of informal groups, see Elihu K atz and Paul Lazarsfeld , Personal Influen ces (New York, 1955), 3 1-42. 16 For a discussion of this point , see J am es Bo rchert , " Urban Neighborhood and Communit y: Informal Group Life, 1850-1970, ' ' Journ al of Interdisciplin ary History , 11 (Sprin g, 1981 ), 607-3 1; Floyd Dodson, " Pa tt ern s of Volu nta ry Association among W o rkin g-C lass Families," America n Sociological R evie w , 16 (1951), 687-93; and Benn ett Berge r , W orking Class Suburb (Berkeley, Ca. , 1971 ) , 59-73. " R obert R edfi eld , "The Folk Society ," America njournal of Sociology, 52 Qanua ry, 1947) , 293-308. Thi s is not to su gges t that mi gra nts had no experience with forma l groups prior to mi gra ti on. As Ba rt o n , Stola rik , and oth ers have demonstrated , migrants brought both forma l and in formal group s with them. Whil e few have m ade d irec t comp a ri so ns of formal group s in th eir two se ttings (Ba rt on is an importa nt pa rti al except io n here), virtua ll y no o ne has co mpared informal grou ps. " J a m es S. Pil an t, Th e Envelope: A Study of the Imp act of th e World upon th e C hild (New Yo rk , 1950); Suttles, Th e Social Constru ction of Communities, 2 1- 43. 19 C hain migrat ion has bee n defin ed as " th at m ove m ent in which prospecti ve mi grants lea rn of oppo rtuniti es, a re provided with transporta ti on , and have initi al accommodati on and employment a rranged by m ea ns of primary social relationships with previous migra nts" (aut hors' itali cs). J ohn S. M acdon ald a nd Leatri ce D. M acdonald , "Chain Mi gra ti on , Ethn ic Neighborhood Fo rm ati on , and Social Netwo rks," Milbank M emorial Fund Quart erly, 42 Q anu a ry, 1964) , 82. 0 T hese vary, of course , by ethni c gro ups, circum stances , a nd over time , as well as by cl ass. Specia l foods a nd restaurants a re probably th e most obviou s exa mpl es, but churches and lodges a re probably the m ost uni ve rsal ''se rvices. '' Profess ionals a nd ethni c bu siness a re also important elements of th e urba n village, especiall y fun eral homes; th ey con tinu e to draw former res idents a nd th eir children bac k to th e urba n ' �34 SLOVAKIA vi llage, a t leas t on special occasions. Finall y, ma ny wh o left th e "village" continu e to own buildings there; their rental income made "escape" easier; it di d nm , however, break th e ties. " See Suttles, T he Social C onstru ction of C ommunities, 2 1-43. " These environments a re strikin gly different ; th e two group s a re eve n more different in term s of their past ex peri ences, institutional life, and cultural baggage. Co mparison, th en , prese nts considerable problems; limited da ta make thi s eve n more problema ti c. " For oth er effort s to co mpa re th e bl ac k and white ex peri ence, see ta nl ey Lieberso n , A Piece of th e Pie: Black s and Whit e Immigranrs Since 1880 ( Berkeley, Ca ., 1980); J ohn Bodn a r , Michael W eber , and R oge r Simon , " Mi gra ti on , Kin ship , a nd U rba n Adjustm ent : Blac ks a nd Poles in Pitt sb urgh , 1900- 1930," j ournal o f America n History, 66 (Dece mber , 19 79) , 548-565; a nd Bodnar , Sim on , W eber , Lives o f th eir Own : Black s, Italians, and Poles in Piusburgh , 1900- 1960 (Urbana, Ill. , 1982). " For a more compl ete di scussion, ee Borchert, Alley Life in W ashing ton ( Urbana , Ill. , 1980) . For a d iscussion of alleys else wh ere, see 223-37 , 3 12- 17. " Ibid . , 1-56 . ' 6 C u yahoga C ount y Treasure r's Depa rtm ent T ax Duplica tes , I 894- 1923 . C uyahoga Count y Archi ves; M a rgare t M anor Bu tle r, Th e Lakewood tory ( ew York , 1949); 228 ; " City Plays Vital R ole," newspa per clipping-source unkn ow n , M ay 5, 1955 . Lakewood Historical Society; " ati onal Carbon C om pany," C leveland Plain D ealer , September 10, 19 77 . The neighbo rhood has been kn own by a se ri es of names; Bird's Nes t and Bird T own deri ve from th e predominance of stree t with bi rd na me . Other na mes suggest how th e neighborh ood has bee n viewed by outsid er : T he Settl ement, th e Village , " Dago Forum , " C a rbon T own , " Little Slova ki a," a nd th e Carbon Distri ct. John Fedor , "Ju st Loo k at th e Stree t Signs to Find Bird T own ," Lakewood L edger , Dece mber 14, 1967; Butler, Lakewood Story, 188, 228-29; Butler, R om ance in Lakewood Streets (C leve la nd , 1962), 41 ; C ynthi a A. Rud e r, " Th e Imprint of C ultura l V alues on Birdtow n , La kewood, Ohio, " un publi shed typesc ript , M ay 1, 1978. Lakewood Hi stori cal Society. " C uyahoga Count y Au d ito r's T ax M aps , Cuyahoga Coun ty Adm inistrat ion Bu ild ing. Vol. 35-C it y of La kewood. 1890- 1982. " Fed or , " Just Loo k a t th e tree t igns " R eco rd s of th e Distri ct of Colu mb ia , Reco rd Grou p 35 1. Na ti onal Archi ves. Boa rd of C hi ldren ' s Guardi ans, C hildren 's History , I ll : I 129, I 162 , 1392; IV: 158 1. See also Bo rchert , " Survivin g th e C it y: Persistence a nd C ha nge in Bl ac k Folkways of Life in a N ew Environment ," pa per prese nt ed a t th e Associa ti on for th e Stud y of Afro-Ameri ca n Life a nd Hi sto ry, O ctober 2 1- 24, 1982, Baltim ore, M a ryla nd, 8. '° 31 Federal Population Ce nsus Schedul es, 1880, W ashin gto n , D .C., R eco rd Group 29 . ati onal Archi ves; a nd Com missioner of th e Di trict of Colum bia , Ann ual R ep orc -1897 (W as hin gto n , 1897), 195-202. Fed eral Popul ati on C ensus ched ul es, 19 I 0 , La kewood, Ohio. at ional Archives . See also Fed eral Popula ti on Ce nsus Sched ul es, 1900 , Lakewood, Ohio . ational Ar- �SLOVAKIA 35 chi ves. The less precise category "country of origin" makes it impossible to know , oth er than Hun ga ry, where migra nts came from. The 1910 ce nsus clea rs this matter up through more precise desi gnati on ; in this case 70 perce nt listed th emselves as " Hunga rian Slovaks" rath er th a n merely" Hun gary," as in 1900 . "Language" also permit s more precise determination . " While J osef Barton has co ncluded that Slovak migration to C leveland was from more gene rall y dispersed areas in Slovakia, migrating more by district than personal or village chains, oth er studies report considerably more personal co ntacts in the migrati on process, both generally a mong lovak migra nts and specificall y for Cleveland. Peasa ncs and Strangers , 50-51, 54, 59, 63. Emily Greene Balch reports that nearly 99 percent of Slovaks en terin g the United States in 1907-1908 planned to join relatives or friends . Our Slavic Fellow Citizens (New York , 1910), 433. Al exander repo rts that whi le Slovak mi gran ts to Pittsburgh did mi grate in cha ins either by village, or by th e more loose " district" pattern Ba rton found, th e selecti on of one's res idence in a give n cit y was strongly influenced by fri end s and rela tives . " Th e Immi grant C hurch ," 55, 68. M a rk Stolarik also found "Slovaks in the Un ited States and Canada originall y reside(d) in distinct neighborhoods nea r their parish ch urches . most of these in each co ngregation ha iled from the same cluster of villages in the old country." " Immi grat ion a nd Urbanization, " 40. Stolarik a nd his co-authors of a st ud y of C leveland Slovaks reported simila r findings for th at cit y. Susi Megles, Mark Stolarik, and Martina Tybor, Slovak Americans and th eir Communities of Cleveland (C levela nd , 1979), 132. M ore importa nt for this study, Stolarik's analysis of parish reco rds of one Bird 's Nest church found 68 percent were from the ext reme end of one Slovak county; " nearly ha lf of the group was from . . three neighboring villages . " " Immi grat ion a nd Urbanization, " 41. For other informa ti on on chain mi gra ti on of Bird 's Nest residents, see Mary Towarni cky, " Helping One Another in the New Land: The Old Timers R emem ber," in SS. Cyril and M ethodius Church , Diamond Jubilee, 1903 -1 978 (La kewood, 1978), 67; and Common Pleas Court, Records of Declaration of Intention , Cuyahoga County Archives. Vo ls. 1- 30, Octobe r 10 , 1906-Sep tember 8, 19 13. " Lo renzo] . Greene and Myra Colso n Callis, The Employment of Negroes in th e District of Columbia (Washington, I 930), 65. " Borchert, Alley Life, 166-77. " Fed eral Popu lat ion Ce nsus Schedul es, I 900, 1910, La kewood, Ohio ; U.S . Bureau of th e Ce nsus, Population and H ousing- 1940: Cleveland, Ohio and Adjacent Area (Was hin gto n , 1942), 106. This is not to suggest that co nditions were easy o r wages hi gh. J an Pa nku ch notes that " during the first years their wages barely met their needs .'' Dejin y Clevelandskych a Lakewoodsk ych Slovakov (C leveland, 1930), 24. ' 6 Borchert, Alley Life, 85. " Ibid., l 83. The impact of a lley co nditions can be seen most clearly in co mparison to nati onal statisti cs. In 1910 the death rate for urban whit es was 14.6 per thousand ; for urba n blacks, 24.3. James H. Jones , Bad Blood ( ew York, 198 I), 37 . For street �36 SLOVAKIA dwelling W ashin gtoni an s (whit e and black), the dea th rate per thousand was 17 .56 ; for alley residents it was 30 .09 . Willia m H enry J ones, Th e H ousing of Negroes in W ashington , D.C. (Washington, 1929), 45 . " Borchert , Alley Life, 183 . 39 ' 0 41 Albina M olek, " Builders of the Spirit ," C leveland News, November 18, 1949 ; H oward Whipple Green , Plan es of Living in C uyah oga Co unty: as D epicted by th e Real Prop erty Survey (Cleveland , 1940), 65 . Green, Planes of Living, 58. Federal Population C ensu s Schedul es, 1910, Lakewood , Ohio. " Fed eral Population Census Schedul es, 1880, W as hin gton , D .C. See Borchert , Alley Life , 68. 43 Butler, Lakewood Story, 188. " Federal Populaton Census Schedul es, 19 10 , Lakewood, Ohio. In 1911 , residents of the larger community , led by a prominent member of the Rhodes family , established a clinic in the neighborhood becau se of the seve re health conditions, es peciall y the hi gh infant mortality . " Dispensary," in " History of Lakewood ," C lipping fil e, Lakewood Histo rical Society; a nd Butler , L ak ewood Story, 188-89. 45 Borchert , Alley Life , 69-85. •• It is important to note th a t the household unit , whi ch is usually considered th e base of the urban nei ghborh ood , was only part of a m ore important ex tend ed kin ship network whi ch included fi ctive kin adopted in the count rys ide or city. These ext ra- household units ti e re sidents of the alley together into " cliques" th at m ake up the large r alley communit y. Alley residents were linked together in other ways ; marriage of two alley residents linked two fa mil ies and kin networks together . After so me tim e , it is possible that mos t lon g-term residents in a given alley were linked by kinship to each ot her in multiple ways. 47 Becau se th e alley neighb orh ood/comm unity rema ined an informal inst itut ion with no " reco rd s" of its act ivities, it is ve ry difficult to determin e the full ex tent of neighborhood act ivities and their import . Nevertheless , some as pects do seem to stand out : neighborin g a nd ent erta inin g, a id to the needy, commo n action on com munit y need s, intern al social co nt rol, a nd defense of the neighborhood again st outsiders. 48 For a desc ription of the alley as meeting place , see W as hin gton National lnte1ligencer , Jul y 25, 1865; W ashington Times, Septembe r 11, 1904; Washington S tar , Jun e 6, 1930; W ashin gton D aily N ews, April 15, 1954; Charles W eller , Neglected Neighbors (Philadelphi a, 1909), 17 , 82; Wilbur V . Mallalieu , "A W ashin gton Alley," Survey , 28 (October 19, 19 12), 71; Gladys Sellew, A D eviant Social Situation: A Cou rr (Washin gton , 1938), 17 ; a nd D a ni el D. Swinney, " Alley Dwellings a nd H ousing R eform in the Di stri ct of Columbia " (M .A . th esis, University of C hi cago, 1938) , 141 -42. During the winter , several homes in a give n all ey see m to have se rved as mee ting spots. Dora Bessie Somerville , " A Study of a Group of Negro C hildren Li ving in an Alley C ulture" (M.A. th esis, Cat holic U ni ve rsit y of Ameri ca, 1941 ), 20. These homes usually di spensed liquor , oft en homemade , providing resid ents wit h a social �SLOVAKIA 37 ce nt er a nd tenants with a "second in co me . " For a discu ssio n based on a n a nalysis o f histori cal photog raphs , see " Photographs a nd th e Study of th e Pas t, " in Borchert, Alley Life , 291-93; Borche rt , "Analysis of Histo ri cal Photographs," Srudies in Visual Communication, 7 (Fall , 1981 ), 51-56; and Borchert , " Alley Landscapes of Washington, " Landscape , 23 (No. 3, 1979), 6-8. 0 ' Marion M . Ratigan, A Sociological Survey of Disease in Four Alleys in the National Capital (Was hin gton , 1946), 59 ; Mary R edempta Fores tall , "Trend s in Housing, Delinquency, and H ealth in the Central Northwest Area in Washington, D.C." (M.A . th es is , Catholic University of Ame ri ca, 1938), 32; Grace Vawter Bicknell , The Inhabited Alleys o f Washington, D .C. (W ashington , 1912), 31; Well er, Neglected Neighbors, 47 ; Leonise Ruth Aubry, "A mbitions of Youth in a Poo r Economic Status " (M.A. thes is , Catholic University of America, 1938), 3; Sellew, Deviant Social Siruarion, 46, 54; Sommerville, " Study of a Group of Negro Children," 24; Washington Daily News, Augu st 29, 1941; Swinney , "Alley Dwellings and Housin g R efo rm, " 50, 73; Leono r Enriquez Pablo , " The Housing Needs and Social Problems of Residen ts in a Deteriorated Area" (M .S.W. thesis , Catholic University of America , I 953), 56; Board of Children's Guardians , Children's History, I-VII (see especia ll y I:2 33-34 ; II : 657, 667, 801); Washington National R ep ublican , March 24 , 1862 ; a nd Washington Times , September 11, 1904 . " Whil e it is impossible to recreate co nversations between res idents from the ex isting hi sto ri cal records, it is clear from a large body of literatu re in sociology and anthropology that goss ip plays a critical role in the ma intena nce of order as well as the development of a commo n world view. Scholars of black rural and small town life in th e South noted th e importance of goss ip; CharlesJohnson found that "communit y gossi p exercises restraint . . There are limits ... and when th ese limits are reached violators a re treated with unmi stakable group disapproval.'' Shadow of the Plan cation (Chicago, I 94 1), 81, 82. Similarly , H ylan Lewis concluded that " gossip, or th e possibility of gossip " m a kes residents " more careful of th eir behavior." Blackways of Kent (New H ave n , Conn., 1962) , 193. " Those who show signs of group status de via tion . . are subject of a kind of gro up pressure marked by resentment and cri ti cism." Ibid ., 191 . " See Al. L. Epstein , " Gossip , Norms , a nd Social Network," in Social Networks in Urban Situ ations, 117-27. " For example , see Swinney , "Alley Dwellings and H ous in g R efo rm , " 136-37; and Pablo, " H ousin g Needs and Social Problems," 42. " Bo rchert , "U rban Neighborhood a nd Community," 615-18. " Swinney, " Alley Dwellings and H ousin g R eform, " 121 . " Ibid.; W ashington Post , D ece mber 26, 1948; Well er , Neglected Neighbors, 17, 22, 97 ; Mallalieu, " Washington Alley , " 71 ; a nd the R ev . Daniel O'Connell, "The Inhabit ed Alleys of Washington and the Early Social Hi story of One Alley" (M .A. thesis, Ca th oli c University of Ameri ca , 1953) , 110 . It is importa nt to note that attendan ce in the rural South does not seem to have been especially la rge based on Lewi s' findin gs for K ent . Lewis, B/ackways of Kent , 129-30. �38 SLOVAKIA " Borchert, Alley Life, 185-86. 58 Pankuch, Dejiny , 22. " Ibid .; Mary Towarnicky , "Slovak Newcomers to America, " in SS. Cyril and Methodius Church, Diamondjubilee, 1903-1978 (Lakewood, 1978), 66; Towarnicky , " Helping One Another," 67 . 60 Towarnicky, " Helping One Another," 67. 61 The Pleasant Hill Land Company was owned and run by Washington H. Lawrence, the president of the National Carbon Company. It seems clear that Lawrence purchased an extra large parcel ofland from the Case Estate with the intention of developing a residential area for workers . Butler, Lakewood Story, 228; "C ity Plays Vital Role, " "National Carbon Company," Plain Dealer; and G . Frederick Wright, Representative Citizens of Ohio: Memorial-Biographical (Cleveland, 1914) , 181-84. Since the factory was well outside the built-up parts of C leveland, Lawrence may well have considered this development a necessity to attract workers; he must also have planned to make a good return on his investment. The difficulty of the commute from in-city residences to the plant prior to the completion of a street car line in 1898 was incredible . For examples, see "City Plays a Vital Role" and Pankuch , Dejiny, 23. 61 Initially the early buildings were rented to workers; however, the PHLC sold off most of the improved lots within a couple years of construction. Cuyahoga County Treasurer's Tax Duplicates , 1894- 1923. There is some indication that the Na tional Carbon Company (via PHLC) "sold lots to ... immigrants on installments. " Loretta l vany, " 'Birdtown' Became C ity's Ethnic Center," Sun Post , Jun e 30, 1979 . •• Cuyahoga County Auditor's Tax Maps, Cuyahoga County Administration Building. Migrants bought up lots on Plover first because they were cheaper du e to their proximity to th e railroad tracks. Pankuch, Dejiny , 23. R esidents not only bought up land in the neighborhood as soon as they could afford to, they also held on to th e land, passing it on to relatives or selling it with in the community. Paul Wrobel found a sim ila r practice when he did an extensive participant-observation study of a Polish-American parish in D etroit. Our Way: Family, Parish and Neighborhood in a Polish-American Community (Notre Dame, Ind ., 1979), 5. 6 ' City of Lakewood, Building Department, Building Permits , 1900(?)-1982. It is interesting to note that no building permits a ppear to have been taken out by the PHLC, des pite the fact that they clea rl y improved and built on one-fifth of th e lots over the thirt y year period before the last lot was sold ( 1923). Although the city records are incomplete , and use of building permits seems to have been casual in the earl y years, as well as the fact th at many early reco rd s have not survived, it is strange that no PHLC perm its remain in the records. Insurance maps and descriptive sources do confirm the com pany 's activity in th is area prior to 1900. Thomas Flynn, Otto Barthel, R.H. Bunning, and Thomas H assan , Atlas of the Suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio (Philadelphia, 1898), Plate 24; M argaret Butler, R omance in Lakewood's Streets 41; lvany, " 'Birdtown' Became City's Ethnic Center"; and Cynthia A. Rud er , "The Imprint of Cultural Values.'' �SLOVAKIA 39 " As Stephan Thernstrom found in Newburyport , however, home ownership came a t a high price : " To cut family co nsumption expenditures to the bone was one such sac rifice. To withdraw the children from school and to put them to work at the age of ten or twelve was another.'' Poverty and Progress: Social Mobility in a Nin eteenth Century City (New York , 1969), 155. 66 Federal Population Census Schedules, 1910, Lakewood , Ohio. 67 Pankuch , D ejin y, 22; Towarnicky, "Slova k Newcomers to America," 66 ; Towarnicky, " H elping One An other," 67; and Ivany, " 'Birdtown' Became City's Ethnic Center . " 68 M egles, Stolarik , and T ybor, Slo vak Americans and their Communities, 132; Sts. Peter and Paul Lutheran Church , Seventy-Fifth Anniversary (Lakewood, 1976), 3; and Towarnicky , " H elping One Another," 67. 6 ' One of the first Slovak employees recalled th at he " ' got a job in the construction of the . factory. After I had worked th ere for a couple days, the boss told me to bring in a couple more men. I asked him how many I should bring; he answered as man y as I could, even a dozen would do, he said . So I called up my brothers: Juraj, and J an, also Jan andJuraj Nemec, A. Chovana and a bunch of others; Michael Urban and A. Goda all got hired. All the Scerbas; J an Scerba, Jan Scerba, Jr. , Adam Scerba, Andrej R yba nik and many others ca me in later.' " Andrej Babej, quoted in Pank uch, Dejin y, 22. ' 0 Alexander, "The Immigrant Church and Community, " 56-57. More importantl y she notes that "at tim es, when firms desperately needed labor, foremen promised jobs to employees' fri end s or relati ves if th ey would send for them." Ibid ., 57. " Ibid ., 57. She also notes that "Slovaks and other immigra nt groups came to rely on a sys tem of personal relationships in order to get jobs. '' Ibid. For more recent discussions of this process, see Ri chard M yer, " Interpersonal R elations in the Building Indu stry," Man , Work , and Society, ed . by Sigmond Nosow and William Form (New York , 1962) and William K ornblum , Blue Collar Community (C hi cago, 1974). " Sts . Pete r and Paul Lutheran Church, Seventy-Fifth Anniversary , 2-3; Megles , Stolarik , and Tybor, Slovak Americans and their Communities , 13 3; Peter M . Glovna, Sr., " Hi story of SS. Cyril and Methodius Pari sh ," in SS. Cyril and Methodius Church , Diamond Jubilee, 33; " Sts. Peter and Paul Russian Orthodox Church, " undat ed news paper clipping in Margaret Butler, " Hi story of Churches" fil e, Lakewood Hi storical Society; " Ukrainian Church Ded ication Is Set ," undated newspaper clipping in Butl er, ' ' Hi sto ry of Churches . ' ' " Stolarik , " Immigration and Urbanization, " 85-97. It is usefu l to note here that three of the first four Slovak churches in the neighborhood still have services in Slovak, althou gh the y have th em in English as well. " Ru de r , " Imprint of Cultural Values" ; Butler, Lakewood Story, 20,7. In a fine stud y of Slova k Cat holi c lead ers' at titud es toward public ed uca ti on , Mark Stolarik found th ey "valued parochial schools above all else worried mu ch m ore about their children 's moral a nd national upbringing th a n about social mobility . . had no u se �40 SLOVAKIA for publi c schools . . (which) ' den a ti onali ze ou r children . ' " " Immi gra ti on , Education, and the Social Mobilit y of Slova ks, 1870- 1930, " in R a nd all M. Mill e r a nd Thomas D . Marzik, ed s., Immigrants and R eligion in Urban America (Phil adelphia, 19 77) , 107 , 106 . Both Ba rton and Stolarik report th a t 60 to 80 percent of Slovak children a ttended parochi al schools. Ba rto n, Peasa nts and Strangers, 145-46; Stola rik , " Immi grati on and Urban ization ," 165-66. Th e public elem ent a ry school in th e Bird ' s Nest had no teachers wh o co uld speak Slovak ; of those children who did att end , few, if any , spoke Engli sh. Rud e r , "Imprint of C ultural V alu es." 75 The 1930 City Directory includes over 75 bu sinesses (17 local groce rs) and 16 profess ionals a nd se rvi ces avai lable to th e neighborh ood run by local res id ent s (or fo rme r resid ent s). C leveland Directory Compan y, C leveland, Ohio C ity Directory- I 930 (C levela nd , 1930). 76 Inspec to r , Building and Loa n Associat io n , 22nd Annual R ep ort far th e Y ea r Ending D ecember 31, 19 12 (Springfi eld , Ohio, 19 13) , 165 . Oro! Buildin g and Loa n Co. The founding preside nt a nd sec re tary both li ved on Plover , while o nl y th e treas ure r li ved outsid e th e immediat e neighborh ood. H e li ved , howeve r , ju st on th e o th e r sid e (north) of Madison Ave nu e, an a rea th a t Slova ks a nd other mi g ra nt s expand ed int o. Panku ch noted that th e Sav ings a nd Loa n wa s in ex ist ence by 1902 , so it may well have been operating to help res idents long before its offi cial cha rt er in 19 11 . D ejin y, 24. 77 Cuyahoga Count y Treasu re r 's Tax Duplica tes a nd Ci ty of La kewood, Building Permits. 78 For a n excellent discu ssion o n th e conflict be twee n "accult u ra ti o ni sts a nd tradition ali sts , " sec Howard F . Stein , " An Ethnohistory of Slova k-Am e ri ca n R eli gio us and Frate rnal Associations: A Study in Cultural M eanin g, Group Identit y, and Soc ial Instituti o ns," Slo va kia, 29 ( 1980-1 98 1) , 53 -101 . 19 Peter Glovna, as quoted in l vany, " ' Birdtown ' Beca me City 's Ethn ic Center ." G lovna's fath e r m oved to the neighborhood in 1893 a nd was a founder of SS. Cyril and M e thodius , whi le hi s son li ved on Plove r for 40 yea rs. D es pite hi s rece nt m ove out of the area, he still maint ains contacts and serves as pa rish hi sto ri a n . Glovna, "H istory of SS . Cyril and M e th odiu s Pa rish. " 0 " R esidents of Birdtown also enjoyed neighborh ood picnics a nd dancing to th e sound s of bands which were se t up on M a gee and M adison Av enu es.' ' l va ny , '' ' Birdt own ' Beca m e C ity's Ethnic Center.' ' 81 Ruder, " Im print of Cultural Valu es," 5. See also l van y , " ' Birdtown ' Beca me C it y's Ethni c Center ," and 1941 survey quoted extensively in Butler , L akewood St an ·, 229. ' " Rud e r, " Imprint of Cultural V alu es," 18. " Al exa nd e r ' s comment cit ed ea rli e r th a t Slovaks ca m e to rely o n a sys te m of pe rsonal relationships in order to get j obs (see not e 70) needs to be put in a la rge con text he re. Social scienti sts have not ed the impo rt a nce of informal groups in a variety of settings from factory, army, stree t co rn e r gang , a nd neighbo rh ood . Fo r exa mpl e , see F.j . R oet hli sberger a nd W.J . Dickson, M an agem ent and th e W orker (Cam bridge , M ass., 1939); Samuel A. Stoffe r , et. al . , Th e America n Soldier: Studies in Social Psvcholog1· �SLOVAKIA 41 in W orld W ar II , 2 vols (P rin ceto n , .J ., 1949); Edwa rd Shil s, " Prima ry Groups in th e Am eri can Arm y," in R obert M erton and Paul Laza rsfeld, ed s., Studies in ch e S cope and M ech od ofch e " Th e American Soldier " (Gl enoce, Ill. , 1951) ; W . Ll oyd Warn er and Paul S. Lunt , Th e S ocial Life of a M od ern C ommunicy (New H ave n , C onn . , 1941 ); Willi a m Foote Wh yte, Screet Com er Sociecy (Chicago, 1943); a nd K ornblum , Blue Collar Community. 14 Butler, Lakewood S cory , 228 , 188; C leveland Press , M ay 13 , 1947 ; and Rud er, " Imprint of Cultural V alues," 1, 3, 18 . " An impo rtant pa rt of th e p rocess, of course, invol ved co mpetiti o n for hou sing with oth er groups, a res tri cted housin g m a rket accessible to mi g rant s a nd their work . 16 M a ny form er res ident s of th e neighbo rh ood return a t least once a week fo r religious se rvices on Sunday; m a n y d o so m o re often . See al so Wrobel, Our Wa y. " R obert Park obse rved th at "certain urban neighborhoods suffer from isolation ." "The Ci ty," in Park and Burgess , Th e C it y, 8 . Fo r a different view, see Alfr ed Kazin , A W alk er in ch e C ic y (New Yo rk , 195 1). " The persistence of these a reas, outli vin g in som e cases th e in stituti ons th at ca m e aft er th em , att es ts to th eir vit alit y. " In th e Bird 's Nes t th e co ntinuin g prese nce of churches of eac h ethni c group suggests th e continuin g vit alit y of each group . Fo r other exampl es, see Cybriwsky, " Social Aspec ts of N eighbo rhood C ha nge"; Cybriwsky and D avid Ley, " Urba n Graffiti as T erri tori al M a rkers,'' Annals of ch e A ssociacion of American Geographers, 64 (1974) , 475-505; and K ornblum , Blue Collar Community . Some older studies infer the same conclu sion s: H elen L. Wilson and Eunice W . Smith , " Chicago H ou sin g Conditions, VIII : Am ong th e Slova ks in th e Twenti eth Ward ," America n j ourn al of S ociology, 20 (September , 19 14), 145-69 ; Emil y W. Dinwiddie, H ousing Condicions in Philadelphia (Philadelphi a, 1904); J a net K emp , R epore of ch e T en em enc H ouse Commission o f L ouisville (Loui sville, 1_909); Ulf H a nn erz, S ou/side ( ew Yo rk , 1969) ; and Wh yte, Scree/ Corn er Sociecy. •o Sec C la ud e Fi sc her , Th e Urban Experien ce ( ew Yo rk , 19 76) . In hi s m o re recent stud y, Fi sc her has fo un d th e current cit y '' a m osaic of inten se ethni c wo rld s rather th a n . . a la ndsca pe of ethni c di sintegra tion ." M o reo ver , " urba ni sm - or at least th e co nce ntrati o n of spec ific ethni c g roup s - m o re oft en bolsters th a n brea ks down ethni cit y. As the urbani sm of th e communit y increased , respo nd ent s were m ore likely to be ' ethni cs.' " T o Dwell Am ong Friends, 204 , 206 . " For example , H am tramck is an ex treme case where Polish-Am eri cans developed their ow n co mmunit y o n a m ass ive scale . In 1950 , 70 perce nt of th e 44 ,000 res idents of thi s inde pend ent co mmunit y in D etro it were of Poli sh-Am eri ca n ancestry. Arthur Eva ns W ood , H amcram ck : A S ociological Scudy of a Polish -America n Communicy (New H ave n , Conn ., 1955) , 13-28 . " Fisc her, T o D well Among Friends, 207 . See also Peter R ose, S crangers in Th eir Midsc: Small T own J ews and T h eir Neigh bors (M erri ck , New Yo rk , 1977). " Sec note 23. �SLOVAKIA 42 TABLE 1 Bird's Nest Population 1900-1940 Population i900· 1910 .. 429 2,186 1920 ± 4, 145 19.30t 3,729 1940# 3,125 •M a nusc ript Census- Federal Po pul atio n Census Sched ules , 1900 La kewood, O hio . '"Ma nuscript Census-Federal Popula ti o n Census Schedul es, 19 10 Lakewood , O hio . ± Federal Po pulation C ensus Schedules, 1920 Lakewood, O hio for census trac t LW 18. Unfo rtu na tely. the cen· su s tract leaves out one side of one stree t in the neighbo rh ood . tFede ral Po pul ati on C ensus Schedul es , 1930 La kewood, O hio fo r census tract LW1 8. U nfo rtun ately. the cen· sus tract leaves out one side Of one stree t in the neighborhood . #Bu rea u of the Census, Popula tion and H ousing - 1940: Cle,·eland. O hio and Adj acent Arca (Washingto n , 1941), 106. U nfo rtun a tely, the ce nsus trac t leaves out o ne side of one street in 1hc neighborhood . �SLOVAKIA 43 TABLE 2 Occupations of Alley Dwellers 1880 Federal Population Census Schedules , 1880 . Washington, D .C. Record Group 29. National Archives Occupations , 1880 • Adult Males (16 or older) Occupacion N % Unski lled Service Semi-skilled Skilled White-collar Proprieto r (and self-employed) Professional Agriculture/Fishing None 1,641 251 318 233 50 112 28 17 124 59 TOTAL 2,774 100 N % 9 12 8 2 4 4 Adule Females (16 or older) Occupacion Unskilled Service Semi-skilled Skilled White-collar Proprietor None (includes "at home ," "keeping house , " and "at school" ) TOTAL 4 1,742 70 6 10 8 49 1, 780 49 3 ,620 100 2 •Th e substanti al numbe rs of a lley d we ll ers in skilled throu gh professi onal ac tivities is th e res ult of a classifica1io n system th at is ma rk edl y diffe re nt fro m the ones ge nerall y used . It was used here to detec t " class" differen ces within the alley po pula ti on . Thu s, ba rbers a re class ified as skilled , while a number of " proprietors " a rc , in fac 1,ju nkmen . V irtu all y all the adult alley po pula ti o n sho uld fall in the unskilled , se rvice, o r semi- skilled a reas. See Bo rchert, Alley Life, 306-08 . �SLOVAKIA 44 TABLE 3 Occupations of Residents of the Bird 's Nest 1900 A. Adult Males - 15 yea rs of age or older. Occupation Unskill ed .. . . . . . . .. .. .. .. ........ . . . . ... .. ... .... . Service ............ . .... . ... . . . . .... . .. . .. .. .. . . . Semi-skilled .. . ... . . ... . . . . . . . . Skilled ... . . ... .. .... . . . White-collar Proprietor Professional Agricultural T otal B. Adult W omen - Number Percent 147 92 % 3 2 0 5 0 3 2 0 3 2 160 15 yea rs of age or older . Occupation Number 2 2 Unskilled Service ... Semi- skill ed Skill ed White-colla r Proprietor Agri cultural Percent 50 % 50 % 0 0 0 0 0 T otal 4 100 % TABLE 3 Occupations of Residents of the Bird's Nest 1910 A . Adult M ales - 15 yea rs of age or older. Occupation Number Un skill ed 79 1 Se rvice 19 Semi-skilled . .. .. . . .... .. ... . ...... . .. . ... ... .... . 38 Skill ed ...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 White-co ll a r 10 P roprietor 11 P rofessional 1 Agri cul tural To tal 949 Percent 84 % 2 4 8 100 % �SLOVAKIA B. Ad u lt Wom en - 45 15 ye ars of age or olde r. Occupation Number 75 Un ski lled ....... . . Service Semi- ski lled Ski lled W hi te-coll ar P ro prieto r Profess io nal Agricultu ral 33 Percent 66 % 29 % 0 4 4 1 0 0 0 11 3 T otal 100 % TABLE 3 Occupations of Residents of the Bird 's Nest 1940 Occupations Number O cc u pa ti ons not repo rt ed U nskilled Service wo rkers D om es ti c se rvi ce wo rkers Opera ti ves a nd kind red wo rkers C ra ft sm en , fo rem en , a nd kindred wo rkers . ... . .... . . . .. . . . C leri cal, sales , and kind red wo rkers . .. . . P ro pri etors, m a nage rs, and offi cials . ... . .. . Se mi -pro fess io nal Pro fess ional T otal Percent 2 184 83 98 17% 8 9 478 44 105 10 9 3 96 29 4 13 1,092 100 % Bu reau of the Ce nsus, Populat ion and Housing - 1940: Cleveland , Ohio and Adjacent A rea (W as hin gton , 1942) , 106 . Ce nsus tract leaves o ut o ne side of one street of neighbo rhood . �� 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 1984, Vol. 31 Description An account of the resource Vol. 31 (No. 57), 1984. 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 1984 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 " Logan Place." September 26, 1935. All ey Dwellin g Authority. Nati onal Capital H ousin g Authorit y Collection . Library, D e pa rtm ent of H ou sin g and Com munit y D evelo pm ent. W as hin gto n, D .C . ► ► ;,::; ...... < 0 L' (/) 0::, SLOVAKIA 9 Migrant Responses To The City: The Neighborhood, Case Studies in Black and White, 1870-1940* James Borchert and Susan Danziger-Borchert Th ey tend to reproduce spontaneously the home community and to live in it. L etters show that they frequently reply to inquiries from home for a description of America, " I have yet been able to see America." W.I. Thomas, "The Immigrant Community" Students of migration to American cities have, over the years, produ ced a large library of studies. The greatest outpouring of work has co ncentra ted on the migration of southern and eastern European immigrants during the years from 1880 to 1920, and the "great migrati o n " of blacks from the rural South. This profusion of work has not produced any final conclusions on the migrant experience, although there a re a number of schools of thought about what happen ed to migrants . Th e first group of scholars who considered European migrants of this pe riod concl uded that d espite efforts to re- establish their rural ways of life, the city proved too poor a soil for such institutions to ta ke root. Thus extended family , kinship network , neighborhood , and community 1 • A ve rsio n of this paper was prese nted a t th e Nin ety-Seve nth Annu al M ee tin g of th e Am eri ca n Hi sto ri cal Associa ti o n held in Washin gton, D .C. in D ece mb er 198 2. The authors are indebted to th e Am erican Hi to ri cal Associati on for a n Albert J. Beveridge M em o ri a l Fund Grant and the Smithson ian In sti tuti on for a fellowship, whi ch provided esse nti al fundin g in conn ec tion with th e preparation of th e original presenta tion. 10 SLOVAKIA withered ; a pe riod of disorde r a nd co nfu sion foll owed u nt il mi grant s discovered the " urba n way of life. " 1 Accordin g to the theory, thi s d iscovery , synonymous with the beginnings of assimil a tion a nd accultu ration, provided migrants with the form s of order a nd organization tha t would m ake success in America (and cities) possible and p rob able . After a n appropriate period of apprenticeship in the " zon e in transition " a nd the " zone of workingmen ' s homes, " the urba nized mi grant began to m ove to middle-class status a nd suburban h om es. 3 M ore recent scholars, a n alyzing a ggregate cen sus d a ta (fo r indi ces of di ssimil a rity) a nd city directories (for spa tial a nd occupa tional m obility), have questioned the notion that European mi gra nts spent mu ch tim e in the zon e in tran sition . Based on this d a ta, they contend tha t individu al m igra nts from diffe rent immi grant groups lived widely scattered acro ss workin g-class residential a reas . Few con centration s we re great e nou gh to permit the development of urba n vill ages or ghet toes. Where they ex isted, mi grant s passed through so quickl y th a t their importa n ce as a n institution was minimized for most. 4 In contrast , until recently , most observers of black migran ts in the city concluded tha t folk breakdown was extensive. Moreover , whil e new bl ack residents seem ed to m ove as frequ ently as white mi gra nts, they did so within a n increasingly restrictive ghetto area . 5 Thu s, whe re a disorganized ghetto confronted black migrants, white migrants ex peri en ced greater spa tial and (implicitly) m ore occupa tional mobility. Whi te migrants m elted to gether into a working cl ass div ided by reli gion (P rotestant , Catholi c, and J ew) , 6 while blacks confronted a n earl y caste-like experien ce. 7 The m ost recent work by students of Eu ro pean a nd bl ack mi gra nt s of the 1880 to 1930 period h as b egun to challen ge som e of these findin gs . Students of urba n bl ack communi ties h ave foc u sed on the exte nsive presen ce of fo rm al organi zati ons to dem onstra te the exten t of order in black life. 8 Simila rl y, studies of E u rop ean immi grant group s h ave demon stra ted the persisten ce of ethni c life in th e city throu gh the in stituti on s of church , b e nevolen t groups, lod ges, politi cal ac tivity, a nd a n active press. 9 M oreove r , both se ts of studi es presum e th e prese nce of a recogni zable geogra phical b ase upon whi ch these fo rm al or gani zations operate . In the case of black communities, the ghetto explicity fo rm s the b ounda ries; fo r white immi gra nt s, th e pa rish or" immi gran t n eighborhood " implicitly serves as the turf around which the story of organi za- SLOVAKIA 11 tional life unfolds. Unfortunately, in either case, the empirical demonstration of this critical base and its role is often assumed as given. Few have sought to consider the role of neighborhood and community development as a crucial framework for their analyses. 10 • Because this literature provides little basis for analysis or comparison, it is necessary to turn to the work of sociologists for a framework. 11 While there is little work on scale and its impact on the nature of neighborhood, 11 more has been done on neighborhood typologies. Gerald Suttles suggests three: the defended neighborhood, the community oflimited liability, and the contrived community. The first is most pertinent to the discussion here: "a residential group which seals itself off through the efforts of delinquent gangs, . . . by sharp boundaries, or by forbidding reputation." 13 The elements of the defended community are: "a recognizable identity, a consensus among residents of a common fate, and a 'positive' and sentimental attachment to neighbors, local establishments, and local traditions to the exclusion of other persons, establishments, and traditions . '' 14 Another set of issues that the current literature ignores concerns the distinction between primary or informal groups (family, neighborhood, community) and formal organization. Historians' concentration on formal group life represents a great limitation on their work, since these groups represent only one level of response migrants made to the city. 15 In part, these formal groups reflect most fully the experiences of the most successful: those who are largely "a-typical" of the larger group's experience. 16 More importantly, informal groups played a critical role in the life of the folk migrants prior to their move to the city. 17 Their presence and roles in the city represent important elements to test to determine the nature and extent of changes that resulted from migration, urbanization, industrialization, and modernization. Since earlier observers pointed to these informal groups as the institutions that underwent the most complete and severe change, with formal groups replacing them, it seems central to the discussion of the persistency of ethnic group life that primary group life be given careful analysis. This is especially so since it is the family, neighborhood, and community that are so central for the socialization and identity of the young. 18 There are other reasons for considering the issue of informal group life. Recent studies of both European and black migrant areas have reported population turnover that was thought to undermine the develop- 12 SLOVAKIA ment and impact of ethnic enclaves; proximity to many other groups diminished European ethnicity to one of the three major religions. While recent studies demonstrate the importance of chain-migration for both black and white migrants, little effort has been made to determine what effect this chain migration had on the formation of groups in the city. 19 In contrast, the presence ( or absence) of a neighborhood in proximity to formal institutions of an ethnic group represents theoretically a very different experience than that postulated by studies of movement and mobility . Rather than seemingly random movement, it would be possible to hypothesize the informal neighborhood providing important sets of support for the church (parish), businesses, beneficial organizations, press, and national organizations. While it may be difficult to determine which came first, it seems likely that informal neighborhood lies at the base of the ethnic urban village. Moreover, despite the mobility, the presence of an ethnic village that provides important goods and services for "members," whatever the place of residence, plays an important role in the "maintenance" of ethnicity and identity. 20 Thus, while it may have have served every member of a given ethnic group in its particular part of the city, the neighborhood/urban village fostered important networks of institutions for migrants; dominance of a section of the city permitted residents a chance to be "themselves" within the confines of a turf dominated by persons from the same kin network, town, region, and country. In these neighborhoods, residents hammered out their own identities, consciousness, and relations with the larger world. Without this envelope, it is hard to imagine how so many informal and formal groups could have persisted and prospered . 21 It is the purpose of this article to examine the development of residential neighborhoods and communities by two different groups of migrants in different environments. While these are far from "random" selections, 22 we do feel that they represent two different kinds of migrant settlements, one very small, the other fairly large. Both neighborhoods conform roughly to Suttles' definition of a defended neighborhood; both represent an important migrant response to the urban environment, a response that has been passed over all too briefly by past work. The article focuses on the efforts of two different groups of folk migrants to establish a "turf" in the city: Black migrants settled in the inhabited alleys of Washington, D .C ., and the eastern European migrants settled in the "Bird's Nest" on the fringe of Cleveland, Ohio. SLOVAKIA 13 In m a ny ways the social co nditions migrants faced in these two environments were dramatically different; each cam e with a different set of experie nces and cultural baggage, and each faced very different conditions in the cities they settled despite the fact that both entered the urban marketpl ace at the ' 'bottom .' ' 23 While these differences are critical to understand what happened to each group, it is also important to see in general term s what migrants shared in their struggle with the urban-industrial environment. The article begins with a consideration of similarities and differences between the two communities in terms of physical form , population , occupations, and living conditions. The major part of the article focuses on the development and form each neighborhood took . The conclusions seek to compa re these two experien ces and suggest their implicat ions for othe r migrant experien ces and for the study of migrants . II. Descriptive Comparison of Neighborhoods: Alley Communities and The Bird 's Nest Physical Form and Isolation . Alley communities of Washington, like their counterparts throughout the urban United States and Europe , were small, relatively circumscribed , and isola ted neighborhoods spread throu ghout the central city 24 (see Map 1) . In Washington , alley house co nstru ction fell largely in the period from the end of the Civil War until 1892, when Congress banned new construction. D eveloped on narrow st reets or alleys inside a large city block , the tiny, two-story fram e or brick row houses faced inwa rd onto the interior alley, while larger, more expensive row houses lined the outside of the block and faced onto the street (M ap 2). W ell-to-do residents of the street-front property were separated from their poor and often black, backyard neighbors physically, sociall y, and culturally. D evelopers and owne rs of alley property , often well to do , generally lived outside the immediate section of the city where their all ey property was located, thus furth er isolating the alley n eighborhood . 25 The Bird 's N est, a single neighborhood , was equ ally isolated , but shared much more in co mmon with the la rge ethnic enclaves in urban indu st ri al areas throu ghout the United States. In 1892 , a land company sub sidary (Pleasant Hill L and Company-PHLC) of the National Carbon Company laid out the eight n a rrow stree ts (five n a m ed for birds), a nd 424 lots to provide hous in g for workers at its new facto ry n earby. 26 SLOVAKIA 14 INHABITED ALLEYS 1897 POPUATION 0 1- ,. 0 0 0 JOO - ... 0 RKE • • 0 MAP 1 - 1/l or mor, 81,il(: k 2/lormor,\Nhct C ommi ssione rs of the District of Columbia, Annual R eport (W ashin gton , 189 7), 195-202. 1897 SLOVAKIA 15 N STREET [ fr" I l'Fif =! .J.Jo . a--1 II ' ' .. ~ • II - '-M STREET L STREET D BUILDINGS HEADS Of HOUSEHOLD Native Born Whites S.ablo Foreign Born \\'hites (born outside Ncw1h America or p,uenc~ born outside Othe<Buldir@ Store o, AmYm Shop North Amtfil:a) • •• !lacks ~ (when lhan l) more MAP 2 - Sanborn Map Publishin g Company, In surance M aps of Washington , D .C. (New York , N . Y., 1888) ; and Fed eral Populat ion Census Schedules, I 880 W ashington , D .C., V ol. 2 pan 2, R eco rd Group 29 National Archi ves. SLOVAKIA 16 \~ PART Of" L.\I(E,ro on .>. ' -~ I I .A 11 LE 1 1 ROCKPORT TOWNSHIP. \~_. ~':. ~ \" \ ... ~7;:... MAP .3 - Pleasa nt Hill La nd C ompan y subdi vision of th e " Bird 's Nes t " a nd th e adjoining Na ti on al Ca rbon Facto r y, 1898 . Thom as Fl ynn , Ott o Ba rth el, R .H . Bunni ng , and Thomas H assa n , Atlas o[ th e Suburbs o[ Cleveland, Ohio ( Phil ad elphia , 1898), Plate 24 . SLOVAKIA 17 The neighborhood was circumscribed by railroad tracks, th e factory , a nd a wood s (later d eveloped for a factory and park) on three sides; the fourth side, a secondary comme rcial artery, p ermitted some overflow into the immediate n eighborhood to the north (see Map 3). While Bird's Nest workers were able to gain ownership of the area, it remained isolated from the surrounding area which was developin g as a middl e-class suburb. 2 7 Like the inward facing alley, th e neighborhood also turned in ward with its " main street," Plover , being the most isol a ted of its streets. 28 Migration and Neighborhood Size. Black migrants from the surrounding states of Virginia and Maryland, coming largely in cha ins of family, fri ends , and neighbors, settled into the alley communities. 29 Predominantl y from rural areas, these mi grants mainta ined ties to the countryside a nd encouraged furth er m ove me nt from those areas . While rural migrants had a number of differe nt res id enti al environm e nts to chose from in the city, a nd often m oved b ack a nd forth betwee n these , m an y se ttled initially in the alleys . Alley popu lations varied co nsiderabl y in size within a given year and over tim e . The smallest held one or two famil ies, the largest ove r 400 peopl e (see Map 1). Most all eys fell so m ewhere in be tween , with the average all ey size in 1880 bein g 50 residents ; at the peak of alley population in 1897, when there were nearl y 20 ,000 all ey res idents living in 240 all eys, th e average all ey size was 73. Th ese were, th e n , very small , face-to-face co mmunities of bl ack rural migrants. 3° In contrast, migra nts to the Bird 's N es t cam e from rural a reas in Easte rn Europe; most id entifi ed th emselves as " Hun garian Slovaks ," alth ou gh some were from P ola nd a nd Ru ss ia . 31 Th ey also mi grated in cha in s of relat ives, fri end s, and n eighbors as well as by region. 32 Like bl ack mi gra ti on to th e all eys, th e re was cons iderab le movem ent back a nd forth betwee n th e Old W o rld a nd th e New. Un like th e all ey populat ion th at reached its peak in 1900 a nd began to drop off, with each alley being a small isola ted community onto itself, the Bird 's N est populati on of 429 in 1900 in creased fi ve -fold by 19 10 a nd then doubled by 1920 at its peak ( see T able 1.) Thi s represe nts a different kind of ethni c encl ave with pote nti al for m o re sub sta nti ve inst itu tion al d evelopme nt. Occupations and Workplace. Black residents of W ashin gton alleys co nfronted profound limita ti ons in their search for work. R ac ism limi ted 18 SLOVAKIA employment of black males largely to day labor and black women to dom estic or laundry work; none had access to the limited industrial occupations in Washington 33 (see Table 2). The employment open to alley dwell ers, then, represented the worst paid , least secure, and often the m ost physically demanding and dangerous positions available. Moreover, despite long residence in the ci ty, black alley dwellers experienced little if any upward occupational mobility ; a color bar en sured that any movem ent would be minimal. 3 4 In contrast , while migrants from Eastern Europe came with similar skills as rural blacks , they often found industrial employment available to them, even though it was nearly always at the bottom . In 1900, most male residents of the Bird 's Nest were laborers working at the adjacent National Carbon factory; by 1910, a number of residents had gained som e mobility by gaining access to semi-skilled industrial occupations. Moreover, a number of women were able to gain indu strial employment, although usually a t the lowest levels ; many others earn ed incom e by runnin g boarding houses or taking in boarders. While this work was long, hard , physically demanding , and often dangerous , it was also more secure and better paying than anything available to alley dwellers . By 1940 , em ployed male a nd female workers of the Bird 's Nest were concentrated in semi-skilled pos itions ( 44 percent), with another 10 percent skilled and 13 percent proprietarial or white collar employees; only a third remained as unskill ed or service workers 35 (see Table 3). Living Conditions. Living conditions in most D .C. alleys were far from wholesome; crowding, poorly maintained buildings and outhouses, piles of uncollected trash in alleys, and the co nstant d anger of contagious disease plagued residents. D espite the limited space inside the two-story 12x30 foot alley house, man y were shared by more than one hou sehold unit ; in some cases four family units lived in one small room each . 36 These crowded cond itions made residents m ore susceptible to di sease, while landl ord s' lack of co ncern for maintenance and the city's di sinterest in coll ect in g trash from the alleys exposed residents to di sease in other ways. Limited and unstable income restricted diets while d angerou s, outdoor work further taxed alley dwellers' health . Ultimately these cond iti ons led to death rates for alley dwell ers th at were twice th at for residents of the streets; the major causes were diseases that cou ld clearly be linked to socio-economic status . 3 7 Children under the age of one year acco unted for much of the high death rate. 38 SLOVAKIA 19 While the Bird's Nest developed in a suburban setting and lacked the extreme density of the alley community, living conditions were little better. While outside the multi-family homes "everything was mud," inside the long, narrow two - and three-story buildings many families lived in tiny cold water flats 39 (see Map 4) . Whereas alley dwellers had to go outside for water and toilets, Bird's Nesters shared "indoor water closets .' ' 40 Residents of the latter community, however, were more likely to share their tiny apartments with boarders; 32 percent of households had boarders in 1910 (boarders made up one-fourth of the total population), 41 while only 13 percent of 1880 alley households were augmented. 41 The crowded living conditions in the Bird's Nest, along with the long hours at work and limited income, led to high death rates, especially for the very young. 43 In 1900, women reported over one-fourth of the children they had borne were dead, 44 a condition that continued in later years. There are, then, substantial similarities between the two populations; Both came into the urban marketplace at the bottom; both lived in housing conditions that were crowded and dangerous ; the "communities" were isolated physically and socially from the surrounding populations; both were made up of groups that had migrated in chains to the city. Nevertheless , residents of the Bird's Nest did have access to industrial jobs that were more stable and better paying; and these positions permitted some mobility from unskilled labor to semi- and eventually skilled jobs. In addition, where alley communities were largely limited in size by the number of houses built in each alley , and ultimately by the limited interior space of the block itself, the Bird's Nest faced less spatial constriction. This afforded the potential for more complete development. Finally, while alley dwellers seldom had the resources to purchase their alley homes from absentee landlords , res idents of the Bird's Nest were encouraged to do so by the industrial developer of their community . Where ownership always remained external to the alley community , the Bird 's N est quickly becam e locally owned. Despite these differences, each area developed a se ries of informal groups that provided the base for the formation of a neighborhood . That neighborhood , in turn , provided the foundation for the d evelopment of more formal organizations. Given the differe nt resources and scale, however, residents d eveloped different kinds of ne ighborhoods. 10 FAM ILY UNtTS .I H oward Whipple G ree n , Plan es of Living in C uyah oga County: as D epicted by th e R eal Property Survey (C leveland , 1940), 65. Bird ' s Nest = LW18 MAP 4 - e 6.5 o/o OF ALL FAMILY UNITS 2 1,953 IN COUNT Y COLD WATER FLATS ~ ► ~ < >- 0 r< (./J 0 SLOVAKIA 21 III. Neighborhoods Alley Communities. Black migrants who came to Washington alleys re-established their kin and friendship networks in the alley; they continued to use these networks for emotional and financial support. Because their resources were so marginal, only reliance on these groups made survival more likely. Each alley then, had several or more such networks into which "fictive kin" were also drawn. They provided the most basic form of social organization, albeit informal, in the alley . 45 It was the alley neighborhood, itself, that brought these kin groups together into a loose , but cohesive unit . Since alleys were isolated from the surrounding neighborhood and often some distance from the emerging black enclaves of the city where the major institutions of black life were located, alley residents often had to fall back on themselves for help and support. Drawing on their rural experience, migrants constructed informal defended neighborhoods to provide for their needs. In many respects, however, this informal community became much more important in the city because residents were more dependent on each other, especially in the period just following their migration. Since migration to the city (and alleys) continued throughout the period, and since there were always some "native" alley residents as well as some migrants who had lived in a given alley for many years, new migrants did not have to confront the urban environment alone . New neighbors, kin, and old friends helped ease the transition from country to city. 46 The alley itself' 7 was the center of the alley community; residents congregated there, save in the worst weather, to meet with friends and neighbors. 48 A major location for informal meeting took place at the intersection of the two main alleys . All residents passed this point on their way into and out of the alleys; neighbors met each other here as they returned home from work each day, or hung out there during the day if there was no work available . In addition , residents generally sat in front of their homes and talked to neighbors who joined them on the steps, benches, or chairs set out for this purpose . 49 It is impossible to overestimate the value and import of this activity, for virtually every aspect of the alley community was based on this interaction . If neighboring provided an important element of entertainment, it also provided information on which neighbors needed help and where jobs were available. A critical function of the alley community 22 SLOVAKIA involved help and support for those in need; neighbors aided each other by providing money, food, and shelter while in some cases they took in friends' children and cared for them, in others they let neighborhood children sleep at their house '' because they had more room.'' 50 A third function neighboring and the alley community provided was the maintenance of internal social control. Part of this came as a result of the positive support neighbors gave each other; they also used gossip and more formal sanctions to maintain order. 51 Ultimately, these daily discussions about ' ' appropriate behavior'' by residents resulted in the hammering out of a common philosophy and world view; a world view that was shared by members of the community and differed from that of outsiders. 52 Finally, alley dwellers defended their neighborhood against outsiders . Part of this resulted from their intensive use of alley space for neighboring , thus discouraging others from entering the area . When outsiders did enter they were confronted by residents and watched throughout their alley visit, an experience that unnerved many observers of alley life. 53 Alley dwellers had good reason to watch "outsiders"; other Washingtonians, black and white, generally viewed residents of the alleys with great disdain. While the police were especially harsh in their attempts to control alley populations, other residents, though less overt in their actions, expressed nearly universal condemnation of alley dwellers. 54 This external hostility helped hold the alley community together, despite its internal dissension . Disputes over life style dominated these schisms, but the small scale of the neighborhood, the necessity to cooperate to survive, and the external threats effectively held residents together. Because of its small size and very limited resources, however, the alley community was not able to develop or support a very extensive set of formal organizations. It did provide an excellent medium for small alley churches, which were simply alley houses residents rented "for Jesus. " They were kept going by neighbors' contributions and the pastors ' earnings from "doing occasional laundry" or other work . 55 While most alleys seem to have had at least one of these churches, their small size - "Ten chairs and a pulpit, and an improvised altar" - makes the extent of participation problematic . 56 Alley businesses were equally marginal, and often involved in illegal activity. Like the semi-formal alley church, these businesses required conversion of part ofan alley house into a " speak-easy" or "fac- SLOVAKIA 23 tory" for the m a nufacture of illegal alcohol , or oft en both . While these were cl early ill egal and we re often closed down by law e nforcem ent offi cia ls, th ey provided an importa nt service for the alley ne ighborhood in representin g a " proto " ne ighborhood tave rn a nd community ce nter where residents co uld m eet. 57 The Bird 's Nest. A s earl y as 1889 , Slovak mi gran ts b egan work on the construction of the n ew National Carbon factory . 58 After the factory was co mpl eted , these worke rs and their fri ends were hired to work in th e factory . 59 Like alley dwellers, initial settle rs in the Bird 's N est began a cha in mi gration , at first drawing from the oth er Slovak enclaves throughout the city and eventuall y reaching back to Hun gary. This process resu lted in ex tended kin n etworks bein g refo rmul a ted in th e n ew neighborhood . In a number of cases, this reformu la tion extended to Old World v ill age pa rishes. Within th e fir st few years, m a n y of the core famili es had m oved in and esta blished them selves. Fri end s, ne ighbors, a nd co -reli gionists followed . As o ne oral history repo rted, " m a n y times the m en came along first , leaving wives a nd children behind in Slovakia, until they h ad found work a nd could send back for th eir families. When they cam e first, they sought out others from the sam e village who were alread y" in the neighborhood . 60 The most criti cal form of organization , however, was the neighborhood it self. Like the all ey community , the n eighborhood rem a ined largely inform al; initiall y it w as a grouping of kin n etworks largely of Slovak a n cestry. Y e t this inform a l " institution " p rovided the precon dition s necessary for the con structio n of other aspects of the community. In large p a rt the migrants es tablished th eir co ntrol over th e ne ighborhood in the first years of settle m e nt , 1892- 1900 . A lthough the a rea was th en only sli ghtl y bigge r tha n th e largest all ey, these earl y migrants a nd th eir famili es esta blish ed a beachhead that was neve r chall en ged . Unlike alley dwell ers who neve r gained ow nership of th eir ne ighborhood , res idents of the Bird 's N est quickly bou ght up th e small parcels o f la nd (wheth er simpl y cl eared b y the PHLC, or built upon ) , 6 1 as soo n as th eir fin ances m ad e it possibl e. 61 A lon g Pl ove r , migrant s purch ased 43 perce nt of the lots prior to 1900; o nl y three of th e 35 lots o n the street m ay h ave been ini tiall y purchased by non-Sl avs. 63 R es id ent s gain ed ow ners hi p o f m ost of th e 424 lots in the subdi vion s on initi a l sale; w ith few exce ptio n s, th ey eve ntuall y ga in ed co ntrol ove r th e rem a ining o nes as well. 24 SLOVAKIA P e rhaps the most striking aspect of n eighborhood d evelopment is the extent to which residents drew on each other's skill s and resources to construct houses, stores, a nd shops. Of the 171 lots for which information is available on th e initial con struction , 92 perce nt of the owners were alread y residents of the neighborhood. While m a n y built their own hom e (or a building to rent), those owners who hired a builde r to co nstruct their houses overwhelmingly chose a resident of the neighborhood (64 percent). Many of the non-resident builders were also of Slavic origin , but lived in one of the other encl aves spread throughout the city. 64 T o an impressive ex tent , th en , residents bought up the neighbo rhood la nd, and per son ally built th eir own hom e or a home to sell to more rece nt migra nts ; when they did not do their own co nstru ction they hired neighbors . In doing so, they establi shed an impress ive investm ent upon which they could draw or build on in the future. 65 H av in g es tablish ed a turf a nd access to employ m ent , residents encouraged n ew migra nt s to join them. Whe reas the m ajo rity of th e first res idents ha d migrated to the United Sta tes in the ten years prior to the building of th e factory, the massive influx of n ew migrants in the fir st two d ecad es of the twenti eth century cam e direc tl y to the n eigh bo rhood. Slovaks continu ed their d omination of the n eighborhood (70 perce nt) , whil e Slovak was the most common la ngu age. 66 One of the key attractions of thi s N ew Slovak/ Slav ic village, in a d dition to the presen ce of fri ends , relatives, and an ethni c ne ighborhood , was the prese nce of employm ent possibilities in industry. H av ing mad e important inroads from th e beginnin g of the constru ction o f the new factory, Slovaks , a nd to a lesse r extent P oles a nd Ru ssians, dominated the lowest level of empl oym e nt in the facto ry. 67 Th ere is so m e indi cation th a t the original pl a nt o n the east side of Clevela nd may also h ave empl oyed workers from a nearb y Slovak e nclave. These employees m ay have been attrac ted to th e new factory b y the avail ab ilit y of la nd ; a disastrous fire a t the old e r pl a nt in 1893 m ay well have speed ed up this process. 68 Wh a teve r the initi a l co nnection, Slovaks a nd oth er Sl av ic mi gra nt s establi shed a beachh ead in th e factory from th e beginnin g b y drawin g o n th eir inform a l networks . 69 Jun e Alexand er found a similar co nditio n for Slovaks in Pittsburgh , namely that "factori es relied o n their fore m e n to hire workers and foreme n, in turn, reli ed o n th e ir workers as intermedi a ries to find la borers. " 70 As mi grants worked their way slowly up the ranks to semi-skilled a nd occasion all y forem en positions , th ey SLOVAKIA 25 gain ed m ore direct access to the hiring process. With the informal neighborhood networks , Slovaks came to dominate both workplace and neighborhood . 7 1 Whil e info rm al social cont rol and aid permeated th e early years of the Bird's N est as it did in the alleys, the ra pid growth of the neighborhood in the first decade of the twentieth cen tury permitted the developme nt of m ore form al organiza tions . R esidents of different reli gious persuas ion s m et sepa rately; initially these m ee tings, like the alley church , were worshi p serv ices held in co-reli gioni sts' hom es. Eve ntu ally these m eetin gs led to the fo rmation of lod ges and other m ore form al organizations designed to bring about the formation of a parish and the building of a church . 72 The first parish , Sts. Peter and P aul Lutheran , was offi cially form ed in 1901 ( church building-1 902/school som e years later) ; it was followed by Sts. Cyril and M ethod ius R om an Catholic Church in 1903 (church building and school-1905); St. Gregory ' s Byzantine Rite Catholic Church in 1905 ( chu rch building 1906/school som e years later); and the C alvin Presbyterian C hurch in 19 17 (church buildin g-19 2 1) . Ca lvin Presbyte ri a n C h urch in th e foreg round occupi es th e first sit e of Sts. Pe te r a nd Pau l Luth era n C hurch . In th e b ac kg round is St . Grego ry's Byza nti e n Rit e Ca th oli c C hurch . (Ph ot0g ra ph by a ut ho rs, J a nu a ry , 1984). 26 SLOVAKIA Sts. Peter and Paul Luthera n. (Photograph by au thors, January, 1984). SS. Cyril a nd M eth odi us R om an Ca th oli c C hurch . (Ph otog raph by au th ors, J anua ry, I 984). SLOVAKIA 27 These "predominantly" Slovak parishes were joined by those of the other ethnic groups sharing the neighborhood, the first of which was St. Hedwig's Church (Roman Catholic Polish Parish) in 1905 ( church building-l 914/school-1926). Because residents took the initiative in the formation of these parishes and schools, they often had considerable control over their direction, especially in the early years. 73 These parishes made the neighborhood even more attractive to potential migrants; their founding at the beginning of the decade undoubtedly encouraged many others to migrate. Religious schools provided another incentive, especially to Slovaks who witnessed their own schools closed or "converted for Magyarization" in the homeland. For residents in the Bird's Nest, these schools represented a way to avoid efforts at Americanization promoted by the public schools. As a result many children from the neighborhood attended these parochial schools. 74 Drawing on their growing neighborhood and its greater resources (compared to alley communities), residents of the Bird's Nest also started an incredible number of businesses. While most of these were small stores and shops that served the immediate neighborhood , several developed into substantial businesses that provided necessary goods and services for ethnic and religious needs . 75 Most important, however, was the formation of Eagle Building and Loan Company in 1911 . Controlled from within the neighborhood, residents built an institution that made possible complete acquisition and building of the area, and expansion beyond . 76 The building and loan was critical since over fifty percent of the neighborhood's lots were sold by the PHLC during the 1910s, while the period from 1912 to 191 7 was the period of greatest home construction. 77 Although the neighborhood was divided by ethnicity, religion, and class , as well as by very different attitudes on assimilation, 78 these divisions were subsumed by the needs of the neighborhood and the workings of informal groups. For some, the community revolved around the parish ; Peter Glovna remembered that "it was just like a little village, and the pillar was St. Cyril. " 79 Nevertheless , they were a series of co mmunity-wide activities that drew residents together. 80 Most important , " the first settlers tried to reconstruct , as closely as possible , the village system they were so accustomed to in Poland , Russia, and Slovakia. The close-knit warmth a nd familiarity of the village provided security and a sense of home to the recently displaced immigrants. " 81 28 SLOVAKIA Ultimately , residents used the neighborhood as alley residents did theirs; everyone knew everyone else and interaction on the streets, front yards, and porches was extensive, especially in warm weather. 82 This neighboring activity , largely through informal, small groups of relatives and friends, made up a critical element in the neighborhood life . It provided the first level (past kin network) of organization, one that replicated itself as formal groups began in the churches, lodges, and benevolent associations as well as the workplace. These primary groups provided members with an immediate sense of belonging, a connection with larger, more formal organizations, and a way by which members of the primary group could collectively continue to co nstru ct a world view, maintain social control , and provide help and support for the needy. 83 Like the alley community, the Bird's Nest found that the external threat was often sufficient to contain internal conflict. Hostility , both formal (from police and other official sources) and informal (from personal prejudice directed at residents), was extensive throughout the period. Outsiders, as in the case of alley communities, targeted the neighborhood as an eyesore and danger to the rest of the community; and police exercised their authority to "maintain social control by overenforcing the law .' ' 84 IV. Conclusions Based on these examples, it seems clear that migrants, via chain migration and efforts to gain entry/control over admission to a j ob market , began to establish residential enclaves. 85 If the process of neighborhood formation appears to have begun almost unconsciously, its development was quite conscious. While the presence of such neighborhoods is taken as given to most studies, what stands out in these two examples is the extent to which migrants took over their respective turfs, defended them, and built informal and formal institutions around them. In fact , the clustering provided the necessary context for virtually every further institutional development. If some or many migrants eventually passed through and out of the neighborhood , it remained(s) an important focal point in the lives of many , even those who could "escape" to more affluent suburban settlements. 86 The neighborhood , then , must be taken more fully into account as one, if not the most critical, of migrant institutions. SLOVAKI A 29 T hese neighborhood s provided the b ase fo r su rvival in the new urban en vironment. They were the source of housing, employm ent , mutual aid , p rotection , famil y, and friends . They permitted pa rents to raise their children in a n en v iro nment a nd throu gh in stitutio n s ove r w hich the fam ili es exerted som e co ntrol. They also provided a safe ha rbor from whi ch m igrants confro n ted the confu sin g city . M o reove r , ne ighbor s worked out their respo n ses to the issu es o f ethnicity, accultu ratio n , a nd ass im il at ion in this con text of everyd ay life. If n eighbo r s chose diver ging path s, they were n eve rtheless path s th a t d evelo ped w ithin the confines a nd con text of the ethnic en clave. R a ther th a n the stilted b ackwaters th a t R o bert P a rk a nd other s saw, th ese e ncl aves we re vibrant wi th conflicts over life style, ch a n gin g ethnic ide n tity, a d a pta tion , a nd eve n interna tio n al issu es . 8 7 T hu s, to under stand migrant organization s a nd the role they played in accul tu rat io n and et h nic ident ity, it is necessary to con sider th e first in st ituti on m igran ts created in th e city, th e neighbo rhood . 88 W hile these two n eigh borhood s were dram aticall y d ifferent, they both fi t well into Suttles' d efinition of a defended neighbo rhood . I t seem s q uite likely tha t m os t imm igrant e nclaves also fit thi s descri ption , even in cases where the areas was no t so highly segregated fro m the surroundin g city b y either physical ba rrier s or class differen ces. A number o f rece nt studies d em o n stra te tha t d efended n eighborhood s can hold up without these two elem ents. 89 H oweve r , wha t seem s m ost important here is the signifi cance of scale . Becau se alley neighbo rhood s we re sm all a nd u nable to develop ex ten sive for m al o rganizat io n s d oes no t m ean tha t they we re a n y less impor tant for m a inta inin g a nd d evelopin g a n e thnic consciousness and way of life. R a ther, wha t the alley neighborhood seem s to suggest is that smal l scale e nclaves, w hethe r hidden in alleys, or scatte red alo n g stree t fro nt s, co n tin ue to have fl ouri shin g p r im a ry group li fe : in tern al orde r and co n trol, social serv ice act ivities, a nd eve n som e p roto in stitu tio n al li fe. M oreove r , it is likely tha t ethnic identity is heigh te ned in those situ at io ns w hen other groups are in su ch close proxim ity . 90 In the case of the Bi rd 's Nest o r la rge r ethnic co mmuni ties,9 1 the sig nifi cance of the ne ighborhood is often overlooked because of the exte n t of ethni c organ izat io n al a nd b u siness li fe. H oweve r , it is the pop u la ti o n scale tha t makes poss ible this d evelopment. Nevert heless, these a reas con tinue to be marked by extensive informal groups ; their aggregate 30 SLOVAKIA makes the neighborhood and keeps it operating, althou gh formal associations play an important role. Ultimately, then , we should exp ect smalle r settlem ents to develop strong informal groups but few formal ones; the larger the co mmunity , the greater the potential for formal organizations to develop , although infor mal group life rema ins active and important. It may well be, as Fischer suggests, that ethnic ide ntity is greatest in these smaller areas, less able to adapt or adjust to the n ew world . In larger enclaves, migrants have more space to consider alternatives , to pick and chose from diverging paths, m ore a bility to ad a pt or adjust to things "Am e rican " b y in corporating them into their repertoire a nd making them " their own. " 91 Finally, in addition to the observations con ce rnin g the importance of neighborhood as a mi grant institution , it is worth noting the different conditions white and bl ack migrants confronted. The caste barrier blacks confronted in Washington as well as the severely restricted housing m arket limited the potential for comm unity d evelopment. Alley dwellers utilized highly creative methods to circumvent the nearly impossible conditions they confronted . To surv ive in this enviro nment was success. In contrast, Slovak men and women were able to gain e nt ry to more stable a nd be tte r paying industrial jobs; eventu ally they secured so me m ovemen t into semi- a nd even skilled positions as a resu lt of their tenacious hold over jobs in their neighborhood. By doing so, they es ta blished ethnic occupation al beachheads for their kin a nd progeny , whil e blacks we re limited to day la bor a nd positions in the secondary labor market. 93 Similarly, Slovaks a nd other white ethnics through considerable personal and fami ly sacrifice were able to purchase their turf; few black alley dwellers were ever so fort un a te. In short , Bird Nesters could use their ethnic ties to establish and maintain occupational and property turf; blacks were "permitted " those jobs and hou sin g no one else wanted. D ominance of these turfs, occupational and residential, were always transitory, requiring incred ible hum an effort to m ainta in th em or develop n ew ones. They seldom permitted a n opportunity to grow or expand. SLOVAKIA 31 NOTES ' O scar Handlin concludes that "wherever the immigrants went , th ere was one com mon ex peri ence th ey shared: nowhere could they transplant the European village . Wh atever th e va riati ons among environments in America , none was familiar. The pressure of th at stran geness exe rted a dee p influence upon th e character of rese ttlement , upon the usual forms of behavior , and upon the notes of communal action th a t emerged as th e immigrants beca me Americans .'' Th e Uprooted (2nd edn., Boston, 1973) , 129 . ' Loui s Wirth noted that the "shift from a rural to a predominantly urban society .. has bee n acco mpa ni ed by profound changes in virtually every phase of social life, '' with th e "substituti on of seconda ry for primary contacts , th e weakening of bonds of kin ship , and the declining social significance of the famil y, the disappearance of the neighborhood , and th e undermining of the tradition al bas is of social solidarity." On Cities and Social Life , ed . by Albert R eiss, Jr . (Chicago, 1964) , 79-80. See also Wirth, " Urbanism as a Way of Life , " American Journal of Sociology, 44 Ouly , 1938) , 1-24 . ' Ernes t Burgess , who devised the co nce ntri c zone th eory from which this co mes, concluded th a t ' 'disorganization as preliminary to reorgani za ti on of attitud es and condu ct is almost invariably th e lot of th e newcomer to the cit y.'' ' ' The Growth of the City," in Robert E. Park a nd Ernest Burgess, Th e City (Chicago, 1967), 54, 47-62 . • Howa rd Chudacoff found th at while foreign born migrants " m ay have retained their social , eco nomic , and religious commun iti es, their incidence of move ment out of th e old neighborhoods and a round the city make residential coherence a ve ry temporary experience." " A New Look at Ethnic Neighborhoods: Residential Dispersion and th e Concept of Visibilit y in a M edium-Sized City,'' Journal of America n History , 60 Oune , 1973), 91. See also Chudacoff, Mobile Americans: Residential and Social Mobility in Om ah a, 1880- 1920 (New York , 1972), 154-55; Humbert S . N elli, The Italians in Chicago: 1880-1 930( N ew York, 1970), xi i-xiii; Sam Bass Warner and Colin B. Burke, " Cultural Change and th e Ghetto," Journal of Contempnrary History, 4 (O ctober , 1969) , 173 -88 ; David W ard, " The Internal Spatial Different iat ion of Immi grant R esiden ti al Distri cts ,'' in Geographic Perspectives on America's Past , ed. by Dav id Ward ( ew York , 1979) , 335 -43; and Ward , " The Emergence of Central Immi gra nt Ghettoes in American Cities: 1840-1920, " Annals of th e A ssociation of America n Geographers , 38 ( 1968) , 343-59. ' The most class ic stateme nt of this positi on was that of E . Franklin Fraz ier: Southern black mi gra nts to north ern cities los t " res tra ints imposed by a simple folk culture" and creat ed a "class of rovi ng Negroes who will li ve a lawless sex a nd quasi-family life ." " The Impac t of U rba n Civilization upon Negro Family Life, " American Sociological R el'iew , 2 (October , 1937), 6 18. See also Frazier's The Negro Family in the United States (Chicago, 1966), 207-92; Cl yd e Vernon Ki se r , Sea Island co City ( New York, 1968), 223; Gilbert O sofsky, H arlem : Th e Making of a Ghetro (N ew York , 1964) , 135-49 ; Allen H . Spear, Black Chicago: Th e M aking of a Negro Gherto (C hi cago , 1967), 167-80 , x; Constance M cLaughlin Green, Th e Secret Ciry 32 SLOVAKIA (Prince ton, 1967); a nd D av id K atzm a n , Befor e th e Gh etto (U rba na, 1973). 6 W a rn er notes that reli gious co nfli cts in Am eri ca n cities "forced a ll cit y dwellers to think of th em selves either as Protestant s o r Ca th olics ' ' o r J ews, not as members of spec ific ethni c group s. " Cu ltural Cha nge a nd Ghett o," 178. See also Will H erberg, Prot estant , Cath olic, J ew (New York , 1955). ' G ilbert O sofsky, " The Endurin g Ghetto," J ournal of Am erica n History, 55 (September , 1968). ' 8 K enn eth Ku smer , A Ghetto T ak es Shap e: Black C leveland 1870- 1930 (Urbana, Ill ., 1976); D ou glas D a ni els, Pioneer Urbanites: A Social and C ultural History of Black San Fran cisco (Philadelphi a, 1980); and Thomas Cox , Bla cks in T op ek a, K ansas : A Social History (Baton R ouge, La., 1982). 9 Josef J. Barton , Peasants and Strangers: Italians, Rumanians, and Slovaks in an Am erica n C ity, 1890-1950 (Cambrid ge , M ass. , 1975), 64-90 ; M . Mark Stola rik , " Immigration a nd Urban izati on: The Slova k Experi ence, 1870-1 9 18" (Ph .D . di sse rtat ion, Universit y of Minneso ta , 1974), 69 -109; Sylvia June G ranatir Al exander , "The Immi gra nt C hurch a nd Co mmunit y: The Forma ti o n of Pittsburgh 's Slova k R eli gio us In stitution s, 1880- 19 14" (Ph .D . disse rta ti on, Uni vers it y of Minneso ta , 1980), 209-355, 443-5 18 ; Al exa nder , " Stay in g Togeth er : Chain Mi gration and Pattern s of Slovak Settl em ent in Pittsburgh Prio r to World W ar I , '' J ournal of Am erican Echnic History, I (Fall, 198 1), 56-83; K athleen Neils Conze n, Immigrant Milwa ukee: 1836-1 860 (Cambridge, M ass., 19 76) , 154-191 ; and V irginia Vans-M cLaughlin , Family and Commu nicy: Italian Immigranc s in Buffalo, 1880- 1930 (Ith aca, N. Y ., 1977). 0 A numb er of studi es do develop th e role of famil y life in mi gra nt se ttlements; thi s wo rk represe nts a m ajo r co ntribution to th e a nalys is of " inform al" o r prim ary gro up life in th e cit y. For exa mple , see T ama ra K . H a reve n , " Th e Histo ri cal Study of th e Fa mil y in Urban Society , " J ourn al of Urba n History , I (M ay , 1975 ). Unfortuna tely, such studi es neglect th e relati on ship of fa mil y a nd extended kin netwo rk to other inform al-primary groups of neighbo rh ood a nd communit y. Wh at is mi ss in g here is a discussion of th e informal social organi zat ion that makes up the nei ghborh ood . Fo r m o re co mpl ete ana lyses of social netwo rk s, see J . C lyde Mit chell , ed. , Social N ecworks in Urban Situation (M anches ter, 1969); Eli zabet h Bott , Family and Social N etwork (N ew Yo rk , 197 1); and C la ud e S. Fischer, To Dwell Among Friends: Personal N etwo rk s in T own and Cicy (C hi cago, 1982). " For exa mp le, see K a thl ee n Neil s Co nze n , " Commentary: Immi grants , Im mi g ra nt Neighborhoods, and Ethni c Identit y: Histo ri cal Issues, " J ourn al or Am erica n History, 66 (D ece mbe r, 1979), 603 -15. " Su za nn e Keller , Th e Urba n N eig hborh ood (N ew Yo rk , 1968). " Gera ld Sut tl es , Tn e S ocial Constru ction or Communicies (C hi cago, I 972 ), 2 I , 3- I 07 . " R o m a n A. C ybri ws ky, "Soc ia l Aspec ts of Ne ighbo rh ood Change ," Annals or th e Associa tion of Am erica n Geograph ers, 68 ( I 978) , 2 7. In co ntras t , th e co nce pt of th e co mmunit y of limi ted liab ilit y, o ri ginall y developed by M o rri s j a now it z, emp hasizes " th e int enti o na l, vo lunt a ry, a nd es peciall y, th e pa rtial a nd d ifferenti ated in vo lve- SLOVAKIA 33 ment of res ident s in th eir local comm uniti es.'' Suttles, Social Construction of Communities , 47 , 44-81. See also Morris J anow it z, Th e Community Press in an Urban Setting: The Social Elements of Urbanism (Chicago, 1952). The contrived community is one that is pla nn ed , at leas t in part, with a d es ign to prom ote a ce rt ain kind of co mmunit y. New towns probabl y fall most closely in to thi s catego ry. See Suttles, Social Constru ction of Commun ities, 82-107 . " Formal o rgan ization is an assoc iation th at " is more or less purposefully created for th e at ta inmen t of rela tiv ely specific and limi ted goals.'' M a rvin E. Olsen , Th e Process of Social Organization (New York , 1968) , 92. M em bers are only partiall y involved a nd co mmitted to such " limited-li a bilit y" o rga ni zati on s; th ey rela te to each oth er largely in terms of the organization and th eir spec ific interest in its goals. Whi le members m ay beco m e " fri end s, " impl yin g a mu ch m ore inten se relations hip , and perh aps the development of a prima ry group or netwo rk , thi s is not the goal of the formal o rgani zati on . Primary or inform al gro up s, on th e ot her hand , are " those characteri zed by intimate, face-to-face aswciati on and co-operation, " i.e., " the family , th e play-group of children , a nd th e neighbo rh ood o r co mmunit y of elders. ' ' C ha rl es Cooley, Social Organization (New Yo rk , 1923), 23, 24. Fo r a rev iew of th e significant roles of informal groups, see Elihu K atz and Paul Lazarsfeld , Personal Influen ces (New York, 1955), 3 1-42. 16 For a discussion of this point , see J am es Bo rchert , " Urban Neighborhood and Communit y: Informal Group Life, 1850-1970, ' ' Journ al of Interdisciplin ary History , 11 (Sprin g, 1981 ), 607-3 1; Floyd Dodson, " Pa tt ern s of Volu nta ry Association among W o rkin g-C lass Families," America n Sociological R evie w , 16 (1951), 687-93; and Benn ett Berge r , W orking Class Suburb (Berkeley, Ca. , 1971 ) , 59-73. " R obert R edfi eld , "The Folk Society ," America njournal of Sociology, 52 Qanua ry, 1947) , 293-308. Thi s is not to su gges t that mi gra nts had no experience with forma l groups prior to mi gra ti on. As Ba rt o n , Stola rik , and oth ers have demonstrated , migrants brought both forma l and in formal group s with them. Whil e few have m ade d irec t comp a ri so ns of formal group s in th eir two se ttings (Ba rt on is an importa nt pa rti al except io n here), virtua ll y no o ne has co mpared informal grou ps. " J a m es S. Pil an t, Th e Envelope: A Study of the Imp act of th e World upon th e C hild (New Yo rk , 1950); Suttles, Th e Social Constru ction of Communities, 2 1- 43. 19 C hain migrat ion has bee n defin ed as " th at m ove m ent in which prospecti ve mi grants lea rn of oppo rtuniti es, a re provided with transporta ti on , and have initi al accommodati on and employment a rranged by m ea ns of primary social relationships with previous migra nts" (aut hors' itali cs). J ohn S. M acdon ald a nd Leatri ce D. M acdonald , "Chain Mi gra ti on , Ethn ic Neighborhood Fo rm ati on , and Social Netwo rks," Milbank M emorial Fund Quart erly, 42 Q anu a ry, 1964) , 82. 0 T hese vary, of course , by ethni c gro ups, circum stances , a nd over time , as well as by cl ass. Specia l foods a nd restaurants a re probably th e most obviou s exa mpl es, but churches and lodges a re probably the m ost uni ve rsal ''se rvices. '' Profess ionals a nd ethni c bu siness a re also important elements of th e urba n village, especiall y fun eral homes; th ey con tinu e to draw former res idents a nd th eir children bac k to th e urba n ' 34 SLOVAKIA vi llage, a t leas t on special occasions. Finall y, ma ny wh o left th e "village" continu e to own buildings there; their rental income made "escape" easier; it di d nm , however, break th e ties. " See Suttles, T he Social C onstru ction of C ommunities, 2 1-43. " These environments a re strikin gly different ; th e two group s a re eve n more different in term s of their past ex peri ences, institutional life, and cultural baggage. Co mparison, th en , prese nts considerable problems; limited da ta make thi s eve n more problema ti c. " For oth er effort s to co mpa re th e bl ac k and white ex peri ence, see ta nl ey Lieberso n , A Piece of th e Pie: Black s and Whit e Immigranrs Since 1880 ( Berkeley, Ca ., 1980); J ohn Bodn a r , Michael W eber , and R oge r Simon , " Mi gra ti on , Kin ship , a nd U rba n Adjustm ent : Blac ks a nd Poles in Pitt sb urgh , 1900- 1930," j ournal o f America n History, 66 (Dece mber , 19 79) , 548-565; a nd Bodnar , Sim on , W eber , Lives o f th eir Own : Black s, Italians, and Poles in Piusburgh , 1900- 1960 (Urbana, Ill. , 1982). " For a more compl ete di scussion, ee Borchert, Alley Life in W ashing ton ( Urbana , Ill. , 1980) . For a d iscussion of alleys else wh ere, see 223-37 , 3 12- 17. " Ibid . , 1-56 . ' 6 C u yahoga C ount y Treasure r's Depa rtm ent T ax Duplica tes , I 894- 1923 . C uyahoga Count y Archi ves; M a rgare t M anor Bu tle r, Th e Lakewood tory ( ew York , 1949); 228 ; " City Plays Vital R ole," newspa per clipping-source unkn ow n , M ay 5, 1955 . Lakewood Historical Society; " ati onal Carbon C om pany," C leveland Plain D ealer , September 10, 19 77 . The neighbo rhood has been kn own by a se ri es of names; Bird's Nes t and Bird T own deri ve from th e predominance of stree t with bi rd na me . Other na mes suggest how th e neighborh ood has bee n viewed by outsid er : T he Settl ement, th e Village , " Dago Forum , " C a rbon T own , " Little Slova ki a," a nd th e Carbon Distri ct. John Fedor , "Ju st Loo k at th e Stree t Signs to Find Bird T own ," Lakewood L edger , Dece mber 14, 1967; Butler, Lakewood Story, 188, 228-29; Butler, R om ance in Lakewood Streets (C leve la nd , 1962), 41 ; C ynthi a A. Rud e r, " Th e Imprint of C ultura l V alues on Birdtow n , La kewood, Ohio, " un publi shed typesc ript , M ay 1, 1978. Lakewood Hi stori cal Society. " C uyahoga Count y Au d ito r's T ax M aps , Cuyahoga Coun ty Adm inistrat ion Bu ild ing. Vol. 35-C it y of La kewood. 1890- 1982. " Fed or , " Just Loo k a t th e tree t igns " R eco rd s of th e Distri ct of Colu mb ia , Reco rd Grou p 35 1. Na ti onal Archi ves. Boa rd of C hi ldren ' s Guardi ans, C hildren 's History , I ll : I 129, I 162 , 1392; IV: 158 1. See also Bo rchert , " Survivin g th e C it y: Persistence a nd C ha nge in Bl ac k Folkways of Life in a N ew Environment ," pa per prese nt ed a t th e Associa ti on for th e Stud y of Afro-Ameri ca n Life a nd Hi sto ry, O ctober 2 1- 24, 1982, Baltim ore, M a ryla nd, 8. '° 31 Federal Population Ce nsus Schedul es, 1880, W ashin gto n , D .C., R eco rd Group 29 . ati onal Archi ves; a nd Com missioner of th e Di trict of Colum bia , Ann ual R ep orc -1897 (W as hin gto n , 1897), 195-202. Fed eral Popul ati on C ensus ched ul es, 19 I 0 , La kewood, Ohio. at ional Archives . See also Fed eral Popula ti on Ce nsus Sched ul es, 1900 , Lakewood, Ohio . ational Ar- SLOVAKIA 35 chi ves. The less precise category "country of origin" makes it impossible to know , oth er than Hun ga ry, where migra nts came from. The 1910 ce nsus clea rs this matter up through more precise desi gnati on ; in this case 70 perce nt listed th emselves as " Hunga rian Slovaks" rath er th a n merely" Hun gary," as in 1900 . "Language" also permit s more precise determination . " While J osef Barton has co ncluded that Slovak migration to C leveland was from more gene rall y dispersed areas in Slovakia, migrating more by district than personal or village chains, oth er studies report considerably more personal co ntacts in the migrati on process, both generally a mong lovak migra nts and specificall y for Cleveland. Peasa ncs and Strangers , 50-51, 54, 59, 63. Emily Greene Balch reports that nearly 99 percent of Slovaks en terin g the United States in 1907-1908 planned to join relatives or friends . Our Slavic Fellow Citizens (New York , 1910), 433. Al exander repo rts that whi le Slovak mi gran ts to Pittsburgh did mi grate in cha ins either by village, or by th e more loose " district" pattern Ba rton found, th e selecti on of one's res idence in a give n cit y was strongly influenced by fri end s and rela tives . " Th e Immi grant C hurch ," 55, 68. M a rk Stolarik also found "Slovaks in the Un ited States and Canada originall y reside(d) in distinct neighborhoods nea r their parish ch urches . most of these in each co ngregation ha iled from the same cluster of villages in the old country." " Immi grat ion a nd Urbanization, " 40. Stolarik a nd his co-authors of a st ud y of C leveland Slovaks reported simila r findings for th at cit y. Susi Megles, Mark Stolarik, and Martina Tybor, Slovak Americans and th eir Communities of Cleveland (C levela nd , 1979), 132. M ore importa nt for this study, Stolarik's analysis of parish reco rds of one Bird 's Nest church found 68 percent were from the ext reme end of one Slovak county; " nearly ha lf of the group was from . . three neighboring villages . " " Immi grat ion a nd Urbanization, " 41. For other informa ti on on chain mi gra ti on of Bird 's Nest residents, see Mary Towarni cky, " Helping One Another in the New Land: The Old Timers R emem ber," in SS. Cyril and M ethodius Church , Diamond Jubilee, 1903 -1 978 (La kewood, 1978), 67; and Common Pleas Court, Records of Declaration of Intention , Cuyahoga County Archives. Vo ls. 1- 30, Octobe r 10 , 1906-Sep tember 8, 19 13. " Lo renzo] . Greene and Myra Colso n Callis, The Employment of Negroes in th e District of Columbia (Washington, I 930), 65. " Borchert, Alley Life, 166-77. " Fed eral Popu lat ion Ce nsus Schedul es, I 900, 1910, La kewood, Ohio ; U.S . Bureau of th e Ce nsus, Population and H ousing- 1940: Cleveland, Ohio and Adjacent Area (Was hin gto n , 1942), 106. This is not to suggest that co nditions were easy o r wages hi gh. J an Pa nku ch notes that " during the first years their wages barely met their needs .'' Dejin y Clevelandskych a Lakewoodsk ych Slovakov (C leveland, 1930), 24. ' 6 Borchert, Alley Life, 85. " Ibid., l 83. The impact of a lley co nditions can be seen most clearly in co mparison to nati onal statisti cs. In 1910 the death rate for urban whit es was 14.6 per thousand ; for urba n blacks, 24.3. James H. Jones , Bad Blood ( ew York, 198 I), 37 . For street 36 SLOVAKIA dwelling W ashin gtoni an s (whit e and black), the dea th rate per thousand was 17 .56 ; for alley residents it was 30 .09 . Willia m H enry J ones, Th e H ousing of Negroes in W ashington , D.C. (Washington, 1929), 45 . " Borchert , Alley Life, 183 . 39 ' 0 41 Albina M olek, " Builders of the Spirit ," C leveland News, November 18, 1949 ; H oward Whipple Green , Plan es of Living in C uyah oga Co unty: as D epicted by th e Real Prop erty Survey (Cleveland , 1940), 65 . Green, Planes of Living, 58. Federal Population C ensu s Schedul es, 1910, Lakewood , Ohio. " Fed eral Population Census Schedul es, 1880, W as hin gton , D .C. See Borchert , Alley Life , 68. 43 Butler, Lakewood Story, 188. " Federal Populaton Census Schedul es, 19 10 , Lakewood, Ohio. In 1911 , residents of the larger community , led by a prominent member of the Rhodes family , established a clinic in the neighborhood becau se of the seve re health conditions, es peciall y the hi gh infant mortality . " Dispensary," in " History of Lakewood ," C lipping fil e, Lakewood Histo rical Society; a nd Butler , L ak ewood Story, 188-89. 45 Borchert , Alley Life , 69-85. •• It is important to note th a t the household unit , whi ch is usually considered th e base of the urban nei ghborh ood , was only part of a m ore important ex tend ed kin ship network whi ch included fi ctive kin adopted in the count rys ide or city. These ext ra- household units ti e re sidents of the alley together into " cliques" th at m ake up the large r alley communit y. Alley residents were linked together in other ways ; marriage of two alley residents linked two fa mil ies and kin networks together . After so me tim e , it is possible that mos t lon g-term residents in a given alley were linked by kinship to each ot her in multiple ways. 47 Becau se th e alley neighb orh ood/comm unity rema ined an informal inst itut ion with no " reco rd s" of its act ivities, it is ve ry difficult to determin e the full ex tent of neighborhood act ivities and their import . Nevertheless , some as pects do seem to stand out : neighborin g a nd ent erta inin g, a id to the needy, commo n action on com munit y need s, intern al social co nt rol, a nd defense of the neighborhood again st outsiders. 48 For a desc ription of the alley as meeting place , see W as hin gton National lnte1ligencer , Jul y 25, 1865; W ashington Times, Septembe r 11, 1904; Washington S tar , Jun e 6, 1930; W ashin gton D aily N ews, April 15, 1954; Charles W eller , Neglected Neighbors (Philadelphi a, 1909), 17 , 82; Wilbur V . Mallalieu , "A W ashin gton Alley," Survey , 28 (October 19, 19 12), 71; Gladys Sellew, A D eviant Social Situation: A Cou rr (Washin gton , 1938), 17 ; a nd D a ni el D. Swinney, " Alley Dwellings a nd H ousing R eform in the Di stri ct of Columbia " (M .A . th esis, University of C hi cago, 1938) , 141 -42. During the winter , several homes in a give n all ey see m to have se rved as mee ting spots. Dora Bessie Somerville , " A Study of a Group of Negro C hildren Li ving in an Alley C ulture" (M.A. th esis, Cat holic U ni ve rsit y of Ameri ca, 1941 ), 20. These homes usually di spensed liquor , oft en homemade , providing resid ents wit h a social SLOVAKIA 37 ce nt er a nd tenants with a "second in co me . " For a discu ssio n based on a n a nalysis o f histori cal photog raphs , see " Photographs a nd th e Study of th e Pas t, " in Borchert, Alley Life , 291-93; Borche rt , "Analysis of Histo ri cal Photographs," Srudies in Visual Communication, 7 (Fall , 1981 ), 51-56; and Borchert , " Alley Landscapes of Washington, " Landscape , 23 (No. 3, 1979), 6-8. 0 ' Marion M . Ratigan, A Sociological Survey of Disease in Four Alleys in the National Capital (Was hin gton , 1946), 59 ; Mary R edempta Fores tall , "Trend s in Housing, Delinquency, and H ealth in the Central Northwest Area in Washington, D.C." (M.A . th es is , Catholic University of Ame ri ca, 1938), 32; Grace Vawter Bicknell , The Inhabited Alleys o f Washington, D .C. (W ashington , 1912), 31; Well er, Neglected Neighbors, 47 ; Leonise Ruth Aubry, "A mbitions of Youth in a Poo r Economic Status " (M.A. thes is , Catholic University of America, 1938), 3; Sellew, Deviant Social Siruarion, 46, 54; Sommerville, " Study of a Group of Negro Children," 24; Washington Daily News, Augu st 29, 1941; Swinney , "Alley Dwellings and Housin g R efo rm, " 50, 73; Leono r Enriquez Pablo , " The Housing Needs and Social Problems of Residen ts in a Deteriorated Area" (M .S.W. thesis , Catholic University of America , I 953), 56; Board of Children's Guardians , Children's History, I-VII (see especia ll y I:2 33-34 ; II : 657, 667, 801); Washington National R ep ublican , March 24 , 1862 ; a nd Washington Times , September 11, 1904 . " Whil e it is impossible to recreate co nversations between res idents from the ex isting hi sto ri cal records, it is clear from a large body of literatu re in sociology and anthropology that goss ip plays a critical role in the ma intena nce of order as well as the development of a commo n world view. Scholars of black rural and small town life in th e South noted th e importance of goss ip; CharlesJohnson found that "communit y gossi p exercises restraint . . There are limits ... and when th ese limits are reached violators a re treated with unmi stakable group disapproval.'' Shadow of the Plan cation (Chicago, I 94 1), 81, 82. Similarly , H ylan Lewis concluded that " gossip, or th e possibility of gossip " m a kes residents " more careful of th eir behavior." Blackways of Kent (New H ave n , Conn., 1962) , 193. " Those who show signs of group status de via tion . . are subject of a kind of gro up pressure marked by resentment and cri ti cism." Ibid ., 191 . " See Al. L. Epstein , " Gossip , Norms , a nd Social Network," in Social Networks in Urban Situ ations, 117-27. " For example , see Swinney , "Alley Dwellings and H ous in g R efo rm , " 136-37; and Pablo, " H ousin g Needs and Social Problems," 42. " Bo rchert , "U rban Neighborhood a nd Community," 615-18. " Swinney, " Alley Dwellings and H ousin g R eform, " 121 . " Ibid.; W ashington Post , D ece mber 26, 1948; Well er , Neglected Neighbors, 17, 22, 97 ; Mallalieu, " Washington Alley , " 71 ; a nd the R ev . Daniel O'Connell, "The Inhabit ed Alleys of Washington and the Early Social Hi story of One Alley" (M .A. thesis, Ca th oli c University of Ameri ca , 1953) , 110 . It is importa nt to note that attendan ce in the rural South does not seem to have been especially la rge based on Lewi s' findin gs for K ent . Lewis, B/ackways of Kent , 129-30. 38 SLOVAKIA " Borchert, Alley Life, 185-86. 58 Pankuch, Dejiny , 22. " Ibid .; Mary Towarnicky , "Slovak Newcomers to America, " in SS. Cyril and Methodius Church, Diamondjubilee, 1903-1978 (Lakewood, 1978), 66; Towarnicky , " Helping One Another," 67 . 60 Towarnicky, " Helping One Another," 67. 61 The Pleasant Hill Land Company was owned and run by Washington H. Lawrence, the president of the National Carbon Company. It seems clear that Lawrence purchased an extra large parcel ofland from the Case Estate with the intention of developing a residential area for workers . Butler, Lakewood Story, 228; "C ity Plays Vital Role, " "National Carbon Company," Plain Dealer; and G . Frederick Wright, Representative Citizens of Ohio: Memorial-Biographical (Cleveland, 1914) , 181-84. Since the factory was well outside the built-up parts of C leveland, Lawrence may well have considered this development a necessity to attract workers; he must also have planned to make a good return on his investment. The difficulty of the commute from in-city residences to the plant prior to the completion of a street car line in 1898 was incredible . For examples, see "City Plays a Vital Role" and Pankuch , Dejiny, 23. 61 Initially the early buildings were rented to workers; however, the PHLC sold off most of the improved lots within a couple years of construction. Cuyahoga County Treasurer's Tax Duplicates , 1894- 1923. There is some indication that the Na tional Carbon Company (via PHLC) "sold lots to ... immigrants on installments. " Loretta l vany, " 'Birdtown' Became C ity's Ethnic Center," Sun Post , Jun e 30, 1979 . •• Cuyahoga County Auditor's Tax Maps, Cuyahoga County Administration Building. Migrants bought up lots on Plover first because they were cheaper du e to their proximity to th e railroad tracks. Pankuch, Dejiny , 23. R esidents not only bought up land in the neighborhood as soon as they could afford to, they also held on to th e land, passing it on to relatives or selling it with in the community. Paul Wrobel found a sim ila r practice when he did an extensive participant-observation study of a Polish-American parish in D etroit. Our Way: Family, Parish and Neighborhood in a Polish-American Community (Notre Dame, Ind ., 1979), 5. 6 ' City of Lakewood, Building Department, Building Permits , 1900(?)-1982. It is interesting to note that no building permits a ppear to have been taken out by the PHLC, des pite the fact that they clea rl y improved and built on one-fifth of th e lots over the thirt y year period before the last lot was sold ( 1923). Although the city records are incomplete , and use of building permits seems to have been casual in the earl y years, as well as the fact th at many early reco rd s have not survived, it is strange that no PHLC perm its remain in the records. Insurance maps and descriptive sources do confirm the com pany 's activity in th is area prior to 1900. Thomas Flynn, Otto Barthel, R.H. Bunning, and Thomas H assan , Atlas of the Suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio (Philadelphia, 1898), Plate 24; M argaret Butler, R omance in Lakewood's Streets 41; lvany, " 'Birdtown' Became City's Ethnic Center"; and Cynthia A. Rud er , "The Imprint of Cultural Values.'' SLOVAKIA 39 " As Stephan Thernstrom found in Newburyport , however, home ownership came a t a high price : " To cut family co nsumption expenditures to the bone was one such sac rifice. To withdraw the children from school and to put them to work at the age of ten or twelve was another.'' Poverty and Progress: Social Mobility in a Nin eteenth Century City (New York , 1969), 155. 66 Federal Population Census Schedules, 1910, Lakewood , Ohio. 67 Pankuch , D ejin y, 22; Towarnicky, "Slova k Newcomers to America," 66 ; Towarnicky, " H elping One An other," 67; and Ivany, " 'Birdtown' Became City's Ethnic Center . " 68 M egles, Stolarik , and T ybor, Slo vak Americans and their Communities, 132; Sts. Peter and Paul Lutheran Church , Seventy-Fifth Anniversary (Lakewood, 1976), 3; and Towarnicky , " H elping One Another," 67. 6 ' One of the first Slovak employees recalled th at he " ' got a job in the construction of the . factory. After I had worked th ere for a couple days, the boss told me to bring in a couple more men. I asked him how many I should bring; he answered as man y as I could, even a dozen would do, he said . So I called up my brothers: Juraj, and J an, also Jan andJuraj Nemec, A. Chovana and a bunch of others; Michael Urban and A. Goda all got hired. All the Scerbas; J an Scerba, Jan Scerba, Jr. , Adam Scerba, Andrej R yba nik and many others ca me in later.' " Andrej Babej, quoted in Pank uch, Dejin y, 22. ' 0 Alexander, "The Immigrant Church and Community, " 56-57. More importantl y she notes that "at tim es, when firms desperately needed labor, foremen promised jobs to employees' fri end s or relati ves if th ey would send for them." Ibid ., 57. " Ibid ., 57. She also notes that "Slovaks and other immigra nt groups came to rely on a sys tem of personal relationships in order to get jobs. '' Ibid. For more recent discussions of this process, see Ri chard M yer, " Interpersonal R elations in the Building Indu stry," Man , Work , and Society, ed . by Sigmond Nosow and William Form (New York , 1962) and William K ornblum , Blue Collar Community (C hi cago, 1974). " Sts . Pete r and Paul Lutheran Church, Seventy-Fifth Anniversary , 2-3; Megles , Stolarik , and Tybor, Slovak Americans and their Communities , 13 3; Peter M . Glovna, Sr., " Hi story of SS. Cyril and Methodius Pari sh ," in SS. Cyril and Methodius Church , Diamond Jubilee, 33; " Sts. Peter and Paul Russian Orthodox Church, " undat ed news paper clipping in Margaret Butler, " Hi story of Churches" fil e, Lakewood Hi storical Society; " Ukrainian Church Ded ication Is Set ," undated newspaper clipping in Butl er, ' ' Hi sto ry of Churches . ' ' " Stolarik , " Immigration and Urbanization, " 85-97. It is usefu l to note here that three of the first four Slovak churches in the neighborhood still have services in Slovak, althou gh the y have th em in English as well. " Ru de r , " Imprint of Cultural Values" ; Butler, Lakewood Story, 20,7. In a fine stud y of Slova k Cat holi c lead ers' at titud es toward public ed uca ti on , Mark Stolarik found th ey "valued parochial schools above all else worried mu ch m ore about their children 's moral a nd national upbringing th a n about social mobility . . had no u se 40 SLOVAKIA for publi c schools . . (which) ' den a ti onali ze ou r children . ' " " Immi gra ti on , Education, and the Social Mobilit y of Slova ks, 1870- 1930, " in R a nd all M. Mill e r a nd Thomas D . Marzik, ed s., Immigrants and R eligion in Urban America (Phil adelphia, 19 77) , 107 , 106 . Both Ba rton and Stolarik report th a t 60 to 80 percent of Slovak children a ttended parochi al schools. Ba rto n, Peasa nts and Strangers, 145-46; Stola rik , " Immi grati on and Urban ization ," 165-66. Th e public elem ent a ry school in th e Bird ' s Nest had no teachers wh o co uld speak Slovak ; of those children who did att end , few, if any , spoke Engli sh. Rud e r , "Imprint of C ultural V alu es." 75 The 1930 City Directory includes over 75 bu sinesses (17 local groce rs) and 16 profess ionals a nd se rvi ces avai lable to th e neighborh ood run by local res id ent s (or fo rme r resid ent s). C leveland Directory Compan y, C leveland, Ohio C ity Directory- I 930 (C levela nd , 1930). 76 Inspec to r , Building and Loa n Associat io n , 22nd Annual R ep ort far th e Y ea r Ending D ecember 31, 19 12 (Springfi eld , Ohio, 19 13) , 165 . Oro! Buildin g and Loa n Co. The founding preside nt a nd sec re tary both li ved on Plover , while o nl y th e treas ure r li ved outsid e th e immediat e neighborh ood. H e li ved , howeve r , ju st on th e o th e r sid e (north) of Madison Ave nu e, an a rea th a t Slova ks a nd other mi g ra nt s expand ed int o. Panku ch noted that th e Sav ings a nd Loa n wa s in ex ist ence by 1902 , so it may well have been operating to help res idents long before its offi cial cha rt er in 19 11 . D ejin y, 24. 77 Cuyahoga Count y Treasu re r 's Tax Duplica tes a nd Ci ty of La kewood, Building Permits. 78 For a n excellent discu ssion o n th e conflict be twee n "accult u ra ti o ni sts a nd tradition ali sts , " sec Howard F . Stein , " An Ethnohistory of Slova k-Am e ri ca n R eli gio us and Frate rnal Associations: A Study in Cultural M eanin g, Group Identit y, and Soc ial Instituti o ns," Slo va kia, 29 ( 1980-1 98 1) , 53 -101 . 19 Peter Glovna, as quoted in l vany, " ' Birdtown ' Beca me City 's Ethn ic Center ." G lovna's fath e r m oved to the neighborhood in 1893 a nd was a founder of SS. Cyril and M e thodius , whi le hi s son li ved on Plove r for 40 yea rs. D es pite hi s rece nt m ove out of the area, he still maint ains contacts and serves as pa rish hi sto ri a n . Glovna, "H istory of SS . Cyril and M e th odiu s Pa rish. " 0 " R esidents of Birdtown also enjoyed neighborh ood picnics a nd dancing to th e sound s of bands which were se t up on M a gee and M adison Av enu es.' ' l va ny , '' ' Birdt own ' Beca m e C ity's Ethnic Center.' ' 81 Ruder, " Im print of Cultural Valu es," 5. See also l van y , " ' Birdtown ' Beca me C it y's Ethni c Center ," and 1941 survey quoted extensively in Butler , L akewood St an ·, 229. ' " Rud e r, " Imprint of Cultural V alu es," 18. " Al exa nd e r ' s comment cit ed ea rli e r th a t Slovaks ca m e to rely o n a sys te m of pe rsonal relationships in order to get j obs (see not e 70) needs to be put in a la rge con text he re. Social scienti sts have not ed the impo rt a nce of informal groups in a variety of settings from factory, army, stree t co rn e r gang , a nd neighbo rh ood . Fo r exa mpl e , see F.j . R oet hli sberger a nd W.J . Dickson, M an agem ent and th e W orker (Cam bridge , M ass., 1939); Samuel A. Stoffe r , et. al . , Th e America n Soldier: Studies in Social Psvcholog1· SLOVAKIA 41 in W orld W ar II , 2 vols (P rin ceto n , .J ., 1949); Edwa rd Shil s, " Prima ry Groups in th e Am eri can Arm y," in R obert M erton and Paul Laza rsfeld, ed s., Studies in ch e S cope and M ech od ofch e " Th e American Soldier " (Gl enoce, Ill. , 1951) ; W . Ll oyd Warn er and Paul S. Lunt , Th e S ocial Life of a M od ern C ommunicy (New H ave n , C onn . , 1941 ); Willi a m Foote Wh yte, Screet Com er Sociecy (Chicago, 1943); a nd K ornblum , Blue Collar Community. 14 Butler, Lakewood S cory , 228 , 188; C leveland Press , M ay 13 , 1947 ; and Rud er, " Imprint of Cultural V alues," 1, 3, 18 . " An impo rtant pa rt of th e p rocess, of course, invol ved co mpetiti o n for hou sing with oth er groups, a res tri cted housin g m a rket accessible to mi g rant s a nd their work . 16 M a ny form er res ident s of th e neighbo rh ood return a t least once a week fo r religious se rvices on Sunday; m a n y d o so m o re often . See al so Wrobel, Our Wa y. " R obert Park obse rved th at "certain urban neighborhoods suffer from isolation ." "The Ci ty," in Park and Burgess , Th e C it y, 8 . Fo r a different view, see Alfr ed Kazin , A W alk er in ch e C ic y (New Yo rk , 195 1). " The persistence of these a reas, outli vin g in som e cases th e in stituti ons th at ca m e aft er th em , att es ts to th eir vit alit y. " In th e Bird 's Nes t th e co ntinuin g prese nce of churches of eac h ethni c group suggests th e continuin g vit alit y of each group . Fo r other exampl es, see Cybriwsky, " Social Aspec ts of N eighbo rhood C ha nge"; Cybriwsky and D avid Ley, " Urba n Graffiti as T erri tori al M a rkers,'' Annals of ch e A ssociacion of American Geographers, 64 (1974) , 475-505; and K ornblum , Blue Collar Community . Some older studies infer the same conclu sion s: H elen L. Wilson and Eunice W . Smith , " Chicago H ou sin g Conditions, VIII : Am ong th e Slova ks in th e Twenti eth Ward ," America n j ourn al of S ociology, 20 (September , 19 14), 145-69 ; Emil y W. Dinwiddie, H ousing Condicions in Philadelphia (Philadelphi a, 1904); J a net K emp , R epore of ch e T en em enc H ouse Commission o f L ouisville (Loui sville, 1_909); Ulf H a nn erz, S ou/side ( ew Yo rk , 1969) ; and Wh yte, Scree/ Corn er Sociecy. •o Sec C la ud e Fi sc her , Th e Urban Experien ce ( ew Yo rk , 19 76) . In hi s m o re recent stud y, Fi sc her has fo un d th e current cit y '' a m osaic of inten se ethni c wo rld s rather th a n . . a la ndsca pe of ethni c di sintegra tion ." M o reo ver , " urba ni sm - or at least th e co nce ntrati o n of spec ific ethni c g roup s - m o re oft en bolsters th a n brea ks down ethni cit y. As the urbani sm of th e communit y increased , respo nd ent s were m ore likely to be ' ethni cs.' " T o Dwell Am ong Friends, 204 , 206 . " For example , H am tramck is an ex treme case where Polish-Am eri cans developed their ow n co mmunit y o n a m ass ive scale . In 1950 , 70 perce nt of th e 44 ,000 res idents of thi s inde pend ent co mmunit y in D etro it were of Poli sh-Am eri ca n ancestry. Arthur Eva ns W ood , H amcram ck : A S ociological Scudy of a Polish -America n Communicy (New H ave n , Conn ., 1955) , 13-28 . " Fisc her, T o D well Among Friends, 207 . See also Peter R ose, S crangers in Th eir Midsc: Small T own J ews and T h eir Neigh bors (M erri ck , New Yo rk , 1977). " Sec note 23. SLOVAKIA 42 TABLE 1 Bird's Nest Population 1900-1940 Population i900· 1910 .. 429 2,186 1920 ± 4, 145 19.30t 3,729 1940# 3,125 •M a nusc ript Census- Federal Po pul atio n Census Sched ules , 1900 La kewood, O hio . '"Ma nuscript Census-Federal Popula ti o n Census Schedul es, 19 10 Lakewood , O hio . ± Federal Po pulation C ensus Schedules, 1920 Lakewood, O hio for census trac t LW 18. Unfo rtu na tely. the cen· su s tract leaves out one side of one stree t in the neighbo rh ood . tFede ral Po pul ati on C ensus Schedul es , 1930 La kewood, O hio fo r census tract LW1 8. U nfo rtun ately. the cen· sus tract leaves out one side Of one stree t in the neighborhood . #Bu rea u of the Census, Popula tion and H ousing - 1940: Cle,·eland. O hio and Adj acent Arca (Washingto n , 1941), 106. U nfo rtun a tely, the ce nsus trac t leaves out o ne side of one street in 1hc neighborhood . SLOVAKIA 43 TABLE 2 Occupations of Alley Dwellers 1880 Federal Population Census Schedules , 1880 . Washington, D .C. Record Group 29. National Archives Occupations , 1880 • Adult Males (16 or older) Occupacion N % Unski lled Service Semi-skilled Skilled White-collar Proprieto r (and self-employed) Professional Agriculture/Fishing None 1,641 251 318 233 50 112 28 17 124 59 TOTAL 2,774 100 N % 9 12 8 2 4 4 Adule Females (16 or older) Occupacion Unskilled Service Semi-skilled Skilled White-collar Proprietor None (includes "at home ," "keeping house , " and "at school" ) TOTAL 4 1,742 70 6 10 8 49 1, 780 49 3 ,620 100 2 •Th e substanti al numbe rs of a lley d we ll ers in skilled throu gh professi onal ac tivities is th e res ult of a classifica1io n system th at is ma rk edl y diffe re nt fro m the ones ge nerall y used . It was used here to detec t " class" differen ces within the alley po pula ti on . Thu s, ba rbers a re class ified as skilled , while a number of " proprietors " a rc , in fac 1,ju nkmen . V irtu all y all the adult alley po pula ti o n sho uld fall in the unskilled , se rvice, o r semi- skilled a reas. See Bo rchert, Alley Life, 306-08 . SLOVAKIA 44 TABLE 3 Occupations of Residents of the Bird 's Nest 1900 A. Adult Males - 15 yea rs of age or older. Occupation Unskill ed .. . . . . . . .. .. .. .. ........ . . . . ... .. ... .... . Service ............ . .... . ... . . . . .... . .. . .. .. .. . . . Semi-skilled .. . ... . . ... . . . . . . . . Skilled ... . . ... .. .... . . . White-collar Proprietor Professional Agricultural T otal B. Adult W omen - Number Percent 147 92 % 3 2 0 5 0 3 2 0 3 2 160 15 yea rs of age or older . Occupation Number 2 2 Unskilled Service ... Semi- skill ed Skill ed White-colla r Proprietor Agri cultural Percent 50 % 50 % 0 0 0 0 0 T otal 4 100 % TABLE 3 Occupations of Residents of the Bird's Nest 1910 A . Adult M ales - 15 yea rs of age or older. Occupation Number Un skill ed 79 1 Se rvice 19 Semi-skilled . .. .. . . .... .. ... . ...... . .. . ... ... .... . 38 Skill ed ...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 White-co ll a r 10 P roprietor 11 P rofessional 1 Agri cul tural To tal 949 Percent 84 % 2 4 8 100 % SLOVAKIA B. Ad u lt Wom en - 45 15 ye ars of age or olde r. Occupation Number 75 Un ski lled ....... . . Service Semi- ski lled Ski lled W hi te-coll ar P ro prieto r Profess io nal Agricultu ral 33 Percent 66 % 29 % 0 4 4 1 0 0 0 11 3 T otal 100 % TABLE 3 Occupations of Residents of the Bird 's Nest 1940 Occupations Number O cc u pa ti ons not repo rt ed U nskilled Service wo rkers D om es ti c se rvi ce wo rkers Opera ti ves a nd kind red wo rkers C ra ft sm en , fo rem en , a nd kindred wo rkers . ... . .... . . . .. . . . C leri cal, sales , and kind red wo rkers . .. . . P ro pri etors, m a nage rs, and offi cials . ... . .. . Se mi -pro fess io nal Pro fess ional T otal Percent 2 184 83 98 17% 8 9 478 44 105 10 9 3 96 29 4 13 1,092 100 % Bu reau of the Ce nsus, Populat ion and Housing - 1940: Cleveland , Ohio and Adjacent A rea (W as hin gton , 1942) , 106 . Ce nsus tract leaves o ut o ne side of one street of neighbo rhood .  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 Migrant Responses to the City: The Neighborhood, Case Studies in Black and White, 1870-1940 Description An account of the resource James and Susan Borchert Slovakia, Vol. 31 (No. 57), 1984 pp. 8-45 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Borchert, James, 1941- Borchert, Susan, 1947- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/55a952cd0f0ec80384ad5eaa57ef3d6c.pdf 38b04017f5c4f1151050f6988208938b PDF Text Text 44 SLOVA.K:IA "FREE" AND "CZECHOSLOVAKIAN" DON'T RHYME ! Not all Czechs insist on the existencť' or Czec·boslovakla, the arti· !icial state establisbed by Czech imperialist,; to exploit the non-Czech nations of that territory wbich were in the majority. 'ľhe Czech National Committee in London, bť'aded by General Leľ Prchala, has been outspoken in this respect for many years. The (ollowing ·'Open Letter" by a member of tbat committee <'ame to us tbc latter part or February. We publish it in full Cor its exposé o[ the COUNCIL :>1<, FREE CZECHOSLOVAKIA whicb poses as a representative group •Jf "democratic" exiles from Czechoslovakla. AN OPEN LETTER From V. L. Borin, Editor of Pravda, and Member of the Czech National Committee, London England, to the Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Un-American Activities, Washington, D. C. SIR: To support the struggle of alt nations for freerlom became a historical misslon of the U. S. sinťe President Lincoln won his struggle against slavery. Freerlom of nations is tbe principal question in the struggle of Centra! and Southeastern Europeon natlons a!('alnst Bolshevik oppre!;· i,lon. To support their struggle means to repudiate imperialisiil ot any kind and to 1ecognize unconditionally the right to self-dterminatiou of a~l nations on the territory in their ethnographi<'al boundarles and to assist them in their endeavor to form a federation o[ free nations. Some prominent citizens of the U. S. and some officials of the U. S. State Department sup1>ort tbe so-called ·•czechoslc,vaks" and tbeir organizations, givlng them a monopoli!ltic position in the Grew Com· mlttee anrl in American broadcasting Cor Czechoslovakia. The top :lľ· ganization of thE> so-called "C1.ecboslovaks" was, until Jánuary 25, 1951, the Council of Free Cze<'hoslovakia. To say "FREE CZECHOSLOVAKIA'' means to manifest a pro. found hypocrisy, or ignorance. "Free Czechoslovakia" means not freedom for nations in Czechoslovakia, but freedom for Czech imperialists to oppress Sudeten Germans and Hungarians who, in 1919, were forced against their will to live in Czechoslovakia; and to deny the r ight of self-determlnation to Slovaks who joined Czechoslovakia because full autonomy was promised them a promise which was never kept. Tbere are undoubtedly many refugees ft'om Czechoslovakia who maintain that their country was a paradisf' and they are perfectly rigbt [rom tbeir persona] point of view, for tbese were Czechoslova• kian professlonal soldiers, state officials, and rullng pollticlans wbo lost their paradlse. But the nations of Czechoslovakia, including the Czecha, do not wish to have anything in common with the paradise of the Czech imperialista and their state, which brought them from Nazi to Bolshevik �SLOVAKIA 46 occupation, from one great to another, greater, disaster. The nations of Czechoslovakia wish to live freely, on equal terms and in a large federation which would be able to protect their fredeom. The leading political party of the Czech imperialists is the Czech National Socialist Party of the late Dr. Benes, which dif[ers from the German National Socialist Party of the late Adolf Hitler in its attitude to Russia. While the German National Socialista were violently anti-Russian, the Czech National Socialists were pro-Russian and consequently pro-Bolshevik, considering Russian Bolshevism (which for propaganda reasons i called Communim) as a new form of pan-Slavism. In thls belief the Czech National Socialists became agents of Russian Bolshevism and during the war their so-called "Czechoslovakian" exiled Government was a Trojan Horse - a Bolshevik Fiftn Column in Great Britain and in the U. S. One of the leaders of the Czech Nationa l Socialists, Mr. Hubert Ripka, broadcast through the B. B. C. on Novembe„ 7, 1942, as fol· lows: "The November revolution turned Russia into a modem state; technically, militarily and politically a powerful s overeign s tate. That revolution did nol only increase the strength of the Russlan Soviet State but it also raised to greater heights than ever before the standard of civilization, culture and living of the wide masses of the Soviet people." T))is !s not an accidental quotation. I can su pply you with a htmdred si milar. In this spirit Czech imperialists spoke and ac ted during the war, making pro-Bol■hevik propaganda among Ame ricans of Czech origin and among Czech people in their motherland. As a result of their activities 40 per cent of Czechs voted pro-Bolshevik in 1946. In February 1948 thP- Czech National Socialist Party split. Th~ Party itsel( still exists in Czechoslovakia. rollaborates with the Bol· sheviks and has its ministers in the present Czechoslovakian Govern ment. Some leaders of t his party emigrated abroad and their attitude changed apparently into an anti-Bolshevik one. Under the chairmans hip of the Czech National Socialist Peter Zenkl, they established In Washington t he so-called ·•councll ot Free Czechoslovaki a." They represent nobody and nothing but their past mismanagement of Czechoslovakia and their desire for the restoration of the ir lost paradise. They well know their real position and. therefore, try to keep tbeir power by political frauds and terror. They denoonce al\ Czech as well as Slovak democrats and Sudeten Germans as fascists. Confidential and false denunciations against their democratic opponents have been their principal political weapon slnce 1939. To give a concrete example of their a ctivities I would like to call your attention to a camp for refugees from Czecho~lovakia in Murnau. Germany, U. S. Zone. In this camp there were democratic Czechs. adherents of the Czech National Committee in London and democratic Slovaks, adherents of the Slovakian National Council Abroad. During one year the adberents of the so-called Council of Free Czechoslovakia in Washington made 241 denunciatlons against thelr democratlc Czech and Slovakian opponents In camp Murnau. The U . S. authorities investigated a ll these denun clatlons and they a ll pro,·ed to be fals"l. �SLOVAXIA Such is the situatlon in . ev~ry camp [or refugees trom Czechoslovakia in Germany. · r can glve you an example of thei·r activltles in the U. S. Lasi year there arrlved In the U. S. the Slovaklan leader Mr. Karol Sldor, who during the war was in clisgrace with tbe German Nazls and was shelterecl In the Vatlcan. An Amerlcan columnist, Mr. Walter Wlnchell, started a public campaign agalnst Sldor denouncing bim falsely as a Nazl. When Mr. WlnchelJ was compelled to say what he knew about Sldor, he <'Onfessed that he knew nothing whatsoever, and that he hati , eceived all his information frÔm Congressman Kleln. But Mr. Kleln also ronfessed to know notbing about Sidor ani! he received all hls informatlon from Mr. Andrew · Valushek. Who is thls gentleman? He ia the manager of the "New-Yorkské Listy", a· Czech newspaper published in New York, which durlng the war was edited by two internaitonal Bolsheviks, Bension Batt and Desider Benau, disguised as " Czechoslovakian democratic refugees."' Mr. Valushek is also the se<'retary of th e American Fund for Czechoslovak RP.fugees, lne.. 1775 Broadway, Room 607, ,'<ew York 19. Among the sponsors or this organlzatlon are Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, Senator H erbert Lehman, Governor Frank J . Lausche, Dorothy Thompson, and others. And Mr. Valushek is also in tbe Executlve Committee o! tbe Anti-Názi League wbose pro-Bolshveik cbaracter is certalnly well known to you. On August 25. 1950, tbe so-calJed "Councll of Free Czechoslovakit1" decided to make evldence or all refugees from Czechoslovakia in Germany'. Tbelr branob organizatlon In Germany i!ssued a circular N<l. 1010-201-Br. on August 31. 1950. in which they stated as follows: "The Council of Free Czechoslovakia ia the only recognized rep. resentative of political refugees from Czechoslovakia. ·. .• We need evidence of all refugees trom Czechoslovakla for their eventual transfer. The Government• requested to take our refugees ask that guarantee for every refugee concerning his politlcal reliability be given. "Please ke„p those who refuse to sign our evldence questionnaire under ca1·eful surveillance, and send us their names.•. .'' People do not want to sign tbe questlonnaires of the so-called Cruncll of Free Czechoslovakla, because they clo not wish to have anything in common wlth it. and they are afraid, conslderlng how ľlosely tbese gentlemen colJaborat!'d wlth the Russian Bolshevlks. 'ľbose who refuse to sign are talsely denounced to tbe U. S. and IRO Junctionaries and persecuted. On tbe ground of their false denunclatlon a Czecb Professor of Law from Prague University was recently d~prived of bis O.P.'s card. They are forcing refugees froro Czechoslova•kla to sign in order to have "evidence" tbat a majority ot retugees from Czecboslovakia are their adherents. I can glve you an example of how they deal with people wbo refuse to be their adherents. At Dijon. France, on September 7, 1950. Karol Vasak. a Czech lay student from Dijon University, was arrestecl by tbe Frencb Police as an alleged aRent of the Soviet Russlan NKVD. His arrest <'ausecl a sensation in Dijon because Vasak was known as an ardent Catbolle, very active in Catboliť organizatlons. Thernfore bis <'lise was publicized in tbe French press. Aťcording to titf> ' '. Aurore" of September 12. 1950, the <'Onstable wbo arreeted Vasak tol<I that n.ewspaper's ťorrespon~ent_: "Va.sak I!>. elther th!' viťtllll ot a tri\- �SLOVAKIA 41 glc mlstake, or he ls such a dlsslmulator as I have never met In roy long police servlce." Thanks to some doubts whlch the police had, Vasak was not transported to Czechoslovak ia, bu t was gtven the c hoice: Czechostovak la or Alglers. or course he chose Alglers, whlther he was deported. Tha nks to the lnterest of French Cathollc circles h ls case was thoroughly lnvestlgated and the "Le Monde" or September 16, 1950, published an article under the headlng: "Arrest ól .Karel Vasak was a result of rlvalry between Czech studenLs." In the meant ime, the French police discovered that Vasak was an ardent antlCommunlst, and that the accusatlon, made agalnst him by two other Cze chs, was talse. But falae alao waa the atatement in " Le Monde"; becauae Vaaak waa denoun ced by two ad herenta of the Councll of Free Czechoalovak la In Waahlngton. Were the Sureté Natlonale to go througb thelr flles, they would {Ind that a tready In 1939 the offlclals of the Czechoslovak la Natlonal Commlttee of Mr. Benes had denounced a ll Czech and Slovaklan antlCommunlsts In France to the French Police as "dangerous Communlst agents." Thls was at the tíme when thls Czechoslovak lan Commltttle was a cover-up organlzatlon for Bolshevlk agents a'n d Mr. RipJ<a, I n hia office at 52 Avenua Bourdonala, Paria, waa hiding an internatlonal Bolahevlk agent, Simon Katz, who was wanted by the F rel)ch police. After the cottapse of France, the same Czech s and Stovaks, who In France were falsely denounced as dangerous communiata, were later confldentlally denounced in Brltaln by tbe same Benes adherents a11 Nazi agents and were imprlsoned, without investlgatlon , by the British. The Vasak affalr in France ls _oi;ily a contlnuatlon o! the late Renes' pollcy: it la a policy of Czech · Ímperlalista who. allied themaelvea with the Ru11ian Bolsheviks, adopted their methoda of 'd~é:elving the enemy, and perfected them with typlcal Czech thoroughne11. On J anuary 25, 1951, there was In Washington a meeflng or th~ so-called Councll or Free Czecboslovak ia, at wblch 17 members out of ľo passed a vote of censure agalnst P eter Zenkt, th e Natlonal Soclali).IL chairman of the Council. Mr. Zenk.l, therefore, declare~ that "the Council of F ree Czechoalovak la had disaolved itaelf and ceased to exist" because " the party syatem proved unworkable and the de le gates of the political parties had been unrepresenta tive anyway." Thls is the way In wbich _Czech Natlonal . Soclallsts understand democracy. 'ľheir conťeption of democracy does 11ot dlffer ffOTU that of German National Socialists. Mr. Zenkl then formed a new organization, th~ Czechoslovak lan Natlonal Commlttee. In thls new Czechoslovak lan Committee, ~r. Zenkl is obvlously the chairman ä~'<f among hls pro• mlnent "Cezchoslova ks" are Messrs. Papanek, Fi'ŕl-Fuerth, General lngr, Felerbend and the brother or the late PťesicÍEľnt Benes. No matter what they call themselves they cannot but conttnue the pollcy, of the late I;lenes _in deceiving the Western public a~d terrorízing polltical refu geea from Czec hoa lovakia. They can do th ls oply because they are sponsored by some prominent Axnerlcans and by offlclals of the U. S. State Department who I am sure mean. well, but are not lnformed. And many <Usasters have happened becau\je or the policy of l!Ome Amerlcans wtio were -not lnformed about :Eu~o,P,e ap<! Russlan Bo)shevlsm. , . ' . ,1 • I would like to call your attention to \he .faci that the actlvlties or these ·•czecboslova ks" are In contradlctlon ' to the U. S. prlnclples �48 SLOVAKIA of democracy and the U. S. historical mlssion in the world. In spite of thls, they are supported by American flnanťes, they have monopoly in broadcasting from tbe IJ. S., and the effect on people in Czecboslovakia is an absolute failure. They have the as ~istance .of the U. $. authorities in Germany and also of the I RO authoritles. their organizations have the monopoly of informing the authorities of Western Governments about refugees from Czechos\ovakia and, wltb thelr a.ssistance, arranged the emigration to tbe U. S. (as well as to Australia, New Zealand and other coun tries) of people who have never been Czecboslovaklan citizens and refugees. Therefore, I tbink tbat tbeir activitles deserve the attention of the United States Sena.te Committee on Un-Amerlcan Activities. Yours faithfully, V. L. BORIN. • • • WH O SAID IT? " CZECHS bow east POLITICALLY but west INTELLECTUALLY . . · . Not behind "Iron Curtain" - Communist police state doubted . . . Soviet withdrawal s een . . . . Most observers bere {In Prague) are incllned to doubt that Russia ig going to try to de•,elop in Czechoslovakia, Austria and Germany the kind of Communist police state that prevalia in Rumania, Bulgaria and Poland. . . . One popular tboory in Prague is tbat the Russians a lways withdraw from the West sooner or later for fear of being contaminated. . . Maybe it ia all just a dream but it ia a pleasant one though anyway a nd the Czeehoslovaks nurse lt Jealously ." - {NEW YORK TIMES, 8-5-47) . • "We are neighbors or Russia. Our security policy depends upon Russla. We bave no choice. . . . But any statement to the effect that we are behlnd a curtain or occupied by the Ru ■sians is absolute nonsense. This country and its poople are ABSOLUTELY DEMOCRATIC and we will remaln so, come what may. . . . We are a typical non. Soviet regime w ith no intention of so becoming. We are sociali!ltic and we w!ll develop along those Unes by evolution. . . But our conception or d emocracy remains the same now as before. . . . 1 am eonvinced th at in two or three years ou r position w ill be ve ry healthy.'' (Dr. Edward Benes, NEW YORK TIMES, 5-7-47) . • " l am genuinely grieved when I see a country like Czechoslovakia lost to the democratic cause. Here is a republic MODELLED AFTER AMERICAN POLITJCAL TRADITIONS BY MEN WHO l,OVED FREEDOM - transformed into a totalitarian Russlan satelIite state. . . . Most of the CZECHS don't like it. but there is nothing they can do about it. Dr. Benes. the able President of the country, has d~cid~ that only c!ose political and economic rela.tlon.,; wltb Communlst Russ la CAN GUARANTEE Czechoslovakla's future . . . . Eaeb time we have stoO<l up against Russia on a matter of prlnciple, she has ma'de CONCESSIONS that, from her point of vie"\!, were generous. I AM CONVlNCED THAT STALIN WANTS FRIEND~1-HP AND COOPERATION WITH BRITAIN AND THE UNITED ~'ľA 'ľE>S." (H. W. Kaltenborn. Radlo Broa<lcast. 7-6-45). � 44 SLOVA.K:IA "FREE" AND "CZECHOSLOVAKIAN" DON'T RHYME ! Not all Czechs insist on the existencť' or Czec·boslovakla, the arti· !icial state establisbed by Czech imperialist,; to exploit the non-Czech nations of that territory wbich were in the majority. 'ľhe Czech National Committee in London, bť'aded by General Leľ Prchala, has been outspoken in this respect for many years. The (ollowing ·'Open Letter" by a member of tbat committee <'ame to us tbc latter part or February. We publish it in full Cor its exposé o[ the COUNCIL :>1<, FREE CZECHOSLOVAKIA whicb poses as a representative group •Jf "democratic" exiles from Czechoslovakla. AN OPEN LETTER From V. L. Borin, Editor of Pravda, and Member of the Czech National Committee, London England, to the Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Un-American Activities, Washington, D. C. SIR: To support the struggle of alt nations for freerlom became a historical misslon of the U. S. sinťe President Lincoln won his struggle against slavery. Freerlom of nations is tbe principal question in the struggle of Centra! and Southeastern Europeon natlons a!('alnst Bolshevik oppre!;· i,lon. To support their struggle means to repudiate imperialisiil ot any kind and to 1ecognize unconditionally the right to self-dterminatiou of a~l nations on the territory in their ethnographi<'al boundarles and to assist them in their endeavor to form a federation o[ free nations. Some prominent citizens of the U. S. and some officials of the U. S. State Department sup1>ort tbe so-called ·•czechoslc,vaks" and tbeir organizations, givlng them a monopoli!ltic position in the Grew Com· mlttee anrl in American broadcasting Cor Czechoslovakia. The top :lľ· ganization of thE> so-called "C1.ecboslovaks" was, until Jánuary 25, 1951, the Council of Free Cze<'hoslovakia. To say "FREE CZECHOSLOVAKIA'' means to manifest a pro. found hypocrisy, or ignorance. "Free Czechoslovakia" means not freedom for nations in Czechoslovakia, but freedom for Czech imperialists to oppress Sudeten Germans and Hungarians who, in 1919, were forced against their will to live in Czechoslovakia; and to deny the r ight of self-determlnation to Slovaks who joined Czechoslovakia because full autonomy was promised them a promise which was never kept. Tbere are undoubtedly many refugees ft'om Czechoslovakia who maintain that their country was a paradisf' and they are perfectly rigbt [rom tbeir persona] point of view, for tbese were Czechoslova• kian professlonal soldiers, state officials, and rullng pollticlans wbo lost their paradlse. But the nations of Czechoslovakia, including the Czecha, do not wish to have anything in common with the paradise of the Czech imperialista and their state, which brought them from Nazi to Bolshevik �SLOVAKIA 46 occupation, from one great to another, greater, disaster. The nations of Czechoslovakia wish to live freely, on equal terms and in a large federation which would be able to protect their fredeom. The leading political party of the Czech imperialists is the Czech National Socialist Party of the late Dr. Benes, which dif[ers from the German National Socialist Party of the late Adolf Hitler in its attitude to Russia. While the German National Socialista were violently anti-Russian, the Czech National Socialists were pro-Russian and consequently pro-Bolshevik, considering Russian Bolshevism (which for propaganda reasons i called Communim) as a new form of pan-Slavism. In thls belief the Czech National Socialists became agents of Russian Bolshevism and during the war their so-called "Czechoslovakian" exiled Government was a Trojan Horse - a Bolshevik Fiftn Column in Great Britain and in the U. S. One of the leaders of the Czech Nationa l Socialists, Mr. Hubert Ripka, broadcast through the B. B. C. on Novembe„ 7, 1942, as fol· lows: "The November revolution turned Russia into a modem state; technically, militarily and politically a powerful s overeign s tate. That revolution did nol only increase the strength of the Russlan Soviet State but it also raised to greater heights than ever before the standard of civilization, culture and living of the wide masses of the Soviet people." T))is !s not an accidental quotation. I can su pply you with a htmdred si milar. In this spirit Czech imperialists spoke and ac ted during the war, making pro-Bol■hevik propaganda among Ame ricans of Czech origin and among Czech people in their motherland. As a result of their activities 40 per cent of Czechs voted pro-Bolshevik in 1946. In February 1948 thP- Czech National Socialist Party split. Th~ Party itsel( still exists in Czechoslovakia. rollaborates with the Bol· sheviks and has its ministers in the present Czechoslovakian Govern ment. Some leaders of t his party emigrated abroad and their attitude changed apparently into an anti-Bolshevik one. Under the chairmans hip of the Czech National Socialist Peter Zenkl, they established In Washington t he so-called ·•councll ot Free Czechoslovaki a." They represent nobody and nothing but their past mismanagement of Czechoslovakia and their desire for the restoration of the ir lost paradise. They well know their real position and. therefore, try to keep tbeir power by political frauds and terror. They denoonce al\ Czech as well as Slovak democrats and Sudeten Germans as fascists. Confidential and false denunciations against their democratic opponents have been their principal political weapon slnce 1939. To give a concrete example of their a ctivities I would like to call your attention to a camp for refugees from Czecho~lovakia in Murnau. Germany, U. S. Zone. In this camp there were democratic Czechs. adherents of the Czech National Committee in London and democratic Slovaks, adherents of the Slovakian National Council Abroad. During one year the adberents of the so-called Council of Free Czechoslovakia in Washington made 241 denunciatlons against thelr democratlc Czech and Slovakian opponents In camp Murnau. The U . S. authorities investigated a ll these denun clatlons and they a ll pro,·ed to be fals"l. �SLOVAXIA Such is the situatlon in . ev~ry camp [or refugees trom Czechoslovakia in Germany. · r can glve you an example of thei·r activltles in the U. S. Lasi year there arrlved In the U. S. the Slovaklan leader Mr. Karol Sldor, who during the war was in clisgrace with tbe German Nazls and was shelterecl In the Vatlcan. An Amerlcan columnist, Mr. Walter Wlnchell, started a public campaign agalnst Sldor denouncing bim falsely as a Nazl. When Mr. WlnchelJ was compelled to say what he knew about Sldor, he <'Onfessed that he knew nothing whatsoever, and that he hati , eceived all his information frÔm Congressman Kleln. But Mr. Kleln also ronfessed to know notbing about Sidor ani! he received all hls informatlon from Mr. Andrew · Valushek. Who is thls gentleman? He ia the manager of the "New-Yorkské Listy", a· Czech newspaper published in New York, which durlng the war was edited by two internaitonal Bolsheviks, Bension Batt and Desider Benau, disguised as " Czechoslovakian democratic refugees."' Mr. Valushek is also the se<'retary of th e American Fund for Czechoslovak RP.fugees, lne.. 1775 Broadway, Room 607, ,'<ew York 19. Among the sponsors or this organlzatlon are Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, Senator H erbert Lehman, Governor Frank J . Lausche, Dorothy Thompson, and others. And Mr. Valushek is also in tbe Executlve Committee o! tbe Anti-Názi League wbose pro-Bolshveik cbaracter is certalnly well known to you. On August 25. 1950, tbe so-calJed "Councll of Free Czechoslovakit1" decided to make evldence or all refugees from Czechoslovakia in Germany'. Tbelr branob organizatlon In Germany i!ssued a circular N<l. 1010-201-Br. on August 31. 1950. in which they stated as follows: "The Council of Free Czechoslovakia ia the only recognized rep. resentative of political refugees from Czechoslovakia. ·. .• We need evidence of all refugees trom Czechoslovakla for their eventual transfer. The Government• requested to take our refugees ask that guarantee for every refugee concerning his politlcal reliability be given. "Please ke„p those who refuse to sign our evldence questionnaire under ca1·eful surveillance, and send us their names.•. .'' People do not want to sign tbe questlonnaires of the so-called Cruncll of Free Czechoslovakla, because they clo not wish to have anything in common wlth it. and they are afraid, conslderlng how ľlosely tbese gentlemen colJaborat!'d wlth the Russian Bolshevlks. 'ľbose who refuse to sign are talsely denounced to tbe U. S. and IRO Junctionaries and persecuted. On tbe ground of their false denunclatlon a Czecb Professor of Law from Prague University was recently d~prived of bis O.P.'s card. They are forcing refugees froro Czechoslova•kla to sign in order to have "evidence" tbat a majority ot retugees from Czecboslovakia are their adherents. I can glve you an example of how they deal with people wbo refuse to be their adherents. At Dijon. France, on September 7, 1950. Karol Vasak. a Czech lay student from Dijon University, was arrestecl by tbe Frencb Police as an alleged aRent of the Soviet Russlan NKVD. His arrest <'ausecl a sensation in Dijon because Vasak was known as an ardent Catbolle, very active in Catboliť organizatlons. Thernfore bis <'lise was publicized in tbe French press. Aťcording to titf> ' '. Aurore" of September 12. 1950, the <'Onstable wbo arreeted Vasak tol<I that n.ewspaper's ťorrespon~ent_: "Va.sak I!>. elther th!' viťtllll ot a tri\- �SLOVAKIA 41 glc mlstake, or he ls such a dlsslmulator as I have never met In roy long police servlce." Thanks to some doubts whlch the police had, Vasak was not transported to Czechoslovak ia, bu t was gtven the c hoice: Czechostovak la or Alglers. or course he chose Alglers, whlther he was deported. Tha nks to the lnterest of French Cathollc circles h ls case was thoroughly lnvestlgated and the "Le Monde" or September 16, 1950, published an article under the headlng: "Arrest ól .Karel Vasak was a result of rlvalry between Czech studenLs." In the meant ime, the French police discovered that Vasak was an ardent antlCommunlst, and that the accusatlon, made agalnst him by two other Cze chs, was talse. But falae alao waa the atatement in " Le Monde"; becauae Vaaak waa denoun ced by two ad herenta of the Councll of Free Czechoalovak la In Waahlngton. Were the Sureté Natlonale to go througb thelr flles, they would {Ind that a tready In 1939 the offlclals of the Czechoslovak la Natlonal Commlttee of Mr. Benes had denounced a ll Czech and Slovaklan antlCommunlsts In France to the French Police as "dangerous Communlst agents." Thls was at the tíme when thls Czechoslovak lan Commltttle was a cover-up organlzatlon for Bolshevlk agents a'n d Mr. RipJ<a, I n hia office at 52 Avenua Bourdonala, Paria, waa hiding an internatlonal Bolahevlk agent, Simon Katz, who was wanted by the F rel)ch police. After the cottapse of France, the same Czech s and Stovaks, who In France were falsely denounced as dangerous communiata, were later confldentlally denounced in Brltaln by tbe same Benes adherents a11 Nazi agents and were imprlsoned, without investlgatlon , by the British. The Vasak affalr in France ls _oi;ily a contlnuatlon o! the late Renes' pollcy: it la a policy of Czech · Ímperlalista who. allied themaelvea with the Ru11ian Bolsheviks, adopted their methoda of 'd~é:elving the enemy, and perfected them with typlcal Czech thoroughne11. On J anuary 25, 1951, there was In Washington a meeflng or th~ so-called Councll or Free Czecboslovak ia, at wblch 17 members out of ľo passed a vote of censure agalnst P eter Zenkt, th e Natlonal Soclali).IL chairman of the Council. Mr. Zenk.l, therefore, declare~ that "the Council of F ree Czechoalovak la had disaolved itaelf and ceased to exist" because " the party syatem proved unworkable and the de le gates of the political parties had been unrepresenta tive anyway." Thls is the way In wbich _Czech Natlonal . Soclallsts understand democracy. 'ľheir conťeption of democracy does 11ot dlffer ffOTU that of German National Socialists. Mr. Zenkl then formed a new organization, th~ Czechoslovak lan Natlonal Commlttee. In thls new Czechoslovak lan Committee, ~r. Zenkl is obvlously the chairman ä~'<f among hls pro• mlnent "Cezchoslova ks" are Messrs. Papanek, Fi'ŕl-Fuerth, General lngr, Felerbend and the brother or the late PťesicÍEľnt Benes. No matter what they call themselves they cannot but conttnue the pollcy, of the late I;lenes _in deceiving the Western public a~d terrorízing polltical refu geea from Czec hoa lovakia. They can do th ls oply because they are sponsored by some prominent Axnerlcans and by offlclals of the U. S. State Department who I am sure mean. well, but are not lnformed. And many <Usasters have happened becau\je or the policy of l!Ome Amerlcans wtio were -not lnformed about :Eu~o,P,e ap<! Russlan Bo)shevlsm. , . ' . ,1 • I would like to call your attention to \he .faci that the actlvlties or these ·•czecboslova ks" are In contradlctlon ' to the U. S. prlnclples �48 SLOVAKIA of democracy and the U. S. historical mlssion in the world. In spite of thls, they are supported by American flnanťes, they have monopoly in broadcasting from tbe IJ. S., and the effect on people in Czecboslovakia is an absolute failure. They have the as ~istance .of the U. $. authorities in Germany and also of the I RO authoritles. their organizations have the monopoly of informing the authorities of Western Governments about refugees from Czechos\ovakia and, wltb thelr a.ssistance, arranged the emigration to tbe U. S. (as well as to Australia, New Zealand and other coun tries) of people who have never been Czecboslovaklan citizens and refugees. Therefore, I tbink tbat tbeir activitles deserve the attention of the United States Sena.te Committee on Un-Amerlcan Activities. Yours faithfully, V. L. BORIN. • • • WH O SAID IT? " CZECHS bow east POLITICALLY but west INTELLECTUALLY . . · . Not behind "Iron Curtain" - Communist police state doubted . . . Soviet withdrawal s een . . . . Most observers bere {In Prague) are incllned to doubt that Russia ig going to try to de•,elop in Czechoslovakia, Austria and Germany the kind of Communist police state that prevalia in Rumania, Bulgaria and Poland. . . . One popular tboory in Prague is tbat the Russians a lways withdraw from the West sooner or later for fear of being contaminated. . . Maybe it ia all just a dream but it ia a pleasant one though anyway a nd the Czeehoslovaks nurse lt Jealously ." - {NEW YORK TIMES, 8-5-47) . • "We are neighbors or Russia. Our security policy depends upon Russla. We bave no choice. . . . But any statement to the effect that we are behlnd a curtain or occupied by the Ru ■sians is absolute nonsense. This country and its poople are ABSOLUTELY DEMOCRATIC and we will remaln so, come what may. . . . We are a typical non. Soviet regime w ith no intention of so becoming. We are sociali!ltic and we w!ll develop along those Unes by evolution. . . But our conception or d emocracy remains the same now as before. . . . 1 am eonvinced th at in two or three years ou r position w ill be ve ry healthy.'' (Dr. Edward Benes, NEW YORK TIMES, 5-7-47) . • " l am genuinely grieved when I see a country like Czechoslovakia lost to the democratic cause. Here is a republic MODELLED AFTER AMERICAN POLITJCAL TRADITIONS BY MEN WHO l,OVED FREEDOM - transformed into a totalitarian Russlan satelIite state. . . . Most of the CZECHS don't like it. but there is nothing they can do about it. Dr. Benes. the able President of the country, has d~cid~ that only c!ose political and economic rela.tlon.,; wltb Communlst Russ la CAN GUARANTEE Czechoslovakla's future . . . . Eaeb time we have stoO<l up against Russia on a matter of prlnciple, she has ma'de CONCESSIONS that, from her point of vie"\!, were generous. I AM CONVlNCED THAT STALIN WANTS FRIEND~1-HP AND COOPERATION WITH BRITAIN AND THE UNITED ~'ľA 'ľE>S." (H. W. Kaltenborn. Radlo Broa<lcast. 7-6-45). � 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 1952, Vol. 2 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 1952 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 3), March 1952.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 4), August 1952.</li> <li>Issue 3 (No. 5), December 1952.</li> </ul> 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 44 SLOVA.K:IA "FREE" AND "CZECHOSLOVAKIAN" DON'T RHYME ! Not all Czechs insist on the existencť' or Czec·boslovakla, the arti· !icial state establisbed by Czech imperialist,; to exploit the non-Czech nations of that territory wbich were in the majority. 'ľhe Czech National Committee in London, bť'aded by General Leľ Prchala, has been outspoken in this respect for many years. The (ollowing ·'Open Letter" by a member of tbat committee <'ame to us tbc latter part or February. We publish it in full Cor its exposé o[ the COUNCIL :>1<, FREE CZECHOSLOVAKIA whicb poses as a representative group •Jf "democratic" exiles from Czechoslovakla. AN OPEN LETTER From V. L. Borin, Editor of Pravda, and Member of the Czech National Committee, London England, to the Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Un-American Activities, Washington, D. C. SIR: To support the struggle of alt nations for freerlom became a historical misslon of the U. S. sinťe President Lincoln won his struggle against slavery. Freerlom of nations is tbe principal question in the struggle of Centra! and Southeastern Europeon natlons a!('alnst Bolshevik oppre!;· i,lon. To support their struggle means to repudiate imperialisiil ot any kind and to 1ecognize unconditionally the right to self-dterminatiou of a~l nations on the territory in their ethnographi<'al boundarles and to assist them in their endeavor to form a federation o[ free nations. Some prominent citizens of the U. S. and some officials of the U. S. State Department sup1>ort tbe so-called ·•czechoslc,vaks" and tbeir organizations, givlng them a monopoli!ltic position in the Grew Com· mlttee anrl in American broadcasting Cor Czechoslovakia. The top :lľ· ganization of thE> so-called "C1.ecboslovaks" was, until Jánuary 25, 1951, the Council of Free Cze<'hoslovakia. To say "FREE CZECHOSLOVAKIA'' means to manifest a pro. found hypocrisy, or ignorance. "Free Czechoslovakia" means not freedom for nations in Czechoslovakia, but freedom for Czech imperialists to oppress Sudeten Germans and Hungarians who, in 1919, were forced against their will to live in Czechoslovakia; and to deny the r ight of self-determlnation to Slovaks who joined Czechoslovakia because full autonomy was promised them a promise which was never kept. Tbere are undoubtedly many refugees ft'om Czechoslovakia who maintain that their country was a paradisf' and they are perfectly rigbt [rom tbeir persona] point of view, for tbese were Czechoslova• kian professlonal soldiers, state officials, and rullng pollticlans wbo lost their paradlse. But the nations of Czechoslovakia, including the Czecha, do not wish to have anything in common with the paradise of the Czech imperialista and their state, which brought them from Nazi to Bolshevik SLOVAKIA 46 occupation, from one great to another, greater, disaster. The nations of Czechoslovakia wish to live freely, on equal terms and in a large federation which would be able to protect their fredeom. The leading political party of the Czech imperialists is the Czech National Socialist Party of the late Dr. Benes, which dif[ers from the German National Socialist Party of the late Adolf Hitler in its attitude to Russia. While the German National Socialista were violently anti-Russian, the Czech National Socialists were pro-Russian and consequently pro-Bolshevik, considering Russian Bolshevism (which for propaganda reasons i called Communim) as a new form of pan-Slavism. In thls belief the Czech National Socialists became agents of Russian Bolshevism and during the war their so-called "Czechoslovakian" exiled Government was a Trojan Horse - a Bolshevik Fiftn Column in Great Britain and in the U. S. One of the leaders of the Czech Nationa l Socialists, Mr. Hubert Ripka, broadcast through the B. B. C. on Novembe„ 7, 1942, as fol· lows: "The November revolution turned Russia into a modem state; technically, militarily and politically a powerful s overeign s tate. That revolution did nol only increase the strength of the Russlan Soviet State but it also raised to greater heights than ever before the standard of civilization, culture and living of the wide masses of the Soviet people." T))is !s not an accidental quotation. I can su pply you with a htmdred si milar. In this spirit Czech imperialists spoke and ac ted during the war, making pro-Bol■hevik propaganda among Ame ricans of Czech origin and among Czech people in their motherland. As a result of their activities 40 per cent of Czechs voted pro-Bolshevik in 1946. In February 1948 thP- Czech National Socialist Party split. Th~ Party itsel( still exists in Czechoslovakia. rollaborates with the Bol· sheviks and has its ministers in the present Czechoslovakian Govern ment. Some leaders of t his party emigrated abroad and their attitude changed apparently into an anti-Bolshevik one. Under the chairmans hip of the Czech National Socialist Peter Zenkl, they established In Washington t he so-called ·•councll ot Free Czechoslovaki a." They represent nobody and nothing but their past mismanagement of Czechoslovakia and their desire for the restoration of the ir lost paradise. They well know their real position and. therefore, try to keep tbeir power by political frauds and terror. They denoonce al\ Czech as well as Slovak democrats and Sudeten Germans as fascists. Confidential and false denunciations against their democratic opponents have been their principal political weapon slnce 1939. To give a concrete example of their a ctivities I would like to call your attention to a camp for refugees from Czecho~lovakia in Murnau. Germany, U. S. Zone. In this camp there were democratic Czechs. adherents of the Czech National Committee in London and democratic Slovaks, adherents of the Slovakian National Council Abroad. During one year the adberents of the so-called Council of Free Czechoslovakia in Washington made 241 denunciatlons against thelr democratlc Czech and Slovakian opponents In camp Murnau. The U . S. authorities investigated a ll these denun clatlons and they a ll pro,·ed to be fals"l. SLOVAXIA Such is the situatlon in . ev~ry camp [or refugees trom Czechoslovakia in Germany. · r can glve you an example of thei·r activltles in the U. S. Lasi year there arrlved In the U. S. the Slovaklan leader Mr. Karol Sldor, who during the war was in clisgrace with tbe German Nazls and was shelterecl In the Vatlcan. An Amerlcan columnist, Mr. Walter Wlnchell, started a public campaign agalnst Sldor denouncing bim falsely as a Nazl. When Mr. WlnchelJ was compelled to say what he knew about Sldor, he <'Onfessed that he knew nothing whatsoever, and that he hati , eceived all his information frÔm Congressman Kleln. But Mr. Kleln also ronfessed to know notbing about Sidor ani! he received all hls informatlon from Mr. Andrew · Valushek. Who is thls gentleman? He ia the manager of the "New-Yorkské Listy", a· Czech newspaper published in New York, which durlng the war was edited by two internaitonal Bolsheviks, Bension Batt and Desider Benau, disguised as " Czechoslovakian democratic refugees."' Mr. Valushek is also the se<'retary of th e American Fund for Czechoslovak RP.fugees, lne.. 1775 Broadway, Room 607, ,'<ew York 19. Among the sponsors or this organlzatlon are Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, Senator H erbert Lehman, Governor Frank J . Lausche, Dorothy Thompson, and others. And Mr. Valushek is also in tbe Executlve Committee o! tbe Anti-Názi League wbose pro-Bolshveik cbaracter is certalnly well known to you. On August 25. 1950, tbe so-calJed "Councll of Free Czechoslovakit1" decided to make evldence or all refugees from Czechoslovakia in Germany'. Tbelr branob organizatlon In Germany i!ssued a circular N<l. 1010-201-Br. on August 31. 1950. in which they stated as follows: "The Council of Free Czechoslovakia ia the only recognized rep. resentative of political refugees from Czechoslovakia. ·. .• We need evidence of all refugees trom Czechoslovakla for their eventual transfer. The Government• requested to take our refugees ask that guarantee for every refugee concerning his politlcal reliability be given. "Please ke„p those who refuse to sign our evldence questionnaire under ca1·eful surveillance, and send us their names.•. .'' People do not want to sign tbe questlonnaires of the so-called Cruncll of Free Czechoslovakla, because they clo not wish to have anything in common wlth it. and they are afraid, conslderlng how ľlosely tbese gentlemen colJaborat!'d wlth the Russian Bolshevlks. 'ľbose who refuse to sign are talsely denounced to tbe U. S. and IRO Junctionaries and persecuted. On tbe ground of their false denunclatlon a Czecb Professor of Law from Prague University was recently d~prived of bis O.P.'s card. They are forcing refugees froro Czechoslova•kla to sign in order to have "evidence" tbat a majority ot retugees from Czecboslovakia are their adherents. I can glve you an example of how they deal with people wbo refuse to be their adherents. At Dijon. France, on September 7, 1950. Karol Vasak. a Czech lay student from Dijon University, was arrestecl by tbe Frencb Police as an alleged aRent of the Soviet Russlan NKVD. His arrest <'ausecl a sensation in Dijon because Vasak was known as an ardent Catbolle, very active in Catboliť organizatlons. Thernfore bis <'lise was publicized in tbe French press. Aťcording to titf> ' '. Aurore" of September 12. 1950, the <'Onstable wbo arreeted Vasak tol<I that n.ewspaper's ťorrespon~ent_: "Va.sak I!>. elther th!' viťtllll ot a tri\- SLOVAKIA 41 glc mlstake, or he ls such a dlsslmulator as I have never met In roy long police servlce." Thanks to some doubts whlch the police had, Vasak was not transported to Czechoslovak ia, bu t was gtven the c hoice: Czechostovak la or Alglers. or course he chose Alglers, whlther he was deported. Tha nks to the lnterest of French Cathollc circles h ls case was thoroughly lnvestlgated and the "Le Monde" or September 16, 1950, published an article under the headlng: "Arrest ól .Karel Vasak was a result of rlvalry between Czech studenLs." In the meant ime, the French police discovered that Vasak was an ardent antlCommunlst, and that the accusatlon, made agalnst him by two other Cze chs, was talse. But falae alao waa the atatement in " Le Monde"; becauae Vaaak waa denoun ced by two ad herenta of the Councll of Free Czechoalovak la In Waahlngton. Were the Sureté Natlonale to go througb thelr flles, they would {Ind that a tready In 1939 the offlclals of the Czechoslovak la Natlonal Commlttee of Mr. Benes had denounced a ll Czech and Slovaklan antlCommunlsts In France to the French Police as "dangerous Communlst agents." Thls was at the tíme when thls Czechoslovak lan Commltttle was a cover-up organlzatlon for Bolshevlk agents a'n d Mr. RipJ<a, I n hia office at 52 Avenua Bourdonala, Paria, waa hiding an internatlonal Bolahevlk agent, Simon Katz, who was wanted by the F rel)ch police. After the cottapse of France, the same Czech s and Stovaks, who In France were falsely denounced as dangerous communiata, were later confldentlally denounced in Brltaln by tbe same Benes adherents a11 Nazi agents and were imprlsoned, without investlgatlon , by the British. The Vasak affalr in France ls _oi;ily a contlnuatlon o! the late Renes' pollcy: it la a policy of Czech · Ímperlalista who. allied themaelvea with the Ru11ian Bolsheviks, adopted their methoda of 'd~é:elving the enemy, and perfected them with typlcal Czech thoroughne11. On J anuary 25, 1951, there was In Washington a meeflng or th~ so-called Councll or Free Czecboslovak ia, at wblch 17 members out of ľo passed a vote of censure agalnst P eter Zenkt, th e Natlonal Soclali).IL chairman of the Council. Mr. Zenk.l, therefore, declare~ that "the Council of F ree Czechoalovak la had disaolved itaelf and ceased to exist" because " the party syatem proved unworkable and the de le gates of the political parties had been unrepresenta tive anyway." Thls is the way In wbich _Czech Natlonal . Soclallsts understand democracy. 'ľheir conťeption of democracy does 11ot dlffer ffOTU that of German National Socialists. Mr. Zenkl then formed a new organization, th~ Czechoslovak lan Natlonal Commlttee. In thls new Czechoslovak lan Committee, ~r. Zenkl is obvlously the chairman ä~'<f among hls pro• mlnent "Cezchoslova ks" are Messrs. Papanek, Fi'ŕl-Fuerth, General lngr, Felerbend and the brother or the late PťesicÍEľnt Benes. No matter what they call themselves they cannot but conttnue the pollcy, of the late I;lenes _in deceiving the Western public a~d terrorízing polltical refu geea from Czec hoa lovakia. They can do th ls oply because they are sponsored by some prominent Axnerlcans and by offlclals of the U. S. State Department who I am sure mean. well, but are not lnformed. And many <Usasters have happened becau\je or the policy of l!Ome Amerlcans wtio were -not lnformed about :Eu~o,P,e ap<! Russlan Bo)shevlsm. , . ' . ,1 • I would like to call your attention to \he .faci that the actlvlties or these ·•czecboslova ks" are In contradlctlon ' to the U. S. prlnclples 48 SLOVAKIA of democracy and the U. S. historical mlssion in the world. In spite of thls, they are supported by American flnanťes, they have monopoly in broadcasting from tbe IJ. S., and the effect on people in Czecboslovakia is an absolute failure. They have the as ~istance .of the U. $. authorities in Germany and also of the I RO authoritles. their organizations have the monopoly of informing the authorities of Western Governments about refugees from Czechos\ovakia and, wltb thelr a.ssistance, arranged the emigration to tbe U. S. (as well as to Australia, New Zealand and other coun tries) of people who have never been Czecboslovaklan citizens and refugees. Therefore, I tbink tbat tbeir activitles deserve the attention of the United States Sena.te Committee on Un-Amerlcan Activities. Yours faithfully, V. L. BORIN. • • • WH O SAID IT? " CZECHS bow east POLITICALLY but west INTELLECTUALLY . . · . Not behind "Iron Curtain" - Communist police state doubted . . . Soviet withdrawal s een . . . . Most observers bere {In Prague) are incllned to doubt that Russia ig going to try to de•,elop in Czechoslovakia, Austria and Germany the kind of Communist police state that prevalia in Rumania, Bulgaria and Poland. . . . One popular tboory in Prague is tbat the Russians a lways withdraw from the West sooner or later for fear of being contaminated. . . Maybe it ia all just a dream but it ia a pleasant one though anyway a nd the Czeehoslovaks nurse lt Jealously ." - {NEW YORK TIMES, 8-5-47) . • "We are neighbors or Russia. Our security policy depends upon Russla. We bave no choice. . . . But any statement to the effect that we are behlnd a curtain or occupied by the Ru ■sians is absolute nonsense. This country and its poople are ABSOLUTELY DEMOCRATIC and we will remaln so, come what may. . . . We are a typical non. Soviet regime w ith no intention of so becoming. We are sociali!ltic and we w!ll develop along those Unes by evolution. . . But our conception or d emocracy remains the same now as before. . . . 1 am eonvinced th at in two or three years ou r position w ill be ve ry healthy.'' (Dr. Edward Benes, NEW YORK TIMES, 5-7-47) . • " l am genuinely grieved when I see a country like Czechoslovakia lost to the democratic cause. Here is a republic MODELLED AFTER AMERICAN POLITJCAL TRADITIONS BY MEN WHO l,OVED FREEDOM - transformed into a totalitarian Russlan satelIite state. . . . Most of the CZECHS don't like it. but there is nothing they can do about it. Dr. Benes. the able President of the country, has d~cid~ that only c!ose political and economic rela.tlon.,; wltb Communlst Russ la CAN GUARANTEE Czechoslovakla's future . . . . Eaeb time we have stoO<l up against Russia on a matter of prlnciple, she has ma'de CONCESSIONS that, from her point of vie"\!, were generous. I AM CONVlNCED THAT STALIN WANTS FRIEND~1-HP AND COOPERATION WITH BRITAIN AND THE UNITED ~'ľA 'ľE>S." (H. W. Kaltenborn. Radlo Broa<lcast. 7-6-45).  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 "Free" and "Czechoslovakian" Don't Rhyme! Description An account of the resource V. L. Borin Slovakia, Vol. 2, No. 2 (4), August 1952 pp. 44-48 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Borin, V. L. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource August 1952 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/17bbd2b0b0b6b263fdc0f1514dbbc107.pdf 428431437c9616138dea7efadf8399e7 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 63 Czech-Slovak Relations From the 1840s to 1914 EDITA BOSAK Czech-Slovak relations were a constant but also a fundamental problem in the history of the Czech :md Slovak people, particularly from their political union in 1918 until the creation of two separate states in 1993. Their common state had been created out of the framework of the Austro-Hungarian Empire where the differences between the two peoples were already quite marked and also grossly underestimated . Since the arrival of the Magyars in today's Hungary in the late 9th century, the Slovaks had experienced a distinctly different development from the Czechs. Almost one thousand years of Hungarian rule had marked their economic activities , social life, degree of devotion to religion, mentality, tradition, and history. Even with the initial euphoria that followed the creation of the common state on 28 October 1918, these fundamental differences, which had not been fully considered, could not be erased. Not only were they cultural-linguistic but also religious. Our purpose is to examine how these differences were perceived prior to 1914 and what attempts were made to establish political relations between the two nations. The emergence of the Czech and Slovak national movements in the early nineteenth century helped to create a feeling of Slav solidarity. However, in the 1840s, the acceptance by most Slovak intellectuals of the central Slovak dialect as the Slovak literary language caused a permanent literary rift between the two peoples. The Slovaks were facing the first large scale attempts by the Magyars to assimilate the non-Magyars in Hungary. By 1844, �64 SLOVAKIA Magyar was made the official language of the country. The Slovak Lutherans were especially threatened because their close ties with the Czech Protestants were construed by official circles as evidence of treason, that is to say, collaboration with a foreign power. Thus they had to re-evaluate their position , especially since the Czechs were quite indifferent to the political and cultural situation of the Slovaks, embroiled as they were with their own national struggle with the Germans in Bohemia and Moravia. Assistance of any kind was not forthcoming . Nevertheless, the Czechs were considering creating a "Czechoslovak" literary language, yet refused to allow the modern Czech literary language to adopt any Slovak characteristics in order that the Slovaks might be able to identify with it. The Czechs were convinced that all concessions had to come from the Slovaks. However, as the idea that they were a nation of Slavs distinct from the Czechs grew among the Slovaks , there arose an incompatibility with the idea of being Czechoslovak and using only Czech as the literary medium. In the final analysis, a new Slovak literary language was the only recourse available to the Slovaks. Unfortunately, this step hardly fulfilled the expectations of L'udovit Stur and his followers that the Slovaks would become unified. The fact is that religious differences played an important role. The Slovaks were for the greater part Roman Catholics. But about one quarter was Lutheran and it was this group which tended to have the Czech ties that dated as far back as the sixteenth century and which used the Kralicka Bible for both literary and religious purposes . This split in Slovak society profoundly influenced the development of Czech-Slovak relations. The introduction of Sturovcina as the new Slovak literary language was called, remained a bone of contention between the Czechs and Slovaks for many decades . In the post-1849 period, CzechSlovak reciprocity almost completely disappeared. Controversy over the language split and political circumstances drove the two further apart. There were, however, some leading Czechs who continued to believe and to advocate the idea of Czechoslovakism, that is , the cultural ethnic and linguistic unity of both peoples as fellow Slavs. For instance, Karel Havlicek maintained that �SLOVAKIA 65 the Czechoslav lands, Bohemia, Moravia, a part of Silesia and Slovakia in Hungary were for a Jong time one nation as far as literary and spiritual life goes, and the greater part of them belonged to one state. Well-known individuals in Bohemia as well as in Moravia, and likewise in Slovakia had always worked towards the complete union of these lands comprising one nation, and considered themselves members of one tribe, which is verified by the names and works of men from all these Jands. 2 But there were other leading lights among the Czechs like the Old Czech Party leader Frantisek L. Rieger who accused the Slovaks of having "tom away" from the Czech nation. From 1849 to 1868 there was next to no political interest in Slovak affairs. In the 1870's, 1880's and 1890's literary contact was sporadic and minimal. The continuity of Czech-Slovak relations was maintained by a few Czech writers and persons involved in cultural activities. The closure of the three Slovak gymnazia forced Slovak students to go abroad to study, especially to Moravia which was geographically closer to Upper Hungary, as Slovakia was called . Conditions were difficult and the students were not always well received, as Vavro Srobar comments in his biography, Z mojho iivota (From My Own Life), concerning his own experience with Czech professors. Contact was not always amicable on the day-today level. Students found it difficult to learn Czech and soon discovered that academically they were far behind the Czech students. It was the work of such writers as Bozena Nemcova, Adolf Heyduk, Rudolf Pokorny, and Jozef Holecek who kept the Czech public informed on who and what the Slovaks were and under what conditions they were surviving in Hungary. However, only a tiny segment of the intelligentsia had any interest of a genuine nature in 211 Ceskoslovanska zeme, Cechy, Morava, cast Slezska a Slovenska v Uhi'fch jsou jiz davno v literarnfm a du~evnfm zivote jednfm narodem, a vet~f cast jejich byla jiz i jednfm statem. Znamej~f duchove jak z Cech, tak z Moravy, tak i ze Slovenska odjakziva smerovali k uplnemu spojenf techto zernf jednoho naroda, a povafovali sebe vzdy za osudy jednoho kmene, na co svedcf jmena a spisy najznamenitej~fch muz0 v~ech tech krajin". Karel Havlfcek Borovsky, Politicke spisy, Vol. III, ed. Dr. Zdenek Tobolka, Prague: Jan Laichter, 1902, p. 178. �66 SLOVAKIA the Slovaks. The overall view of the Slovaks tended to be a rather sentimental and romantic one. For example, the short time spent by Bozena Nemcova in Slovakia produced a collection of fairytales Slovensk6 pohadky a povesti (Slovak Stories and Tales), two novels with Slovak themes Pohorska vesnice (Mountain Villages) and Chyie pod horami (Shanties At the Foothills), and a monograph Krajov a lesov na Zvolensku (Lands and Forests of Zvolen) . Throughout her life, she remained in regular correspondence with Gustav K. Zechenter, the minister and poet Samuel Chalupka, and the poet Samuel Tomasik, author of the Slovak hymn "Hej, Slovaci!" Of the other early Czech Slovakophiles, R. Pokorny wrote Potulky po Slovensku (Wandering About Slovakia), Literama shoda ceskoslovenska (Czechoslovak Literary Agreement); A. Heyduk Cymbal a Husle (Cymbal and Violin); and J. Holecek Podejme ruku Slovakum (Let's Give Our Hand To the Slovaks). Heyduk's verses were sentimental, and the description of daily Slovak life was highly coloured but Holecek, as a journalist, pointed out to the Czechs the political importance of the Slovaks for them, that is, a union of Czech and Slovak forces in opposition to German pressure in the Czech Lands. This was to become one of the major arguments in favour of Czech-Slovak reciprocity in the late 1890's. Pokorny, too , did some foundation work in re-establishing Czech-Slovak contact by setting-up the "Knihovna ceskoslovenska" (Czechoslovak Library). Its purpose was to publish the work of Slovak literary figures but due to financial stress, it closed in 1881 after having published only two works . One can see that Czech society at large actually had very little contact with the Slovaks or even knowledge about them until the 1890's. Pavel Sochan, a Slovak artist, described the situation as follows : the circle of Slovak friends was then very limited among the Czechs , whereas among the Mora vi ans we had many sincere friends . Even intelligent Czechs considered Slovaks as "tinkers" and Slovakia as the "land of tinkers" .3 3Pavel Sochan, "Zalozenie spolku 'Detvan' v Prahe roku 1882" in Stanislav Meciar ed., Detvan 50 rokov v Prahe, Turc. Sv. Martin: Slovensky akademicky spolok �SLOVAKIA 67 At official functions, Czech academics often mistook the Slovaks for Bulgarians or Russians, for the Slovak language seemed very foreign sounding and unintelligible to their ears . They knew nothing of Slovak literature or her poets and writers. It was a very small Czech literary group which expressed any interest in the life of their brother Slavs. As the nineteenth century was coming to a close, the political situation of both the Czechs and the Slovaks required a new approach. What was needed was a realistic and systematic education effort of the Czech public with the existential struggle of the Slovaks in Hungary if aid was to be obtained for them. They had to become acquainted with Slovak culture, folklore and way of life . On the other hand, the Slovaks had to be awakened, educated, and shown that the Czechs were to be trusted and that they no longer held any grudges over the language issue. It was Karel Kalal, a Czech schoolteacher, who took on this role of arousing the Czechs in the 1890's and early 1900's to the plight of the Slovaks. Initially , his attitude vis-a-vis Slovak conditions was na"ively romantic and sentimental but by the twentieth century he became much more realistic in his comprehension, and his writing improved. Although his efforts were crowned with some success, the language question remained a thorn in the flesh of the Czechs. The Czechs were involved with the process of establishing their own separate identity from that of the Germans and yet they refused to see or accept the same nationalism in the Slovaks. They continued to see Czech-Slovak reciprocity in terms of one language, that is Czech. Kalal was just as stubborn a supporter of the Czechoslovak language. He represented a threat to the existence of the Slovak language and was often attacked for his articles by the Martin group. This language question was one of the basic problems hindering any "Detvan", 1932, pp . 8-9 . The original Slovak text is : " ...kruh slovenskych priatefov bol vtedy medzi Cechmi vefmi obmedzeny, kdezto medzi Moravanmi mali sme vefa uprimnych priatefov. I inteligentnf Cesi pokladali Slovakov za "dratenfkov" a Slovensko za "zeme drateru'lru ". �68 SLOVAKIA great Slovak moves towards the Czechs. The intellectual group centred in Turciansky Svaty Martin never ceased to defend the cultural-linguistic uniqueness of the Slovak nation from that of the Czech. The Slovak language and the idea of a distinct nation were the only weapons which they had at their disposal to fight Magyarisation. As it was, denationalisation of the younger generation, via mainly the school system, continued to increase. Another literary figure very active in attempting to bring about a rapprochement between the Czechs and the Slovaks was Jaroslav Vlcek . Born in Slovakia of mixed Czech-Slovak parentage, Vlcek spent his formative years on Slovak soil and received his early schooling there. While studying in Prague, he helped establish a student university club, Detvan, in 1882, for Slovak students studying there. During his student days, Vlcek wrote articles on a regular basis for the Slovak magazine Oral (Eagle) on Czech literature titled "Listy z Ciech" ("Letters from the Czech lands"), and in the Czech magazine Ruch a kvety (Activity and Flowers) on Slovak literature. His first major work Literatura na Slovensku (Literature in Slovakia) appeared in 1881. In 1883 he published a daring article in Slovanskf sbomfk (Slavonic Magazine) called "Slovensko za poslednfch peti let", (Slovakia in the Last Five Years) in which he disclosed the practices of the governing Magyar circles in Slovakia. In 1890, Vlcek published Dejiny literatlfry slovenske (The History of Slovak Literature). Vlcek was the first head of Detvan and he maintained an active interest in the club through the years canvassing to get support for it. The purpose of Detvan was to bring together Slovak students, to entertain and to educate them by having them give papers on Slovak literature, history and the contemporary conditions. The most important figures in the first decade of Detvan's existence were Vlcek, P. Sochan, Cyril Krcmery, St. Daxner, Ladislav Nadasi, Jan Slabej, Matej Bencur, M. Ursfny, Dusan Makovicky, J. Smetanay, and Srobar. Almost all of them were, at one time or another, to take part in the Slovak national awakening. Detvan organised Slovak evenings open to the Czech public whenever there was a significant Slovak celebration in order that the Czech public might come to �SLOVAKIA 69 know that the Slovaks were more than just a land of tinkers, that they had their own history, their great men, and that they were now in need of a helping hand from their brothers to stave off the process of Magyarisation. This club collaborated on similar ventures with the other Czech and Moravian clubs, with the Slovak club Tatran in Vienna and with the Slovak Club in Budapest. They canvassed in Bohemia and Slovakia for funds to help Slovak students to come to study in Prague. During Srobar's presidency, Detvan came to have the greatest contact with the average Czech living in Prague. Srobar had been influenced by the realist philosophy (political program) which Tomas G. Masaryk (later to become the first President of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918) expounded in his university classes. He came to believe that the political passivity favoured by the Martin group was not beneficial to the Slovak nation, that the Slovaks must abandon their fatalistic policy and stop expecting salvation from the east, from their Russian brothers. Upon returning home he became active in politics and ran for the Hungarian Parliament. In 1891 and 1895 the Czechs organised two large provincial exhibitions. The stand on the ethnographic exhibition was of the greatest importance, for the Slovaks had two rooms devoted to their culture, under the title "Part of the Czechoslav nation". Czech attendance at this exhibition was large and press coverage thorough, giving the Czech public its first opportunity to become acquainted with Slovak culture on a grand scale. Following the excitement and goodwill engendered by the Ethnographic Exhibition, the Ceskoslovanska Jednota (Czechoslavonic Unit), was formed on 7 May 1896 with the well-known Slavist, Professor Frantisek Pastrnek, as chairman. According to its constitution, its purpose was the "...cultivation of Czechoslav interests and the support of the poor young Slav people" .4 The vehicle via which this was to be carried out was: "a) to publish, to promote, 4Literami archiv pamatnik narodnfho pfsemnictvf, Rotnagl Collection. "Ucel spolku je pestovati kultumi zajmy ceskoslovanske a podporovati chudou mladez slovanskou" . �70 SLOVAKIA to collect, to buy literary works and to found libraries; b) to grant stipends and to support Slav students studying in Prague ... ; c) public lectures and discussions, excluding political ones; d) to sponsor social entertainment" .5 This organisation was created to act as a defense mechanism in areas culturally endangered by Germans, for example Moravia, Silesia and to help these Czechs outside of Bohemia to maintain their identity (Lower Austria, Vienna). As far as the Slovaks were concerned, the aim was to maintain contact, to acquaint the Czech nation with the Slovak culture, to give Slovak students financial support in Prague, and to establish Czech libraries in Slovakia. The organisation did not really become deeply involved with the Slovak situation until 1909. Detvan members Srobar, Smetanay and K. Salva, a publisher in Rufomberok, were directly connected with Jednota as trustees for Slovakia. Meanwhile, in Martin , the representatives of the Slovak National Party remained determined to uphold the programme of Shir and the concept of "Okolie", come what may . Any acceptance of the idea of a single nation called Czechoslovak was out of the question for it meant the refutation of the Slovak language. The language separation was regarded as a tragedy by the Czechs but for the ardent Slovak nationalists, it meant arising from the dead. 6 According to Elie Kedourie, "the test ... , by which a nation is known to exist is that of language. A group speaking the same language is known as a nation, and a nation ought to constitute a state" .7 To the Martin nationalists, acceptance of the Czech idea of two branches of one nation , of being completely identical peoples, despite the patent social, economic, linguistic and cultural differences which one thousand years of a different history had imposed upon them, was simply not possible. It meant a denial of their nationhood which their awakened distinct national consciousness forbade. Thus the writings of such ardent Czech Slovakophiles as Kalal were not always well 5Ibid. , Third regulation of Constitution . 6Stefan Jan~ak. tivot Dr. Pavla Blahu, Tmava: Spolok sv. Vojtecha, 1947, I, p. 41. 7Elie Kedourie, Nationalism , London: Hutchinson & Co., 1974, p. 68. �SLOVAKIA 71 received in the Martin circle. In their publication Narodnie noviny (National News), they made it clear that the Czechs were not being made familiar with true Slovak conditions: The Czech public only misleads itself, when "the friends " of the Slovaks come to it with these sorts of things. He who is a friend of the Slovaks and understands their situation would not now refer to the written language .. . From amongst the professionals of our Czech brothers none took a deep interest in the Slovaks, thus rose K. Kalal, as an "expert" on Slovak affairs.8 Masaryk, too, often came under fire by the older generation of Slovak political leaders, represented by Svetozar Hurban Vajansky a leading nationalist, poet and editor of Narodnie noviny. Masaryk was accused of anti-clericalism, immorality in the sense of disrespect for tradition and ethics, misrepresentation of the economic situation in Slovakia, that is that poverty was not on a national scale but existed only in certain regions of the country which were not conducive to crop growing due to geography , such as Orava and Eastern Slovakia, and finally, for having turned some of the young people away from their own party, the Slovak National Party. Vajansky felt the young simply did not fully comprehend the gravity of the domestic situation, that there were no alternatives to the tactics used, and that unity amongst all Slovaks in the face of the onslaught of Magyarisation was vital. The older generation was convinced that writing in newspapers, facing stiff fines and longterm jail sentences for these articles, nonparticipation in the government and steadfastness in their religious affiliations were the only avenues open to them in stemming Magyarisation. They believed in co-operation amongst the Slavs, for example the Czechs as their closest brethren, but not at the expense 8Narodnie noviny, 1901, No. 64. Original text reads: "c'.:eske obecenstvo Jen myli sa, keel' "priatelia" Slovakov prichodia mu s takymito vecmi. Kto je priatefom Slovakov a rozumie ich polofoniu , teraz nebude sa tyka{ otazky ich spisovneho jazyka ... U bratov c'.:echov z povolanych fudf nikto nev~fmal si de,kJadnej~ie Slovakov , tak povstal K. Kalal , ako "znalec" vo veciach slovenskych". �72 SLOVAKIA of their national language , with the resulting loss of their separate identity. This was something which the Czechs never came to understand fully and which created so much ill-feeling after 1918. At the tum of the century, the student club Detvan in Prague lost a good deal of its drive with the departure of many of its most active students , especially Srobar, who returned to Slovakia to establish himself in a medical practice in 1899 in Rufomberok. His departure left a gap which was to be filled later by a young Slovak from Kosariska, Milan Rastislav Stefanik. In the summer of 1897 Srobar and four other young , progressive-thinking, Slovak students dissatisfied with the tum of events at the Martin celebrations, went to Bystricka to speak with Masaryk. He had already had a great influence upon the Slovak students in Prague, and Srobar had taken very much to heart the realist philosophy which Masaryk expounded, that is "drobna praca", small work amongst the people themselves. 9 At this meeting the basic foundation for a liberaldemocratic thinking review called Hlas (Voice) was laid . Its adherents, called Hlasists, were represented by Srobar, Pavel Blaho and A. Stefanek, journalists, and the lawyer Ivan Derer, all of whom were to play prominent roles in the government of Czechoslovakia after World War I. They believed in progressive thinking, democracy, reason and non-intervention of the Roman Catholic Church in the daily life of the peasants. They were ardent Czechoslovaks, devoted to the idea of Czechoslovak unity (Ceskoslovenska jednota). Most of their support came from the organisation Jednota in Prague. The first copy of Hlas was published in 1898 in Skalica 911 Drobna praca" was developed in depth in a series of lectures by Masaryk in 1898. These can be found in Jak pracovat?, ZUrich: Konfrontation SA, 1977, pp. 16-27. Masaryk wanted students to take the knowledge they had acquired in school and by going into the countryside to pass it on to the common man in a practical fashion thus helping him to better himself and to educate himself. At the same time Masaryk believed that such endeavours would lead to greater opportunities for both. They would "be coming into contact with people and learning to work together" (p.57), thus promoting a better understanding between each other and furthering their national goal. �SLOVAKIA 73 under the editorship of Blaho. Most of the young people involved were former Detvan members. Due to financial problems, it appeared for the last time in 1904. It had not been able to build-up a wide enough reading public. Their open Czechoslovak program was regarded with suspicion by the majority of the Slovak intellectuals and others who might have bought a copy. Albeit short-lived, Hlas had a tremendous impact on Slovak political, social and cultural life. It was instrumental in establishing the idea of a union of the Czechs and Slovaks on cultural and national lines. It stressed the need to educate the peasants to think and make their own decisions and especially to free themselves from the influence of the clergy. Education was not only the means of building an awareness of the Slovak identity and political activity but also the means of bringing about change in such areas as the temperance movement. From 1909 to 1914, the progressive young Slovaks again concentrated themselves around a monthly review, Prudy. Once more, its appearance was due to the initiative of Detvan members, for example Bohdan Pavlu. It described its program as being an open platform upon which all were welcome to come and express their views. Most of the members were former Hlasists. One can see that the motivation for Czech-Slovak reciprocity from the Slovak side tended to be initiated by those people who had actually studied in the Czech Lands. One can understand why Narodnie novinytried to discourage students from continuing their higher education there. For the Martinites, to go to Bohemia meant returning as a Czechophile as a foregone conclusion It should be pointed out that although Czech political opinion may have softened vis-a-vis the Slovaks after Rieger, there was never any question of political support.IO As far as the Young 10In several speeches both in Prague and Budapest Rieger made it very clear that the relationship between the Czechs and the Slovaks was not a legal one. The Czechs had no legal right to interfere in Slovak affairs , and moreover, had not been requested to do so by Slovak political leaders. See Jozef Jablonicky, "Prfspevok k cesko-slovenskym vzt'ahom od konca 19. stor. do roku 1914", in Historicke stlfdie, �74 SLOVAKIA Czech Party was concerned, Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia formed one unit as an historic state. Newly formed Czech political parties did not include the question of the Slovaks in their program. They upheld Rieger's stand that the Slovak question is a causa finita. 11 The only political leader to have a divergent view was Masaryk. He believed that Slovakia was a part of contemporary Czech politics. The span of time during which his influence was particularly significant to Slovak affairs was from 1896 to 1902. From then on he stopped travelling to Bystricka and turned his attention to Bohemian politics and dualism. His newspapers Cas and Nasa doba continued to publish articles on Slovakia. By the early 1900's the articles were losing their romantic style in describing Slovak conditions while such journals as Osveta and Slovanskj piehled concentrated on the culture and literature of Slovakia. This political stand of non-intervention continued even after the particularly unpleasant incident at Cernova in 1907 when the local Hungarian authorities opened fire upon unarmed Slovak villagers who had not wanted their new church to be consecrated by the Magyar clergy but wanted their own priest Andrej Hlinka, who had built it, to be the officiating personage. Although Czech Slovakophiles were able to get much propaganda out of the incident, the Czech political position remained the same. Czech politicans had no wish to threaten the Czech program based on Bohemia's Historic State Rights, nor to interfere in the internal matters of another state, Hungary. Contact between the Czechs and the Slovaks was very much on a limited literary and cultural level. In 1911, the Czechoslovak Unity under the direction Professor Fr. Bfly published Slovenska citanka, an encyclopedia on Slovak culture and literature. From 1907 to 1910 Nase Slovensko (Our Slovakia), an annual journal was published to acquaint the Czech public with the Slovaks. From 1908 until the break out of war, Jednota organised annual meetings of Czech and Slovak intellectuals at the Moravian health spa Luhacovice. Initially 26 individuals came together, but by 1914 IV, 1958, p. 8. 11 Ibid., p. 22. �SLOVAKIA 75 their number had grown to 300. 12 It should be noted that those who were active were the small number of Hlasists, the young generation mostly educated in Bohemia, Milan Hodza, a member of the Hungarian Parliament and representative of the Agrarian idea in Slovakia, and a few of the old guard from Martin; and from the Czechs, it was predominantly members of the Jednota. It is here that one begins to have some suggestion of possible discourse on political aspects. The actual meetings were held in secret and there appear to be no known official minutes. That something along political lines was being aired in these circles emerges in a letter from R . Pilat to the American Slovak, Milan Getting, in the summer of 1913 where he suggests that: " .. .it is high time that work was carried out on achieving the future program of a union of Czechs and Slovaks in a political sense". 13 He appears to have a premonition of the coming war and he adds confidentially that "preparations from the Czech side are on the way, in the event of the defeat of Austria, Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia would be united with Slovakia in one state" .14 On 4 April 1914, Frantisek Votruba a well-known Czech publicist living in Slovakia presented at a major political rally in Prague a resolution of protest against Magyar oppression of its nationalities, along with a demand for the revision of the Ausgleich and the terms of dualism.1 5 This is indicative of the fact that most Slovaks still thought in terms of a resolution of their problems within the terms of the present state rather than outside of it with the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. Some mention must be made of the interests of industry, ban12 Ibid., p. 20. 13 v . Kumek , "0 cinnosti a vyznamu Ceskoslovenske jednoty pi'ed vznikem CSR", Historicky casopis 10 (1962), pp . 366-7 in Miroslav Peknfk, "Slovenska politika v Uhorsku a kry~talizacia jej politickych koncepcif pred vznikom I. svetovej voj ny" , Slovensko v politickom systeme Ceskoslovenska, Bratislava: SA V, 1992, pp . 44. 14 M. Getting, Americkf Slovaci a vyvin ceskoslovenskej myslienky v rokoch 1914-18, Pittsburg: n. p., 1933 , p. 12 in Peknfk , p. 44. 15Slo vensky tyidennfk 12 , 4 . April 1914, No. 15 , p. 3 in Peknfk, p. 44. �76 SLOVAKIA king and investment in Slovakia by the Slovaks. With gradual economic growth in the 1870's and 1880's, the Tatra Bank was established in 1886 in Turciansky Svaty Martin. Shortly afterwards , there were bank officials and small investors , soon followed by branches in three other towns . By 1909, there were many similar banks throughout Slovakia. However, Czech investment was very small in Slovakia. Czech Slovakophiles extolled the virtues of Slovak resources, the untapped wealth, and so forth in such publications as Slovenska cftanka but it was not really significant. Similarly, there was very little movement of Slovak labour to Bohemia and Moravia except for the tinkers who wandered far to earn their bread. The largest manufacturing concern, Ceskoslovenska-Kolben-Danek (C-K-D) factory, had not a single employee recorded as coming from Slovakia in the period 1871-1920.16 In the decades that preceded the Great War, the idea of a union of the Czechs and the Slovaks was proposed initially by intellectuals rather than politicians as the only alternative to a situation which could no longer be tolerated. The general Czech and Slovak population knew very little of each other. The Czechs did not recognize the Slovak language and tended to mistake Slovaks for Yugoslavs as late as 1918.1 7 They had greater personal contact with other Europeans than with the Slovaks. Similarly, the educated Slovaks were much more at home in Vienna and Budapest. In fact, the peasants and workers migrated to these two cities as a general rule rather than to the Czech Lands. In addition, there was no truly unified Czech-Slovak club or association upon which Czechoslovak unity could be built. Ceskoslovanska Jednota had been founded by a minority, based on an idea rather than as the result of a political and economic evolutionary process. Thus, much of the misunderstanding which resulted after 16F . W. Carter, "C-K-D Employees, Prague 1871-1920: Some Aspects of Their Geographical Distribution", Journal of Historical Geography, I (I), 1975, p. 95. 17Jan Hajda, "The Role of Intelligentsia in Society" in Miloslav Rechcigl, ed., The Czechoslovak Contribution to World Culture, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1964, p. 311. �SLOVAKIA 77 1918 can be attributed to a mutual lack of awareness. The Czech intelligentsia sought to change basic Slovak society along the lines of their own but they did not take into account the growth and differentiation of the other. The "Anketa" carried out by Pnfdy in 1914 and finally published in 1919 clearly showed that those who welcomed political cooperation with the Czechs were the former Hlasists and Pnidists, the liberal-progressive streams in the Slovak National Party. Tampering with the Slovak language was out of the question . Co-operation was still relatively limited as Stefanek, an ardent supporter of CzechSlovak relations, remarked: In my view, the Czech political parties should work more systematically and their leaders should above all else know Slovakia personally and all their pronouncements on our behalf in the Austrian parliament and in delegations should be founded on their own views . As far as I am aware, other than Prof. Dr. Masaryk, Dr. Herben and Klofac and a few Agrarian politicians, no one has been to Slovakia, not even Dr. Hajn, nor Dr. Fiedler, Dr. Korner, Dr. Fort and many more excellent Czech politicians who through their own personal contact could accomplish much good . Slovakia still remains terra incognita even for Czech politicians, for university professors, writers , in short for the "cream" of the Czech nation. On the other hand we gladly recognize the good work of Czech politicans.18 I 811 Anketa", Prudy V , 9-10 (1913/ 1914- 1919), p. 11 . � SLOVAKIA 63 Czech-Slovak Relations From the 1840s to 1914 EDITA BOSAK Czech-Slovak relations were a constant but also a fundamental problem in the history of the Czech :md Slovak people, particularly from their political union in 1918 until the creation of two separate states in 1993. Their common state had been created out of the framework of the Austro-Hungarian Empire where the differences between the two peoples were already quite marked and also grossly underestimated . Since the arrival of the Magyars in today's Hungary in the late 9th century, the Slovaks had experienced a distinctly different development from the Czechs. Almost one thousand years of Hungarian rule had marked their economic activities , social life, degree of devotion to religion, mentality, tradition, and history. Even with the initial euphoria that followed the creation of the common state on 28 October 1918, these fundamental differences, which had not been fully considered, could not be erased. Not only were they cultural-linguistic but also religious. Our purpose is to examine how these differences were perceived prior to 1914 and what attempts were made to establish political relations between the two nations. The emergence of the Czech and Slovak national movements in the early nineteenth century helped to create a feeling of Slav solidarity. However, in the 1840s, the acceptance by most Slovak intellectuals of the central Slovak dialect as the Slovak literary language caused a permanent literary rift between the two peoples. The Slovaks were facing the first large scale attempts by the Magyars to assimilate the non-Magyars in Hungary. By 1844, �64 SLOVAKIA Magyar was made the official language of the country. The Slovak Lutherans were especially threatened because their close ties with the Czech Protestants were construed by official circles as evidence of treason, that is to say, collaboration with a foreign power. Thus they had to re-evaluate their position , especially since the Czechs were quite indifferent to the political and cultural situation of the Slovaks, embroiled as they were with their own national struggle with the Germans in Bohemia and Moravia. Assistance of any kind was not forthcoming . Nevertheless, the Czechs were considering creating a "Czechoslovak" literary language, yet refused to allow the modern Czech literary language to adopt any Slovak characteristics in order that the Slovaks might be able to identify with it. The Czechs were convinced that all concessions had to come from the Slovaks. However, as the idea that they were a nation of Slavs distinct from the Czechs grew among the Slovaks , there arose an incompatibility with the idea of being Czechoslovak and using only Czech as the literary medium. In the final analysis, a new Slovak literary language was the only recourse available to the Slovaks. Unfortunately, this step hardly fulfilled the expectations of L'udovit Stur and his followers that the Slovaks would become unified. The fact is that religious differences played an important role. The Slovaks were for the greater part Roman Catholics. But about one quarter was Lutheran and it was this group which tended to have the Czech ties that dated as far back as the sixteenth century and which used the Kralicka Bible for both literary and religious purposes . This split in Slovak society profoundly influenced the development of Czech-Slovak relations. The introduction of Sturovcina as the new Slovak literary language was called, remained a bone of contention between the Czechs and Slovaks for many decades . In the post-1849 period, CzechSlovak reciprocity almost completely disappeared. Controversy over the language split and political circumstances drove the two further apart. There were, however, some leading Czechs who continued to believe and to advocate the idea of Czechoslovakism, that is , the cultural ethnic and linguistic unity of both peoples as fellow Slavs. For instance, Karel Havlicek maintained that �SLOVAKIA 65 the Czechoslav lands, Bohemia, Moravia, a part of Silesia and Slovakia in Hungary were for a Jong time one nation as far as literary and spiritual life goes, and the greater part of them belonged to one state. Well-known individuals in Bohemia as well as in Moravia, and likewise in Slovakia had always worked towards the complete union of these lands comprising one nation, and considered themselves members of one tribe, which is verified by the names and works of men from all these Jands. 2 But there were other leading lights among the Czechs like the Old Czech Party leader Frantisek L. Rieger who accused the Slovaks of having "tom away" from the Czech nation. From 1849 to 1868 there was next to no political interest in Slovak affairs. In the 1870's, 1880's and 1890's literary contact was sporadic and minimal. The continuity of Czech-Slovak relations was maintained by a few Czech writers and persons involved in cultural activities. The closure of the three Slovak gymnazia forced Slovak students to go abroad to study, especially to Moravia which was geographically closer to Upper Hungary, as Slovakia was called . Conditions were difficult and the students were not always well received, as Vavro Srobar comments in his biography, Z mojho iivota (From My Own Life), concerning his own experience with Czech professors. Contact was not always amicable on the day-today level. Students found it difficult to learn Czech and soon discovered that academically they were far behind the Czech students. It was the work of such writers as Bozena Nemcova, Adolf Heyduk, Rudolf Pokorny, and Jozef Holecek who kept the Czech public informed on who and what the Slovaks were and under what conditions they were surviving in Hungary. However, only a tiny segment of the intelligentsia had any interest of a genuine nature in 211 Ceskoslovanska zeme, Cechy, Morava, cast Slezska a Slovenska v Uhi'fch jsou jiz davno v literarnfm a du~evnfm zivote jednfm narodem, a vet~f cast jejich byla jiz i jednfm statem. Znamej~f duchove jak z Cech, tak z Moravy, tak i ze Slovenska odjakziva smerovali k uplnemu spojenf techto zernf jednoho naroda, a povafovali sebe vzdy za osudy jednoho kmene, na co svedcf jmena a spisy najznamenitej~fch muz0 v~ech tech krajin". Karel Havlfcek Borovsky, Politicke spisy, Vol. III, ed. Dr. Zdenek Tobolka, Prague: Jan Laichter, 1902, p. 178. �66 SLOVAKIA the Slovaks. The overall view of the Slovaks tended to be a rather sentimental and romantic one. For example, the short time spent by Bozena Nemcova in Slovakia produced a collection of fairytales Slovensk6 pohadky a povesti (Slovak Stories and Tales), two novels with Slovak themes Pohorska vesnice (Mountain Villages) and Chyie pod horami (Shanties At the Foothills), and a monograph Krajov a lesov na Zvolensku (Lands and Forests of Zvolen) . Throughout her life, she remained in regular correspondence with Gustav K. Zechenter, the minister and poet Samuel Chalupka, and the poet Samuel Tomasik, author of the Slovak hymn "Hej, Slovaci!" Of the other early Czech Slovakophiles, R. Pokorny wrote Potulky po Slovensku (Wandering About Slovakia), Literama shoda ceskoslovenska (Czechoslovak Literary Agreement); A. Heyduk Cymbal a Husle (Cymbal and Violin); and J. Holecek Podejme ruku Slovakum (Let's Give Our Hand To the Slovaks). Heyduk's verses were sentimental, and the description of daily Slovak life was highly coloured but Holecek, as a journalist, pointed out to the Czechs the political importance of the Slovaks for them, that is, a union of Czech and Slovak forces in opposition to German pressure in the Czech Lands. This was to become one of the major arguments in favour of Czech-Slovak reciprocity in the late 1890's. Pokorny, too , did some foundation work in re-establishing Czech-Slovak contact by setting-up the "Knihovna ceskoslovenska" (Czechoslovak Library). Its purpose was to publish the work of Slovak literary figures but due to financial stress, it closed in 1881 after having published only two works . One can see that Czech society at large actually had very little contact with the Slovaks or even knowledge about them until the 1890's. Pavel Sochan, a Slovak artist, described the situation as follows : the circle of Slovak friends was then very limited among the Czechs , whereas among the Mora vi ans we had many sincere friends . Even intelligent Czechs considered Slovaks as "tinkers" and Slovakia as the "land of tinkers" .3 3Pavel Sochan, "Zalozenie spolku 'Detvan' v Prahe roku 1882" in Stanislav Meciar ed., Detvan 50 rokov v Prahe, Turc. Sv. Martin: Slovensky akademicky spolok �SLOVAKIA 67 At official functions, Czech academics often mistook the Slovaks for Bulgarians or Russians, for the Slovak language seemed very foreign sounding and unintelligible to their ears . They knew nothing of Slovak literature or her poets and writers. It was a very small Czech literary group which expressed any interest in the life of their brother Slavs. As the nineteenth century was coming to a close, the political situation of both the Czechs and the Slovaks required a new approach. What was needed was a realistic and systematic education effort of the Czech public with the existential struggle of the Slovaks in Hungary if aid was to be obtained for them. They had to become acquainted with Slovak culture, folklore and way of life . On the other hand, the Slovaks had to be awakened, educated, and shown that the Czechs were to be trusted and that they no longer held any grudges over the language issue. It was Karel Kalal, a Czech schoolteacher, who took on this role of arousing the Czechs in the 1890's and early 1900's to the plight of the Slovaks. Initially , his attitude vis-a-vis Slovak conditions was na"ively romantic and sentimental but by the twentieth century he became much more realistic in his comprehension, and his writing improved. Although his efforts were crowned with some success, the language question remained a thorn in the flesh of the Czechs. The Czechs were involved with the process of establishing their own separate identity from that of the Germans and yet they refused to see or accept the same nationalism in the Slovaks. They continued to see Czech-Slovak reciprocity in terms of one language, that is Czech. Kalal was just as stubborn a supporter of the Czechoslovak language. He represented a threat to the existence of the Slovak language and was often attacked for his articles by the Martin group. This language question was one of the basic problems hindering any "Detvan", 1932, pp . 8-9 . The original Slovak text is : " ...kruh slovenskych priatefov bol vtedy medzi Cechmi vefmi obmedzeny, kdezto medzi Moravanmi mali sme vefa uprimnych priatefov. I inteligentnf Cesi pokladali Slovakov za "dratenfkov" a Slovensko za "zeme drateru'lru ". �68 SLOVAKIA great Slovak moves towards the Czechs. The intellectual group centred in Turciansky Svaty Martin never ceased to defend the cultural-linguistic uniqueness of the Slovak nation from that of the Czech. The Slovak language and the idea of a distinct nation were the only weapons which they had at their disposal to fight Magyarisation. As it was, denationalisation of the younger generation, via mainly the school system, continued to increase. Another literary figure very active in attempting to bring about a rapprochement between the Czechs and the Slovaks was Jaroslav Vlcek . Born in Slovakia of mixed Czech-Slovak parentage, Vlcek spent his formative years on Slovak soil and received his early schooling there. While studying in Prague, he helped establish a student university club, Detvan, in 1882, for Slovak students studying there. During his student days, Vlcek wrote articles on a regular basis for the Slovak magazine Oral (Eagle) on Czech literature titled "Listy z Ciech" ("Letters from the Czech lands"), and in the Czech magazine Ruch a kvety (Activity and Flowers) on Slovak literature. His first major work Literatura na Slovensku (Literature in Slovakia) appeared in 1881. In 1883 he published a daring article in Slovanskf sbomfk (Slavonic Magazine) called "Slovensko za poslednfch peti let", (Slovakia in the Last Five Years) in which he disclosed the practices of the governing Magyar circles in Slovakia. In 1890, Vlcek published Dejiny literatlfry slovenske (The History of Slovak Literature). Vlcek was the first head of Detvan and he maintained an active interest in the club through the years canvassing to get support for it. The purpose of Detvan was to bring together Slovak students, to entertain and to educate them by having them give papers on Slovak literature, history and the contemporary conditions. The most important figures in the first decade of Detvan's existence were Vlcek, P. Sochan, Cyril Krcmery, St. Daxner, Ladislav Nadasi, Jan Slabej, Matej Bencur, M. Ursfny, Dusan Makovicky, J. Smetanay, and Srobar. Almost all of them were, at one time or another, to take part in the Slovak national awakening. Detvan organised Slovak evenings open to the Czech public whenever there was a significant Slovak celebration in order that the Czech public might come to �SLOVAKIA 69 know that the Slovaks were more than just a land of tinkers, that they had their own history, their great men, and that they were now in need of a helping hand from their brothers to stave off the process of Magyarisation. This club collaborated on similar ventures with the other Czech and Moravian clubs, with the Slovak club Tatran in Vienna and with the Slovak Club in Budapest. They canvassed in Bohemia and Slovakia for funds to help Slovak students to come to study in Prague. During Srobar's presidency, Detvan came to have the greatest contact with the average Czech living in Prague. Srobar had been influenced by the realist philosophy (political program) which Tomas G. Masaryk (later to become the first President of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918) expounded in his university classes. He came to believe that the political passivity favoured by the Martin group was not beneficial to the Slovak nation, that the Slovaks must abandon their fatalistic policy and stop expecting salvation from the east, from their Russian brothers. Upon returning home he became active in politics and ran for the Hungarian Parliament. In 1891 and 1895 the Czechs organised two large provincial exhibitions. The stand on the ethnographic exhibition was of the greatest importance, for the Slovaks had two rooms devoted to their culture, under the title "Part of the Czechoslav nation". Czech attendance at this exhibition was large and press coverage thorough, giving the Czech public its first opportunity to become acquainted with Slovak culture on a grand scale. Following the excitement and goodwill engendered by the Ethnographic Exhibition, the Ceskoslovanska Jednota (Czechoslavonic Unit), was formed on 7 May 1896 with the well-known Slavist, Professor Frantisek Pastrnek, as chairman. According to its constitution, its purpose was the "...cultivation of Czechoslav interests and the support of the poor young Slav people" .4 The vehicle via which this was to be carried out was: "a) to publish, to promote, 4Literami archiv pamatnik narodnfho pfsemnictvf, Rotnagl Collection. "Ucel spolku je pestovati kultumi zajmy ceskoslovanske a podporovati chudou mladez slovanskou" . �70 SLOVAKIA to collect, to buy literary works and to found libraries; b) to grant stipends and to support Slav students studying in Prague ... ; c) public lectures and discussions, excluding political ones; d) to sponsor social entertainment" .5 This organisation was created to act as a defense mechanism in areas culturally endangered by Germans, for example Moravia, Silesia and to help these Czechs outside of Bohemia to maintain their identity (Lower Austria, Vienna). As far as the Slovaks were concerned, the aim was to maintain contact, to acquaint the Czech nation with the Slovak culture, to give Slovak students financial support in Prague, and to establish Czech libraries in Slovakia. The organisation did not really become deeply involved with the Slovak situation until 1909. Detvan members Srobar, Smetanay and K. Salva, a publisher in Rufomberok, were directly connected with Jednota as trustees for Slovakia. Meanwhile, in Martin , the representatives of the Slovak National Party remained determined to uphold the programme of Shir and the concept of "Okolie", come what may . Any acceptance of the idea of a single nation called Czechoslovak was out of the question for it meant the refutation of the Slovak language. The language separation was regarded as a tragedy by the Czechs but for the ardent Slovak nationalists, it meant arising from the dead. 6 According to Elie Kedourie, "the test ... , by which a nation is known to exist is that of language. A group speaking the same language is known as a nation, and a nation ought to constitute a state" .7 To the Martin nationalists, acceptance of the Czech idea of two branches of one nation , of being completely identical peoples, despite the patent social, economic, linguistic and cultural differences which one thousand years of a different history had imposed upon them, was simply not possible. It meant a denial of their nationhood which their awakened distinct national consciousness forbade. Thus the writings of such ardent Czech Slovakophiles as Kalal were not always well 5Ibid. , Third regulation of Constitution . 6Stefan Jan~ak. tivot Dr. Pavla Blahu, Tmava: Spolok sv. Vojtecha, 1947, I, p. 41. 7Elie Kedourie, Nationalism , London: Hutchinson & Co., 1974, p. 68. �SLOVAKIA 71 received in the Martin circle. In their publication Narodnie noviny (National News), they made it clear that the Czechs were not being made familiar with true Slovak conditions: The Czech public only misleads itself, when "the friends " of the Slovaks come to it with these sorts of things. He who is a friend of the Slovaks and understands their situation would not now refer to the written language .. . From amongst the professionals of our Czech brothers none took a deep interest in the Slovaks, thus rose K. Kalal, as an "expert" on Slovak affairs.8 Masaryk, too, often came under fire by the older generation of Slovak political leaders, represented by Svetozar Hurban Vajansky a leading nationalist, poet and editor of Narodnie noviny. Masaryk was accused of anti-clericalism, immorality in the sense of disrespect for tradition and ethics, misrepresentation of the economic situation in Slovakia, that is that poverty was not on a national scale but existed only in certain regions of the country which were not conducive to crop growing due to geography , such as Orava and Eastern Slovakia, and finally, for having turned some of the young people away from their own party, the Slovak National Party. Vajansky felt the young simply did not fully comprehend the gravity of the domestic situation, that there were no alternatives to the tactics used, and that unity amongst all Slovaks in the face of the onslaught of Magyarisation was vital. The older generation was convinced that writing in newspapers, facing stiff fines and longterm jail sentences for these articles, nonparticipation in the government and steadfastness in their religious affiliations were the only avenues open to them in stemming Magyarisation. They believed in co-operation amongst the Slavs, for example the Czechs as their closest brethren, but not at the expense 8Narodnie noviny, 1901, No. 64. Original text reads: "c'.:eske obecenstvo Jen myli sa, keel' "priatelia" Slovakov prichodia mu s takymito vecmi. Kto je priatefom Slovakov a rozumie ich polofoniu , teraz nebude sa tyka{ otazky ich spisovneho jazyka ... U bratov c'.:echov z povolanych fudf nikto nev~fmal si de,kJadnej~ie Slovakov , tak povstal K. Kalal , ako "znalec" vo veciach slovenskych". �72 SLOVAKIA of their national language , with the resulting loss of their separate identity. This was something which the Czechs never came to understand fully and which created so much ill-feeling after 1918. At the tum of the century, the student club Detvan in Prague lost a good deal of its drive with the departure of many of its most active students , especially Srobar, who returned to Slovakia to establish himself in a medical practice in 1899 in Rufomberok. His departure left a gap which was to be filled later by a young Slovak from Kosariska, Milan Rastislav Stefanik. In the summer of 1897 Srobar and four other young , progressive-thinking, Slovak students dissatisfied with the tum of events at the Martin celebrations, went to Bystricka to speak with Masaryk. He had already had a great influence upon the Slovak students in Prague, and Srobar had taken very much to heart the realist philosophy which Masaryk expounded, that is "drobna praca", small work amongst the people themselves. 9 At this meeting the basic foundation for a liberaldemocratic thinking review called Hlas (Voice) was laid . Its adherents, called Hlasists, were represented by Srobar, Pavel Blaho and A. Stefanek, journalists, and the lawyer Ivan Derer, all of whom were to play prominent roles in the government of Czechoslovakia after World War I. They believed in progressive thinking, democracy, reason and non-intervention of the Roman Catholic Church in the daily life of the peasants. They were ardent Czechoslovaks, devoted to the idea of Czechoslovak unity (Ceskoslovenska jednota). Most of their support came from the organisation Jednota in Prague. The first copy of Hlas was published in 1898 in Skalica 911 Drobna praca" was developed in depth in a series of lectures by Masaryk in 1898. These can be found in Jak pracovat?, ZUrich: Konfrontation SA, 1977, pp. 16-27. Masaryk wanted students to take the knowledge they had acquired in school and by going into the countryside to pass it on to the common man in a practical fashion thus helping him to better himself and to educate himself. At the same time Masaryk believed that such endeavours would lead to greater opportunities for both. They would "be coming into contact with people and learning to work together" (p.57), thus promoting a better understanding between each other and furthering their national goal. �SLOVAKIA 73 under the editorship of Blaho. Most of the young people involved were former Detvan members. Due to financial problems, it appeared for the last time in 1904. It had not been able to build-up a wide enough reading public. Their open Czechoslovak program was regarded with suspicion by the majority of the Slovak intellectuals and others who might have bought a copy. Albeit short-lived, Hlas had a tremendous impact on Slovak political, social and cultural life. It was instrumental in establishing the idea of a union of the Czechs and Slovaks on cultural and national lines. It stressed the need to educate the peasants to think and make their own decisions and especially to free themselves from the influence of the clergy. Education was not only the means of building an awareness of the Slovak identity and political activity but also the means of bringing about change in such areas as the temperance movement. From 1909 to 1914, the progressive young Slovaks again concentrated themselves around a monthly review, Prudy. Once more, its appearance was due to the initiative of Detvan members, for example Bohdan Pavlu. It described its program as being an open platform upon which all were welcome to come and express their views. Most of the members were former Hlasists. One can see that the motivation for Czech-Slovak reciprocity from the Slovak side tended to be initiated by those people who had actually studied in the Czech Lands. One can understand why Narodnie novinytried to discourage students from continuing their higher education there. For the Martinites, to go to Bohemia meant returning as a Czechophile as a foregone conclusion It should be pointed out that although Czech political opinion may have softened vis-a-vis the Slovaks after Rieger, there was never any question of political support.IO As far as the Young 10In several speeches both in Prague and Budapest Rieger made it very clear that the relationship between the Czechs and the Slovaks was not a legal one. The Czechs had no legal right to interfere in Slovak affairs , and moreover, had not been requested to do so by Slovak political leaders. See Jozef Jablonicky, "Prfspevok k cesko-slovenskym vzt'ahom od konca 19. stor. do roku 1914", in Historicke stlfdie, �74 SLOVAKIA Czech Party was concerned, Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia formed one unit as an historic state. Newly formed Czech political parties did not include the question of the Slovaks in their program. They upheld Rieger's stand that the Slovak question is a causa finita. 11 The only political leader to have a divergent view was Masaryk. He believed that Slovakia was a part of contemporary Czech politics. The span of time during which his influence was particularly significant to Slovak affairs was from 1896 to 1902. From then on he stopped travelling to Bystricka and turned his attention to Bohemian politics and dualism. His newspapers Cas and Nasa doba continued to publish articles on Slovakia. By the early 1900's the articles were losing their romantic style in describing Slovak conditions while such journals as Osveta and Slovanskj piehled concentrated on the culture and literature of Slovakia. This political stand of non-intervention continued even after the particularly unpleasant incident at Cernova in 1907 when the local Hungarian authorities opened fire upon unarmed Slovak villagers who had not wanted their new church to be consecrated by the Magyar clergy but wanted their own priest Andrej Hlinka, who had built it, to be the officiating personage. Although Czech Slovakophiles were able to get much propaganda out of the incident, the Czech political position remained the same. Czech politicans had no wish to threaten the Czech program based on Bohemia's Historic State Rights, nor to interfere in the internal matters of another state, Hungary. Contact between the Czechs and the Slovaks was very much on a limited literary and cultural level. In 1911, the Czechoslovak Unity under the direction Professor Fr. Bfly published Slovenska citanka, an encyclopedia on Slovak culture and literature. From 1907 to 1910 Nase Slovensko (Our Slovakia), an annual journal was published to acquaint the Czech public with the Slovaks. From 1908 until the break out of war, Jednota organised annual meetings of Czech and Slovak intellectuals at the Moravian health spa Luhacovice. Initially 26 individuals came together, but by 1914 IV, 1958, p. 8. 11 Ibid., p. 22. �SLOVAKIA 75 their number had grown to 300. 12 It should be noted that those who were active were the small number of Hlasists, the young generation mostly educated in Bohemia, Milan Hodza, a member of the Hungarian Parliament and representative of the Agrarian idea in Slovakia, and a few of the old guard from Martin; and from the Czechs, it was predominantly members of the Jednota. It is here that one begins to have some suggestion of possible discourse on political aspects. The actual meetings were held in secret and there appear to be no known official minutes. That something along political lines was being aired in these circles emerges in a letter from R . Pilat to the American Slovak, Milan Getting, in the summer of 1913 where he suggests that: " .. .it is high time that work was carried out on achieving the future program of a union of Czechs and Slovaks in a political sense". 13 He appears to have a premonition of the coming war and he adds confidentially that "preparations from the Czech side are on the way, in the event of the defeat of Austria, Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia would be united with Slovakia in one state" .14 On 4 April 1914, Frantisek Votruba a well-known Czech publicist living in Slovakia presented at a major political rally in Prague a resolution of protest against Magyar oppression of its nationalities, along with a demand for the revision of the Ausgleich and the terms of dualism.1 5 This is indicative of the fact that most Slovaks still thought in terms of a resolution of their problems within the terms of the present state rather than outside of it with the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. Some mention must be made of the interests of industry, ban12 Ibid., p. 20. 13 v . Kumek , "0 cinnosti a vyznamu Ceskoslovenske jednoty pi'ed vznikem CSR", Historicky casopis 10 (1962), pp . 366-7 in Miroslav Peknfk, "Slovenska politika v Uhorsku a kry~talizacia jej politickych koncepcif pred vznikom I. svetovej voj ny" , Slovensko v politickom systeme Ceskoslovenska, Bratislava: SA V, 1992, pp . 44. 14 M. Getting, Americkf Slovaci a vyvin ceskoslovenskej myslienky v rokoch 1914-18, Pittsburg: n. p., 1933 , p. 12 in Peknfk , p. 44. 15Slo vensky tyidennfk 12 , 4 . April 1914, No. 15 , p. 3 in Peknfk, p. 44. �76 SLOVAKIA king and investment in Slovakia by the Slovaks. With gradual economic growth in the 1870's and 1880's, the Tatra Bank was established in 1886 in Turciansky Svaty Martin. Shortly afterwards , there were bank officials and small investors , soon followed by branches in three other towns . By 1909, there were many similar banks throughout Slovakia. However, Czech investment was very small in Slovakia. Czech Slovakophiles extolled the virtues of Slovak resources, the untapped wealth, and so forth in such publications as Slovenska cftanka but it was not really significant. Similarly, there was very little movement of Slovak labour to Bohemia and Moravia except for the tinkers who wandered far to earn their bread. The largest manufacturing concern, Ceskoslovenska-Kolben-Danek (C-K-D) factory, had not a single employee recorded as coming from Slovakia in the period 1871-1920.16 In the decades that preceded the Great War, the idea of a union of the Czechs and the Slovaks was proposed initially by intellectuals rather than politicians as the only alternative to a situation which could no longer be tolerated. The general Czech and Slovak population knew very little of each other. The Czechs did not recognize the Slovak language and tended to mistake Slovaks for Yugoslavs as late as 1918.1 7 They had greater personal contact with other Europeans than with the Slovaks. Similarly, the educated Slovaks were much more at home in Vienna and Budapest. In fact, the peasants and workers migrated to these two cities as a general rule rather than to the Czech Lands. In addition, there was no truly unified Czech-Slovak club or association upon which Czechoslovak unity could be built. Ceskoslovanska Jednota had been founded by a minority, based on an idea rather than as the result of a political and economic evolutionary process. Thus, much of the misunderstanding which resulted after 16F . W. Carter, "C-K-D Employees, Prague 1871-1920: Some Aspects of Their Geographical Distribution", Journal of Historical Geography, I (I), 1975, p. 95. 17Jan Hajda, "The Role of Intelligentsia in Society" in Miloslav Rechcigl, ed., The Czechoslovak Contribution to World Culture, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1964, p. 311. �SLOVAKIA 77 1918 can be attributed to a mutual lack of awareness. The Czech intelligentsia sought to change basic Slovak society along the lines of their own but they did not take into account the growth and differentiation of the other. The "Anketa" carried out by Pnfdy in 1914 and finally published in 1919 clearly showed that those who welcomed political cooperation with the Czechs were the former Hlasists and Pnidists, the liberal-progressive streams in the Slovak National Party. Tampering with the Slovak language was out of the question . Co-operation was still relatively limited as Stefanek, an ardent supporter of CzechSlovak relations, remarked: In my view, the Czech political parties should work more systematically and their leaders should above all else know Slovakia personally and all their pronouncements on our behalf in the Austrian parliament and in delegations should be founded on their own views . As far as I am aware, other than Prof. Dr. Masaryk, Dr. Herben and Klofac and a few Agrarian politicians, no one has been to Slovakia, not even Dr. Hajn, nor Dr. Fiedler, Dr. Korner, Dr. Fort and many more excellent Czech politicians who through their own personal contact could accomplish much good . Slovakia still remains terra incognita even for Czech politicians, for university professors, writers , in short for the "cream" of the Czech nation. On the other hand we gladly recognize the good work of Czech politicans.18 I 811 Anketa", Prudy V , 9-10 (1913/ 1914- 1919), p. 11 . � 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 1991-92, Vol. 35 Description An account of the resource Vol. 35 (No. 64-65), 1991-92. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Slovak League of America Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available 1991-92 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 63 Czech-Slovak Relations From the 1840s to 1914 EDITA BOSAK Czech-Slovak relations were a constant but also a fundamental problem in the history of the Czech :md Slovak people, particularly from their political union in 1918 until the creation of two separate states in 1993. Their common state had been created out of the framework of the Austro-Hungarian Empire where the differences between the two peoples were already quite marked and also grossly underestimated . Since the arrival of the Magyars in today's Hungary in the late 9th century, the Slovaks had experienced a distinctly different development from the Czechs. Almost one thousand years of Hungarian rule had marked their economic activities , social life, degree of devotion to religion, mentality, tradition, and history. Even with the initial euphoria that followed the creation of the common state on 28 October 1918, these fundamental differences, which had not been fully considered, could not be erased. Not only were they cultural-linguistic but also religious. Our purpose is to examine how these differences were perceived prior to 1914 and what attempts were made to establish political relations between the two nations. The emergence of the Czech and Slovak national movements in the early nineteenth century helped to create a feeling of Slav solidarity. However, in the 1840s, the acceptance by most Slovak intellectuals of the central Slovak dialect as the Slovak literary language caused a permanent literary rift between the two peoples. The Slovaks were facing the first large scale attempts by the Magyars to assimilate the non-Magyars in Hungary. By 1844, 64 SLOVAKIA Magyar was made the official language of the country. The Slovak Lutherans were especially threatened because their close ties with the Czech Protestants were construed by official circles as evidence of treason, that is to say, collaboration with a foreign power. Thus they had to re-evaluate their position , especially since the Czechs were quite indifferent to the political and cultural situation of the Slovaks, embroiled as they were with their own national struggle with the Germans in Bohemia and Moravia. Assistance of any kind was not forthcoming . Nevertheless, the Czechs were considering creating a "Czechoslovak" literary language, yet refused to allow the modern Czech literary language to adopt any Slovak characteristics in order that the Slovaks might be able to identify with it. The Czechs were convinced that all concessions had to come from the Slovaks. However, as the idea that they were a nation of Slavs distinct from the Czechs grew among the Slovaks , there arose an incompatibility with the idea of being Czechoslovak and using only Czech as the literary medium. In the final analysis, a new Slovak literary language was the only recourse available to the Slovaks. Unfortunately, this step hardly fulfilled the expectations of L'udovit Stur and his followers that the Slovaks would become unified. The fact is that religious differences played an important role. The Slovaks were for the greater part Roman Catholics. But about one quarter was Lutheran and it was this group which tended to have the Czech ties that dated as far back as the sixteenth century and which used the Kralicka Bible for both literary and religious purposes . This split in Slovak society profoundly influenced the development of Czech-Slovak relations. The introduction of Sturovcina as the new Slovak literary language was called, remained a bone of contention between the Czechs and Slovaks for many decades . In the post-1849 period, CzechSlovak reciprocity almost completely disappeared. Controversy over the language split and political circumstances drove the two further apart. There were, however, some leading Czechs who continued to believe and to advocate the idea of Czechoslovakism, that is , the cultural ethnic and linguistic unity of both peoples as fellow Slavs. For instance, Karel Havlicek maintained that SLOVAKIA 65 the Czechoslav lands, Bohemia, Moravia, a part of Silesia and Slovakia in Hungary were for a Jong time one nation as far as literary and spiritual life goes, and the greater part of them belonged to one state. Well-known individuals in Bohemia as well as in Moravia, and likewise in Slovakia had always worked towards the complete union of these lands comprising one nation, and considered themselves members of one tribe, which is verified by the names and works of men from all these Jands. 2 But there were other leading lights among the Czechs like the Old Czech Party leader Frantisek L. Rieger who accused the Slovaks of having "tom away" from the Czech nation. From 1849 to 1868 there was next to no political interest in Slovak affairs. In the 1870's, 1880's and 1890's literary contact was sporadic and minimal. The continuity of Czech-Slovak relations was maintained by a few Czech writers and persons involved in cultural activities. The closure of the three Slovak gymnazia forced Slovak students to go abroad to study, especially to Moravia which was geographically closer to Upper Hungary, as Slovakia was called . Conditions were difficult and the students were not always well received, as Vavro Srobar comments in his biography, Z mojho iivota (From My Own Life), concerning his own experience with Czech professors. Contact was not always amicable on the day-today level. Students found it difficult to learn Czech and soon discovered that academically they were far behind the Czech students. It was the work of such writers as Bozena Nemcova, Adolf Heyduk, Rudolf Pokorny, and Jozef Holecek who kept the Czech public informed on who and what the Slovaks were and under what conditions they were surviving in Hungary. However, only a tiny segment of the intelligentsia had any interest of a genuine nature in 211 Ceskoslovanska zeme, Cechy, Morava, cast Slezska a Slovenska v Uhi'fch jsou jiz davno v literarnfm a du~evnfm zivote jednfm narodem, a vet~f cast jejich byla jiz i jednfm statem. Znamej~f duchove jak z Cech, tak z Moravy, tak i ze Slovenska odjakziva smerovali k uplnemu spojenf techto zernf jednoho naroda, a povafovali sebe vzdy za osudy jednoho kmene, na co svedcf jmena a spisy najznamenitej~fch muz0 v~ech tech krajin". Karel Havlfcek Borovsky, Politicke spisy, Vol. III, ed. Dr. Zdenek Tobolka, Prague: Jan Laichter, 1902, p. 178. 66 SLOVAKIA the Slovaks. The overall view of the Slovaks tended to be a rather sentimental and romantic one. For example, the short time spent by Bozena Nemcova in Slovakia produced a collection of fairytales Slovensk6 pohadky a povesti (Slovak Stories and Tales), two novels with Slovak themes Pohorska vesnice (Mountain Villages) and Chyie pod horami (Shanties At the Foothills), and a monograph Krajov a lesov na Zvolensku (Lands and Forests of Zvolen) . Throughout her life, she remained in regular correspondence with Gustav K. Zechenter, the minister and poet Samuel Chalupka, and the poet Samuel Tomasik, author of the Slovak hymn "Hej, Slovaci!" Of the other early Czech Slovakophiles, R. Pokorny wrote Potulky po Slovensku (Wandering About Slovakia), Literama shoda ceskoslovenska (Czechoslovak Literary Agreement); A. Heyduk Cymbal a Husle (Cymbal and Violin); and J. Holecek Podejme ruku Slovakum (Let's Give Our Hand To the Slovaks). Heyduk's verses were sentimental, and the description of daily Slovak life was highly coloured but Holecek, as a journalist, pointed out to the Czechs the political importance of the Slovaks for them, that is, a union of Czech and Slovak forces in opposition to German pressure in the Czech Lands. This was to become one of the major arguments in favour of Czech-Slovak reciprocity in the late 1890's. Pokorny, too , did some foundation work in re-establishing Czech-Slovak contact by setting-up the "Knihovna ceskoslovenska" (Czechoslovak Library). Its purpose was to publish the work of Slovak literary figures but due to financial stress, it closed in 1881 after having published only two works . One can see that Czech society at large actually had very little contact with the Slovaks or even knowledge about them until the 1890's. Pavel Sochan, a Slovak artist, described the situation as follows : the circle of Slovak friends was then very limited among the Czechs , whereas among the Mora vi ans we had many sincere friends . Even intelligent Czechs considered Slovaks as "tinkers" and Slovakia as the "land of tinkers" .3 3Pavel Sochan, "Zalozenie spolku 'Detvan' v Prahe roku 1882" in Stanislav Meciar ed., Detvan 50 rokov v Prahe, Turc. Sv. Martin: Slovensky akademicky spolok SLOVAKIA 67 At official functions, Czech academics often mistook the Slovaks for Bulgarians or Russians, for the Slovak language seemed very foreign sounding and unintelligible to their ears . They knew nothing of Slovak literature or her poets and writers. It was a very small Czech literary group which expressed any interest in the life of their brother Slavs. As the nineteenth century was coming to a close, the political situation of both the Czechs and the Slovaks required a new approach. What was needed was a realistic and systematic education effort of the Czech public with the existential struggle of the Slovaks in Hungary if aid was to be obtained for them. They had to become acquainted with Slovak culture, folklore and way of life . On the other hand, the Slovaks had to be awakened, educated, and shown that the Czechs were to be trusted and that they no longer held any grudges over the language issue. It was Karel Kalal, a Czech schoolteacher, who took on this role of arousing the Czechs in the 1890's and early 1900's to the plight of the Slovaks. Initially , his attitude vis-a-vis Slovak conditions was na"ively romantic and sentimental but by the twentieth century he became much more realistic in his comprehension, and his writing improved. Although his efforts were crowned with some success, the language question remained a thorn in the flesh of the Czechs. The Czechs were involved with the process of establishing their own separate identity from that of the Germans and yet they refused to see or accept the same nationalism in the Slovaks. They continued to see Czech-Slovak reciprocity in terms of one language, that is Czech. Kalal was just as stubborn a supporter of the Czechoslovak language. He represented a threat to the existence of the Slovak language and was often attacked for his articles by the Martin group. This language question was one of the basic problems hindering any "Detvan", 1932, pp . 8-9 . The original Slovak text is : " ...kruh slovenskych priatefov bol vtedy medzi Cechmi vefmi obmedzeny, kdezto medzi Moravanmi mali sme vefa uprimnych priatefov. I inteligentnf Cesi pokladali Slovakov za "dratenfkov" a Slovensko za "zeme drateru'lru ". 68 SLOVAKIA great Slovak moves towards the Czechs. The intellectual group centred in Turciansky Svaty Martin never ceased to defend the cultural-linguistic uniqueness of the Slovak nation from that of the Czech. The Slovak language and the idea of a distinct nation were the only weapons which they had at their disposal to fight Magyarisation. As it was, denationalisation of the younger generation, via mainly the school system, continued to increase. Another literary figure very active in attempting to bring about a rapprochement between the Czechs and the Slovaks was Jaroslav Vlcek . Born in Slovakia of mixed Czech-Slovak parentage, Vlcek spent his formative years on Slovak soil and received his early schooling there. While studying in Prague, he helped establish a student university club, Detvan, in 1882, for Slovak students studying there. During his student days, Vlcek wrote articles on a regular basis for the Slovak magazine Oral (Eagle) on Czech literature titled "Listy z Ciech" ("Letters from the Czech lands"), and in the Czech magazine Ruch a kvety (Activity and Flowers) on Slovak literature. His first major work Literatura na Slovensku (Literature in Slovakia) appeared in 1881. In 1883 he published a daring article in Slovanskf sbomfk (Slavonic Magazine) called "Slovensko za poslednfch peti let", (Slovakia in the Last Five Years) in which he disclosed the practices of the governing Magyar circles in Slovakia. In 1890, Vlcek published Dejiny literatlfry slovenske (The History of Slovak Literature). Vlcek was the first head of Detvan and he maintained an active interest in the club through the years canvassing to get support for it. The purpose of Detvan was to bring together Slovak students, to entertain and to educate them by having them give papers on Slovak literature, history and the contemporary conditions. The most important figures in the first decade of Detvan's existence were Vlcek, P. Sochan, Cyril Krcmery, St. Daxner, Ladislav Nadasi, Jan Slabej, Matej Bencur, M. Ursfny, Dusan Makovicky, J. Smetanay, and Srobar. Almost all of them were, at one time or another, to take part in the Slovak national awakening. Detvan organised Slovak evenings open to the Czech public whenever there was a significant Slovak celebration in order that the Czech public might come to SLOVAKIA 69 know that the Slovaks were more than just a land of tinkers, that they had their own history, their great men, and that they were now in need of a helping hand from their brothers to stave off the process of Magyarisation. This club collaborated on similar ventures with the other Czech and Moravian clubs, with the Slovak club Tatran in Vienna and with the Slovak Club in Budapest. They canvassed in Bohemia and Slovakia for funds to help Slovak students to come to study in Prague. During Srobar's presidency, Detvan came to have the greatest contact with the average Czech living in Prague. Srobar had been influenced by the realist philosophy (political program) which Tomas G. Masaryk (later to become the first President of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918) expounded in his university classes. He came to believe that the political passivity favoured by the Martin group was not beneficial to the Slovak nation, that the Slovaks must abandon their fatalistic policy and stop expecting salvation from the east, from their Russian brothers. Upon returning home he became active in politics and ran for the Hungarian Parliament. In 1891 and 1895 the Czechs organised two large provincial exhibitions. The stand on the ethnographic exhibition was of the greatest importance, for the Slovaks had two rooms devoted to their culture, under the title "Part of the Czechoslav nation". Czech attendance at this exhibition was large and press coverage thorough, giving the Czech public its first opportunity to become acquainted with Slovak culture on a grand scale. Following the excitement and goodwill engendered by the Ethnographic Exhibition, the Ceskoslovanska Jednota (Czechoslavonic Unit), was formed on 7 May 1896 with the well-known Slavist, Professor Frantisek Pastrnek, as chairman. According to its constitution, its purpose was the "...cultivation of Czechoslav interests and the support of the poor young Slav people" .4 The vehicle via which this was to be carried out was: "a) to publish, to promote, 4Literami archiv pamatnik narodnfho pfsemnictvf, Rotnagl Collection. "Ucel spolku je pestovati kultumi zajmy ceskoslovanske a podporovati chudou mladez slovanskou" . 70 SLOVAKIA to collect, to buy literary works and to found libraries; b) to grant stipends and to support Slav students studying in Prague ... ; c) public lectures and discussions, excluding political ones; d) to sponsor social entertainment" .5 This organisation was created to act as a defense mechanism in areas culturally endangered by Germans, for example Moravia, Silesia and to help these Czechs outside of Bohemia to maintain their identity (Lower Austria, Vienna). As far as the Slovaks were concerned, the aim was to maintain contact, to acquaint the Czech nation with the Slovak culture, to give Slovak students financial support in Prague, and to establish Czech libraries in Slovakia. The organisation did not really become deeply involved with the Slovak situation until 1909. Detvan members Srobar, Smetanay and K. Salva, a publisher in Rufomberok, were directly connected with Jednota as trustees for Slovakia. Meanwhile, in Martin , the representatives of the Slovak National Party remained determined to uphold the programme of Shir and the concept of "Okolie", come what may . Any acceptance of the idea of a single nation called Czechoslovak was out of the question for it meant the refutation of the Slovak language. The language separation was regarded as a tragedy by the Czechs but for the ardent Slovak nationalists, it meant arising from the dead. 6 According to Elie Kedourie, "the test ... , by which a nation is known to exist is that of language. A group speaking the same language is known as a nation, and a nation ought to constitute a state" .7 To the Martin nationalists, acceptance of the Czech idea of two branches of one nation , of being completely identical peoples, despite the patent social, economic, linguistic and cultural differences which one thousand years of a different history had imposed upon them, was simply not possible. It meant a denial of their nationhood which their awakened distinct national consciousness forbade. Thus the writings of such ardent Czech Slovakophiles as Kalal were not always well 5Ibid. , Third regulation of Constitution . 6Stefan Jan~ak. tivot Dr. Pavla Blahu, Tmava: Spolok sv. Vojtecha, 1947, I, p. 41. 7Elie Kedourie, Nationalism , London: Hutchinson & Co., 1974, p. 68. SLOVAKIA 71 received in the Martin circle. In their publication Narodnie noviny (National News), they made it clear that the Czechs were not being made familiar with true Slovak conditions: The Czech public only misleads itself, when "the friends " of the Slovaks come to it with these sorts of things. He who is a friend of the Slovaks and understands their situation would not now refer to the written language .. . From amongst the professionals of our Czech brothers none took a deep interest in the Slovaks, thus rose K. Kalal, as an "expert" on Slovak affairs.8 Masaryk, too, often came under fire by the older generation of Slovak political leaders, represented by Svetozar Hurban Vajansky a leading nationalist, poet and editor of Narodnie noviny. Masaryk was accused of anti-clericalism, immorality in the sense of disrespect for tradition and ethics, misrepresentation of the economic situation in Slovakia, that is that poverty was not on a national scale but existed only in certain regions of the country which were not conducive to crop growing due to geography , such as Orava and Eastern Slovakia, and finally, for having turned some of the young people away from their own party, the Slovak National Party. Vajansky felt the young simply did not fully comprehend the gravity of the domestic situation, that there were no alternatives to the tactics used, and that unity amongst all Slovaks in the face of the onslaught of Magyarisation was vital. The older generation was convinced that writing in newspapers, facing stiff fines and longterm jail sentences for these articles, nonparticipation in the government and steadfastness in their religious affiliations were the only avenues open to them in stemming Magyarisation. They believed in co-operation amongst the Slavs, for example the Czechs as their closest brethren, but not at the expense 8Narodnie noviny, 1901, No. 64. Original text reads: "c'.:eske obecenstvo Jen myli sa, keel' "priatelia" Slovakov prichodia mu s takymito vecmi. Kto je priatefom Slovakov a rozumie ich polofoniu , teraz nebude sa tyka{ otazky ich spisovneho jazyka ... U bratov c'.:echov z povolanych fudf nikto nev~fmal si de,kJadnej~ie Slovakov , tak povstal K. Kalal , ako "znalec" vo veciach slovenskych". 72 SLOVAKIA of their national language , with the resulting loss of their separate identity. This was something which the Czechs never came to understand fully and which created so much ill-feeling after 1918. At the tum of the century, the student club Detvan in Prague lost a good deal of its drive with the departure of many of its most active students , especially Srobar, who returned to Slovakia to establish himself in a medical practice in 1899 in Rufomberok. His departure left a gap which was to be filled later by a young Slovak from Kosariska, Milan Rastislav Stefanik. In the summer of 1897 Srobar and four other young , progressive-thinking, Slovak students dissatisfied with the tum of events at the Martin celebrations, went to Bystricka to speak with Masaryk. He had already had a great influence upon the Slovak students in Prague, and Srobar had taken very much to heart the realist philosophy which Masaryk expounded, that is "drobna praca", small work amongst the people themselves. 9 At this meeting the basic foundation for a liberaldemocratic thinking review called Hlas (Voice) was laid . Its adherents, called Hlasists, were represented by Srobar, Pavel Blaho and A. Stefanek, journalists, and the lawyer Ivan Derer, all of whom were to play prominent roles in the government of Czechoslovakia after World War I. They believed in progressive thinking, democracy, reason and non-intervention of the Roman Catholic Church in the daily life of the peasants. They were ardent Czechoslovaks, devoted to the idea of Czechoslovak unity (Ceskoslovenska jednota). Most of their support came from the organisation Jednota in Prague. The first copy of Hlas was published in 1898 in Skalica 911 Drobna praca" was developed in depth in a series of lectures by Masaryk in 1898. These can be found in Jak pracovat?, ZUrich: Konfrontation SA, 1977, pp. 16-27. Masaryk wanted students to take the knowledge they had acquired in school and by going into the countryside to pass it on to the common man in a practical fashion thus helping him to better himself and to educate himself. At the same time Masaryk believed that such endeavours would lead to greater opportunities for both. They would "be coming into contact with people and learning to work together" (p.57), thus promoting a better understanding between each other and furthering their national goal. SLOVAKIA 73 under the editorship of Blaho. Most of the young people involved were former Detvan members. Due to financial problems, it appeared for the last time in 1904. It had not been able to build-up a wide enough reading public. Their open Czechoslovak program was regarded with suspicion by the majority of the Slovak intellectuals and others who might have bought a copy. Albeit short-lived, Hlas had a tremendous impact on Slovak political, social and cultural life. It was instrumental in establishing the idea of a union of the Czechs and Slovaks on cultural and national lines. It stressed the need to educate the peasants to think and make their own decisions and especially to free themselves from the influence of the clergy. Education was not only the means of building an awareness of the Slovak identity and political activity but also the means of bringing about change in such areas as the temperance movement. From 1909 to 1914, the progressive young Slovaks again concentrated themselves around a monthly review, Prudy. Once more, its appearance was due to the initiative of Detvan members, for example Bohdan Pavlu. It described its program as being an open platform upon which all were welcome to come and express their views. Most of the members were former Hlasists. One can see that the motivation for Czech-Slovak reciprocity from the Slovak side tended to be initiated by those people who had actually studied in the Czech Lands. One can understand why Narodnie novinytried to discourage students from continuing their higher education there. For the Martinites, to go to Bohemia meant returning as a Czechophile as a foregone conclusion It should be pointed out that although Czech political opinion may have softened vis-a-vis the Slovaks after Rieger, there was never any question of political support.IO As far as the Young 10In several speeches both in Prague and Budapest Rieger made it very clear that the relationship between the Czechs and the Slovaks was not a legal one. The Czechs had no legal right to interfere in Slovak affairs , and moreover, had not been requested to do so by Slovak political leaders. See Jozef Jablonicky, "Prfspevok k cesko-slovenskym vzt'ahom od konca 19. stor. do roku 1914", in Historicke stlfdie, 74 SLOVAKIA Czech Party was concerned, Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia formed one unit as an historic state. Newly formed Czech political parties did not include the question of the Slovaks in their program. They upheld Rieger's stand that the Slovak question is a causa finita. 11 The only political leader to have a divergent view was Masaryk. He believed that Slovakia was a part of contemporary Czech politics. The span of time during which his influence was particularly significant to Slovak affairs was from 1896 to 1902. From then on he stopped travelling to Bystricka and turned his attention to Bohemian politics and dualism. His newspapers Cas and Nasa doba continued to publish articles on Slovakia. By the early 1900's the articles were losing their romantic style in describing Slovak conditions while such journals as Osveta and Slovanskj piehled concentrated on the culture and literature of Slovakia. This political stand of non-intervention continued even after the particularly unpleasant incident at Cernova in 1907 when the local Hungarian authorities opened fire upon unarmed Slovak villagers who had not wanted their new church to be consecrated by the Magyar clergy but wanted their own priest Andrej Hlinka, who had built it, to be the officiating personage. Although Czech Slovakophiles were able to get much propaganda out of the incident, the Czech political position remained the same. Czech politicans had no wish to threaten the Czech program based on Bohemia's Historic State Rights, nor to interfere in the internal matters of another state, Hungary. Contact between the Czechs and the Slovaks was very much on a limited literary and cultural level. In 1911, the Czechoslovak Unity under the direction Professor Fr. Bfly published Slovenska citanka, an encyclopedia on Slovak culture and literature. From 1907 to 1910 Nase Slovensko (Our Slovakia), an annual journal was published to acquaint the Czech public with the Slovaks. From 1908 until the break out of war, Jednota organised annual meetings of Czech and Slovak intellectuals at the Moravian health spa Luhacovice. Initially 26 individuals came together, but by 1914 IV, 1958, p. 8. 11 Ibid., p. 22. SLOVAKIA 75 their number had grown to 300. 12 It should be noted that those who were active were the small number of Hlasists, the young generation mostly educated in Bohemia, Milan Hodza, a member of the Hungarian Parliament and representative of the Agrarian idea in Slovakia, and a few of the old guard from Martin; and from the Czechs, it was predominantly members of the Jednota. It is here that one begins to have some suggestion of possible discourse on political aspects. The actual meetings were held in secret and there appear to be no known official minutes. That something along political lines was being aired in these circles emerges in a letter from R . Pilat to the American Slovak, Milan Getting, in the summer of 1913 where he suggests that: " .. .it is high time that work was carried out on achieving the future program of a union of Czechs and Slovaks in a political sense". 13 He appears to have a premonition of the coming war and he adds confidentially that "preparations from the Czech side are on the way, in the event of the defeat of Austria, Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia would be united with Slovakia in one state" .14 On 4 April 1914, Frantisek Votruba a well-known Czech publicist living in Slovakia presented at a major political rally in Prague a resolution of protest against Magyar oppression of its nationalities, along with a demand for the revision of the Ausgleich and the terms of dualism.1 5 This is indicative of the fact that most Slovaks still thought in terms of a resolution of their problems within the terms of the present state rather than outside of it with the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. Some mention must be made of the interests of industry, ban12 Ibid., p. 20. 13 v . Kumek , "0 cinnosti a vyznamu Ceskoslovenske jednoty pi'ed vznikem CSR", Historicky casopis 10 (1962), pp . 366-7 in Miroslav Peknfk, "Slovenska politika v Uhorsku a kry~talizacia jej politickych koncepcif pred vznikom I. svetovej voj ny" , Slovensko v politickom systeme Ceskoslovenska, Bratislava: SA V, 1992, pp . 44. 14 M. Getting, Americkf Slovaci a vyvin ceskoslovenskej myslienky v rokoch 1914-18, Pittsburg: n. p., 1933 , p. 12 in Peknfk , p. 44. 15Slo vensky tyidennfk 12 , 4 . April 1914, No. 15 , p. 3 in Peknfk, p. 44. 76 SLOVAKIA king and investment in Slovakia by the Slovaks. With gradual economic growth in the 1870's and 1880's, the Tatra Bank was established in 1886 in Turciansky Svaty Martin. Shortly afterwards , there were bank officials and small investors , soon followed by branches in three other towns . By 1909, there were many similar banks throughout Slovakia. However, Czech investment was very small in Slovakia. Czech Slovakophiles extolled the virtues of Slovak resources, the untapped wealth, and so forth in such publications as Slovenska cftanka but it was not really significant. Similarly, there was very little movement of Slovak labour to Bohemia and Moravia except for the tinkers who wandered far to earn their bread. The largest manufacturing concern, Ceskoslovenska-Kolben-Danek (C-K-D) factory, had not a single employee recorded as coming from Slovakia in the period 1871-1920.16 In the decades that preceded the Great War, the idea of a union of the Czechs and the Slovaks was proposed initially by intellectuals rather than politicians as the only alternative to a situation which could no longer be tolerated. The general Czech and Slovak population knew very little of each other. The Czechs did not recognize the Slovak language and tended to mistake Slovaks for Yugoslavs as late as 1918.1 7 They had greater personal contact with other Europeans than with the Slovaks. Similarly, the educated Slovaks were much more at home in Vienna and Budapest. In fact, the peasants and workers migrated to these two cities as a general rule rather than to the Czech Lands. In addition, there was no truly unified Czech-Slovak club or association upon which Czechoslovak unity could be built. Ceskoslovanska Jednota had been founded by a minority, based on an idea rather than as the result of a political and economic evolutionary process. Thus, much of the misunderstanding which resulted after 16F . W. Carter, "C-K-D Employees, Prague 1871-1920: Some Aspects of Their Geographical Distribution", Journal of Historical Geography, I (I), 1975, p. 95. 17Jan Hajda, "The Role of Intelligentsia in Society" in Miloslav Rechcigl, ed., The Czechoslovak Contribution to World Culture, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1964, p. 311. SLOVAKIA 77 1918 can be attributed to a mutual lack of awareness. The Czech intelligentsia sought to change basic Slovak society along the lines of their own but they did not take into account the growth and differentiation of the other. The "Anketa" carried out by Pnfdy in 1914 and finally published in 1919 clearly showed that those who welcomed political cooperation with the Czechs were the former Hlasists and Pnidists, the liberal-progressive streams in the Slovak National Party. Tampering with the Slovak language was out of the question . Co-operation was still relatively limited as Stefanek, an ardent supporter of CzechSlovak relations, remarked: In my view, the Czech political parties should work more systematically and their leaders should above all else know Slovakia personally and all their pronouncements on our behalf in the Austrian parliament and in delegations should be founded on their own views . As far as I am aware, other than Prof. Dr. Masaryk, Dr. Herben and Klofac and a few Agrarian politicians, no one has been to Slovakia, not even Dr. Hajn, nor Dr. Fiedler, Dr. Korner, Dr. Fort and many more excellent Czech politicians who through their own personal contact could accomplish much good . Slovakia still remains terra incognita even for Czech politicians, for university professors, writers , in short for the "cream" of the Czech nation. On the other hand we gladly recognize the good work of Czech politicans.18 I 811 Anketa", Prudy V , 9-10 (1913/ 1914- 1919), p. 11 .  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Czech-Slovak Relations from the 1840's to 1914 Description An account of the resource Edita Bosák Slovakia, Vol. 35 (No. 64-65), 1991-92 pp. 63-77 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bosák, Edita, 1950-2022 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1991-92 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/5537aaa0888771e68d80eaae7e103dbe.pdf 755e88aca23327760f4d22f566a11ece PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 7 THE CERNOVA MASSACRE: MAGYAR MISCALCULATION, SLOVAK GAIN Edita Bosak Cernova, formerly an independent municipality of Liptov county, today a suburb of Ruzomberok, played a key role in the Slovak national movement in the first decade of the twentieth century. With the signing of the 1867 Austro-Hungarian Compromise, which created the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary, the hegemony of the Austrian Empire ended. The agreement opened the way for the ruling Magyar political forces in the Kingdom of Hungary to enforce their national interests without regard for the interests of the non-Magyar nationalities. Since this meant that no legal rights would be granted to the non-Magyar nations in Hungary, the Slovaks in Northern Hungary found their political situation deteriorating over the next fifty years. Between 1905 and 1907, the Dual Monarchy found itself in a serious political and social crisis and also faced deeply divisive nationality problems as a result of the Compromise. This study will explore the role of the Cernova massacre in changing the direction of the Slovak national movement, in exposing the Magyar government's nationalities' policies both internally and abroad, and thus forcing the Magyars into a defensive position. With the passing of the Compromise in 1867, Magyar statesmen Ferenc Deak and J6szef Eotvos, crafted the Legislative Act 44/1868 on the Equality of the Nationalities, 1 commonly known as the Nationalities Law. Although this law was intended to satisfy the nationalities' yearning for equality, in actual fact it denied the equality of all the nationalities in Hungary except for the Croats, who were recognized as a separate nation. The preamble of the law clearly stated: " .... all citizens of the Kingdom of Hungary, in conformity with the 1 Torveny-czikk a nemzetisek egyenj ogus:ig t:irgy:iban. Magyar torvenyt:ir 10001895 . 1838-1 868 evi torvenyczikkek. (Budapest, I 896) 490-4, as cited in Milan Podrim avsky, " Slovaks in the Conditions of the Hungarian State at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century." Human Affairs, 9, I (1999), 45 . �8 SLOVAKIA Constitution and from the political point of view, create an indivisible unitary Hungarian (Magyar) nation, of which each citizen of the country, belonging to any nationality, is an equal member." 2 In effect, the equality of the citizens of the state as individuals, independent of their nationality, was proclaimed; but the equality of the nationalities of the old Kingdom of Hungary was not. The discriminatory character of the Nationality Law had serious ramifications for the Slovaks. As a result, in 1878 the Slovaks sent another deputation led by one of the heroes of the 1848 Revolution, Jozef M. Hurban, to Vienna requesting an independent Slovak territory.3 The emperor refused to meet with Hurban, and returned his Memorandum to him. This led to an escalation in Magyarization (assimilation into the Magyar language and culture) and legislation by Magyar political forces which sought to erode any remaining rights of the nationalities. Prior to 1867, the Slovak national movement had made considerable headway. In the early 1860's intellectuals accepted the language reforms which I.:udovit Stur had made in 1846, and which led 4 to the final codification of the Slovak language in 1851. The Slovak nationalists sought to win legal guarantees that would safeguard the Slovak national existence and sovereignty. Although they were unsuccessful in obtaining recognition for the Memorandum of 1861 and the Okolie (a Slovak territory), they did manage to create the cultural and literary organization Matica slovenska in 1863 in the small town of Turciansky Svaty Martin and three Slovak gymnazia in the 1860s. The number of Slovak newspapers also expanded at this time. These achievements gave the Slovaks hope for bettering their political, social and economic situation in Hungary. It was short lived. With the signing of the A usgleich in 1867, these national developments came to a rapid end. The gymnazia were closed in 1874 and the Matica slovenska in 1875, with the state confiscating all of Matica 's property. The Prime Minister of Hungary, Kalman Tisza, announced at the sitting of the Diet that he did not know of "any Slovak nation" . Hungary.s m 2 Podrimavsky, " Slovaks ... ," 45. Anton Spiesz and Dusan Caplovic, Illustrated Slovak History (Wauconda, Ill inois: Bolchazy- Carducci Publi shers, 2006), 149. 4 Ludevi t Stur, Nauka reci slovenskej (Presporok, 1846; reprinted in Bratislava, 2006). 5 Milan Durica, Dejiny Slovenska a Slovakov (Bratislava: Luc, 2003), 235. 3 �SLOVAKIA 9 The arrival of the government of Kalman Tisza in 1875 inaugurated a new period of oppression. The ruling Magyar circles were determined to strengthen the supremacy of national politics within the old Kingdom of Hungary vis-a-vis Vienna and also outside of the Monarchy, especially towards the Balkans. The virulent Magyarization policies of fifteen years of Tisza rule seriously hampered the ability of Slovaks to keep pace with their counterparts in other regions of Europe. The Slovak intelligentsia was continuously attacked and began to lose hope. The Hungarian government believed that the only solution to the nationality problem was assimilating the nonMagyar nations. Its Magyarization policies employed a variety of devices. The Magyar language was implemented at all levels of society, including from the pulpit. Various associations to help assimilate the nationalities 6 were established and also the local press was harnessed to ensure the Magyarization program would be effecttive and ensure the elimination of the Slovak language from public life. In terms of organized religion, both the authorities of the Catholic and Lutheran Churches practiced Magyarization in private, as well as in public. Slovak children attending Catholic schools were required to use the Magyar language. Slovak priests and teachers were persecuted for their national consciousness and participation in the Slovak national movement. 7 Slovak ministers and priests, who were known to be nationalists, were transferred from wealthier parishes to ones where the minister or priest, along with his flock, had . 8 to strugg Ie to survive. In 1878, the Slovenska narodna strana (Slovak National Party) announced it would boycott the elections to protest the discrimination suffered by the Slovaks. Not a single Slovak deputy was elected 6 Tisza' s gove rnment establi shed th e Magyar Educa tio nal League for Upper Hungary (FEMKE) in 1882 w ith its seat in the anci ent Slova k city of Nitra and the Educati onal League fo r Upper Hun ga ry (MT KE) in 1885 w ith its headquarters in Budapest, as we ll several j ourn als and news papers to aid in fi ghting th e g rowth of Slovak nati onal co nsc io usness. Podrimavsky, "S lova ks in the Co nditions of th e Hun gari an State . . . ," 4 7. 7 Ibid., 47-8. 8 Karel Kalal, Mad'arizacia. Obraz slovenske utrpenie. (Originall y publi shed in 1900, reprinted in Brati slava : Eko- ko nzult, 2006), 27. "The Sl ovak priest Moyses los t hi s parish in Lucky and th e Magyarone Smizar repl aced him ; the people sto pped go in g to church, th ey are bu ry in g their dead themselves, children are not be ing bapti zed, but no ne of th at moves either Smi za r, or " Fath er" Parvy. " �SLOVAKIA to the Diet in the elections of 1875 or 1878 . From this date until the early twentieth century, the Slovenska narodna strana followed a policy of political passivity and withdrew to the small town of Turciansky Svaty Martin in Central Slovakia. They also brought with them their newspaper Slovenske narodne noviny (Slovak National News) from its previous home in Budapest. Two factors , one internal and the other external , were instrumental in activating the Martin nationalists at the turn of the century. First of all, the economic situation was depressed and created a climate of both social and political unrest. The gravity of this situation was described as late as 1914 in an article entitled "The Decline of Industry" 9 by the pro-Magyar, government-sponsored, newspaper Slovenske noviny , published in Budapest. Alongside this industrial problem was the failure of the agrarian sector to thrive as a result of several bad harvests. The result was a growth in anti-Semitism, as the Jews were blamed for the drop in agricultural prices. This was followed by the rise of a new Catholic, anti-Semitic, Hungarian political party: the Hungarian People's Party (Neppart) established by Ferdinand Zichy and its weekly Krest'an. ' 0 It should be pointed out that most Jews in Hungary tied their economic well-being to support for the Magyar ruling class. Another catalyst for Slovak patriots was the trial of Romanian nationalists in 1894 which helped bring together a coalition of nonMagyar nationalists. Recognizing their common goals and the advantage of solidarity, the nationalities came together for the first time in the Congress of Non-Hungarian Nations in Budapest in 1895 . The Congress sought national equality in conjunction with democratic demands for universal and secret manhood suffrage, and freedom of the press, speech, assembly and association for all the nationalities. An external factor which played a major role in ending political passivity was a new generation of university students who were 9 Dr. Adolf Phany, "Upado k priemys lu," Slovenske noviny, 14 January 1914, p. l . Robert W. Seton-Watso n, A Hislory of 1he Czechs and Slovaks (Londo n, 1943:, reprint ed., Hamden, CT, 1965) 27 1-2. See also Julius Popely, " Boj o liberalne cirkevnopoliticke reform y v Uhorsku a zaloze nie katolickej l' udovej strany," Hisloricky casopis 29, 6 ( 198 1), 85 7-70, and Julius Popely, "Yzt' ah medzi statom a cirkvou v posledn ej tretine 19. storocia a korene politi ckeho kl erikali zmu v Uhorsku," Historickestudie 24 ( 1980): 77 -96, and Owen V. Johnson, " Losing Faith : The Slova k Hungari an Constitutional Struggle, 1906-1914," Harvard Ukrainian S1udies, 22, I, ( 1998), 293-3 12. 10 �SLOVAKIA 11 either educated by Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, a Czech professor at Charles University in Prague, or who read his works while studying in Vienna and Budapest. As graduates and young professionals, they returned to Slovakia and spread Masaryk's ideas and teachings, his "Realist" program, and especially the concept of "drobna praca" (intensive work) . 11 On the advice of Masaryk, some of his students in 1898 established the journal Hlas (Voice). It preached the advantages of closer Czech and Slovak cooperation. This was enough to prompt the leadership of the old guard--the poet, writer, and editor of Ncirodne noviny, Svetozar Hurban Vajansky; Pavel Mudroii, party chair for the Slovenskci ncirodnci strana; Matus Dula, Ambro Pietor, and several others into protesting that the charges of political passivity levelled by Hlas editors Vavro Srobar and Pavel Blaho were unjust. A rift emerged between the older and younger generation. The elders felt the younger generation was neither respectful nor grateful for the sacrifices made by their elders in furthering the Slovak national movement. When Hlas ceased publication in 1904, there was a short respite. However, the demands of the young nationalists for a platform led to the publiccation of another journal, Prudy (Currents) in 1909. Milan Hodza, a young Budapest lawyer and publicist recognized that the Slovaks needed to become politically engaged and he put his energies into the building of a mass movement. In his newspaper Slovensky tyi dennik (Slovak Weekly) begun in 1903, Hodza tried to capture the Slovak peoples' interests and educate them in political activity. The young people rejected their elders' policy of political passivity. 11 Edita Bosak, "Czech-Slovak Relati ons and the Student Organisati on Detvan, 1882- I 91 4" in Slovak Polirics, Ed. Stani slav J. Kirsc hbaum (C leveland : Slovak Institute, 1983), 6-41. See also Ed ita Bosa k, "The Slovak National Movement, 184819 18" in Rejlecrions on Slovak Hisrory, Ed. Stani slav J. Kirschbaum and Anne C. Roman (Toronto: Sl ovak World Congress, 1987), 59-72 , and Edita Bosak, "T. G. Masaryk and th e Emerge nce of th e Hl as ist Move ment, 1898-1904", in J. M. Rydlo , ed, Milan S. Durica. Fesrschrift (Brati slava, 1995) 29-42. Edita Bosa k, " Slowakische Studentenorganisati onen in W ien, Prag und Budapes t und ihre Zusa mm enarbeit," in Wegenetz europiiischen Ceistes fl - Universitiiten und Studenten: Die Bedeutung studentischer Migrationen in Mittel - und Siidosteuropa vom 18. Bis zum 20. Jahrhundert. Eds. Ri chard G. Plasc hka and Karlheinz Mac k (Muni ch: 1987), 162-1 82. �SLOVAKIA 12 Slovak politicians finally dropped their pass1v1ty before the Hungarian constitutional crisis in 1905-1906. Hungarian political circles noted this and their Magyarisation politics were stepped up and the persecution of Slovak nationalists reached their peak. On the eve of the 1905 elections, Prime Minister Istvan Tisza bluntly stated his position on the nationalities as follows : A cardinal condition for the enjoyment of rights by other nationalities is that the citizens of other nationalities should recognize unreservedly that this State is the Magyar State .... The Magyar nation has never given a binding promise to maintain the Law of Nationalities for all time, or not to alter it... when conditions change, and when we perceive that through this law we grant to our opponents rights against ourselves. 12 The policy of Magyarization continued to escalate at all government and religious levels, and to touch the social, economic, and political fabric of the state. The Apponyi Education Acts of 1907 reiterated that teachers in religious schools were state employees, and, as such, had to be able to read, write, and teach in Magyar. Leading Magyar nationalists held firm to these views . There were even fears among government leaders that negotiations with the nationalities would derail the Magyar goal of a single national state. Tisza, in response to the fears expressed by Count Albert Apponyi, that he was negotiating with the Romanians, stated very clearly that he stood " ... on the basis of a single undivided Hungarian national state ... No Hungarian can hold any other position other than the position of a single Hungarian nation, creating a single united Hungarian national state. 13 As far as Tisza was concerned, this position was unassailable. These views were held by most of the Hungarian ruling circle and permeated throughout the administrative echelons and bureaucracy. Surprisingly, in the 1906 elections, six Slovaks from the Slovenska l'udova strana (Slovak People's Party) 14 and one from the Slovenska 12 R. W. Seton-Watson, German, Slav, and Magyar (New York : Howard Fertig, 1968), 45-6. 13 Kalman Tisza Slovenske noviny, 16 January 19 14, p. l. 14 The Slovenska /'udova strana had separated from Zichy's People' s Party, Neppart, in 1905 because the latter did not represent the Slovak peoples ' interests. 1 �SLOVAKIA 13 narodna strana (Slovak National Party) were elected. They demonstrated that a well-organized campaign, with emphasis on the needs of the peasants, was the way to attract votes. 15 However, the campaigners also pointed out that parties such as Neppart were not working in the interests of the Slovak peasants. Although this was a small win for the Slovak national movement (given their proportion of the population, the Slovaks should have had 40 seats in Parliament), its impact was significant enough that the Hungarian government expanded and increased the tempo of its Magyarization process. With hindsight it is clear that this political achievement was very much a milestone in the Slovak national movement. Slovak leaders, laymen as well as clergy, were now targeted in a stepped up campaign of persecution. 16 The Catholic Church's hierarchy, educated in the "great Magyar spirit," 17 was also actively involved in these persecutions . Even sermons had to be given in Magyar in completely Slovak parishes. Slovak priests who expressed national sentiments and used their own language in church were persecuted. Yet it was this Slovak clergy to which the people looked for guidance. The Slovak intelligentsia was very small, and as a result, both Roman Catholic priests and Lutheran ministers filled this gap. This form of Magyarization also attracted the attention of William Ritter, 18 a Swiss writer and artist. He published the details of the trial of Andrej Hlinka in Ruzomberok, October 26-November 6, 15 Ameri can Slovaks, in a sign of support and solidarity, had co llected $ I 0,000 and se nt it to the Slovak leadership back home to help defray electi on ex penses. The electi on of seven Slovaks to th e Hun ga ri an Parli ament, a first in history , was enthusiasti call y received as one Slovak Am erican decl ared "Our mon ey has been well spent. " In M. Mark Stolarik , Immig ration and Urban ization: The Slovak Experience, 1870- / 9 18 (New York: AM S Press, 1989), 194. 16 Several Slova k nati onali st leaders were now tri ed and convicted of " inciting aga inst the Magya r nati on" and sentenced to term s in prison: the Rev. Ferdi s Juriga, Dr. Vavro Srobar, the Rev. Andrej Hlinka, Milan Iva nka, etc. 17 Kuruc, Stefa n, " Katolicka cirkev na Slovenskom uze mi Uhorska na zaciatku 20. storocia," in My tus a realita, Stefan Kuci k, ed. (Rufo mberok : Katolicka uni versita v Rufo mberku, 2008), 6 1. 18 William Ritter ( I 867- I 955) was one of th e earli est and most creati ve of the foreign Sl ovakophiles who wrote about th e situati on faced by the Slovak s in the Hungari an part of the Dual Monarc hy of Austri a-H ungary. He pro tested aga inst Magyari zati on w ith others like th e Ru ssian Alexander Alexa ndrovic Papkov ( I 866-1920), the Scot Robert William Seton-Watson ( I 879- I 95 I), the Frenchm an Ernest Deni s ( 1849-1 92 1) and the No rweg ian Bj ornstjern e Bjorn son ( 1832- 19 10). �14 SLOVAKIA 1906 in the French Catholic magazine Demain. His article was read by officials in the Vatican and, as result, Hlinka was able to defend himself successfully from the Hungarian hierarchy' s accusations. 19 Ritter also published the letters of Hungarian bishops and Slovak priests in 1906 in Demain. He was a regular visitor to Slovakia from 1888 until 1947, and maintained a faithful and steadfast interest in the Slovaks until his death.20 Ritter had a vibrant correspondence with Slovakia's nationalists and greatest writers and poets, and through his publications pointed out to the western world the inhumane political, religious, social and cultural Magyarization of the Slovaks in the Kingdom Hungary. 21 Ritter was the first Slovakophile to expose the brutal sentiments expressed by the Magyar Prime Minister Istvan Tisza in 1905. In his article "Eveques hongrois et pretres slovaques" in the Lyons journal Demain politique, social, religieux,22 Ritter quoted Tisza as having stated "The law is dead for you Slovaks."23 Ritter had also published the harsh words of Tisza's father, Kalman Tisza, when he had been the head of government years earlier: "Slovaks should be crushed under the heel." 24 This Swiss humanitarian also expounded on Magyarization carried out in poor Slovak parish schools, in the theological seminaries and amongst Slovak priests . In fact, the fateful Cernova massacre simply confirmed the truth of Ritter's writings. Villagers in the small settlement of Cemova, in the diocese of Spis, had constructed a church mainly through the initiative and support of a local son, the Reverend Andrej Hlinka. Out of pride and gratitude, the citizens of Cemova, asked their bishop, Alexander Parvy, to allow Hlinka to consecrate the new church. 25 These people knew the importance of having one of their own sons fulfill this ceremony. Since Hlinka had been suspended from his priestly duties by Parvy because of his nationalist behavior, the people of Cemova requested a delay in consecration until such time as Hlinka could 19 Jozef M. Rydl o, " Sudny proces proti Andrejovi Hlinkovi v Rufo mberku 26. 106.11.1906 a obrana Slovakov proti mad 'arizacii perom William Rittera na strankach francu zskeho Demain", in Kucik, My tus a realita, 24. 20 Ibid. , 22 . 21 Ibid ., 23 . 22 Ibid ., 24. 23 Ibid., 24. 24 Ibid., 24. 25 Alexander Parvy was bishop of the Spis diocese from 1904 to 19 19. �SLOVAKIA 15 preside over it. The bishop refused. The political background leading up to this is important for, as F. S. Clarke, in a dispatch from the British Consul-General in Budapest reported to the Foreign Office, The parish priest at Rozsahegy (Ruiomberok) ... , named Hlinka ... , by his nationalist tendencies, has incurred the displeasure--not only of the civil, but also of the ecclesiastical authorities, and had, in December last, been sentenced to a fine and to two years for the incitement against the Magyar State idea '-- ... 26 Hlinka had been actively backing his friend Dr. Vavro Srobar during the election campaign, something which Parvy considered tantamount to political agitation against the Magyar state. Thus, in Hlinka's place, Parvy chose the Reverend Anton Klurimsky, a Magyarone, to consecrate the newly-built church, despite the objections of the people of Cemova. These sentiments had even been personally relayed to the bishop by deacon M. Pazurik. The bishop decided that the dedication ceremony would take place regardless of the objections voiced by the parishioners. A group of gendarmes and a magistrate from Ruzomberok were assigned to escort the priests to nearby Cemova, and to maintain law and order. Upon their arrival on 27 October 1907, the priests and the squad of gendarmes were greeted by the people of Cemova, who although passive, verbally berated them. According to eye-witness reports, the gendarmes, without any provocation, shot into the crowd gathered on the roadside, which was impeding their progress. The result was "nine dead immediately, three died the following day, one on the third day" 27 and by the 25 th of December all told there were fifteen dead. 28 Because it was feared that a revolt would follow , a contingent of Honveds (National Guards) was dispatched from Ruzomberok.29 The following day a series of arrests of so-called "agi26 F. S. Clarke to Sir Edward Goschen, Budapest, October 31 , 1907. Foreign Office Papers #371 , Pol. A-H , 1907 - # 196 fil e 36724, No. 58, (United Kingdom: Public Record Office) . 27 "Vrazdenie slovenseho l' udu v Cemovej", S/o vensky tyidennik, 1 November 1907, p. I. 28 Karol Sidor, Cerno va (/80 7- /937) (Bratislava: " Slovak", 1937), 35. 29 Ibid. , 32. �16 SLOVAKIA tators" 30 among the survivors began, one of whom was Hlinka's sister, fifty-five year old Anna Fullova. In all, there were 13 arrests. 3 1 The tragedy of Cernova did more than any other event to bring the Slovak problem before a national and international forum . Two Czech deputies, Silinger and Dr. Hruban, brought before the Reichsrat in Vienna an interpellation which requested the government "to ask for an official report on how this sad affair came about and if the guilty parties had been investigated and punished and to put it before them?" 32 The second part of the document " ... asked the Hungarian government, as the second component of the Austro-Hungarian compromise, to finally end similar persecution of the Slovak people and the non-Magyar nationalities of Hungary." 33 Dr. Hruban stated most emphatically "that the Czech nation will think over very carefully if it can make an agreement with a state which so persecutes the Slovak nation and the other non-Magyar nationalities."34 During the debate on the Austro-Hungarian economic agreement before the Austrian Parliament, T.G. Masaryk took the opportunity to present his views: I turn to the nationality question. For us, who are here from Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia, for us Czechs the Compromise had politico-national importance. You heard today in the interpellation about the events in Ruiomberok which the Agrarian speaker also spoke about. The matter is quite simple. We have two million Slovaks in Hungary who belong to our nation: a nation of eight million will not abandon two million of its brethren to Magyar national chauvinism. It is our duty here and at every opportunity in 30 Ibid., 35. Ibid. , 35. 32 Anhang zu den Stenographischen Protokollen des Ha uses der Abgeordneten des oesterreichischen Reichsrates im Jahre 1907. Haus der Abgeordneten - 30. Sitzung der XVIII. Sess ion am 30. October 1907, p. 3 I 79. "Dotaz". (London , UK: Briti sh Museum). (Hereafter, Protocol). 33 Protocol, p. 3179 34 "Cemovska vrazda na sneme," Slovensky tyi dennik, I November 190 7, p. 3. The agreement mentioned here refers to the new ten-year agreement between Austria and Hungary wh ich was about to be voted on by the Viennese Parliament. 31 �SLOVAKIA 17 this house to declare to Austria and the whole public that what the Magyars are doing to our Slovaks is inhumane. 35 The German Moravian representative Dr. Redlich also expressed his concern with the Magyarizing fervor in Hungary: I need not remind any of your Czech gentlemen of what is happening to the Slovaks in Hungary. Think not of Cernova alone; think of the whole process which led to it, the Hlinka trial, the Juriga trial /36 Later, the Czech deputy Dr. Zahradnik requested to know if the president of the Parliament intended to add the following to the protocol: " ... the expression of our deep regret and our deep sympathy not only for the unfortunate victims of Cernova but for all the nonMagyar nations who suffer under such great oppression. " 37 Deputy Gunther raised the hope that " ... the whole of civilized Europe, all who still have some feeling for human suffering will finally put themselves on the side of the great Norwegian poet. .. the whole world will find out what is hidden behind this Magyar liberalism ." 38 Gunther was referring to the poet and Nobel-prize winner Bjornstjerne Bjornson, who, the previous month, had delivered a speech criticizing the "Magyar humbug and ... oppression in the service of nationalistic thinking," 39 thus drawing the attention of Europe to its deeds. Bjornson had taken up the cudgel on Hungarian policy towards its nationalists with special reference to the Slovaks. Cernova gave him the opportunity to follow up with a long article in the Neue Freie Presse, describing at length the Magyarizing process. Needless to say, the above annoyed the Hungarian government but even greater was the upheaval caused by the writings of such wellknown foreign journalists as Henry Wickham Steed of The Times 40 (London), and the conversion of Scotus Viator to the Slovak cause. 35 Protocol, p. 2346. Protocol, p. 2365. 37 Protocol, p. 23 18. 38 Protocol, p. 2376. 39 Bjomstjerne Bjornson , Narodni listy, 23 October I 907, p. 2. 40 Scotus Viator was the pseudonym of R. W. Seton-Watson, the renowned Scots historian. Seton-Watson became acquai nted with the sociologist Anton Stefanek in 1906 in Vienna, and it was through Stefanek that he had the opportunity to learn the 36 �18 SLOVAKIA 41 In 1908, Scotus Viator published Racial Problems in Hungary, which dealt with the corruption of electoral practices and Magyarization in that country. It earned him his doctorate. Shortly after the first publication, the book was translated into several other European languages, including Czech . This book helped publicize the oppresssed condition of the Slovaks in Upper Hungary throughout the western world. The French press also adopted an inimical stance towards the Magyars . The Poles wrote in Swiat slowianski that: It is not necessary to have concern about our sympathy. We sympathize with all the p ersecuted. We are wholeheartedly on their side. No mistake is as outrageous as that which the Magyars are making when they p ersecute the Slovaks. The Magyar advance against the Slovaks will end badly for the Magyars, but the Slovaks will live on. 42 William Ritter, who was already writing and exposing the Slovaks' plight, added his voice to that of the others. The Slovak politician Milan Hodza made an interpellation in the Hungarian Parliament on the subject of Cernova only an hour after the proceedings of the Austrian Reichstag had become known to the Hungarian Parliament. Feeling amongst the Magyar deputies ran high . Hodza had barely begun to speak before he was rudely interrupted by a very rowdy assembly. His interpellation consisted of a request that the Minister of the Interior, Julius Andrassy, extend the investigation of the Cernova massacre to include an examination of the actions of the administrative official present at Cernova; then, secondly, to suspend the said official from his office on the basis of already known facts until such time as the investigation will have 43 been concluded; and finally, to withdraw the army from the village. facts about Magyari zati on and the oppresssion of the Slovaks and th e other nonMagyar peoples in Hungary. Ce rnova served to re info rce Seton-Watson' s views and he became a vigorous defender of the non-M agya r nationalities in the European ~ress, much to the ire and indignati on of the Hungari an government. 1 London: Archiba ld Constabl e, 1908; reprinted by Howa rd Ferti g, New York, 1972. 42 Swiat slowianski (Cracow, 1907), 12 and 375 , cited in Karo l Sidor, Cernova, 51 . 43 "Cernovska vrazda na sneme" Slo venskj tyi dennik, I November 1907 , p. 4. �SLOVAKIA 19 Julius Andrassy defended the priests as having gone to Cemova only to reassure the people that the consecration would not take place at that time, that the gendarmes had fired in self-defence, and finally, that Zoltan Pereszleny would not be suspended but that a fair investigation would be made.44 Andrassy, along with his colleagues, accused such newspapers as Slovensky tyidennik of "stirring the people to bloodshed." 45 Meanwhile, Hlinka continued his lecture tour of Moravia and Bohemia, acquainting the Czechs with Magyar policy and the events of Cemova. The massacre at Cemova served as a unifying force among the Czechs for the Slovak cause. Hlinka was greeted enthusiastically wherever he went. He was seen as a martyr, a representative of the whole Slovak nation. His speeches activated a far more systematic interest in the Slovaks than ever before exhibited by the Czechs. Slovensky obzor put it quite frankly: What Kalal, Masaryk, Heyduk after long years did not know how to achieve, that is what Cernova events did - in one night! In fact, Cernova even captured the interest of the heir presumptive Francis Ferdinand, who had deputy Milan Hodza inform him personally of the whole sequence of 46 events at the Cernova massacre. V In November of 1907 the Cardinal Primate of Hungary issued a circular in which he put the Eudove noviny on the Index of forbidden reading. Hlinka responded with a plea in the Brno Hlas (6 December 1907) to the Bohemian and Moravian clergy for support: ... the Magyar hierarchy has come down hard on us. They wish to suffocate Eudove noviny, the most Catholic of newspapers, with a clerical curse. I turn to the Moravian and Bohemian clergy today so that they may defend us. Do not let the strongest bastion of the faith and the Slovak language fall. The newspaper Eudove noviny is a substitute today for school. It is equally a catechism and a syllabus. Without it the Slovaks will die or will become a senseless 44 45 46 Ibid ., p.4. "Prijezd Andreje HI inky," Cas, XXI, No. 303 ( 1907), 5. Slovensky obzor, 1907, 564 cited in Sidor, Cernova, 51. �SLOVAKIA 20 mass of slaves and helots .. . Me, they failed, my paper Eudove noviny they prosecute with clerical punishments! Protect our press! 47 His call did not go unheeded - the strength of the religious tie and the events of Cemova caused Czech and Moravian papers to write, urging Slovaks to continue to read Eudove noviny as a good Catholic newspaper. Arriving in Prague on 1 November 1907 in the company of A. Kolisek and J. Uprka, Hlinka was greeted by Czech leaders F. Taborsky, J. Rotnagl , Dr. Lang, and Dr. E. Krajicek, and a large number of students.48 On the 2 November 1907, he gave a speech on Slovansky ostrov which created such a stir that Ceskoslovanska jednota established a Ceskoslovensky komitet (Czechoslovak Committee) on the following day. Its function was to collect money to aid the orphans of Cemova49 and to organize the rest of Hlinka's lecture tours in the Czech Lands. Altogether, there were over 700 rallies on behalf of the Slovaks and Cemova. 50 Josef Anyz, editor-in-chief of Narodni listy, was elected chairman of the Committee with J. Rotnagl as secretary. Such a good working relationship between Anyz and Rotnagl grew out of the Committee that, according to Rotnagl , "whatever I went to N. listy 51 with some request from Cs/. Jednota, l was never turned down." Right after Cemova the number of Slovak evenings organized to acquaint the Czech public with the Slovaks and their culture increased dramatically, as did informative lectures on the same theme. Great speakers such as Pavel Blaho, Matus Dula, Andrej Hlinka, Milan Hodza, Jozef I:udovit Hol'uby, I:udovit Medvecky, Anton Stefanek, Vavro Srobar, and Svetozar Hurban Vajansky, were invited by Jednota to speak to the people of Moravia and Bohemia. Czech newspapers touched the hearts of their reading public, calling for Czech financial support for the victims of Cemova: V 47 Hlas, 6 December 1907, cited in K. Sidor, Andrej Hlinka , p. 205. "Prijezd Andreje Hlinky," Cas, XXI, No. 303 ( 1907), 5. 49 " Pomozte sirotkum po zavrazdenych v Cemove," Cas, XXI , o. 303 ( 1907), 5. 50 "Nasi bratia Ces i," Slovenky tyidennik, 27 March 1908, p. I. 51 "Narodni listy a slovenska vec," Rotn ag l Papers, Literarni archiv pamatnik narodniho pisemnictvi, Prague. (He reafter, LA PNP). 48 �SLOVAKIA 21 At this difficult tim e it is our duty to help those .. . orphans, whose fath ers have fallen in def ense of the rights of the Slovak people against brutal violence. Let a collection be taken throughout the whole nation, the y ield of which will be dedicated to the unfortunate victims of Cernova as proof that Czechs and Slovaks f eel together both joy and grief 52 The success of the fund-raising was evident in the letter of 8 August 1908 from Anton Stefanek to Seton-Watson: "We have the whole Czech people behind us. During the last year the Czech people have raised a fund of 80,000 Crowns for us under the influence of Cemova." 53 Seton-Watson received a full report on Cemova and the imprisonment of Hlinka for "incitement against the Magyar nation" 54 from Stefanek. This caused him to write a letter to the London Spectator, describing all the events and he referred to them "as a typical example of the oppression of the Slovaks." 55 The result was a response from Count Esterhazy defending the Magyar position, followed by a scathing rebuttal from Seton-Watson in the Spectator and Manchester Guardian. The Times editor, Wickham Steed, was particularly gleeful when he read them and wrote to Seton-Watson: "The reply to Esterhazy is the best bit of pulverization I have seen anywhere. It made me green with envy for the whole day. Talk about sledgehammers! You are a steamroller when you get going." 56 Czech-Slovak relations drew closer in 1907 when Antonin Reis, a member of Ceskoslovanska j ednota suggested to Pavel Blaho, that now would be a good time to establish an informative journal on Slovakia, especially for the Czech readership. 57 Thus was born Nase Slovensko , short-lived from 1907 to 1910, but important because it 52 " Hunove vrazdi ," Cas, No. 300 ( 1907), p. I . Hugh Seton-Watson, "Anton Stefanek and R. W. Seton-Watson," Bohemia Jahrbuch des Co /legium Carolin um, 18 ( 1977), 236. 54 Jan Ryc hlfk, Thomas D. Marzik, Mi ros lav Bie lik, eds. R. W. Seton-Watson and his Relations with the Czechs and the Slovaks, I, (Prague: Ostav T. G. Masaryka and Martin : Matica slovenska, 1995), 22 55 Rychlfk, et a l. , 22. 56 Ryc hlfk, et al. , p. 139. 57 Antonin Reis, Letter to P. Blaho, 8 March 1907, Blaho Papers (Slovak State Archi ves, Bratislava, hereafter SSUA), Carton 12, Signature Bll-98. The same letter was sent to other prominent Slovaks introduc ing the plan to fo und this journal and seeking support. 53 �22 SLOVAKIA gave the young Slovak generation the motivation to seek other ways of saving themselves from the oppression of the Magyars. They became more engaged in the Slovak national movement and were able to test their skills through such vehicles as Nase Slovensko and later Prudy. It also distanced them from the old generation in Martin who continued to believe that only the Russians could save them from the Magyars. American Slovaks also became very outspoken about the situation in Slovakia. From the late 1860s to the late l 880's, American Slovaks had been more concerned with survival in their new homeland and saving their money to send home to their families . By the late 1890s and early 1900s, they had acclimatized to their new democracy and created self-help associations and newspapers indicative of a maturing Slovak national consciousness. The persecution of Hlinka in connection with the pre-election agitation in 1906 was brought to the attention of the American Slovak public by the Roman Catholic priest Stefan Furdek. 58 The result was an open letter in the newspaper Eudove noviny written by Slovak priests working in America. Collections were organized as a result of the persecution during the elections of 1906, and once this precedent was set a similar procedure was followed to aid Cernova victims. A direct result of the persecution of Hlinka and the other Slovak representatives resulted in the emergence of the Union of Slovak Journalists and the Slovak League of America.59 A very impassioned message "For the Cernova Widows and Orphans," to all Slovaks was written by Furdek in his weekly Jednota, on 7 November 1907: They won't frighten us; our truth will not go begging crumbs from the tyrant. If it 's a fight they want, then a fight they will get; we are not afraid of it .. . Now, when we have the attention of the world, we must prove to the world that we stand together like a strong chain ... A bloody battle has begun in Cernova! Our sacred duty is to financially and morally support the struggle, which will determine whether 58 Stefan Furdek was the founder of The First Cath olic Slovak Union ( 1890) and th e Slovak League of America ( I 907). 59 Stefan Kucik, "Ohlas prenasledovania Andreja Hlinku a Cemovskej tragedie medzi Americkymi Slovakmi", in Kucik, Mytus a Realita, 115. �SLOVAKIA 23 the Slovak nation will exist or not exist in its ancient homeland. 60 With the passing of time, the furor created around Cernova abated. However, the actions of the Magyar authorities in bringing to trial those persons arrested on that tragic day, served to re-awaken interest in various camps. Both Czech and Slovak newspapers reported on the proceedings of the trial, but the Slovak newspaper Narodnie noviny gave its readers a daily account which lasted from the 2 nd to the 10 th of March in 1908. Altogether forty men and women were sentenced to a total of 37 years of imprisonment. 61 Cernova was in some ways a catalyst, not just on home ground but in Bohemia and Moravia and internationally. Slovaks in America also rallied and sought to acquaint their government of the situation in the homeland. What the Magyars had probably thought was an insignificant consecration and sign of Slovak thick-headedness turned into a cause celebre. The Magyars never expected this event to attract such attention and greatly miscalculated the damage this would cause them in the eyes of Europe. Men like Count Esterhazy never expected to find themselves having to defend Magyar racial policies, all because of an insignificant village like Cernova and a "people who did not exist," 62 according to Magyar politicians! In many ways, Cernova helped the Slovaks both in Slovakia and in America to unite and to begin thinking of alternatives to the rule of the Hungarian government and its Magyarizing policies. 60 Stefan Furdek, "Pre vdovy a siroty ce m ovske" quoted in Kucik, I 16-1 7. V. H., Cernovsky process (Turciansky Sv. Martin : Knihtl ac iarskeho ucas tinarskeho spolku, I 908), 72 . 62 Bela Grun wa ld, A felv idek, in Duri ca, Dejiny Slovenska a Slovakov, 238. Grunwa ld wrote in 1887 that there were Slovak speak ing-inhabi tants in Hungary but there was no Slovak nation. 61 � SLOVAKIA 7 THE CERNOVA MASSACRE: MAGYAR MISCALCULATION, SLOVAK GAIN Edita Bosak Cernova, formerly an independent municipality of Liptov county, today a suburb of Ruzomberok, played a key role in the Slovak national movement in the first decade of the twentieth century. With the signing of the 1867 Austro-Hungarian Compromise, which created the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary, the hegemony of the Austrian Empire ended. The agreement opened the way for the ruling Magyar political forces in the Kingdom of Hungary to enforce their national interests without regard for the interests of the non-Magyar nationalities. Since this meant that no legal rights would be granted to the non-Magyar nations in Hungary, the Slovaks in Northern Hungary found their political situation deteriorating over the next fifty years. Between 1905 and 1907, the Dual Monarchy found itself in a serious political and social crisis and also faced deeply divisive nationality problems as a result of the Compromise. This study will explore the role of the Cernova massacre in changing the direction of the Slovak national movement, in exposing the Magyar government's nationalities' policies both internally and abroad, and thus forcing the Magyars into a defensive position. With the passing of the Compromise in 1867, Magyar statesmen Ferenc Deak and J6szef Eotvos, crafted the Legislative Act 44/1868 on the Equality of the Nationalities, 1 commonly known as the Nationalities Law. Although this law was intended to satisfy the nationalities' yearning for equality, in actual fact it denied the equality of all the nationalities in Hungary except for the Croats, who were recognized as a separate nation. The preamble of the law clearly stated: " .... all citizens of the Kingdom of Hungary, in conformity with the 1 Torveny-czikk a nemzetisek egyenj ogus:ig t:irgy:iban. Magyar torvenyt:ir 10001895 . 1838-1 868 evi torvenyczikkek. (Budapest, I 896) 490-4, as cited in Milan Podrim avsky, " Slovaks in the Conditions of the Hungarian State at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century." Human Affairs, 9, I (1999), 45 . �8 SLOVAKIA Constitution and from the political point of view, create an indivisible unitary Hungarian (Magyar) nation, of which each citizen of the country, belonging to any nationality, is an equal member." 2 In effect, the equality of the citizens of the state as individuals, independent of their nationality, was proclaimed; but the equality of the nationalities of the old Kingdom of Hungary was not. The discriminatory character of the Nationality Law had serious ramifications for the Slovaks. As a result, in 1878 the Slovaks sent another deputation led by one of the heroes of the 1848 Revolution, Jozef M. Hurban, to Vienna requesting an independent Slovak territory.3 The emperor refused to meet with Hurban, and returned his Memorandum to him. This led to an escalation in Magyarization (assimilation into the Magyar language and culture) and legislation by Magyar political forces which sought to erode any remaining rights of the nationalities. Prior to 1867, the Slovak national movement had made considerable headway. In the early 1860's intellectuals accepted the language reforms which I.:udovit Stur had made in 1846, and which led 4 to the final codification of the Slovak language in 1851. The Slovak nationalists sought to win legal guarantees that would safeguard the Slovak national existence and sovereignty. Although they were unsuccessful in obtaining recognition for the Memorandum of 1861 and the Okolie (a Slovak territory), they did manage to create the cultural and literary organization Matica slovenska in 1863 in the small town of Turciansky Svaty Martin and three Slovak gymnazia in the 1860s. The number of Slovak newspapers also expanded at this time. These achievements gave the Slovaks hope for bettering their political, social and economic situation in Hungary. It was short lived. With the signing of the A usgleich in 1867, these national developments came to a rapid end. The gymnazia were closed in 1874 and the Matica slovenska in 1875, with the state confiscating all of Matica 's property. The Prime Minister of Hungary, Kalman Tisza, announced at the sitting of the Diet that he did not know of "any Slovak nation" . Hungary.s m 2 Podrimavsky, " Slovaks ... ," 45. Anton Spiesz and Dusan Caplovic, Illustrated Slovak History (Wauconda, Ill inois: Bolchazy- Carducci Publi shers, 2006), 149. 4 Ludevi t Stur, Nauka reci slovenskej (Presporok, 1846; reprinted in Bratislava, 2006). 5 Milan Durica, Dejiny Slovenska a Slovakov (Bratislava: Luc, 2003), 235. 3 �SLOVAKIA 9 The arrival of the government of Kalman Tisza in 1875 inaugurated a new period of oppression. The ruling Magyar circles were determined to strengthen the supremacy of national politics within the old Kingdom of Hungary vis-a-vis Vienna and also outside of the Monarchy, especially towards the Balkans. The virulent Magyarization policies of fifteen years of Tisza rule seriously hampered the ability of Slovaks to keep pace with their counterparts in other regions of Europe. The Slovak intelligentsia was continuously attacked and began to lose hope. The Hungarian government believed that the only solution to the nationality problem was assimilating the nonMagyar nations. Its Magyarization policies employed a variety of devices. The Magyar language was implemented at all levels of society, including from the pulpit. Various associations to help assimilate the nationalities 6 were established and also the local press was harnessed to ensure the Magyarization program would be effecttive and ensure the elimination of the Slovak language from public life. In terms of organized religion, both the authorities of the Catholic and Lutheran Churches practiced Magyarization in private, as well as in public. Slovak children attending Catholic schools were required to use the Magyar language. Slovak priests and teachers were persecuted for their national consciousness and participation in the Slovak national movement. 7 Slovak ministers and priests, who were known to be nationalists, were transferred from wealthier parishes to ones where the minister or priest, along with his flock, had . 8 to strugg Ie to survive. In 1878, the Slovenska narodna strana (Slovak National Party) announced it would boycott the elections to protest the discrimination suffered by the Slovaks. Not a single Slovak deputy was elected 6 Tisza' s gove rnment establi shed th e Magyar Educa tio nal League for Upper Hungary (FEMKE) in 1882 w ith its seat in the anci ent Slova k city of Nitra and the Educati onal League fo r Upper Hun ga ry (MT KE) in 1885 w ith its headquarters in Budapest, as we ll several j ourn als and news papers to aid in fi ghting th e g rowth of Slovak nati onal co nsc io usness. Podrimavsky, "S lova ks in the Co nditions of th e Hun gari an State . . . ," 4 7. 7 Ibid., 47-8. 8 Karel Kalal, Mad'arizacia. Obraz slovenske utrpenie. (Originall y publi shed in 1900, reprinted in Brati slava : Eko- ko nzult, 2006), 27. "The Sl ovak priest Moyses los t hi s parish in Lucky and th e Magyarone Smizar repl aced him ; the people sto pped go in g to church, th ey are bu ry in g their dead themselves, children are not be ing bapti zed, but no ne of th at moves either Smi za r, or " Fath er" Parvy. " �SLOVAKIA to the Diet in the elections of 1875 or 1878 . From this date until the early twentieth century, the Slovenska narodna strana followed a policy of political passivity and withdrew to the small town of Turciansky Svaty Martin in Central Slovakia. They also brought with them their newspaper Slovenske narodne noviny (Slovak National News) from its previous home in Budapest. Two factors , one internal and the other external , were instrumental in activating the Martin nationalists at the turn of the century. First of all, the economic situation was depressed and created a climate of both social and political unrest. The gravity of this situation was described as late as 1914 in an article entitled "The Decline of Industry" 9 by the pro-Magyar, government-sponsored, newspaper Slovenske noviny , published in Budapest. Alongside this industrial problem was the failure of the agrarian sector to thrive as a result of several bad harvests. The result was a growth in anti-Semitism, as the Jews were blamed for the drop in agricultural prices. This was followed by the rise of a new Catholic, anti-Semitic, Hungarian political party: the Hungarian People's Party (Neppart) established by Ferdinand Zichy and its weekly Krest'an. ' 0 It should be pointed out that most Jews in Hungary tied their economic well-being to support for the Magyar ruling class. Another catalyst for Slovak patriots was the trial of Romanian nationalists in 1894 which helped bring together a coalition of nonMagyar nationalists. Recognizing their common goals and the advantage of solidarity, the nationalities came together for the first time in the Congress of Non-Hungarian Nations in Budapest in 1895 . The Congress sought national equality in conjunction with democratic demands for universal and secret manhood suffrage, and freedom of the press, speech, assembly and association for all the nationalities. An external factor which played a major role in ending political passivity was a new generation of university students who were 9 Dr. Adolf Phany, "Upado k priemys lu," Slovenske noviny, 14 January 1914, p. l . Robert W. Seton-Watso n, A Hislory of 1he Czechs and Slovaks (Londo n, 1943:, reprint ed., Hamden, CT, 1965) 27 1-2. See also Julius Popely, " Boj o liberalne cirkevnopoliticke reform y v Uhorsku a zaloze nie katolickej l' udovej strany," Hisloricky casopis 29, 6 ( 198 1), 85 7-70, and Julius Popely, "Yzt' ah medzi statom a cirkvou v posledn ej tretine 19. storocia a korene politi ckeho kl erikali zmu v Uhorsku," Historickestudie 24 ( 1980): 77 -96, and Owen V. Johnson, " Losing Faith : The Slova k Hungari an Constitutional Struggle, 1906-1914," Harvard Ukrainian S1udies, 22, I, ( 1998), 293-3 12. 10 �SLOVAKIA 11 either educated by Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, a Czech professor at Charles University in Prague, or who read his works while studying in Vienna and Budapest. As graduates and young professionals, they returned to Slovakia and spread Masaryk's ideas and teachings, his "Realist" program, and especially the concept of "drobna praca" (intensive work) . 11 On the advice of Masaryk, some of his students in 1898 established the journal Hlas (Voice). It preached the advantages of closer Czech and Slovak cooperation. This was enough to prompt the leadership of the old guard--the poet, writer, and editor of Ncirodne noviny, Svetozar Hurban Vajansky; Pavel Mudroii, party chair for the Slovenskci ncirodnci strana; Matus Dula, Ambro Pietor, and several others into protesting that the charges of political passivity levelled by Hlas editors Vavro Srobar and Pavel Blaho were unjust. A rift emerged between the older and younger generation. The elders felt the younger generation was neither respectful nor grateful for the sacrifices made by their elders in furthering the Slovak national movement. When Hlas ceased publication in 1904, there was a short respite. However, the demands of the young nationalists for a platform led to the publiccation of another journal, Prudy (Currents) in 1909. Milan Hodza, a young Budapest lawyer and publicist recognized that the Slovaks needed to become politically engaged and he put his energies into the building of a mass movement. In his newspaper Slovensky tyi dennik (Slovak Weekly) begun in 1903, Hodza tried to capture the Slovak peoples' interests and educate them in political activity. The young people rejected their elders' policy of political passivity. 11 Edita Bosak, "Czech-Slovak Relati ons and the Student Organisati on Detvan, 1882- I 91 4" in Slovak Polirics, Ed. Stani slav J. Kirsc hbaum (C leveland : Slovak Institute, 1983), 6-41. See also Ed ita Bosa k, "The Slovak National Movement, 184819 18" in Rejlecrions on Slovak Hisrory, Ed. Stani slav J. Kirschbaum and Anne C. Roman (Toronto: Sl ovak World Congress, 1987), 59-72 , and Edita Bosak, "T. G. Masaryk and th e Emerge nce of th e Hl as ist Move ment, 1898-1904", in J. M. Rydlo , ed, Milan S. Durica. Fesrschrift (Brati slava, 1995) 29-42. Edita Bosa k, " Slowakische Studentenorganisati onen in W ien, Prag und Budapes t und ihre Zusa mm enarbeit," in Wegenetz europiiischen Ceistes fl - Universitiiten und Studenten: Die Bedeutung studentischer Migrationen in Mittel - und Siidosteuropa vom 18. Bis zum 20. Jahrhundert. Eds. Ri chard G. Plasc hka and Karlheinz Mac k (Muni ch: 1987), 162-1 82. �SLOVAKIA 12 Slovak politicians finally dropped their pass1v1ty before the Hungarian constitutional crisis in 1905-1906. Hungarian political circles noted this and their Magyarisation politics were stepped up and the persecution of Slovak nationalists reached their peak. On the eve of the 1905 elections, Prime Minister Istvan Tisza bluntly stated his position on the nationalities as follows : A cardinal condition for the enjoyment of rights by other nationalities is that the citizens of other nationalities should recognize unreservedly that this State is the Magyar State .... The Magyar nation has never given a binding promise to maintain the Law of Nationalities for all time, or not to alter it... when conditions change, and when we perceive that through this law we grant to our opponents rights against ourselves. 12 The policy of Magyarization continued to escalate at all government and religious levels, and to touch the social, economic, and political fabric of the state. The Apponyi Education Acts of 1907 reiterated that teachers in religious schools were state employees, and, as such, had to be able to read, write, and teach in Magyar. Leading Magyar nationalists held firm to these views . There were even fears among government leaders that negotiations with the nationalities would derail the Magyar goal of a single national state. Tisza, in response to the fears expressed by Count Albert Apponyi, that he was negotiating with the Romanians, stated very clearly that he stood " ... on the basis of a single undivided Hungarian national state ... No Hungarian can hold any other position other than the position of a single Hungarian nation, creating a single united Hungarian national state. 13 As far as Tisza was concerned, this position was unassailable. These views were held by most of the Hungarian ruling circle and permeated throughout the administrative echelons and bureaucracy. Surprisingly, in the 1906 elections, six Slovaks from the Slovenska l'udova strana (Slovak People's Party) 14 and one from the Slovenska 12 R. W. Seton-Watson, German, Slav, and Magyar (New York : Howard Fertig, 1968), 45-6. 13 Kalman Tisza Slovenske noviny, 16 January 19 14, p. l. 14 The Slovenska /'udova strana had separated from Zichy's People' s Party, Neppart, in 1905 because the latter did not represent the Slovak peoples ' interests. 1 �SLOVAKIA 13 narodna strana (Slovak National Party) were elected. They demonstrated that a well-organized campaign, with emphasis on the needs of the peasants, was the way to attract votes. 15 However, the campaigners also pointed out that parties such as Neppart were not working in the interests of the Slovak peasants. Although this was a small win for the Slovak national movement (given their proportion of the population, the Slovaks should have had 40 seats in Parliament), its impact was significant enough that the Hungarian government expanded and increased the tempo of its Magyarization process. With hindsight it is clear that this political achievement was very much a milestone in the Slovak national movement. Slovak leaders, laymen as well as clergy, were now targeted in a stepped up campaign of persecution. 16 The Catholic Church's hierarchy, educated in the "great Magyar spirit," 17 was also actively involved in these persecutions . Even sermons had to be given in Magyar in completely Slovak parishes. Slovak priests who expressed national sentiments and used their own language in church were persecuted. Yet it was this Slovak clergy to which the people looked for guidance. The Slovak intelligentsia was very small, and as a result, both Roman Catholic priests and Lutheran ministers filled this gap. This form of Magyarization also attracted the attention of William Ritter, 18 a Swiss writer and artist. He published the details of the trial of Andrej Hlinka in Ruzomberok, October 26-November 6, 15 Ameri can Slovaks, in a sign of support and solidarity, had co llected $ I 0,000 and se nt it to the Slovak leadership back home to help defray electi on ex penses. The electi on of seven Slovaks to th e Hun ga ri an Parli ament, a first in history , was enthusiasti call y received as one Slovak Am erican decl ared "Our mon ey has been well spent. " In M. Mark Stolarik , Immig ration and Urban ization: The Slovak Experience, 1870- / 9 18 (New York: AM S Press, 1989), 194. 16 Several Slova k nati onali st leaders were now tri ed and convicted of " inciting aga inst the Magya r nati on" and sentenced to term s in prison: the Rev. Ferdi s Juriga, Dr. Vavro Srobar, the Rev. Andrej Hlinka, Milan Iva nka, etc. 17 Kuruc, Stefa n, " Katolicka cirkev na Slovenskom uze mi Uhorska na zaciatku 20. storocia," in My tus a realita, Stefan Kuci k, ed. (Rufo mberok : Katolicka uni versita v Rufo mberku, 2008), 6 1. 18 William Ritter ( I 867- I 955) was one of th e earli est and most creati ve of the foreign Sl ovakophiles who wrote about th e situati on faced by the Slovak s in the Hungari an part of the Dual Monarc hy of Austri a-H ungary. He pro tested aga inst Magyari zati on w ith others like th e Ru ssian Alexander Alexa ndrovic Papkov ( I 866-1920), the Scot Robert William Seton-Watson ( I 879- I 95 I), the Frenchm an Ernest Deni s ( 1849-1 92 1) and the No rweg ian Bj ornstjern e Bjorn son ( 1832- 19 10). �14 SLOVAKIA 1906 in the French Catholic magazine Demain. His article was read by officials in the Vatican and, as result, Hlinka was able to defend himself successfully from the Hungarian hierarchy' s accusations. 19 Ritter also published the letters of Hungarian bishops and Slovak priests in 1906 in Demain. He was a regular visitor to Slovakia from 1888 until 1947, and maintained a faithful and steadfast interest in the Slovaks until his death.20 Ritter had a vibrant correspondence with Slovakia's nationalists and greatest writers and poets, and through his publications pointed out to the western world the inhumane political, religious, social and cultural Magyarization of the Slovaks in the Kingdom Hungary. 21 Ritter was the first Slovakophile to expose the brutal sentiments expressed by the Magyar Prime Minister Istvan Tisza in 1905. In his article "Eveques hongrois et pretres slovaques" in the Lyons journal Demain politique, social, religieux,22 Ritter quoted Tisza as having stated "The law is dead for you Slovaks."23 Ritter had also published the harsh words of Tisza's father, Kalman Tisza, when he had been the head of government years earlier: "Slovaks should be crushed under the heel." 24 This Swiss humanitarian also expounded on Magyarization carried out in poor Slovak parish schools, in the theological seminaries and amongst Slovak priests . In fact, the fateful Cernova massacre simply confirmed the truth of Ritter's writings. Villagers in the small settlement of Cemova, in the diocese of Spis, had constructed a church mainly through the initiative and support of a local son, the Reverend Andrej Hlinka. Out of pride and gratitude, the citizens of Cemova, asked their bishop, Alexander Parvy, to allow Hlinka to consecrate the new church. 25 These people knew the importance of having one of their own sons fulfill this ceremony. Since Hlinka had been suspended from his priestly duties by Parvy because of his nationalist behavior, the people of Cemova requested a delay in consecration until such time as Hlinka could 19 Jozef M. Rydl o, " Sudny proces proti Andrejovi Hlinkovi v Rufo mberku 26. 106.11.1906 a obrana Slovakov proti mad 'arizacii perom William Rittera na strankach francu zskeho Demain", in Kucik, My tus a realita, 24. 20 Ibid. , 22 . 21 Ibid ., 23 . 22 Ibid ., 24. 23 Ibid., 24. 24 Ibid., 24. 25 Alexander Parvy was bishop of the Spis diocese from 1904 to 19 19. �SLOVAKIA 15 preside over it. The bishop refused. The political background leading up to this is important for, as F. S. Clarke, in a dispatch from the British Consul-General in Budapest reported to the Foreign Office, The parish priest at Rozsahegy (Ruiomberok) ... , named Hlinka ... , by his nationalist tendencies, has incurred the displeasure--not only of the civil, but also of the ecclesiastical authorities, and had, in December last, been sentenced to a fine and to two years for the incitement against the Magyar State idea '-- ... 26 Hlinka had been actively backing his friend Dr. Vavro Srobar during the election campaign, something which Parvy considered tantamount to political agitation against the Magyar state. Thus, in Hlinka's place, Parvy chose the Reverend Anton Klurimsky, a Magyarone, to consecrate the newly-built church, despite the objections of the people of Cemova. These sentiments had even been personally relayed to the bishop by deacon M. Pazurik. The bishop decided that the dedication ceremony would take place regardless of the objections voiced by the parishioners. A group of gendarmes and a magistrate from Ruzomberok were assigned to escort the priests to nearby Cemova, and to maintain law and order. Upon their arrival on 27 October 1907, the priests and the squad of gendarmes were greeted by the people of Cemova, who although passive, verbally berated them. According to eye-witness reports, the gendarmes, without any provocation, shot into the crowd gathered on the roadside, which was impeding their progress. The result was "nine dead immediately, three died the following day, one on the third day" 27 and by the 25 th of December all told there were fifteen dead. 28 Because it was feared that a revolt would follow , a contingent of Honveds (National Guards) was dispatched from Ruzomberok.29 The following day a series of arrests of so-called "agi26 F. S. Clarke to Sir Edward Goschen, Budapest, October 31 , 1907. Foreign Office Papers #371 , Pol. A-H , 1907 - # 196 fil e 36724, No. 58, (United Kingdom: Public Record Office) . 27 "Vrazdenie slovenseho l' udu v Cemovej", S/o vensky tyidennik, 1 November 1907, p. I. 28 Karol Sidor, Cerno va (/80 7- /937) (Bratislava: " Slovak", 1937), 35. 29 Ibid. , 32. �16 SLOVAKIA tators" 30 among the survivors began, one of whom was Hlinka's sister, fifty-five year old Anna Fullova. In all, there were 13 arrests. 3 1 The tragedy of Cernova did more than any other event to bring the Slovak problem before a national and international forum . Two Czech deputies, Silinger and Dr. Hruban, brought before the Reichsrat in Vienna an interpellation which requested the government "to ask for an official report on how this sad affair came about and if the guilty parties had been investigated and punished and to put it before them?" 32 The second part of the document " ... asked the Hungarian government, as the second component of the Austro-Hungarian compromise, to finally end similar persecution of the Slovak people and the non-Magyar nationalities of Hungary." 33 Dr. Hruban stated most emphatically "that the Czech nation will think over very carefully if it can make an agreement with a state which so persecutes the Slovak nation and the other non-Magyar nationalities."34 During the debate on the Austro-Hungarian economic agreement before the Austrian Parliament, T.G. Masaryk took the opportunity to present his views: I turn to the nationality question. For us, who are here from Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia, for us Czechs the Compromise had politico-national importance. You heard today in the interpellation about the events in Ruiomberok which the Agrarian speaker also spoke about. The matter is quite simple. We have two million Slovaks in Hungary who belong to our nation: a nation of eight million will not abandon two million of its brethren to Magyar national chauvinism. It is our duty here and at every opportunity in 30 Ibid., 35. Ibid. , 35. 32 Anhang zu den Stenographischen Protokollen des Ha uses der Abgeordneten des oesterreichischen Reichsrates im Jahre 1907. Haus der Abgeordneten - 30. Sitzung der XVIII. Sess ion am 30. October 1907, p. 3 I 79. "Dotaz". (London , UK: Briti sh Museum). (Hereafter, Protocol). 33 Protocol, p. 3179 34 "Cemovska vrazda na sneme," Slovensky tyi dennik, I November 190 7, p. 3. The agreement mentioned here refers to the new ten-year agreement between Austria and Hungary wh ich was about to be voted on by the Viennese Parliament. 31 �SLOVAKIA 17 this house to declare to Austria and the whole public that what the Magyars are doing to our Slovaks is inhumane. 35 The German Moravian representative Dr. Redlich also expressed his concern with the Magyarizing fervor in Hungary: I need not remind any of your Czech gentlemen of what is happening to the Slovaks in Hungary. Think not of Cernova alone; think of the whole process which led to it, the Hlinka trial, the Juriga trial /36 Later, the Czech deputy Dr. Zahradnik requested to know if the president of the Parliament intended to add the following to the protocol: " ... the expression of our deep regret and our deep sympathy not only for the unfortunate victims of Cernova but for all the nonMagyar nations who suffer under such great oppression. " 37 Deputy Gunther raised the hope that " ... the whole of civilized Europe, all who still have some feeling for human suffering will finally put themselves on the side of the great Norwegian poet. .. the whole world will find out what is hidden behind this Magyar liberalism ." 38 Gunther was referring to the poet and Nobel-prize winner Bjornstjerne Bjornson, who, the previous month, had delivered a speech criticizing the "Magyar humbug and ... oppression in the service of nationalistic thinking," 39 thus drawing the attention of Europe to its deeds. Bjornson had taken up the cudgel on Hungarian policy towards its nationalists with special reference to the Slovaks. Cernova gave him the opportunity to follow up with a long article in the Neue Freie Presse, describing at length the Magyarizing process. Needless to say, the above annoyed the Hungarian government but even greater was the upheaval caused by the writings of such wellknown foreign journalists as Henry Wickham Steed of The Times 40 (London), and the conversion of Scotus Viator to the Slovak cause. 35 Protocol, p. 2346. Protocol, p. 2365. 37 Protocol, p. 23 18. 38 Protocol, p. 2376. 39 Bjomstjerne Bjornson , Narodni listy, 23 October I 907, p. 2. 40 Scotus Viator was the pseudonym of R. W. Seton-Watson, the renowned Scots historian. Seton-Watson became acquai nted with the sociologist Anton Stefanek in 1906 in Vienna, and it was through Stefanek that he had the opportunity to learn the 36 �18 SLOVAKIA 41 In 1908, Scotus Viator published Racial Problems in Hungary, which dealt with the corruption of electoral practices and Magyarization in that country. It earned him his doctorate. Shortly after the first publication, the book was translated into several other European languages, including Czech . This book helped publicize the oppresssed condition of the Slovaks in Upper Hungary throughout the western world. The French press also adopted an inimical stance towards the Magyars . The Poles wrote in Swiat slowianski that: It is not necessary to have concern about our sympathy. We sympathize with all the p ersecuted. We are wholeheartedly on their side. No mistake is as outrageous as that which the Magyars are making when they p ersecute the Slovaks. The Magyar advance against the Slovaks will end badly for the Magyars, but the Slovaks will live on. 42 William Ritter, who was already writing and exposing the Slovaks' plight, added his voice to that of the others. The Slovak politician Milan Hodza made an interpellation in the Hungarian Parliament on the subject of Cernova only an hour after the proceedings of the Austrian Reichstag had become known to the Hungarian Parliament. Feeling amongst the Magyar deputies ran high . Hodza had barely begun to speak before he was rudely interrupted by a very rowdy assembly. His interpellation consisted of a request that the Minister of the Interior, Julius Andrassy, extend the investigation of the Cernova massacre to include an examination of the actions of the administrative official present at Cernova; then, secondly, to suspend the said official from his office on the basis of already known facts until such time as the investigation will have 43 been concluded; and finally, to withdraw the army from the village. facts about Magyari zati on and the oppresssion of the Slovaks and th e other nonMagyar peoples in Hungary. Ce rnova served to re info rce Seton-Watson' s views and he became a vigorous defender of the non-M agya r nationalities in the European ~ress, much to the ire and indignati on of the Hungari an government. 1 London: Archiba ld Constabl e, 1908; reprinted by Howa rd Ferti g, New York, 1972. 42 Swiat slowianski (Cracow, 1907), 12 and 375 , cited in Karo l Sidor, Cernova, 51 . 43 "Cernovska vrazda na sneme" Slo venskj tyi dennik, I November 1907 , p. 4. �SLOVAKIA 19 Julius Andrassy defended the priests as having gone to Cemova only to reassure the people that the consecration would not take place at that time, that the gendarmes had fired in self-defence, and finally, that Zoltan Pereszleny would not be suspended but that a fair investigation would be made.44 Andrassy, along with his colleagues, accused such newspapers as Slovensky tyidennik of "stirring the people to bloodshed." 45 Meanwhile, Hlinka continued his lecture tour of Moravia and Bohemia, acquainting the Czechs with Magyar policy and the events of Cemova. The massacre at Cemova served as a unifying force among the Czechs for the Slovak cause. Hlinka was greeted enthusiastically wherever he went. He was seen as a martyr, a representative of the whole Slovak nation. His speeches activated a far more systematic interest in the Slovaks than ever before exhibited by the Czechs. Slovensky obzor put it quite frankly: What Kalal, Masaryk, Heyduk after long years did not know how to achieve, that is what Cernova events did - in one night! In fact, Cernova even captured the interest of the heir presumptive Francis Ferdinand, who had deputy Milan Hodza inform him personally of the whole sequence of 46 events at the Cernova massacre. V In November of 1907 the Cardinal Primate of Hungary issued a circular in which he put the Eudove noviny on the Index of forbidden reading. Hlinka responded with a plea in the Brno Hlas (6 December 1907) to the Bohemian and Moravian clergy for support: ... the Magyar hierarchy has come down hard on us. They wish to suffocate Eudove noviny, the most Catholic of newspapers, with a clerical curse. I turn to the Moravian and Bohemian clergy today so that they may defend us. Do not let the strongest bastion of the faith and the Slovak language fall. The newspaper Eudove noviny is a substitute today for school. It is equally a catechism and a syllabus. Without it the Slovaks will die or will become a senseless 44 45 46 Ibid ., p.4. "Prijezd Andreje HI inky," Cas, XXI, No. 303 ( 1907), 5. Slovensky obzor, 1907, 564 cited in Sidor, Cernova, 51. �SLOVAKIA 20 mass of slaves and helots .. . Me, they failed, my paper Eudove noviny they prosecute with clerical punishments! Protect our press! 47 His call did not go unheeded - the strength of the religious tie and the events of Cemova caused Czech and Moravian papers to write, urging Slovaks to continue to read Eudove noviny as a good Catholic newspaper. Arriving in Prague on 1 November 1907 in the company of A. Kolisek and J. Uprka, Hlinka was greeted by Czech leaders F. Taborsky, J. Rotnagl , Dr. Lang, and Dr. E. Krajicek, and a large number of students.48 On the 2 November 1907, he gave a speech on Slovansky ostrov which created such a stir that Ceskoslovanska jednota established a Ceskoslovensky komitet (Czechoslovak Committee) on the following day. Its function was to collect money to aid the orphans of Cemova49 and to organize the rest of Hlinka's lecture tours in the Czech Lands. Altogether, there were over 700 rallies on behalf of the Slovaks and Cemova. 50 Josef Anyz, editor-in-chief of Narodni listy, was elected chairman of the Committee with J. Rotnagl as secretary. Such a good working relationship between Anyz and Rotnagl grew out of the Committee that, according to Rotnagl , "whatever I went to N. listy 51 with some request from Cs/. Jednota, l was never turned down." Right after Cemova the number of Slovak evenings organized to acquaint the Czech public with the Slovaks and their culture increased dramatically, as did informative lectures on the same theme. Great speakers such as Pavel Blaho, Matus Dula, Andrej Hlinka, Milan Hodza, Jozef I:udovit Hol'uby, I:udovit Medvecky, Anton Stefanek, Vavro Srobar, and Svetozar Hurban Vajansky, were invited by Jednota to speak to the people of Moravia and Bohemia. Czech newspapers touched the hearts of their reading public, calling for Czech financial support for the victims of Cemova: V 47 Hlas, 6 December 1907, cited in K. Sidor, Andrej Hlinka , p. 205. "Prijezd Andreje Hlinky," Cas, XXI, No. 303 ( 1907), 5. 49 " Pomozte sirotkum po zavrazdenych v Cemove," Cas, XXI , o. 303 ( 1907), 5. 50 "Nasi bratia Ces i," Slovenky tyidennik, 27 March 1908, p. I. 51 "Narodni listy a slovenska vec," Rotn ag l Papers, Literarni archiv pamatnik narodniho pisemnictvi, Prague. (He reafter, LA PNP). 48 �SLOVAKIA 21 At this difficult tim e it is our duty to help those .. . orphans, whose fath ers have fallen in def ense of the rights of the Slovak people against brutal violence. Let a collection be taken throughout the whole nation, the y ield of which will be dedicated to the unfortunate victims of Cernova as proof that Czechs and Slovaks f eel together both joy and grief 52 The success of the fund-raising was evident in the letter of 8 August 1908 from Anton Stefanek to Seton-Watson: "We have the whole Czech people behind us. During the last year the Czech people have raised a fund of 80,000 Crowns for us under the influence of Cemova." 53 Seton-Watson received a full report on Cemova and the imprisonment of Hlinka for "incitement against the Magyar nation" 54 from Stefanek. This caused him to write a letter to the London Spectator, describing all the events and he referred to them "as a typical example of the oppression of the Slovaks." 55 The result was a response from Count Esterhazy defending the Magyar position, followed by a scathing rebuttal from Seton-Watson in the Spectator and Manchester Guardian. The Times editor, Wickham Steed, was particularly gleeful when he read them and wrote to Seton-Watson: "The reply to Esterhazy is the best bit of pulverization I have seen anywhere. It made me green with envy for the whole day. Talk about sledgehammers! You are a steamroller when you get going." 56 Czech-Slovak relations drew closer in 1907 when Antonin Reis, a member of Ceskoslovanska j ednota suggested to Pavel Blaho, that now would be a good time to establish an informative journal on Slovakia, especially for the Czech readership. 57 Thus was born Nase Slovensko , short-lived from 1907 to 1910, but important because it 52 " Hunove vrazdi ," Cas, No. 300 ( 1907), p. I . Hugh Seton-Watson, "Anton Stefanek and R. W. Seton-Watson," Bohemia Jahrbuch des Co /legium Carolin um, 18 ( 1977), 236. 54 Jan Ryc hlfk, Thomas D. Marzik, Mi ros lav Bie lik, eds. R. W. Seton-Watson and his Relations with the Czechs and the Slovaks, I, (Prague: Ostav T. G. Masaryka and Martin : Matica slovenska, 1995), 22 55 Rychlfk, et a l. , 22. 56 Ryc hlfk, et al. , p. 139. 57 Antonin Reis, Letter to P. Blaho, 8 March 1907, Blaho Papers (Slovak State Archi ves, Bratislava, hereafter SSUA), Carton 12, Signature Bll-98. The same letter was sent to other prominent Slovaks introduc ing the plan to fo und this journal and seeking support. 53 �22 SLOVAKIA gave the young Slovak generation the motivation to seek other ways of saving themselves from the oppression of the Magyars. They became more engaged in the Slovak national movement and were able to test their skills through such vehicles as Nase Slovensko and later Prudy. It also distanced them from the old generation in Martin who continued to believe that only the Russians could save them from the Magyars. American Slovaks also became very outspoken about the situation in Slovakia. From the late 1860s to the late l 880's, American Slovaks had been more concerned with survival in their new homeland and saving their money to send home to their families . By the late 1890s and early 1900s, they had acclimatized to their new democracy and created self-help associations and newspapers indicative of a maturing Slovak national consciousness. The persecution of Hlinka in connection with the pre-election agitation in 1906 was brought to the attention of the American Slovak public by the Roman Catholic priest Stefan Furdek. 58 The result was an open letter in the newspaper Eudove noviny written by Slovak priests working in America. Collections were organized as a result of the persecution during the elections of 1906, and once this precedent was set a similar procedure was followed to aid Cernova victims. A direct result of the persecution of Hlinka and the other Slovak representatives resulted in the emergence of the Union of Slovak Journalists and the Slovak League of America.59 A very impassioned message "For the Cernova Widows and Orphans," to all Slovaks was written by Furdek in his weekly Jednota, on 7 November 1907: They won't frighten us; our truth will not go begging crumbs from the tyrant. If it 's a fight they want, then a fight they will get; we are not afraid of it .. . Now, when we have the attention of the world, we must prove to the world that we stand together like a strong chain ... A bloody battle has begun in Cernova! Our sacred duty is to financially and morally support the struggle, which will determine whether 58 Stefan Furdek was the founder of The First Cath olic Slovak Union ( 1890) and th e Slovak League of America ( I 907). 59 Stefan Kucik, "Ohlas prenasledovania Andreja Hlinku a Cemovskej tragedie medzi Americkymi Slovakmi", in Kucik, Mytus a Realita, 115. �SLOVAKIA 23 the Slovak nation will exist or not exist in its ancient homeland. 60 With the passing of time, the furor created around Cernova abated. However, the actions of the Magyar authorities in bringing to trial those persons arrested on that tragic day, served to re-awaken interest in various camps. Both Czech and Slovak newspapers reported on the proceedings of the trial, but the Slovak newspaper Narodnie noviny gave its readers a daily account which lasted from the 2 nd to the 10 th of March in 1908. Altogether forty men and women were sentenced to a total of 37 years of imprisonment. 61 Cernova was in some ways a catalyst, not just on home ground but in Bohemia and Moravia and internationally. Slovaks in America also rallied and sought to acquaint their government of the situation in the homeland. What the Magyars had probably thought was an insignificant consecration and sign of Slovak thick-headedness turned into a cause celebre. The Magyars never expected this event to attract such attention and greatly miscalculated the damage this would cause them in the eyes of Europe. Men like Count Esterhazy never expected to find themselves having to defend Magyar racial policies, all because of an insignificant village like Cernova and a "people who did not exist," 62 according to Magyar politicians! In many ways, Cernova helped the Slovaks both in Slovakia and in America to unite and to begin thinking of alternatives to the rule of the Hungarian government and its Magyarizing policies. 60 Stefan Furdek, "Pre vdovy a siroty ce m ovske" quoted in Kucik, I 16-1 7. V. H., Cernovsky process (Turciansky Sv. Martin : Knihtl ac iarskeho ucas tinarskeho spolku, I 908), 72 . 62 Bela Grun wa ld, A felv idek, in Duri ca, Dejiny Slovenska a Slovakov, 238. Grunwa ld wrote in 1887 that there were Slovak speak ing-inhabi tants in Hungary but there was no Slovak nation. 61 � 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 2010, Vol. 40 Description An account of the resource Vol. 40 (No. 74-75), 2010. 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 2010 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 7 THE CERNOVA MASSACRE: MAGYAR MISCALCULATION, SLOVAK GAIN Edita Bosak Cernova, formerly an independent municipality of Liptov county, today a suburb of Ruzomberok, played a key role in the Slovak national movement in the first decade of the twentieth century. With the signing of the 1867 Austro-Hungarian Compromise, which created the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary, the hegemony of the Austrian Empire ended. The agreement opened the way for the ruling Magyar political forces in the Kingdom of Hungary to enforce their national interests without regard for the interests of the non-Magyar nationalities. Since this meant that no legal rights would be granted to the non-Magyar nations in Hungary, the Slovaks in Northern Hungary found their political situation deteriorating over the next fifty years. Between 1905 and 1907, the Dual Monarchy found itself in a serious political and social crisis and also faced deeply divisive nationality problems as a result of the Compromise. This study will explore the role of the Cernova massacre in changing the direction of the Slovak national movement, in exposing the Magyar government's nationalities' policies both internally and abroad, and thus forcing the Magyars into a defensive position. With the passing of the Compromise in 1867, Magyar statesmen Ferenc Deak and J6szef Eotvos, crafted the Legislative Act 44/1868 on the Equality of the Nationalities, 1 commonly known as the Nationalities Law. Although this law was intended to satisfy the nationalities' yearning for equality, in actual fact it denied the equality of all the nationalities in Hungary except for the Croats, who were recognized as a separate nation. The preamble of the law clearly stated: " .... all citizens of the Kingdom of Hungary, in conformity with the 1 Torveny-czikk a nemzetisek egyenj ogus:ig t:irgy:iban. Magyar torvenyt:ir 10001895 . 1838-1 868 evi torvenyczikkek. (Budapest, I 896) 490-4, as cited in Milan Podrim avsky, " Slovaks in the Conditions of the Hungarian State at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century." Human Affairs, 9, I (1999), 45 . 8 SLOVAKIA Constitution and from the political point of view, create an indivisible unitary Hungarian (Magyar) nation, of which each citizen of the country, belonging to any nationality, is an equal member." 2 In effect, the equality of the citizens of the state as individuals, independent of their nationality, was proclaimed; but the equality of the nationalities of the old Kingdom of Hungary was not. The discriminatory character of the Nationality Law had serious ramifications for the Slovaks. As a result, in 1878 the Slovaks sent another deputation led by one of the heroes of the 1848 Revolution, Jozef M. Hurban, to Vienna requesting an independent Slovak territory.3 The emperor refused to meet with Hurban, and returned his Memorandum to him. This led to an escalation in Magyarization (assimilation into the Magyar language and culture) and legislation by Magyar political forces which sought to erode any remaining rights of the nationalities. Prior to 1867, the Slovak national movement had made considerable headway. In the early 1860's intellectuals accepted the language reforms which I.:udovit Stur had made in 1846, and which led 4 to the final codification of the Slovak language in 1851. The Slovak nationalists sought to win legal guarantees that would safeguard the Slovak national existence and sovereignty. Although they were unsuccessful in obtaining recognition for the Memorandum of 1861 and the Okolie (a Slovak territory), they did manage to create the cultural and literary organization Matica slovenska in 1863 in the small town of Turciansky Svaty Martin and three Slovak gymnazia in the 1860s. The number of Slovak newspapers also expanded at this time. These achievements gave the Slovaks hope for bettering their political, social and economic situation in Hungary. It was short lived. With the signing of the A usgleich in 1867, these national developments came to a rapid end. The gymnazia were closed in 1874 and the Matica slovenska in 1875, with the state confiscating all of Matica 's property. The Prime Minister of Hungary, Kalman Tisza, announced at the sitting of the Diet that he did not know of "any Slovak nation" . Hungary.s m 2 Podrimavsky, " Slovaks ... ," 45. Anton Spiesz and Dusan Caplovic, Illustrated Slovak History (Wauconda, Ill inois: Bolchazy- Carducci Publi shers, 2006), 149. 4 Ludevi t Stur, Nauka reci slovenskej (Presporok, 1846; reprinted in Bratislava, 2006). 5 Milan Durica, Dejiny Slovenska a Slovakov (Bratislava: Luc, 2003), 235. 3 SLOVAKIA 9 The arrival of the government of Kalman Tisza in 1875 inaugurated a new period of oppression. The ruling Magyar circles were determined to strengthen the supremacy of national politics within the old Kingdom of Hungary vis-a-vis Vienna and also outside of the Monarchy, especially towards the Balkans. The virulent Magyarization policies of fifteen years of Tisza rule seriously hampered the ability of Slovaks to keep pace with their counterparts in other regions of Europe. The Slovak intelligentsia was continuously attacked and began to lose hope. The Hungarian government believed that the only solution to the nationality problem was assimilating the nonMagyar nations. Its Magyarization policies employed a variety of devices. The Magyar language was implemented at all levels of society, including from the pulpit. Various associations to help assimilate the nationalities 6 were established and also the local press was harnessed to ensure the Magyarization program would be effecttive and ensure the elimination of the Slovak language from public life. In terms of organized religion, both the authorities of the Catholic and Lutheran Churches practiced Magyarization in private, as well as in public. Slovak children attending Catholic schools were required to use the Magyar language. Slovak priests and teachers were persecuted for their national consciousness and participation in the Slovak national movement. 7 Slovak ministers and priests, who were known to be nationalists, were transferred from wealthier parishes to ones where the minister or priest, along with his flock, had . 8 to strugg Ie to survive. In 1878, the Slovenska narodna strana (Slovak National Party) announced it would boycott the elections to protest the discrimination suffered by the Slovaks. Not a single Slovak deputy was elected 6 Tisza' s gove rnment establi shed th e Magyar Educa tio nal League for Upper Hungary (FEMKE) in 1882 w ith its seat in the anci ent Slova k city of Nitra and the Educati onal League fo r Upper Hun ga ry (MT KE) in 1885 w ith its headquarters in Budapest, as we ll several j ourn als and news papers to aid in fi ghting th e g rowth of Slovak nati onal co nsc io usness. Podrimavsky, "S lova ks in the Co nditions of th e Hun gari an State . . . ," 4 7. 7 Ibid., 47-8. 8 Karel Kalal, Mad'arizacia. Obraz slovenske utrpenie. (Originall y publi shed in 1900, reprinted in Brati slava : Eko- ko nzult, 2006), 27. "The Sl ovak priest Moyses los t hi s parish in Lucky and th e Magyarone Smizar repl aced him ; the people sto pped go in g to church, th ey are bu ry in g their dead themselves, children are not be ing bapti zed, but no ne of th at moves either Smi za r, or " Fath er" Parvy. " SLOVAKIA to the Diet in the elections of 1875 or 1878 . From this date until the early twentieth century, the Slovenska narodna strana followed a policy of political passivity and withdrew to the small town of Turciansky Svaty Martin in Central Slovakia. They also brought with them their newspaper Slovenske narodne noviny (Slovak National News) from its previous home in Budapest. Two factors , one internal and the other external , were instrumental in activating the Martin nationalists at the turn of the century. First of all, the economic situation was depressed and created a climate of both social and political unrest. The gravity of this situation was described as late as 1914 in an article entitled "The Decline of Industry" 9 by the pro-Magyar, government-sponsored, newspaper Slovenske noviny , published in Budapest. Alongside this industrial problem was the failure of the agrarian sector to thrive as a result of several bad harvests. The result was a growth in anti-Semitism, as the Jews were blamed for the drop in agricultural prices. This was followed by the rise of a new Catholic, anti-Semitic, Hungarian political party: the Hungarian People's Party (Neppart) established by Ferdinand Zichy and its weekly Krest'an. ' 0 It should be pointed out that most Jews in Hungary tied their economic well-being to support for the Magyar ruling class. Another catalyst for Slovak patriots was the trial of Romanian nationalists in 1894 which helped bring together a coalition of nonMagyar nationalists. Recognizing their common goals and the advantage of solidarity, the nationalities came together for the first time in the Congress of Non-Hungarian Nations in Budapest in 1895 . The Congress sought national equality in conjunction with democratic demands for universal and secret manhood suffrage, and freedom of the press, speech, assembly and association for all the nationalities. An external factor which played a major role in ending political passivity was a new generation of university students who were 9 Dr. Adolf Phany, "Upado k priemys lu," Slovenske noviny, 14 January 1914, p. l . Robert W. Seton-Watso n, A Hislory of 1he Czechs and Slovaks (Londo n, 1943:, reprint ed., Hamden, CT, 1965) 27 1-2. See also Julius Popely, " Boj o liberalne cirkevnopoliticke reform y v Uhorsku a zaloze nie katolickej l' udovej strany," Hisloricky casopis 29, 6 ( 198 1), 85 7-70, and Julius Popely, "Yzt' ah medzi statom a cirkvou v posledn ej tretine 19. storocia a korene politi ckeho kl erikali zmu v Uhorsku," Historickestudie 24 ( 1980): 77 -96, and Owen V. Johnson, " Losing Faith : The Slova k Hungari an Constitutional Struggle, 1906-1914," Harvard Ukrainian S1udies, 22, I, ( 1998), 293-3 12. 10 SLOVAKIA 11 either educated by Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, a Czech professor at Charles University in Prague, or who read his works while studying in Vienna and Budapest. As graduates and young professionals, they returned to Slovakia and spread Masaryk's ideas and teachings, his "Realist" program, and especially the concept of "drobna praca" (intensive work) . 11 On the advice of Masaryk, some of his students in 1898 established the journal Hlas (Voice). It preached the advantages of closer Czech and Slovak cooperation. This was enough to prompt the leadership of the old guard--the poet, writer, and editor of Ncirodne noviny, Svetozar Hurban Vajansky; Pavel Mudroii, party chair for the Slovenskci ncirodnci strana; Matus Dula, Ambro Pietor, and several others into protesting that the charges of political passivity levelled by Hlas editors Vavro Srobar and Pavel Blaho were unjust. A rift emerged between the older and younger generation. The elders felt the younger generation was neither respectful nor grateful for the sacrifices made by their elders in furthering the Slovak national movement. When Hlas ceased publication in 1904, there was a short respite. However, the demands of the young nationalists for a platform led to the publiccation of another journal, Prudy (Currents) in 1909. Milan Hodza, a young Budapest lawyer and publicist recognized that the Slovaks needed to become politically engaged and he put his energies into the building of a mass movement. In his newspaper Slovensky tyi dennik (Slovak Weekly) begun in 1903, Hodza tried to capture the Slovak peoples' interests and educate them in political activity. The young people rejected their elders' policy of political passivity. 11 Edita Bosak, "Czech-Slovak Relati ons and the Student Organisati on Detvan, 1882- I 91 4" in Slovak Polirics, Ed. Stani slav J. Kirsc hbaum (C leveland : Slovak Institute, 1983), 6-41. See also Ed ita Bosa k, "The Slovak National Movement, 184819 18" in Rejlecrions on Slovak Hisrory, Ed. Stani slav J. Kirschbaum and Anne C. Roman (Toronto: Sl ovak World Congress, 1987), 59-72 , and Edita Bosak, "T. G. Masaryk and th e Emerge nce of th e Hl as ist Move ment, 1898-1904", in J. M. Rydlo , ed, Milan S. Durica. Fesrschrift (Brati slava, 1995) 29-42. Edita Bosa k, " Slowakische Studentenorganisati onen in W ien, Prag und Budapes t und ihre Zusa mm enarbeit," in Wegenetz europiiischen Ceistes fl - Universitiiten und Studenten: Die Bedeutung studentischer Migrationen in Mittel - und Siidosteuropa vom 18. Bis zum 20. Jahrhundert. Eds. Ri chard G. Plasc hka and Karlheinz Mac k (Muni ch: 1987), 162-1 82. SLOVAKIA 12 Slovak politicians finally dropped their pass1v1ty before the Hungarian constitutional crisis in 1905-1906. Hungarian political circles noted this and their Magyarisation politics were stepped up and the persecution of Slovak nationalists reached their peak. On the eve of the 1905 elections, Prime Minister Istvan Tisza bluntly stated his position on the nationalities as follows : A cardinal condition for the enjoyment of rights by other nationalities is that the citizens of other nationalities should recognize unreservedly that this State is the Magyar State .... The Magyar nation has never given a binding promise to maintain the Law of Nationalities for all time, or not to alter it... when conditions change, and when we perceive that through this law we grant to our opponents rights against ourselves. 12 The policy of Magyarization continued to escalate at all government and religious levels, and to touch the social, economic, and political fabric of the state. The Apponyi Education Acts of 1907 reiterated that teachers in religious schools were state employees, and, as such, had to be able to read, write, and teach in Magyar. Leading Magyar nationalists held firm to these views . There were even fears among government leaders that negotiations with the nationalities would derail the Magyar goal of a single national state. Tisza, in response to the fears expressed by Count Albert Apponyi, that he was negotiating with the Romanians, stated very clearly that he stood " ... on the basis of a single undivided Hungarian national state ... No Hungarian can hold any other position other than the position of a single Hungarian nation, creating a single united Hungarian national state. 13 As far as Tisza was concerned, this position was unassailable. These views were held by most of the Hungarian ruling circle and permeated throughout the administrative echelons and bureaucracy. Surprisingly, in the 1906 elections, six Slovaks from the Slovenska l'udova strana (Slovak People's Party) 14 and one from the Slovenska 12 R. W. Seton-Watson, German, Slav, and Magyar (New York : Howard Fertig, 1968), 45-6. 13 Kalman Tisza Slovenske noviny, 16 January 19 14, p. l. 14 The Slovenska /'udova strana had separated from Zichy's People' s Party, Neppart, in 1905 because the latter did not represent the Slovak peoples ' interests. 1 SLOVAKIA 13 narodna strana (Slovak National Party) were elected. They demonstrated that a well-organized campaign, with emphasis on the needs of the peasants, was the way to attract votes. 15 However, the campaigners also pointed out that parties such as Neppart were not working in the interests of the Slovak peasants. Although this was a small win for the Slovak national movement (given their proportion of the population, the Slovaks should have had 40 seats in Parliament), its impact was significant enough that the Hungarian government expanded and increased the tempo of its Magyarization process. With hindsight it is clear that this political achievement was very much a milestone in the Slovak national movement. Slovak leaders, laymen as well as clergy, were now targeted in a stepped up campaign of persecution. 16 The Catholic Church's hierarchy, educated in the "great Magyar spirit," 17 was also actively involved in these persecutions . Even sermons had to be given in Magyar in completely Slovak parishes. Slovak priests who expressed national sentiments and used their own language in church were persecuted. Yet it was this Slovak clergy to which the people looked for guidance. The Slovak intelligentsia was very small, and as a result, both Roman Catholic priests and Lutheran ministers filled this gap. This form of Magyarization also attracted the attention of William Ritter, 18 a Swiss writer and artist. He published the details of the trial of Andrej Hlinka in Ruzomberok, October 26-November 6, 15 Ameri can Slovaks, in a sign of support and solidarity, had co llected $ I 0,000 and se nt it to the Slovak leadership back home to help defray electi on ex penses. The electi on of seven Slovaks to th e Hun ga ri an Parli ament, a first in history , was enthusiasti call y received as one Slovak Am erican decl ared "Our mon ey has been well spent. " In M. Mark Stolarik , Immig ration and Urban ization: The Slovak Experience, 1870- / 9 18 (New York: AM S Press, 1989), 194. 16 Several Slova k nati onali st leaders were now tri ed and convicted of " inciting aga inst the Magya r nati on" and sentenced to term s in prison: the Rev. Ferdi s Juriga, Dr. Vavro Srobar, the Rev. Andrej Hlinka, Milan Iva nka, etc. 17 Kuruc, Stefa n, " Katolicka cirkev na Slovenskom uze mi Uhorska na zaciatku 20. storocia," in My tus a realita, Stefan Kuci k, ed. (Rufo mberok : Katolicka uni versita v Rufo mberku, 2008), 6 1. 18 William Ritter ( I 867- I 955) was one of th e earli est and most creati ve of the foreign Sl ovakophiles who wrote about th e situati on faced by the Slovak s in the Hungari an part of the Dual Monarc hy of Austri a-H ungary. He pro tested aga inst Magyari zati on w ith others like th e Ru ssian Alexander Alexa ndrovic Papkov ( I 866-1920), the Scot Robert William Seton-Watson ( I 879- I 95 I), the Frenchm an Ernest Deni s ( 1849-1 92 1) and the No rweg ian Bj ornstjern e Bjorn son ( 1832- 19 10). 14 SLOVAKIA 1906 in the French Catholic magazine Demain. His article was read by officials in the Vatican and, as result, Hlinka was able to defend himself successfully from the Hungarian hierarchy' s accusations. 19 Ritter also published the letters of Hungarian bishops and Slovak priests in 1906 in Demain. He was a regular visitor to Slovakia from 1888 until 1947, and maintained a faithful and steadfast interest in the Slovaks until his death.20 Ritter had a vibrant correspondence with Slovakia's nationalists and greatest writers and poets, and through his publications pointed out to the western world the inhumane political, religious, social and cultural Magyarization of the Slovaks in the Kingdom Hungary. 21 Ritter was the first Slovakophile to expose the brutal sentiments expressed by the Magyar Prime Minister Istvan Tisza in 1905. In his article "Eveques hongrois et pretres slovaques" in the Lyons journal Demain politique, social, religieux,22 Ritter quoted Tisza as having stated "The law is dead for you Slovaks."23 Ritter had also published the harsh words of Tisza's father, Kalman Tisza, when he had been the head of government years earlier: "Slovaks should be crushed under the heel." 24 This Swiss humanitarian also expounded on Magyarization carried out in poor Slovak parish schools, in the theological seminaries and amongst Slovak priests . In fact, the fateful Cernova massacre simply confirmed the truth of Ritter's writings. Villagers in the small settlement of Cemova, in the diocese of Spis, had constructed a church mainly through the initiative and support of a local son, the Reverend Andrej Hlinka. Out of pride and gratitude, the citizens of Cemova, asked their bishop, Alexander Parvy, to allow Hlinka to consecrate the new church. 25 These people knew the importance of having one of their own sons fulfill this ceremony. Since Hlinka had been suspended from his priestly duties by Parvy because of his nationalist behavior, the people of Cemova requested a delay in consecration until such time as Hlinka could 19 Jozef M. Rydl o, " Sudny proces proti Andrejovi Hlinkovi v Rufo mberku 26. 106.11.1906 a obrana Slovakov proti mad 'arizacii perom William Rittera na strankach francu zskeho Demain", in Kucik, My tus a realita, 24. 20 Ibid. , 22 . 21 Ibid ., 23 . 22 Ibid ., 24. 23 Ibid., 24. 24 Ibid., 24. 25 Alexander Parvy was bishop of the Spis diocese from 1904 to 19 19. SLOVAKIA 15 preside over it. The bishop refused. The political background leading up to this is important for, as F. S. Clarke, in a dispatch from the British Consul-General in Budapest reported to the Foreign Office, The parish priest at Rozsahegy (Ruiomberok) ... , named Hlinka ... , by his nationalist tendencies, has incurred the displeasure--not only of the civil, but also of the ecclesiastical authorities, and had, in December last, been sentenced to a fine and to two years for the incitement against the Magyar State idea '-- ... 26 Hlinka had been actively backing his friend Dr. Vavro Srobar during the election campaign, something which Parvy considered tantamount to political agitation against the Magyar state. Thus, in Hlinka's place, Parvy chose the Reverend Anton Klurimsky, a Magyarone, to consecrate the newly-built church, despite the objections of the people of Cemova. These sentiments had even been personally relayed to the bishop by deacon M. Pazurik. The bishop decided that the dedication ceremony would take place regardless of the objections voiced by the parishioners. A group of gendarmes and a magistrate from Ruzomberok were assigned to escort the priests to nearby Cemova, and to maintain law and order. Upon their arrival on 27 October 1907, the priests and the squad of gendarmes were greeted by the people of Cemova, who although passive, verbally berated them. According to eye-witness reports, the gendarmes, without any provocation, shot into the crowd gathered on the roadside, which was impeding their progress. The result was "nine dead immediately, three died the following day, one on the third day" 27 and by the 25 th of December all told there were fifteen dead. 28 Because it was feared that a revolt would follow , a contingent of Honveds (National Guards) was dispatched from Ruzomberok.29 The following day a series of arrests of so-called "agi26 F. S. Clarke to Sir Edward Goschen, Budapest, October 31 , 1907. Foreign Office Papers #371 , Pol. A-H , 1907 - # 196 fil e 36724, No. 58, (United Kingdom: Public Record Office) . 27 "Vrazdenie slovenseho l' udu v Cemovej", S/o vensky tyidennik, 1 November 1907, p. I. 28 Karol Sidor, Cerno va (/80 7- /937) (Bratislava: " Slovak", 1937), 35. 29 Ibid. , 32. 16 SLOVAKIA tators" 30 among the survivors began, one of whom was Hlinka's sister, fifty-five year old Anna Fullova. In all, there were 13 arrests. 3 1 The tragedy of Cernova did more than any other event to bring the Slovak problem before a national and international forum . Two Czech deputies, Silinger and Dr. Hruban, brought before the Reichsrat in Vienna an interpellation which requested the government "to ask for an official report on how this sad affair came about and if the guilty parties had been investigated and punished and to put it before them?" 32 The second part of the document " ... asked the Hungarian government, as the second component of the Austro-Hungarian compromise, to finally end similar persecution of the Slovak people and the non-Magyar nationalities of Hungary." 33 Dr. Hruban stated most emphatically "that the Czech nation will think over very carefully if it can make an agreement with a state which so persecutes the Slovak nation and the other non-Magyar nationalities."34 During the debate on the Austro-Hungarian economic agreement before the Austrian Parliament, T.G. Masaryk took the opportunity to present his views: I turn to the nationality question. For us, who are here from Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia, for us Czechs the Compromise had politico-national importance. You heard today in the interpellation about the events in Ruiomberok which the Agrarian speaker also spoke about. The matter is quite simple. We have two million Slovaks in Hungary who belong to our nation: a nation of eight million will not abandon two million of its brethren to Magyar national chauvinism. It is our duty here and at every opportunity in 30 Ibid., 35. Ibid. , 35. 32 Anhang zu den Stenographischen Protokollen des Ha uses der Abgeordneten des oesterreichischen Reichsrates im Jahre 1907. Haus der Abgeordneten - 30. Sitzung der XVIII. Sess ion am 30. October 1907, p. 3 I 79. "Dotaz". (London , UK: Briti sh Museum). (Hereafter, Protocol). 33 Protocol, p. 3179 34 "Cemovska vrazda na sneme," Slovensky tyi dennik, I November 190 7, p. 3. The agreement mentioned here refers to the new ten-year agreement between Austria and Hungary wh ich was about to be voted on by the Viennese Parliament. 31 SLOVAKIA 17 this house to declare to Austria and the whole public that what the Magyars are doing to our Slovaks is inhumane. 35 The German Moravian representative Dr. Redlich also expressed his concern with the Magyarizing fervor in Hungary: I need not remind any of your Czech gentlemen of what is happening to the Slovaks in Hungary. Think not of Cernova alone; think of the whole process which led to it, the Hlinka trial, the Juriga trial /36 Later, the Czech deputy Dr. Zahradnik requested to know if the president of the Parliament intended to add the following to the protocol: " ... the expression of our deep regret and our deep sympathy not only for the unfortunate victims of Cernova but for all the nonMagyar nations who suffer under such great oppression. " 37 Deputy Gunther raised the hope that " ... the whole of civilized Europe, all who still have some feeling for human suffering will finally put themselves on the side of the great Norwegian poet. .. the whole world will find out what is hidden behind this Magyar liberalism ." 38 Gunther was referring to the poet and Nobel-prize winner Bjornstjerne Bjornson, who, the previous month, had delivered a speech criticizing the "Magyar humbug and ... oppression in the service of nationalistic thinking," 39 thus drawing the attention of Europe to its deeds. Bjornson had taken up the cudgel on Hungarian policy towards its nationalists with special reference to the Slovaks. Cernova gave him the opportunity to follow up with a long article in the Neue Freie Presse, describing at length the Magyarizing process. Needless to say, the above annoyed the Hungarian government but even greater was the upheaval caused by the writings of such wellknown foreign journalists as Henry Wickham Steed of The Times 40 (London), and the conversion of Scotus Viator to the Slovak cause. 35 Protocol, p. 2346. Protocol, p. 2365. 37 Protocol, p. 23 18. 38 Protocol, p. 2376. 39 Bjomstjerne Bjornson , Narodni listy, 23 October I 907, p. 2. 40 Scotus Viator was the pseudonym of R. W. Seton-Watson, the renowned Scots historian. Seton-Watson became acquai nted with the sociologist Anton Stefanek in 1906 in Vienna, and it was through Stefanek that he had the opportunity to learn the 36 18 SLOVAKIA 41 In 1908, Scotus Viator published Racial Problems in Hungary, which dealt with the corruption of electoral practices and Magyarization in that country. It earned him his doctorate. Shortly after the first publication, the book was translated into several other European languages, including Czech . This book helped publicize the oppresssed condition of the Slovaks in Upper Hungary throughout the western world. The French press also adopted an inimical stance towards the Magyars . The Poles wrote in Swiat slowianski that: It is not necessary to have concern about our sympathy. We sympathize with all the p ersecuted. We are wholeheartedly on their side. No mistake is as outrageous as that which the Magyars are making when they p ersecute the Slovaks. The Magyar advance against the Slovaks will end badly for the Magyars, but the Slovaks will live on. 42 William Ritter, who was already writing and exposing the Slovaks' plight, added his voice to that of the others. The Slovak politician Milan Hodza made an interpellation in the Hungarian Parliament on the subject of Cernova only an hour after the proceedings of the Austrian Reichstag had become known to the Hungarian Parliament. Feeling amongst the Magyar deputies ran high . Hodza had barely begun to speak before he was rudely interrupted by a very rowdy assembly. His interpellation consisted of a request that the Minister of the Interior, Julius Andrassy, extend the investigation of the Cernova massacre to include an examination of the actions of the administrative official present at Cernova; then, secondly, to suspend the said official from his office on the basis of already known facts until such time as the investigation will have 43 been concluded; and finally, to withdraw the army from the village. facts about Magyari zati on and the oppresssion of the Slovaks and th e other nonMagyar peoples in Hungary. Ce rnova served to re info rce Seton-Watson' s views and he became a vigorous defender of the non-M agya r nationalities in the European ~ress, much to the ire and indignati on of the Hungari an government. 1 London: Archiba ld Constabl e, 1908; reprinted by Howa rd Ferti g, New York, 1972. 42 Swiat slowianski (Cracow, 1907), 12 and 375 , cited in Karo l Sidor, Cernova, 51 . 43 "Cernovska vrazda na sneme" Slo venskj tyi dennik, I November 1907 , p. 4. SLOVAKIA 19 Julius Andrassy defended the priests as having gone to Cemova only to reassure the people that the consecration would not take place at that time, that the gendarmes had fired in self-defence, and finally, that Zoltan Pereszleny would not be suspended but that a fair investigation would be made.44 Andrassy, along with his colleagues, accused such newspapers as Slovensky tyidennik of "stirring the people to bloodshed." 45 Meanwhile, Hlinka continued his lecture tour of Moravia and Bohemia, acquainting the Czechs with Magyar policy and the events of Cemova. The massacre at Cemova served as a unifying force among the Czechs for the Slovak cause. Hlinka was greeted enthusiastically wherever he went. He was seen as a martyr, a representative of the whole Slovak nation. His speeches activated a far more systematic interest in the Slovaks than ever before exhibited by the Czechs. Slovensky obzor put it quite frankly: What Kalal, Masaryk, Heyduk after long years did not know how to achieve, that is what Cernova events did - in one night! In fact, Cernova even captured the interest of the heir presumptive Francis Ferdinand, who had deputy Milan Hodza inform him personally of the whole sequence of 46 events at the Cernova massacre. V In November of 1907 the Cardinal Primate of Hungary issued a circular in which he put the Eudove noviny on the Index of forbidden reading. Hlinka responded with a plea in the Brno Hlas (6 December 1907) to the Bohemian and Moravian clergy for support: ... the Magyar hierarchy has come down hard on us. They wish to suffocate Eudove noviny, the most Catholic of newspapers, with a clerical curse. I turn to the Moravian and Bohemian clergy today so that they may defend us. Do not let the strongest bastion of the faith and the Slovak language fall. The newspaper Eudove noviny is a substitute today for school. It is equally a catechism and a syllabus. Without it the Slovaks will die or will become a senseless 44 45 46 Ibid ., p.4. "Prijezd Andreje HI inky," Cas, XXI, No. 303 ( 1907), 5. Slovensky obzor, 1907, 564 cited in Sidor, Cernova, 51. SLOVAKIA 20 mass of slaves and helots .. . Me, they failed, my paper Eudove noviny they prosecute with clerical punishments! Protect our press! 47 His call did not go unheeded - the strength of the religious tie and the events of Cemova caused Czech and Moravian papers to write, urging Slovaks to continue to read Eudove noviny as a good Catholic newspaper. Arriving in Prague on 1 November 1907 in the company of A. Kolisek and J. Uprka, Hlinka was greeted by Czech leaders F. Taborsky, J. Rotnagl , Dr. Lang, and Dr. E. Krajicek, and a large number of students.48 On the 2 November 1907, he gave a speech on Slovansky ostrov which created such a stir that Ceskoslovanska jednota established a Ceskoslovensky komitet (Czechoslovak Committee) on the following day. Its function was to collect money to aid the orphans of Cemova49 and to organize the rest of Hlinka's lecture tours in the Czech Lands. Altogether, there were over 700 rallies on behalf of the Slovaks and Cemova. 50 Josef Anyz, editor-in-chief of Narodni listy, was elected chairman of the Committee with J. Rotnagl as secretary. Such a good working relationship between Anyz and Rotnagl grew out of the Committee that, according to Rotnagl , "whatever I went to N. listy 51 with some request from Cs/. Jednota, l was never turned down." Right after Cemova the number of Slovak evenings organized to acquaint the Czech public with the Slovaks and their culture increased dramatically, as did informative lectures on the same theme. Great speakers such as Pavel Blaho, Matus Dula, Andrej Hlinka, Milan Hodza, Jozef I:udovit Hol'uby, I:udovit Medvecky, Anton Stefanek, Vavro Srobar, and Svetozar Hurban Vajansky, were invited by Jednota to speak to the people of Moravia and Bohemia. Czech newspapers touched the hearts of their reading public, calling for Czech financial support for the victims of Cemova: V 47 Hlas, 6 December 1907, cited in K. Sidor, Andrej Hlinka , p. 205. "Prijezd Andreje Hlinky," Cas, XXI, No. 303 ( 1907), 5. 49 " Pomozte sirotkum po zavrazdenych v Cemove," Cas, XXI , o. 303 ( 1907), 5. 50 "Nasi bratia Ces i," Slovenky tyidennik, 27 March 1908, p. I. 51 "Narodni listy a slovenska vec," Rotn ag l Papers, Literarni archiv pamatnik narodniho pisemnictvi, Prague. (He reafter, LA PNP). 48 SLOVAKIA 21 At this difficult tim e it is our duty to help those .. . orphans, whose fath ers have fallen in def ense of the rights of the Slovak people against brutal violence. Let a collection be taken throughout the whole nation, the y ield of which will be dedicated to the unfortunate victims of Cernova as proof that Czechs and Slovaks f eel together both joy and grief 52 The success of the fund-raising was evident in the letter of 8 August 1908 from Anton Stefanek to Seton-Watson: "We have the whole Czech people behind us. During the last year the Czech people have raised a fund of 80,000 Crowns for us under the influence of Cemova." 53 Seton-Watson received a full report on Cemova and the imprisonment of Hlinka for "incitement against the Magyar nation" 54 from Stefanek. This caused him to write a letter to the London Spectator, describing all the events and he referred to them "as a typical example of the oppression of the Slovaks." 55 The result was a response from Count Esterhazy defending the Magyar position, followed by a scathing rebuttal from Seton-Watson in the Spectator and Manchester Guardian. The Times editor, Wickham Steed, was particularly gleeful when he read them and wrote to Seton-Watson: "The reply to Esterhazy is the best bit of pulverization I have seen anywhere. It made me green with envy for the whole day. Talk about sledgehammers! You are a steamroller when you get going." 56 Czech-Slovak relations drew closer in 1907 when Antonin Reis, a member of Ceskoslovanska j ednota suggested to Pavel Blaho, that now would be a good time to establish an informative journal on Slovakia, especially for the Czech readership. 57 Thus was born Nase Slovensko , short-lived from 1907 to 1910, but important because it 52 " Hunove vrazdi ," Cas, No. 300 ( 1907), p. I . Hugh Seton-Watson, "Anton Stefanek and R. W. Seton-Watson," Bohemia Jahrbuch des Co /legium Carolin um, 18 ( 1977), 236. 54 Jan Ryc hlfk, Thomas D. Marzik, Mi ros lav Bie lik, eds. R. W. Seton-Watson and his Relations with the Czechs and the Slovaks, I, (Prague: Ostav T. G. Masaryka and Martin : Matica slovenska, 1995), 22 55 Rychlfk, et a l. , 22. 56 Ryc hlfk, et al. , p. 139. 57 Antonin Reis, Letter to P. Blaho, 8 March 1907, Blaho Papers (Slovak State Archi ves, Bratislava, hereafter SSUA), Carton 12, Signature Bll-98. The same letter was sent to other prominent Slovaks introduc ing the plan to fo und this journal and seeking support. 53 22 SLOVAKIA gave the young Slovak generation the motivation to seek other ways of saving themselves from the oppression of the Magyars. They became more engaged in the Slovak national movement and were able to test their skills through such vehicles as Nase Slovensko and later Prudy. It also distanced them from the old generation in Martin who continued to believe that only the Russians could save them from the Magyars. American Slovaks also became very outspoken about the situation in Slovakia. From the late 1860s to the late l 880's, American Slovaks had been more concerned with survival in their new homeland and saving their money to send home to their families . By the late 1890s and early 1900s, they had acclimatized to their new democracy and created self-help associations and newspapers indicative of a maturing Slovak national consciousness. The persecution of Hlinka in connection with the pre-election agitation in 1906 was brought to the attention of the American Slovak public by the Roman Catholic priest Stefan Furdek. 58 The result was an open letter in the newspaper Eudove noviny written by Slovak priests working in America. Collections were organized as a result of the persecution during the elections of 1906, and once this precedent was set a similar procedure was followed to aid Cernova victims. A direct result of the persecution of Hlinka and the other Slovak representatives resulted in the emergence of the Union of Slovak Journalists and the Slovak League of America.59 A very impassioned message "For the Cernova Widows and Orphans," to all Slovaks was written by Furdek in his weekly Jednota, on 7 November 1907: They won't frighten us; our truth will not go begging crumbs from the tyrant. If it 's a fight they want, then a fight they will get; we are not afraid of it .. . Now, when we have the attention of the world, we must prove to the world that we stand together like a strong chain ... A bloody battle has begun in Cernova! Our sacred duty is to financially and morally support the struggle, which will determine whether 58 Stefan Furdek was the founder of The First Cath olic Slovak Union ( 1890) and th e Slovak League of America ( I 907). 59 Stefan Kucik, "Ohlas prenasledovania Andreja Hlinku a Cemovskej tragedie medzi Americkymi Slovakmi", in Kucik, Mytus a Realita, 115. SLOVAKIA 23 the Slovak nation will exist or not exist in its ancient homeland. 60 With the passing of time, the furor created around Cernova abated. However, the actions of the Magyar authorities in bringing to trial those persons arrested on that tragic day, served to re-awaken interest in various camps. Both Czech and Slovak newspapers reported on the proceedings of the trial, but the Slovak newspaper Narodnie noviny gave its readers a daily account which lasted from the 2 nd to the 10 th of March in 1908. Altogether forty men and women were sentenced to a total of 37 years of imprisonment. 61 Cernova was in some ways a catalyst, not just on home ground but in Bohemia and Moravia and internationally. Slovaks in America also rallied and sought to acquaint their government of the situation in the homeland. What the Magyars had probably thought was an insignificant consecration and sign of Slovak thick-headedness turned into a cause celebre. The Magyars never expected this event to attract such attention and greatly miscalculated the damage this would cause them in the eyes of Europe. Men like Count Esterhazy never expected to find themselves having to defend Magyar racial policies, all because of an insignificant village like Cernova and a "people who did not exist," 62 according to Magyar politicians! In many ways, Cernova helped the Slovaks both in Slovakia and in America to unite and to begin thinking of alternatives to the rule of the Hungarian government and its Magyarizing policies. 60 Stefan Furdek, "Pre vdovy a siroty ce m ovske" quoted in Kucik, I 16-1 7. V. H., Cernovsky process (Turciansky Sv. Martin : Knihtl ac iarskeho ucas tinarskeho spolku, I 908), 72 . 62 Bela Grun wa ld, A felv idek, in Duri ca, Dejiny Slovenska a Slovakov, 238. Grunwa ld wrote in 1887 that there were Slovak speak ing-inhabi tants in Hungary but there was no Slovak nation. 61  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 Černová Massacre: Magyar Miscalculation, Slovak Gain Description An account of the resource Edita Bosak Slovakia, Vol. 40 (No. 74-75), 2010 pp. 7-23 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bosák, Edita, 1950-2022 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2010 name 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/1811530be09d5420a61118cdcf74b327.pdf 889916433ca1d280bd2acb4f4cdcb461 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 29 WILSON AND T. G. MASARYK Joseph Bousa All who believe in the liberation activity of the untruthful "Liberator," Professor Masaryk, ought to read the documents of September 1918, pertaining to the American recognition of the Czecho-Slovak Army in Russia and in Siberia. These documents, taken from the National Archives in Washington, from ,t he archives of the American Department of State, are in the "Journal of Central European Affairs" (April 1953, pp. 47-60) which is published in Boulder, Colorado. After 1918, Masaryk and his paid "historians" told the nation at home just how Masaryk felt "at home" in the White House and how he convinced President Wilson and his advisers about the necessity of dismembering Austria-Hungary and creating the new state of Czecho-Slovakia. The historical facts were, of course, just the opposite of what Masaryk and his henchmen had always claimed. This is also evidenced in the documents published in the Journal. In the summer of 1918 Americans and President Wilson were not interested in Mr. Masaryk who recommended .that America give recognition to the bloody Bolshevik clique in Moscow as the actual government of Russia. The documents make it quite clear that America was for, while Masaryk was against intervention in Russia against the Bolsheviks. In the summer of 1918 American public opinion was very much influenced by the victorious fight of the Czecho-Slovak Legions against the Bolsheviks in Siberia and Russia. That is why President Wilson and the Government of the United States did exactly the opposite of what Masaryk wanted and recommended. Instead of recognizing the Red Soviet, as Masaryk had recommended, America recognized the opponents of the Soviet, the Czecho-Slovak Army in Siberia and in Eastern Russia as a belligerent Allied Army. Before our Czecho-Slovak Army in Siberia began .to fight on May 25, 1918, against the Bolsheviks, our soldiers had repudiated the leadership of Ma- �30 SLOVAKIA saryk's National Council and his orders to disarm and remain neutral. This much is quite clear from the documents published in the Journal by Professor Victor Mamatey. It was President Wilson himself who scratched out Masaryk's name in the document which recognized "the belligerency of the Czecho-Slovak revolutionists in view of their military organization operating in Siberia and Eastern Russia." I refer the readers to a unique literary work, written truthfully and without regard to the fables of Masaryk, Benes, and their companions, the book entitled "Krvi a zelezem" (With Blood and Iron). It is the first volume of a work about the Czecho-Slovak revolution of 1914-1918 and the foreign policy of the United States. It was published by Dr. Anthony S. Kalina to honor the memory of his father, an outstanding Czech politician and fighter for the recognition of the right of the Czechs to their own state, and also to honor the memory of our Siberian brothers and their immeasurable sacrifices and immortal merits. The book was first published in Prague, in 1938, and was, after Munich, a great encouragement to our people. It is perhaps the first historical work that sold as a "best seller;" it read like a gripping romance. Our people at home read it like the Bible so that within two months Dr. Kalina had it printed four times in many thousands of copies until further publication was made impossible by the Nazis. Dr. Mamatey's article in the Colorado "Journal" in 1953 complements the statements made by Kalina in his "Krvi a zelemem." What was Masaryk's policy towards Russia? In January, 1917, T. G. Masaryk published a sensational article in the Petersburg ''Ruskaja V olja" which he entitled: "Delenda est Austria" (Austria Must Be Destroyed). The publication "Ruskaja Volja" was the organ of the Minister of the Interior, A. D. Protopopov, who was hated by the Russian people. In his article, Masaryk said: "The form of the independent Czech kingdom could be any one of several. .. A dynasty of Russian origin would be e:rtremely popular." Two months later, however - after the Russian March �SLOVAKIA 31 Revolution, utterly disregarding neutrality in Russian internal affairs, he again villified the Romanoff dynasty. Arriving in Russia, in May 1917, Masaryk demagogically proclaimed as reactionaries and monarchists all those who since 1914 were creating an independent Czecho-Slovak Army in Russia. With the help of the socialists, Masaryk removed from the leadership of Czech affairs in Russia Dr. Vaclav Vondrak, a progressive democrat who had done much for the creation of Czech military units in Russia. When Kerensky refused to see Masaryk and negotiate with him, Masaryk began to favor a second revolution - the Bolshevik Revolution. Thus it was that Masaryk went from one extreme to the other within a year: from the Romanoffs to the Bolsheviks. On the very first day of the communist putsch, November 7, 1917, Masaryk issued an order of neutrality toward the Bolsheviks. In March, 1918, under the protection of Bolshevik guards, Masaryk departed from Moscow, embarking for America through Japan. The people who expected Masaryk to seek recognition from the American Government for the independence of the Slovaks and Czechs were disappointed. In the very first sentence of the memorandum to President Wilson (April 10, 1918), T. G. Masaryk asked America to recognize the Soviets in Russia. In his book "Krvi a zelezem," Dr. Kalina publishes the documents of American diplomats in which Masaryk is designated as a member of the Bolshevik government, who is coming to America in the interests of the Soviets. A:fiter his arrival in America, Masaryk continued to recommend the recognition of the Soviets as the government of Russia by the American Government in a series of articles and lectures. What was the policy of America and President Wilson towards Russia? Favorable at first to the democratic Russian Revolution and the Kerensky government, it supported the anti-Bolshevik movement and categorically refused to recognize the Bolsheviks as the government of Russia. The policy of America was, therefore, in direct conflict with the policy of Masaryk. It thus happened that Masaryk, after he came to Washington on May 9, 1918, �32 SLOVAKIA had to wait six weeks before he was received by the White House. And available documents tell us most clearly that President Wilson would not have received Masaryk even then had it not been for the intervention of the CzechoSlovak Legion against the Bolsheviks in Siberia and Eastern Russia. Except for this intervention, against the orders of T. G. Masaryk, it can be truthfully said, therefore, the movement for Czecho-Slovak independence would have collapsed. President Wilson and Secretary of State Lansing, aware of Masaryk's non-interventionist policy in Russia, called him in for a hearing on June 19, 1918. Lansing had a difficult time trying to convince Masaryk not .to intervene with the intervention of the Czecho-Sfovak Legion against the Bolsheviks. Lansing talked with Masaryk on June 2 and 25, but Masaryk would not give in. On June 25, 1918, Masaryk even sent a telegram to Soviet Foreign Minister Cicerin in which he bade him to disarm the Czecho.:Slovak Legion in Russia and Siberia. If Masaryk were in Siberia at that time, I strongly suspect that he would have met the same fate as his Commissar Skotak after the battle of Liptak with the Bolsheviks on June 4, 1918: he too would have been hanged for treason. Masaryk kept on going from one extreme to another until it became crystal clear to him that he would end in complete failure not only with the Czecho-Slovak Legionnaires, but also with America and the Allies, if he kept to his pro-Bolshevik policy. The Slovaks and Czechs were fighting two months with the Bolsheviks, conquering just about everything up to the Volga, when Masaryk suddenly decided (July 20, 1918) to drop his pro-Bolshevik attitude and support the Czecho-Slovak Legionnaires. It was on that day that Masaryk, as titular head of the Czecho-Slovak National Council (Paris), requested President Wilson to help the Czecho-Slovak Army in Siberia in its fight aigainst the Bolsheviks. This belated Masaryk's conversion and request had catastrophical results. American help came laite. Our brethren on the Volga waited for help in vain. The Bolsheviks reorganized and consolidated their ranks in the meantime. Thus it was that the Bolshe- �SLOVAKIA 33 viks in Russia were saved. Had Masaryk not played with the Bolsheviks at that time and caused dissension and confusion in our ranks, the Bolsheviks could have been beaten ... and the Red plague would not have spread throughout the world. But even with his speedy conversion on July 20, 1918, Masaryk did not gain the confidence of President Wilson and Secretary of State Lansing. American diplomatic documents show that even at the end of 1918, after the overthrow in Prague, President Wilson and Secretary Lansing were not convinced that Masaryk had the support of the Slovaks and Czechs at home. They still remembered that the Legions in Russia had revolted against his policy. Masaryk was saved only by the noblesse of the leaders of the domestic revolution, who made him President in 1918 and re-elected him again in 1927 when a majority of the nation began to oppose Masaryk's socialization. The American recognition of the Czecho-Slovak movement for freedom, without mentioning Masaryk's name, was published in Washington on September 3, 1918. This recognition was clearly the result of the fight of the Czecho-<Slovak Legions in Siberia and Eastern Russia. It came not only without Masaryk's help, but even directly against his unfortunate policy which favored the communists. Slowly but certainly historical science is revealing all the fraud and humbug perpetrated against the modern history of the Czechs and the Slovaks. Again and again history supports all those who had clearly warned against Masaryk's and Benes' policy of socialization. Thus are reha:bilitated such patriotic leaders of our nation as Dr. Charles Kramar, Dr. Vaclav Vondrak, Professor Francis Mares, Dr. Charles Pergler, Victor Dyk, J. S. Machar, and immortal merits of our great Generals, such as, M. R. Stefanik, Stanislaus Cecek, John Gajer, Radola Gajda, Edward Kadlec, Rudolph Medek, Joseph J. Svec, and many others. A study of our modern history has convinced me that also in the future our efforts to liberate our people at home from communism will be successful only if we return �SLOVAKIA 34 to the path pointed out to us by selfless men, men of vision, by our courageous sons of our nation. As has been said so many times over, I am also convinced that under the banner of false legends and liberation myths - whether they are Masaryk's and/or Benes' - we shall never succeed in consolidating our nation to fight against our sworn enemy - communism. 0 0 0 0 Joseph Bousa is a Czech associated with the group which publishes the periodical "Bohemia" under the leadership of Vladimir Pekelsky in Kolu-Ehrenfel d, West Germany. Professor Victor S. Mamatey (University of Florida) is the author of the "documents" article referred to by Bouska, who, for some reason or other, preferred . not to mention the author by name, though informed people know that Mamatey is of Slovak origin and the son of the late Albert Mamatey, President of the Slovak League of America during the period the above events transpired. It is true, as Mamatey states aJt the outset of his study, that "relatively little is known about precise circumstances and motives of recognition by the United States Government of the Czechoslovak National Council of Paris in September 1918." This is understandab le since most available studies on this matter ignore the documents that are at hand, the authors preferring to write panegyrics about Masaryk and Benes and their fiction of an ethnic "Czechoslovak " nation instead of true history. We cannot agree with Professor Mamatey that "Thomas G. Masaryk ... was a well-known political figure" at the time the above events happened, yet we cannot recommend his study .too highly to all scholars and students of history. Mamatey's study of fourteen pages suggests that available history books on Czecho-Slovakia (Roucek's, Kerner's, Odlozilik's, Bezdicek's, Thomson's among them) can become more complete for the edification of future historians, if the respective historians take note of it. The conclusions drawn by Professor Mamatey deserve to be published here for the edification of our readers: The conclusions that may be drawn from tJhe foregoing documents are several: le 11he recognit-ion of the Czechoslovak Nationial �35 SLOVAKIA Council was tbased neither on Bohemia's historical rights to independen,ce nor on the principle <Xf national seltf-determiruation, but on the fact of Czechoslovak belligerency. 2. The recognition committed the United States Government to uphold Czech0$lovak independ•enice from Austria.filung ary, and together with the recogniUon accorded the CzechoslO'Va'ks by other Allied Governments , it virtuaHy assured them a place as an Mlied belliigerent nation at the peace conforence. But it in no sense implied a recognition <Xf unlike exact territorial cla.imsQl). 3. Since the Czechoslovak s the Culban revolutionari es Wlhose beUi,gerency had been recognized by President Grant - were not in possession orf the territ oriy they claimed and thus lacked what had always been regarded as an essentia1 element of soviereignty, and since the lilffiits of this territory were at the time unknown to the American policy-maker s (2), Lansing thought it wise to dissociate the recognition of the Czechoslo\<ak National Council from any concep tion <Xf terflitory by following the British examp1'e of granting r~ognition to the Czecho-Slovaks - wherever they might be, in Siberia, France, or Italy rather than to Czechoslovak ia, a territorial unit then still of uncertain Hmits. 4. Jin preparing the recogn,it ion, St-.ite Department o.fificials carefiuHy studied it in the light of precedents. Lans-i ng also gave careful thought to its possible effoots on domest ic American politics and on the current internat ional situat ion. 1it does not appear, however, that any thought was given to its possible effect on post-war Europe. Neitoor President Wilson nor the State Department officials a,p,pear to have been concerned at the time with the 1mportant question otf the disposal of the German minority in Bohemia and Moravia. Generally speaking, President Wilson and his forei,gn...ipolicy advisors thought that all such detailed questions should be left to the peace coruference to decide (3). 5. Cont,r,ary to common belief, the recognition of the Czechoslovak Nationa l Council, like previous anti-Austrian measiur-es adopted by the United States GoverD1Inent, was not a res ult of direct, personal discussions between Wilson and Masaryk. The impetus to the adoption o.f this me·a sure came from the American publ ic, impresesd with the exploits of the Czechoslovak soldtiers in S~beria. Besrides th1e Silberian adventure, ~rtant elements of American pulblic opinion were, no doubt, influenced by Masaryk's skillful propa,gantla. But the State DepartJment oiificials, charged with the elaiboration of the recognition, paid little heed to his suggestions, and Presiden,t Wilson a,piproved the dec ~aration without discussing it with him (4). Ed itor. 0 ) It may be interesting to note in this connection tha t at the Paris :Pea'Ce Conference the American delegation advocated an ethnic boundary for Czechoslovakia until April 4, '1919, Wlhen druxing a period of the President's iHness, Edward M. House gave in to the French demand for the retention of the historical boundary of Bohemia and Moravia. (2) On Septemlber 27, 19118, as an, afterthought, th~ Department of State wired to London to inquire the views of the Foreign Office about the fuiture boundaries of the Czechoslovak State. The British �36 SLOVAKIA officials aip,pear to have been equally uncertain about this question at the time, for the Foreign, Office did not reply until November 13, 191'8, and even then did not take a clear stand. See, Foreign Relations, 1919. The Paris Peace Conference, 13 vols. (Washington, 19~1947), H, 3716°377. (3) "(Peace) cannot be pieced together out of individual understandings between p01Werful states. All the parties to this war must join in the settlemenit of every issue -anyiwhere invo'1ved in it .. . an"d every item oo it must be submi•tted to the cOOl111Tlon judgment .. ." Wilson's address. February '111, 19118, see Ray S. Baker and William E. Dodd (eds.); The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson, War and Peace, 2 vols. (N~w York, 1927), L, 180. (4) !Before the recognition of the Czechoslovak National Council Wilson met Masaryk only once, on Jun,e 19, 19118, several weeks aifter he had first decided upon an antiJAUSltrian policy (see this author's article "The United States and the Dissolution oo AustriaJHunigary," Journal of Cent.ral European Affairs, X (Octolber, 1950), pp. 256-270, and two mon-ths before he suddenly considered recognition Olf the Czechoslovaks. The question was not broached in their correspondence . • • • WAS CZECH THE VEIDCLE OF SLOVAK LITERATURE? P.A. Hrobak Since the establishment of the Czecho-Slovak Republic in 1918, a concerted, deliberate attempt on the part of certain Czechs and pro-Czechs is being made to prove the antiquity of the fiction of a united "Czechoslovak" nation. The propaganda apparatus of the political state formed by the Slovaks and the Czechs has been constantly used, even at the expense of the Slovaks, to prove that there really is no Slovak nation, that the Slovaks are but a branch of the Czech nation and the Slovak language is but a dialect of the Czech language. In the memorandum which T. G. Masaryk sent to the U. S. State Department (Lansing), on August 31, 1918, he said: "Slovakia, the southern part of the nation, was occupied by the Magyars and separated early from Bohemia and Moravia; at times, even later, the Slovaks were independent." After over forty years of the Pan-Czech propaganda, we find that the Slovaks are still around and are more determined than ever to preserve and enhance their ethnic individuality. They have successfully resisted all attempts to be made over into Czechs, as prior to 1918 they successfuHy resisted all attempts to be made into Magyars. � SLOVAKIA 29 WILSON AND T. G. MASARYK Joseph Bousa All who believe in the liberation activity of the untruthful "Liberator," Professor Masaryk, ought to read the documents of September 1918, pertaining to the American recognition of the Czecho-Slovak Army in Russia and in Siberia. These documents, taken from the National Archives in Washington, from ,t he archives of the American Department of State, are in the "Journal of Central European Affairs" (April 1953, pp. 47-60) which is published in Boulder, Colorado. After 1918, Masaryk and his paid "historians" told the nation at home just how Masaryk felt "at home" in the White House and how he convinced President Wilson and his advisers about the necessity of dismembering Austria-Hungary and creating the new state of Czecho-Slovakia. The historical facts were, of course, just the opposite of what Masaryk and his henchmen had always claimed. This is also evidenced in the documents published in the Journal. In the summer of 1918 Americans and President Wilson were not interested in Mr. Masaryk who recommended .that America give recognition to the bloody Bolshevik clique in Moscow as the actual government of Russia. The documents make it quite clear that America was for, while Masaryk was against intervention in Russia against the Bolsheviks. In the summer of 1918 American public opinion was very much influenced by the victorious fight of the Czecho-Slovak Legions against the Bolsheviks in Siberia and Russia. That is why President Wilson and the Government of the United States did exactly the opposite of what Masaryk wanted and recommended. Instead of recognizing the Red Soviet, as Masaryk had recommended, America recognized the opponents of the Soviet, the Czecho-Slovak Army in Siberia and in Eastern Russia as a belligerent Allied Army. Before our Czecho-Slovak Army in Siberia began .to fight on May 25, 1918, against the Bolsheviks, our soldiers had repudiated the leadership of Ma- �30 SLOVAKIA saryk's National Council and his orders to disarm and remain neutral. This much is quite clear from the documents published in the Journal by Professor Victor Mamatey. It was President Wilson himself who scratched out Masaryk's name in the document which recognized "the belligerency of the Czecho-Slovak revolutionists in view of their military organization operating in Siberia and Eastern Russia." I refer the readers to a unique literary work, written truthfully and without regard to the fables of Masaryk, Benes, and their companions, the book entitled "Krvi a zelezem" (With Blood and Iron). It is the first volume of a work about the Czecho-Slovak revolution of 1914-1918 and the foreign policy of the United States. It was published by Dr. Anthony S. Kalina to honor the memory of his father, an outstanding Czech politician and fighter for the recognition of the right of the Czechs to their own state, and also to honor the memory of our Siberian brothers and their immeasurable sacrifices and immortal merits. The book was first published in Prague, in 1938, and was, after Munich, a great encouragement to our people. It is perhaps the first historical work that sold as a "best seller;" it read like a gripping romance. Our people at home read it like the Bible so that within two months Dr. Kalina had it printed four times in many thousands of copies until further publication was made impossible by the Nazis. Dr. Mamatey's article in the Colorado "Journal" in 1953 complements the statements made by Kalina in his "Krvi a zelemem." What was Masaryk's policy towards Russia? In January, 1917, T. G. Masaryk published a sensational article in the Petersburg ''Ruskaja V olja" which he entitled: "Delenda est Austria" (Austria Must Be Destroyed). The publication "Ruskaja Volja" was the organ of the Minister of the Interior, A. D. Protopopov, who was hated by the Russian people. In his article, Masaryk said: "The form of the independent Czech kingdom could be any one of several. .. A dynasty of Russian origin would be e:rtremely popular." Two months later, however - after the Russian March �SLOVAKIA 31 Revolution, utterly disregarding neutrality in Russian internal affairs, he again villified the Romanoff dynasty. Arriving in Russia, in May 1917, Masaryk demagogically proclaimed as reactionaries and monarchists all those who since 1914 were creating an independent Czecho-Slovak Army in Russia. With the help of the socialists, Masaryk removed from the leadership of Czech affairs in Russia Dr. Vaclav Vondrak, a progressive democrat who had done much for the creation of Czech military units in Russia. When Kerensky refused to see Masaryk and negotiate with him, Masaryk began to favor a second revolution - the Bolshevik Revolution. Thus it was that Masaryk went from one extreme to the other within a year: from the Romanoffs to the Bolsheviks. On the very first day of the communist putsch, November 7, 1917, Masaryk issued an order of neutrality toward the Bolsheviks. In March, 1918, under the protection of Bolshevik guards, Masaryk departed from Moscow, embarking for America through Japan. The people who expected Masaryk to seek recognition from the American Government for the independence of the Slovaks and Czechs were disappointed. In the very first sentence of the memorandum to President Wilson (April 10, 1918), T. G. Masaryk asked America to recognize the Soviets in Russia. In his book "Krvi a zelezem," Dr. Kalina publishes the documents of American diplomats in which Masaryk is designated as a member of the Bolshevik government, who is coming to America in the interests of the Soviets. A:fiter his arrival in America, Masaryk continued to recommend the recognition of the Soviets as the government of Russia by the American Government in a series of articles and lectures. What was the policy of America and President Wilson towards Russia? Favorable at first to the democratic Russian Revolution and the Kerensky government, it supported the anti-Bolshevik movement and categorically refused to recognize the Bolsheviks as the government of Russia. The policy of America was, therefore, in direct conflict with the policy of Masaryk. It thus happened that Masaryk, after he came to Washington on May 9, 1918, �32 SLOVAKIA had to wait six weeks before he was received by the White House. And available documents tell us most clearly that President Wilson would not have received Masaryk even then had it not been for the intervention of the CzechoSlovak Legion against the Bolsheviks in Siberia and Eastern Russia. Except for this intervention, against the orders of T. G. Masaryk, it can be truthfully said, therefore, the movement for Czecho-Slovak independence would have collapsed. President Wilson and Secretary of State Lansing, aware of Masaryk's non-interventionist policy in Russia, called him in for a hearing on June 19, 1918. Lansing had a difficult time trying to convince Masaryk not .to intervene with the intervention of the Czecho-Sfovak Legion against the Bolsheviks. Lansing talked with Masaryk on June 2 and 25, but Masaryk would not give in. On June 25, 1918, Masaryk even sent a telegram to Soviet Foreign Minister Cicerin in which he bade him to disarm the Czecho.:Slovak Legion in Russia and Siberia. If Masaryk were in Siberia at that time, I strongly suspect that he would have met the same fate as his Commissar Skotak after the battle of Liptak with the Bolsheviks on June 4, 1918: he too would have been hanged for treason. Masaryk kept on going from one extreme to another until it became crystal clear to him that he would end in complete failure not only with the Czecho-Slovak Legionnaires, but also with America and the Allies, if he kept to his pro-Bolshevik policy. The Slovaks and Czechs were fighting two months with the Bolsheviks, conquering just about everything up to the Volga, when Masaryk suddenly decided (July 20, 1918) to drop his pro-Bolshevik attitude and support the Czecho-Slovak Legionnaires. It was on that day that Masaryk, as titular head of the Czecho-Slovak National Council (Paris), requested President Wilson to help the Czecho-Slovak Army in Siberia in its fight aigainst the Bolsheviks. This belated Masaryk's conversion and request had catastrophical results. American help came laite. Our brethren on the Volga waited for help in vain. The Bolsheviks reorganized and consolidated their ranks in the meantime. Thus it was that the Bolshe- �SLOVAKIA 33 viks in Russia were saved. Had Masaryk not played with the Bolsheviks at that time and caused dissension and confusion in our ranks, the Bolsheviks could have been beaten ... and the Red plague would not have spread throughout the world. But even with his speedy conversion on July 20, 1918, Masaryk did not gain the confidence of President Wilson and Secretary of State Lansing. American diplomatic documents show that even at the end of 1918, after the overthrow in Prague, President Wilson and Secretary Lansing were not convinced that Masaryk had the support of the Slovaks and Czechs at home. They still remembered that the Legions in Russia had revolted against his policy. Masaryk was saved only by the noblesse of the leaders of the domestic revolution, who made him President in 1918 and re-elected him again in 1927 when a majority of the nation began to oppose Masaryk's socialization. The American recognition of the Czecho-Slovak movement for freedom, without mentioning Masaryk's name, was published in Washington on September 3, 1918. This recognition was clearly the result of the fight of the Czecho-<Slovak Legions in Siberia and Eastern Russia. It came not only without Masaryk's help, but even directly against his unfortunate policy which favored the communists. Slowly but certainly historical science is revealing all the fraud and humbug perpetrated against the modern history of the Czechs and the Slovaks. Again and again history supports all those who had clearly warned against Masaryk's and Benes' policy of socialization. Thus are reha:bilitated such patriotic leaders of our nation as Dr. Charles Kramar, Dr. Vaclav Vondrak, Professor Francis Mares, Dr. Charles Pergler, Victor Dyk, J. S. Machar, and immortal merits of our great Generals, such as, M. R. Stefanik, Stanislaus Cecek, John Gajer, Radola Gajda, Edward Kadlec, Rudolph Medek, Joseph J. Svec, and many others. A study of our modern history has convinced me that also in the future our efforts to liberate our people at home from communism will be successful only if we return �SLOVAKIA 34 to the path pointed out to us by selfless men, men of vision, by our courageous sons of our nation. As has been said so many times over, I am also convinced that under the banner of false legends and liberation myths - whether they are Masaryk's and/or Benes' - we shall never succeed in consolidating our nation to fight against our sworn enemy - communism. 0 0 0 0 Joseph Bousa is a Czech associated with the group which publishes the periodical "Bohemia" under the leadership of Vladimir Pekelsky in Kolu-Ehrenfel d, West Germany. Professor Victor S. Mamatey (University of Florida) is the author of the "documents" article referred to by Bouska, who, for some reason or other, preferred . not to mention the author by name, though informed people know that Mamatey is of Slovak origin and the son of the late Albert Mamatey, President of the Slovak League of America during the period the above events transpired. It is true, as Mamatey states aJt the outset of his study, that "relatively little is known about precise circumstances and motives of recognition by the United States Government of the Czechoslovak National Council of Paris in September 1918." This is understandab le since most available studies on this matter ignore the documents that are at hand, the authors preferring to write panegyrics about Masaryk and Benes and their fiction of an ethnic "Czechoslovak " nation instead of true history. We cannot agree with Professor Mamatey that "Thomas G. Masaryk ... was a well-known political figure" at the time the above events happened, yet we cannot recommend his study .too highly to all scholars and students of history. Mamatey's study of fourteen pages suggests that available history books on Czecho-Slovakia (Roucek's, Kerner's, Odlozilik's, Bezdicek's, Thomson's among them) can become more complete for the edification of future historians, if the respective historians take note of it. The conclusions drawn by Professor Mamatey deserve to be published here for the edification of our readers: The conclusions that may be drawn from tJhe foregoing documents are several: le 11he recognit-ion of the Czechoslovak Nationial �35 SLOVAKIA Council was tbased neither on Bohemia's historical rights to independen,ce nor on the principle <Xf national seltf-determiruation, but on the fact of Czechoslovak belligerency. 2. The recognition committed the United States Government to uphold Czech0$lovak independ•enice from Austria.filung ary, and together with the recogniUon accorded the CzechoslO'Va'ks by other Allied Governments , it virtuaHy assured them a place as an Mlied belliigerent nation at the peace conforence. But it in no sense implied a recognition <Xf unlike exact territorial cla.imsQl). 3. Since the Czechoslovak s the Culban revolutionari es Wlhose beUi,gerency had been recognized by President Grant - were not in possession orf the territ oriy they claimed and thus lacked what had always been regarded as an essentia1 element of soviereignty, and since the lilffiits of this territory were at the time unknown to the American policy-maker s (2), Lansing thought it wise to dissociate the recognition of the Czechoslo\<ak National Council from any concep tion <Xf terflitory by following the British examp1'e of granting r~ognition to the Czecho-Slovaks - wherever they might be, in Siberia, France, or Italy rather than to Czechoslovak ia, a territorial unit then still of uncertain Hmits. 4. Jin preparing the recogn,it ion, St-.ite Department o.fificials carefiuHy studied it in the light of precedents. Lans-i ng also gave careful thought to its possible effoots on domest ic American politics and on the current internat ional situat ion. 1it does not appear, however, that any thought was given to its possible effect on post-war Europe. Neitoor President Wilson nor the State Department officials a,p,pear to have been concerned at the time with the 1mportant question otf the disposal of the German minority in Bohemia and Moravia. Generally speaking, President Wilson and his forei,gn...ipolicy advisors thought that all such detailed questions should be left to the peace coruference to decide (3). 5. Cont,r,ary to common belief, the recognition of the Czechoslovak Nationa l Council, like previous anti-Austrian measiur-es adopted by the United States GoverD1Inent, was not a res ult of direct, personal discussions between Wilson and Masaryk. The impetus to the adoption o.f this me·a sure came from the American publ ic, impresesd with the exploits of the Czechoslovak soldtiers in S~beria. Besrides th1e Silberian adventure, ~rtant elements of American pulblic opinion were, no doubt, influenced by Masaryk's skillful propa,gantla. But the State DepartJment oiificials, charged with the elaiboration of the recognition, paid little heed to his suggestions, and Presiden,t Wilson a,piproved the dec ~aration without discussing it with him (4). Ed itor. 0 ) It may be interesting to note in this connection tha t at the Paris :Pea'Ce Conference the American delegation advocated an ethnic boundary for Czechoslovakia until April 4, '1919, Wlhen druxing a period of the President's iHness, Edward M. House gave in to the French demand for the retention of the historical boundary of Bohemia and Moravia. (2) On Septemlber 27, 19118, as an, afterthought, th~ Department of State wired to London to inquire the views of the Foreign Office about the fuiture boundaries of the Czechoslovak State. The British �36 SLOVAKIA officials aip,pear to have been equally uncertain about this question at the time, for the Foreign, Office did not reply until November 13, 191'8, and even then did not take a clear stand. See, Foreign Relations, 1919. The Paris Peace Conference, 13 vols. (Washington, 19~1947), H, 3716°377. (3) "(Peace) cannot be pieced together out of individual understandings between p01Werful states. All the parties to this war must join in the settlemenit of every issue -anyiwhere invo'1ved in it .. . an"d every item oo it must be submi•tted to the cOOl111Tlon judgment .. ." Wilson's address. February '111, 19118, see Ray S. Baker and William E. Dodd (eds.); The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson, War and Peace, 2 vols. (N~w York, 1927), L, 180. (4) !Before the recognition of the Czechoslovak National Council Wilson met Masaryk only once, on Jun,e 19, 19118, several weeks aifter he had first decided upon an antiJAUSltrian policy (see this author's article "The United States and the Dissolution oo AustriaJHunigary," Journal of Cent.ral European Affairs, X (Octolber, 1950), pp. 256-270, and two mon-ths before he suddenly considered recognition Olf the Czechoslovaks. The question was not broached in their correspondence . • • • WAS CZECH THE VEIDCLE OF SLOVAK LITERATURE? P.A. Hrobak Since the establishment of the Czecho-Slovak Republic in 1918, a concerted, deliberate attempt on the part of certain Czechs and pro-Czechs is being made to prove the antiquity of the fiction of a united "Czechoslovak" nation. The propaganda apparatus of the political state formed by the Slovaks and the Czechs has been constantly used, even at the expense of the Slovaks, to prove that there really is no Slovak nation, that the Slovaks are but a branch of the Czech nation and the Slovak language is but a dialect of the Czech language. In the memorandum which T. G. Masaryk sent to the U. S. State Department (Lansing), on August 31, 1918, he said: "Slovakia, the southern part of the nation, was occupied by the Magyars and separated early from Bohemia and Moravia; at times, even later, the Slovaks were independent." After over forty years of the Pan-Czech propaganda, we find that the Slovaks are still around and are more determined than ever to preserve and enhance their ethnic individuality. They have successfully resisted all attempts to be made over into Czechs, as prior to 1918 they successfuHy resisted all attempts to be made into Magyars. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 29 WILSON AND T. G. MASARYK Joseph Bousa All who believe in the liberation activity of the untruthful "Liberator," Professor Masaryk, ought to read the documents of September 1918, pertaining to the American recognition of the Czecho-Slovak Army in Russia and in Siberia. These documents, taken from the National Archives in Washington, from ,t he archives of the American Department of State, are in the "Journal of Central European Affairs" (April 1953, pp. 47-60) which is published in Boulder, Colorado. After 1918, Masaryk and his paid "historians" told the nation at home just how Masaryk felt "at home" in the White House and how he convinced President Wilson and his advisers about the necessity of dismembering Austria-Hungary and creating the new state of Czecho-Slovakia. The historical facts were, of course, just the opposite of what Masaryk and his henchmen had always claimed. This is also evidenced in the documents published in the Journal. In the summer of 1918 Americans and President Wilson were not interested in Mr. Masaryk who recommended .that America give recognition to the bloody Bolshevik clique in Moscow as the actual government of Russia. The documents make it quite clear that America was for, while Masaryk was against intervention in Russia against the Bolsheviks. In the summer of 1918 American public opinion was very much influenced by the victorious fight of the Czecho-Slovak Legions against the Bolsheviks in Siberia and Russia. That is why President Wilson and the Government of the United States did exactly the opposite of what Masaryk wanted and recommended. Instead of recognizing the Red Soviet, as Masaryk had recommended, America recognized the opponents of the Soviet, the Czecho-Slovak Army in Siberia and in Eastern Russia as a belligerent Allied Army. Before our Czecho-Slovak Army in Siberia began .to fight on May 25, 1918, against the Bolsheviks, our soldiers had repudiated the leadership of Ma- 30 SLOVAKIA saryk's National Council and his orders to disarm and remain neutral. This much is quite clear from the documents published in the Journal by Professor Victor Mamatey. It was President Wilson himself who scratched out Masaryk's name in the document which recognized "the belligerency of the Czecho-Slovak revolutionists in view of their military organization operating in Siberia and Eastern Russia." I refer the readers to a unique literary work, written truthfully and without regard to the fables of Masaryk, Benes, and their companions, the book entitled "Krvi a zelezem" (With Blood and Iron). It is the first volume of a work about the Czecho-Slovak revolution of 1914-1918 and the foreign policy of the United States. It was published by Dr. Anthony S. Kalina to honor the memory of his father, an outstanding Czech politician and fighter for the recognition of the right of the Czechs to their own state, and also to honor the memory of our Siberian brothers and their immeasurable sacrifices and immortal merits. The book was first published in Prague, in 1938, and was, after Munich, a great encouragement to our people. It is perhaps the first historical work that sold as a "best seller;" it read like a gripping romance. Our people at home read it like the Bible so that within two months Dr. Kalina had it printed four times in many thousands of copies until further publication was made impossible by the Nazis. Dr. Mamatey's article in the Colorado "Journal" in 1953 complements the statements made by Kalina in his "Krvi a zelemem." What was Masaryk's policy towards Russia? In January, 1917, T. G. Masaryk published a sensational article in the Petersburg ''Ruskaja V olja" which he entitled: "Delenda est Austria" (Austria Must Be Destroyed). The publication "Ruskaja Volja" was the organ of the Minister of the Interior, A. D. Protopopov, who was hated by the Russian people. In his article, Masaryk said: "The form of the independent Czech kingdom could be any one of several. .. A dynasty of Russian origin would be e:rtremely popular." Two months later, however - after the Russian March SLOVAKIA 31 Revolution, utterly disregarding neutrality in Russian internal affairs, he again villified the Romanoff dynasty. Arriving in Russia, in May 1917, Masaryk demagogically proclaimed as reactionaries and monarchists all those who since 1914 were creating an independent Czecho-Slovak Army in Russia. With the help of the socialists, Masaryk removed from the leadership of Czech affairs in Russia Dr. Vaclav Vondrak, a progressive democrat who had done much for the creation of Czech military units in Russia. When Kerensky refused to see Masaryk and negotiate with him, Masaryk began to favor a second revolution - the Bolshevik Revolution. Thus it was that Masaryk went from one extreme to the other within a year: from the Romanoffs to the Bolsheviks. On the very first day of the communist putsch, November 7, 1917, Masaryk issued an order of neutrality toward the Bolsheviks. In March, 1918, under the protection of Bolshevik guards, Masaryk departed from Moscow, embarking for America through Japan. The people who expected Masaryk to seek recognition from the American Government for the independence of the Slovaks and Czechs were disappointed. In the very first sentence of the memorandum to President Wilson (April 10, 1918), T. G. Masaryk asked America to recognize the Soviets in Russia. In his book "Krvi a zelezem," Dr. Kalina publishes the documents of American diplomats in which Masaryk is designated as a member of the Bolshevik government, who is coming to America in the interests of the Soviets. A:fiter his arrival in America, Masaryk continued to recommend the recognition of the Soviets as the government of Russia by the American Government in a series of articles and lectures. What was the policy of America and President Wilson towards Russia? Favorable at first to the democratic Russian Revolution and the Kerensky government, it supported the anti-Bolshevik movement and categorically refused to recognize the Bolsheviks as the government of Russia. The policy of America was, therefore, in direct conflict with the policy of Masaryk. It thus happened that Masaryk, after he came to Washington on May 9, 1918, 32 SLOVAKIA had to wait six weeks before he was received by the White House. And available documents tell us most clearly that President Wilson would not have received Masaryk even then had it not been for the intervention of the CzechoSlovak Legion against the Bolsheviks in Siberia and Eastern Russia. Except for this intervention, against the orders of T. G. Masaryk, it can be truthfully said, therefore, the movement for Czecho-Slovak independence would have collapsed. President Wilson and Secretary of State Lansing, aware of Masaryk's non-interventionist policy in Russia, called him in for a hearing on June 19, 1918. Lansing had a difficult time trying to convince Masaryk not .to intervene with the intervention of the Czecho-Sfovak Legion against the Bolsheviks. Lansing talked with Masaryk on June 2 and 25, but Masaryk would not give in. On June 25, 1918, Masaryk even sent a telegram to Soviet Foreign Minister Cicerin in which he bade him to disarm the Czecho.:Slovak Legion in Russia and Siberia. If Masaryk were in Siberia at that time, I strongly suspect that he would have met the same fate as his Commissar Skotak after the battle of Liptak with the Bolsheviks on June 4, 1918: he too would have been hanged for treason. Masaryk kept on going from one extreme to another until it became crystal clear to him that he would end in complete failure not only with the Czecho-Slovak Legionnaires, but also with America and the Allies, if he kept to his pro-Bolshevik policy. The Slovaks and Czechs were fighting two months with the Bolsheviks, conquering just about everything up to the Volga, when Masaryk suddenly decided (July 20, 1918) to drop his pro-Bolshevik attitude and support the Czecho-Slovak Legionnaires. It was on that day that Masaryk, as titular head of the Czecho-Slovak National Council (Paris), requested President Wilson to help the Czecho-Slovak Army in Siberia in its fight aigainst the Bolsheviks. This belated Masaryk's conversion and request had catastrophical results. American help came laite. Our brethren on the Volga waited for help in vain. The Bolsheviks reorganized and consolidated their ranks in the meantime. Thus it was that the Bolshe- SLOVAKIA 33 viks in Russia were saved. Had Masaryk not played with the Bolsheviks at that time and caused dissension and confusion in our ranks, the Bolsheviks could have been beaten ... and the Red plague would not have spread throughout the world. But even with his speedy conversion on July 20, 1918, Masaryk did not gain the confidence of President Wilson and Secretary of State Lansing. American diplomatic documents show that even at the end of 1918, after the overthrow in Prague, President Wilson and Secretary Lansing were not convinced that Masaryk had the support of the Slovaks and Czechs at home. They still remembered that the Legions in Russia had revolted against his policy. Masaryk was saved only by the noblesse of the leaders of the domestic revolution, who made him President in 1918 and re-elected him again in 1927 when a majority of the nation began to oppose Masaryk's socialization. The American recognition of the Czecho-Slovak movement for freedom, without mentioning Masaryk's name, was published in Washington on September 3, 1918. This recognition was clearly the result of the fight of the Czecho-<Slovak Legions in Siberia and Eastern Russia. It came not only without Masaryk's help, but even directly against his unfortunate policy which favored the communists. Slowly but certainly historical science is revealing all the fraud and humbug perpetrated against the modern history of the Czechs and the Slovaks. Again and again history supports all those who had clearly warned against Masaryk's and Benes' policy of socialization. Thus are reha:bilitated such patriotic leaders of our nation as Dr. Charles Kramar, Dr. Vaclav Vondrak, Professor Francis Mares, Dr. Charles Pergler, Victor Dyk, J. S. Machar, and immortal merits of our great Generals, such as, M. R. Stefanik, Stanislaus Cecek, John Gajer, Radola Gajda, Edward Kadlec, Rudolph Medek, Joseph J. Svec, and many others. A study of our modern history has convinced me that also in the future our efforts to liberate our people at home from communism will be successful only if we return SLOVAKIA 34 to the path pointed out to us by selfless men, men of vision, by our courageous sons of our nation. As has been said so many times over, I am also convinced that under the banner of false legends and liberation myths - whether they are Masaryk's and/or Benes' - we shall never succeed in consolidating our nation to fight against our sworn enemy - communism. 0 0 0 0 Joseph Bousa is a Czech associated with the group which publishes the periodical "Bohemia" under the leadership of Vladimir Pekelsky in Kolu-Ehrenfel d, West Germany. Professor Victor S. Mamatey (University of Florida) is the author of the "documents" article referred to by Bouska, who, for some reason or other, preferred . not to mention the author by name, though informed people know that Mamatey is of Slovak origin and the son of the late Albert Mamatey, President of the Slovak League of America during the period the above events transpired. It is true, as Mamatey states aJt the outset of his study, that "relatively little is known about precise circumstances and motives of recognition by the United States Government of the Czechoslovak National Council of Paris in September 1918." This is understandab le since most available studies on this matter ignore the documents that are at hand, the authors preferring to write panegyrics about Masaryk and Benes and their fiction of an ethnic "Czechoslovak " nation instead of true history. We cannot agree with Professor Mamatey that "Thomas G. Masaryk ... was a well-known political figure" at the time the above events happened, yet we cannot recommend his study .too highly to all scholars and students of history. Mamatey's study of fourteen pages suggests that available history books on Czecho-Slovakia (Roucek's, Kerner's, Odlozilik's, Bezdicek's, Thomson's among them) can become more complete for the edification of future historians, if the respective historians take note of it. The conclusions drawn by Professor Mamatey deserve to be published here for the edification of our readers: The conclusions that may be drawn from tJhe foregoing documents are several: le 11he recognit-ion of the Czechoslovak Nationial 35 SLOVAKIA Council was tbased neither on Bohemia's historical rights to independen,ce nor on the principle <Xf national seltf-determiruation, but on the fact of Czechoslovak belligerency. 2. The recognition committed the United States Government to uphold Czech0$lovak independ•enice from Austria.filung ary, and together with the recogniUon accorded the CzechoslO'Va'ks by other Allied Governments , it virtuaHy assured them a place as an Mlied belliigerent nation at the peace conforence. But it in no sense implied a recognition <Xf unlike exact territorial cla.imsQl). 3. Since the Czechoslovak s the Culban revolutionari es Wlhose beUi,gerency had been recognized by President Grant - were not in possession orf the territ oriy they claimed and thus lacked what had always been regarded as an essentia1 element of soviereignty, and since the lilffiits of this territory were at the time unknown to the American policy-maker s (2), Lansing thought it wise to dissociate the recognition of the Czechoslo\<ak National Council from any concep tion <Xf terflitory by following the British examp1'e of granting r~ognition to the Czecho-Slovaks - wherever they might be, in Siberia, France, or Italy rather than to Czechoslovak ia, a territorial unit then still of uncertain Hmits. 4. Jin preparing the recogn,it ion, St-.ite Department o.fificials carefiuHy studied it in the light of precedents. Lans-i ng also gave careful thought to its possible effoots on domest ic American politics and on the current internat ional situat ion. 1it does not appear, however, that any thought was given to its possible effect on post-war Europe. Neitoor President Wilson nor the State Department officials a,p,pear to have been concerned at the time with the 1mportant question otf the disposal of the German minority in Bohemia and Moravia. Generally speaking, President Wilson and his forei,gn...ipolicy advisors thought that all such detailed questions should be left to the peace coruference to decide (3). 5. Cont,r,ary to common belief, the recognition of the Czechoslovak Nationa l Council, like previous anti-Austrian measiur-es adopted by the United States GoverD1Inent, was not a res ult of direct, personal discussions between Wilson and Masaryk. The impetus to the adoption o.f this me·a sure came from the American publ ic, impresesd with the exploits of the Czechoslovak soldtiers in S~beria. Besrides th1e Silberian adventure, ~rtant elements of American pulblic opinion were, no doubt, influenced by Masaryk's skillful propa,gantla. But the State DepartJment oiificials, charged with the elaiboration of the recognition, paid little heed to his suggestions, and Presiden,t Wilson a,piproved the dec ~aration without discussing it with him (4). Ed itor. 0 ) It may be interesting to note in this connection tha t at the Paris :Pea'Ce Conference the American delegation advocated an ethnic boundary for Czechoslovakia until April 4, '1919, Wlhen druxing a period of the President's iHness, Edward M. House gave in to the French demand for the retention of the historical boundary of Bohemia and Moravia. (2) On Septemlber 27, 19118, as an, afterthought, th~ Department of State wired to London to inquire the views of the Foreign Office about the fuiture boundaries of the Czechoslovak State. The British 36 SLOVAKIA officials aip,pear to have been equally uncertain about this question at the time, for the Foreign, Office did not reply until November 13, 191'8, and even then did not take a clear stand. See, Foreign Relations, 1919. The Paris Peace Conference, 13 vols. (Washington, 19~1947), H, 3716°377. (3) "(Peace) cannot be pieced together out of individual understandings between p01Werful states. All the parties to this war must join in the settlemenit of every issue -anyiwhere invo'1ved in it .. . an"d every item oo it must be submi•tted to the cOOl111Tlon judgment .. ." Wilson's address. February '111, 19118, see Ray S. Baker and William E. Dodd (eds.); The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson, War and Peace, 2 vols. (N~w York, 1927), L, 180. (4) !Before the recognition of the Czechoslovak National Council Wilson met Masaryk only once, on Jun,e 19, 19118, several weeks aifter he had first decided upon an antiJAUSltrian policy (see this author's article "The United States and the Dissolution oo AustriaJHunigary," Journal of Cent.ral European Affairs, X (Octolber, 1950), pp. 256-270, and two mon-ths before he suddenly considered recognition Olf the Czechoslovaks. The question was not broached in their correspondence . • • • WAS CZECH THE VEIDCLE OF SLOVAK LITERATURE? P.A. Hrobak Since the establishment of the Czecho-Slovak Republic in 1918, a concerted, deliberate attempt on the part of certain Czechs and pro-Czechs is being made to prove the antiquity of the fiction of a united "Czechoslovak" nation. The propaganda apparatus of the political state formed by the Slovaks and the Czechs has been constantly used, even at the expense of the Slovaks, to prove that there really is no Slovak nation, that the Slovaks are but a branch of the Czech nation and the Slovak language is but a dialect of the Czech language. In the memorandum which T. G. Masaryk sent to the U. S. State Department (Lansing), on August 31, 1918, he said: "Slovakia, the southern part of the nation, was occupied by the Magyars and separated early from Bohemia and Moravia; at times, even later, the Slovaks were independent." After over forty years of the Pan-Czech propaganda, we find that the Slovaks are still around and are more determined than ever to preserve and enhance their ethnic individuality. They have successfully resisted all attempts to be made over into Czechs, as prior to 1918 they successfuHy resisted all attempts to be made into Magyars.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wilson and T. G. Masaryk Description An account of the resource Joseph Bouša Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 6 (31), March-June 1960 pp. 29-36 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bouša, Joseph Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March-June 1960 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/cd5345e65b3dd7f70ba04784e4ecdb09.pdf 9f38a4a5b5622a77e42eb2c7289252de PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 17 A CLOSE-UP VIEW OF RADIO FREE EUROPE By Jiri Brada ( From January, February, and March, 1956, issues of "FACTS FORUM," Dallas, Texas) Radio Free Europe, a netwoPk of stations which has been set up in westeim Europe for the purpose of sending anti-Communist broadcasts to the peoples on the other side of the Iron Curtain, is a division of Free Europe Committee, Inc. The latter, a private organization, was founded in 1949 by a group of American citizens, among whom the Hon. Herbert H. Lehman, U. S. Senator from New York, played a prominent role. In 1950, the Free :illurope Committee started its annual fund-raising drive under t'he name of Crusade for Freedom. Most of us, at one time or another, have bee111 exposed to the propaganda of thi,s powerful orgacization, via newspapers, radio, television, freedom cars, and freedom trains, and most of us have read and heard a'bout FEC's muchpublicized freedom balloons. The Free Europe Committee claims that millions of its funds have been contributed by more than twenty-five million American citizens. Many more millions of dollars, though, have 1been donated by corporations, including some of the large foundations. Henry Ford II, whose Ford Foundation through the yeairs has been a heavy contributor, is nationa:l chairman of the Crusade for Freedom. As such he is the ,successor of General Lucius D. Clay. Other ,prominent sponsors of the project include David Sarnoff, Edward R. Murrow, Harold E . Stassen, Walter S. Gifford, Samuel Unger, Geo:rge Barasch, C. B. Tibbets, and Joseph J. Fliesser. Headquarters of the Crusaide is 29 West 157th Street, New York City. C. D. Jackson, in crucial years one of President Ei~ senho.w er's "paiace guard," headed the Free, Europe Committee for a cosiderable length of time. Wh~tney H. Shepardson is its current president. Joseph C. Grew, former U. S. Ambassador to Japan, is Chairman of the Board of the F,r ee Europe Committee. Arthur W. Page is Chairman of the Executive Committee. �18 SLOVAKIA Vice presidents include W. J. C. Eagan, Levering Tyson, Samuel S. Wa.J.ikeT, JT., and :Bernard Yarrow. Jo'hn C. Tra.phagen serves as treasurer, Theodore C. Augustine as secretary and assistant itireasurer, and J. Clay.ton Miller as assistant secretary. On March 15, 1955, Helfuert H. Lang was replaced as Director of Radio Free Europe by W. J. C. Eagan. 'Dhe Board of Directors, besides several of the abo.venamed, is composed of A. A. Berle, David K. :ID. Bruce, Jr. , Frederick R. Dolbeare, Julius Fleischmann, H. B. Miller, Irving S. Olds, George U. 1S huster, Charles M. Spofford, and H. Gregory Thomas. Among additiona:l sponsors of the Free EUTope Comm1ttee we find such nationally known figures as Clarence L. Adcock, Raymond Pace Alexander, Laird Bell, Francis Biddle, Rolbert Woods Bliss, Robert F. Bradford, !Hairry A. Bullis, Cecile B. De Mille, Frank R. Denton, William J. Donovan, Mark 1F . iIDthridge, James A. Farley, Virginia C. Gildersleeve, Charles R.. Hook, Palmer Hoyt, Paul Kesten, Henry ,R, Luce, Joseph V. McKee, Web Maddox, H. B. Miller, tSamuel E. Morison, F.rederiok Osborn, John W. Sibley, Sp)'l'os Skouras, Chairles P. 'Daft, DeWitt Wallace, W. W. Waymac:k, Walter H. Wheeler, Jr., Charles E. Wilson, Mrs. Quincy Wright, and Darryl Zanuck. The 1952 list of national sponsors also featured Jaimes B. Carey, .A:J.ilen W . Dulles, William Green, and Matthew Woll. Besides a sprinkL ing of men who uphold America's tradiitions of limited govVeTrunent and the free market economy, there is :the usual contingent of ancient and ubiquitous New Dealers. Headquarters of ,t he Free Emope Committee is a few stone's throws from <bhrut of the Crusade for Freedom, at 110 West 57th Street, New Yo.rk City. The political and ideological influence of the Free Europe Committee spans continents. No organization in the world exerts more power over the refugees from eastern Europe. lt practicaft:ly maintains a monopoly on placing refugee students in American colleges. It controls the University College at 'S trassbourg, F.rance. Besides the periodical, News from Behind the Iron Curtains, :the Free Europe Commi,t tee has published num- �SLOVAKIA 19 erous booklets and pamphlets Olll communism in eastern Europe. Radio 1Free IDurope, whioh is lo·cated at the Committee's headquarters, 110 West 57th ,S treet, is thus but one, though no doU!bt the most important, department of the Free Em:-ope Committee. While officially a dilVision of a private o,r gani,z ation, Radio Free Em·ope does of course not devise amy arbitrairy policy of its own. It has been conceived as a private a:rnn of the American government's foreign policy and as such reflects the res,pective competence or confusion of Washington. The princ1pal editorial offices of Radio F1ree Europe, while taking their cues from New Yor.k and Washington, are located in Euro.pe, especia!lly in western Germany. European headquarters is at English Gardens (Englisoher Garten) 1, Munich 23, Germany. Riahard J. Condon is European diirector. The largest :broadcasting stations of Radio Free Europe aire located outside of Munich and Frankfurt on the Main. Their principal programs are broadcast in the various languages oif Communist-dominaited peoples, suoh as Czech, Slovaik, Hungarian, Roumanian, Bulgarian, Albanian, and Polish. Influence of Soviet Postwar Policy In order to grasp the policy of these programs, it ~ well worth recalling the Soviet postwar policy in the satellite nations of eastern Europe. For the sa;ke of appearance and eXipediency, no outright Communist governments were set up by the USSR immediately upon the end of World War fil. •I nstead, there arose the so-calied governments of "national fronts" or "people's fronts" or "popular :fironts." Moscow's commissars saw to it that no parities of the real center nor, of course, any of the ,right wing m01Vements were admitted to these fronts; lbut even the non-Communist left wing parties, such as those of the Socialists or Social Democrats, were from the outset largely ied by puppets of the Soviet Union, many of whom had up to then lived in comparative obscurity. Within the course of a few months or years respective- �20 SLOVAKIA ly, these non-.Communisit leftist parties were forged into total tools of the globa.'l Communist conspiracy. Freedom of eleotion, assembly and press weire abolished; trade and industry were nationalized; non-·conformis:ts, by means of the "people's courts," were crushed, and "national committees," virz. soviets, soon dictated and .strangled all !branches of ,public and private iife. 'Dho.ughtful readers may wonder why so many of the Socialist-minded colla,borators were in due time permitted by the Co.m munist authorities to leave their countries. They cannot help being amazed to iearn that it is maiinly these collectivi.stic refugees from the sateilli,te nations whom Radio Free Europe has entrusted with program-.c ontroHing positions. There ,Marxians and sta,tists were 'ballyhooed as "victims" of rS oviet 1persecution, while practically all those who had escaped from the Communists when the Russian armies swept over their countries, i.e., those who at all times had ste·a dfa:stly opposed the Communist menace, were systematicallv excluded from Radi·o Free Europe. Is it possible that a good many of these Socialist twin brothers of the C ommunists were not prevented from reaching our side of the Iron Curtain because on the basis of their ,Marxist past they were likely to confuse and adultcra,te the crusade of the free world? Is it possi,b le that some of them even promised merely to pose as foes of communism, and therefore in r eality continued their collabora-· tion with the Communists, in the guise of foes? At any rate, quite a few of these recent allies, of the Communists are now earning considerable fees firom the funds of the Crusade for Freedom, in payment of their ineffectual and phony ;psychological warfare. Former Red Confederates in Top Jobs The real champions of political and economic freedom , the real opponents of state intervention, the real adversaries o.f materialism, atheism and tyranny were either rejected or ffa-ed by <Radio Free Europe, and are now sitting on the side lines. The men of the Kremlin should indeed be pleased with this curious policy of Radio• 'Free Europe. To be sure, RF1E's •b osses offer us a re ady-made excuse �SLOVAKIA 21 for employing so many former Soviet collruborators in top positions. No one, they aver, is more thoroughly aware of Communist deviousness than 8Jre those who have experienced Communist tactics in practice. However-and this is the crux of the matter-not one of these former confe• derates of the Communists !has come forth !With any .protest against his former ooHa;boration, and none of the former Communists on Rooio Free Europe has come forth with any protest against his former communism. They shun the role of the ,r epentant sinner. They all of a sudden ,p ose as experts of :the democrntic way, a;s pioneers of individual, personal freedom. The Whittaker Chamtbers type is excluded. By no means have aH of these men mere:ly posed ais anti-Communists while in ever so many instances they could not help going soft on the Communist -line. A giroot many, being Socialists, have been so blind with regard to -limited governmental and the free mar,ket economy, and still are such loyal believeil'S in the benefits of Socialist inter,vention, planning and control, that they consistently devise policies which ,p lay into the hands of the Communists by appeasing them. The Polish, Ozechoslo1va;k and Hungarian broadcasting stations of IRadio Free Europe, which equal the power of t he German station in ,M unich, i. e., 50,000 watts, run pro. grams for 20 hours a day. Nume!l'ous short wave stations send broadcasts in the various idioms of eastern Europe t hree or four houirs daily. It is claimed that 29 RF:Ei statjons are now functioning. The Czechoslovak station near Munich is as strong as that of Munich or that of the American Forces network, in that city. In operation since May 1, 1951, it covers political commentaries; daily commentaries; the international situat ion (transmitted from New York offices); programs for workers, peasants, women, young ,people, and children; economics; history; music; entertainment, etc. , and news every hour on the hour. Source Material Far Left of Center The over-all ideology of these prog1rams is largely determined by former members of the Czechoslovak National �22 SLOVcAKIIA Front, i.e., one-time Co,. nrpu:ni.3t colla,borator.s. From time to time, these men ireceive written instructions of specific subjects :from the New Yovk offices where left..,wingers set the tone Dr. Mar.tin Kvetko and Dr. Julius First, :known and prominent former pro-Oommunists, instruct alll editors at regular meetings. Carefully selected boo.ks on communism, clippings from such American publications ·a s The New York Times, The New York Hierald T.rilbune, T.iine, Life, ~tc., items from the press of AmerJcan la;bor unions, material from Communist paipers on bo:th sides of the Curtain, and monitored terts of the Czechoslova;k Communist radio represent the source materiaJl f.rom which the script writers draw. Theire are also special "intelligence" reports. Straight conservative papers and magazines are ta;boo at Radio Free Em:rope. Script writera know how to toe the line. They know that they might as welJ -look for another job if they dare use_materiail or ideas from the Ohicago Triibune or such of Oll!I' magazines :as American !Mercury, American Legion Maga•zine, Ohristian Economics, HUiIIlan Events, National Review and National Repulblic. To summarize - iRJmE progtrams are shl!,POO- according to the dM"ectives of (a) :the American bosses and (b) the hired leftist National Fronters from eastern Europe. The ran!k and file Socialist or o:therwise• leftist editors are either unintelligent or servile or both, and grind out their chores in accordance with their o.rders. AoturuNy, tRill1E policies vary only in degree, !but not in sulbstance,. :f.rom other psychological warfare .s tations of the free world. These inolude Radio Free Asia, strution RIAS in Berlin, Radio Llberation - a private Amer.ican station which broadcasts to IPOOPles inside the USSR - and of course the Voice of America. None of them ,t akes a consistent stand againsit the iphilosophy of g01Vernment intervention a;nd government control, none of them - except for occasional and half-ilieaTted Hp servJce- champions freedom of enterprise. No wonder that so far our psychological warfare has failed. In order to document for American readers WlhaA: sort of ideas aTe being tTansmitted to the fron Curtain world �SLOVAKIA 23 iby their expensive ly staffed freed.om stations, I have for some years gathered from RFE Czec'hoslov.alk programs a substantia :l coNection of radio scTipbs and tape recording s, from which I sha;ll quote in the followh]-g. If any Sllogan may be offered to character ize the genera:! tenor of all too many programs , let us quote whait a well-know n American a·p ologist for the Soviet causes has said in the process of the Far Eastern debacle: "Let them fall, ;b ut do not let it appear that we pushed them." Propagation of Socialism May 1, 1953, 3 :15 ip. m . : "The Socialist youth of the whole world sends its greetings to the youth of Czechoslovakia. We assuTe you that we s hall reach the aim ... the day, when we will be alble to join you in democrac y in the fig,ht for socialism , social justice and freed.om. " At the end of the program the International was played. (The International is the rallying song of world communi sm.) May 3, 1953, 1,2 :15 p. m.: Ferdinan d Peroutka , chief of R~'s Czechoslova!k desk in New York, a weH-known Soci'alist rund one-•t ime .prominen t member of the pro-Comu munist National •ffiront, in his "Sunday Comment s of Ferdinand Peroutka ": "Eisenho wer's program, on .t:he other hand, even though America's factories have not been nati01I1ali2:ed, stands for the concept of world socialism . TheTe is no better way to desoribe it. This is sociaJism . . . The aim of 1:Jhe program outlined by tile President of the United States is to socialize -life." 1 May 1, 1954, 2 :'50 p. m.: "Today, on May 1st, we convey our g,reetings to aN those who are dedicated to the faith in democrat ic socialism ." (To Commun ist-domin ated countries May 1st is synonym ous with America' s July 4th, and the term "Democra tic Socialism " is a Commun ist term used in May Day speeches to descTilbe Commun ist ideology. ) May 4, 1954, 2:10 p. m.: "Program for WorkeTs: "Leon Jouhaux - a g,reat man, descende d from a famNy in which revoltitio nism has been a tradition . His father partidpaJ ted in the revo.1t of the Paris Commun e . . . a born revolution ary ... " GANS.ER LIBRARY MILLERS VILLE STATE COLLEGE �24 SLOV!AKIA May 5, 1954, 2:10 p. m.: "Leon Jouhaux - a great revolutionary, a great rre:fo1rmeT ... " March 23, 1'955, 12:40 p. m. Program, "We Call the Communist Party": "The present order (in eastern Europe) r:ierely serves to continue the dictatorship . . . this jungle which falsely is fabeiled as legitimaJte socia.lism." March 23, 2:20 p. m. Dr. Jan Hajek, on program, "Living Science - Discussion with Young People," said : "Socia1ism has 1become adult. Socialist thinkers are no longer irresponsible radicals. The fundamenta!l problem of modern socialism is man's relation to the state. "The modern socialist rejects both extremes - laissez faire and state control. He is aware of his duties as well as his rigihts. "The citizens of the Socialist society must be conscious of their heritage, aind proud of it." Along this line, the Czechoslova:k editors and broadca;sters crurefully avoid repudiating the measures of socializaJtion and communrzation wbich their own National Front had irnstituted in tJhe postwar years, and often go so far a;s to appro;ve of similar Communist measures in satellite Europe. Thus, on October 28, 1952, at 11 :'50 a. m., the broadcaster of "We Cali t he Communist Party," exclaimed: "Seven years ago, .the decrees of the P,r esident of the Republic ibrought forth the nationalization of industry. In this way Czechoslovakia set out on her way of democraJtic independence.'' So.oialist Policies Defended T.hese ipsychological warriors of the RFE thus still don't realize tha,t it was a crime to cooperate with the Communists, or if they do, :they don't admit it. There is never any hint that the 1Socialist po'licies of the National Front as such have iJ.ed to disaster, no inkling that socialism, because it infringes upon the rights of the individual, leads to communism. Therefo,re, these so-called freedom ,broadcasters ne;ver ,p oint out that the misery of the :p eople in eastern Europe -largely deri;ves from Socialist meddling with the affairs of :the people ; they blame it all on \Soviet exploitation, armaments, emphasis on heavy industry, and that sort of thing. �SLOVAKIA 25 Yes, ,t hey have mentioned the "forced Communist eco-• nomy." What they mean by it may be seen from "Lnternationa1 Commentary from New York," in its :broadca,st April 18, 1953, at 6 :05 p. m. The broadcaster explained that "this mearus in Czechoslovakia bhe return of the fo,r mer export policy, ,t he return to the production of quality arrticies. To put an end to this over-emphasis, on heavy industry must be the goal of our new democratic way." · That is all. No, reference to libeTation from the Socialist bureauaracy, from Socialist oppression. Just a shift from armaments to quality ,p roducts. Nothing more. Feroinamd Peroutka, in his broadca;st of 'Sunday, April 27, 1952, at 12 :15 p. m., declared: "The Communists lie when they tell you that we want to ;restore caipitalism, that we intend to ,r eturn to the proprietors the property which has been ta1ken from them some time ago . . . I repeat: the program ,o f the Czechoslova•k exiles is not capitalism and the return to 1938. Nor do we wish to hand baok the mines and foundries to their former owners. All we care for is thaJt the Communist government, which means dependence on Russia, disappears." It might be argued that an occasional ,p rogram of this sort migiht have its place in the o.ver-all setup 1because, after all, there still are oM 'Socialists in Czechoslovalkia who have no use for the Communists. Yet isn't it strange that while there are programs for workeirs, peaJSants and Communists, there are none £or businessmen? Sometimes they talk about free competition, but often it is but the competitiion of collectively owned factories amongst themselves. The terminology of their broadcasts is af the Socialist variety, including the trite ranting against "Capitalists" and "reactionaries". I now shail ,proceed to offer documentary evidence to show that Radio •F ree Europe also aids, and sometimes even propagates, Titoism and communism, and frequently extols Communist leaders. Milos Vanek, one-.time big wheel in the Commun1st party of Czechoslovakia, and now chief of the economics department of RFE's Czechoslovak desk, said on November 21. 1952. at 11.30 a. m.: "Marx. Engels. Trotsky-for them 1 �26 SLOVAKIA Marxism was the ,s ubstitute for the Western revoilution of human rights." The co:mmentaJtor of "Weekly Survey of the Ame:rican Press," on April 12, 1953, art; 8 :30 a. m., said: "The New York Herald Trilbune is of the opinion that the trial of Mindszenty, the HungM'ian cardin.a;l, as wehl as the trial of Slansky and similar crimes in other Communist countries, ought to ,be remembered ... " Possibly, if not proba,bly, tt was one of the numerous left-wingers on the staff of the Tribune who plamed this cOITU!pting little seed of associating the fearless anti-Comm'l.llllist cairdinal with that old Marxian wheel'horse and Kremlin errand iboy, Slans.ky..Salzmann, who stood as solidly for the Leninist-iStalinist program as any Communist who happened to get purged in some intra..party feud. Sure enough, if the Tribune man did not give a ring to his pal at the CzechosloV'aik desk in New York's RFE heaidquarters, the latter did not fail to picik up that choke tidlbit. After all, any "opinion" of the stai:d and ·p resumably coruserva,tive New Yo11k Herald 'Dribune is safe quoting. Who is there 1bra;zen enough to accuse the o}d Tribune of being sUJbversi,v e? And thus, by association with a ,primate and mal1tyr of the Roman Catholic Church, a Communist li0kspittle is being groomed for respectaJbility. And this in the name of fighting the totalitarian enemy, by an organization which is financed by American donations, a;nd which is sponsored ,b y well--Omown Americams. Again and again, ,R JFE's psychological warriors do not attack Marxism-eommunism as such but what, with tears of regret, they c01I1de:mn is its "degeneracy." Consequently, the listener-unless he be quite alert--is mduced to fancy that communilsm, with which so many RFE bigwigs: once cooperated, would not be so bad if only it had not "degenerated." RFE Attacks Russian Imperialism but not Communism Fid<filing that tune, RJF])'s "Europe without the Iron Curtain," on March 2, 1952, at 3:45 .p. m., complained a/bout the "degeneration of the old Communist ideaJls." Commenting on the arrest of the Kremlin-serving boss- �SLOVAKIA 27 es Sling, Olementis and 'Slansky, RFE's "Comments on Events of the Day," on February 13, 1952, at 7 :30 p. m., waxed somewihat melanc'hoiic: "They consciously closed their eyes, dreaming about the Communist security of the future . . . they dreamed . . . what was to remain of the ide·a ls once the dream had come to Ml end?... A cynical disdain for Communist ideals ... " K•rurol Bel:aJk-lBerger, the left wing Socialist, in RFE's "Round Table Discussion," on April 12, 1953, at 3 :05 p. m., nostalgically referred to the "millions of idealists and men of good wilJ" who had lbelieved in communism and merely deplored the "methods" that had "failed." Regretfully he mused that "the whole aippeal of communism has evaporated ... " 'I'.he policy of collaboration with the Communists was quite distinotly expressed by the old Socialist comrade, Ferdinand Peroutka, in his '~Sunday Oomments" of April 27, 1952, at 12 :15 p. m., when he answered the attack of the Communist dM'ly, !Rude Pravo, on exil.es such a,s he. '"It a<ecuses us of wor,king for the restoration of capitalism, along with the return of the western powers," stated Peroutka. "All we wish to say in reply to these accusations is this: "There has been a Socialist government in England for six yeam. This government would hardly have forced you, the Czech and Slovak people, to accept capitalism. Today we have a Conservatiive government in EngJand. Yet it has not abolished any of the Labor government's Socialist measures, and it would not do anything of the sort in CzechoslovaJkia. "As to America-she supports T1to. Now even though Tito acc~ts America's /bountiful assistance with open hands, t he United States government has not demanded the denationalization of a single Yugoslav factory. Yes, Tiito never ceased to be a Communist. America says: 'Let everyone do as he pleases.' America says: 'Go ahead and be a Communist if that's what you want. All we ask is that you stop supporting Russian imperialism.' America has no 1ntention �28 SLOVAKIA to force runyone, including Czechoslovaikia, to return to capitalism." iDr. Miloslav Kohak, another widely known one-time. Communist collaborator of the National Front who saved his skin in the nick of time and landed a fat job as cllief (until his replacement recently) of RJFE's "Political Comments on the Siituation at Hlome," on November 25, 1952, at 10:45 a. m., had this to say ,a bout Arthur London: "From ,b eg.inning to end, the indictment against London is preposterous. It is the whoie International Brigade of the Civil War irn Spain which is 'being attacked in his person-another proof of the reactionary attitude now prevailing in the Soviet Uni:on. She no longer wants the support of men who. believe in ideals, ibut only of those who believe in bayonets." On May 8, 1954, at 5 :45 .p. m., in "Stories Written ey Life," a young Communist inmate of a slave labor camp was quoted as follows: "Your Christian concept comes close to the 01riginal Leninist ideology . . . We must wm•k toge-· ther, faithful to the ideas which Lenin has taught us." Dr. Jaros}aiv Stransky, Socialist and an oJd Oommunist collaborator of the Nationa1 Front, said in "Taik with Home," on March 1, 1952, at 9 :30 p. m.: "Denunciation should not play amy .part in ,p olitics . . . Arny honest Communist will join the rest of us in condemning denunciation." Probably the old collaborator still believes that it is possible for Communists to ibe honest. Consequently he had no trouble :i n slipping that one in. The trouble with Radio Free Europe, though, is quite another matter. Squandering miHions of American dollars for the alleged ,purpose of fighting communi:sm, it hires old Communist collaborators who rant about "honest" Communists. "We Call the Communist Party," of February 22, 1952, at 11.45 a. m., went all out in praise of Communist cultural achievements. "Czech Communist literature ha;s brought forth works of outstanding value," RFE's psychological warrior declared. "We enjoy reading Communist authors as much as any others." A curious way of inducing an anti-Communist attitude, to say the least. �29 SLOVAKIA 'Dhe Socialist 'Franta Klatil, in "Political Comments on the Situation at Home," on April 21, 1953, at 11]_ :45 a. m., mused that "Tito has more character ithan his one-time aL lies in Prague . . . iHe secured this independence, and quite thoroug,hly at that." It is quite a common rprocedure foir Radio Free Europe to quote Tito and Red Yugoslavia's press as authorities in both moral and political matters. Holiday trips to Tito's Yugoslavia have ,b ecome a cherished habit o,f RFE's editors. Programs Glorify Revolutionary Workers Another variety of the collectivist ideology which pre~ vails among RFE eclitora is the frequent praise of those enemies o,f the Kremlin who have not been able to toe the party line but 'have otherwise been valuable fighters in the class struggle against the so-called exploiters. Thus, the RFE .script, "We CaU the Communist Party," which was broadcast to Ozechoslov,a kia on March 29, 1955, at 12 :40 p. m., in its glorification of title revolutionary workers of Kronstadt sounds as if it had been wr.itten by the old Lithu~ ani3JI14m.e:rican anarchist Alexander Benkman. "'I1he workers of Kronstadt," it says in that script, "fought so that the soviets may be elected freely and democratically, that their just demands be fulfilled - demands which ,w ere entirely in the spirit of the Oct01ber Revolution. They fought for democrati:c soviets ... " True enough, this broadcas-t; was addressed to Communits, and it might seem reasona,;ble to some to appeal to -Communists in the spirit of genuine communism; but is it likely that hardened trans--Ourtain Communi sts of 1955 believe in appeals in behalf of communi~m when they M"e uttered by those who are hired by Americans? Yet, incredtble though it may appear, that is the line which RFE commentators adopted a:S fate as 1955. Let us choose another example of this folly by quoting Dr. JaroS'la.v tStransky, former minister of the National Front, in his "Commentary on the Political Situation" of April 2, 1955, 9 :50 a. m. In this gem of an "anti-Communist" ,b roa.d~ast, the Communist collaborator of b.ut a few yea.rs ago sang the praise of the "Spartacus Bund," the 1 �30 SLOVAKIA militant group which, following World War I, broke away from Germany's left wing 'Socirulists in order to usher in the Communist ·r evolution. Stransky really waxed lyr-ical over Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, the .two most prominent and violent ieaders: of early German communism. "The modern 1Spartacus movement," pontificated Stransky in behalf of iRFE's version of freedom, "Karl Liebknecht and !Rosa Luxemburg . . . they were pacifists, the foes of imperi:aiism and militarism . . . they were beaten to death iby the mob . . . theN" articles, their speeches, their lettevs were inspired by a vision of order and beauty for the modem world . . . in every sentence which that undersized, unga.irny Jewess, Luxemburg, wrote, there was humaneness and poesy ... " We are not arguing a:bout the lofty intentions of these two world famous pioneers of the Communist revolution, misguided and unbalanced though they were. We are here questioning the wisdom of Ameri'CMlS who, in the name of the freedom for which Washington and Lincoln lirved and died, hN'e a notorious one-time Communist collaJborator who stiH offers hymns to the cause of the Communist revolution. That Stransky shmdd express such revolutionary feeL ings is obvious; that well-meaning Americans should sponhor such project does ,p rovide food for thought. National Fronts Vaunted In line with this farcically suicidal policy these RFE psychological wrurriors natua-ally still vaunt the very Nationa'l Front which paved the way for the total subjugation of the Czech and 'Slovak people •b y the Communists. These strange refugee policy-maJkers, script-writers and editors still live in that dreary world in which fatal short-~ghtedness delivered their people into. the hands of the ,Krem!lin. Thus, on October 28, 1952, at 10 :05 a. m., these socaned heralds of freedom told the home folks ibeihind the Cua-tain: "There wiH once more ,b e a time when Benes will arise ... " On OctOlber '2/l, 1953, at 4 :35 p. m., they aippealed to "those who remember the pre..,F~bruary (i.e.,. 1945-48) democra~y ... " On January 11, 1953, at 1:1:30 a. m., the Je:ftist ,S ociaiist Belak-iBerger, "in Comments on the Events �SLOVAKIA 31 of the Day," exclaimed: "The real Nationa;l Front (i.e., peaceful ,Socialist-Communist collaborators) today lives in the hearts of the Ozechs and SlovaJks." As if there had not been mass murders all over Czeohoslova;kia ,throughout the existence of the National Front, RFE's "Time, Men, Events" of OctOlbeT 18, 1952, at 10 :15 a. m., told the good ipeople behind the Curtain that "the conditions of 194!5 adually orig.iinated in the will and the wish of ,the majority of the people." New Yovk "Comments of the International Situation," on April 12, 1952, decried the "Communist treason" of February, 1948, 1b y which the last collruborators of the National Front were ex;pelled ,b y the K!remlin's agents. "The Communists," this broadcast said, "seized ,p ower by means of the militia and the police ... Before this time (i.e., before February, 1948, d!uTi'Il!g the entire time of the National Front) the democratic politicians had pro.v ed their .g ood will to cooperate (with the Communi:sts ... However) the democratic politioians (the National Front men and today the RFE men) ·· were removed ... " This is of course true, as all of us know. Yet what sort of democrats are Commumst collaborators who tacitly consent or act1vely connive at the suppressiion and murder of political non-conformists? These Nationa,l ·F ronters, now employed by IRFE, did not discoiver the criminality of their Communist a:IHes when moderates and conservatives were systematical!ly murdered. Only when tihe Communists put the finishing touches on the enslavement of .the Ozec'hoslova!k people by exterminating their own co,Uaborators did these curious freedom fighters b,elatedly decide that the Krem1in's henchmen were afiter all poor champions of liberty. Yet whom do the American ,b osses ·o f Radio F.ree Europe select for speaking to the enslaved people of Ozecho"' slovalkia? Not those \WlO from the beginning refused to compromise with the Communist tyrants. They have preferred to choos:e such National Fronters as Dr. iPetr Zenkl, Dr. Joseph Lettrich, Vaclav Majer, Dr. Ivo Duchacclc, and Dr. Ja,roslav Stransky. The latter has ,b een offered as a weeklv feature attraction. �32 SLOVAKIA Like Alger Hiss, who stiU maintains that Yalta was "a good thing," but that the bad Communists unfortunately broke their ,pledges, these N8Jtiona:l Fronters claim that their colla:borator with the CommunLsbs---the so-called Kosice Program-would have been "a good thing" if only the Communists had not .proved to be treacherous. Instead of at last a:dmitting that the Kosice Program was criminal folly from the outset, they still refer to it as an "ideal." In 1955, when the Communists in Czechoslovakia celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Kosice Program, RFE's "Head and Tail," in a broadcast of April 5, at 8 :15 a. m., declared: "Communist propaganda appeals to democracy, i.e., to the ideals which the Communists have betrayed." On April 7, 1955, at 12 :40 p. m., RFE's "We Call the Communist Party" still praised the Kosice government program, "according to which the Czechoslovalk peo.ple were to elect their representatives in free and secret elections." This whitewashing of the Kosice Program is a deliberate falsehood because only four left wing parties then were handed out licenses by the Communist masters while all anti-Communist parties were declared illegal. The Kersten Committee of the U. S. !House of Representatives ha:s put this sham psychological warfare of RFE in the proper light, by Report No. 8, of December 31, 1954. "Especially the proclamation of the Kosice P.rogram, of April 5, :1,94'5," the Report states on pruge 17, "opened the door for an unobstructed drive on the part of the Communists to seize full power in the country." Policy of Appeasement Let the readers draw their conclusions as they see fit. There is no better way to expose the intrinsic bankruptcy of Radio Free Europe's policy. It is not the fight against communism which these psychological war.rio,rs carry on; they stand for 8Jppeasment amd reconciEation. Thus, of ail ,peo.ple, Konni Zilliacus, the led:t wing Brit~ ish Laborite who has for years been a faithfuil contributor to publi-cations of the Communist ,party, was invited by Radio F.ree Europe to address the Czechosloivak peo,ple. This is what Zilliacus, in broken Czech, beamed over the �SLOVAKIA 33 air waves to the trams-Curtain sJ.a,ves, on April 17, 1953, at 12:40 p. m.: "You would enormously encourage and strengit,hen those in the West who-, for the sake of reconciliatio~, woU!ld l.ike to meet the .Soviet Uni:on and the people's democracies half -w ay if you were to rehabi'liltate those of the Prague trial wiho are ,s till in prison, and clear the memory of those who died or were killed ... " Zilliacurs here did not refer to, any anti-Communist victims. He spoke of .such Communists as the Secretary General of the Ozechoslo.vaik Communist Party, Slansky-Salzmann, who had been subjected to one of -qie interminruble purge triaJs and put to death by his coreligionist, Stefan Rais, then Communist Minister of Justice. No,t am.ti-Communists, but the arch-Communist Sbnsky-Saizmann and his confederates were to be "rehrubilitated" for the sake of " reconciliation" with the Communists. That is the sort of psycho1ogical warfare RJFE has been propagating. In similar vein, ,Milos Vanek, old champion of Red causes, said on Apri,l 12, 1953, at 3 :05 p. m.: " ... as long as the Soviet Union faiis to prove by deeds that she is in earnest in her alleged desire to put an end to the cold war and the hot war, she cannot expect that we may diminish our efforts to liberate all the oppressed peo,ples." One weeik later, on the same "Round Table Discussion" program, again at 3 :05 p. m., Vanek said: "First let the Communists mruke ,p eace with their own people. They ought to resort to peaceful means in their :internal policy, too." We might as weJtl asrk wolves to stop devouring lambs, and hyenas to turn into doves of peace. It is nothing less than RFE's zi1uacus and Vanek expect. It is therefore no exaggeration to state that Radio F,r ee Europe has consistently ad<kessed its broadcasts not to anti-Commu:nists, but to, Communists, Ti,to:i.sts, semi-Communists and pro-Communist Socialists b,e hind the Iron Curtain. This fatal policy has spread apathy among what is left of genuine anti-Communists ,b eyond the Curtain. This is not ,t he inspiring fi.g,ht for freedom; it is the deadly appeasement of the Communist tyranny. Inasmuch as Radio Free Europe is controlled and staffed by socialists, pro-Comm1mists, World Federa:lirsts �SLOVAKIA 34. and other assorted internationalists, we should not be surprised ,t o learn that ineffective and harmful progz,ams, and even broadcasts amounting to, srubotage, have character.i~d its specific ,policies. Particu!larly noteworthy features comprise: 1. The reipetition of lbanalities-"truth- telling." 2. The "People's iProgra.m.." 3. Attacks on petty Communists and prote.ction of Communist bosses. 4. tDefonse of American pro-Communist errors. 5. Broadcasts amounting to saJbotage. 6. The spreading of recognizable and destructive lies. 7. Failure ,t o propagate Gemnan-Czech and GermanPolish reconci'li ation. 8. Occasional advice to, follow Communist suggestions. 9. I.;eininist inoitement to premature revolts. 10. Propa:gation of decadent literature and music. 11. Propagation of internationalism and racial merger. 12. Praise for the New Dea:lera, and criticism of con-· servative Americans. 1 Repetition of Banalities F'or many a year, a disproportionate amount of broadcast time, be it out of ineptness or aotually malicious intent, has ibeen alloted by Radio. Free Europe to the never-ending reiteration of banrulities. We might identify this curious practice as RF1E's special little game of "telling the truth." it goes somewhat ,l ike this: - the Communists call Americans imper.iaJlists; Ame~ rioans are not imperiaUsts. - the Com.mu.rusts claim that they want peace; Communists don't waJILt ,p eace. - the Communists claim that the American economy is !bad; the America1I1. economy is good. Of what avail is the production of sue'h trivialitie.s? Can there be any doubt that the endless repetition of such trite assertions Sipreads boredom and turns away potential listeners? If at least RJFE}'s broadcastevs made a sustained effort to explain why Americans are not imperialists, and why their economy excels that of the collectivists, listeners �SLOVAKIA 35 might be inspired to do, some constructive thinking. The natm-e of RFE's script writers a:nd editors, of course, forbids any such sensilble procedure; for collectivists cannot be expected .to expose the impotence of collectivism. 1In a certain way, RIFE prides itself on beiing "specific" in the stale little game of ".teilling the truth." As an example, the reporter of a broadcast delivered on May 3rd, 1953, ait 8:45 a. m., stated: "In Hungary .t here are obvious supply defficiencies ... Canned food has gone ,b ad ... There is a laok of suga1:> in Bulgaria ... Poland suffers from a shmtage of fish ... " This sort of news, of coll!I'se, is no news behind the Iron Curtain. If t:he economic fai,l,ure of the Soviet re-alm were expl,a ined as the inevitable result of state intervention, listene~ might find it proper to heed such programs. Another part of the quaint little truth-telling game consists of reporting concrete conditions and haippenings from t'he world of the slaive labor camps. Inasmuch as there cannot ,b e any suggestion. regarding the termination of these horrors, the effect of these reports is exactly what the Corrurnmist leaders desire, i. e., to lame the wiU of the people by striking teirror into their hearts. Until May 1, 1954, this sort of aimless and uncoordinated "truth-,teUing" seemed to 1b e RFE's princi,pal task Then--at last-a definite over-all program was announced. Does this mean liberation? Let us look and see. The "Program of the •P eople's Opposi.t ion," proposed on Labor Day, 1954, ait 10 :10 a. m. , and frequently reiterated and referred to, ever since, contained the foUowing ten postulates,: 1. LaJbor unions s'hould belong to their memberis, not the b9sses. The positions of union officials should be elective. 2. There should be less ta1k and more hrurd cash. Hon-est money (sic!) for honest work. 3. The worker should be permitted to choose the type of work he prefers. 4. Overtime should be outlawed. 5. Peasants should be a:llowed to quit the kolkho,z es (i.e. 1 cdllectivies) if they so desire. �36 SLOVAKIA 6. There should be a ceHing on the state's s'hare of agricwltural production. I!'arm oontributioos to the state should be equaliized. 7. The government should wovk for the people, not the politicians. 8. Production should benefit the people, not the state. 9. Emphasis should once more be on the consumer. Small shOil)S, owned and run by little ,people, should be revived, to serve the ,c onsumer. 10. The building industry should be mobiUzed for the benefit of the ,peop'le, instead of the state officials. Some points of this so_,called people's pro,g ram, at first sight, may look impressive. Its cardinal and decisive error derives precisely :firom the inability of its coUectivistic perpetraJtors to recognize the primacy of the enterprise. This program fails to go, to the root of the matter. It does not atfack state control as such. It merely proposes to mitigate and qualify. It is at its core plain socialism. Yet this is the sort of t'hing wihich, in the form of leaflets, is dropped from the trans-Curtain ,s kies by means of the "freedom balloons" which columnists like Drew Pearson have been vaunting for years. This program does not offer any decisive opposition to the tyranny of na;tiona'1ization as such. There is but the indecisive and dU'll suggestion to reform the preSleJilt Communist system, to abolish its excesses, to turn it into some form of Titoism or semi~communism or to return to the socialism of the bankrupt National Front. Instinctively, the Ozechs and Slovaks who hear this socalled ,p eople's program reach for the .lmob and shut it off. They must shrug their shottlders wt the oratorical antics of men .w ho :rant against ta'lking but in their own tum offer little beyond empty talrk. This "Program of the People',s Opposition" is faulty and spurious !because the concept of Rrudio Free Europe is based on a capital error. Radio Free Euro,p e basically main_ tams rthat the threat to the free world comes from Russia as an armed and aggressive power; it obfuscates the fundamental issue of the world~wide Communist conspiracy. In accordance with this leftist line, Radio Free Europe �SLOVAKIA 37 a:bsolutely never refers to, congressional investigations of subversirves in the United States. T.rans-1Curtain listeners M"e completely :unaware of the existence of such men a.IS Jenner, Velde, EaJStland, Walter, Dies, Reece, aJnd Mundt. When the Kerstein committee operated in Munich, in the summer of 1954, RJFE referred to it; but the texts of tes-timonies were edited to suit the over-all ·soft~peda:ling of basic issues. Radio Free Europe acts as if it were set up to preserve the concept of state bureaucracy and iprute:rnali:sm by all avaHa:ble means. Petty Communists Blamed for Party Policy Radio Free Europe acts a:s the quack who peddles curealls for the most nauseating aspects of the Comnmnist di-· sease; iit fails to tackle the roots of communism as such. Thrus it makes much ado about the chicaneries and perversions of petty Communist officiais, but it does not name the real culprits, the wire-,pulilers, the bosses who guide and encourage the brutalities of little village tyrants. Radio ·F ree Europe refers by name to individual Stakhanovites, tractor-drivers, and prison~guards; it disregards the organizers of the hruted Communist drives. lt thus actualily ,protects the pillars of the CommU.111ist society, the calclrlating masterminds who play on the wea;knesses of a confused citizenry and trap therir helpless victims in a net of Comm'll.llist demora1ization and perver,s ion. In "Messia:ges to Those at Home," Radio Free Europe p.hllories the little informers who are known to work for the ,s tate police. A1:most without exception these little fellows are known far and wide as stooges of the Communist masters. Dossiers on these puppets do not add to the knowledge rubout Communist evil-0oers. These dossieI's are largely based on dippings from the press of Communist-controllJ.ed eastern :IDurope. The secret agenrts of the Soviet police, the directors: of the pro.grarrn of terror, are never mentioned. "Messages to Those at Home," on February 29, 1952, at 7 :415 p. m., as an example, said: "Who is the mruster in Nitra? (A tiny Slova!k town-Editor.) Who is the master of whom the Soviet police itself is in fear? It is Sergeant Klike. He is hated, dreaded and mighty. He causes the .pllll- �38 SLOVAKIA ishment of policemen who sometimes haive a hearrt; for the.ix victims.'' Now, who is this monster, Sergeant K1ike? Not any "master" by any means. He is but wellArnoW111 little sergeant of the uniformed poJice ! Again, on June 26, 195,2, at 12 :15 p. m., "Messages to Those at Home" singled out a few Communist women: "Comrades M. PO!korelska, !H. Y anosikova, Kr. Bezakova and M. Dedinlmva," the broadcast addressed itself to these petty Communists, "swine-herds and tractor-drivers, re-· member m time the warnings of today. Tomorrow you may be brought to account for your misdeeds; but tomorrow may be too late for you." "'.Program for Civil and State Servants," on April. 10, 1955, at 8:40 a. m., importantly sounded off: "We call your attention to a dangerous informer. The pensioner Michalek, Kulda Street, Brno, ,persecutes beggars. He chases them from homes and often hands them over to the police. In your own interest, Comrade Michalek, we advise you to stop yoUT dirty work." This sort of broadcasting, declaimed in a lowered, almost comical tone, is suppooed to scare primitive swinehevds and tractor-drivers. The bosses are never named. Radio Flree Europe never criticizes the mistakes or the treason of the past and thus never has to expla;in the real reasons of the Communist successes in the past. In the same way as they conceal systematicaliy a11 real causes of the communization of Czechoslovakia, they conceal also the real causes of Communist advances in other part of the world. Let sleeping dogs lie~that seems to be RFE's guiding inspiration. There is no criticism of Teheran, Yalta, and Potsdam. These conferences, in line with the views of an Alger Hiss, are regavded as joot splendid. If only the bad men of the Kremlin had not betrayed their solemn pledges! "We Teach History," on February 13, 1952, at 6:15 p. m., stated: "The Sov.iet Union broke the Yalta rugreement and betrayed it . . . The ink on the document 'had hardly dried when the Soviet Union made a display of violation and unparalleled cynicism." "Sunday Comments of Ferdinand Peroutka," on April �SLOVAKIA 89 3, 1955, at 12:15 p.m., commented: "When the Yalta ,papers were published, some individuals wanted to reprimand the Democratic leaders foo- lack of cautiousness. But any discussion of some little mistaJkes the Democra;tic leaders may ha'Ve made would merely obscure the ,p rincipal wirong, which has been and remains the systematic deception contrived b,y the Ru€,s ian statesmen. These reaJl,i ties ought to be clear. ly understood by the wor-ld. The Ya!lta conferoo:ce turned into a tragedy, not because of what was agreed upon there, but because the 'Soviet Union failed to honor the agreements." Broadcasts Amounting t.o Sabotage Naturally, if we are decei,v ed regarding om own stu~ pidity, and even betrayal, at Yalta, we are likely to remain unaware of the stupidity and pet.haps even SaJbotage which have characterized a certain type of ~E's refugee programs. Incredible though it may seem, Riadio Free Europe ~against the ,persistent pleas and protests of refugees firom behind the Iron Ourtain - in its Sa,turday programs has offered detailed descriptions of successful flights from the Soviet terror. These ,b roadcasts - have named the locations where the border was passed, and indicated even 1:Jhe person:s who, at the risk of their 'lives, assisted the escapees. There could not have been any better means to alert the Communist police.. The very identities of patriots in eastern Europe were thus disclosed to the Soviet secret police, with the reswlt that any recurrence might be prevented. How self-destructive, at the expense of optimistic American dono,r s, cam. we get? Were the script writevs and editors of these "sensatio:nal" pro,grams really s•o naive that they failed to grasp the sinister consequences of their paradoxical role? Did they reaUy not understand that their disclosures about the specific locations of escape would en~ able the Communist pdlice to plug the last holes in the Coctaj.n? Let us quote from the !broadcast, "I Chose Freedom," of Aprill 25, 1953, 8 :30 a. m. "[ went through Cerna Horka," the refugee interviewee revealed, "walking along the hrigihway. Then I went :ba<ck to tile river bed of Vltaiva, in �40 SLOVAKIA the direction of the Austrian Soviet zone. I approached the Jezuv creek ... across f.rom it there is for:bidden territory. . . . In Frynburg there is a bridge across the riv&, and the road to Vyssi Brod. In St. Thomais there is the headquarters of the ,p atrols. The bridge had ,b een torn doWID.. I made a float from_ an old fence and other wood I gathered. The river is aJbout t_e n meters wide and three meters deep at that spot. (This was said in reply to a question from the broadcaister. - Editor.) I guided the float by means of a pole, and then set foot on the forbidden side. I hid in the bushes anod woods ... On the highway to- St. Thomas I encountered a banbed wire barricade, a,bout three feet high. I found an old laidder in a hut which had been empty ever since the German's left. I broke it in two, put it a;gainst the barricade, climbed, and jumped to the other side. Traversing a distance of a'bout thirty meters, I reached Jezuv creek, which is ·less than a meter wide. I crossed the creek and found myself in the Soviet zone of Austria. "In Austria, I folfowed the highway until I entered a little ho.use below a hill. The Ausitri.ans who occupied this house felt pity for the refugee, and assisted me . They helped me to contact a friend of theirs in Linz who was to get me ,s afely acro,s s a bridge in Linz, on the border of the 1Soviet ·a nd American 2.1ones. That man pro.v ided me with a forged identification card, into which we rubbed some dirt in order to maike the name illeg1ble. I joined a group of girls who passed the sentry at that spot. Nonchalantly, I ,p roduced the forged identity card for the sentry, and without looking back I crossed the bridge. I was in the Western. izone of Austria." Enemy Alerted The Communist enemy couid not have been more brazenly ailerted. Letters of protest against such asinine (if not trea{!herou.s) interviews fl.ooded the expellee press in Munich. Nevertheless, the interviews continued until 1954, by w'hich time a great many of the cracks in the Soviet wall had been revealed to the Russiains, and repaired by them. As late ·as 'May 9, 1954, at 3 :45 p. m ., the "I Chose Freedom" broadcast disclosed the exact details of a flight �SLOVAKIA 41 by express train from Decin, Bohemia, to. Berlin. The in. terviewee described how he had conceailed his presence at the Decin railway stat,ion, how he eluded the attention of the .security agents, aid ,how a "people's po'liceman" at the station in East Berlin 'helped him to escape. As late as Apriil 2, 1955, at 12 :45 p. m., again on the "I Chose Freedom" program, an escapee pictured the detafls of his flight across the above-mentioned bridge in Linz. Can there be any doubt that such interviews. intimidate those behind the Iron Curtain who might be wirlling to cooperate with refugees? Can our friends behind the Iron Curtain maintain erven a shred of confidence in "psyc'hologica1 warriors" who indulge in this sort of give-away? The editor of RFJD's "I Chose Freedom," one Otto Graf, had been editor of the Socialist ,p aper Svet Prace and a well-known CommUJnist collaborator of the National Front. An obscure journalist before War H, he owes hi.s career to his fatal activities in the National Front. Zdenek Fierlinger and Bohumil Lausman, Socialist ministers of the Nationa1l Front, were the pulblishers of Svet Prace, at the time of Graf's editorship. In 1948, on the occasion of the Communist coup in Czechoslovakia, Fierlinger turned out to be a Communist planted in the Sooial Democ.ratic party. Lausman, after his "esca.pe" to the free world, in 1951 worked for a while for Radio Free Europe. Afterward~, he turned out to be a Communist agent and returned to 0zechoslovakia. As editor of the Czechoslovak refugee ,paper, Ce.skoslovenske Noviny, in Ludwigslburg, Gerimany, RFE editor Otto Graf published articles by Lausman. Self-destructive Lies Broadcast It is ha.r d to believe that a man who has ,b een able to function as a newspaper editor is so inept that quite a few of his presumably anti-Communist radio programs in effect equal sabotage of the freedom crusade. That a saboteur of the free world's cause could hardly improve on these refugee programs is evident from their text. An almost equally self-destructive feature of R:ailio Free Europe is the routine broadcasting of transparent lies. �42 SLOVAKIA In a number of pamphlets, including The RFlE Story (p. 14), RFE's psychological warriors proudly admit resorting to lies. Whether lies should be part of our "psycho war" program is 1b oth ethically and practically quite debatable. To brag aJbout one's own lie in print, so that their admission may hie quoted ,b y the enemy, once aga:illl reaches itili.at degree of ingenuousness that in its net results is hardly distinguishaJble fr<Y«..'l saibotage. In addition to all that, many of the fabrications which our RFE brain trusters have th01Ught up are such simon puTe inventions that those for whom they are intended immediately recognize them as such. iFor example, Otto Graf and Vladimir Kucera~Homik, at Christmas, 1954, when maJking programs on the miner's life, made a· report about a great coal mirle catastrophe in Kladno., which a1legdly cost twe:lve lives of miners. This report was invented. We may ibe s,ure that a character like Bohumil Lalli:lman, former chairman of the Ozechoslovak Social Democratic party and afterwards a ,p lain Commrunist agent in Western Germany and Austria, fed RFE such damaging stories, and that some editors believed him. Yet who but one_,time Nation.ail Front colla;borators - RFE's farvorites wou!ld pUJt any trust in LaUSiman anyhow? RFE has made it easy for the Communist to prove RJFE's own mendaoity. Verbatim quotations from RFE's press and radio are all that is :required. T.here is still another lie, even more destructive, which has been produced by the "truth-telling" of Radio Free Europe. It is the number one lie, and concerns the core of the Communist system. There is irrefutable evidence regarding which group is maki:ng communism in the East. This evidence comes from refugees from the East and from various reliable sources. This group is characterized by such · names as Kruglow (or Krugloch), the chief of the Secret Police of the U&SR, Kaganovic, Ehreniburg, Berman, Rakosi_,Rosenkra.Il'Z, etc. In ,aJdd,ition, this group fully and completely constitutes that "invisi'ble government" behind the scenes in �43 SLOVAKIA the East. It is the same group, of course, which also makes the Communist conspiracy in the West. When in 1951 the members of this group (Minister of Justice Stefan Rais, etc.) staged purge tria:ls against other members of .the same group - Slansky-1Sal2'Inann, iReicin, Ka.tiz, etc. - RFE shouted to the world that the entire group was b.eing cruelly persecuted and liquidated in the East. Many samples of suoh programs are availaJble. This greatest and most perverted lie of world communism is !being upheld by RFE even now, and all facts contradfoting it ,a re cut, adjusted or ·s uppressed. Every intellrigent .refugee from the East calils this He the number one .sabotage committed by RFE. An intelligent inv-estigation of FRE as well as of the opinions and the material of the ref.ugees from behind the Iron Curtain would easily bring forth the full truth. 1 Former German Co-Citizens Alienated It is not enough to quote Radio Free Europe to expose its sooia:list and internationalist bias. To point out lost op-, portuni,ties as well as de[iberate omissions permits us to penetrate the confused and hrulf-·hearted mentality of this much~touted and eXipensiive outfit. Perhaps the tbest example of RFE's negativism toward .important objectives of t'he free world is its peculiar attitude towards the Germans. To be sure, on the surface t.he West Ger.man RepubHc and Chance!Hor Adenauer have been officially praised 'b y RFE. Beyond such formalities, IWE has done little to inspire the Czechs and Poles with trust in the Germans. In 1945, the Communists forced the Poles and the C.zec'hs to expel close to fifteen miUion Germans, from their home1and of centUJries. Albout three million of these lost their Hives as they walked through the Iron Ore Mountains, the Sudeten Mountains and the Bohemian Forest or as they were shipped westward in cattle cars which somewhere were left on the traoks. All of the other twelive mililion were r01b1bed of their ,property. Most of them were bea,ten and tortwred. Naturally, the Czechs ,and the Poles fear the venge-· a.nee of their former German co~citizens. Understandrubly, �SLOVAKIA the Communists do, all they can to :keep this fear a1ive among the Poles and the Czechs who are under their domination. It would be the duty of Radio Free Europe to counteract this Communi<st policy by telling the Poles and Czechs a bout the numerous manifestations of good will and the sincere desire for reconciliation on the part of di siplaced Germans living in Western Germany. Radio Free Europe does nothing of the sort. It does not even report the official agreements which expelled Czech statesmen have signed with the German expellees. In summary, R@Es' stand on the highly important expellee prdblem is as foillows: a. It does not even mention the peaceful attitude and program of the German expellees. b. It ridicules exi'led Czechs and Poles who do not hate the Germans. c. It fails ever to refer to the remarkable past achievements of the :G ermans in Czechoslovakia and to examples of German-Czech coopexation. d. It never mentions how the ex,pulsion of the antiCommunist Germans enabled the communization of Czechoslovakia from within. e. It continuaNy harps on the persecutions the Czechs and Poles have suffered under German domination. f. It damns the Germans with faint prai,se, and slyly, in veiled fashion, even incites the Slavs against the Germans. g. By upholding the ex;pulsion of fifteen mililion Germans and defending the Oder-Neisse border, it follows a line of nationality policy which is identical with that of the Communists. 1 Advice to Fellow Communist Suggestions There are many other - apparently often ha:rmless occasions on which RFE's line comcides with what the Communists desire. Why men should be .p aid by Americans to broadcast from expensive stations what our Communist enemies want in the first pl ace is not easy to grasp. Particttlarly ba:ffling examples of American--Soviet co1 �SLOVAKIA 45 incidences ha:ve come from the desk of Milos Vanek, chief · of the Economic Department of the Czechoslovak Desk, RFIE, Munich. Formerly one o.f the most prominent leaders of the 0zech Communist party, Vanek still feels urged to counsel Czechs in harmony with his former confederates. Early in 19'52, Vane'k busied himself forecrusting an immediate inflation, and advising the people to invest their cash in goods, including the expensive products of the Communist gray market. Innumerable programs have carried this message to the Czechs. The broadcast of Ja:nuary 23, 1952, at 6 :45 p. m., admonished the Czechs: "The Communists in Czechoslovakia are about to runloose inflation. Invest all your savings in goods, buy whatever you can, even the e_x1pensive articles on the government market." There was no inflation; but the refugees from the satellite country reported that the Communist government at that time spread exacbly the same rumor of inflation and also adv1sed to spend all savings because it wanted to draw in a:11 "surplus" money without any monetary reform. A year and a half later, when, of a sudden, the new value oif the Czech currency was a:nnounced, neither the Communists in 0zechoslovakia noT Vanek in RIFE had given any wa:rning. When the Communist government asked for shock brigades of voluteers to plant new forests, Vanek enthusia,stically chimed in. "Help to plant new trees," Vanek exhorted the Czechs on the "Economic Program" of May 1, 1953. "The Communist regime," he announced, "will perish, and t'he trees will be for your children." Other programs hawe offered similar a'dvice. •~Prog,ra,m for Women," 0ctob.er 24, 1953, at 1 :45 ,p. m., counseled to sell quality go·ods. to Communist state stores "because the Communist stores are sel'ling the goods to non-Communists, and it is 111ot good to, cheat non-Communists." "Program for Workers," March 23, 1955, 2:10 p. m., suggested that workers as.k foremen for e~tra work becawse it would mean extra money for them -while it would not really help the Communist cause. Along the same line, the old collaiborator, Otto Graf, 1 �46 SLOVAKIA interviewed a fellow by name of Tonda Hornik, who said: "I thus eairned 2,000 crowns extra~it pays not to be lazy." Radio Free Europe, thus, does not urge the satellite slave workers .to relax if not slow down, it spurs them on to work harder - for their Communis t masters. Those in the know were not surprised when "wor.ker" Tonda Hornik, in June, 1955, was exposed as a Communis t agent. One of RFE's editors, Robert Lowkota by name, had gone to the extreme of appealing to the Czech workers not to absent themselves from wor.k; but the protests from refugees who had listened to this monstrosit y w&e so im-,pressive that iRiFE had to back down and, in a broadcast of April 10, 1955, at 12.:45 p. m. ("We Call the Communis t Party"), tried to minimize the importance of Loulkota's aberration. Do these editors who urge the Czech people to fol.Jew suc'h advice have a soft spot in their hearts for the Commwnist~ r are they following the orders of men whose hearts and minds are hard as steel ? On the one hand, Radio Free Europe has urged Czechs to do overtime in factories giving only evasive consolation s, never mentioning how and when liberation could be achieved; on the other, through provocative agitation, it has practically incited them to revolt. Such policy, on the surface, appears contradicto ry. On second thought, we might wonder if all of this confusion is due to ineptness. As long as the Western governmen ts are not prepared to supply .p otential rebels with weapons, no rebellion can succeed. Only people who are unacquaint ed with the nature of communism can hope to overthrow Communis t governments withouit outside assistance. Certainly the present United States governmen t is not inclined to arm potential insurrectio nists. Even if it wanted to, a horde of United Naitions associates would prevent it from going ahead. Why then does Radio Free Europe fail to warn resolutely against revolts at this time? Curiously enough, Lenin favored armed uprisings against his own regime; for nothing exposes more glaringly the staunchest freedom fighters, and nothing offers a more striking opportunity to exterminat e the most stout-heart ed �SLOVAKIA 47 foes of communism. Whatever the reason may be - and it appears most worthwhile to get to the bottom of the situation - Radio Free Europe again and again has played the role of the agent provocateur.Whether or not any sabotage wa:s intended, the policy has actually been of benefit to the Communists. First of all, RFE has pictured the enemy as weak while in reality he is strong. "Life Behind the Iron Curtain," on April 26, 1953, at 8:45 a. m., exclaimed: "There is chaos, uncertainty and fear in the Soviet Union and among its leaders." "Best Article," on April 24, 1953, at 9:05 a. m., stated that "there are rifts within the system," and on April 17 it claimed that "we face the beginning of a dissolution process which affects the entire regime." Few Americans know that the broadcast of RIAS, the American broadcasting station in Berlin, shared in the responsibility for the tragic 1953 rebellion of the Germans in the Soviet zone - a rebellion which led to the arrest and annihila:tion of tens of thousands of our best friends behind the Iron Curtain. Practically no American knows that RFE has sent the same sort of abortive action ,p rograms to the Czechs. On February 8, 1952, at 9:15 p. m., Milos Vanek, on "Economic Program," approvingly spoke of the rise of "armed brigades against their leaders in the Communist party itself." Hopefully he observed that "the signs . . . are already on the horizon." When in Czechoslovakia public demonstrations took place in 1953, Radio Free Europe pictured them in inflammatory scenes. The other programs reflected the same attitudes. On June 21, 1953, at 12 :15 p. m., the perennial "Sunday Comments of Ferdinand Peroutka," referring to the tragic and fatal uprising among the Germans, told the Czechs: "Do you know that tens of thousands of workers there are on the march, shouting 'Ivan, go home? Do you know that everybody there is fed up with the Soviet overlordship, has enough of Soviet exploitation?" �48 SLOVAK IA Again and again, Peroutk a has dicussed prematu re and therefor e suicidal - uprising s in an inflamm atory fashion. For the sake of preservi ng precious friends for a more opportu ne time, we might well have followed the advice of the late Senator Robert A. Taft, who vigorou sly opposed such heedlessness. Propagation of Decadent Literature and Music For the time being, Radio Free Europe might well content itself with building up the morale of those who long for liberatio n from the Commu nist tyrants. There are numerou s straight forward books which take a courage ous stand against any and all undue control by governm ent. These, though, are not the books from which RFE's commentato rs have chosen to quote. No, the cultural fare which they have selected is largely confined to decaden ce in literature, and jazz in the realm of music. The program "Play of the Week" is full of mental confusion and decay. The books which are reviewed and quoted, and which are suppose d to represen t the world of the free, abound in decaden t characte rs, in suicide and perversi on. As to literatur e which is suppose d to represen t eastern Europe, the emphasi s is strongly placed on works of defected collectiv ists, picturin g the horror and the hopeless ness among the satellite nations. The editor of "Book of the Week," on August 3, 1952, at 9:45 a. m., expound ed: "We enable you to become acquain ted with the literatur e which is current in the free world. Take a book by Mannus Ferber, who once was a Commu nist . . . the story in itself is colorless - a tera in the ocean ... there are no ready answers anywhe re .. . " On April 26, 1953, at 9 :45 a. m., "Book of the Week" another typical example - discusse d The Polish present to Giodo: "A mysterio us curse rests on the Jean Mill, by family," the commen tator explaine d. "In vain, Kosta opposes the weight of destiny ... his son-in-la w becomes mentally insane ... his daughte r goes crazy ... the young woman is slowly dying ... the power of fate is the core of the book ... all revolt against it is futile . . . " �SLOVAKIA 49 "Weekly Survey of Culture," of January 4, 1953, at 11 :15 a. m., told of a work of literature that is "full of complexes and inner conflicts . . . " "Film Program," of April 9, 1955, at 2 :20 p. m., reviewed a film directed by Eliza Kazan: " . . . he went to see his mother in the brothel ... he borrowed money from her, even though he despises her, and then he made a good business deal . . . a drama full of instincts, passions, and convulsions, of undertones ... a master work by Kazan ... " This story about a moral and strong father whose wife lives in a brothel was offered by RFE during the Easter holidays. RFE seems to be chockful of split personalities, of people with complexes, of those who are in need of psychiatrists, of people whom we might pity if there were not so little time left and if they were not entrusted with the task of championing our principles of trust in God and our responsibilities as free men. The music offered by RFE, at 10:05 every morning, and at other hours, accords with the confusion, savagery and hopelessness of the literary ,p roducts which these men favor. ,Most of it i:s jruzz in the version of the squieruking dis_ harmonies and noises of primitives, or of complex men who flee from their own souls. The West is rich in music of the highest inspiration. RFE seems not aware of this mighty force in our behalf. The Communist station in Prague does better. The Communists, mindful of national heritage, play Smetana and Dvorak, the great music of the Czech people. They benefit by these magnificent works. But Radio Free Europe broadcasts jazz - alien, uninspiring stuff. Some of the less influential employees on Radio Free Europe have protested against these low and degrading performances. They were told from above to go on producing jazz. Propagation of Internationalism and Racial Merger The general mental and moral climate of Radio Free Europe conveys moods of indecision, wretchedness and vexation. �50 SLOVAKIA Inherentl y most of the ideals which RFE advocates require some sort of super-gov ernment, which means but additional curtailme nt of the liberties which this costly radio network is supposed to champion . On nearly every day, for instance, there is a program which urges the abolition of naturally- grown national culture in favor of the European super-sta te. It is called "Europe Without the Iron Curtain" and it always begins with the slogan: "Europe without the Iron Curtain means the United States of Europe. Yesterda y but Utopia, today the dream of millions, tomorrow reality." The slogan has been formulate d by the widely known internationalis t Karol Belak-Be rger. Paradoxic ally, the Commun ist internatio nalists in the East are smart enough to appeal often to age-old, traditiona l nationalism. Radio Free Europe, which has been presumab ly conceived to fight Commun ist internatio nalism, champion s internatio nalism. "Nearly all Czechs and Slovaks desire the United States of Europe." That is what "The Other Side of the Coin" asserted, on April 5, 1955, at 8 :15 a. m. A free poll or plebiscite among the enslaved Czechs and Slovaks might well disclose a different mood, a different opinion. On June 6, 1952, at 7 :15 p. m., "Europe Without the Iron Curtain" stated: "The world federatio n is a necessity ; but first Europe must be united. The European federatio n is but the beginning ; the United States of the World is the ultimafo aim ... First a European federatio n must be achieved; then we shall be ready for the world federatio n." In accordanc e with this candidly avowed goal, RFE continually disparage s the concept of national sovereign ty, which is dear to the overwhel ming majority of European s. Thus "Commen ts on Events at Home," on April 28, 1953, at 10:45 a. m., slightingl y referred to "the so-called national sovereign ty." "Europe Without the Iron Curtain," on May 5, 1954, at 1:15 p. m., stated: "On the defendan t's .b ank there sits the concept of the national state and its ideological foundation - nationalis m. Frontiers - the straitjack et of the national state - are an anachron ism." �SLOVAKIA 51 The United Nations and UNESCO - a controversial topic among millions of Europeans - are favorites of RFE. "The United Nations gives new hope," said "News," on October 24, 1953, at 1 p. m. "The whole world looks toward the United Nations," said "Who Is Who," on April 22, 1953, at 8:30 a. m. Such statements are daily standard with Radio Free Europe. Ever opposed to nationalism, RFE even objects to national self-determination of the many non-Russian nations inside the Soviet empire. It stands to reason that national self-assertion inside Russia might be a ,p owerful aid to any effort aimed at disintegration of the Soviet Union. Consequently this is opposed by RFE's amazing bleeding hearts. Thus, "Voices of the Western Press," on February 8, 1952, at 8 p. m., quoted: "Russia should not dissolve herself into a number of smaller nations; the nations of the Soviet Union should discontinue their disputes." In its determined opposition to the concept of national heritage, and in harmony with the ideas favored by such American left-wing groups as Americans for Democratic Action, RFE, in programs addressed to the trans-Curtain people, goes so far as to attack the McCarran-Walter Immigration Act. Thus, "Our New York Correspondent Reports," on April 29, 1953, at 10:05 a. m., declared: "The public wants the law to be changed; for the nationality quotas of this law are obsolete . . . The press unanimously demands revision. We hope that the change will be effected." Beyond mere political merger of the nations, Radio Free Europe also campaigns for a merger of races. Thus, for instance, "Europe Without the Iron Curtain," on February 15, 1952, at 6:15 p. m., declared: "Just as Europe, in a way, already represents a nation . . . . there also arises a new nation in the U. S. A. - out of the white, the black, and the yellow races . . . This too will happen in the East of Europe." Along this line, RFE's left-wingers seldom fail to disguise their animosity towards those nations which they regard as particularly nationalistic - against the past Germany, Spain, the Union of South Africa, and the various �52 SLOVAKIA Arab nations. RFE's persistent opposition to the Arab states sometimes reaches comical proportions. An article in itself would be required to document this phase of RFE's internationalism. Praise for New Dealers and Criticism of Conservative Americans In line with its over-all outlook, Radio Free Europe has consistently glorified American New Dealers and has at the same time not refrained from merciless attacks on conservative Americans. In other words, RFE, which should concentrate on psychological warfare against the Communist world con$piracy, has indulged in the hobby of defaming valiant American anti-Communists. No wonder that wideawake Europeans have ever more often asked if RFE is primarily an anti-anti-Communist organization. "Answers to Those at Home," on October 28, 1952, at 10 :05 a. m., proclaimed : "Stevenson was a principal speaker at the celebration for T. G. Masaryk. (Founder and first president of the Czechoslovak republic. - Editor.) Our hope for the future would be rekindled if he were elected President of the United States." On November 4, 1952, at 10:05 a. m., the same program reveled in this choice bit of lyrical effusion: "Adlai Stevenson ... ranks among America's greatest sons, such as Lincoln and F. D. Roosevelt ... He is the very incarnation of America's highest aspirations . . . Within less than a year he rose from obscurity to the pinnacle of American leadership." The record of Radio Free Europe's programs is full of unfavorable remarks about those great Americans who have steadfastly opposed the Communist menace. A flood of vituperation was pou:r;-ed on General Douglas MacArthur upon his dismissal from the Far Eastern scene. His speeches, which have moved the truly anti-Communist refugees from eastern Europe, have been consistently withheld from RFE's programs. It was the same with the great and honorable Senator Robert A. Taft, on the occasion of his campaign for the Republican nomination in 1952. After "Mr. Republican's" �SLOVAKIA 53 defeat at the Chicago Convention, "Our New York Correspondent Reports," on August 7, 1952, at 10:05 a. m., rejoiced: "For Europe it is decisive that the last remainders of isolationism have been removed, and that a sound policy has been carried to victory." Ferdinand Peroutka, in one of his interminable "Sunday Comments," on August 3, 1952, at 12:15 p. m., pontificated: "Taft was the proponent of a policy which can never settle anything, as his adversaries have always pointed out." "Our New York Correspondent Reports," on July 9, 1952, at 8:05 p. m., had this to say: "The opinions of (Herbert) Hoover and (Douglas) MacArthur represent the viewpoint of a minority; these men want to confine themselves to the (exclusive) defense of the American continent. The majority ( of Americans), though, have dimissed this attitude and are conscious of America's global role." "A Program of Novelties," referring to the passing of two famous American journalists Pulitzer and Bert McCormick - on April 3, 1955, at 3 .p. m., called Pulitzer the "son of an Hungarian immigrant, an outstanding American journalist," but criticized Colonel McCormick as a "controversial, reactionary isolationist" who "opposed progress." The Krem'l~n must have been satisfied with that incisive observation. General Impression Created By Radio Free Europe What, then, is the general impression which Radio Free Europe has made, behind the Iron Curtain as well as among the millions of anti-Communists in Western Europe? It is, besides the impression of half-heartedness, indecision, artificiality, and downright clowning. When RFE's broadcasters, directly addressing some poor wretch or some swineherd in some forlorn little hamlet in Slovakia or Bohemia, lower their voices to terrify him, antiCommunist refugees merely laugh. Alas, the farce tastes bitter, because of the lost opportunities, the stupidity, the feeling of treason, and the unsonscionably low moral standard. Next, there is the strong impression of cliche journalism, occupying itseif with superficialities - cars, houses, �54 SLOVAKIA etc. - and largely avoiding verbatim quotations. Instead, they impose their propaganda by means of slogans. Real opinions of the refugees and of the people at home are disregarded by the RFE propaganda. Real anti-Communists are never allowed to get their messages across the Curtain. Real anti-Communists, including the repenting National Fronters, are social outcasts. But the collaborators of the National Front, who even today maintain that the National Front was all right, sit at the big desks and cash their substantial checks, in compensation for their shadow boxing. Then there is the distinct impression of coolness, impersonality and anonymity. Since the well-known anti-Communists of -long standing have been barred from RFEJ, theTe are no names to inspire the listeners. Yes, some men do speak under their own names. These include the left-winger Dr. Joseph Lettrich, the Marxist Vaclav Majer, and such Socialists as Ferdinand Peroutka, Dr. Petr Zenkl and Dr. Jaroslav Stransky. However, these men are known to be weaklings, mere fronts for more powerful personalities. They are recognized to be generally useless; they won't stir the imagination of anyone. As to the known former champions of the Communist causes, trans-Curtain listeners would simply shut off the radio if they knew who was talking to them. Therefore, Milos Vanek now calls himself Pravdomil Basta, and Frantisek Listopad goes by the name of Jan Ctvrtek. Similarly, the leftist Socialist Dr. Miloslav Kohak has become Vitezslav Fram; Otto Graf hides his pro-Communist past under the pseudonym of Franta Tabor, and Karol Belak-Berger has conveniently turned into one Jan Lehota. "Who are these fellows anyhow?" the listeners behind the Curtain must wonder; for they have never heard of them. Naturally, they become suspicious, and their interest sags. Czechs and Slovaks behind the Curtain remember those who never compromised with the Communists. They know that these men are now living in the West - the C:i!echoslovak General of the Army, Lev Prchala, the former Czechoslovak Minister, Dr. Joseph Cerny, and many others, and �SLOVAKIA 55 also some former members of the National Front who in the free West started to denounce it - Dr. Bohdan Chudoba, Dr. Michal Zibrin, or Dr. Helena Kozeluhova, who was expelled in 1946 from the Parliament by the National Front, and the entire younger generation, led by Jiri Havelka, Emil Petrik, etc. The Slovaks have their former Minister, Dr. Ferdinand Durcansky and many others. The listeners behind the Iron Curtain cannot fail to wonder why none of them sends any "messages home" by way of Radio Free Europe. The masterminds of this confusion, whose net results represent sabotage of the anti-Communist fight - are way behind the firing lines in New York City, and in Washington. They, too, shroud themselves in anonymity. 'T he over-all impression, then, is one of cynism and emptiness, artificiality, and insincerity. Who wants to buy apples which are rotten at the core? RFE's Program In conclusion, we must ask: What, then, is the program of Radio Free Europe, or has no program been designed so far? Those behind the Curtain, who have the time to listen at all, would like to know in what way liberation may be achieved, and what specific assistance, beyond mere words, the West might be able to offer. Radio Free Europe has not been able to supply any satisfactory information in respect to this all-important ,problem. Here, however, we cannot help allowing for valid reasons to excuse much of RFE's ineffectualness; for even if RFE were staffed with outright, hard-hitting anti-Communists, it could not ,possibly make any promises which the Western governments, particularly the government of the U. S. A., were not willing to back with power. There is no use in claiming superiority in aircraft or guided missiles if that superiority admittedly does not exist. It is not possible to promise an economic blockade as long as that policy has not been adopted by the American government. Radio Free Europe - or any of the other liberation �56 SLOVAKIA stations - cannot very well offer the severing of diplomati c relations with the Soviet criminals when our own statesmen meet with them at the summit and have lots of smiling pictures :taken for the benefit of the Soviet ieaders. However, if RFE were really (instead of merely in name) an independe nt and private organizat ion, and really staffed with intelligen t and genuine anti-Com munists, it could urge Western governme nts to take stronger steps. Radio Free Europe might demand the creation of military units exclusive ly composed of refugee and e~pellee volunteers. It might demand the ousting of Commun ists from both internatio nal and national organizat ions. It might establish extensive contacts with the undergro und behind the Curtain, instead of causing its discovery and extermin ation by Communi sts. Radio Free Europe might frankly discuss the present difficultie s while at the same time exhorting the Iron Curtain slaves not to lose hope. The trans-Cu rtain ,people who long for liberty might at least be informed about where all of us stand. They should know about a long-rang e .p rogram as well as what can be done at this time. Most importan t of all, Radio Free Europe should become a clear and shining beacon to those who are willing to fight for their liberties. This can only be achieved by throwing out the clowns and confusion ists who want to fight communism with a Socialist "peo1ple',s program. " If Radio Free Europe cannot cleanse itself because it is from top to bottom infested with collectivists, internatio nalists, materialists and decadents , then it would be better to shut it down and replace it with an entirely new organizat ion. Perhaps this great reform cannot be undertak en as long a:s even in the United States the grass roots patriots, who unequivocally believe in God, the Constitut ion and freedom of enterprise , are successfu lly boycotted and ridiculed. Perhaps an effective liberation station can only be establishe d when at last the collectivi st corrupter s of the United States are driven from their entrenche d ,p ositions in America' s public institution s, and her means of communi cation, and her governme nt itself. � SLOVAKIA 17 A CLOSE-UP VIEW OF RADIO FREE EUROPE By Jiri Brada ( From January, February, and March, 1956, issues of "FACTS FORUM," Dallas, Texas) Radio Free Europe, a netwoPk of stations which has been set up in westeim Europe for the purpose of sending anti-Communist broadcasts to the peoples on the other side of the Iron Curtain, is a division of Free Europe Committee, Inc. The latter, a private organization, was founded in 1949 by a group of American citizens, among whom the Hon. Herbert H. Lehman, U. S. Senator from New York, played a prominent role. In 1950, the Free :illurope Committee started its annual fund-raising drive under t'he name of Crusade for Freedom. Most of us, at one time or another, have bee111 exposed to the propaganda of thi,s powerful orgacization, via newspapers, radio, television, freedom cars, and freedom trains, and most of us have read and heard a'bout FEC's muchpublicized freedom balloons. The Free Europe Committee claims that millions of its funds have been contributed by more than twenty-five million American citizens. Many more millions of dollars, though, have 1been donated by corporations, including some of the large foundations. Henry Ford II, whose Ford Foundation through the yeairs has been a heavy contributor, is nationa:l chairman of the Crusade for Freedom. As such he is the ,successor of General Lucius D. Clay. Other ,prominent sponsors of the project include David Sarnoff, Edward R. Murrow, Harold E . Stassen, Walter S. Gifford, Samuel Unger, Geo:rge Barasch, C. B. Tibbets, and Joseph J. Fliesser. Headquarters of the Crusaide is 29 West 157th Street, New York City. C. D. Jackson, in crucial years one of President Ei~ senho.w er's "paiace guard," headed the Free, Europe Committee for a cosiderable length of time. Wh~tney H. Shepardson is its current president. Joseph C. Grew, former U. S. Ambassador to Japan, is Chairman of the Board of the F,r ee Europe Committee. Arthur W. Page is Chairman of the Executive Committee. �18 SLOVAKIA Vice presidents include W. J. C. Eagan, Levering Tyson, Samuel S. Wa.J.ikeT, JT., and :Bernard Yarrow. Jo'hn C. Tra.phagen serves as treasurer, Theodore C. Augustine as secretary and assistant itireasurer, and J. Clay.ton Miller as assistant secretary. On March 15, 1955, Helfuert H. Lang was replaced as Director of Radio Free Europe by W. J. C. Eagan. 'Dhe Board of Directors, besides several of the abo.venamed, is composed of A. A. Berle, David K. :ID. Bruce, Jr. , Frederick R. Dolbeare, Julius Fleischmann, H. B. Miller, Irving S. Olds, George U. 1S huster, Charles M. Spofford, and H. Gregory Thomas. Among additiona:l sponsors of the Free EUTope Comm1ttee we find such nationally known figures as Clarence L. Adcock, Raymond Pace Alexander, Laird Bell, Francis Biddle, Rolbert Woods Bliss, Robert F. Bradford, !Hairry A. Bullis, Cecile B. De Mille, Frank R. Denton, William J. Donovan, Mark 1F . iIDthridge, James A. Farley, Virginia C. Gildersleeve, Charles R.. Hook, Palmer Hoyt, Paul Kesten, Henry ,R, Luce, Joseph V. McKee, Web Maddox, H. B. Miller, tSamuel E. Morison, F.rederiok Osborn, John W. Sibley, Sp)'l'os Skouras, Chairles P. 'Daft, DeWitt Wallace, W. W. Waymac:k, Walter H. Wheeler, Jr., Charles E. Wilson, Mrs. Quincy Wright, and Darryl Zanuck. The 1952 list of national sponsors also featured Jaimes B. Carey, .A:J.ilen W . Dulles, William Green, and Matthew Woll. Besides a sprinkL ing of men who uphold America's tradiitions of limited govVeTrunent and the free market economy, there is :the usual contingent of ancient and ubiquitous New Dealers. Headquarters of ,t he Free Emope Committee is a few stone's throws from <bhrut of the Crusade for Freedom, at 110 West 57th Street, New Yo.rk City. The political and ideological influence of the Free Europe Committee spans continents. No organization in the world exerts more power over the refugees from eastern Europe. lt practicaft:ly maintains a monopoly on placing refugee students in American colleges. It controls the University College at 'S trassbourg, F.rance. Besides the periodical, News from Behind the Iron Curtains, :the Free Europe Commi,t tee has published num- �SLOVAKIA 19 erous booklets and pamphlets Olll communism in eastern Europe. Radio 1Free IDurope, whioh is lo·cated at the Committee's headquarters, 110 West 57th ,S treet, is thus but one, though no doU!bt the most important, department of the Free Em:-ope Committee. While officially a dilVision of a private o,r gani,z ation, Radio Free Em·ope does of course not devise amy arbitrairy policy of its own. It has been conceived as a private a:rnn of the American government's foreign policy and as such reflects the res,pective competence or confusion of Washington. The princ1pal editorial offices of Radio F1ree Europe, while taking their cues from New Yor.k and Washington, are located in Euro.pe, especia!lly in western Germany. European headquarters is at English Gardens (Englisoher Garten) 1, Munich 23, Germany. Riahard J. Condon is European diirector. The largest :broadcasting stations of Radio Free Europe aire located outside of Munich and Frankfurt on the Main. Their principal programs are broadcast in the various languages oif Communist-dominaited peoples, suoh as Czech, Slovaik, Hungarian, Roumanian, Bulgarian, Albanian, and Polish. Influence of Soviet Postwar Policy In order to grasp the policy of these programs, it ~ well worth recalling the Soviet postwar policy in the satellite nations of eastern Europe. For the sa;ke of appearance and eXipediency, no outright Communist governments were set up by the USSR immediately upon the end of World War fil. •I nstead, there arose the so-calied governments of "national fronts" or "people's fronts" or "popular :fironts." Moscow's commissars saw to it that no parities of the real center nor, of course, any of the ,right wing m01Vements were admitted to these fronts; lbut even the non-Communist left wing parties, such as those of the Socialists or Social Democrats, were from the outset largely ied by puppets of the Soviet Union, many of whom had up to then lived in comparative obscurity. Within the course of a few months or years respective- �20 SLOVAKIA ly, these non-.Communisit leftist parties were forged into total tools of the globa.'l Communist conspiracy. Freedom of eleotion, assembly and press weire abolished; trade and industry were nationalized; non-·conformis:ts, by means of the "people's courts," were crushed, and "national committees," virz. soviets, soon dictated and .strangled all !branches of ,public and private iife. 'Dho.ughtful readers may wonder why so many of the Socialist-minded colla,borators were in due time permitted by the Co.m munist authorities to leave their countries. They cannot help being amazed to iearn that it is maiinly these collectivi.stic refugees from the sateilli,te nations whom Radio Free Europe has entrusted with program-.c ontroHing positions. There ,Marxians and sta,tists were 'ballyhooed as "victims" of rS oviet 1persecution, while practically all those who had escaped from the Communists when the Russian armies swept over their countries, i.e., those who at all times had ste·a dfa:stly opposed the Communist menace, were systematicallv excluded from Radi·o Free Europe. Is it possible that a good many of these Socialist twin brothers of the C ommunists were not prevented from reaching our side of the Iron Curtain because on the basis of their ,Marxist past they were likely to confuse and adultcra,te the crusade of the free world? Is it possi,b le that some of them even promised merely to pose as foes of communism, and therefore in r eality continued their collabora-· tion with the Communists, in the guise of foes? At any rate, quite a few of these recent allies, of the Communists are now earning considerable fees firom the funds of the Crusade for Freedom, in payment of their ineffectual and phony ;psychological warfare. Former Red Confederates in Top Jobs The real champions of political and economic freedom , the real opponents of state intervention, the real adversaries o.f materialism, atheism and tyranny were either rejected or ffa-ed by <Radio Free Europe, and are now sitting on the side lines. The men of the Kremlin should indeed be pleased with this curious policy of Radio• 'Free Europe. To be sure, RF1E's •b osses offer us a re ady-made excuse �SLOVAKIA 21 for employing so many former Soviet collruborators in top positions. No one, they aver, is more thoroughly aware of Communist deviousness than 8Jre those who have experienced Communist tactics in practice. However-and this is the crux of the matter-not one of these former confe• derates of the Communists !has come forth !With any .protest against his former ooHa;boration, and none of the former Communists on Rooio Free Europe has come forth with any protest against his former communism. They shun the role of the ,r epentant sinner. They all of a sudden ,p ose as experts of :the democrntic way, a;s pioneers of individual, personal freedom. The Whittaker Chamtbers type is excluded. By no means have aH of these men mere:ly posed ais anti-Communists while in ever so many instances they could not help going soft on the Communist -line. A giroot many, being Socialists, have been so blind with regard to -limited governmental and the free mar,ket economy, and still are such loyal believeil'S in the benefits of Socialist inter,vention, planning and control, that they consistently devise policies which ,p lay into the hands of the Communists by appeasing them. The Polish, Ozechoslo1va;k and Hungarian broadcasting stations of IRadio Free Europe, which equal the power of t he German station in ,M unich, i. e., 50,000 watts, run pro. grams for 20 hours a day. Nume!l'ous short wave stations send broadcasts in the various idioms of eastern Europe t hree or four houirs daily. It is claimed that 29 RF:Ei statjons are now functioning. The Czechoslovak station near Munich is as strong as that of Munich or that of the American Forces network, in that city. In operation since May 1, 1951, it covers political commentaries; daily commentaries; the international situat ion (transmitted from New York offices); programs for workers, peasants, women, young ,people, and children; economics; history; music; entertainment, etc. , and news every hour on the hour. Source Material Far Left of Center The over-all ideology of these prog1rams is largely determined by former members of the Czechoslovak National �22 SLOVcAKIIA Front, i.e., one-time Co,. nrpu:ni.3t colla,borator.s. From time to time, these men ireceive written instructions of specific subjects :from the New Yovk offices where left..,wingers set the tone Dr. Mar.tin Kvetko and Dr. Julius First, :known and prominent former pro-Oommunists, instruct alll editors at regular meetings. Carefully selected boo.ks on communism, clippings from such American publications ·a s The New York Times, The New York Hierald T.rilbune, T.iine, Life, ~tc., items from the press of AmerJcan la;bor unions, material from Communist paipers on bo:th sides of the Curtain, and monitored terts of the Czechoslova;k Communist radio represent the source materiaJl f.rom which the script writers draw. Theire are also special "intelligence" reports. Straight conservative papers and magazines are ta;boo at Radio Free Em:rope. Script writera know how to toe the line. They know that they might as welJ -look for another job if they dare use_materiail or ideas from the Ohicago Triibune or such of Oll!I' magazines :as American !Mercury, American Legion Maga•zine, Ohristian Economics, HUiIIlan Events, National Review and National Repulblic. To summarize - iRJmE progtrams are shl!,POO- according to the dM"ectives of (a) :the American bosses and (b) the hired leftist National Fronters from eastern Europe. The ran!k and file Socialist or o:therwise• leftist editors are either unintelligent or servile or both, and grind out their chores in accordance with their o.rders. AoturuNy, tRill1E policies vary only in degree, !but not in sulbstance,. :f.rom other psychological warfare .s tations of the free world. These inolude Radio Free Asia, strution RIAS in Berlin, Radio Llberation - a private Amer.ican station which broadcasts to IPOOPles inside the USSR - and of course the Voice of America. None of them ,t akes a consistent stand againsit the iphilosophy of g01Vernment intervention a;nd government control, none of them - except for occasional and half-ilieaTted Hp servJce- champions freedom of enterprise. No wonder that so far our psychological warfare has failed. In order to document for American readers WlhaA: sort of ideas aTe being tTansmitted to the fron Curtain world �SLOVAKIA 23 iby their expensive ly staffed freed.om stations, I have for some years gathered from RFE Czec'hoslov.alk programs a substantia :l coNection of radio scTipbs and tape recording s, from which I sha;ll quote in the followh]-g. If any Sllogan may be offered to character ize the genera:! tenor of all too many programs , let us quote whait a well-know n American a·p ologist for the Soviet causes has said in the process of the Far Eastern debacle: "Let them fall, ;b ut do not let it appear that we pushed them." Propagation of Socialism May 1, 1953, 3 :15 ip. m . : "The Socialist youth of the whole world sends its greetings to the youth of Czechoslovakia. We assuTe you that we s hall reach the aim ... the day, when we will be alble to join you in democrac y in the fig,ht for socialism , social justice and freed.om. " At the end of the program the International was played. (The International is the rallying song of world communi sm.) May 3, 1953, 1,2 :15 p. m.: Ferdinan d Peroutka , chief of R~'s Czechoslova!k desk in New York, a weH-known Soci'alist rund one-•t ime .prominen t member of the pro-Comu munist National •ffiront, in his "Sunday Comment s of Ferdinand Peroutka ": "Eisenho wer's program, on .t:he other hand, even though America's factories have not been nati01I1ali2:ed, stands for the concept of world socialism . TheTe is no better way to desoribe it. This is sociaJism . . . The aim of 1:Jhe program outlined by tile President of the United States is to socialize -life." 1 May 1, 1954, 2 :'50 p. m.: "Today, on May 1st, we convey our g,reetings to aN those who are dedicated to the faith in democrat ic socialism ." (To Commun ist-domin ated countries May 1st is synonym ous with America' s July 4th, and the term "Democra tic Socialism " is a Commun ist term used in May Day speeches to descTilbe Commun ist ideology. ) May 4, 1954, 2:10 p. m.: "Program for WorkeTs: "Leon Jouhaux - a g,reat man, descende d from a famNy in which revoltitio nism has been a tradition . His father partidpaJ ted in the revo.1t of the Paris Commun e . . . a born revolution ary ... " GANS.ER LIBRARY MILLERS VILLE STATE COLLEGE �24 SLOV!AKIA May 5, 1954, 2:10 p. m.: "Leon Jouhaux - a great revolutionary, a great rre:fo1rmeT ... " March 23, 1'955, 12:40 p. m. Program, "We Call the Communist Party": "The present order (in eastern Europe) r:ierely serves to continue the dictatorship . . . this jungle which falsely is fabeiled as legitimaJte socia.lism." March 23, 2:20 p. m. Dr. Jan Hajek, on program, "Living Science - Discussion with Young People," said : "Socia1ism has 1become adult. Socialist thinkers are no longer irresponsible radicals. The fundamenta!l problem of modern socialism is man's relation to the state. "The modern socialist rejects both extremes - laissez faire and state control. He is aware of his duties as well as his rigihts. "The citizens of the Socialist society must be conscious of their heritage, aind proud of it." Along this line, the Czechoslova:k editors and broadca;sters crurefully avoid repudiating the measures of socializaJtion and communrzation wbich their own National Front had irnstituted in tJhe postwar years, and often go so far a;s to appro;ve of similar Communist measures in satellite Europe. Thus, on October 28, 1952, at 11 :'50 a. m., the broadcaster of "We Cali t he Communist Party," exclaimed: "Seven years ago, .the decrees of the P,r esident of the Republic ibrought forth the nationalization of industry. In this way Czechoslovakia set out on her way of democraJtic independence.'' So.oialist Policies Defended T.hese ipsychological warriors of the RFE thus still don't realize tha,t it was a crime to cooperate with the Communists, or if they do, :they don't admit it. There is never any hint that the 1Socialist po'licies of the National Front as such have iJ.ed to disaster, no inkling that socialism, because it infringes upon the rights of the individual, leads to communism. Therefo,re, these so-called freedom ,broadcasters ne;ver ,p oint out that the misery of the :p eople in eastern Europe -largely deri;ves from Socialist meddling with the affairs of :the people ; they blame it all on \Soviet exploitation, armaments, emphasis on heavy industry, and that sort of thing. �SLOVAKIA 25 Yes, ,t hey have mentioned the "forced Communist eco-• nomy." What they mean by it may be seen from "Lnternationa1 Commentary from New York," in its :broadca,st April 18, 1953, at 6 :05 p. m. The broadcaster explained that "this mearus in Czechoslovakia bhe return of the fo,r mer export policy, ,t he return to the production of quality arrticies. To put an end to this over-emphasis, on heavy industry must be the goal of our new democratic way." · That is all. No, reference to libeTation from the Socialist bureauaracy, from Socialist oppression. Just a shift from armaments to quality ,p roducts. Nothing more. Feroinamd Peroutka, in his broadca;st of 'Sunday, April 27, 1952, at 12 :15 p. m., declared: "The Communists lie when they tell you that we want to ;restore caipitalism, that we intend to ,r eturn to the proprietors the property which has been ta1ken from them some time ago . . . I repeat: the program ,o f the Czechoslova•k exiles is not capitalism and the return to 1938. Nor do we wish to hand baok the mines and foundries to their former owners. All we care for is thaJt the Communist government, which means dependence on Russia, disappears." It might be argued that an occasional ,p rogram of this sort migiht have its place in the o.ver-all setup 1because, after all, there still are oM 'Socialists in Czechoslovalkia who have no use for the Communists. Yet isn't it strange that while there are programs for workeirs, peaJSants and Communists, there are none £or businessmen? Sometimes they talk about free competition, but often it is but the competitiion of collectively owned factories amongst themselves. The terminology of their broadcasts is af the Socialist variety, including the trite ranting against "Capitalists" and "reactionaries". I now shail ,proceed to offer documentary evidence to show that Radio •F ree Europe also aids, and sometimes even propagates, Titoism and communism, and frequently extols Communist leaders. Milos Vanek, one-.time big wheel in the Commun1st party of Czechoslovakia, and now chief of the economics department of RFE's Czechoslovak desk, said on November 21. 1952. at 11.30 a. m.: "Marx. Engels. Trotsky-for them 1 �26 SLOVAKIA Marxism was the ,s ubstitute for the Western revoilution of human rights." The co:mmentaJtor of "Weekly Survey of the Ame:rican Press," on April 12, 1953, art; 8 :30 a. m., said: "The New York Herald Trilbune is of the opinion that the trial of Mindszenty, the HungM'ian cardin.a;l, as wehl as the trial of Slansky and similar crimes in other Communist countries, ought to ,be remembered ... " Possibly, if not proba,bly, tt was one of the numerous left-wingers on the staff of the Tribune who plamed this cOITU!pting little seed of associating the fearless anti-Comm'l.llllist cairdinal with that old Marxian wheel'horse and Kremlin errand iboy, Slans.ky..Salzmann, who stood as solidly for the Leninist-iStalinist program as any Communist who happened to get purged in some intra..party feud. Sure enough, if the Tribune man did not give a ring to his pal at the CzechosloV'aik desk in New York's RFE heaidquarters, the latter did not fail to picik up that choke tidlbit. After all, any "opinion" of the stai:d and ·p resumably coruserva,tive New Yo11k Herald 'Dribune is safe quoting. Who is there 1bra;zen enough to accuse the o}d Tribune of being sUJbversi,v e? And thus, by association with a ,primate and mal1tyr of the Roman Catholic Church, a Communist li0kspittle is being groomed for respectaJbility. And this in the name of fighting the totalitarian enemy, by an organization which is financed by American donations, a;nd which is sponsored ,b y well--Omown Americams. Again and again, ,R JFE's psychological warriors do not attack Marxism-eommunism as such but what, with tears of regret, they c01I1de:mn is its "degeneracy." Consequently, the listener-unless he be quite alert--is mduced to fancy that communilsm, with which so many RFE bigwigs: once cooperated, would not be so bad if only it had not "degenerated." RFE Attacks Russian Imperialism but not Communism Fid<filing that tune, RJF])'s "Europe without the Iron Curtain," on March 2, 1952, at 3:45 .p. m., complained a/bout the "degeneration of the old Communist ideaJls." Commenting on the arrest of the Kremlin-serving boss- �SLOVAKIA 27 es Sling, Olementis and 'Slansky, RFE's "Comments on Events of the Day," on February 13, 1952, at 7 :30 p. m., waxed somewihat melanc'hoiic: "They consciously closed their eyes, dreaming about the Communist security of the future . . . they dreamed . . . what was to remain of the ide·a ls once the dream had come to Ml end?... A cynical disdain for Communist ideals ... " K•rurol Bel:aJk-lBerger, the left wing Socialist, in RFE's "Round Table Discussion," on April 12, 1953, at 3 :05 p. m., nostalgically referred to the "millions of idealists and men of good wilJ" who had lbelieved in communism and merely deplored the "methods" that had "failed." Regretfully he mused that "the whole aippeal of communism has evaporated ... " 'I'.he policy of collaboration with the Communists was quite distinotly expressed by the old Socialist comrade, Ferdinand Peroutka, in his '~Sunday Oomments" of April 27, 1952, at 12 :15 p. m., when he answered the attack of the Communist dM'ly, !Rude Pravo, on exil.es such a,s he. '"It a<ecuses us of wor,king for the restoration of capitalism, along with the return of the western powers," stated Peroutka. "All we wish to say in reply to these accusations is this: "There has been a Socialist government in England for six yeam. This government would hardly have forced you, the Czech and Slovak people, to accept capitalism. Today we have a Conservatiive government in EngJand. Yet it has not abolished any of the Labor government's Socialist measures, and it would not do anything of the sort in CzechoslovaJkia. "As to America-she supports T1to. Now even though Tito acc~ts America's /bountiful assistance with open hands, t he United States government has not demanded the denationalization of a single Yugoslav factory. Yes, Tiito never ceased to be a Communist. America says: 'Let everyone do as he pleases.' America says: 'Go ahead and be a Communist if that's what you want. All we ask is that you stop supporting Russian imperialism.' America has no 1ntention �28 SLOVAKIA to force runyone, including Czechoslovaikia, to return to capitalism." iDr. Miloslav Kohak, another widely known one-time. Communist collaborator of the National Front who saved his skin in the nick of time and landed a fat job as cllief (until his replacement recently) of RJFE's "Political Comments on the Siituation at Hlome," on November 25, 1952, at 10:45 a. m., had this to say ,a bout Arthur London: "From ,b eg.inning to end, the indictment against London is preposterous. It is the whoie International Brigade of the Civil War irn Spain which is 'being attacked in his person-another proof of the reactionary attitude now prevailing in the Soviet Uni:on. She no longer wants the support of men who. believe in ideals, ibut only of those who believe in bayonets." On May 8, 1954, at 5 :45 .p. m., in "Stories Written ey Life," a young Communist inmate of a slave labor camp was quoted as follows: "Your Christian concept comes close to the 01riginal Leninist ideology . . . We must wm•k toge-· ther, faithful to the ideas which Lenin has taught us." Dr. Jaros}aiv Stransky, Socialist and an oJd Oommunist collaborator of the Nationa1 Front, said in "Taik with Home," on March 1, 1952, at 9 :30 p. m.: "Denunciation should not play amy .part in ,p olitics . . . Arny honest Communist will join the rest of us in condemning denunciation." Probably the old collaborator still believes that it is possible for Communists to ibe honest. Consequently he had no trouble :i n slipping that one in. The trouble with Radio Free Europe, though, is quite another matter. Squandering miHions of American dollars for the alleged ,purpose of fighting communi:sm, it hires old Communist collaborators who rant about "honest" Communists. "We Call the Communist Party," of February 22, 1952, at 11.45 a. m., went all out in praise of Communist cultural achievements. "Czech Communist literature ha;s brought forth works of outstanding value," RFE's psychological warrior declared. "We enjoy reading Communist authors as much as any others." A curious way of inducing an anti-Communist attitude, to say the least. �29 SLOVAKIA 'Dhe Socialist 'Franta Klatil, in "Political Comments on the Situation at Home," on April 21, 1953, at 11]_ :45 a. m., mused that "Tito has more character ithan his one-time aL lies in Prague . . . iHe secured this independence, and quite thoroug,hly at that." It is quite a common rprocedure foir Radio Free Europe to quote Tito and Red Yugoslavia's press as authorities in both moral and political matters. Holiday trips to Tito's Yugoslavia have ,b ecome a cherished habit o,f RFE's editors. Programs Glorify Revolutionary Workers Another variety of the collectivist ideology which pre~ vails among RFE eclitora is the frequent praise of those enemies o,f the Kremlin who have not been able to toe the party line but 'have otherwise been valuable fighters in the class struggle against the so-called exploiters. Thus, the RFE .script, "We CaU the Communist Party," which was broadcast to Ozechoslov,a kia on March 29, 1955, at 12 :40 p. m., in its glorification of title revolutionary workers of Kronstadt sounds as if it had been wr.itten by the old Lithu~ ani3JI14m.e:rican anarchist Alexander Benkman. "'I1he workers of Kronstadt," it says in that script, "fought so that the soviets may be elected freely and democratically, that their just demands be fulfilled - demands which ,w ere entirely in the spirit of the Oct01ber Revolution. They fought for democrati:c soviets ... " True enough, this broadcas-t; was addressed to Communits, and it might seem reasona,;ble to some to appeal to -Communists in the spirit of genuine communism; but is it likely that hardened trans--Ourtain Communi sts of 1955 believe in appeals in behalf of communi~m when they M"e uttered by those who are hired by Americans? Yet, incredtble though it may appear, that is the line which RFE commentators adopted a:S fate as 1955. Let us choose another example of this folly by quoting Dr. JaroS'la.v tStransky, former minister of the National Front, in his "Commentary on the Political Situation" of April 2, 1955, 9 :50 a. m. In this gem of an "anti-Communist" ,b roa.d~ast, the Communist collaborator of b.ut a few yea.rs ago sang the praise of the "Spartacus Bund," the 1 �30 SLOVAKIA militant group which, following World War I, broke away from Germany's left wing 'Socirulists in order to usher in the Communist ·r evolution. Stransky really waxed lyr-ical over Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, the .two most prominent and violent ieaders: of early German communism. "The modern 1Spartacus movement," pontificated Stransky in behalf of iRFE's version of freedom, "Karl Liebknecht and !Rosa Luxemburg . . . they were pacifists, the foes of imperi:aiism and militarism . . . they were beaten to death iby the mob . . . theN" articles, their speeches, their lettevs were inspired by a vision of order and beauty for the modem world . . . in every sentence which that undersized, unga.irny Jewess, Luxemburg, wrote, there was humaneness and poesy ... " We are not arguing a:bout the lofty intentions of these two world famous pioneers of the Communist revolution, misguided and unbalanced though they were. We are here questioning the wisdom of Ameri'CMlS who, in the name of the freedom for which Washington and Lincoln lirved and died, hN'e a notorious one-time Communist collaJborator who stiH offers hymns to the cause of the Communist revolution. That Stransky shmdd express such revolutionary feeL ings is obvious; that well-meaning Americans should sponhor such project does ,p rovide food for thought. National Fronts Vaunted In line with this farcically suicidal policy these RFE psychological wrurriors natua-ally still vaunt the very Nationa'l Front which paved the way for the total subjugation of the Czech and 'Slovak people •b y the Communists. These strange refugee policy-maJkers, script-writers and editors still live in that dreary world in which fatal short-~ghtedness delivered their people into. the hands of the ,Krem!lin. Thus, on October 28, 1952, at 10 :05 a. m., these socaned heralds of freedom told the home folks ibeihind the Cua-tain: "There wiH once more ,b e a time when Benes will arise ... " On OctOlber '2/l, 1953, at 4 :35 p. m., they aippealed to "those who remember the pre..,F~bruary (i.e.,. 1945-48) democra~y ... " On January 11, 1953, at 1:1:30 a. m., the Je:ftist ,S ociaiist Belak-iBerger, "in Comments on the Events �SLOVAKIA 31 of the Day," exclaimed: "The real Nationa;l Front (i.e., peaceful ,Socialist-Communist collaborators) today lives in the hearts of the Ozechs and SlovaJks." As if there had not been mass murders all over Czeohoslova;kia ,throughout the existence of the National Front, RFE's "Time, Men, Events" of OctOlbeT 18, 1952, at 10 :15 a. m., told the good ipeople behind the Curtain that "the conditions of 194!5 adually orig.iinated in the will and the wish of ,the majority of the people." New Yovk "Comments of the International Situation," on April 12, 1952, decried the "Communist treason" of February, 1948, 1b y which the last collruborators of the National Front were ex;pelled ,b y the K!remlin's agents. "The Communists," this broadcast said, "seized ,p ower by means of the militia and the police ... Before this time (i.e., before February, 1948, d!uTi'Il!g the entire time of the National Front) the democratic politicians had pro.v ed their .g ood will to cooperate (with the Communi:sts ... However) the democratic politioians (the National Front men and today the RFE men) ·· were removed ... " This is of course true, as all of us know. Yet what sort of democrats are Commumst collaborators who tacitly consent or act1vely connive at the suppressiion and murder of political non-conformists? These Nationa,l ·F ronters, now employed by IRFE, did not discoiver the criminality of their Communist a:IHes when moderates and conservatives were systematical!ly murdered. Only when tihe Communists put the finishing touches on the enslavement of .the Ozec'hoslova!k people by exterminating their own co,Uaborators did these curious freedom fighters b,elatedly decide that the Krem1in's henchmen were afiter all poor champions of liberty. Yet whom do the American ,b osses ·o f Radio F.ree Europe select for speaking to the enslaved people of Ozecho"' slovalkia? Not those \WlO from the beginning refused to compromise with the Communist tyrants. They have preferred to choos:e such National Fronters as Dr. iPetr Zenkl, Dr. Joseph Lettrich, Vaclav Majer, Dr. Ivo Duchacclc, and Dr. Ja,roslav Stransky. The latter has ,b een offered as a weeklv feature attraction. �32 SLOVAKIA Like Alger Hiss, who stiU maintains that Yalta was "a good thing," but that the bad Communists unfortunately broke their ,pledges, these N8Jtiona:l Fronters claim that their colla:borator with the CommunLsbs---the so-called Kosice Program-would have been "a good thing" if only the Communists had not .proved to be treacherous. Instead of at last a:dmitting that the Kosice Program was criminal folly from the outset, they still refer to it as an "ideal." In 1955, when the Communists in Czechoslovakia celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Kosice Program, RFE's "Head and Tail," in a broadcast of April 5, at 8 :15 a. m., declared: "Communist propaganda appeals to democracy, i.e., to the ideals which the Communists have betrayed." On April 7, 1955, at 12 :40 p. m., RFE's "We Call the Communist Party" still praised the Kosice government program, "according to which the Czechoslovalk peo.ple were to elect their representatives in free and secret elections." This whitewashing of the Kosice Program is a deliberate falsehood because only four left wing parties then were handed out licenses by the Communist masters while all anti-Communist parties were declared illegal. The Kersten Committee of the U. S. !House of Representatives ha:s put this sham psychological warfare of RFE in the proper light, by Report No. 8, of December 31, 1954. "Especially the proclamation of the Kosice P.rogram, of April 5, :1,94'5," the Report states on pruge 17, "opened the door for an unobstructed drive on the part of the Communists to seize full power in the country." Policy of Appeasement Let the readers draw their conclusions as they see fit. There is no better way to expose the intrinsic bankruptcy of Radio Free Europe's policy. It is not the fight against communism which these psychological war.rio,rs carry on; they stand for 8Jppeasment amd reconciEation. Thus, of ail ,peo.ple, Konni Zilliacus, the led:t wing Brit~ ish Laborite who has for years been a faithfuil contributor to publi-cations of the Communist ,party, was invited by Radio F.ree Europe to address the Czechosloivak peo,ple. This is what Zilliacus, in broken Czech, beamed over the �SLOVAKIA 33 air waves to the trams-Curtain sJ.a,ves, on April 17, 1953, at 12:40 p. m.: "You would enormously encourage and strengit,hen those in the West who-, for the sake of reconciliatio~, woU!ld l.ike to meet the .Soviet Uni:on and the people's democracies half -w ay if you were to rehabi'liltate those of the Prague trial wiho are ,s till in prison, and clear the memory of those who died or were killed ... " Zilliacurs here did not refer to, any anti-Communist victims. He spoke of .such Communists as the Secretary General of the Ozechoslo.vaik Communist Party, Slansky-Salzmann, who had been subjected to one of -qie interminruble purge triaJs and put to death by his coreligionist, Stefan Rais, then Communist Minister of Justice. No,t am.ti-Communists, but the arch-Communist Sbnsky-Saizmann and his confederates were to be "rehrubilitated" for the sake of " reconciliation" with the Communists. That is the sort of psycho1ogical warfare RJFE has been propagating. In similar vein, ,Milos Vanek, old champion of Red causes, said on Apri,l 12, 1953, at 3 :05 p. m.: " ... as long as the Soviet Union faiis to prove by deeds that she is in earnest in her alleged desire to put an end to the cold war and the hot war, she cannot expect that we may diminish our efforts to liberate all the oppressed peo,ples." One weeik later, on the same "Round Table Discussion" program, again at 3 :05 p. m., Vanek said: "First let the Communists mruke ,p eace with their own people. They ought to resort to peaceful means in their :internal policy, too." We might as weJtl asrk wolves to stop devouring lambs, and hyenas to turn into doves of peace. It is nothing less than RFE's zi1uacus and Vanek expect. It is therefore no exaggeration to state that Radio F,r ee Europe has consistently ad<kessed its broadcasts not to anti-Commu:nists, but to, Communists, Ti,to:i.sts, semi-Communists and pro-Communist Socialists b,e hind the Iron Curtain. This fatal policy has spread apathy among what is left of genuine anti-Communists ,b eyond the Curtain. This is not ,t he inspiring fi.g,ht for freedom; it is the deadly appeasement of the Communist tyranny. Inasmuch as Radio Free Europe is controlled and staffed by socialists, pro-Comm1mists, World Federa:lirsts �SLOVAKIA 34. and other assorted internationalists, we should not be surprised ,t o learn that ineffective and harmful progz,ams, and even broadcasts amounting to, srubotage, have character.i~d its specific ,policies. Particu!larly noteworthy features comprise: 1. The reipetition of lbanalities-"truth- telling." 2. The "People's iProgra.m.." 3. Attacks on petty Communists and prote.ction of Communist bosses. 4. tDefonse of American pro-Communist errors. 5. Broadcasts amounting to saJbotage. 6. The spreading of recognizable and destructive lies. 7. Failure ,t o propagate Gemnan-Czech and GermanPolish reconci'li ation. 8. Occasional advice to, follow Communist suggestions. 9. I.;eininist inoitement to premature revolts. 10. Propa:gation of decadent literature and music. 11. Propagation of internationalism and racial merger. 12. Praise for the New Dea:lera, and criticism of con-· servative Americans. 1 Repetition of Banalities F'or many a year, a disproportionate amount of broadcast time, be it out of ineptness or aotually malicious intent, has ibeen alloted by Radio. Free Europe to the never-ending reiteration of banrulities. We might identify this curious practice as RF1E's special little game of "telling the truth." it goes somewhat ,l ike this: - the Communists call Americans imper.iaJlists; Ame~ rioans are not imperiaUsts. - the Com.mu.rusts claim that they want peace; Communists don't waJILt ,p eace. - the Communists claim that the American economy is !bad; the America1I1. economy is good. Of what avail is the production of sue'h trivialitie.s? Can there be any doubt that the endless repetition of such trite assertions Sipreads boredom and turns away potential listeners? If at least RJFE}'s broadcastevs made a sustained effort to explain why Americans are not imperialists, and why their economy excels that of the collectivists, listeners �SLOVAKIA 35 might be inspired to do, some constructive thinking. The natm-e of RFE's script writers a:nd editors, of course, forbids any such sensilble procedure; for collectivists cannot be expected .to expose the impotence of collectivism. 1In a certain way, RIFE prides itself on beiing "specific" in the stale little game of ".teilling the truth." As an example, the reporter of a broadcast delivered on May 3rd, 1953, ait 8:45 a. m., stated: "In Hungary .t here are obvious supply defficiencies ... Canned food has gone ,b ad ... There is a laok of suga1:> in Bulgaria ... Poland suffers from a shmtage of fish ... " This sort of news, of coll!I'se, is no news behind the Iron Curtain. If t:he economic fai,l,ure of the Soviet re-alm were expl,a ined as the inevitable result of state intervention, listene~ might find it proper to heed such programs. Another part of the quaint little truth-telling game consists of reporting concrete conditions and haippenings from t'he world of the slaive labor camps. Inasmuch as there cannot ,b e any suggestion. regarding the termination of these horrors, the effect of these reports is exactly what the Corrurnmist leaders desire, i. e., to lame the wiU of the people by striking teirror into their hearts. Until May 1, 1954, this sort of aimless and uncoordinated "truth-,teUing" seemed to 1b e RFE's princi,pal task Then--at last-a definite over-all program was announced. Does this mean liberation? Let us look and see. The "Program of the •P eople's Opposi.t ion," proposed on Labor Day, 1954, ait 10 :10 a. m. , and frequently reiterated and referred to, ever since, contained the foUowing ten postulates,: 1. LaJbor unions s'hould belong to their memberis, not the b9sses. The positions of union officials should be elective. 2. There should be less ta1k and more hrurd cash. Hon-est money (sic!) for honest work. 3. The worker should be permitted to choose the type of work he prefers. 4. Overtime should be outlawed. 5. Peasants should be a:llowed to quit the kolkho,z es (i.e. 1 cdllectivies) if they so desire. �36 SLOVAKIA 6. There should be a ceHing on the state's s'hare of agricwltural production. I!'arm oontributioos to the state should be equaliized. 7. The government should wovk for the people, not the politicians. 8. Production should benefit the people, not the state. 9. Emphasis should once more be on the consumer. Small shOil)S, owned and run by little ,people, should be revived, to serve the ,c onsumer. 10. The building industry should be mobiUzed for the benefit of the ,peop'le, instead of the state officials. Some points of this so_,called people's pro,g ram, at first sight, may look impressive. Its cardinal and decisive error derives precisely :firom the inability of its coUectivistic perpetraJtors to recognize the primacy of the enterprise. This program fails to go, to the root of the matter. It does not atfack state control as such. It merely proposes to mitigate and qualify. It is at its core plain socialism. Yet this is the sort of t'hing wihich, in the form of leaflets, is dropped from the trans-Curtain ,s kies by means of the "freedom balloons" which columnists like Drew Pearson have been vaunting for years. This program does not offer any decisive opposition to the tyranny of na;tiona'1ization as such. There is but the indecisive and dU'll suggestion to reform the preSleJilt Communist system, to abolish its excesses, to turn it into some form of Titoism or semi~communism or to return to the socialism of the bankrupt National Front. Instinctively, the Ozechs and Slovaks who hear this socalled ,p eople's program reach for the .lmob and shut it off. They must shrug their shottlders wt the oratorical antics of men .w ho :rant against ta'lking but in their own tum offer little beyond empty talrk. This "Program of the People',s Opposition" is faulty and spurious !because the concept of Rrudio Free Europe is based on a capital error. Radio Free Euro,p e basically main_ tams rthat the threat to the free world comes from Russia as an armed and aggressive power; it obfuscates the fundamental issue of the world~wide Communist conspiracy. In accordance with this leftist line, Radio Free Europe �SLOVAKIA 37 a:bsolutely never refers to, congressional investigations of subversirves in the United States. T.rans-1Curtain listeners M"e completely :unaware of the existence of such men a.IS Jenner, Velde, EaJStland, Walter, Dies, Reece, aJnd Mundt. When the Kerstein committee operated in Munich, in the summer of 1954, RJFE referred to it; but the texts of tes-timonies were edited to suit the over-all ·soft~peda:ling of basic issues. Radio Free Europe acts as if it were set up to preserve the concept of state bureaucracy and iprute:rnali:sm by all avaHa:ble means. Petty Communists Blamed for Party Policy Radio Free Europe acts a:s the quack who peddles curealls for the most nauseating aspects of the Comnmnist di-· sease; iit fails to tackle the roots of communism as such. Thrus it makes much ado about the chicaneries and perversions of petty Communist officiais, but it does not name the real culprits, the wire-,pulilers, the bosses who guide and encourage the brutalities of little village tyrants. Radio ·F ree Europe refers by name to individual Stakhanovites, tractor-drivers, and prison~guards; it disregards the organizers of the hruted Communist drives. lt thus actualily ,protects the pillars of the CommU.111ist society, the calclrlating masterminds who play on the wea;knesses of a confused citizenry and trap therir helpless victims in a net of Comm'll.llist demora1ization and perver,s ion. In "Messia:ges to Those at Home," Radio Free Europe p.hllories the little informers who are known to work for the ,s tate police. A1:most without exception these little fellows are known far and wide as stooges of the Communist masters. Dossiers on these puppets do not add to the knowledge rubout Communist evil-0oers. These dossieI's are largely based on dippings from the press of Communist-controllJ.ed eastern :IDurope. The secret agenrts of the Soviet police, the directors: of the pro.grarrn of terror, are never mentioned. "Messages to Those at Home," on February 29, 1952, at 7 :415 p. m., as an example, said: "Who is the mruster in Nitra? (A tiny Slova!k town-Editor.) Who is the master of whom the Soviet police itself is in fear? It is Sergeant Klike. He is hated, dreaded and mighty. He causes the .pllll- �38 SLOVAKIA ishment of policemen who sometimes haive a hearrt; for the.ix victims.'' Now, who is this monster, Sergeant K1ike? Not any "master" by any means. He is but wellArnoW111 little sergeant of the uniformed poJice ! Again, on June 26, 195,2, at 12 :15 p. m., "Messages to Those at Home" singled out a few Communist women: "Comrades M. PO!korelska, !H. Y anosikova, Kr. Bezakova and M. Dedinlmva," the broadcast addressed itself to these petty Communists, "swine-herds and tractor-drivers, re-· member m time the warnings of today. Tomorrow you may be brought to account for your misdeeds; but tomorrow may be too late for you." "'.Program for Civil and State Servants," on April. 10, 1955, at 8:40 a. m., importantly sounded off: "We call your attention to a dangerous informer. The pensioner Michalek, Kulda Street, Brno, ,persecutes beggars. He chases them from homes and often hands them over to the police. In your own interest, Comrade Michalek, we advise you to stop yoUT dirty work." This sort of broadcasting, declaimed in a lowered, almost comical tone, is suppooed to scare primitive swinehevds and tractor-drivers. The bosses are never named. Radio Flree Europe never criticizes the mistakes or the treason of the past and thus never has to expla;in the real reasons of the Communist successes in the past. In the same way as they conceal systematicaliy a11 real causes of the communization of Czechoslovakia, they conceal also the real causes of Communist advances in other part of the world. Let sleeping dogs lie~that seems to be RFE's guiding inspiration. There is no criticism of Teheran, Yalta, and Potsdam. These conferences, in line with the views of an Alger Hiss, are regavded as joot splendid. If only the bad men of the Kremlin had not betrayed their solemn pledges! "We Teach History," on February 13, 1952, at 6:15 p. m., stated: "The Sov.iet Union broke the Yalta rugreement and betrayed it . . . The ink on the document 'had hardly dried when the Soviet Union made a display of violation and unparalleled cynicism." "Sunday Comments of Ferdinand Peroutka," on April �SLOVAKIA 89 3, 1955, at 12:15 p.m., commented: "When the Yalta ,papers were published, some individuals wanted to reprimand the Democratic leaders foo- lack of cautiousness. But any discussion of some little mistaJkes the Democra;tic leaders may ha'Ve made would merely obscure the ,p rincipal wirong, which has been and remains the systematic deception contrived b,y the Ru€,s ian statesmen. These reaJl,i ties ought to be clear. ly understood by the wor-ld. The Ya!lta conferoo:ce turned into a tragedy, not because of what was agreed upon there, but because the 'Soviet Union failed to honor the agreements." Broadcasts Amounting t.o Sabotage Naturally, if we are decei,v ed regarding om own stu~ pidity, and even betrayal, at Yalta, we are likely to remain unaware of the stupidity and pet.haps even SaJbotage which have characterized a certain type of ~E's refugee programs. Incredible though it may seem, Riadio Free Europe ~against the ,persistent pleas and protests of refugees firom behind the Iron Ourtain - in its Sa,turday programs has offered detailed descriptions of successful flights from the Soviet terror. These ,b roadcasts - have named the locations where the border was passed, and indicated even 1:Jhe person:s who, at the risk of their 'lives, assisted the escapees. There could not have been any better means to alert the Communist police.. The very identities of patriots in eastern Europe were thus disclosed to the Soviet secret police, with the reswlt that any recurrence might be prevented. How self-destructive, at the expense of optimistic American dono,r s, cam. we get? Were the script writevs and editors of these "sensatio:nal" pro,grams really s•o naive that they failed to grasp the sinister consequences of their paradoxical role? Did they reaUy not understand that their disclosures about the specific locations of escape would en~ able the Communist pdlice to plug the last holes in the Coctaj.n? Let us quote from the !broadcast, "I Chose Freedom," of Aprill 25, 1953, 8 :30 a. m. "[ went through Cerna Horka," the refugee interviewee revealed, "walking along the hrigihway. Then I went :ba<ck to tile river bed of Vltaiva, in �40 SLOVAKIA the direction of the Austrian Soviet zone. I approached the Jezuv creek ... across f.rom it there is for:bidden territory. . . . In Frynburg there is a bridge across the riv&, and the road to Vyssi Brod. In St. Thomais there is the headquarters of the ,p atrols. The bridge had ,b een torn doWID.. I made a float from_ an old fence and other wood I gathered. The river is aJbout t_e n meters wide and three meters deep at that spot. (This was said in reply to a question from the broadcaister. - Editor.) I guided the float by means of a pole, and then set foot on the forbidden side. I hid in the bushes anod woods ... On the highway to- St. Thomas I encountered a banbed wire barricade, a,bout three feet high. I found an old laidder in a hut which had been empty ever since the German's left. I broke it in two, put it a;gainst the barricade, climbed, and jumped to the other side. Traversing a distance of a'bout thirty meters, I reached Jezuv creek, which is ·less than a meter wide. I crossed the creek and found myself in the Soviet zone of Austria. "In Austria, I folfowed the highway until I entered a little ho.use below a hill. The Ausitri.ans who occupied this house felt pity for the refugee, and assisted me . They helped me to contact a friend of theirs in Linz who was to get me ,s afely acro,s s a bridge in Linz, on the border of the 1Soviet ·a nd American 2.1ones. That man pro.v ided me with a forged identification card, into which we rubbed some dirt in order to maike the name illeg1ble. I joined a group of girls who passed the sentry at that spot. Nonchalantly, I ,p roduced the forged identity card for the sentry, and without looking back I crossed the bridge. I was in the Western. izone of Austria." Enemy Alerted The Communist enemy couid not have been more brazenly ailerted. Letters of protest against such asinine (if not trea{!herou.s) interviews fl.ooded the expellee press in Munich. Nevertheless, the interviews continued until 1954, by w'hich time a great many of the cracks in the Soviet wall had been revealed to the Russiains, and repaired by them. As late ·as 'May 9, 1954, at 3 :45 p. m ., the "I Chose Freedom" broadcast disclosed the exact details of a flight �SLOVAKIA 41 by express train from Decin, Bohemia, to. Berlin. The in. terviewee described how he had conceailed his presence at the Decin railway stat,ion, how he eluded the attention of the .security agents, aid ,how a "people's po'liceman" at the station in East Berlin 'helped him to escape. As late as Apriil 2, 1955, at 12 :45 p. m., again on the "I Chose Freedom" program, an escapee pictured the detafls of his flight across the above-mentioned bridge in Linz. Can there be any doubt that such interviews. intimidate those behind the Iron Curtain who might be wirlling to cooperate with refugees? Can our friends behind the Iron Curtain maintain erven a shred of confidence in "psyc'hologica1 warriors" who indulge in this sort of give-away? The editor of RFJD's "I Chose Freedom," one Otto Graf, had been editor of the Socialist ,p aper Svet Prace and a well-known CommUJnist collaborator of the National Front. An obscure journalist before War H, he owes hi.s career to his fatal activities in the National Front. Zdenek Fierlinger and Bohumil Lausman, Socialist ministers of the Nationa1l Front, were the pulblishers of Svet Prace, at the time of Graf's editorship. In 1948, on the occasion of the Communist coup in Czechoslovakia, Fierlinger turned out to be a Communist planted in the Sooial Democ.ratic party. Lausman, after his "esca.pe" to the free world, in 1951 worked for a while for Radio Free Europe. Afterward~, he turned out to be a Communist agent and returned to 0zechoslovakia. As editor of the Czechoslovak refugee ,paper, Ce.skoslovenske Noviny, in Ludwigslburg, Gerimany, RFE editor Otto Graf published articles by Lausman. Self-destructive Lies Broadcast It is ha.r d to believe that a man who has ,b een able to function as a newspaper editor is so inept that quite a few of his presumably anti-Communist radio programs in effect equal sabotage of the freedom crusade. That a saboteur of the free world's cause could hardly improve on these refugee programs is evident from their text. An almost equally self-destructive feature of R:ailio Free Europe is the routine broadcasting of transparent lies. �42 SLOVAKIA In a number of pamphlets, including The RFlE Story (p. 14), RFE's psychological warriors proudly admit resorting to lies. Whether lies should be part of our "psycho war" program is 1b oth ethically and practically quite debatable. To brag aJbout one's own lie in print, so that their admission may hie quoted ,b y the enemy, once aga:illl reaches itili.at degree of ingenuousness that in its net results is hardly distinguishaJble fr<Y«..'l saibotage. In addition to all that, many of the fabrications which our RFE brain trusters have th01Ught up are such simon puTe inventions that those for whom they are intended immediately recognize them as such. iFor example, Otto Graf and Vladimir Kucera~Homik, at Christmas, 1954, when maJking programs on the miner's life, made a· report about a great coal mirle catastrophe in Kladno., which a1legdly cost twe:lve lives of miners. This report was invented. We may ibe s,ure that a character like Bohumil Lalli:lman, former chairman of the Ozechoslovak Social Democratic party and afterwards a ,p lain Commrunist agent in Western Germany and Austria, fed RFE such damaging stories, and that some editors believed him. Yet who but one_,time Nation.ail Front colla;borators - RFE's farvorites wou!ld pUJt any trust in LaUSiman anyhow? RFE has made it easy for the Communist to prove RJFE's own mendaoity. Verbatim quotations from RFE's press and radio are all that is :required. T.here is still another lie, even more destructive, which has been produced by the "truth-telling" of Radio Free Europe. It is the number one lie, and concerns the core of the Communist system. There is irrefutable evidence regarding which group is maki:ng communism in the East. This evidence comes from refugees from the East and from various reliable sources. This group is characterized by such · names as Kruglow (or Krugloch), the chief of the Secret Police of the U&SR, Kaganovic, Ehreniburg, Berman, Rakosi_,Rosenkra.Il'Z, etc. In ,aJdd,ition, this group fully and completely constitutes that "invisi'ble government" behind the scenes in �43 SLOVAKIA the East. It is the same group, of course, which also makes the Communist conspiracy in the West. When in 1951 the members of this group (Minister of Justice Stefan Rais, etc.) staged purge tria:ls against other members of .the same group - Slansky-1Sal2'Inann, iReicin, Ka.tiz, etc. - RFE shouted to the world that the entire group was b.eing cruelly persecuted and liquidated in the East. Many samples of suoh programs are availaJble. This greatest and most perverted lie of world communism is !being upheld by RFE even now, and all facts contradfoting it ,a re cut, adjusted or ·s uppressed. Every intellrigent .refugee from the East calils this He the number one .sabotage committed by RFE. An intelligent inv-estigation of FRE as well as of the opinions and the material of the ref.ugees from behind the Iron Curtain would easily bring forth the full truth. 1 Former German Co-Citizens Alienated It is not enough to quote Radio Free Europe to expose its sooia:list and internationalist bias. To point out lost op-, portuni,ties as well as de[iberate omissions permits us to penetrate the confused and hrulf-·hearted mentality of this much~touted and eXipensiive outfit. Perhaps the tbest example of RFE's negativism toward .important objectives of t'he free world is its peculiar attitude towards the Germans. To be sure, on the surface t.he West Ger.man RepubHc and Chance!Hor Adenauer have been officially praised 'b y RFE. Beyond such formalities, IWE has done little to inspire the Czechs and Poles with trust in the Germans. In 1945, the Communists forced the Poles and the C.zec'hs to expel close to fifteen miUion Germans, from their home1and of centUJries. Albout three million of these lost their Hives as they walked through the Iron Ore Mountains, the Sudeten Mountains and the Bohemian Forest or as they were shipped westward in cattle cars which somewhere were left on the traoks. All of the other twelive mililion were r01b1bed of their ,property. Most of them were bea,ten and tortwred. Naturally, the Czechs ,and the Poles fear the venge-· a.nee of their former German co~citizens. Understandrubly, �SLOVAKIA the Communists do, all they can to :keep this fear a1ive among the Poles and the Czechs who are under their domination. It would be the duty of Radio Free Europe to counteract this Communi<st policy by telling the Poles and Czechs a bout the numerous manifestations of good will and the sincere desire for reconciliation on the part of di siplaced Germans living in Western Germany. Radio Free Europe does nothing of the sort. It does not even report the official agreements which expelled Czech statesmen have signed with the German expellees. In summary, R@Es' stand on the highly important expellee prdblem is as foillows: a. It does not even mention the peaceful attitude and program of the German expellees. b. It ridicules exi'led Czechs and Poles who do not hate the Germans. c. It fails ever to refer to the remarkable past achievements of the :G ermans in Czechoslovakia and to examples of German-Czech coopexation. d. It never mentions how the ex,pulsion of the antiCommunist Germans enabled the communization of Czechoslovakia from within. e. It continuaNy harps on the persecutions the Czechs and Poles have suffered under German domination. f. It damns the Germans with faint prai,se, and slyly, in veiled fashion, even incites the Slavs against the Germans. g. By upholding the ex;pulsion of fifteen mililion Germans and defending the Oder-Neisse border, it follows a line of nationality policy which is identical with that of the Communists. 1 Advice to Fellow Communist Suggestions There are many other - apparently often ha:rmless occasions on which RFE's line comcides with what the Communists desire. Why men should be .p aid by Americans to broadcast from expensive stations what our Communist enemies want in the first pl ace is not easy to grasp. Particttlarly ba:ffling examples of American--Soviet co1 �SLOVAKIA 45 incidences ha:ve come from the desk of Milos Vanek, chief · of the Economic Department of the Czechoslovak Desk, RFIE, Munich. Formerly one o.f the most prominent leaders of the 0zech Communist party, Vanek still feels urged to counsel Czechs in harmony with his former confederates. Early in 19'52, Vane'k busied himself forecrusting an immediate inflation, and advising the people to invest their cash in goods, including the expensive products of the Communist gray market. Innumerable programs have carried this message to the Czechs. The broadcast of Ja:nuary 23, 1952, at 6 :45 p. m., admonished the Czechs: "The Communists in Czechoslovakia are about to runloose inflation. Invest all your savings in goods, buy whatever you can, even the e_x1pensive articles on the government market." There was no inflation; but the refugees from the satellite country reported that the Communist government at that time spread exacbly the same rumor of inflation and also adv1sed to spend all savings because it wanted to draw in a:11 "surplus" money without any monetary reform. A year and a half later, when, of a sudden, the new value oif the Czech currency was a:nnounced, neither the Communists in 0zechoslovakia noT Vanek in RIFE had given any wa:rning. When the Communist government asked for shock brigades of voluteers to plant new forests, Vanek enthusia,stically chimed in. "Help to plant new trees," Vanek exhorted the Czechs on the "Economic Program" of May 1, 1953. "The Communist regime," he announced, "will perish, and t'he trees will be for your children." Other programs hawe offered similar a'dvice. •~Prog,ra,m for Women," 0ctob.er 24, 1953, at 1 :45 ,p. m., counseled to sell quality go·ods. to Communist state stores "because the Communist stores are sel'ling the goods to non-Communists, and it is 111ot good to, cheat non-Communists." "Program for Workers," March 23, 1955, 2:10 p. m., suggested that workers as.k foremen for e~tra work becawse it would mean extra money for them -while it would not really help the Communist cause. Along the same line, the old collaiborator, Otto Graf, 1 �46 SLOVAKIA interviewed a fellow by name of Tonda Hornik, who said: "I thus eairned 2,000 crowns extra~it pays not to be lazy." Radio Free Europe, thus, does not urge the satellite slave workers .to relax if not slow down, it spurs them on to work harder - for their Communis t masters. Those in the know were not surprised when "wor.ker" Tonda Hornik, in June, 1955, was exposed as a Communis t agent. One of RFE's editors, Robert Lowkota by name, had gone to the extreme of appealing to the Czech workers not to absent themselves from wor.k; but the protests from refugees who had listened to this monstrosit y w&e so im-,pressive that iRiFE had to back down and, in a broadcast of April 10, 1955, at 12.:45 p. m. ("We Call the Communis t Party"), tried to minimize the importance of Loulkota's aberration. Do these editors who urge the Czech people to fol.Jew suc'h advice have a soft spot in their hearts for the Commwnist~ r are they following the orders of men whose hearts and minds are hard as steel ? On the one hand, Radio Free Europe has urged Czechs to do overtime in factories giving only evasive consolation s, never mentioning how and when liberation could be achieved; on the other, through provocative agitation, it has practically incited them to revolt. Such policy, on the surface, appears contradicto ry. On second thought, we might wonder if all of this confusion is due to ineptness. As long as the Western governmen ts are not prepared to supply .p otential rebels with weapons, no rebellion can succeed. Only people who are unacquaint ed with the nature of communism can hope to overthrow Communis t governments withouit outside assistance. Certainly the present United States governmen t is not inclined to arm potential insurrectio nists. Even if it wanted to, a horde of United Naitions associates would prevent it from going ahead. Why then does Radio Free Europe fail to warn resolutely against revolts at this time? Curiously enough, Lenin favored armed uprisings against his own regime; for nothing exposes more glaringly the staunchest freedom fighters, and nothing offers a more striking opportunity to exterminat e the most stout-heart ed �SLOVAKIA 47 foes of communism. Whatever the reason may be - and it appears most worthwhile to get to the bottom of the situation - Radio Free Europe again and again has played the role of the agent provocateur.Whether or not any sabotage wa:s intended, the policy has actually been of benefit to the Communists. First of all, RFE has pictured the enemy as weak while in reality he is strong. "Life Behind the Iron Curtain," on April 26, 1953, at 8:45 a. m., exclaimed: "There is chaos, uncertainty and fear in the Soviet Union and among its leaders." "Best Article," on April 24, 1953, at 9:05 a. m., stated that "there are rifts within the system," and on April 17 it claimed that "we face the beginning of a dissolution process which affects the entire regime." Few Americans know that the broadcast of RIAS, the American broadcasting station in Berlin, shared in the responsibility for the tragic 1953 rebellion of the Germans in the Soviet zone - a rebellion which led to the arrest and annihila:tion of tens of thousands of our best friends behind the Iron Curtain. Practically no American knows that RFE has sent the same sort of abortive action ,p rograms to the Czechs. On February 8, 1952, at 9:15 p. m., Milos Vanek, on "Economic Program," approvingly spoke of the rise of "armed brigades against their leaders in the Communist party itself." Hopefully he observed that "the signs . . . are already on the horizon." When in Czechoslovakia public demonstrations took place in 1953, Radio Free Europe pictured them in inflammatory scenes. The other programs reflected the same attitudes. On June 21, 1953, at 12 :15 p. m., the perennial "Sunday Comments of Ferdinand Peroutka," referring to the tragic and fatal uprising among the Germans, told the Czechs: "Do you know that tens of thousands of workers there are on the march, shouting 'Ivan, go home? Do you know that everybody there is fed up with the Soviet overlordship, has enough of Soviet exploitation?" �48 SLOVAK IA Again and again, Peroutk a has dicussed prematu re and therefor e suicidal - uprising s in an inflamm atory fashion. For the sake of preservi ng precious friends for a more opportu ne time, we might well have followed the advice of the late Senator Robert A. Taft, who vigorou sly opposed such heedlessness. Propagation of Decadent Literature and Music For the time being, Radio Free Europe might well content itself with building up the morale of those who long for liberatio n from the Commu nist tyrants. There are numerou s straight forward books which take a courage ous stand against any and all undue control by governm ent. These, though, are not the books from which RFE's commentato rs have chosen to quote. No, the cultural fare which they have selected is largely confined to decaden ce in literature, and jazz in the realm of music. The program "Play of the Week" is full of mental confusion and decay. The books which are reviewed and quoted, and which are suppose d to represen t the world of the free, abound in decaden t characte rs, in suicide and perversi on. As to literatur e which is suppose d to represen t eastern Europe, the emphasi s is strongly placed on works of defected collectiv ists, picturin g the horror and the hopeless ness among the satellite nations. The editor of "Book of the Week," on August 3, 1952, at 9:45 a. m., expound ed: "We enable you to become acquain ted with the literatur e which is current in the free world. Take a book by Mannus Ferber, who once was a Commu nist . . . the story in itself is colorless - a tera in the ocean ... there are no ready answers anywhe re .. . " On April 26, 1953, at 9 :45 a. m., "Book of the Week" another typical example - discusse d The Polish present to Giodo: "A mysterio us curse rests on the Jean Mill, by family," the commen tator explaine d. "In vain, Kosta opposes the weight of destiny ... his son-in-la w becomes mentally insane ... his daughte r goes crazy ... the young woman is slowly dying ... the power of fate is the core of the book ... all revolt against it is futile . . . " �SLOVAKIA 49 "Weekly Survey of Culture," of January 4, 1953, at 11 :15 a. m., told of a work of literature that is "full of complexes and inner conflicts . . . " "Film Program," of April 9, 1955, at 2 :20 p. m., reviewed a film directed by Eliza Kazan: " . . . he went to see his mother in the brothel ... he borrowed money from her, even though he despises her, and then he made a good business deal . . . a drama full of instincts, passions, and convulsions, of undertones ... a master work by Kazan ... " This story about a moral and strong father whose wife lives in a brothel was offered by RFE during the Easter holidays. RFE seems to be chockful of split personalities, of people with complexes, of those who are in need of psychiatrists, of people whom we might pity if there were not so little time left and if they were not entrusted with the task of championing our principles of trust in God and our responsibilities as free men. The music offered by RFE, at 10:05 every morning, and at other hours, accords with the confusion, savagery and hopelessness of the literary ,p roducts which these men favor. ,Most of it i:s jruzz in the version of the squieruking dis_ harmonies and noises of primitives, or of complex men who flee from their own souls. The West is rich in music of the highest inspiration. RFE seems not aware of this mighty force in our behalf. The Communist station in Prague does better. The Communists, mindful of national heritage, play Smetana and Dvorak, the great music of the Czech people. They benefit by these magnificent works. But Radio Free Europe broadcasts jazz - alien, uninspiring stuff. Some of the less influential employees on Radio Free Europe have protested against these low and degrading performances. They were told from above to go on producing jazz. Propagation of Internationalism and Racial Merger The general mental and moral climate of Radio Free Europe conveys moods of indecision, wretchedness and vexation. �50 SLOVAKIA Inherentl y most of the ideals which RFE advocates require some sort of super-gov ernment, which means but additional curtailme nt of the liberties which this costly radio network is supposed to champion . On nearly every day, for instance, there is a program which urges the abolition of naturally- grown national culture in favor of the European super-sta te. It is called "Europe Without the Iron Curtain" and it always begins with the slogan: "Europe without the Iron Curtain means the United States of Europe. Yesterda y but Utopia, today the dream of millions, tomorrow reality." The slogan has been formulate d by the widely known internationalis t Karol Belak-Be rger. Paradoxic ally, the Commun ist internatio nalists in the East are smart enough to appeal often to age-old, traditiona l nationalism. Radio Free Europe, which has been presumab ly conceived to fight Commun ist internatio nalism, champion s internatio nalism. "Nearly all Czechs and Slovaks desire the United States of Europe." That is what "The Other Side of the Coin" asserted, on April 5, 1955, at 8 :15 a. m. A free poll or plebiscite among the enslaved Czechs and Slovaks might well disclose a different mood, a different opinion. On June 6, 1952, at 7 :15 p. m., "Europe Without the Iron Curtain" stated: "The world federatio n is a necessity ; but first Europe must be united. The European federatio n is but the beginning ; the United States of the World is the ultimafo aim ... First a European federatio n must be achieved; then we shall be ready for the world federatio n." In accordanc e with this candidly avowed goal, RFE continually disparage s the concept of national sovereign ty, which is dear to the overwhel ming majority of European s. Thus "Commen ts on Events at Home," on April 28, 1953, at 10:45 a. m., slightingl y referred to "the so-called national sovereign ty." "Europe Without the Iron Curtain," on May 5, 1954, at 1:15 p. m., stated: "On the defendan t's .b ank there sits the concept of the national state and its ideological foundation - nationalis m. Frontiers - the straitjack et of the national state - are an anachron ism." �SLOVAKIA 51 The United Nations and UNESCO - a controversial topic among millions of Europeans - are favorites of RFE. "The United Nations gives new hope," said "News," on October 24, 1953, at 1 p. m. "The whole world looks toward the United Nations," said "Who Is Who," on April 22, 1953, at 8:30 a. m. Such statements are daily standard with Radio Free Europe. Ever opposed to nationalism, RFE even objects to national self-determination of the many non-Russian nations inside the Soviet empire. It stands to reason that national self-assertion inside Russia might be a ,p owerful aid to any effort aimed at disintegration of the Soviet Union. Consequently this is opposed by RFE's amazing bleeding hearts. Thus, "Voices of the Western Press," on February 8, 1952, at 8 p. m., quoted: "Russia should not dissolve herself into a number of smaller nations; the nations of the Soviet Union should discontinue their disputes." In its determined opposition to the concept of national heritage, and in harmony with the ideas favored by such American left-wing groups as Americans for Democratic Action, RFE, in programs addressed to the trans-Curtain people, goes so far as to attack the McCarran-Walter Immigration Act. Thus, "Our New York Correspondent Reports," on April 29, 1953, at 10:05 a. m., declared: "The public wants the law to be changed; for the nationality quotas of this law are obsolete . . . The press unanimously demands revision. We hope that the change will be effected." Beyond mere political merger of the nations, Radio Free Europe also campaigns for a merger of races. Thus, for instance, "Europe Without the Iron Curtain," on February 15, 1952, at 6:15 p. m., declared: "Just as Europe, in a way, already represents a nation . . . . there also arises a new nation in the U. S. A. - out of the white, the black, and the yellow races . . . This too will happen in the East of Europe." Along this line, RFE's left-wingers seldom fail to disguise their animosity towards those nations which they regard as particularly nationalistic - against the past Germany, Spain, the Union of South Africa, and the various �52 SLOVAKIA Arab nations. RFE's persistent opposition to the Arab states sometimes reaches comical proportions. An article in itself would be required to document this phase of RFE's internationalism. Praise for New Dealers and Criticism of Conservative Americans In line with its over-all outlook, Radio Free Europe has consistently glorified American New Dealers and has at the same time not refrained from merciless attacks on conservative Americans. In other words, RFE, which should concentrate on psychological warfare against the Communist world con$piracy, has indulged in the hobby of defaming valiant American anti-Communists. No wonder that wideawake Europeans have ever more often asked if RFE is primarily an anti-anti-Communist organization. "Answers to Those at Home," on October 28, 1952, at 10 :05 a. m., proclaimed : "Stevenson was a principal speaker at the celebration for T. G. Masaryk. (Founder and first president of the Czechoslovak republic. - Editor.) Our hope for the future would be rekindled if he were elected President of the United States." On November 4, 1952, at 10:05 a. m., the same program reveled in this choice bit of lyrical effusion: "Adlai Stevenson ... ranks among America's greatest sons, such as Lincoln and F. D. Roosevelt ... He is the very incarnation of America's highest aspirations . . . Within less than a year he rose from obscurity to the pinnacle of American leadership." The record of Radio Free Europe's programs is full of unfavorable remarks about those great Americans who have steadfastly opposed the Communist menace. A flood of vituperation was pou:r;-ed on General Douglas MacArthur upon his dismissal from the Far Eastern scene. His speeches, which have moved the truly anti-Communist refugees from eastern Europe, have been consistently withheld from RFE's programs. It was the same with the great and honorable Senator Robert A. Taft, on the occasion of his campaign for the Republican nomination in 1952. After "Mr. Republican's" �SLOVAKIA 53 defeat at the Chicago Convention, "Our New York Correspondent Reports," on August 7, 1952, at 10:05 a. m., rejoiced: "For Europe it is decisive that the last remainders of isolationism have been removed, and that a sound policy has been carried to victory." Ferdinand Peroutka, in one of his interminable "Sunday Comments," on August 3, 1952, at 12:15 p. m., pontificated: "Taft was the proponent of a policy which can never settle anything, as his adversaries have always pointed out." "Our New York Correspondent Reports," on July 9, 1952, at 8:05 p. m., had this to say: "The opinions of (Herbert) Hoover and (Douglas) MacArthur represent the viewpoint of a minority; these men want to confine themselves to the (exclusive) defense of the American continent. The majority ( of Americans), though, have dimissed this attitude and are conscious of America's global role." "A Program of Novelties," referring to the passing of two famous American journalists Pulitzer and Bert McCormick - on April 3, 1955, at 3 .p. m., called Pulitzer the "son of an Hungarian immigrant, an outstanding American journalist," but criticized Colonel McCormick as a "controversial, reactionary isolationist" who "opposed progress." The Krem'l~n must have been satisfied with that incisive observation. General Impression Created By Radio Free Europe What, then, is the general impression which Radio Free Europe has made, behind the Iron Curtain as well as among the millions of anti-Communists in Western Europe? It is, besides the impression of half-heartedness, indecision, artificiality, and downright clowning. When RFE's broadcasters, directly addressing some poor wretch or some swineherd in some forlorn little hamlet in Slovakia or Bohemia, lower their voices to terrify him, antiCommunist refugees merely laugh. Alas, the farce tastes bitter, because of the lost opportunities, the stupidity, the feeling of treason, and the unsonscionably low moral standard. Next, there is the strong impression of cliche journalism, occupying itseif with superficialities - cars, houses, �54 SLOVAKIA etc. - and largely avoiding verbatim quotations. Instead, they impose their propaganda by means of slogans. Real opinions of the refugees and of the people at home are disregarded by the RFE propaganda. Real anti-Communists are never allowed to get their messages across the Curtain. Real anti-Communists, including the repenting National Fronters, are social outcasts. But the collaborators of the National Front, who even today maintain that the National Front was all right, sit at the big desks and cash their substantial checks, in compensation for their shadow boxing. Then there is the distinct impression of coolness, impersonality and anonymity. Since the well-known anti-Communists of -long standing have been barred from RFEJ, theTe are no names to inspire the listeners. Yes, some men do speak under their own names. These include the left-winger Dr. Joseph Lettrich, the Marxist Vaclav Majer, and such Socialists as Ferdinand Peroutka, Dr. Petr Zenkl and Dr. Jaroslav Stransky. However, these men are known to be weaklings, mere fronts for more powerful personalities. They are recognized to be generally useless; they won't stir the imagination of anyone. As to the known former champions of the Communist causes, trans-Curtain listeners would simply shut off the radio if they knew who was talking to them. Therefore, Milos Vanek now calls himself Pravdomil Basta, and Frantisek Listopad goes by the name of Jan Ctvrtek. Similarly, the leftist Socialist Dr. Miloslav Kohak has become Vitezslav Fram; Otto Graf hides his pro-Communist past under the pseudonym of Franta Tabor, and Karol Belak-Berger has conveniently turned into one Jan Lehota. "Who are these fellows anyhow?" the listeners behind the Curtain must wonder; for they have never heard of them. Naturally, they become suspicious, and their interest sags. Czechs and Slovaks behind the Curtain remember those who never compromised with the Communists. They know that these men are now living in the West - the C:i!echoslovak General of the Army, Lev Prchala, the former Czechoslovak Minister, Dr. Joseph Cerny, and many others, and �SLOVAKIA 55 also some former members of the National Front who in the free West started to denounce it - Dr. Bohdan Chudoba, Dr. Michal Zibrin, or Dr. Helena Kozeluhova, who was expelled in 1946 from the Parliament by the National Front, and the entire younger generation, led by Jiri Havelka, Emil Petrik, etc. The Slovaks have their former Minister, Dr. Ferdinand Durcansky and many others. The listeners behind the Iron Curtain cannot fail to wonder why none of them sends any "messages home" by way of Radio Free Europe. The masterminds of this confusion, whose net results represent sabotage of the anti-Communist fight - are way behind the firing lines in New York City, and in Washington. They, too, shroud themselves in anonymity. 'T he over-all impression, then, is one of cynism and emptiness, artificiality, and insincerity. Who wants to buy apples which are rotten at the core? RFE's Program In conclusion, we must ask: What, then, is the program of Radio Free Europe, or has no program been designed so far? Those behind the Curtain, who have the time to listen at all, would like to know in what way liberation may be achieved, and what specific assistance, beyond mere words, the West might be able to offer. Radio Free Europe has not been able to supply any satisfactory information in respect to this all-important ,problem. Here, however, we cannot help allowing for valid reasons to excuse much of RFE's ineffectualness; for even if RFE were staffed with outright, hard-hitting anti-Communists, it could not ,possibly make any promises which the Western governments, particularly the government of the U. S. A., were not willing to back with power. There is no use in claiming superiority in aircraft or guided missiles if that superiority admittedly does not exist. It is not possible to promise an economic blockade as long as that policy has not been adopted by the American government. Radio Free Europe - or any of the other liberation �56 SLOVAKIA stations - cannot very well offer the severing of diplomati c relations with the Soviet criminals when our own statesmen meet with them at the summit and have lots of smiling pictures :taken for the benefit of the Soviet ieaders. However, if RFE were really (instead of merely in name) an independe nt and private organizat ion, and really staffed with intelligen t and genuine anti-Com munists, it could urge Western governme nts to take stronger steps. Radio Free Europe might demand the creation of military units exclusive ly composed of refugee and e~pellee volunteers. It might demand the ousting of Commun ists from both internatio nal and national organizat ions. It might establish extensive contacts with the undergro und behind the Curtain, instead of causing its discovery and extermin ation by Communi sts. Radio Free Europe might frankly discuss the present difficultie s while at the same time exhorting the Iron Curtain slaves not to lose hope. The trans-Cu rtain ,people who long for liberty might at least be informed about where all of us stand. They should know about a long-rang e .p rogram as well as what can be done at this time. Most importan t of all, Radio Free Europe should become a clear and shining beacon to those who are willing to fight for their liberties. This can only be achieved by throwing out the clowns and confusion ists who want to fight communism with a Socialist "peo1ple',s program. " If Radio Free Europe cannot cleanse itself because it is from top to bottom infested with collectivists, internatio nalists, materialists and decadents , then it would be better to shut it down and replace it with an entirely new organizat ion. Perhaps this great reform cannot be undertak en as long a:s even in the United States the grass roots patriots, who unequivocally believe in God, the Constitut ion and freedom of enterprise , are successfu lly boycotted and ridiculed. Perhaps an effective liberation station can only be establishe d when at last the collectivi st corrupter s of the United States are driven from their entrenche d ,p ositions in America' s public institution s, and her means of communi cation, and her governme nt itself. � 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 1956, Vol. 6 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 18), March 1956.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 19), June 1956.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 20-21), September-December 1956.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1956 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 17 A CLOSE-UP VIEW OF RADIO FREE EUROPE By Jiri Brada ( From January, February, and March, 1956, issues of "FACTS FORUM," Dallas, Texas) Radio Free Europe, a netwoPk of stations which has been set up in westeim Europe for the purpose of sending anti-Communist broadcasts to the peoples on the other side of the Iron Curtain, is a division of Free Europe Committee, Inc. The latter, a private organization, was founded in 1949 by a group of American citizens, among whom the Hon. Herbert H. Lehman, U. S. Senator from New York, played a prominent role. In 1950, the Free :illurope Committee started its annual fund-raising drive under t'he name of Crusade for Freedom. Most of us, at one time or another, have bee111 exposed to the propaganda of thi,s powerful orgacization, via newspapers, radio, television, freedom cars, and freedom trains, and most of us have read and heard a'bout FEC's muchpublicized freedom balloons. The Free Europe Committee claims that millions of its funds have been contributed by more than twenty-five million American citizens. Many more millions of dollars, though, have 1been donated by corporations, including some of the large foundations. Henry Ford II, whose Ford Foundation through the yeairs has been a heavy contributor, is nationa:l chairman of the Crusade for Freedom. As such he is the ,successor of General Lucius D. Clay. Other ,prominent sponsors of the project include David Sarnoff, Edward R. Murrow, Harold E . Stassen, Walter S. Gifford, Samuel Unger, Geo:rge Barasch, C. B. Tibbets, and Joseph J. Fliesser. Headquarters of the Crusaide is 29 West 157th Street, New York City. C. D. Jackson, in crucial years one of President Ei~ senho.w er's "paiace guard," headed the Free, Europe Committee for a cosiderable length of time. Wh~tney H. Shepardson is its current president. Joseph C. Grew, former U. S. Ambassador to Japan, is Chairman of the Board of the F,r ee Europe Committee. Arthur W. Page is Chairman of the Executive Committee. 18 SLOVAKIA Vice presidents include W. J. C. Eagan, Levering Tyson, Samuel S. Wa.J.ikeT, JT., and :Bernard Yarrow. Jo'hn C. Tra.phagen serves as treasurer, Theodore C. Augustine as secretary and assistant itireasurer, and J. Clay.ton Miller as assistant secretary. On March 15, 1955, Helfuert H. Lang was replaced as Director of Radio Free Europe by W. J. C. Eagan. 'Dhe Board of Directors, besides several of the abo.venamed, is composed of A. A. Berle, David K. :ID. Bruce, Jr. , Frederick R. Dolbeare, Julius Fleischmann, H. B. Miller, Irving S. Olds, George U. 1S huster, Charles M. Spofford, and H. Gregory Thomas. Among additiona:l sponsors of the Free EUTope Comm1ttee we find such nationally known figures as Clarence L. Adcock, Raymond Pace Alexander, Laird Bell, Francis Biddle, Rolbert Woods Bliss, Robert F. Bradford, !Hairry A. Bullis, Cecile B. De Mille, Frank R. Denton, William J. Donovan, Mark 1F . iIDthridge, James A. Farley, Virginia C. Gildersleeve, Charles R.. Hook, Palmer Hoyt, Paul Kesten, Henry ,R, Luce, Joseph V. McKee, Web Maddox, H. B. Miller, tSamuel E. Morison, F.rederiok Osborn, John W. Sibley, Sp)'l'os Skouras, Chairles P. 'Daft, DeWitt Wallace, W. W. Waymac:k, Walter H. Wheeler, Jr., Charles E. Wilson, Mrs. Quincy Wright, and Darryl Zanuck. The 1952 list of national sponsors also featured Jaimes B. Carey, .A:J.ilen W . Dulles, William Green, and Matthew Woll. Besides a sprinkL ing of men who uphold America's tradiitions of limited govVeTrunent and the free market economy, there is :the usual contingent of ancient and ubiquitous New Dealers. Headquarters of ,t he Free Emope Committee is a few stone's throws from <bhrut of the Crusade for Freedom, at 110 West 57th Street, New Yo.rk City. The political and ideological influence of the Free Europe Committee spans continents. No organization in the world exerts more power over the refugees from eastern Europe. lt practicaft:ly maintains a monopoly on placing refugee students in American colleges. It controls the University College at 'S trassbourg, F.rance. Besides the periodical, News from Behind the Iron Curtains, :the Free Europe Commi,t tee has published num- SLOVAKIA 19 erous booklets and pamphlets Olll communism in eastern Europe. Radio 1Free IDurope, whioh is lo·cated at the Committee's headquarters, 110 West 57th ,S treet, is thus but one, though no doU!bt the most important, department of the Free Em:-ope Committee. While officially a dilVision of a private o,r gani,z ation, Radio Free Em·ope does of course not devise amy arbitrairy policy of its own. It has been conceived as a private a:rnn of the American government's foreign policy and as such reflects the res,pective competence or confusion of Washington. The princ1pal editorial offices of Radio F1ree Europe, while taking their cues from New Yor.k and Washington, are located in Euro.pe, especia!lly in western Germany. European headquarters is at English Gardens (Englisoher Garten) 1, Munich 23, Germany. Riahard J. Condon is European diirector. The largest :broadcasting stations of Radio Free Europe aire located outside of Munich and Frankfurt on the Main. Their principal programs are broadcast in the various languages oif Communist-dominaited peoples, suoh as Czech, Slovaik, Hungarian, Roumanian, Bulgarian, Albanian, and Polish. Influence of Soviet Postwar Policy In order to grasp the policy of these programs, it ~ well worth recalling the Soviet postwar policy in the satellite nations of eastern Europe. For the sa;ke of appearance and eXipediency, no outright Communist governments were set up by the USSR immediately upon the end of World War fil. •I nstead, there arose the so-calied governments of "national fronts" or "people's fronts" or "popular :fironts." Moscow's commissars saw to it that no parities of the real center nor, of course, any of the ,right wing m01Vements were admitted to these fronts; lbut even the non-Communist left wing parties, such as those of the Socialists or Social Democrats, were from the outset largely ied by puppets of the Soviet Union, many of whom had up to then lived in comparative obscurity. Within the course of a few months or years respective- 20 SLOVAKIA ly, these non-.Communisit leftist parties were forged into total tools of the globa.'l Communist conspiracy. Freedom of eleotion, assembly and press weire abolished; trade and industry were nationalized; non-·conformis:ts, by means of the "people's courts," were crushed, and "national committees," virz. soviets, soon dictated and .strangled all !branches of ,public and private iife. 'Dho.ughtful readers may wonder why so many of the Socialist-minded colla,borators were in due time permitted by the Co.m munist authorities to leave their countries. They cannot help being amazed to iearn that it is maiinly these collectivi.stic refugees from the sateilli,te nations whom Radio Free Europe has entrusted with program-.c ontroHing positions. There ,Marxians and sta,tists were 'ballyhooed as "victims" of rS oviet 1persecution, while practically all those who had escaped from the Communists when the Russian armies swept over their countries, i.e., those who at all times had ste·a dfa:stly opposed the Communist menace, were systematicallv excluded from Radi·o Free Europe. Is it possible that a good many of these Socialist twin brothers of the C ommunists were not prevented from reaching our side of the Iron Curtain because on the basis of their ,Marxist past they were likely to confuse and adultcra,te the crusade of the free world? Is it possi,b le that some of them even promised merely to pose as foes of communism, and therefore in r eality continued their collabora-· tion with the Communists, in the guise of foes? At any rate, quite a few of these recent allies, of the Communists are now earning considerable fees firom the funds of the Crusade for Freedom, in payment of their ineffectual and phony ;psychological warfare. Former Red Confederates in Top Jobs The real champions of political and economic freedom , the real opponents of state intervention, the real adversaries o.f materialism, atheism and tyranny were either rejected or ffa-ed by <Radio Free Europe, and are now sitting on the side lines. The men of the Kremlin should indeed be pleased with this curious policy of Radio• 'Free Europe. To be sure, RF1E's •b osses offer us a re ady-made excuse SLOVAKIA 21 for employing so many former Soviet collruborators in top positions. No one, they aver, is more thoroughly aware of Communist deviousness than 8Jre those who have experienced Communist tactics in practice. However-and this is the crux of the matter-not one of these former confe• derates of the Communists !has come forth !With any .protest against his former ooHa;boration, and none of the former Communists on Rooio Free Europe has come forth with any protest against his former communism. They shun the role of the ,r epentant sinner. They all of a sudden ,p ose as experts of :the democrntic way, a;s pioneers of individual, personal freedom. The Whittaker Chamtbers type is excluded. By no means have aH of these men mere:ly posed ais anti-Communists while in ever so many instances they could not help going soft on the Communist -line. A giroot many, being Socialists, have been so blind with regard to -limited governmental and the free mar,ket economy, and still are such loyal believeil'S in the benefits of Socialist inter,vention, planning and control, that they consistently devise policies which ,p lay into the hands of the Communists by appeasing them. The Polish, Ozechoslo1va;k and Hungarian broadcasting stations of IRadio Free Europe, which equal the power of t he German station in ,M unich, i. e., 50,000 watts, run pro. grams for 20 hours a day. Nume!l'ous short wave stations send broadcasts in the various idioms of eastern Europe t hree or four houirs daily. It is claimed that 29 RF:Ei statjons are now functioning. The Czechoslovak station near Munich is as strong as that of Munich or that of the American Forces network, in that city. In operation since May 1, 1951, it covers political commentaries; daily commentaries; the international situat ion (transmitted from New York offices); programs for workers, peasants, women, young ,people, and children; economics; history; music; entertainment, etc. , and news every hour on the hour. Source Material Far Left of Center The over-all ideology of these prog1rams is largely determined by former members of the Czechoslovak National 22 SLOVcAKIIA Front, i.e., one-time Co,. nrpu:ni.3t colla,borator.s. From time to time, these men ireceive written instructions of specific subjects :from the New Yovk offices where left..,wingers set the tone Dr. Mar.tin Kvetko and Dr. Julius First, :known and prominent former pro-Oommunists, instruct alll editors at regular meetings. Carefully selected boo.ks on communism, clippings from such American publications ·a s The New York Times, The New York Hierald T.rilbune, T.iine, Life, ~tc., items from the press of AmerJcan la;bor unions, material from Communist paipers on bo:th sides of the Curtain, and monitored terts of the Czechoslova;k Communist radio represent the source materiaJl f.rom which the script writers draw. Theire are also special "intelligence" reports. Straight conservative papers and magazines are ta;boo at Radio Free Em:rope. Script writera know how to toe the line. They know that they might as welJ -look for another job if they dare use_materiail or ideas from the Ohicago Triibune or such of Oll!I' magazines :as American !Mercury, American Legion Maga•zine, Ohristian Economics, HUiIIlan Events, National Review and National Repulblic. To summarize - iRJmE progtrams are shl!,POO- according to the dM"ectives of (a) :the American bosses and (b) the hired leftist National Fronters from eastern Europe. The ran!k and file Socialist or o:therwise• leftist editors are either unintelligent or servile or both, and grind out their chores in accordance with their o.rders. AoturuNy, tRill1E policies vary only in degree, !but not in sulbstance,. :f.rom other psychological warfare .s tations of the free world. These inolude Radio Free Asia, strution RIAS in Berlin, Radio Llberation - a private Amer.ican station which broadcasts to IPOOPles inside the USSR - and of course the Voice of America. None of them ,t akes a consistent stand againsit the iphilosophy of g01Vernment intervention a;nd government control, none of them - except for occasional and half-ilieaTted Hp servJce- champions freedom of enterprise. No wonder that so far our psychological warfare has failed. In order to document for American readers WlhaA: sort of ideas aTe being tTansmitted to the fron Curtain world SLOVAKIA 23 iby their expensive ly staffed freed.om stations, I have for some years gathered from RFE Czec'hoslov.alk programs a substantia :l coNection of radio scTipbs and tape recording s, from which I sha;ll quote in the followh]-g. If any Sllogan may be offered to character ize the genera:! tenor of all too many programs , let us quote whait a well-know n American a·p ologist for the Soviet causes has said in the process of the Far Eastern debacle: "Let them fall, ;b ut do not let it appear that we pushed them." Propagation of Socialism May 1, 1953, 3 :15 ip. m . : "The Socialist youth of the whole world sends its greetings to the youth of Czechoslovakia. We assuTe you that we s hall reach the aim ... the day, when we will be alble to join you in democrac y in the fig,ht for socialism , social justice and freed.om. " At the end of the program the International was played. (The International is the rallying song of world communi sm.) May 3, 1953, 1,2 :15 p. m.: Ferdinan d Peroutka , chief of R~'s Czechoslova!k desk in New York, a weH-known Soci'alist rund one-•t ime .prominen t member of the pro-Comu munist National •ffiront, in his "Sunday Comment s of Ferdinand Peroutka ": "Eisenho wer's program, on .t:he other hand, even though America's factories have not been nati01I1ali2:ed, stands for the concept of world socialism . TheTe is no better way to desoribe it. This is sociaJism . . . The aim of 1:Jhe program outlined by tile President of the United States is to socialize -life." 1 May 1, 1954, 2 :'50 p. m.: "Today, on May 1st, we convey our g,reetings to aN those who are dedicated to the faith in democrat ic socialism ." (To Commun ist-domin ated countries May 1st is synonym ous with America' s July 4th, and the term "Democra tic Socialism " is a Commun ist term used in May Day speeches to descTilbe Commun ist ideology. ) May 4, 1954, 2:10 p. m.: "Program for WorkeTs: "Leon Jouhaux - a g,reat man, descende d from a famNy in which revoltitio nism has been a tradition . His father partidpaJ ted in the revo.1t of the Paris Commun e . . . a born revolution ary ... " GANS.ER LIBRARY MILLERS VILLE STATE COLLEGE 24 SLOV!AKIA May 5, 1954, 2:10 p. m.: "Leon Jouhaux - a great revolutionary, a great rre:fo1rmeT ... " March 23, 1'955, 12:40 p. m. Program, "We Call the Communist Party": "The present order (in eastern Europe) r:ierely serves to continue the dictatorship . . . this jungle which falsely is fabeiled as legitimaJte socia.lism." March 23, 2:20 p. m. Dr. Jan Hajek, on program, "Living Science - Discussion with Young People," said : "Socia1ism has 1become adult. Socialist thinkers are no longer irresponsible radicals. The fundamenta!l problem of modern socialism is man's relation to the state. "The modern socialist rejects both extremes - laissez faire and state control. He is aware of his duties as well as his rigihts. "The citizens of the Socialist society must be conscious of their heritage, aind proud of it." Along this line, the Czechoslova:k editors and broadca;sters crurefully avoid repudiating the measures of socializaJtion and communrzation wbich their own National Front had irnstituted in tJhe postwar years, and often go so far a;s to appro;ve of similar Communist measures in satellite Europe. Thus, on October 28, 1952, at 11 :'50 a. m., the broadcaster of "We Cali t he Communist Party," exclaimed: "Seven years ago, .the decrees of the P,r esident of the Republic ibrought forth the nationalization of industry. In this way Czechoslovakia set out on her way of democraJtic independence.'' So.oialist Policies Defended T.hese ipsychological warriors of the RFE thus still don't realize tha,t it was a crime to cooperate with the Communists, or if they do, :they don't admit it. There is never any hint that the 1Socialist po'licies of the National Front as such have iJ.ed to disaster, no inkling that socialism, because it infringes upon the rights of the individual, leads to communism. Therefo,re, these so-called freedom ,broadcasters ne;ver ,p oint out that the misery of the :p eople in eastern Europe -largely deri;ves from Socialist meddling with the affairs of :the people ; they blame it all on \Soviet exploitation, armaments, emphasis on heavy industry, and that sort of thing. SLOVAKIA 25 Yes, ,t hey have mentioned the "forced Communist eco-• nomy." What they mean by it may be seen from "Lnternationa1 Commentary from New York," in its :broadca,st April 18, 1953, at 6 :05 p. m. The broadcaster explained that "this mearus in Czechoslovakia bhe return of the fo,r mer export policy, ,t he return to the production of quality arrticies. To put an end to this over-emphasis, on heavy industry must be the goal of our new democratic way." · That is all. No, reference to libeTation from the Socialist bureauaracy, from Socialist oppression. Just a shift from armaments to quality ,p roducts. Nothing more. Feroinamd Peroutka, in his broadca;st of 'Sunday, April 27, 1952, at 12 :15 p. m., declared: "The Communists lie when they tell you that we want to ;restore caipitalism, that we intend to ,r eturn to the proprietors the property which has been ta1ken from them some time ago . . . I repeat: the program ,o f the Czechoslova•k exiles is not capitalism and the return to 1938. Nor do we wish to hand baok the mines and foundries to their former owners. All we care for is thaJt the Communist government, which means dependence on Russia, disappears." It might be argued that an occasional ,p rogram of this sort migiht have its place in the o.ver-all setup 1because, after all, there still are oM 'Socialists in Czechoslovalkia who have no use for the Communists. Yet isn't it strange that while there are programs for workeirs, peaJSants and Communists, there are none £or businessmen? Sometimes they talk about free competition, but often it is but the competitiion of collectively owned factories amongst themselves. The terminology of their broadcasts is af the Socialist variety, including the trite ranting against "Capitalists" and "reactionaries". I now shail ,proceed to offer documentary evidence to show that Radio •F ree Europe also aids, and sometimes even propagates, Titoism and communism, and frequently extols Communist leaders. Milos Vanek, one-.time big wheel in the Commun1st party of Czechoslovakia, and now chief of the economics department of RFE's Czechoslovak desk, said on November 21. 1952. at 11.30 a. m.: "Marx. Engels. Trotsky-for them 1 26 SLOVAKIA Marxism was the ,s ubstitute for the Western revoilution of human rights." The co:mmentaJtor of "Weekly Survey of the Ame:rican Press," on April 12, 1953, art; 8 :30 a. m., said: "The New York Herald Trilbune is of the opinion that the trial of Mindszenty, the HungM'ian cardin.a;l, as wehl as the trial of Slansky and similar crimes in other Communist countries, ought to ,be remembered ... " Possibly, if not proba,bly, tt was one of the numerous left-wingers on the staff of the Tribune who plamed this cOITU!pting little seed of associating the fearless anti-Comm'l.llllist cairdinal with that old Marxian wheel'horse and Kremlin errand iboy, Slans.ky..Salzmann, who stood as solidly for the Leninist-iStalinist program as any Communist who happened to get purged in some intra..party feud. Sure enough, if the Tribune man did not give a ring to his pal at the CzechosloV'aik desk in New York's RFE heaidquarters, the latter did not fail to picik up that choke tidlbit. After all, any "opinion" of the stai:d and ·p resumably coruserva,tive New Yo11k Herald 'Dribune is safe quoting. Who is there 1bra;zen enough to accuse the o}d Tribune of being sUJbversi,v e? And thus, by association with a ,primate and mal1tyr of the Roman Catholic Church, a Communist li0kspittle is being groomed for respectaJbility. And this in the name of fighting the totalitarian enemy, by an organization which is financed by American donations, a;nd which is sponsored ,b y well--Omown Americams. Again and again, ,R JFE's psychological warriors do not attack Marxism-eommunism as such but what, with tears of regret, they c01I1de:mn is its "degeneracy." Consequently, the listener-unless he be quite alert--is mduced to fancy that communilsm, with which so many RFE bigwigs: once cooperated, would not be so bad if only it had not "degenerated." RFE Attacks Russian Imperialism but not Communism Fid<filing that tune, RJF])'s "Europe without the Iron Curtain," on March 2, 1952, at 3:45 .p. m., complained a/bout the "degeneration of the old Communist ideaJls." Commenting on the arrest of the Kremlin-serving boss- SLOVAKIA 27 es Sling, Olementis and 'Slansky, RFE's "Comments on Events of the Day," on February 13, 1952, at 7 :30 p. m., waxed somewihat melanc'hoiic: "They consciously closed their eyes, dreaming about the Communist security of the future . . . they dreamed . . . what was to remain of the ide·a ls once the dream had come to Ml end?... A cynical disdain for Communist ideals ... " K•rurol Bel:aJk-lBerger, the left wing Socialist, in RFE's "Round Table Discussion," on April 12, 1953, at 3 :05 p. m., nostalgically referred to the "millions of idealists and men of good wilJ" who had lbelieved in communism and merely deplored the "methods" that had "failed." Regretfully he mused that "the whole aippeal of communism has evaporated ... " 'I'.he policy of collaboration with the Communists was quite distinotly expressed by the old Socialist comrade, Ferdinand Peroutka, in his '~Sunday Oomments" of April 27, 1952, at 12 :15 p. m., when he answered the attack of the Communist dM'ly, !Rude Pravo, on exil.es such a,s he. '"It a<ecuses us of wor,king for the restoration of capitalism, along with the return of the western powers," stated Peroutka. "All we wish to say in reply to these accusations is this: "There has been a Socialist government in England for six yeam. This government would hardly have forced you, the Czech and Slovak people, to accept capitalism. Today we have a Conservatiive government in EngJand. Yet it has not abolished any of the Labor government's Socialist measures, and it would not do anything of the sort in CzechoslovaJkia. "As to America-she supports T1to. Now even though Tito acc~ts America's /bountiful assistance with open hands, t he United States government has not demanded the denationalization of a single Yugoslav factory. Yes, Tiito never ceased to be a Communist. America says: 'Let everyone do as he pleases.' America says: 'Go ahead and be a Communist if that's what you want. All we ask is that you stop supporting Russian imperialism.' America has no 1ntention 28 SLOVAKIA to force runyone, including Czechoslovaikia, to return to capitalism." iDr. Miloslav Kohak, another widely known one-time. Communist collaborator of the National Front who saved his skin in the nick of time and landed a fat job as cllief (until his replacement recently) of RJFE's "Political Comments on the Siituation at Hlome," on November 25, 1952, at 10:45 a. m., had this to say ,a bout Arthur London: "From ,b eg.inning to end, the indictment against London is preposterous. It is the whoie International Brigade of the Civil War irn Spain which is 'being attacked in his person-another proof of the reactionary attitude now prevailing in the Soviet Uni:on. She no longer wants the support of men who. believe in ideals, ibut only of those who believe in bayonets." On May 8, 1954, at 5 :45 .p. m., in "Stories Written ey Life," a young Communist inmate of a slave labor camp was quoted as follows: "Your Christian concept comes close to the 01riginal Leninist ideology . . . We must wm•k toge-· ther, faithful to the ideas which Lenin has taught us." Dr. Jaros}aiv Stransky, Socialist and an oJd Oommunist collaborator of the Nationa1 Front, said in "Taik with Home," on March 1, 1952, at 9 :30 p. m.: "Denunciation should not play amy .part in ,p olitics . . . Arny honest Communist will join the rest of us in condemning denunciation." Probably the old collaborator still believes that it is possible for Communists to ibe honest. Consequently he had no trouble :i n slipping that one in. The trouble with Radio Free Europe, though, is quite another matter. Squandering miHions of American dollars for the alleged ,purpose of fighting communi:sm, it hires old Communist collaborators who rant about "honest" Communists. "We Call the Communist Party," of February 22, 1952, at 11.45 a. m., went all out in praise of Communist cultural achievements. "Czech Communist literature ha;s brought forth works of outstanding value," RFE's psychological warrior declared. "We enjoy reading Communist authors as much as any others." A curious way of inducing an anti-Communist attitude, to say the least. 29 SLOVAKIA 'Dhe Socialist 'Franta Klatil, in "Political Comments on the Situation at Home," on April 21, 1953, at 11]_ :45 a. m., mused that "Tito has more character ithan his one-time aL lies in Prague . . . iHe secured this independence, and quite thoroug,hly at that." It is quite a common rprocedure foir Radio Free Europe to quote Tito and Red Yugoslavia's press as authorities in both moral and political matters. Holiday trips to Tito's Yugoslavia have ,b ecome a cherished habit o,f RFE's editors. Programs Glorify Revolutionary Workers Another variety of the collectivist ideology which pre~ vails among RFE eclitora is the frequent praise of those enemies o,f the Kremlin who have not been able to toe the party line but 'have otherwise been valuable fighters in the class struggle against the so-called exploiters. Thus, the RFE .script, "We CaU the Communist Party," which was broadcast to Ozechoslov,a kia on March 29, 1955, at 12 :40 p. m., in its glorification of title revolutionary workers of Kronstadt sounds as if it had been wr.itten by the old Lithu~ ani3JI14m.e:rican anarchist Alexander Benkman. "'I1he workers of Kronstadt," it says in that script, "fought so that the soviets may be elected freely and democratically, that their just demands be fulfilled - demands which ,w ere entirely in the spirit of the Oct01ber Revolution. They fought for democrati:c soviets ... " True enough, this broadcas-t; was addressed to Communits, and it might seem reasona,;ble to some to appeal to -Communists in the spirit of genuine communism; but is it likely that hardened trans--Ourtain Communi sts of 1955 believe in appeals in behalf of communi~m when they M"e uttered by those who are hired by Americans? Yet, incredtble though it may appear, that is the line which RFE commentators adopted a:S fate as 1955. Let us choose another example of this folly by quoting Dr. JaroS'la.v tStransky, former minister of the National Front, in his "Commentary on the Political Situation" of April 2, 1955, 9 :50 a. m. In this gem of an "anti-Communist" ,b roa.d~ast, the Communist collaborator of b.ut a few yea.rs ago sang the praise of the "Spartacus Bund," the 1 30 SLOVAKIA militant group which, following World War I, broke away from Germany's left wing 'Socirulists in order to usher in the Communist ·r evolution. Stransky really waxed lyr-ical over Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, the .two most prominent and violent ieaders: of early German communism. "The modern 1Spartacus movement," pontificated Stransky in behalf of iRFE's version of freedom, "Karl Liebknecht and !Rosa Luxemburg . . . they were pacifists, the foes of imperi:aiism and militarism . . . they were beaten to death iby the mob . . . theN" articles, their speeches, their lettevs were inspired by a vision of order and beauty for the modem world . . . in every sentence which that undersized, unga.irny Jewess, Luxemburg, wrote, there was humaneness and poesy ... " We are not arguing a:bout the lofty intentions of these two world famous pioneers of the Communist revolution, misguided and unbalanced though they were. We are here questioning the wisdom of Ameri'CMlS who, in the name of the freedom for which Washington and Lincoln lirved and died, hN'e a notorious one-time Communist collaJborator who stiH offers hymns to the cause of the Communist revolution. That Stransky shmdd express such revolutionary feeL ings is obvious; that well-meaning Americans should sponhor such project does ,p rovide food for thought. National Fronts Vaunted In line with this farcically suicidal policy these RFE psychological wrurriors natua-ally still vaunt the very Nationa'l Front which paved the way for the total subjugation of the Czech and 'Slovak people •b y the Communists. These strange refugee policy-maJkers, script-writers and editors still live in that dreary world in which fatal short-~ghtedness delivered their people into. the hands of the ,Krem!lin. Thus, on October 28, 1952, at 10 :05 a. m., these socaned heralds of freedom told the home folks ibeihind the Cua-tain: "There wiH once more ,b e a time when Benes will arise ... " On OctOlber '2/l, 1953, at 4 :35 p. m., they aippealed to "those who remember the pre..,F~bruary (i.e.,. 1945-48) democra~y ... " On January 11, 1953, at 1:1:30 a. m., the Je:ftist ,S ociaiist Belak-iBerger, "in Comments on the Events SLOVAKIA 31 of the Day," exclaimed: "The real Nationa;l Front (i.e., peaceful ,Socialist-Communist collaborators) today lives in the hearts of the Ozechs and SlovaJks." As if there had not been mass murders all over Czeohoslova;kia ,throughout the existence of the National Front, RFE's "Time, Men, Events" of OctOlbeT 18, 1952, at 10 :15 a. m., told the good ipeople behind the Curtain that "the conditions of 194!5 adually orig.iinated in the will and the wish of ,the majority of the people." New Yovk "Comments of the International Situation," on April 12, 1952, decried the "Communist treason" of February, 1948, 1b y which the last collruborators of the National Front were ex;pelled ,b y the K!remlin's agents. "The Communists," this broadcast said, "seized ,p ower by means of the militia and the police ... Before this time (i.e., before February, 1948, d!uTi'Il!g the entire time of the National Front) the democratic politicians had pro.v ed their .g ood will to cooperate (with the Communi:sts ... However) the democratic politioians (the National Front men and today the RFE men) ·· were removed ... " This is of course true, as all of us know. Yet what sort of democrats are Commumst collaborators who tacitly consent or act1vely connive at the suppressiion and murder of political non-conformists? These Nationa,l ·F ronters, now employed by IRFE, did not discoiver the criminality of their Communist a:IHes when moderates and conservatives were systematical!ly murdered. Only when tihe Communists put the finishing touches on the enslavement of .the Ozec'hoslova!k people by exterminating their own co,Uaborators did these curious freedom fighters b,elatedly decide that the Krem1in's henchmen were afiter all poor champions of liberty. Yet whom do the American ,b osses ·o f Radio F.ree Europe select for speaking to the enslaved people of Ozecho"' slovalkia? Not those \WlO from the beginning refused to compromise with the Communist tyrants. They have preferred to choos:e such National Fronters as Dr. iPetr Zenkl, Dr. Joseph Lettrich, Vaclav Majer, Dr. Ivo Duchacclc, and Dr. Ja,roslav Stransky. The latter has ,b een offered as a weeklv feature attraction. 32 SLOVAKIA Like Alger Hiss, who stiU maintains that Yalta was "a good thing," but that the bad Communists unfortunately broke their ,pledges, these N8Jtiona:l Fronters claim that their colla:borator with the CommunLsbs---the so-called Kosice Program-would have been "a good thing" if only the Communists had not .proved to be treacherous. Instead of at last a:dmitting that the Kosice Program was criminal folly from the outset, they still refer to it as an "ideal." In 1955, when the Communists in Czechoslovakia celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Kosice Program, RFE's "Head and Tail," in a broadcast of April 5, at 8 :15 a. m., declared: "Communist propaganda appeals to democracy, i.e., to the ideals which the Communists have betrayed." On April 7, 1955, at 12 :40 p. m., RFE's "We Call the Communist Party" still praised the Kosice government program, "according to which the Czechoslovalk peo.ple were to elect their representatives in free and secret elections." This whitewashing of the Kosice Program is a deliberate falsehood because only four left wing parties then were handed out licenses by the Communist masters while all anti-Communist parties were declared illegal. The Kersten Committee of the U. S. !House of Representatives ha:s put this sham psychological warfare of RFE in the proper light, by Report No. 8, of December 31, 1954. "Especially the proclamation of the Kosice P.rogram, of April 5, :1,94'5," the Report states on pruge 17, "opened the door for an unobstructed drive on the part of the Communists to seize full power in the country." Policy of Appeasement Let the readers draw their conclusions as they see fit. There is no better way to expose the intrinsic bankruptcy of Radio Free Europe's policy. It is not the fight against communism which these psychological war.rio,rs carry on; they stand for 8Jppeasment amd reconciEation. Thus, of ail ,peo.ple, Konni Zilliacus, the led:t wing Brit~ ish Laborite who has for years been a faithfuil contributor to publi-cations of the Communist ,party, was invited by Radio F.ree Europe to address the Czechosloivak peo,ple. This is what Zilliacus, in broken Czech, beamed over the SLOVAKIA 33 air waves to the trams-Curtain sJ.a,ves, on April 17, 1953, at 12:40 p. m.: "You would enormously encourage and strengit,hen those in the West who-, for the sake of reconciliatio~, woU!ld l.ike to meet the .Soviet Uni:on and the people's democracies half -w ay if you were to rehabi'liltate those of the Prague trial wiho are ,s till in prison, and clear the memory of those who died or were killed ... " Zilliacurs here did not refer to, any anti-Communist victims. He spoke of .such Communists as the Secretary General of the Ozechoslo.vaik Communist Party, Slansky-Salzmann, who had been subjected to one of -qie interminruble purge triaJs and put to death by his coreligionist, Stefan Rais, then Communist Minister of Justice. No,t am.ti-Communists, but the arch-Communist Sbnsky-Saizmann and his confederates were to be "rehrubilitated" for the sake of " reconciliation" with the Communists. That is the sort of psycho1ogical warfare RJFE has been propagating. In similar vein, ,Milos Vanek, old champion of Red causes, said on Apri,l 12, 1953, at 3 :05 p. m.: " ... as long as the Soviet Union faiis to prove by deeds that she is in earnest in her alleged desire to put an end to the cold war and the hot war, she cannot expect that we may diminish our efforts to liberate all the oppressed peo,ples." One weeik later, on the same "Round Table Discussion" program, again at 3 :05 p. m., Vanek said: "First let the Communists mruke ,p eace with their own people. They ought to resort to peaceful means in their :internal policy, too." We might as weJtl asrk wolves to stop devouring lambs, and hyenas to turn into doves of peace. It is nothing less than RFE's zi1uacus and Vanek expect. It is therefore no exaggeration to state that Radio F,r ee Europe has consistently ad<kessed its broadcasts not to anti-Commu:nists, but to, Communists, Ti,to:i.sts, semi-Communists and pro-Communist Socialists b,e hind the Iron Curtain. This fatal policy has spread apathy among what is left of genuine anti-Communists ,b eyond the Curtain. This is not ,t he inspiring fi.g,ht for freedom; it is the deadly appeasement of the Communist tyranny. Inasmuch as Radio Free Europe is controlled and staffed by socialists, pro-Comm1mists, World Federa:lirsts SLOVAKIA 34. and other assorted internationalists, we should not be surprised ,t o learn that ineffective and harmful progz,ams, and even broadcasts amounting to, srubotage, have character.i~d its specific ,policies. Particu!larly noteworthy features comprise: 1. The reipetition of lbanalities-"truth- telling." 2. The "People's iProgra.m.." 3. Attacks on petty Communists and prote.ction of Communist bosses. 4. tDefonse of American pro-Communist errors. 5. Broadcasts amounting to saJbotage. 6. The spreading of recognizable and destructive lies. 7. Failure ,t o propagate Gemnan-Czech and GermanPolish reconci'li ation. 8. Occasional advice to, follow Communist suggestions. 9. I.;eininist inoitement to premature revolts. 10. Propa:gation of decadent literature and music. 11. Propagation of internationalism and racial merger. 12. Praise for the New Dea:lera, and criticism of con-· servative Americans. 1 Repetition of Banalities F'or many a year, a disproportionate amount of broadcast time, be it out of ineptness or aotually malicious intent, has ibeen alloted by Radio. Free Europe to the never-ending reiteration of banrulities. We might identify this curious practice as RF1E's special little game of "telling the truth." it goes somewhat ,l ike this: - the Communists call Americans imper.iaJlists; Ame~ rioans are not imperiaUsts. - the Com.mu.rusts claim that they want peace; Communists don't waJILt ,p eace. - the Communists claim that the American economy is !bad; the America1I1. economy is good. Of what avail is the production of sue'h trivialitie.s? Can there be any doubt that the endless repetition of such trite assertions Sipreads boredom and turns away potential listeners? If at least RJFE}'s broadcastevs made a sustained effort to explain why Americans are not imperialists, and why their economy excels that of the collectivists, listeners SLOVAKIA 35 might be inspired to do, some constructive thinking. The natm-e of RFE's script writers a:nd editors, of course, forbids any such sensilble procedure; for collectivists cannot be expected .to expose the impotence of collectivism. 1In a certain way, RIFE prides itself on beiing "specific" in the stale little game of ".teilling the truth." As an example, the reporter of a broadcast delivered on May 3rd, 1953, ait 8:45 a. m., stated: "In Hungary .t here are obvious supply defficiencies ... Canned food has gone ,b ad ... There is a laok of suga1:> in Bulgaria ... Poland suffers from a shmtage of fish ... " This sort of news, of coll!I'se, is no news behind the Iron Curtain. If t:he economic fai,l,ure of the Soviet re-alm were expl,a ined as the inevitable result of state intervention, listene~ might find it proper to heed such programs. Another part of the quaint little truth-telling game consists of reporting concrete conditions and haippenings from t'he world of the slaive labor camps. Inasmuch as there cannot ,b e any suggestion. regarding the termination of these horrors, the effect of these reports is exactly what the Corrurnmist leaders desire, i. e., to lame the wiU of the people by striking teirror into their hearts. Until May 1, 1954, this sort of aimless and uncoordinated "truth-,teUing" seemed to 1b e RFE's princi,pal task Then--at last-a definite over-all program was announced. Does this mean liberation? Let us look and see. The "Program of the •P eople's Opposi.t ion," proposed on Labor Day, 1954, ait 10 :10 a. m. , and frequently reiterated and referred to, ever since, contained the foUowing ten postulates,: 1. LaJbor unions s'hould belong to their memberis, not the b9sses. The positions of union officials should be elective. 2. There should be less ta1k and more hrurd cash. Hon-est money (sic!) for honest work. 3. The worker should be permitted to choose the type of work he prefers. 4. Overtime should be outlawed. 5. Peasants should be a:llowed to quit the kolkho,z es (i.e. 1 cdllectivies) if they so desire. 36 SLOVAKIA 6. There should be a ceHing on the state's s'hare of agricwltural production. I!'arm oontributioos to the state should be equaliized. 7. The government should wovk for the people, not the politicians. 8. Production should benefit the people, not the state. 9. Emphasis should once more be on the consumer. Small shOil)S, owned and run by little ,people, should be revived, to serve the ,c onsumer. 10. The building industry should be mobiUzed for the benefit of the ,peop'le, instead of the state officials. Some points of this so_,called people's pro,g ram, at first sight, may look impressive. Its cardinal and decisive error derives precisely :firom the inability of its coUectivistic perpetraJtors to recognize the primacy of the enterprise. This program fails to go, to the root of the matter. It does not atfack state control as such. It merely proposes to mitigate and qualify. It is at its core plain socialism. Yet this is the sort of t'hing wihich, in the form of leaflets, is dropped from the trans-Curtain ,s kies by means of the "freedom balloons" which columnists like Drew Pearson have been vaunting for years. This program does not offer any decisive opposition to the tyranny of na;tiona'1ization as such. There is but the indecisive and dU'll suggestion to reform the preSleJilt Communist system, to abolish its excesses, to turn it into some form of Titoism or semi~communism or to return to the socialism of the bankrupt National Front. Instinctively, the Ozechs and Slovaks who hear this socalled ,p eople's program reach for the .lmob and shut it off. They must shrug their shottlders wt the oratorical antics of men .w ho :rant against ta'lking but in their own tum offer little beyond empty talrk. This "Program of the People',s Opposition" is faulty and spurious !because the concept of Rrudio Free Europe is based on a capital error. Radio Free Euro,p e basically main_ tams rthat the threat to the free world comes from Russia as an armed and aggressive power; it obfuscates the fundamental issue of the world~wide Communist conspiracy. In accordance with this leftist line, Radio Free Europe SLOVAKIA 37 a:bsolutely never refers to, congressional investigations of subversirves in the United States. T.rans-1Curtain listeners M"e completely :unaware of the existence of such men a.IS Jenner, Velde, EaJStland, Walter, Dies, Reece, aJnd Mundt. When the Kerstein committee operated in Munich, in the summer of 1954, RJFE referred to it; but the texts of tes-timonies were edited to suit the over-all ·soft~peda:ling of basic issues. Radio Free Europe acts as if it were set up to preserve the concept of state bureaucracy and iprute:rnali:sm by all avaHa:ble means. Petty Communists Blamed for Party Policy Radio Free Europe acts a:s the quack who peddles curealls for the most nauseating aspects of the Comnmnist di-· sease; iit fails to tackle the roots of communism as such. Thrus it makes much ado about the chicaneries and perversions of petty Communist officiais, but it does not name the real culprits, the wire-,pulilers, the bosses who guide and encourage the brutalities of little village tyrants. Radio ·F ree Europe refers by name to individual Stakhanovites, tractor-drivers, and prison~guards; it disregards the organizers of the hruted Communist drives. lt thus actualily ,protects the pillars of the CommU.111ist society, the calclrlating masterminds who play on the wea;knesses of a confused citizenry and trap therir helpless victims in a net of Comm'll.llist demora1ization and perver,s ion. In "Messia:ges to Those at Home," Radio Free Europe p.hllories the little informers who are known to work for the ,s tate police. A1:most without exception these little fellows are known far and wide as stooges of the Communist masters. Dossiers on these puppets do not add to the knowledge rubout Communist evil-0oers. These dossieI's are largely based on dippings from the press of Communist-controllJ.ed eastern :IDurope. The secret agenrts of the Soviet police, the directors: of the pro.grarrn of terror, are never mentioned. "Messages to Those at Home," on February 29, 1952, at 7 :415 p. m., as an example, said: "Who is the mruster in Nitra? (A tiny Slova!k town-Editor.) Who is the master of whom the Soviet police itself is in fear? It is Sergeant Klike. He is hated, dreaded and mighty. He causes the .pllll- 38 SLOVAKIA ishment of policemen who sometimes haive a hearrt; for the.ix victims.'' Now, who is this monster, Sergeant K1ike? Not any "master" by any means. He is but wellArnoW111 little sergeant of the uniformed poJice ! Again, on June 26, 195,2, at 12 :15 p. m., "Messages to Those at Home" singled out a few Communist women: "Comrades M. PO!korelska, !H. Y anosikova, Kr. Bezakova and M. Dedinlmva," the broadcast addressed itself to these petty Communists, "swine-herds and tractor-drivers, re-· member m time the warnings of today. Tomorrow you may be brought to account for your misdeeds; but tomorrow may be too late for you." "'.Program for Civil and State Servants," on April. 10, 1955, at 8:40 a. m., importantly sounded off: "We call your attention to a dangerous informer. The pensioner Michalek, Kulda Street, Brno, ,persecutes beggars. He chases them from homes and often hands them over to the police. In your own interest, Comrade Michalek, we advise you to stop yoUT dirty work." This sort of broadcasting, declaimed in a lowered, almost comical tone, is suppooed to scare primitive swinehevds and tractor-drivers. The bosses are never named. Radio Flree Europe never criticizes the mistakes or the treason of the past and thus never has to expla;in the real reasons of the Communist successes in the past. In the same way as they conceal systematicaliy a11 real causes of the communization of Czechoslovakia, they conceal also the real causes of Communist advances in other part of the world. Let sleeping dogs lie~that seems to be RFE's guiding inspiration. There is no criticism of Teheran, Yalta, and Potsdam. These conferences, in line with the views of an Alger Hiss, are regavded as joot splendid. If only the bad men of the Kremlin had not betrayed their solemn pledges! "We Teach History," on February 13, 1952, at 6:15 p. m., stated: "The Sov.iet Union broke the Yalta rugreement and betrayed it . . . The ink on the document 'had hardly dried when the Soviet Union made a display of violation and unparalleled cynicism." "Sunday Comments of Ferdinand Peroutka," on April SLOVAKIA 89 3, 1955, at 12:15 p.m., commented: "When the Yalta ,papers were published, some individuals wanted to reprimand the Democratic leaders foo- lack of cautiousness. But any discussion of some little mistaJkes the Democra;tic leaders may ha'Ve made would merely obscure the ,p rincipal wirong, which has been and remains the systematic deception contrived b,y the Ru€,s ian statesmen. These reaJl,i ties ought to be clear. ly understood by the wor-ld. The Ya!lta conferoo:ce turned into a tragedy, not because of what was agreed upon there, but because the 'Soviet Union failed to honor the agreements." Broadcasts Amounting t.o Sabotage Naturally, if we are decei,v ed regarding om own stu~ pidity, and even betrayal, at Yalta, we are likely to remain unaware of the stupidity and pet.haps even SaJbotage which have characterized a certain type of ~E's refugee programs. Incredible though it may seem, Riadio Free Europe ~against the ,persistent pleas and protests of refugees firom behind the Iron Ourtain - in its Sa,turday programs has offered detailed descriptions of successful flights from the Soviet terror. These ,b roadcasts - have named the locations where the border was passed, and indicated even 1:Jhe person:s who, at the risk of their 'lives, assisted the escapees. There could not have been any better means to alert the Communist police.. The very identities of patriots in eastern Europe were thus disclosed to the Soviet secret police, with the reswlt that any recurrence might be prevented. How self-destructive, at the expense of optimistic American dono,r s, cam. we get? Were the script writevs and editors of these "sensatio:nal" pro,grams really s•o naive that they failed to grasp the sinister consequences of their paradoxical role? Did they reaUy not understand that their disclosures about the specific locations of escape would en~ able the Communist pdlice to plug the last holes in the Coctaj.n? Let us quote from the !broadcast, "I Chose Freedom," of Aprill 25, 1953, 8 :30 a. m. "[ went through Cerna Horka," the refugee interviewee revealed, "walking along the hrigihway. Then I went :ba<ck to tile river bed of Vltaiva, in 40 SLOVAKIA the direction of the Austrian Soviet zone. I approached the Jezuv creek ... across f.rom it there is for:bidden territory. . . . In Frynburg there is a bridge across the riv&, and the road to Vyssi Brod. In St. Thomais there is the headquarters of the ,p atrols. The bridge had ,b een torn doWID.. I made a float from_ an old fence and other wood I gathered. The river is aJbout t_e n meters wide and three meters deep at that spot. (This was said in reply to a question from the broadcaister. - Editor.) I guided the float by means of a pole, and then set foot on the forbidden side. I hid in the bushes anod woods ... On the highway to- St. Thomas I encountered a banbed wire barricade, a,bout three feet high. I found an old laidder in a hut which had been empty ever since the German's left. I broke it in two, put it a;gainst the barricade, climbed, and jumped to the other side. Traversing a distance of a'bout thirty meters, I reached Jezuv creek, which is ·less than a meter wide. I crossed the creek and found myself in the Soviet zone of Austria. "In Austria, I folfowed the highway until I entered a little ho.use below a hill. The Ausitri.ans who occupied this house felt pity for the refugee, and assisted me . They helped me to contact a friend of theirs in Linz who was to get me ,s afely acro,s s a bridge in Linz, on the border of the 1Soviet ·a nd American 2.1ones. That man pro.v ided me with a forged identification card, into which we rubbed some dirt in order to maike the name illeg1ble. I joined a group of girls who passed the sentry at that spot. Nonchalantly, I ,p roduced the forged identity card for the sentry, and without looking back I crossed the bridge. I was in the Western. izone of Austria." Enemy Alerted The Communist enemy couid not have been more brazenly ailerted. Letters of protest against such asinine (if not trea{!herou.s) interviews fl.ooded the expellee press in Munich. Nevertheless, the interviews continued until 1954, by w'hich time a great many of the cracks in the Soviet wall had been revealed to the Russiains, and repaired by them. As late ·as 'May 9, 1954, at 3 :45 p. m ., the "I Chose Freedom" broadcast disclosed the exact details of a flight SLOVAKIA 41 by express train from Decin, Bohemia, to. Berlin. The in. terviewee described how he had conceailed his presence at the Decin railway stat,ion, how he eluded the attention of the .security agents, aid ,how a "people's po'liceman" at the station in East Berlin 'helped him to escape. As late as Apriil 2, 1955, at 12 :45 p. m., again on the "I Chose Freedom" program, an escapee pictured the detafls of his flight across the above-mentioned bridge in Linz. Can there be any doubt that such interviews. intimidate those behind the Iron Curtain who might be wirlling to cooperate with refugees? Can our friends behind the Iron Curtain maintain erven a shred of confidence in "psyc'hologica1 warriors" who indulge in this sort of give-away? The editor of RFJD's "I Chose Freedom," one Otto Graf, had been editor of the Socialist ,p aper Svet Prace and a well-known CommUJnist collaborator of the National Front. An obscure journalist before War H, he owes hi.s career to his fatal activities in the National Front. Zdenek Fierlinger and Bohumil Lausman, Socialist ministers of the Nationa1l Front, were the pulblishers of Svet Prace, at the time of Graf's editorship. In 1948, on the occasion of the Communist coup in Czechoslovakia, Fierlinger turned out to be a Communist planted in the Sooial Democ.ratic party. Lausman, after his "esca.pe" to the free world, in 1951 worked for a while for Radio Free Europe. Afterward~, he turned out to be a Communist agent and returned to 0zechoslovakia. As editor of the Czechoslovak refugee ,paper, Ce.skoslovenske Noviny, in Ludwigslburg, Gerimany, RFE editor Otto Graf published articles by Lausman. Self-destructive Lies Broadcast It is ha.r d to believe that a man who has ,b een able to function as a newspaper editor is so inept that quite a few of his presumably anti-Communist radio programs in effect equal sabotage of the freedom crusade. That a saboteur of the free world's cause could hardly improve on these refugee programs is evident from their text. An almost equally self-destructive feature of R:ailio Free Europe is the routine broadcasting of transparent lies. 42 SLOVAKIA In a number of pamphlets, including The RFlE Story (p. 14), RFE's psychological warriors proudly admit resorting to lies. Whether lies should be part of our "psycho war" program is 1b oth ethically and practically quite debatable. To brag aJbout one's own lie in print, so that their admission may hie quoted ,b y the enemy, once aga:illl reaches itili.at degree of ingenuousness that in its net results is hardly distinguishaJble fr<Y«..'l saibotage. In addition to all that, many of the fabrications which our RFE brain trusters have th01Ught up are such simon puTe inventions that those for whom they are intended immediately recognize them as such. iFor example, Otto Graf and Vladimir Kucera~Homik, at Christmas, 1954, when maJking programs on the miner's life, made a· report about a great coal mirle catastrophe in Kladno., which a1legdly cost twe:lve lives of miners. This report was invented. We may ibe s,ure that a character like Bohumil Lalli:lman, former chairman of the Ozechoslovak Social Democratic party and afterwards a ,p lain Commrunist agent in Western Germany and Austria, fed RFE such damaging stories, and that some editors believed him. Yet who but one_,time Nation.ail Front colla;borators - RFE's farvorites wou!ld pUJt any trust in LaUSiman anyhow? RFE has made it easy for the Communist to prove RJFE's own mendaoity. Verbatim quotations from RFE's press and radio are all that is :required. T.here is still another lie, even more destructive, which has been produced by the "truth-telling" of Radio Free Europe. It is the number one lie, and concerns the core of the Communist system. There is irrefutable evidence regarding which group is maki:ng communism in the East. This evidence comes from refugees from the East and from various reliable sources. This group is characterized by such · names as Kruglow (or Krugloch), the chief of the Secret Police of the U&SR, Kaganovic, Ehreniburg, Berman, Rakosi_,Rosenkra.Il'Z, etc. In ,aJdd,ition, this group fully and completely constitutes that "invisi'ble government" behind the scenes in 43 SLOVAKIA the East. It is the same group, of course, which also makes the Communist conspiracy in the West. When in 1951 the members of this group (Minister of Justice Stefan Rais, etc.) staged purge tria:ls against other members of .the same group - Slansky-1Sal2'Inann, iReicin, Ka.tiz, etc. - RFE shouted to the world that the entire group was b.eing cruelly persecuted and liquidated in the East. Many samples of suoh programs are availaJble. This greatest and most perverted lie of world communism is !being upheld by RFE even now, and all facts contradfoting it ,a re cut, adjusted or ·s uppressed. Every intellrigent .refugee from the East calils this He the number one .sabotage committed by RFE. An intelligent inv-estigation of FRE as well as of the opinions and the material of the ref.ugees from behind the Iron Curtain would easily bring forth the full truth. 1 Former German Co-Citizens Alienated It is not enough to quote Radio Free Europe to expose its sooia:list and internationalist bias. To point out lost op-, portuni,ties as well as de[iberate omissions permits us to penetrate the confused and hrulf-·hearted mentality of this much~touted and eXipensiive outfit. Perhaps the tbest example of RFE's negativism toward .important objectives of t'he free world is its peculiar attitude towards the Germans. To be sure, on the surface t.he West Ger.man RepubHc and Chance!Hor Adenauer have been officially praised 'b y RFE. Beyond such formalities, IWE has done little to inspire the Czechs and Poles with trust in the Germans. In 1945, the Communists forced the Poles and the C.zec'hs to expel close to fifteen miUion Germans, from their home1and of centUJries. Albout three million of these lost their Hives as they walked through the Iron Ore Mountains, the Sudeten Mountains and the Bohemian Forest or as they were shipped westward in cattle cars which somewhere were left on the traoks. All of the other twelive mililion were r01b1bed of their ,property. Most of them were bea,ten and tortwred. Naturally, the Czechs ,and the Poles fear the venge-· a.nee of their former German co~citizens. Understandrubly, SLOVAKIA the Communists do, all they can to :keep this fear a1ive among the Poles and the Czechs who are under their domination. It would be the duty of Radio Free Europe to counteract this Communi<st policy by telling the Poles and Czechs a bout the numerous manifestations of good will and the sincere desire for reconciliation on the part of di siplaced Germans living in Western Germany. Radio Free Europe does nothing of the sort. It does not even report the official agreements which expelled Czech statesmen have signed with the German expellees. In summary, R@Es' stand on the highly important expellee prdblem is as foillows: a. It does not even mention the peaceful attitude and program of the German expellees. b. It ridicules exi'led Czechs and Poles who do not hate the Germans. c. It fails ever to refer to the remarkable past achievements of the :G ermans in Czechoslovakia and to examples of German-Czech coopexation. d. It never mentions how the ex,pulsion of the antiCommunist Germans enabled the communization of Czechoslovakia from within. e. It continuaNy harps on the persecutions the Czechs and Poles have suffered under German domination. f. It damns the Germans with faint prai,se, and slyly, in veiled fashion, even incites the Slavs against the Germans. g. By upholding the ex;pulsion of fifteen mililion Germans and defending the Oder-Neisse border, it follows a line of nationality policy which is identical with that of the Communists. 1 Advice to Fellow Communist Suggestions There are many other - apparently often ha:rmless occasions on which RFE's line comcides with what the Communists desire. Why men should be .p aid by Americans to broadcast from expensive stations what our Communist enemies want in the first pl ace is not easy to grasp. Particttlarly ba:ffling examples of American--Soviet co1 SLOVAKIA 45 incidences ha:ve come from the desk of Milos Vanek, chief · of the Economic Department of the Czechoslovak Desk, RFIE, Munich. Formerly one o.f the most prominent leaders of the 0zech Communist party, Vanek still feels urged to counsel Czechs in harmony with his former confederates. Early in 19'52, Vane'k busied himself forecrusting an immediate inflation, and advising the people to invest their cash in goods, including the expensive products of the Communist gray market. Innumerable programs have carried this message to the Czechs. The broadcast of Ja:nuary 23, 1952, at 6 :45 p. m., admonished the Czechs: "The Communists in Czechoslovakia are about to runloose inflation. Invest all your savings in goods, buy whatever you can, even the e_x1pensive articles on the government market." There was no inflation; but the refugees from the satellite country reported that the Communist government at that time spread exacbly the same rumor of inflation and also adv1sed to spend all savings because it wanted to draw in a:11 "surplus" money without any monetary reform. A year and a half later, when, of a sudden, the new value oif the Czech currency was a:nnounced, neither the Communists in 0zechoslovakia noT Vanek in RIFE had given any wa:rning. When the Communist government asked for shock brigades of voluteers to plant new forests, Vanek enthusia,stically chimed in. "Help to plant new trees," Vanek exhorted the Czechs on the "Economic Program" of May 1, 1953. "The Communist regime," he announced, "will perish, and t'he trees will be for your children." Other programs hawe offered similar a'dvice. •~Prog,ra,m for Women," 0ctob.er 24, 1953, at 1 :45 ,p. m., counseled to sell quality go·ods. to Communist state stores "because the Communist stores are sel'ling the goods to non-Communists, and it is 111ot good to, cheat non-Communists." "Program for Workers," March 23, 1955, 2:10 p. m., suggested that workers as.k foremen for e~tra work becawse it would mean extra money for them -while it would not really help the Communist cause. Along the same line, the old collaiborator, Otto Graf, 1 46 SLOVAKIA interviewed a fellow by name of Tonda Hornik, who said: "I thus eairned 2,000 crowns extra~it pays not to be lazy." Radio Free Europe, thus, does not urge the satellite slave workers .to relax if not slow down, it spurs them on to work harder - for their Communis t masters. Those in the know were not surprised when "wor.ker" Tonda Hornik, in June, 1955, was exposed as a Communis t agent. One of RFE's editors, Robert Lowkota by name, had gone to the extreme of appealing to the Czech workers not to absent themselves from wor.k; but the protests from refugees who had listened to this monstrosit y w&e so im-,pressive that iRiFE had to back down and, in a broadcast of April 10, 1955, at 12.:45 p. m. ("We Call the Communis t Party"), tried to minimize the importance of Loulkota's aberration. Do these editors who urge the Czech people to fol.Jew suc'h advice have a soft spot in their hearts for the Commwnist~ r are they following the orders of men whose hearts and minds are hard as steel ? On the one hand, Radio Free Europe has urged Czechs to do overtime in factories giving only evasive consolation s, never mentioning how and when liberation could be achieved; on the other, through provocative agitation, it has practically incited them to revolt. Such policy, on the surface, appears contradicto ry. On second thought, we might wonder if all of this confusion is due to ineptness. As long as the Western governmen ts are not prepared to supply .p otential rebels with weapons, no rebellion can succeed. Only people who are unacquaint ed with the nature of communism can hope to overthrow Communis t governments withouit outside assistance. Certainly the present United States governmen t is not inclined to arm potential insurrectio nists. Even if it wanted to, a horde of United Naitions associates would prevent it from going ahead. Why then does Radio Free Europe fail to warn resolutely against revolts at this time? Curiously enough, Lenin favored armed uprisings against his own regime; for nothing exposes more glaringly the staunchest freedom fighters, and nothing offers a more striking opportunity to exterminat e the most stout-heart ed SLOVAKIA 47 foes of communism. Whatever the reason may be - and it appears most worthwhile to get to the bottom of the situation - Radio Free Europe again and again has played the role of the agent provocateur.Whether or not any sabotage wa:s intended, the policy has actually been of benefit to the Communists. First of all, RFE has pictured the enemy as weak while in reality he is strong. "Life Behind the Iron Curtain," on April 26, 1953, at 8:45 a. m., exclaimed: "There is chaos, uncertainty and fear in the Soviet Union and among its leaders." "Best Article," on April 24, 1953, at 9:05 a. m., stated that "there are rifts within the system," and on April 17 it claimed that "we face the beginning of a dissolution process which affects the entire regime." Few Americans know that the broadcast of RIAS, the American broadcasting station in Berlin, shared in the responsibility for the tragic 1953 rebellion of the Germans in the Soviet zone - a rebellion which led to the arrest and annihila:tion of tens of thousands of our best friends behind the Iron Curtain. Practically no American knows that RFE has sent the same sort of abortive action ,p rograms to the Czechs. On February 8, 1952, at 9:15 p. m., Milos Vanek, on "Economic Program," approvingly spoke of the rise of "armed brigades against their leaders in the Communist party itself." Hopefully he observed that "the signs . . . are already on the horizon." When in Czechoslovakia public demonstrations took place in 1953, Radio Free Europe pictured them in inflammatory scenes. The other programs reflected the same attitudes. On June 21, 1953, at 12 :15 p. m., the perennial "Sunday Comments of Ferdinand Peroutka," referring to the tragic and fatal uprising among the Germans, told the Czechs: "Do you know that tens of thousands of workers there are on the march, shouting 'Ivan, go home? Do you know that everybody there is fed up with the Soviet overlordship, has enough of Soviet exploitation?" 48 SLOVAK IA Again and again, Peroutk a has dicussed prematu re and therefor e suicidal - uprising s in an inflamm atory fashion. For the sake of preservi ng precious friends for a more opportu ne time, we might well have followed the advice of the late Senator Robert A. Taft, who vigorou sly opposed such heedlessness. Propagation of Decadent Literature and Music For the time being, Radio Free Europe might well content itself with building up the morale of those who long for liberatio n from the Commu nist tyrants. There are numerou s straight forward books which take a courage ous stand against any and all undue control by governm ent. These, though, are not the books from which RFE's commentato rs have chosen to quote. No, the cultural fare which they have selected is largely confined to decaden ce in literature, and jazz in the realm of music. The program "Play of the Week" is full of mental confusion and decay. The books which are reviewed and quoted, and which are suppose d to represen t the world of the free, abound in decaden t characte rs, in suicide and perversi on. As to literatur e which is suppose d to represen t eastern Europe, the emphasi s is strongly placed on works of defected collectiv ists, picturin g the horror and the hopeless ness among the satellite nations. The editor of "Book of the Week," on August 3, 1952, at 9:45 a. m., expound ed: "We enable you to become acquain ted with the literatur e which is current in the free world. Take a book by Mannus Ferber, who once was a Commu nist . . . the story in itself is colorless - a tera in the ocean ... there are no ready answers anywhe re .. . " On April 26, 1953, at 9 :45 a. m., "Book of the Week" another typical example - discusse d The Polish present to Giodo: "A mysterio us curse rests on the Jean Mill, by family," the commen tator explaine d. "In vain, Kosta opposes the weight of destiny ... his son-in-la w becomes mentally insane ... his daughte r goes crazy ... the young woman is slowly dying ... the power of fate is the core of the book ... all revolt against it is futile . . . " SLOVAKIA 49 "Weekly Survey of Culture," of January 4, 1953, at 11 :15 a. m., told of a work of literature that is "full of complexes and inner conflicts . . . " "Film Program," of April 9, 1955, at 2 :20 p. m., reviewed a film directed by Eliza Kazan: " . . . he went to see his mother in the brothel ... he borrowed money from her, even though he despises her, and then he made a good business deal . . . a drama full of instincts, passions, and convulsions, of undertones ... a master work by Kazan ... " This story about a moral and strong father whose wife lives in a brothel was offered by RFE during the Easter holidays. RFE seems to be chockful of split personalities, of people with complexes, of those who are in need of psychiatrists, of people whom we might pity if there were not so little time left and if they were not entrusted with the task of championing our principles of trust in God and our responsibilities as free men. The music offered by RFE, at 10:05 every morning, and at other hours, accords with the confusion, savagery and hopelessness of the literary ,p roducts which these men favor. ,Most of it i:s jruzz in the version of the squieruking dis_ harmonies and noises of primitives, or of complex men who flee from their own souls. The West is rich in music of the highest inspiration. RFE seems not aware of this mighty force in our behalf. The Communist station in Prague does better. The Communists, mindful of national heritage, play Smetana and Dvorak, the great music of the Czech people. They benefit by these magnificent works. But Radio Free Europe broadcasts jazz - alien, uninspiring stuff. Some of the less influential employees on Radio Free Europe have protested against these low and degrading performances. They were told from above to go on producing jazz. Propagation of Internationalism and Racial Merger The general mental and moral climate of Radio Free Europe conveys moods of indecision, wretchedness and vexation. 50 SLOVAKIA Inherentl y most of the ideals which RFE advocates require some sort of super-gov ernment, which means but additional curtailme nt of the liberties which this costly radio network is supposed to champion . On nearly every day, for instance, there is a program which urges the abolition of naturally- grown national culture in favor of the European super-sta te. It is called "Europe Without the Iron Curtain" and it always begins with the slogan: "Europe without the Iron Curtain means the United States of Europe. Yesterda y but Utopia, today the dream of millions, tomorrow reality." The slogan has been formulate d by the widely known internationalis t Karol Belak-Be rger. Paradoxic ally, the Commun ist internatio nalists in the East are smart enough to appeal often to age-old, traditiona l nationalism. Radio Free Europe, which has been presumab ly conceived to fight Commun ist internatio nalism, champion s internatio nalism. "Nearly all Czechs and Slovaks desire the United States of Europe." That is what "The Other Side of the Coin" asserted, on April 5, 1955, at 8 :15 a. m. A free poll or plebiscite among the enslaved Czechs and Slovaks might well disclose a different mood, a different opinion. On June 6, 1952, at 7 :15 p. m., "Europe Without the Iron Curtain" stated: "The world federatio n is a necessity ; but first Europe must be united. The European federatio n is but the beginning ; the United States of the World is the ultimafo aim ... First a European federatio n must be achieved; then we shall be ready for the world federatio n." In accordanc e with this candidly avowed goal, RFE continually disparage s the concept of national sovereign ty, which is dear to the overwhel ming majority of European s. Thus "Commen ts on Events at Home," on April 28, 1953, at 10:45 a. m., slightingl y referred to "the so-called national sovereign ty." "Europe Without the Iron Curtain," on May 5, 1954, at 1:15 p. m., stated: "On the defendan t's .b ank there sits the concept of the national state and its ideological foundation - nationalis m. Frontiers - the straitjack et of the national state - are an anachron ism." SLOVAKIA 51 The United Nations and UNESCO - a controversial topic among millions of Europeans - are favorites of RFE. "The United Nations gives new hope," said "News," on October 24, 1953, at 1 p. m. "The whole world looks toward the United Nations," said "Who Is Who," on April 22, 1953, at 8:30 a. m. Such statements are daily standard with Radio Free Europe. Ever opposed to nationalism, RFE even objects to national self-determination of the many non-Russian nations inside the Soviet empire. It stands to reason that national self-assertion inside Russia might be a ,p owerful aid to any effort aimed at disintegration of the Soviet Union. Consequently this is opposed by RFE's amazing bleeding hearts. Thus, "Voices of the Western Press," on February 8, 1952, at 8 p. m., quoted: "Russia should not dissolve herself into a number of smaller nations; the nations of the Soviet Union should discontinue their disputes." In its determined opposition to the concept of national heritage, and in harmony with the ideas favored by such American left-wing groups as Americans for Democratic Action, RFE, in programs addressed to the trans-Curtain people, goes so far as to attack the McCarran-Walter Immigration Act. Thus, "Our New York Correspondent Reports," on April 29, 1953, at 10:05 a. m., declared: "The public wants the law to be changed; for the nationality quotas of this law are obsolete . . . The press unanimously demands revision. We hope that the change will be effected." Beyond mere political merger of the nations, Radio Free Europe also campaigns for a merger of races. Thus, for instance, "Europe Without the Iron Curtain," on February 15, 1952, at 6:15 p. m., declared: "Just as Europe, in a way, already represents a nation . . . . there also arises a new nation in the U. S. A. - out of the white, the black, and the yellow races . . . This too will happen in the East of Europe." Along this line, RFE's left-wingers seldom fail to disguise their animosity towards those nations which they regard as particularly nationalistic - against the past Germany, Spain, the Union of South Africa, and the various 52 SLOVAKIA Arab nations. RFE's persistent opposition to the Arab states sometimes reaches comical proportions. An article in itself would be required to document this phase of RFE's internationalism. Praise for New Dealers and Criticism of Conservative Americans In line with its over-all outlook, Radio Free Europe has consistently glorified American New Dealers and has at the same time not refrained from merciless attacks on conservative Americans. In other words, RFE, which should concentrate on psychological warfare against the Communist world con$piracy, has indulged in the hobby of defaming valiant American anti-Communists. No wonder that wideawake Europeans have ever more often asked if RFE is primarily an anti-anti-Communist organization. "Answers to Those at Home," on October 28, 1952, at 10 :05 a. m., proclaimed : "Stevenson was a principal speaker at the celebration for T. G. Masaryk. (Founder and first president of the Czechoslovak republic. - Editor.) Our hope for the future would be rekindled if he were elected President of the United States." On November 4, 1952, at 10:05 a. m., the same program reveled in this choice bit of lyrical effusion: "Adlai Stevenson ... ranks among America's greatest sons, such as Lincoln and F. D. Roosevelt ... He is the very incarnation of America's highest aspirations . . . Within less than a year he rose from obscurity to the pinnacle of American leadership." The record of Radio Free Europe's programs is full of unfavorable remarks about those great Americans who have steadfastly opposed the Communist menace. A flood of vituperation was pou:r;-ed on General Douglas MacArthur upon his dismissal from the Far Eastern scene. His speeches, which have moved the truly anti-Communist refugees from eastern Europe, have been consistently withheld from RFE's programs. It was the same with the great and honorable Senator Robert A. Taft, on the occasion of his campaign for the Republican nomination in 1952. After "Mr. Republican's" SLOVAKIA 53 defeat at the Chicago Convention, "Our New York Correspondent Reports," on August 7, 1952, at 10:05 a. m., rejoiced: "For Europe it is decisive that the last remainders of isolationism have been removed, and that a sound policy has been carried to victory." Ferdinand Peroutka, in one of his interminable "Sunday Comments," on August 3, 1952, at 12:15 p. m., pontificated: "Taft was the proponent of a policy which can never settle anything, as his adversaries have always pointed out." "Our New York Correspondent Reports," on July 9, 1952, at 8:05 p. m., had this to say: "The opinions of (Herbert) Hoover and (Douglas) MacArthur represent the viewpoint of a minority; these men want to confine themselves to the (exclusive) defense of the American continent. The majority ( of Americans), though, have dimissed this attitude and are conscious of America's global role." "A Program of Novelties," referring to the passing of two famous American journalists Pulitzer and Bert McCormick - on April 3, 1955, at 3 .p. m., called Pulitzer the "son of an Hungarian immigrant, an outstanding American journalist," but criticized Colonel McCormick as a "controversial, reactionary isolationist" who "opposed progress." The Krem'l~n must have been satisfied with that incisive observation. General Impression Created By Radio Free Europe What, then, is the general impression which Radio Free Europe has made, behind the Iron Curtain as well as among the millions of anti-Communists in Western Europe? It is, besides the impression of half-heartedness, indecision, artificiality, and downright clowning. When RFE's broadcasters, directly addressing some poor wretch or some swineherd in some forlorn little hamlet in Slovakia or Bohemia, lower their voices to terrify him, antiCommunist refugees merely laugh. Alas, the farce tastes bitter, because of the lost opportunities, the stupidity, the feeling of treason, and the unsonscionably low moral standard. Next, there is the strong impression of cliche journalism, occupying itseif with superficialities - cars, houses, 54 SLOVAKIA etc. - and largely avoiding verbatim quotations. Instead, they impose their propaganda by means of slogans. Real opinions of the refugees and of the people at home are disregarded by the RFE propaganda. Real anti-Communists are never allowed to get their messages across the Curtain. Real anti-Communists, including the repenting National Fronters, are social outcasts. But the collaborators of the National Front, who even today maintain that the National Front was all right, sit at the big desks and cash their substantial checks, in compensation for their shadow boxing. Then there is the distinct impression of coolness, impersonality and anonymity. Since the well-known anti-Communists of -long standing have been barred from RFEJ, theTe are no names to inspire the listeners. Yes, some men do speak under their own names. These include the left-winger Dr. Joseph Lettrich, the Marxist Vaclav Majer, and such Socialists as Ferdinand Peroutka, Dr. Petr Zenkl and Dr. Jaroslav Stransky. However, these men are known to be weaklings, mere fronts for more powerful personalities. They are recognized to be generally useless; they won't stir the imagination of anyone. As to the known former champions of the Communist causes, trans-Curtain listeners would simply shut off the radio if they knew who was talking to them. Therefore, Milos Vanek now calls himself Pravdomil Basta, and Frantisek Listopad goes by the name of Jan Ctvrtek. Similarly, the leftist Socialist Dr. Miloslav Kohak has become Vitezslav Fram; Otto Graf hides his pro-Communist past under the pseudonym of Franta Tabor, and Karol Belak-Berger has conveniently turned into one Jan Lehota. "Who are these fellows anyhow?" the listeners behind the Curtain must wonder; for they have never heard of them. Naturally, they become suspicious, and their interest sags. Czechs and Slovaks behind the Curtain remember those who never compromised with the Communists. They know that these men are now living in the West - the C:i!echoslovak General of the Army, Lev Prchala, the former Czechoslovak Minister, Dr. Joseph Cerny, and many others, and SLOVAKIA 55 also some former members of the National Front who in the free West started to denounce it - Dr. Bohdan Chudoba, Dr. Michal Zibrin, or Dr. Helena Kozeluhova, who was expelled in 1946 from the Parliament by the National Front, and the entire younger generation, led by Jiri Havelka, Emil Petrik, etc. The Slovaks have their former Minister, Dr. Ferdinand Durcansky and many others. The listeners behind the Iron Curtain cannot fail to wonder why none of them sends any "messages home" by way of Radio Free Europe. The masterminds of this confusion, whose net results represent sabotage of the anti-Communist fight - are way behind the firing lines in New York City, and in Washington. They, too, shroud themselves in anonymity. 'T he over-all impression, then, is one of cynism and emptiness, artificiality, and insincerity. Who wants to buy apples which are rotten at the core? RFE's Program In conclusion, we must ask: What, then, is the program of Radio Free Europe, or has no program been designed so far? Those behind the Curtain, who have the time to listen at all, would like to know in what way liberation may be achieved, and what specific assistance, beyond mere words, the West might be able to offer. Radio Free Europe has not been able to supply any satisfactory information in respect to this all-important ,problem. Here, however, we cannot help allowing for valid reasons to excuse much of RFE's ineffectualness; for even if RFE were staffed with outright, hard-hitting anti-Communists, it could not ,possibly make any promises which the Western governments, particularly the government of the U. S. A., were not willing to back with power. There is no use in claiming superiority in aircraft or guided missiles if that superiority admittedly does not exist. It is not possible to promise an economic blockade as long as that policy has not been adopted by the American government. Radio Free Europe - or any of the other liberation 56 SLOVAKIA stations - cannot very well offer the severing of diplomati c relations with the Soviet criminals when our own statesmen meet with them at the summit and have lots of smiling pictures :taken for the benefit of the Soviet ieaders. However, if RFE were really (instead of merely in name) an independe nt and private organizat ion, and really staffed with intelligen t and genuine anti-Com munists, it could urge Western governme nts to take stronger steps. Radio Free Europe might demand the creation of military units exclusive ly composed of refugee and e~pellee volunteers. It might demand the ousting of Commun ists from both internatio nal and national organizat ions. It might establish extensive contacts with the undergro und behind the Curtain, instead of causing its discovery and extermin ation by Communi sts. Radio Free Europe might frankly discuss the present difficultie s while at the same time exhorting the Iron Curtain slaves not to lose hope. The trans-Cu rtain ,people who long for liberty might at least be informed about where all of us stand. They should know about a long-rang e .p rogram as well as what can be done at this time. Most importan t of all, Radio Free Europe should become a clear and shining beacon to those who are willing to fight for their liberties. This can only be achieved by throwing out the clowns and confusion ists who want to fight communism with a Socialist "peo1ple',s program. " If Radio Free Europe cannot cleanse itself because it is from top to bottom infested with collectivists, internatio nalists, materialists and decadents , then it would be better to shut it down and replace it with an entirely new organizat ion. Perhaps this great reform cannot be undertak en as long a:s even in the United States the grass roots patriots, who unequivocally believe in God, the Constitut ion and freedom of enterprise , are successfu lly boycotted and ridiculed. Perhaps an effective liberation station can only be establishe d when at last the collectivi st corrupter s of the United States are driven from their entrenche d ,p ositions in America' s public institution s, and her means of communi cation, and her governme nt itself.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A Close-Up View of Radio Free Europe Description An account of the resource Jiri Brada Slovakia, Vol. 6, No. 1 (18), March 1956 pp. 17-56 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Brada, Jiri Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1956 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/e23b30d9c18f6ab55f89c7ca48a7b6e0.pdf ad08d2ad7eb8104d12818bbb29c41235 PDF Text Text 60 SLOVAKIA RISING AGAINST STALINISM: DESTALINIZATION AND THE REINTERPRETATION OF THE SLOVAK NATIONAL UPRISING IN SLOVAK HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE 1960s Scott Brown In the morning hours of 29 August 1944, several thousand Slovak and foreign partisans took up arms against the German soldiers who entered Slovakia the previous day to crush the country's growing anti-German resistance. This armed insurrection marked the start of the Slovak National Uprising (Slovenske narodne povstanie, or SNP), a rebellion centered on the city of Banska Bystrica and directed against the German invaders and the pro-German leaders of the wartime Slovak state. Over the ensuing two months, roughly 60,000 Slovak and foreign partisans, including rebel units of the Slovak Army, fought a loosely coordinated campaign against the German incursion. Outnumbered and outgunned, the partisans steadily lost the territory they had initially controlled, and by the end of October 1944 the German units had quelled the Uprising. Yet the military shortcomings of the SNP paled in comparison to its political significance: the Slovak underground had carried out the largest resistance operation on once (and future) Czechoslovak soil during the Second World War. The Uprising bolstered the position of the Czechoslovak government in exile, which could point to the SNP as proof that Czechoslovakia had contributed militarily to its own liberation. Further-more, in the eyes of Czechs, the Uprising also helped to "redeem" Slovaks for their unilateral declaration of independence in 1939, and for the quasi-fascist government that ruled Slovakia during the war. After the war, the SNP became the centerpiece of a new, reconstructed form of Slovak nationalism that played a major role in precipitating the Czechoslovak Spring of the late 1960s. Nonetheless, Slovak nationalism remained a liability for nearly two decades after the war. The mere existence of the wartime Slovak state left Slovak nationalism suspect, since many Czechs continued �SLOVAKIA 61 to equate it with Slovak separatism and the humiliating loss of Czech independence in 1939. In addition, the persecution of Slovak "bourgeois nationalists" - many of whom had played prominent roles in the Uprising - in the political trials of the 1950s further compromised the legitimacy of Slovak nationalism in a Czechoslovak context. These problematic legacies left Slovak nationalism without a usable past until the rehabilitation of the erstwhile Slovak "bourgeois nationalists" in 1963 afforded the Slovaks a political opening to reevaluate the SNP. In tum, this reinterpretation of the Uprising's historical significance provided the foundation for a new, positive brand of nationalism Slovaks could safely assert. If nothing else, the SNP had given the lie to the notion that Slovak nationalism was incompatible with a Czechoslovak state. Gradually, many Slovak historians, intellectuals and politicians advanced a narrative of the SNP that interpreted the Uprising as the great redemptive act of the Slovak nation. In this view, Slovaks rose up as a nation against the wartime pro-Nazi regime of Jozef Tiso, sacrificing "their own" state in order to resurrect Czechoslovakia and make the new republic their own state. For champions of the Slovak national cause in the 1960s, finding their place in the restored Czechoslovakia entailed recognition of the existence of a separate Slovak nation and the enshrinement of its equality with the other titular nation through the federalization of the state. By reconstructing the history of the Uprising in this way, Slovak nationalists could then lay claim to specific rights as a nation. Like their calls for a Czechoslovak federation later in the decade, Slovak nationalists' demands for legal recognition of Slovak nationhood in the mid- to late 1960s referred directly or indirectly to the Slovak National Uprising for justification. As historians and political figures constructed a new narrative of the Uprising in the 1960s, they toned down old Stalinist and Marxist dogmas. Instead, the language they used to describe the SNP restored Slovaks - and the Slovak nation - to a central role. Important in this regard was how Slovaks writing and speaking about the Uprising during the Czechoslovak Spring began to accentuate the Slovak nation (narod) in retelling the history of the Uprising, placing new stress on the national component of the Slovak National Uprising. Thus, along with their stated desire to seek historical truth and to rectify the "errors" of Stalinism, Slovak historians writing about the �62 SLOVAKIA Uprising in the sixties also contributed to the reconstruction of Slovak nationalism by linking Slovaks' demands for national rights and a just solution to the Slovak question with the progressive and democratic traditions of the Uprising. The process of reinterpreting the Uprising and reconstructing Slovak nationalism - a process that occurred in fits and starts, with much equivocation - shows, in turn, how important Slovak developments of the mid-1960s served as antecedents to the Czechoslovak Spring that blossomed in 1968. One of the crucial, yet underappreciated, facets of this prehistory took shape in the new historiography of the SNP produced in the l 960s. Several groups of historians participated in crafting this new narrative. Younger historians, such as Jozef Jablonicky, perhaps had an advantage of personal detachment, since they had fought in neither the Uprising nor the battles over its history during the Stalinist era. 1 Other important contributors came from the historians who served on the Bamabite Commission and subsequently attempted to produce more "objective" and "factual" histories of the Uprising. 2 But veterans of the Up1 lndeed, Jab lonicky di sti ngui shed himself as arguabl y the most profess iona l and darin g histo ri an with hi s willingness to te ll the story of the significant but politically margin ali zed non-communi st "c ivilian" component of the Slovak resi stance that fought in th e NP. Yet even Jablonicky's work ex hibited an evolution in hi s willingness to challenge former taboos, since his first works from early in the decade did not go quite so far in this regard as hi s later work. See Jozef Jablon icky, Sloven- ska na prelome: Zapas o vit'azstvo narodnej a demokratickej revohicie na Slovensku (Bratislava : Yydavatel'stvo politickej literatury, 1965); and Jozef Jablonicky, Z ilegality do povstania (Kapitoly z obcianskeho odboja) (Bratislava : Epocha, 1969). 2 In Apri l 1963 , the Central Comm ittee of th e Communist Party of Czechos lovakia (Komunis ticka strana Ceskoslovenska, or KSC) convened a working gro up of Slovak and Czech party and academic "experts," popularly known as the " Bamabite Commiss ion," to investi gate th e allegations of " bourgeois nationalism" that had been leve led aga inst Ladi slav ovomesky, Gustav Husak and oth er wartime leaders of the Communist Party of Slovakia (Komunisticka strana S/o venska, or KSS) in th e major Slovak political trial s of the early 1950s. The Bamabite Commission's report, issued in August 1963 , di spro ved the Stalinist-era charges and called for the co mplete political rehabilitation of Husak, Novomesky and the oth er accused Slovak " bourgeois nationa lists." Stanis lav Sikora, " Politicky vyvoj na Slovensku v rokoch I 960- 1967 ," in Miroslav Londak, Stanis lav Sikora an d Elena Londakova, Predjarie: Politicky, ekonomicky a kul!iirny vyvoj na Slovensku v rokoch 1960- 1967 (Bratislava: Veda, 2002), 46-47 . The major schol arl y product that followed from th e work of the Barnabite Comm ission , not to mention one of the best studi es of th e Uprising from this era, was Ferdinand Beer and others, Dejinna kriiovatka: Slovenske ncirod- �SLOVAKIA 63 rising, like Gustav Husak, and older scholars like Samo Falt'an (also a former partisan) participated in this process as well, whether to exonerate themselves for their activities during the SNP, or to offer a mea culpa for their distorted publications from the Stalinist era.3 Many western studies of the Czechoslovak Spring that address the years prior to 1968 offer at best a fleeting mention of the revival of Slovak history and efforts to remove discredited cliches of the 4 Stalinist era from the historical image of the SNP. Nonetheless, the lack of scholarly attention to this important trend in Slovak historiography does a disservice to its importance in Slovak - and Czechoslovak - politics of the mid- to late 1960s. Though de-Stalinization may have begun from on high in the Czechoslovak capital, Slovak historians, writers, intellectuals, politicians and other public figures took full advantage of the chance to break old taboos and raise formerly forbidden issues, none of which was more heretical or politically pregnant than the Slovak question. As the Slovak writer Peter Karvas told Antonin J. Liehrn in 1968, Stalinist propaganda had a banalizing effect on all this; it reduced the Uprising to a historical cliche, and in the end the generation of the Uprising convinced itself that this view was somehow a more noble and correct one. Thus it is neither an accident nor an illusion that the rehabilitation of the ne povstanie - predpoklady a vysledky (Brati slava: Vydavatel's tvo po litic kej literatury, I 964). Important exampl es of these work s we re Samo Falt'an, 0 Slovenskom narodnom povstani (Bra ti slava: Osveta, 1964); a nd Gustav Husak, Svedectvo o Slovenskom narodnom povstani (Brati slava: Vydavatel'stvo po litickej literatury, 1964). Husak also published a second , slightl y rev ised editi o n of hi s memo ir cum hi story in 1969. nd Gustav Hu sak, Svedectvo o Slovensko narodnom povstani, 2 ed. (Bratislava: Epocha, 1969). 4 H. Gordon Skilling a nd V ladimir V . Ku sin each pro vide a pass in g mention of the importance of SN P hi stori ography in th e m id-sixties. See H. Gordon Skilling, Czechoslovakia ·s Interrupted Revolution (Princeto n, N .J .: Princeton Uni ve rsity Press, 1976), 50-51 ; V ladimir V. Kusin, The Intellectual Origins of the Prague 3 Spring: The Development of Reform ist Ideas in Czechoslovakia, 1956- 1967 (Ca mbridge: Ca mbrid ge Uni versity Press, 197 1), 70. �64 SLOVAKIA Uprising coincided with a wave of reawakening sweeping across all the Slovak social and intellectual life. 5 Accordingly, chronicling the "history of the history" of the Slovak National Uprising during the 1960s offers a way to challenge these conventional boundaries and interpretations of the Czechoslovak Spring. Tracing the shifts in Slovak historiography and the new brand of Slovak nationalism constructed in the process restores Slovaks to the significant role they played in this upheaval, showing how Slovakia experienced an "early spring" following the renewed effort at de-Stalinization and rehabilitation in 1963 . The Pitfalls of History (and Historiography) Pointing to the "errors" that plagued earlier histories of the Slovak National Uprising, the writer Ladislav Novomesky made a plea to Slovak and Czech historians in 1964. His appeal to the participants at a conference at Smolenice on the Uprising urged historians to pay close attention to the image of the SNP through twenty years of historiography. As part of the process of rectifying the mistakes of Stalinism and rewriting history, Novomesky proposed that historians "delineate the history of the history [emphasis in original]" of the Uprising. 6 As Novomesky's remarks indicated, the political context in which historians worked had left an indelible mark on historiography and on the history of the Slovak National Uprising. Political constraints of the Stalinist era had curtailed the research possibilities available to scholars, who could not access most of the relevant documents and other materials. But political dictates had also imposed ready-made interpretations on historians' narratives. When Novomesky made his pitch to historians to take stock of the historiography of the Uprising, he mainly had in mind the correction of the lies, distortions and half-truths that had colored histories of the Uprising 5 Antonin J. Liehm, The Politics of Culture, trans. Peter Kussi (New York : Grove Press, 1972), 351. 6 Ladislav Novomesky, "Za hi storicku pravdu o Povstani," in Slovenske narodne povstanie ro/..."U 1944 (Sbornik prispevkov z narodnooslobodzovacieho boja 19381945), eds . Cudovit Holotik and Miroslav Kropilak, (Bratislava: Vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej akademie vied, 1965), 668. �SLOVAKIA 65 since the onset of Stalinism in Czechoslovakia in the late 1940s. Revisions to these histories had become possible only with the work of the Bamabite Commission and the first concrete steps at deStalinization in 1963 . As the Slovak writer Michal Chorvath claimed on the Uprising's nineteenth anniversary in August 1963 , the "liquidation of the cult of personality" made it possible for the first time in years "to say about the Slovak National Uprising and its significance for our nation and state what the whole public has already thought for a long time." 7 De-Stalinization thus provided an important stimulus in the midI 960s for historians to attempt a more objective look at the Uprising. But while this political opening afforded scholars an opportunity to contest the older dogmatic accounts of the SNP, the historical image of the Uprising remained deeply politicized in the new narratives of the sixties. In the middle and later years of the decade, many Slovak intellectuals and politicians contested Stalinist-era views in rewriting the history of the SNP, yet the individuals driving these shifts continued to interpret the historical significance of the Uprising in a way that served their contemporary personal and political agendas. For instance, Husak claimed expertise as a historian of the Uprising based on his background as the leading Slovak Communist in the SNP. Yet Husak also traded on his stature as an "authority" on the Uprising (and as the most prominent surviving Slovak victim of the Stalinist era) to mount his political comeback, culminating in his ascent to the post of KSC first secretary in April 1969. As the Czech historian Jan Rychlik notes, the new interpretation of the Uprising formulated in the mid-sixties "had a supremely political character," since it weighed directly on the question of rehabilitation and a return to politics for Husak and Novomesky.8 Nonetheless, a "rehabilitation" of the historical image of the SNP was a necessary part of de-Stalinization in Slovakia after 1963 , because the dictates of Stalinism had skewed earlier narratives. Older histories of the Uprising painted it as the opening act of the national and democratic revolution in Czechoslovakia, depicting the SNP as little more than a stepping stone toward the Communist seizure of 7 Mi cha l Chorvath , "K metodam skum ani a SN P," Ku /uirny i ivot, 3 1 August 1963. Jan Rychlik, Ce.si a Slovaci ve 20. sto /eti: Cesko-slovenske vztahy 1945-/ 992, vo l. 2 (Bra ti slava : Academi c Electroni c Press, 1998), 206. 8 �66 SLOVAKIA power. 9 These Stalinist-era narratives forced the SNP into a doctrinaire Marxist framework. Accordingly, historiography from the 1950s and early 1960s celebrated the toiling masses of the Slovak people (l'ud) , who rejected the "clerico-fascism" of the Tiso regime and adopted an internationalist outlook in fightin g side by side with the fraternal Czech nation, aided by the heroic Soviet Union, in order to create a new Czechoslovak Republic oriented towards the international Communist movement centered in Moscow. The heavy-handed Marxist language employed in these older narratives practically wrote Slovaks out of their own Uprising as it lionized the role of the Red Army and even of Czech partisans in the SNP, treating the contributions of Slovaks as an afterthought. Writing in samizdat in 1980, Jablonicky, the leading Slovak historian of the Uprising, divided historiography of the SNP into three distinct periods. Jablonicky characterized the first period, from 1949 to 1962, as one of "deformation," a time when historians falsified the history of the SNP to suit the dogmas of Stalinism and the attack on Slovak "bourgeois nationalism," which claimed as victims many prominent communist veterans of the Slovak resistance, including Husak, Novomesky and Karol Smidke. 10 Beginning with the work of the Barnabite Commission, a second period, which Jablonicky called "rehabilitation" took shape in 1963 . Though it lasted only until the installation of the Husak regime in April 1969, this era witnessed a burst of scholarship on the Uprising distinguished by its pursuit of "historical truth," including efforts to docu9 See, for instance, Jaros lav Kubat, ed., Slovenske narodni po vstani - Vyznamna etapa narodne osvobozeneckeho boje ceskoslovenskeho lidu: Material pro lektory a propagandisty k 15. vyroci SNP (Prague: Statn i nak ladatelstvi poli ticke literatu ry, 1959) . 10 Smidke had been a member the illegal KSS Centra l Committee that orga nized the Uprising, as we ll as the co-creator of the Christmas Agreement. Du ring the early stages of the campa ign aga inst the "bourgeois nationalists," Smidke faced accusations of collaboration, along with Vladimir Clementi s, Husak and Novo mesky, and lost his party and governmenta l posts, inc ludi ng his position as chairman of the Slovak Nati onal Council. Sm idke avo ided jo ining his supposed co llaborators in the dock at the poli tical tria ls of the ea rl y fifti es only due to hi s death in an automobile acc ident in late 1952, th ough various witnesses c laimed it had been a planned murder. He was posthumously rehabilitated with the other Slovak "bourgeois nati onalists" in December 1963. Jan Pesek, " Karo l Smidke," ed. Ja n Pesek, Akteri jednej ery na Slovensku: Personiflkacia politickeho vyvoja (Presov: Vydavatel'stvo Michala Vaska, 2003), 328-330. �SLOVAKIA 67 ment the role of non-Communists in the SNP. With the onset of "normalization" in 1970, a third period commenced, bringing a return to deformations and the silencing of "inconvenient historians" a group that included Jablonicky - and lasted until the fall of the communist regime in 1989. 11 Though Jablonicky's periodization conforms to wide trends in historiography on the Uprising, his characterization of the second period oversimplifies the contours of this pivotal era. Scholarship on the SNP produced from 1963 to 1969 witnessed a new push for historical truth and objectivity, with historians drawing on previously inaccessible documents, filling in former "blank spots" and challenging earlier dogmatic interpretations of the Uprising. However, the general trend toward historical fidelity did not follow the linear trajectory Jablonicky describes. While many historians sought accuracy and improved professional practices, others held fast to old dogmas, resulting in a multiplicity of narratives and interpretations of the SNP. Moreover, the ambiguities inherent in the quest for historical truth cut through the scholarship of individual historians. In May 1963 , Jan Kfen, a Czech historian who served as one of the experts on the Bamabite Commission, explained the challenges ahead for historians after Stalinism: The battle against dogmatism is, in my opmzon, above all an internal matter of every historian, a question of his theoretical level, his ideological potential. Like all progress in science, the overcoming of dogmatism is not possible without abilities and talent. Untalented thinking is always dogmatic, stereotypical and toady ish. 12 Yet Kfen overstated the importance of professional abilities, as many talented historians struggled to discard political considerations in order to write better histories. For instance, while Jablonicky's Slovensko na prelome, published in 1965, stressed the importance of the Uprising for inaugurating a new chapter in Czech-Slovak rela11 Jozef Ja bl oni cky, Glosy o historiograjii SNP: Zneuiivanie a f alfovanie dej in SNP (Brati slava: NVK In te rn ati onal, 1994), I 0, 13. 12 Jan Kfe n, " Kult a hi stori e," Kulttirna tvorba, 23 May 1963. �68 SLOVAKIA tions, Jablonicky equivocated in repeating the best orthodox cliches about nefarious Slovak and Czech bourgeoisies and the leading role of Communists in the resistance. 13 To Jablonicky's credit, he penned perhaps the decade ' s most important historiographical contribution in 1969, Z illegality do povstania, which offered the most stunning refutation of dogmatic interpretations of the Uprising and destroyed several taboos in praising the non-communist resistance and units of the Slovak Army for their roles in the Uprising while simultaneously portraying its communist leaders in an unflattering light. In a samizdat essay from 1979, Jablonicky even offered a mea culpa for his early scholarship in which he acknowledges the shortcomings of his first works. As Jablonicky recalled, conversations with dozens of former partisans and victims of Stalinism "gradually opened my eyes" as a young historian in the 1960s, leading him to appreciate the importance of the non-communist resistance. 14 Of course, Jablonicky was not alone. At a conference of Slovak historians in June 1963, Milos Gosiorovsky presented a harsh evaluation of his own works on the Uprising from the Stalinist era, criticizing his monographs Ilegalny boj KSS and Slovenske narodne povstanie for presenting a "substantially deformed" picture of the 15 SNP. A year later, Samo Falt'an described how the dictates of editorial boards and the pressures of self-censorship had handicapped evaluations of the Uprising in the Stalinist era, preventing him from including anything critical in his book Partizanska vojna na Slovensku, published in 1959 . 16 As the confessions of Gosiorovsky and Falt'an revealed, the most prominent Slovak historians had been especially susceptible to pressures for ideological conformity, which 13 Jablonicky, Slovensko na prelome, 3 1, 148- 149. Vilem Precan, " Historik proti nas iliu - Jozef Jabloni cky," in Jozef Jablonicky, Samizdat o odboji: Stiidie a clanky, vol. 2 (Bratislava: Kalligram, 2006), 12; Jablonicky, Glosy o historiografii SNP, 6 1. 15 Frantisek Bokes, "Vaine zhromazdeni e Slovenskej hi stori ckej spolocnosti ," Historicky casopis 12, no. 4 (1963): 650; Milos Gosiorovsky, !legalny boj KSS a Slovenske narodne povstanie (Bratislava: Nakladatel'stvo Pravda, 1949); Milos Gosiorovsky, Slovenske narodne povstanie (Bra ti slava : Slovenske vydava tel'stvo politi ckej literatury, 1954). 16 Samo Falt'an, "Niektore otazky okolo hodnoteni a Slovenskeho narodneho povstania," Historicky casop is 12, no. 2 ( 1964): 161 , 164; Samo Falt'an, Partizanska vojna na Slovensku (Bratislava: Osveta, 1959). 14 �SLOVAKIA 69 seemed to spur their self-conscious push for objectivity in the more relaxed Slovak political climate of the mid-l 960s. Just as Slovak historians in the l 960s recognized the harmful effects of Stalinism on scholarship on the Uprising, scholars writing about the sixties acknowledge the importance of historiography for the larger crisis gestating in Czechoslovakia. Nonetheless, scholarship about the l 960s has pronounced limitations when it comes to historiography from the 1960s. Non-Slovak writers treat the history of the Uprising as but one issue among many new historiographical developments in Czechoslovakia, an approach characterristic of the wider tendency to trivialize the role of Slovaks and the Slovak question in the l 960s. 17 While the Slovak National Uprising was hardly the only historical theme to gamer renewed interest from historians in the mid-sixties - or even the only topic from Slovak history - it was unique in the political purposes to which prominent Slovaks put it in justifying contemporary demands for a resolution of the Slovak question in line with the ostensible aims of the Uprising. More obvious, however, was the extent to which the new historiography on the SNP from the 1960s broke with old dogmas. The doctrinaire narrative of the Uprising from the Stalinist era marginalized the role of Slovaks in the Slovak National Uprising. An instructional manual for lecturers and propagandists published in advance of the SNP's fifteenth anniversary - and, tellingly, written in Czech inflated the importance of Soviet and Czech contributions to the Uprising: In August 1944 the Slovak nation, emboldened by the heroic battle of the Soviet p eople in the Great Patriotic War, under the leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, alongside the Soviet Army advancing to victory, together with the fraternal Czech nation, rose up with weapons in 17 See, fo r instance, th e scant treatm ent prov ided in Stanl ey Z. Pec h, " Fe rment in Czec hoslova k Marxist Hi stori ograph y," Canadian Slavonic Papers l 0, no. 4 (Dece mber 1968): 502-522; Ga lia Gol an, The Czechoslovak Refo rm Movement: Communism in Crisis. 1962- / 968 ; and Skillin g, Czechoslovakia 's Interrupted Revolution. By contrast, M. Mark Stolarik observed how hi stori ans, beginning with Husak and the th eme of the SNP, increasingly reasserted Slovak nati onali sm in their th work . M. Mark Stolarik , "The Painful Birth of Slovak Histori ography in the 20 Century," Zeitschriftfiir Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung 50, no. 2 (2 00 I): 176 . �70 SLOVAKIA hand against the German occupiers and their domestic fascist supporters in order to contribute to the liberation of their own homeland - the Czechoslovak Republic. 18 Amid the rambling succession of clauses inserted to show obligatory deference to the Soviet Union and the KSC and to flatter Czechs, the propaganda manual, like the Stalinist-era interpretations of the SNP it typifies, lost sight of the Slovaks, who nearly disappeared from the history of their own Uprising. At the same time, older orthodoxy ascribed the Marxist categories of proletarian internationalism and class struggle to the Uprising. In their work on international participation in the SNP, the Czech Jii'i Dolezal and the Slovak Jozef Hroziencik credited the liberation of Czechoslovakia to the Soviet Army on the international stage, and to the working class at home. The Uprising occurred as a consequence, Dolezal and Hroziencik argued, of "the strengthening of the working class and its ideological leadership in the nation," along with the blossoming of the idea of internationalism within the proletariat. 19 Near the end of the Stalinist era, an editorial in 1962 from the KSC Central Committee daily Rude pravo made the dubious claim that, "on an ideological plane," the Uprising "aimed mainly at developing a unified economy," along with combining all other aspects of Slovak and Czech society after liberation - making the SNP appear as the first step toward amalgamating Slovaks and Czechs into a single Czechoslovak nation.2° Conventional interpretations from the Stalinist era thus reduced the Uprising to little more than the opening act in the Czechoslovak revolution and a prelude to the communist takeover in 1948.21 Such a view seemed at odds with the reality of communist electoral strength in the elections of 1946, when the party made considerable gains over its interwar showing, yet still suffered a decisive defeat at the hands of the Democratic Party. 18 Kubat, Slovenske narodni povstani, 3. Jifi Dolezal and Jozef Hroziencik, Medzinarodna solidarita v Slovenskom narodnom povstani (Bratislava: Osveta, 1959), 35, 219 20 " Rozvij ime spolecne dilo," Rude pravo, 29 August 1962. 21 Doleza l and Hroziencik, Medzinarodna solidarita , 74. 19 �SLOVAKIA 71 Coming to Terms with the Past: De-Stalinization and the Uprising Rewriting the history of the Slovak National Uprising first required important political developments to transpire, and the process drew succor from new efforts at de-Stalinization in 1963 . But the impact of the Bamabite Commission also revealed the crucial role historians played in this process. As Ferdinand Beer, Antonin Bencik, Frantisek Janacek and Jan Kfon recalled, their work on the Bamabite Commission offered historians a rare chance to play an important role in current events: ft was - as far as we know - the first time such a large group of scholars was asked to do this kind of work. This experience left its mark on their whole way of doing work and became, at least for historians, one of those rare occasions when they could not only reconstruct history, but also help to make it. 22 The recollections of these historians also spoke to the transformative effect the Bamabite Commission had on its member-scholars, which proved a formative experience for the way they approached their craft thereafter. Because it focused not only on the political trials of the early 1950s, but also on the activities of the "bourgeois nationalists" during the SNP, the Bamabite Commission employed several professional historians who consequently gained access to documents formerly off limits to researchers, including the files of the "bourgeois nationalists" and materials concerning the cases of Vladimir Clementis and others.23 A document collection on the SNP, originally planned to appear in conjunction with the twentieth anniversary of the Uprising in 1964 and intended to span 300 to 400 pages when conceived in the spring of 1963, soon ballooned to more than a thousand pages and took an extra year to produce. As Vilem Precan, the Czech editor of the volume, recounts in hi s preface, the renewed interest in the Uprising first observed during celebrations of its nineteenth anniversary, coupled with the political fallout of the 22 23 Beer and others, "Svedectvi z Barnabitek," Kulturni tvorba, 2 May 1968. Sikora, " Po liticky vyvoj na Slovensku," 38. �72 SLOVAKIA Barnabite Commission's report, created "editorial possibilities" that compelled him to broaden the scope of the project. Precan had to sift through piles of newly available documents and include as many of these materials as he could, a daunting task that kept him from completing the volume until 1965 - a full year behind schedule.24 Confronted with documentary evidence of the fabrications from the political trials, the historian-members of the Bamabite Commission were floored by the level of deceit, which exceeded their wildest imagination. Confronting such proof of the crimes of Stalinism had a galvanizing effect on Slovak and Czech historians similar to the jolt Nikita Khrushchev's "Secret Speech" had given to Soviet Communists in 1956. As a group of historians recalled in the spring of 1968, "In a certain sense, all of us inside the walls of the former Bamabite monastery went through our own 20 th Congress." 25 For these historians at least, there could be no going back to the old, dogmatic interpretations of Slovak history, especially where the Uprising was concerned. Sensing the opportunity de-Stalinization and the Barnabite Commission had created, historians took the initiative in probing sensitive issues like the Slovak question and the wartime resistance in Slovakia. As early as March of 1963, Falt'an had urged a drastic reexamination of the Uprising, one that would break out of the "black-and-white pigeonholes" of historiography from the Stalinist era to "evaluate objectively and justly" such topics as the role of (non-communist) Slovak regulars from the 1st Czechoslovak Army in the SNP. 26 Further steps in this direction came in the summer of 1963, when historians openly connected the significance of their professional work to the concurrent process of rehabilitation. Miroslav Kropilak opened the Slovak Historical Society ' s conference in June 1963 by reminding his fellow historians of their shared obligation in reassessing "wrongly interpreted" segments of their history. 27 The congress helped to engage Slovak historians in the task 24 Vilem Precan, "S lovo cita tel'ovi," in Slovenske narodne povstanie - Dokumenty, ed. Precan, 5-6. 25 Beer and others, " Svedectvi z Barnabitek. " 26 Samo Falt'an, " Histori a a dn esok," Kulturny i ivot, 23 March 1963 . 27 Kropilak's ex hortati on to eliminate th e "unscienti fic methods" of research employed in studi es of recent Slovak history marked an about fac e from his own presentation at the Fourth Congress of Slovak Histori ans a year earli er in Kosice. At Kosi- �SLOVAKIA 73 of eliminating vestiges of the "cult of personality," and it created space, as the historian Marek Havrila remarked, for the "de-ideologizing" (odideologizovanie) of history and the "academifying" (zvedectenie) of the discipline.28 Rewriting History: New (and Old) Narratives of the Uprising Historians began to rewrite the history of the Uprising in time for its twentieth anniversary in 1964, reflecting not only the opportunities created by the Bamabite Commission, but also the heightened interest in commemorating this milestone. Many historians took seriously the need for better scholarship on the Uprising and strove to make use both of newly available materials as well as the relaxation of political constraints. But other historians largely paid lip service to the tasks of writing new, post-Stalinist narratives of the SNP, hewing closely to older, more dogmatic interpretations. On the whole, the new historiography of the Uprising produced in the 1960s yielded improved histories, but it remained bound to the shifting politics of the day. A key development early in this process was an academic conference held at Smolenice on 8-10 June 1964, when several Slovak and Czech historians presented their latest research on the Uprising. The conference marked important progress on the "arduous journey" historians had traveled, as Kropilak recalled in his foreword to the published volume of conference papers, since it brought a "difficult acknowledgment of the unexamined truths, half-truths and untruths" that had characterized historiography of the Uprising from the Stalinist era.29 In a similar vein, Alexander Dubcek, who became KSS first secretary amid the political shakeup of the previous year, ce in I 962 , Kropil ak gave a paper on the anti fas ci st move ment in Eastern Slovakia th at uphe ld communist orthodoxy. He credited the party for building the resistance from the grass roots until the Upri sing, but made no mention of th e contributions of non-Co mmuni sts in the Slova k res istance. Bokes, " Va ine zhromazdenie," 650 ; "Stvrty sjazd slovenskych hi storik ov," Historicky casopis I 0, no. 4 ( 1962): 632. 28 Marek Havril a, " K ni ektory m pro blemom vyv inu slovenskej hi storiografie a slovenskej histori ckej spolocnosti pri SA V v 50. a 60. rokoch 20. storocia," Historicky casopis 55 , no. I (2007) : 28, 32. 29 Mi ros lav Kropil ak, " Uvod," in Slovenske narodne povstanie roku I 944, eds. Hol otik and Kropilak, 5. �74 SLOVAKIA opened the conference proceedings by exhorting historians to undertake "a really broad and deep critical analysis of all problems" concerning this significant chapter in recent Slovak history, and Dubcek also reminded historians that the rectification of earlier mistakes was not simply a question of the past, but also a living concern of the present and future .30 As if Dubcek's point could somehow be lost on his audience, the participation of Husak and Novomesky at Smolenice underscored the topicality of scholarship on the SNP. Indeed, Husak expressed his belief on the final day that the conference itself was a sign of the times, since a definite measure of political relaxation in Slovakia was a precondition for historians to address openly the pitfalls of Stalinist-era historiography, and to shed new light on the history of the Uprising. 31 The papers presented at Smolenice aimed mainly at debunking the myths and errors of the Stalinist-era narrative of the SNP. For instance, Falt'an directly criticized the Ninth KSS Congress for having "artificially created" a circle of "bourgeois nationalist traitors and agents of imperialism" that included Husak, Novomesky and Smidke as its leading figures. This trio of Slovak Communists had created the illegal Fifth KSS Central Committee in 1943 , following the arrest of members of the Fourth KSS Central Committee, and had played a major role in organizing the Uprising. Yet the members of the Fifth KSS Central Committee came under fire after the communist takeover of 1948 for their collaboration with nonCommunists, which provided one justification for their persecution as Slovak "bourgeois nationalists." Falt'an portrayed the Slovak Communists who had helped to orchestrate the SNP as both patriotic and communist, rendering the wartime KSS leadership as neither "bourgeois" nor "nationalist" in an effort to break with the dogmatic interpretations that had marred previous historiography.32 Another crucial component of this attempt to cast aside Stalinistera narratives was the effort historians made to address lacunae in scholarship on the Uprising. To this end, the Slovak historian Milos 30 Alexander Dubcek, "Marx isticka histori ografia a nasa revolucna minulost'," in S/ovenske narodne povstanie roku / 944, eds. Holotik and Kropil ak, I 8. 31 Gustav Husak, " K ni ektorym otazkam Slovenskeho narodn eho povstania," in S/ovenske narodne povstanie roku / 944, eds. Holotik and Kropilak, 652-653. 32 Samo Falt'an, " Slovenske narodn e povstani e a jeho problemy," in Slovenske narodne povstanie roku / 944, eds. Holotik and Kropilak, 222, 234. �SLOVAKIA 75 Tichy called attention to the contributions of non-Communists in the SNP. Though the Communists had been the only party in Slovakia that opposed the breakup of the republic and the Tiso government from the outset, Tichy emphasized how the non-communist parties could not be treated as monolithic supporters of Slovak separatism. Thus, Tichy took care to note how segments of the Social Democratic Party, along with individual members of other "bourgeois" (meaning non-communist) parties had held views similar to those of Slovak Communists with respect to the creation of a pro-German Slovak state. It was noteworthy for Tichy even to mention these nonCommunists who went on to join the wartime resistance, since, as he noted, the record of the non-communist resistance had been thoroughly trivialized and falsified in earlier historiography.33 Tichy struck one of the first important blows against the Stalinist narrative of the Uprising by virtue of recognizing the existence of noncommunist opposition to the Slovak state, though it was not until Jablonicky published Z ilegality do povstania at the end of the decade that this "civilian" segment of the wartime Slovak resistance gained the recognition it deserved. Even though historians consciously sought objectivity and historical fidelity at Smolen ice, they did not reject all elements of the Stalinist-era narrative of the SNP. Thus, while Falt'an preached the importance of historical truth in denouncing the lies that characterrized earlier histories, he sought this "truth" within a distinctly Marxist framework. Comparing the Slovak National Uprising of 1944 to the Warsaw Uprising of the same year, Falt'an placed the Slovak revolt on a qualitatively higher plane than the Polish insurrection, since the SNP had, in Falt'an 's estimation, the superior class orientation. Whereas the Polish "reactionary bourgeoisie" had "abused" popular hatred of Nazi Germany in order to serve its own "political speculations" and "anti-Soviet aims," the Slovak people had taken up arms under the leadership of "revolutionary forces" headed by the KSS .34 Marxist hermeneutics continued to color other interpretations of the Uprising advanced at Smolenice. Like Falt'an, Tichy took great 33 Milos Tic hy, " Hl avne etapy fo rmy a probl emy narodn ooslobodzo vac ieho hnuti a na Slove nsku do vzniku Povstani a," in Slovenske narodne povstanie roku / 944, eds. Ho lotik and Kropilak, 65, 7 1. 34 Fa lt'a n, "S lovens ke narodn e povstanie a jeho pro bl emy," 27 1. �76 SLOVAKIA pains to emphasize the class dimension of the Slovak people's rejection of the pre-Munich First Republic. Tichy claimed the Slovak people (l'ud) had directed their hatred not at the fraternal Czech nation, but rather against the "politics of the ruling Czech bourgeoisie." 35 Similarly, Frantisek Janacek, a Czech historian and former member of the Barnabite Commission, conceded the importance of the national element in the Uprising, yet he suggested there was less real significance to such national sentiment in and of itself than in the political objectives to which Slovak Communists could put it in the SNP. Thus, Janacek upheld a doctrinaire Marxist interpretation of national sentiment in deeming it instrumental to revolutionary ends. He argued the initiative the Communists exhibited on the Slovak question had made the KSS a vanguard force that Slovaks recognized as a "national" (narodm) party. 36 Husak also hewed closely to this orthodox narrative of the Uprising instead of accentuating the national dimension of the SNP, averring at Smolenice that "the Slovak National Uprising was above all a political conception, the political revolution of the Slovak people." 37 Even as historians embarked on a pursuit for the truth about the SNP at Smolenice, they continued to parrot old party cliches about the Uprising. Indeed, historical fidelity coexisted alongside shifting political dictates in the historiography of the SNP throughout the l 960s, demonstrating how historians' professed desire for objectivity toward the past ran aground on their inability to remain aloof from the politics of the present. In O Slovenskom narodnom povstani, published in 1964, Falt'an culled new facts and documents in a quest to tell the truth about the Uprising, albeit a truth with a clear agenda. Falt'an's book expanded on the ideas he presented at Smolenice, as he continued his efforts to vindicate the Slovak Communists who had been condemned as "bourgeois nationalists" in the 1950s. But while Falt'an made skillful use of wartime documents to present a more historically accurate picture of the Slovak resistance, the same tired cliches about international solidarity and the Soviet Union 35 Tichy, " Hlavne etapy formy a problemy narodnooslobodzovacieho hnutia na Slovensku," 68-69. 36 Frantisek Janacek, " Dve promeny slovenske otazky (Mezi Mnichovem a Slovenskym narodnim povsta nim)," in Slovenske narodne povstanie roku /944 , eds. Holotik and Kropilak, 618 , 628. 37 Husak, "K ni ektorym otazkam Slovenskeho narodneho povstania," 657. �SLOVAKIA 77 still peppered his work. He claimed the Uprising, among other things, "was the expression of great faith in the Soviet people," showing how de-Stalinization and a more relaxed political environment did not relieve Slovaks and Czechs of the duty to show deference to their Soviet allies - an obligation that remained in force even at the height of liberalization in 1968.38 Even the most groundbreaking histories of the Uprising from the mid-sixties exhibited a multiplicity of agendas. In Dejinna kriiovatka, a group of Slovak and Czech historians drew on their work on the Bamabite Commission in an attempt to "rehabilitate" the historical image of the SNP. Their work helped to expose the distortions of the Stalinist era, but it also restored the Slovak question to a prominent role in the new, post-Stalinist narrative of the Uprising. Dejinna kriiovatka appeared in a modest printing of 10,000 copies, yet it gained renown as the first attempt at a comprehensive history of the Slovak National Uprising that consciously rejected the Stalinist narrative and addressed several lacunae in scholarship on the Uprising. And yet, for all its significance as a landmark of Slovak historiography, Dejinna kriiovatka continued to uphold a Marxist worldview in interpreting the SNP as an affirmation of socialist revolution as well as a manifestation of how attractive communist ideas were to the average Slovaks who formed the core of the partisan masses in the Uprising.39 A similar emphasis on the communist aims of the Uprising appeared in Husak's Svedectvo o Slovenskom narodnom povstani. To his credit, Husak addressed some previously neglected or trivialized facets of the Uprising, pointing out the contributions of the noncommunist opposition within the antifascist camp, the existence of 40 which had been all but denied in Stalinist-era scholarship. Yet Husak's motives for calling attention to this marginalized component of the resistance were also self-serving. Lauding the role of the nonCommunists in the Uprising allowed Husak to validate the strategy of cooperating with non-Communists that he and other KSS leaders had pursued. Husak's intent in writing his recollection of the Uprising seemed to be to vindicate himself, not only in terms of the 38 Falt'an, 0 Slovenskom narodnom povstani, 8, I 03. Beer and others, Dejinna kriiovatka, 125-126, 252. 40 Husak, Svedectvo o Slovenskom narodnom povstani, 36-37. 39 �78 SLOVAKIA historical record, but also in the eyes of the party. As such, Husak stuck close to the communist interpretation of the SNP as a revolt directed against the ruling Slovak and Czech bourgeoisies, while simultaneously heralding the Communist Party (a self-referential bit of praise, considering his role as a member of the wartime KSS leadership) for leading the Uprising and launching the national and democratic revolution in Slovakia. 41 Husak's book also created a sensation after it appeared in August of 1964. The responses from Slovak and Czech intellectuals and historians ranged from the fawning to the damning, but most reviews 42 emphasized its positive contributions to scholarship on the SNP. These early favorable reviews led many Slovaks to view Husak, not only as a prominent figure in the Uprising, but as Jablonicky observed years later, they also encouraged both defenders and detractors of Husak to think of him "as a promising politician possibly on the rise in Slovakia."43 Husak's account of the Uprising conferred considerable authority on him, though not all historians accepted his portrayal of the SNP without reservation. The Czech scholar Josef Domansky offered the first critical remarks on Husak's book, noting one shortcoming was its "methodological non-clarity" resulting from the blurred division between Husak the memoirist and Husak the historian. On the whole, Domansky judged the book positively, even if it had its flaw s, and he regarded it as part of the new trend in historiography that helped to clarify the importance of the Slovak question and to transcend the oversimplifications of earlier scholarship on the Uprising.44 Yet Husak's book became a cause celebre among Slovak - and Czech - intellectuals when it came under fire from on high . Antonin Novotny had little patience for Husak, since Novotny had resisted the rehabilitation of Husak and other victims of Stalinism. When KSS leaders refused to rein in Husak, Novotny commissioned a party hack, the Czech historian Vaclav Kral , to write a scathing review in 41 Ibid., 129, 133 , 139. See, for instance, Anna Stvrtecka, "O dokum entoc h a fa ktoc h," Kultiirny i ivot, 27 August I 965 ; and Jifi Doleza l, " Dvakrat o S P," Mezinarodni politika I 0, no. I 0 (October 1964): 472. 43 Jablonicky, "S lovenske narodne povstani e a tri etapy jeho hodnoteni a," 452 . 44 Josef Domansky, " Nad knihou o Slovenskem narodnim povs tani," Nova mys/ 20, no. I ( 1965): 133- 134. 42 �SLOVAKIA 79 order to discredit Husak.45 The KSC cultural weekly Kulturni tvorba published Kral 's review in February 1966, almost two years after Husak' s book appeared in print, and focused, in Kral ' s words, "on a series of theses and questions that are insufficiently or incorrectly developed in Husak's book." Yet Kral's dissection of Husak' s narrative contained thinly veiled criticism of Husak's wartime activities as a member of the KSS Central Committee that organized the • · 46 Upnsmg. Though the high-level political machinations behind Kral ' s review were not common knowledge at the time, the response from Slovak and Czech historians was irate. Anton Bencik, Vaclav Kura) and Jaromir Navratil - one Slovak and two Czech historians - published a reply to Kral in defense of Husak' s work, which stressed the importance of Svedectvo o Slovenskom narodnom povstani as a harbinger of the new developments in historiography following the KSC's renunciation of "bourgeois nationalism" in 1963 . "The publication of Husak's book was indisputably an event," they offered in their response, yet the renown Husak had achieved with this work was only possible because it corresponded to contemporary knowledge of the Uprising and had been accepted by the historical community. Indeed, Husak 's book had been vetted in several reviews, which generally judged it favorably , albeit with some criticism of individual facets . Bencik, Kura! and Navratil also found it puzzling how Kral had remained silent during the historiographical discussions of Husak 's book when it first appeared, and was only then speaking out against the work, long after the fact. The timing was peculiar, though Bencik, Kura) and Navratil did not press their • • 47 susp1c10ns. 45 Vac lav Kra l, "O os udu jedne recenze," Kulturni tvorba, 25 April 1968. Vaclav Kra l, "O Husakove svedectvi troc hu j inak," Kul!urni tvorba, 24 February 1966. 47 Anton Benci k, Vaclav Ku ra ] and Jaromir Navratil , "Jes te o Husakove svedectvi a nejen o nem," Kulturni tvorba, 3 1 March 1966. The rev iew was reprinted a week later in th e Slovak cul tura l magaz ine Predvoj. Anton Benc ik , Vac lav Ku ra ] and Jaro mir Nav ratil , "Este o Husakovom Svedectve a nielen o i\om," Predvoj , 7 April 1966. 46 �80 SLOVAKIA Toward Better Histories? On the whole, Slovak historiography of the SNP during the sixties struggled to find its way, as the competing impulses of communist orthodoxy and professional integrity pulled individual historians in opposite directions. While some scholars, like Jablonicky, or the historians who worked on the Bamabite Commission, proved relatively successful at eschewing dogma in writing new narratives more concerned with fidelity to the historical record, it proved impossible even for these more commendable histories to avoid all the cliches about the Uprising that had marked Stalinist-era scholarship. Yet historiography did not exist in a vacuum, and Slovak historians - as well as journalists, writers, politicians and other public figures addressing the theme of the SNP - also played an active role in using the history of the Uprising to reshape contemporary politics. The Slovak National Uprising was an episode from recent history, and the new vitality of scholarship on it during the midsixties ensured the Uprising remained living history for the remainder of the decade. Rewriting the history of the SNP allowed Slovak (and Czech) scholars to press for the rehabilitation of its persecuted leaders. But the new narrative of the Uprising also helped to "rehabilitate" the idea of the Slovak nation in public discourse, which in tum created an opening for politically engaged Slovaks to advance a nationalist agenda. Ultimately, this agenda would aim at a new approach to the Slovak question in the form of a federation, but in the interim, it entailed the promotion of a Slovak national consciousness firmly rooted in the new, "rehabilitated" historical image of the Uprising. � 60 SLOVAKIA RISING AGAINST STALINISM: DESTALINIZATION AND THE REINTERPRETATION OF THE SLOVAK NATIONAL UPRISING IN SLOVAK HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE 1960s Scott Brown In the morning hours of 29 August 1944, several thousand Slovak and foreign partisans took up arms against the German soldiers who entered Slovakia the previous day to crush the country's growing anti-German resistance. This armed insurrection marked the start of the Slovak National Uprising (Slovenske narodne povstanie, or SNP), a rebellion centered on the city of Banska Bystrica and directed against the German invaders and the pro-German leaders of the wartime Slovak state. Over the ensuing two months, roughly 60,000 Slovak and foreign partisans, including rebel units of the Slovak Army, fought a loosely coordinated campaign against the German incursion. Outnumbered and outgunned, the partisans steadily lost the territory they had initially controlled, and by the end of October 1944 the German units had quelled the Uprising. Yet the military shortcomings of the SNP paled in comparison to its political significance: the Slovak underground had carried out the largest resistance operation on once (and future) Czechoslovak soil during the Second World War. The Uprising bolstered the position of the Czechoslovak government in exile, which could point to the SNP as proof that Czechoslovakia had contributed militarily to its own liberation. Further-more, in the eyes of Czechs, the Uprising also helped to "redeem" Slovaks for their unilateral declaration of independence in 1939, and for the quasi-fascist government that ruled Slovakia during the war. After the war, the SNP became the centerpiece of a new, reconstructed form of Slovak nationalism that played a major role in precipitating the Czechoslovak Spring of the late 1960s. Nonetheless, Slovak nationalism remained a liability for nearly two decades after the war. The mere existence of the wartime Slovak state left Slovak nationalism suspect, since many Czechs continued �SLOVAKIA 61 to equate it with Slovak separatism and the humiliating loss of Czech independence in 1939. In addition, the persecution of Slovak "bourgeois nationalists" - many of whom had played prominent roles in the Uprising - in the political trials of the 1950s further compromised the legitimacy of Slovak nationalism in a Czechoslovak context. These problematic legacies left Slovak nationalism without a usable past until the rehabilitation of the erstwhile Slovak "bourgeois nationalists" in 1963 afforded the Slovaks a political opening to reevaluate the SNP. In tum, this reinterpretation of the Uprising's historical significance provided the foundation for a new, positive brand of nationalism Slovaks could safely assert. If nothing else, the SNP had given the lie to the notion that Slovak nationalism was incompatible with a Czechoslovak state. Gradually, many Slovak historians, intellectuals and politicians advanced a narrative of the SNP that interpreted the Uprising as the great redemptive act of the Slovak nation. In this view, Slovaks rose up as a nation against the wartime pro-Nazi regime of Jozef Tiso, sacrificing "their own" state in order to resurrect Czechoslovakia and make the new republic their own state. For champions of the Slovak national cause in the 1960s, finding their place in the restored Czechoslovakia entailed recognition of the existence of a separate Slovak nation and the enshrinement of its equality with the other titular nation through the federalization of the state. By reconstructing the history of the Uprising in this way, Slovak nationalists could then lay claim to specific rights as a nation. Like their calls for a Czechoslovak federation later in the decade, Slovak nationalists' demands for legal recognition of Slovak nationhood in the mid- to late 1960s referred directly or indirectly to the Slovak National Uprising for justification. As historians and political figures constructed a new narrative of the Uprising in the 1960s, they toned down old Stalinist and Marxist dogmas. Instead, the language they used to describe the SNP restored Slovaks - and the Slovak nation - to a central role. Important in this regard was how Slovaks writing and speaking about the Uprising during the Czechoslovak Spring began to accentuate the Slovak nation (narod) in retelling the history of the Uprising, placing new stress on the national component of the Slovak National Uprising. Thus, along with their stated desire to seek historical truth and to rectify the "errors" of Stalinism, Slovak historians writing about the �62 SLOVAKIA Uprising in the sixties also contributed to the reconstruction of Slovak nationalism by linking Slovaks' demands for national rights and a just solution to the Slovak question with the progressive and democratic traditions of the Uprising. The process of reinterpreting the Uprising and reconstructing Slovak nationalism - a process that occurred in fits and starts, with much equivocation - shows, in turn, how important Slovak developments of the mid-1960s served as antecedents to the Czechoslovak Spring that blossomed in 1968. One of the crucial, yet underappreciated, facets of this prehistory took shape in the new historiography of the SNP produced in the l 960s. Several groups of historians participated in crafting this new narrative. Younger historians, such as Jozef Jablonicky, perhaps had an advantage of personal detachment, since they had fought in neither the Uprising nor the battles over its history during the Stalinist era. 1 Other important contributors came from the historians who served on the Bamabite Commission and subsequently attempted to produce more "objective" and "factual" histories of the Uprising. 2 But veterans of the Up1 lndeed, Jab lonicky di sti ngui shed himself as arguabl y the most profess iona l and darin g histo ri an with hi s willingness to te ll the story of the significant but politically margin ali zed non-communi st "c ivilian" component of the Slovak resi stance that fought in th e NP. Yet even Jablonicky's work ex hibited an evolution in hi s willingness to challenge former taboos, since his first works from early in the decade did not go quite so far in this regard as hi s later work. See Jozef Jablon icky, Sloven- ska na prelome: Zapas o vit'azstvo narodnej a demokratickej revohicie na Slovensku (Bratislava : Yydavatel'stvo politickej literatury, 1965); and Jozef Jablonicky, Z ilegality do povstania (Kapitoly z obcianskeho odboja) (Bratislava : Epocha, 1969). 2 In Apri l 1963 , the Central Comm ittee of th e Communist Party of Czechos lovakia (Komunis ticka strana Ceskoslovenska, or KSC) convened a working gro up of Slovak and Czech party and academic "experts," popularly known as the " Bamabite Commiss ion," to investi gate th e allegations of " bourgeois nationalism" that had been leve led aga inst Ladi slav ovomesky, Gustav Husak and oth er wartime leaders of the Communist Party of Slovakia (Komunisticka strana S/o venska, or KSS) in th e major Slovak political trial s of the early 1950s. The Bamabite Commission's report, issued in August 1963 , di spro ved the Stalinist-era charges and called for the co mplete political rehabilitation of Husak, Novomesky and the oth er accused Slovak " bourgeois nationa lists." Stanis lav Sikora, " Politicky vyvoj na Slovensku v rokoch I 960- 1967 ," in Miroslav Londak, Stanis lav Sikora an d Elena Londakova, Predjarie: Politicky, ekonomicky a kul!iirny vyvoj na Slovensku v rokoch 1960- 1967 (Bratislava: Veda, 2002), 46-47 . The major schol arl y product that followed from th e work of the Barnabite Comm ission , not to mention one of the best studi es of th e Uprising from this era, was Ferdinand Beer and others, Dejinna kriiovatka: Slovenske ncirod- �SLOVAKIA 63 rising, like Gustav Husak, and older scholars like Samo Falt'an (also a former partisan) participated in this process as well, whether to exonerate themselves for their activities during the SNP, or to offer a mea culpa for their distorted publications from the Stalinist era.3 Many western studies of the Czechoslovak Spring that address the years prior to 1968 offer at best a fleeting mention of the revival of Slovak history and efforts to remove discredited cliches of the 4 Stalinist era from the historical image of the SNP. Nonetheless, the lack of scholarly attention to this important trend in Slovak historiography does a disservice to its importance in Slovak - and Czechoslovak - politics of the mid- to late 1960s. Though de-Stalinization may have begun from on high in the Czechoslovak capital, Slovak historians, writers, intellectuals, politicians and other public figures took full advantage of the chance to break old taboos and raise formerly forbidden issues, none of which was more heretical or politically pregnant than the Slovak question. As the Slovak writer Peter Karvas told Antonin J. Liehrn in 1968, Stalinist propaganda had a banalizing effect on all this; it reduced the Uprising to a historical cliche, and in the end the generation of the Uprising convinced itself that this view was somehow a more noble and correct one. Thus it is neither an accident nor an illusion that the rehabilitation of the ne povstanie - predpoklady a vysledky (Brati slava: Vydavatel's tvo po litic kej literatury, I 964). Important exampl es of these work s we re Samo Falt'an, 0 Slovenskom narodnom povstani (Bra ti slava: Osveta, 1964); a nd Gustav Husak, Svedectvo o Slovenskom narodnom povstani (Brati slava: Vydavatel'stvo po litickej literatury, 1964). Husak also published a second , slightl y rev ised editi o n of hi s memo ir cum hi story in 1969. nd Gustav Hu sak, Svedectvo o Slovensko narodnom povstani, 2 ed. (Bratislava: Epocha, 1969). 4 H. Gordon Skilling a nd V ladimir V . Ku sin each pro vide a pass in g mention of the importance of SN P hi stori ography in th e m id-sixties. See H. Gordon Skilling, Czechoslovakia ·s Interrupted Revolution (Princeto n, N .J .: Princeton Uni ve rsity Press, 1976), 50-51 ; V ladimir V. Kusin, The Intellectual Origins of the Prague 3 Spring: The Development of Reform ist Ideas in Czechoslovakia, 1956- 1967 (Ca mbridge: Ca mbrid ge Uni versity Press, 197 1), 70. �64 SLOVAKIA Uprising coincided with a wave of reawakening sweeping across all the Slovak social and intellectual life. 5 Accordingly, chronicling the "history of the history" of the Slovak National Uprising during the 1960s offers a way to challenge these conventional boundaries and interpretations of the Czechoslovak Spring. Tracing the shifts in Slovak historiography and the new brand of Slovak nationalism constructed in the process restores Slovaks to the significant role they played in this upheaval, showing how Slovakia experienced an "early spring" following the renewed effort at de-Stalinization and rehabilitation in 1963 . The Pitfalls of History (and Historiography) Pointing to the "errors" that plagued earlier histories of the Slovak National Uprising, the writer Ladislav Novomesky made a plea to Slovak and Czech historians in 1964. His appeal to the participants at a conference at Smolenice on the Uprising urged historians to pay close attention to the image of the SNP through twenty years of historiography. As part of the process of rectifying the mistakes of Stalinism and rewriting history, Novomesky proposed that historians "delineate the history of the history [emphasis in original]" of the Uprising. 6 As Novomesky's remarks indicated, the political context in which historians worked had left an indelible mark on historiography and on the history of the Slovak National Uprising. Political constraints of the Stalinist era had curtailed the research possibilities available to scholars, who could not access most of the relevant documents and other materials. But political dictates had also imposed ready-made interpretations on historians' narratives. When Novomesky made his pitch to historians to take stock of the historiography of the Uprising, he mainly had in mind the correction of the lies, distortions and half-truths that had colored histories of the Uprising 5 Antonin J. Liehm, The Politics of Culture, trans. Peter Kussi (New York : Grove Press, 1972), 351. 6 Ladislav Novomesky, "Za hi storicku pravdu o Povstani," in Slovenske narodne povstanie ro/..."U 1944 (Sbornik prispevkov z narodnooslobodzovacieho boja 19381945), eds . Cudovit Holotik and Miroslav Kropilak, (Bratislava: Vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej akademie vied, 1965), 668. �SLOVAKIA 65 since the onset of Stalinism in Czechoslovakia in the late 1940s. Revisions to these histories had become possible only with the work of the Bamabite Commission and the first concrete steps at deStalinization in 1963 . As the Slovak writer Michal Chorvath claimed on the Uprising's nineteenth anniversary in August 1963 , the "liquidation of the cult of personality" made it possible for the first time in years "to say about the Slovak National Uprising and its significance for our nation and state what the whole public has already thought for a long time." 7 De-Stalinization thus provided an important stimulus in the midI 960s for historians to attempt a more objective look at the Uprising. But while this political opening afforded scholars an opportunity to contest the older dogmatic accounts of the SNP, the historical image of the Uprising remained deeply politicized in the new narratives of the sixties. In the middle and later years of the decade, many Slovak intellectuals and politicians contested Stalinist-era views in rewriting the history of the SNP, yet the individuals driving these shifts continued to interpret the historical significance of the Uprising in a way that served their contemporary personal and political agendas. For instance, Husak claimed expertise as a historian of the Uprising based on his background as the leading Slovak Communist in the SNP. Yet Husak also traded on his stature as an "authority" on the Uprising (and as the most prominent surviving Slovak victim of the Stalinist era) to mount his political comeback, culminating in his ascent to the post of KSC first secretary in April 1969. As the Czech historian Jan Rychlik notes, the new interpretation of the Uprising formulated in the mid-sixties "had a supremely political character," since it weighed directly on the question of rehabilitation and a return to politics for Husak and Novomesky.8 Nonetheless, a "rehabilitation" of the historical image of the SNP was a necessary part of de-Stalinization in Slovakia after 1963 , because the dictates of Stalinism had skewed earlier narratives. Older histories of the Uprising painted it as the opening act of the national and democratic revolution in Czechoslovakia, depicting the SNP as little more than a stepping stone toward the Communist seizure of 7 Mi cha l Chorvath , "K metodam skum ani a SN P," Ku /uirny i ivot, 3 1 August 1963. Jan Rychlik, Ce.si a Slovaci ve 20. sto /eti: Cesko-slovenske vztahy 1945-/ 992, vo l. 2 (Bra ti slava : Academi c Electroni c Press, 1998), 206. 8 �66 SLOVAKIA power. 9 These Stalinist-era narratives forced the SNP into a doctrinaire Marxist framework. Accordingly, historiography from the 1950s and early 1960s celebrated the toiling masses of the Slovak people (l'ud) , who rejected the "clerico-fascism" of the Tiso regime and adopted an internationalist outlook in fightin g side by side with the fraternal Czech nation, aided by the heroic Soviet Union, in order to create a new Czechoslovak Republic oriented towards the international Communist movement centered in Moscow. The heavy-handed Marxist language employed in these older narratives practically wrote Slovaks out of their own Uprising as it lionized the role of the Red Army and even of Czech partisans in the SNP, treating the contributions of Slovaks as an afterthought. Writing in samizdat in 1980, Jablonicky, the leading Slovak historian of the Uprising, divided historiography of the SNP into three distinct periods. Jablonicky characterized the first period, from 1949 to 1962, as one of "deformation," a time when historians falsified the history of the SNP to suit the dogmas of Stalinism and the attack on Slovak "bourgeois nationalism," which claimed as victims many prominent communist veterans of the Slovak resistance, including Husak, Novomesky and Karol Smidke. 10 Beginning with the work of the Barnabite Commission, a second period, which Jablonicky called "rehabilitation" took shape in 1963 . Though it lasted only until the installation of the Husak regime in April 1969, this era witnessed a burst of scholarship on the Uprising distinguished by its pursuit of "historical truth," including efforts to docu9 See, for instance, Jaros lav Kubat, ed., Slovenske narodni po vstani - Vyznamna etapa narodne osvobozeneckeho boje ceskoslovenskeho lidu: Material pro lektory a propagandisty k 15. vyroci SNP (Prague: Statn i nak ladatelstvi poli ticke literatu ry, 1959) . 10 Smidke had been a member the illegal KSS Centra l Committee that orga nized the Uprising, as we ll as the co-creator of the Christmas Agreement. Du ring the early stages of the campa ign aga inst the "bourgeois nationalists," Smidke faced accusations of collaboration, along with Vladimir Clementi s, Husak and Novo mesky, and lost his party and governmenta l posts, inc ludi ng his position as chairman of the Slovak Nati onal Council. Sm idke avo ided jo ining his supposed co llaborators in the dock at the poli tical tria ls of the ea rl y fifti es only due to hi s death in an automobile acc ident in late 1952, th ough various witnesses c laimed it had been a planned murder. He was posthumously rehabilitated with the other Slovak "bourgeois nati onalists" in December 1963. Jan Pesek, " Karo l Smidke," ed. Ja n Pesek, Akteri jednej ery na Slovensku: Personiflkacia politickeho vyvoja (Presov: Vydavatel'stvo Michala Vaska, 2003), 328-330. �SLOVAKIA 67 ment the role of non-Communists in the SNP. With the onset of "normalization" in 1970, a third period commenced, bringing a return to deformations and the silencing of "inconvenient historians" a group that included Jablonicky - and lasted until the fall of the communist regime in 1989. 11 Though Jablonicky's periodization conforms to wide trends in historiography on the Uprising, his characterization of the second period oversimplifies the contours of this pivotal era. Scholarship on the SNP produced from 1963 to 1969 witnessed a new push for historical truth and objectivity, with historians drawing on previously inaccessible documents, filling in former "blank spots" and challenging earlier dogmatic interpretations of the Uprising. However, the general trend toward historical fidelity did not follow the linear trajectory Jablonicky describes. While many historians sought accuracy and improved professional practices, others held fast to old dogmas, resulting in a multiplicity of narratives and interpretations of the SNP. Moreover, the ambiguities inherent in the quest for historical truth cut through the scholarship of individual historians. In May 1963 , Jan Kfen, a Czech historian who served as one of the experts on the Bamabite Commission, explained the challenges ahead for historians after Stalinism: The battle against dogmatism is, in my opmzon, above all an internal matter of every historian, a question of his theoretical level, his ideological potential. Like all progress in science, the overcoming of dogmatism is not possible without abilities and talent. Untalented thinking is always dogmatic, stereotypical and toady ish. 12 Yet Kfen overstated the importance of professional abilities, as many talented historians struggled to discard political considerations in order to write better histories. For instance, while Jablonicky's Slovensko na prelome, published in 1965, stressed the importance of the Uprising for inaugurating a new chapter in Czech-Slovak rela11 Jozef Ja bl oni cky, Glosy o historiograjii SNP: Zneuiivanie a f alfovanie dej in SNP (Brati slava: NVK In te rn ati onal, 1994), I 0, 13. 12 Jan Kfe n, " Kult a hi stori e," Kulttirna tvorba, 23 May 1963. �68 SLOVAKIA tions, Jablonicky equivocated in repeating the best orthodox cliches about nefarious Slovak and Czech bourgeoisies and the leading role of Communists in the resistance. 13 To Jablonicky's credit, he penned perhaps the decade ' s most important historiographical contribution in 1969, Z illegality do povstania, which offered the most stunning refutation of dogmatic interpretations of the Uprising and destroyed several taboos in praising the non-communist resistance and units of the Slovak Army for their roles in the Uprising while simultaneously portraying its communist leaders in an unflattering light. In a samizdat essay from 1979, Jablonicky even offered a mea culpa for his early scholarship in which he acknowledges the shortcomings of his first works. As Jablonicky recalled, conversations with dozens of former partisans and victims of Stalinism "gradually opened my eyes" as a young historian in the 1960s, leading him to appreciate the importance of the non-communist resistance. 14 Of course, Jablonicky was not alone. At a conference of Slovak historians in June 1963, Milos Gosiorovsky presented a harsh evaluation of his own works on the Uprising from the Stalinist era, criticizing his monographs Ilegalny boj KSS and Slovenske narodne povstanie for presenting a "substantially deformed" picture of the 15 SNP. A year later, Samo Falt'an described how the dictates of editorial boards and the pressures of self-censorship had handicapped evaluations of the Uprising in the Stalinist era, preventing him from including anything critical in his book Partizanska vojna na Slovensku, published in 1959 . 16 As the confessions of Gosiorovsky and Falt'an revealed, the most prominent Slovak historians had been especially susceptible to pressures for ideological conformity, which 13 Jablonicky, Slovensko na prelome, 3 1, 148- 149. Vilem Precan, " Historik proti nas iliu - Jozef Jabloni cky," in Jozef Jablonicky, Samizdat o odboji: Stiidie a clanky, vol. 2 (Bratislava: Kalligram, 2006), 12; Jablonicky, Glosy o historiografii SNP, 6 1. 15 Frantisek Bokes, "Vaine zhromazdeni e Slovenskej hi stori ckej spolocnosti ," Historicky casopis 12, no. 4 (1963): 650; Milos Gosiorovsky, !legalny boj KSS a Slovenske narodne povstanie (Bratislava: Nakladatel'stvo Pravda, 1949); Milos Gosiorovsky, Slovenske narodne povstanie (Bra ti slava : Slovenske vydava tel'stvo politi ckej literatury, 1954). 16 Samo Falt'an, "Niektore otazky okolo hodnoteni a Slovenskeho narodneho povstania," Historicky casop is 12, no. 2 ( 1964): 161 , 164; Samo Falt'an, Partizanska vojna na Slovensku (Bratislava: Osveta, 1959). 14 �SLOVAKIA 69 seemed to spur their self-conscious push for objectivity in the more relaxed Slovak political climate of the mid-l 960s. Just as Slovak historians in the l 960s recognized the harmful effects of Stalinism on scholarship on the Uprising, scholars writing about the sixties acknowledge the importance of historiography for the larger crisis gestating in Czechoslovakia. Nonetheless, scholarship about the l 960s has pronounced limitations when it comes to historiography from the 1960s. Non-Slovak writers treat the history of the Uprising as but one issue among many new historiographical developments in Czechoslovakia, an approach characterristic of the wider tendency to trivialize the role of Slovaks and the Slovak question in the l 960s. 17 While the Slovak National Uprising was hardly the only historical theme to gamer renewed interest from historians in the mid-sixties - or even the only topic from Slovak history - it was unique in the political purposes to which prominent Slovaks put it in justifying contemporary demands for a resolution of the Slovak question in line with the ostensible aims of the Uprising. More obvious, however, was the extent to which the new historiography on the SNP from the 1960s broke with old dogmas. The doctrinaire narrative of the Uprising from the Stalinist era marginalized the role of Slovaks in the Slovak National Uprising. An instructional manual for lecturers and propagandists published in advance of the SNP's fifteenth anniversary - and, tellingly, written in Czech inflated the importance of Soviet and Czech contributions to the Uprising: In August 1944 the Slovak nation, emboldened by the heroic battle of the Soviet p eople in the Great Patriotic War, under the leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, alongside the Soviet Army advancing to victory, together with the fraternal Czech nation, rose up with weapons in 17 See, fo r instance, th e scant treatm ent prov ided in Stanl ey Z. Pec h, " Fe rment in Czec hoslova k Marxist Hi stori ograph y," Canadian Slavonic Papers l 0, no. 4 (Dece mber 1968): 502-522; Ga lia Gol an, The Czechoslovak Refo rm Movement: Communism in Crisis. 1962- / 968 ; and Skillin g, Czechoslovakia 's Interrupted Revolution. By contrast, M. Mark Stolarik observed how hi stori ans, beginning with Husak and the th eme of the SNP, increasingly reasserted Slovak nati onali sm in their th work . M. Mark Stolarik , "The Painful Birth of Slovak Histori ography in the 20 Century," Zeitschriftfiir Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung 50, no. 2 (2 00 I): 176 . �70 SLOVAKIA hand against the German occupiers and their domestic fascist supporters in order to contribute to the liberation of their own homeland - the Czechoslovak Republic. 18 Amid the rambling succession of clauses inserted to show obligatory deference to the Soviet Union and the KSC and to flatter Czechs, the propaganda manual, like the Stalinist-era interpretations of the SNP it typifies, lost sight of the Slovaks, who nearly disappeared from the history of their own Uprising. At the same time, older orthodoxy ascribed the Marxist categories of proletarian internationalism and class struggle to the Uprising. In their work on international participation in the SNP, the Czech Jii'i Dolezal and the Slovak Jozef Hroziencik credited the liberation of Czechoslovakia to the Soviet Army on the international stage, and to the working class at home. The Uprising occurred as a consequence, Dolezal and Hroziencik argued, of "the strengthening of the working class and its ideological leadership in the nation," along with the blossoming of the idea of internationalism within the proletariat. 19 Near the end of the Stalinist era, an editorial in 1962 from the KSC Central Committee daily Rude pravo made the dubious claim that, "on an ideological plane," the Uprising "aimed mainly at developing a unified economy," along with combining all other aspects of Slovak and Czech society after liberation - making the SNP appear as the first step toward amalgamating Slovaks and Czechs into a single Czechoslovak nation.2° Conventional interpretations from the Stalinist era thus reduced the Uprising to little more than the opening act in the Czechoslovak revolution and a prelude to the communist takeover in 1948.21 Such a view seemed at odds with the reality of communist electoral strength in the elections of 1946, when the party made considerable gains over its interwar showing, yet still suffered a decisive defeat at the hands of the Democratic Party. 18 Kubat, Slovenske narodni povstani, 3. Jifi Dolezal and Jozef Hroziencik, Medzinarodna solidarita v Slovenskom narodnom povstani (Bratislava: Osveta, 1959), 35, 219 20 " Rozvij ime spolecne dilo," Rude pravo, 29 August 1962. 21 Doleza l and Hroziencik, Medzinarodna solidarita , 74. 19 �SLOVAKIA 71 Coming to Terms with the Past: De-Stalinization and the Uprising Rewriting the history of the Slovak National Uprising first required important political developments to transpire, and the process drew succor from new efforts at de-Stalinization in 1963 . But the impact of the Bamabite Commission also revealed the crucial role historians played in this process. As Ferdinand Beer, Antonin Bencik, Frantisek Janacek and Jan Kfon recalled, their work on the Bamabite Commission offered historians a rare chance to play an important role in current events: ft was - as far as we know - the first time such a large group of scholars was asked to do this kind of work. This experience left its mark on their whole way of doing work and became, at least for historians, one of those rare occasions when they could not only reconstruct history, but also help to make it. 22 The recollections of these historians also spoke to the transformative effect the Bamabite Commission had on its member-scholars, which proved a formative experience for the way they approached their craft thereafter. Because it focused not only on the political trials of the early 1950s, but also on the activities of the "bourgeois nationalists" during the SNP, the Bamabite Commission employed several professional historians who consequently gained access to documents formerly off limits to researchers, including the files of the "bourgeois nationalists" and materials concerning the cases of Vladimir Clementis and others.23 A document collection on the SNP, originally planned to appear in conjunction with the twentieth anniversary of the Uprising in 1964 and intended to span 300 to 400 pages when conceived in the spring of 1963, soon ballooned to more than a thousand pages and took an extra year to produce. As Vilem Precan, the Czech editor of the volume, recounts in hi s preface, the renewed interest in the Uprising first observed during celebrations of its nineteenth anniversary, coupled with the political fallout of the 22 23 Beer and others, "Svedectvi z Barnabitek," Kulturni tvorba, 2 May 1968. Sikora, " Po liticky vyvoj na Slovensku," 38. �72 SLOVAKIA Barnabite Commission's report, created "editorial possibilities" that compelled him to broaden the scope of the project. Precan had to sift through piles of newly available documents and include as many of these materials as he could, a daunting task that kept him from completing the volume until 1965 - a full year behind schedule.24 Confronted with documentary evidence of the fabrications from the political trials, the historian-members of the Bamabite Commission were floored by the level of deceit, which exceeded their wildest imagination. Confronting such proof of the crimes of Stalinism had a galvanizing effect on Slovak and Czech historians similar to the jolt Nikita Khrushchev's "Secret Speech" had given to Soviet Communists in 1956. As a group of historians recalled in the spring of 1968, "In a certain sense, all of us inside the walls of the former Bamabite monastery went through our own 20 th Congress." 25 For these historians at least, there could be no going back to the old, dogmatic interpretations of Slovak history, especially where the Uprising was concerned. Sensing the opportunity de-Stalinization and the Barnabite Commission had created, historians took the initiative in probing sensitive issues like the Slovak question and the wartime resistance in Slovakia. As early as March of 1963, Falt'an had urged a drastic reexamination of the Uprising, one that would break out of the "black-and-white pigeonholes" of historiography from the Stalinist era to "evaluate objectively and justly" such topics as the role of (non-communist) Slovak regulars from the 1st Czechoslovak Army in the SNP. 26 Further steps in this direction came in the summer of 1963, when historians openly connected the significance of their professional work to the concurrent process of rehabilitation. Miroslav Kropilak opened the Slovak Historical Society ' s conference in June 1963 by reminding his fellow historians of their shared obligation in reassessing "wrongly interpreted" segments of their history. 27 The congress helped to engage Slovak historians in the task 24 Vilem Precan, "S lovo cita tel'ovi," in Slovenske narodne povstanie - Dokumenty, ed. Precan, 5-6. 25 Beer and others, " Svedectvi z Barnabitek. " 26 Samo Falt'an, " Histori a a dn esok," Kulturny i ivot, 23 March 1963 . 27 Kropilak's ex hortati on to eliminate th e "unscienti fic methods" of research employed in studi es of recent Slovak history marked an about fac e from his own presentation at the Fourth Congress of Slovak Histori ans a year earli er in Kosice. At Kosi- �SLOVAKIA 73 of eliminating vestiges of the "cult of personality," and it created space, as the historian Marek Havrila remarked, for the "de-ideologizing" (odideologizovanie) of history and the "academifying" (zvedectenie) of the discipline.28 Rewriting History: New (and Old) Narratives of the Uprising Historians began to rewrite the history of the Uprising in time for its twentieth anniversary in 1964, reflecting not only the opportunities created by the Bamabite Commission, but also the heightened interest in commemorating this milestone. Many historians took seriously the need for better scholarship on the Uprising and strove to make use both of newly available materials as well as the relaxation of political constraints. But other historians largely paid lip service to the tasks of writing new, post-Stalinist narratives of the SNP, hewing closely to older, more dogmatic interpretations. On the whole, the new historiography of the Uprising produced in the 1960s yielded improved histories, but it remained bound to the shifting politics of the day. A key development early in this process was an academic conference held at Smolenice on 8-10 June 1964, when several Slovak and Czech historians presented their latest research on the Uprising. The conference marked important progress on the "arduous journey" historians had traveled, as Kropilak recalled in his foreword to the published volume of conference papers, since it brought a "difficult acknowledgment of the unexamined truths, half-truths and untruths" that had characterized historiography of the Uprising from the Stalinist era.29 In a similar vein, Alexander Dubcek, who became KSS first secretary amid the political shakeup of the previous year, ce in I 962 , Kropil ak gave a paper on the anti fas ci st move ment in Eastern Slovakia th at uphe ld communist orthodoxy. He credited the party for building the resistance from the grass roots until the Upri sing, but made no mention of th e contributions of non-Co mmuni sts in the Slova k res istance. Bokes, " Va ine zhromazdenie," 650 ; "Stvrty sjazd slovenskych hi storik ov," Historicky casopis I 0, no. 4 ( 1962): 632. 28 Marek Havril a, " K ni ektory m pro blemom vyv inu slovenskej hi storiografie a slovenskej histori ckej spolocnosti pri SA V v 50. a 60. rokoch 20. storocia," Historicky casopis 55 , no. I (2007) : 28, 32. 29 Mi ros lav Kropil ak, " Uvod," in Slovenske narodne povstanie roku I 944, eds. Hol otik and Kropilak, 5. �74 SLOVAKIA opened the conference proceedings by exhorting historians to undertake "a really broad and deep critical analysis of all problems" concerning this significant chapter in recent Slovak history, and Dubcek also reminded historians that the rectification of earlier mistakes was not simply a question of the past, but also a living concern of the present and future .30 As if Dubcek's point could somehow be lost on his audience, the participation of Husak and Novomesky at Smolenice underscored the topicality of scholarship on the SNP. Indeed, Husak expressed his belief on the final day that the conference itself was a sign of the times, since a definite measure of political relaxation in Slovakia was a precondition for historians to address openly the pitfalls of Stalinist-era historiography, and to shed new light on the history of the Uprising. 31 The papers presented at Smolenice aimed mainly at debunking the myths and errors of the Stalinist-era narrative of the SNP. For instance, Falt'an directly criticized the Ninth KSS Congress for having "artificially created" a circle of "bourgeois nationalist traitors and agents of imperialism" that included Husak, Novomesky and Smidke as its leading figures. This trio of Slovak Communists had created the illegal Fifth KSS Central Committee in 1943 , following the arrest of members of the Fourth KSS Central Committee, and had played a major role in organizing the Uprising. Yet the members of the Fifth KSS Central Committee came under fire after the communist takeover of 1948 for their collaboration with nonCommunists, which provided one justification for their persecution as Slovak "bourgeois nationalists." Falt'an portrayed the Slovak Communists who had helped to orchestrate the SNP as both patriotic and communist, rendering the wartime KSS leadership as neither "bourgeois" nor "nationalist" in an effort to break with the dogmatic interpretations that had marred previous historiography.32 Another crucial component of this attempt to cast aside Stalinistera narratives was the effort historians made to address lacunae in scholarship on the Uprising. To this end, the Slovak historian Milos 30 Alexander Dubcek, "Marx isticka histori ografia a nasa revolucna minulost'," in S/ovenske narodne povstanie roku / 944, eds. Holotik and Kropil ak, I 8. 31 Gustav Husak, " K ni ektorym otazkam Slovenskeho narodn eho povstania," in S/ovenske narodne povstanie roku / 944, eds. Holotik and Kropilak, 652-653. 32 Samo Falt'an, " Slovenske narodn e povstani e a jeho problemy," in Slovenske narodne povstanie roku / 944, eds. Holotik and Kropilak, 222, 234. �SLOVAKIA 75 Tichy called attention to the contributions of non-Communists in the SNP. Though the Communists had been the only party in Slovakia that opposed the breakup of the republic and the Tiso government from the outset, Tichy emphasized how the non-communist parties could not be treated as monolithic supporters of Slovak separatism. Thus, Tichy took care to note how segments of the Social Democratic Party, along with individual members of other "bourgeois" (meaning non-communist) parties had held views similar to those of Slovak Communists with respect to the creation of a pro-German Slovak state. It was noteworthy for Tichy even to mention these nonCommunists who went on to join the wartime resistance, since, as he noted, the record of the non-communist resistance had been thoroughly trivialized and falsified in earlier historiography.33 Tichy struck one of the first important blows against the Stalinist narrative of the Uprising by virtue of recognizing the existence of noncommunist opposition to the Slovak state, though it was not until Jablonicky published Z ilegality do povstania at the end of the decade that this "civilian" segment of the wartime Slovak resistance gained the recognition it deserved. Even though historians consciously sought objectivity and historical fidelity at Smolen ice, they did not reject all elements of the Stalinist-era narrative of the SNP. Thus, while Falt'an preached the importance of historical truth in denouncing the lies that characterrized earlier histories, he sought this "truth" within a distinctly Marxist framework. Comparing the Slovak National Uprising of 1944 to the Warsaw Uprising of the same year, Falt'an placed the Slovak revolt on a qualitatively higher plane than the Polish insurrection, since the SNP had, in Falt'an 's estimation, the superior class orientation. Whereas the Polish "reactionary bourgeoisie" had "abused" popular hatred of Nazi Germany in order to serve its own "political speculations" and "anti-Soviet aims," the Slovak people had taken up arms under the leadership of "revolutionary forces" headed by the KSS .34 Marxist hermeneutics continued to color other interpretations of the Uprising advanced at Smolenice. Like Falt'an, Tichy took great 33 Milos Tic hy, " Hl avne etapy fo rmy a probl emy narodn ooslobodzo vac ieho hnuti a na Slove nsku do vzniku Povstani a," in Slovenske narodne povstanie roku / 944, eds. Ho lotik and Kropilak, 65, 7 1. 34 Fa lt'a n, "S lovens ke narodn e povstanie a jeho pro bl emy," 27 1. �76 SLOVAKIA pains to emphasize the class dimension of the Slovak people's rejection of the pre-Munich First Republic. Tichy claimed the Slovak people (l'ud) had directed their hatred not at the fraternal Czech nation, but rather against the "politics of the ruling Czech bourgeoisie." 35 Similarly, Frantisek Janacek, a Czech historian and former member of the Barnabite Commission, conceded the importance of the national element in the Uprising, yet he suggested there was less real significance to such national sentiment in and of itself than in the political objectives to which Slovak Communists could put it in the SNP. Thus, Janacek upheld a doctrinaire Marxist interpretation of national sentiment in deeming it instrumental to revolutionary ends. He argued the initiative the Communists exhibited on the Slovak question had made the KSS a vanguard force that Slovaks recognized as a "national" (narodm) party. 36 Husak also hewed closely to this orthodox narrative of the Uprising instead of accentuating the national dimension of the SNP, averring at Smolenice that "the Slovak National Uprising was above all a political conception, the political revolution of the Slovak people." 37 Even as historians embarked on a pursuit for the truth about the SNP at Smolenice, they continued to parrot old party cliches about the Uprising. Indeed, historical fidelity coexisted alongside shifting political dictates in the historiography of the SNP throughout the l 960s, demonstrating how historians' professed desire for objectivity toward the past ran aground on their inability to remain aloof from the politics of the present. In O Slovenskom narodnom povstani, published in 1964, Falt'an culled new facts and documents in a quest to tell the truth about the Uprising, albeit a truth with a clear agenda. Falt'an's book expanded on the ideas he presented at Smolenice, as he continued his efforts to vindicate the Slovak Communists who had been condemned as "bourgeois nationalists" in the 1950s. But while Falt'an made skillful use of wartime documents to present a more historically accurate picture of the Slovak resistance, the same tired cliches about international solidarity and the Soviet Union 35 Tichy, " Hlavne etapy formy a problemy narodnooslobodzovacieho hnutia na Slovensku," 68-69. 36 Frantisek Janacek, " Dve promeny slovenske otazky (Mezi Mnichovem a Slovenskym narodnim povsta nim)," in Slovenske narodne povstanie roku /944 , eds. Holotik and Kropilak, 618 , 628. 37 Husak, "K ni ektorym otazkam Slovenskeho narodneho povstania," 657. �SLOVAKIA 77 still peppered his work. He claimed the Uprising, among other things, "was the expression of great faith in the Soviet people," showing how de-Stalinization and a more relaxed political environment did not relieve Slovaks and Czechs of the duty to show deference to their Soviet allies - an obligation that remained in force even at the height of liberalization in 1968.38 Even the most groundbreaking histories of the Uprising from the mid-sixties exhibited a multiplicity of agendas. In Dejinna kriiovatka, a group of Slovak and Czech historians drew on their work on the Bamabite Commission in an attempt to "rehabilitate" the historical image of the SNP. Their work helped to expose the distortions of the Stalinist era, but it also restored the Slovak question to a prominent role in the new, post-Stalinist narrative of the Uprising. Dejinna kriiovatka appeared in a modest printing of 10,000 copies, yet it gained renown as the first attempt at a comprehensive history of the Slovak National Uprising that consciously rejected the Stalinist narrative and addressed several lacunae in scholarship on the Uprising. And yet, for all its significance as a landmark of Slovak historiography, Dejinna kriiovatka continued to uphold a Marxist worldview in interpreting the SNP as an affirmation of socialist revolution as well as a manifestation of how attractive communist ideas were to the average Slovaks who formed the core of the partisan masses in the Uprising.39 A similar emphasis on the communist aims of the Uprising appeared in Husak's Svedectvo o Slovenskom narodnom povstani. To his credit, Husak addressed some previously neglected or trivialized facets of the Uprising, pointing out the contributions of the noncommunist opposition within the antifascist camp, the existence of 40 which had been all but denied in Stalinist-era scholarship. Yet Husak's motives for calling attention to this marginalized component of the resistance were also self-serving. Lauding the role of the nonCommunists in the Uprising allowed Husak to validate the strategy of cooperating with non-Communists that he and other KSS leaders had pursued. Husak's intent in writing his recollection of the Uprising seemed to be to vindicate himself, not only in terms of the 38 Falt'an, 0 Slovenskom narodnom povstani, 8, I 03. Beer and others, Dejinna kriiovatka, 125-126, 252. 40 Husak, Svedectvo o Slovenskom narodnom povstani, 36-37. 39 �78 SLOVAKIA historical record, but also in the eyes of the party. As such, Husak stuck close to the communist interpretation of the SNP as a revolt directed against the ruling Slovak and Czech bourgeoisies, while simultaneously heralding the Communist Party (a self-referential bit of praise, considering his role as a member of the wartime KSS leadership) for leading the Uprising and launching the national and democratic revolution in Slovakia. 41 Husak's book also created a sensation after it appeared in August of 1964. The responses from Slovak and Czech intellectuals and historians ranged from the fawning to the damning, but most reviews 42 emphasized its positive contributions to scholarship on the SNP. These early favorable reviews led many Slovaks to view Husak, not only as a prominent figure in the Uprising, but as Jablonicky observed years later, they also encouraged both defenders and detractors of Husak to think of him "as a promising politician possibly on the rise in Slovakia."43 Husak's account of the Uprising conferred considerable authority on him, though not all historians accepted his portrayal of the SNP without reservation. The Czech scholar Josef Domansky offered the first critical remarks on Husak's book, noting one shortcoming was its "methodological non-clarity" resulting from the blurred division between Husak the memoirist and Husak the historian. On the whole, Domansky judged the book positively, even if it had its flaw s, and he regarded it as part of the new trend in historiography that helped to clarify the importance of the Slovak question and to transcend the oversimplifications of earlier scholarship on the Uprising.44 Yet Husak's book became a cause celebre among Slovak - and Czech - intellectuals when it came under fire from on high . Antonin Novotny had little patience for Husak, since Novotny had resisted the rehabilitation of Husak and other victims of Stalinism. When KSS leaders refused to rein in Husak, Novotny commissioned a party hack, the Czech historian Vaclav Kral , to write a scathing review in 41 Ibid., 129, 133 , 139. See, for instance, Anna Stvrtecka, "O dokum entoc h a fa ktoc h," Kultiirny i ivot, 27 August I 965 ; and Jifi Doleza l, " Dvakrat o S P," Mezinarodni politika I 0, no. I 0 (October 1964): 472. 43 Jablonicky, "S lovenske narodne povstani e a tri etapy jeho hodnoteni a," 452 . 44 Josef Domansky, " Nad knihou o Slovenskem narodnim povs tani," Nova mys/ 20, no. I ( 1965): 133- 134. 42 �SLOVAKIA 79 order to discredit Husak.45 The KSC cultural weekly Kulturni tvorba published Kral 's review in February 1966, almost two years after Husak' s book appeared in print, and focused, in Kral ' s words, "on a series of theses and questions that are insufficiently or incorrectly developed in Husak's book." Yet Kral's dissection of Husak' s narrative contained thinly veiled criticism of Husak's wartime activities as a member of the KSS Central Committee that organized the • · 46 Upnsmg. Though the high-level political machinations behind Kral ' s review were not common knowledge at the time, the response from Slovak and Czech historians was irate. Anton Bencik, Vaclav Kura) and Jaromir Navratil - one Slovak and two Czech historians - published a reply to Kral in defense of Husak' s work, which stressed the importance of Svedectvo o Slovenskom narodnom povstani as a harbinger of the new developments in historiography following the KSC's renunciation of "bourgeois nationalism" in 1963 . "The publication of Husak's book was indisputably an event," they offered in their response, yet the renown Husak had achieved with this work was only possible because it corresponded to contemporary knowledge of the Uprising and had been accepted by the historical community. Indeed, Husak 's book had been vetted in several reviews, which generally judged it favorably , albeit with some criticism of individual facets . Bencik, Kura! and Navratil also found it puzzling how Kral had remained silent during the historiographical discussions of Husak 's book when it first appeared, and was only then speaking out against the work, long after the fact. The timing was peculiar, though Bencik, Kura) and Navratil did not press their • • 47 susp1c10ns. 45 Vac lav Kra l, "O os udu jedne recenze," Kulturni tvorba, 25 April 1968. Vaclav Kra l, "O Husakove svedectvi troc hu j inak," Kul!urni tvorba, 24 February 1966. 47 Anton Benci k, Vaclav Ku ra ] and Jaromir Navratil , "Jes te o Husakove svedectvi a nejen o nem," Kulturni tvorba, 3 1 March 1966. The rev iew was reprinted a week later in th e Slovak cul tura l magaz ine Predvoj. Anton Benc ik , Vac lav Ku ra ] and Jaro mir Nav ratil , "Este o Husakovom Svedectve a nielen o i\om," Predvoj , 7 April 1966. 46 �80 SLOVAKIA Toward Better Histories? On the whole, Slovak historiography of the SNP during the sixties struggled to find its way, as the competing impulses of communist orthodoxy and professional integrity pulled individual historians in opposite directions. While some scholars, like Jablonicky, or the historians who worked on the Bamabite Commission, proved relatively successful at eschewing dogma in writing new narratives more concerned with fidelity to the historical record, it proved impossible even for these more commendable histories to avoid all the cliches about the Uprising that had marked Stalinist-era scholarship. Yet historiography did not exist in a vacuum, and Slovak historians - as well as journalists, writers, politicians and other public figures addressing the theme of the SNP - also played an active role in using the history of the Uprising to reshape contemporary politics. The Slovak National Uprising was an episode from recent history, and the new vitality of scholarship on it during the midsixties ensured the Uprising remained living history for the remainder of the decade. Rewriting the history of the SNP allowed Slovak (and Czech) scholars to press for the rehabilitation of its persecuted leaders. But the new narrative of the Uprising also helped to "rehabilitate" the idea of the Slovak nation in public discourse, which in tum created an opening for politically engaged Slovaks to advance a nationalist agenda. Ultimately, this agenda would aim at a new approach to the Slovak question in the form of a federation, but in the interim, it entailed the promotion of a Slovak national consciousness firmly rooted in the new, "rehabilitated" historical image of the Uprising. � 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 2010, Vol. 40 Description An account of the resource Vol. 40 (No. 74-75), 2010. 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 2010 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 60 SLOVAKIA RISING AGAINST STALINISM: DESTALINIZATION AND THE REINTERPRETATION OF THE SLOVAK NATIONAL UPRISING IN SLOVAK HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE 1960s Scott Brown In the morning hours of 29 August 1944, several thousand Slovak and foreign partisans took up arms against the German soldiers who entered Slovakia the previous day to crush the country's growing anti-German resistance. This armed insurrection marked the start of the Slovak National Uprising (Slovenske narodne povstanie, or SNP), a rebellion centered on the city of Banska Bystrica and directed against the German invaders and the pro-German leaders of the wartime Slovak state. Over the ensuing two months, roughly 60,000 Slovak and foreign partisans, including rebel units of the Slovak Army, fought a loosely coordinated campaign against the German incursion. Outnumbered and outgunned, the partisans steadily lost the territory they had initially controlled, and by the end of October 1944 the German units had quelled the Uprising. Yet the military shortcomings of the SNP paled in comparison to its political significance: the Slovak underground had carried out the largest resistance operation on once (and future) Czechoslovak soil during the Second World War. The Uprising bolstered the position of the Czechoslovak government in exile, which could point to the SNP as proof that Czechoslovakia had contributed militarily to its own liberation. Further-more, in the eyes of Czechs, the Uprising also helped to "redeem" Slovaks for their unilateral declaration of independence in 1939, and for the quasi-fascist government that ruled Slovakia during the war. After the war, the SNP became the centerpiece of a new, reconstructed form of Slovak nationalism that played a major role in precipitating the Czechoslovak Spring of the late 1960s. Nonetheless, Slovak nationalism remained a liability for nearly two decades after the war. The mere existence of the wartime Slovak state left Slovak nationalism suspect, since many Czechs continued SLOVAKIA 61 to equate it with Slovak separatism and the humiliating loss of Czech independence in 1939. In addition, the persecution of Slovak "bourgeois nationalists" - many of whom had played prominent roles in the Uprising - in the political trials of the 1950s further compromised the legitimacy of Slovak nationalism in a Czechoslovak context. These problematic legacies left Slovak nationalism without a usable past until the rehabilitation of the erstwhile Slovak "bourgeois nationalists" in 1963 afforded the Slovaks a political opening to reevaluate the SNP. In tum, this reinterpretation of the Uprising's historical significance provided the foundation for a new, positive brand of nationalism Slovaks could safely assert. If nothing else, the SNP had given the lie to the notion that Slovak nationalism was incompatible with a Czechoslovak state. Gradually, many Slovak historians, intellectuals and politicians advanced a narrative of the SNP that interpreted the Uprising as the great redemptive act of the Slovak nation. In this view, Slovaks rose up as a nation against the wartime pro-Nazi regime of Jozef Tiso, sacrificing "their own" state in order to resurrect Czechoslovakia and make the new republic their own state. For champions of the Slovak national cause in the 1960s, finding their place in the restored Czechoslovakia entailed recognition of the existence of a separate Slovak nation and the enshrinement of its equality with the other titular nation through the federalization of the state. By reconstructing the history of the Uprising in this way, Slovak nationalists could then lay claim to specific rights as a nation. Like their calls for a Czechoslovak federation later in the decade, Slovak nationalists' demands for legal recognition of Slovak nationhood in the mid- to late 1960s referred directly or indirectly to the Slovak National Uprising for justification. As historians and political figures constructed a new narrative of the Uprising in the 1960s, they toned down old Stalinist and Marxist dogmas. Instead, the language they used to describe the SNP restored Slovaks - and the Slovak nation - to a central role. Important in this regard was how Slovaks writing and speaking about the Uprising during the Czechoslovak Spring began to accentuate the Slovak nation (narod) in retelling the history of the Uprising, placing new stress on the national component of the Slovak National Uprising. Thus, along with their stated desire to seek historical truth and to rectify the "errors" of Stalinism, Slovak historians writing about the 62 SLOVAKIA Uprising in the sixties also contributed to the reconstruction of Slovak nationalism by linking Slovaks' demands for national rights and a just solution to the Slovak question with the progressive and democratic traditions of the Uprising. The process of reinterpreting the Uprising and reconstructing Slovak nationalism - a process that occurred in fits and starts, with much equivocation - shows, in turn, how important Slovak developments of the mid-1960s served as antecedents to the Czechoslovak Spring that blossomed in 1968. One of the crucial, yet underappreciated, facets of this prehistory took shape in the new historiography of the SNP produced in the l 960s. Several groups of historians participated in crafting this new narrative. Younger historians, such as Jozef Jablonicky, perhaps had an advantage of personal detachment, since they had fought in neither the Uprising nor the battles over its history during the Stalinist era. 1 Other important contributors came from the historians who served on the Bamabite Commission and subsequently attempted to produce more "objective" and "factual" histories of the Uprising. 2 But veterans of the Up1 lndeed, Jab lonicky di sti ngui shed himself as arguabl y the most profess iona l and darin g histo ri an with hi s willingness to te ll the story of the significant but politically margin ali zed non-communi st "c ivilian" component of the Slovak resi stance that fought in th e NP. Yet even Jablonicky's work ex hibited an evolution in hi s willingness to challenge former taboos, since his first works from early in the decade did not go quite so far in this regard as hi s later work. See Jozef Jablon icky, Sloven- ska na prelome: Zapas o vit'azstvo narodnej a demokratickej revohicie na Slovensku (Bratislava : Yydavatel'stvo politickej literatury, 1965); and Jozef Jablonicky, Z ilegality do povstania (Kapitoly z obcianskeho odboja) (Bratislava : Epocha, 1969). 2 In Apri l 1963 , the Central Comm ittee of th e Communist Party of Czechos lovakia (Komunis ticka strana Ceskoslovenska, or KSC) convened a working gro up of Slovak and Czech party and academic "experts," popularly known as the " Bamabite Commiss ion," to investi gate th e allegations of " bourgeois nationalism" that had been leve led aga inst Ladi slav ovomesky, Gustav Husak and oth er wartime leaders of the Communist Party of Slovakia (Komunisticka strana S/o venska, or KSS) in th e major Slovak political trial s of the early 1950s. The Bamabite Commission's report, issued in August 1963 , di spro ved the Stalinist-era charges and called for the co mplete political rehabilitation of Husak, Novomesky and the oth er accused Slovak " bourgeois nationa lists." Stanis lav Sikora, " Politicky vyvoj na Slovensku v rokoch I 960- 1967 ," in Miroslav Londak, Stanis lav Sikora an d Elena Londakova, Predjarie: Politicky, ekonomicky a kul!iirny vyvoj na Slovensku v rokoch 1960- 1967 (Bratislava: Veda, 2002), 46-47 . The major schol arl y product that followed from th e work of the Barnabite Comm ission , not to mention one of the best studi es of th e Uprising from this era, was Ferdinand Beer and others, Dejinna kriiovatka: Slovenske ncirod- SLOVAKIA 63 rising, like Gustav Husak, and older scholars like Samo Falt'an (also a former partisan) participated in this process as well, whether to exonerate themselves for their activities during the SNP, or to offer a mea culpa for their distorted publications from the Stalinist era.3 Many western studies of the Czechoslovak Spring that address the years prior to 1968 offer at best a fleeting mention of the revival of Slovak history and efforts to remove discredited cliches of the 4 Stalinist era from the historical image of the SNP. Nonetheless, the lack of scholarly attention to this important trend in Slovak historiography does a disservice to its importance in Slovak - and Czechoslovak - politics of the mid- to late 1960s. Though de-Stalinization may have begun from on high in the Czechoslovak capital, Slovak historians, writers, intellectuals, politicians and other public figures took full advantage of the chance to break old taboos and raise formerly forbidden issues, none of which was more heretical or politically pregnant than the Slovak question. As the Slovak writer Peter Karvas told Antonin J. Liehrn in 1968, Stalinist propaganda had a banalizing effect on all this; it reduced the Uprising to a historical cliche, and in the end the generation of the Uprising convinced itself that this view was somehow a more noble and correct one. Thus it is neither an accident nor an illusion that the rehabilitation of the ne povstanie - predpoklady a vysledky (Brati slava: Vydavatel's tvo po litic kej literatury, I 964). Important exampl es of these work s we re Samo Falt'an, 0 Slovenskom narodnom povstani (Bra ti slava: Osveta, 1964); a nd Gustav Husak, Svedectvo o Slovenskom narodnom povstani (Brati slava: Vydavatel'stvo po litickej literatury, 1964). Husak also published a second , slightl y rev ised editi o n of hi s memo ir cum hi story in 1969. nd Gustav Hu sak, Svedectvo o Slovensko narodnom povstani, 2 ed. (Bratislava: Epocha, 1969). 4 H. Gordon Skilling a nd V ladimir V . Ku sin each pro vide a pass in g mention of the importance of SN P hi stori ography in th e m id-sixties. See H. Gordon Skilling, Czechoslovakia ·s Interrupted Revolution (Princeto n, N .J .: Princeton Uni ve rsity Press, 1976), 50-51 ; V ladimir V. Kusin, The Intellectual Origins of the Prague 3 Spring: The Development of Reform ist Ideas in Czechoslovakia, 1956- 1967 (Ca mbridge: Ca mbrid ge Uni versity Press, 197 1), 70. 64 SLOVAKIA Uprising coincided with a wave of reawakening sweeping across all the Slovak social and intellectual life. 5 Accordingly, chronicling the "history of the history" of the Slovak National Uprising during the 1960s offers a way to challenge these conventional boundaries and interpretations of the Czechoslovak Spring. Tracing the shifts in Slovak historiography and the new brand of Slovak nationalism constructed in the process restores Slovaks to the significant role they played in this upheaval, showing how Slovakia experienced an "early spring" following the renewed effort at de-Stalinization and rehabilitation in 1963 . The Pitfalls of History (and Historiography) Pointing to the "errors" that plagued earlier histories of the Slovak National Uprising, the writer Ladislav Novomesky made a plea to Slovak and Czech historians in 1964. His appeal to the participants at a conference at Smolenice on the Uprising urged historians to pay close attention to the image of the SNP through twenty years of historiography. As part of the process of rectifying the mistakes of Stalinism and rewriting history, Novomesky proposed that historians "delineate the history of the history [emphasis in original]" of the Uprising. 6 As Novomesky's remarks indicated, the political context in which historians worked had left an indelible mark on historiography and on the history of the Slovak National Uprising. Political constraints of the Stalinist era had curtailed the research possibilities available to scholars, who could not access most of the relevant documents and other materials. But political dictates had also imposed ready-made interpretations on historians' narratives. When Novomesky made his pitch to historians to take stock of the historiography of the Uprising, he mainly had in mind the correction of the lies, distortions and half-truths that had colored histories of the Uprising 5 Antonin J. Liehm, The Politics of Culture, trans. Peter Kussi (New York : Grove Press, 1972), 351. 6 Ladislav Novomesky, "Za hi storicku pravdu o Povstani," in Slovenske narodne povstanie ro/..."U 1944 (Sbornik prispevkov z narodnooslobodzovacieho boja 19381945), eds . Cudovit Holotik and Miroslav Kropilak, (Bratislava: Vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej akademie vied, 1965), 668. SLOVAKIA 65 since the onset of Stalinism in Czechoslovakia in the late 1940s. Revisions to these histories had become possible only with the work of the Bamabite Commission and the first concrete steps at deStalinization in 1963 . As the Slovak writer Michal Chorvath claimed on the Uprising's nineteenth anniversary in August 1963 , the "liquidation of the cult of personality" made it possible for the first time in years "to say about the Slovak National Uprising and its significance for our nation and state what the whole public has already thought for a long time." 7 De-Stalinization thus provided an important stimulus in the midI 960s for historians to attempt a more objective look at the Uprising. But while this political opening afforded scholars an opportunity to contest the older dogmatic accounts of the SNP, the historical image of the Uprising remained deeply politicized in the new narratives of the sixties. In the middle and later years of the decade, many Slovak intellectuals and politicians contested Stalinist-era views in rewriting the history of the SNP, yet the individuals driving these shifts continued to interpret the historical significance of the Uprising in a way that served their contemporary personal and political agendas. For instance, Husak claimed expertise as a historian of the Uprising based on his background as the leading Slovak Communist in the SNP. Yet Husak also traded on his stature as an "authority" on the Uprising (and as the most prominent surviving Slovak victim of the Stalinist era) to mount his political comeback, culminating in his ascent to the post of KSC first secretary in April 1969. As the Czech historian Jan Rychlik notes, the new interpretation of the Uprising formulated in the mid-sixties "had a supremely political character," since it weighed directly on the question of rehabilitation and a return to politics for Husak and Novomesky.8 Nonetheless, a "rehabilitation" of the historical image of the SNP was a necessary part of de-Stalinization in Slovakia after 1963 , because the dictates of Stalinism had skewed earlier narratives. Older histories of the Uprising painted it as the opening act of the national and democratic revolution in Czechoslovakia, depicting the SNP as little more than a stepping stone toward the Communist seizure of 7 Mi cha l Chorvath , "K metodam skum ani a SN P," Ku /uirny i ivot, 3 1 August 1963. Jan Rychlik, Ce.si a Slovaci ve 20. sto /eti: Cesko-slovenske vztahy 1945-/ 992, vo l. 2 (Bra ti slava : Academi c Electroni c Press, 1998), 206. 8 66 SLOVAKIA power. 9 These Stalinist-era narratives forced the SNP into a doctrinaire Marxist framework. Accordingly, historiography from the 1950s and early 1960s celebrated the toiling masses of the Slovak people (l'ud) , who rejected the "clerico-fascism" of the Tiso regime and adopted an internationalist outlook in fightin g side by side with the fraternal Czech nation, aided by the heroic Soviet Union, in order to create a new Czechoslovak Republic oriented towards the international Communist movement centered in Moscow. The heavy-handed Marxist language employed in these older narratives practically wrote Slovaks out of their own Uprising as it lionized the role of the Red Army and even of Czech partisans in the SNP, treating the contributions of Slovaks as an afterthought. Writing in samizdat in 1980, Jablonicky, the leading Slovak historian of the Uprising, divided historiography of the SNP into three distinct periods. Jablonicky characterized the first period, from 1949 to 1962, as one of "deformation," a time when historians falsified the history of the SNP to suit the dogmas of Stalinism and the attack on Slovak "bourgeois nationalism," which claimed as victims many prominent communist veterans of the Slovak resistance, including Husak, Novomesky and Karol Smidke. 10 Beginning with the work of the Barnabite Commission, a second period, which Jablonicky called "rehabilitation" took shape in 1963 . Though it lasted only until the installation of the Husak regime in April 1969, this era witnessed a burst of scholarship on the Uprising distinguished by its pursuit of "historical truth," including efforts to docu9 See, for instance, Jaros lav Kubat, ed., Slovenske narodni po vstani - Vyznamna etapa narodne osvobozeneckeho boje ceskoslovenskeho lidu: Material pro lektory a propagandisty k 15. vyroci SNP (Prague: Statn i nak ladatelstvi poli ticke literatu ry, 1959) . 10 Smidke had been a member the illegal KSS Centra l Committee that orga nized the Uprising, as we ll as the co-creator of the Christmas Agreement. Du ring the early stages of the campa ign aga inst the "bourgeois nationalists," Smidke faced accusations of collaboration, along with Vladimir Clementi s, Husak and Novo mesky, and lost his party and governmenta l posts, inc ludi ng his position as chairman of the Slovak Nati onal Council. Sm idke avo ided jo ining his supposed co llaborators in the dock at the poli tical tria ls of the ea rl y fifti es only due to hi s death in an automobile acc ident in late 1952, th ough various witnesses c laimed it had been a planned murder. He was posthumously rehabilitated with the other Slovak "bourgeois nati onalists" in December 1963. Jan Pesek, " Karo l Smidke," ed. Ja n Pesek, Akteri jednej ery na Slovensku: Personiflkacia politickeho vyvoja (Presov: Vydavatel'stvo Michala Vaska, 2003), 328-330. SLOVAKIA 67 ment the role of non-Communists in the SNP. With the onset of "normalization" in 1970, a third period commenced, bringing a return to deformations and the silencing of "inconvenient historians" a group that included Jablonicky - and lasted until the fall of the communist regime in 1989. 11 Though Jablonicky's periodization conforms to wide trends in historiography on the Uprising, his characterization of the second period oversimplifies the contours of this pivotal era. Scholarship on the SNP produced from 1963 to 1969 witnessed a new push for historical truth and objectivity, with historians drawing on previously inaccessible documents, filling in former "blank spots" and challenging earlier dogmatic interpretations of the Uprising. However, the general trend toward historical fidelity did not follow the linear trajectory Jablonicky describes. While many historians sought accuracy and improved professional practices, others held fast to old dogmas, resulting in a multiplicity of narratives and interpretations of the SNP. Moreover, the ambiguities inherent in the quest for historical truth cut through the scholarship of individual historians. In May 1963 , Jan Kfen, a Czech historian who served as one of the experts on the Bamabite Commission, explained the challenges ahead for historians after Stalinism: The battle against dogmatism is, in my opmzon, above all an internal matter of every historian, a question of his theoretical level, his ideological potential. Like all progress in science, the overcoming of dogmatism is not possible without abilities and talent. Untalented thinking is always dogmatic, stereotypical and toady ish. 12 Yet Kfen overstated the importance of professional abilities, as many talented historians struggled to discard political considerations in order to write better histories. For instance, while Jablonicky's Slovensko na prelome, published in 1965, stressed the importance of the Uprising for inaugurating a new chapter in Czech-Slovak rela11 Jozef Ja bl oni cky, Glosy o historiograjii SNP: Zneuiivanie a f alfovanie dej in SNP (Brati slava: NVK In te rn ati onal, 1994), I 0, 13. 12 Jan Kfe n, " Kult a hi stori e," Kulttirna tvorba, 23 May 1963. 68 SLOVAKIA tions, Jablonicky equivocated in repeating the best orthodox cliches about nefarious Slovak and Czech bourgeoisies and the leading role of Communists in the resistance. 13 To Jablonicky's credit, he penned perhaps the decade ' s most important historiographical contribution in 1969, Z illegality do povstania, which offered the most stunning refutation of dogmatic interpretations of the Uprising and destroyed several taboos in praising the non-communist resistance and units of the Slovak Army for their roles in the Uprising while simultaneously portraying its communist leaders in an unflattering light. In a samizdat essay from 1979, Jablonicky even offered a mea culpa for his early scholarship in which he acknowledges the shortcomings of his first works. As Jablonicky recalled, conversations with dozens of former partisans and victims of Stalinism "gradually opened my eyes" as a young historian in the 1960s, leading him to appreciate the importance of the non-communist resistance. 14 Of course, Jablonicky was not alone. At a conference of Slovak historians in June 1963, Milos Gosiorovsky presented a harsh evaluation of his own works on the Uprising from the Stalinist era, criticizing his monographs Ilegalny boj KSS and Slovenske narodne povstanie for presenting a "substantially deformed" picture of the 15 SNP. A year later, Samo Falt'an described how the dictates of editorial boards and the pressures of self-censorship had handicapped evaluations of the Uprising in the Stalinist era, preventing him from including anything critical in his book Partizanska vojna na Slovensku, published in 1959 . 16 As the confessions of Gosiorovsky and Falt'an revealed, the most prominent Slovak historians had been especially susceptible to pressures for ideological conformity, which 13 Jablonicky, Slovensko na prelome, 3 1, 148- 149. Vilem Precan, " Historik proti nas iliu - Jozef Jabloni cky," in Jozef Jablonicky, Samizdat o odboji: Stiidie a clanky, vol. 2 (Bratislava: Kalligram, 2006), 12; Jablonicky, Glosy o historiografii SNP, 6 1. 15 Frantisek Bokes, "Vaine zhromazdeni e Slovenskej hi stori ckej spolocnosti ," Historicky casopis 12, no. 4 (1963): 650; Milos Gosiorovsky, !legalny boj KSS a Slovenske narodne povstanie (Bratislava: Nakladatel'stvo Pravda, 1949); Milos Gosiorovsky, Slovenske narodne povstanie (Bra ti slava : Slovenske vydava tel'stvo politi ckej literatury, 1954). 16 Samo Falt'an, "Niektore otazky okolo hodnoteni a Slovenskeho narodneho povstania," Historicky casop is 12, no. 2 ( 1964): 161 , 164; Samo Falt'an, Partizanska vojna na Slovensku (Bratislava: Osveta, 1959). 14 SLOVAKIA 69 seemed to spur their self-conscious push for objectivity in the more relaxed Slovak political climate of the mid-l 960s. Just as Slovak historians in the l 960s recognized the harmful effects of Stalinism on scholarship on the Uprising, scholars writing about the sixties acknowledge the importance of historiography for the larger crisis gestating in Czechoslovakia. Nonetheless, scholarship about the l 960s has pronounced limitations when it comes to historiography from the 1960s. Non-Slovak writers treat the history of the Uprising as but one issue among many new historiographical developments in Czechoslovakia, an approach characterristic of the wider tendency to trivialize the role of Slovaks and the Slovak question in the l 960s. 17 While the Slovak National Uprising was hardly the only historical theme to gamer renewed interest from historians in the mid-sixties - or even the only topic from Slovak history - it was unique in the political purposes to which prominent Slovaks put it in justifying contemporary demands for a resolution of the Slovak question in line with the ostensible aims of the Uprising. More obvious, however, was the extent to which the new historiography on the SNP from the 1960s broke with old dogmas. The doctrinaire narrative of the Uprising from the Stalinist era marginalized the role of Slovaks in the Slovak National Uprising. An instructional manual for lecturers and propagandists published in advance of the SNP's fifteenth anniversary - and, tellingly, written in Czech inflated the importance of Soviet and Czech contributions to the Uprising: In August 1944 the Slovak nation, emboldened by the heroic battle of the Soviet p eople in the Great Patriotic War, under the leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, alongside the Soviet Army advancing to victory, together with the fraternal Czech nation, rose up with weapons in 17 See, fo r instance, th e scant treatm ent prov ided in Stanl ey Z. Pec h, " Fe rment in Czec hoslova k Marxist Hi stori ograph y," Canadian Slavonic Papers l 0, no. 4 (Dece mber 1968): 502-522; Ga lia Gol an, The Czechoslovak Refo rm Movement: Communism in Crisis. 1962- / 968 ; and Skillin g, Czechoslovakia 's Interrupted Revolution. By contrast, M. Mark Stolarik observed how hi stori ans, beginning with Husak and the th eme of the SNP, increasingly reasserted Slovak nati onali sm in their th work . M. Mark Stolarik , "The Painful Birth of Slovak Histori ography in the 20 Century," Zeitschriftfiir Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung 50, no. 2 (2 00 I): 176 . 70 SLOVAKIA hand against the German occupiers and their domestic fascist supporters in order to contribute to the liberation of their own homeland - the Czechoslovak Republic. 18 Amid the rambling succession of clauses inserted to show obligatory deference to the Soviet Union and the KSC and to flatter Czechs, the propaganda manual, like the Stalinist-era interpretations of the SNP it typifies, lost sight of the Slovaks, who nearly disappeared from the history of their own Uprising. At the same time, older orthodoxy ascribed the Marxist categories of proletarian internationalism and class struggle to the Uprising. In their work on international participation in the SNP, the Czech Jii'i Dolezal and the Slovak Jozef Hroziencik credited the liberation of Czechoslovakia to the Soviet Army on the international stage, and to the working class at home. The Uprising occurred as a consequence, Dolezal and Hroziencik argued, of "the strengthening of the working class and its ideological leadership in the nation," along with the blossoming of the idea of internationalism within the proletariat. 19 Near the end of the Stalinist era, an editorial in 1962 from the KSC Central Committee daily Rude pravo made the dubious claim that, "on an ideological plane," the Uprising "aimed mainly at developing a unified economy," along with combining all other aspects of Slovak and Czech society after liberation - making the SNP appear as the first step toward amalgamating Slovaks and Czechs into a single Czechoslovak nation.2° Conventional interpretations from the Stalinist era thus reduced the Uprising to little more than the opening act in the Czechoslovak revolution and a prelude to the communist takeover in 1948.21 Such a view seemed at odds with the reality of communist electoral strength in the elections of 1946, when the party made considerable gains over its interwar showing, yet still suffered a decisive defeat at the hands of the Democratic Party. 18 Kubat, Slovenske narodni povstani, 3. Jifi Dolezal and Jozef Hroziencik, Medzinarodna solidarita v Slovenskom narodnom povstani (Bratislava: Osveta, 1959), 35, 219 20 " Rozvij ime spolecne dilo," Rude pravo, 29 August 1962. 21 Doleza l and Hroziencik, Medzinarodna solidarita , 74. 19 SLOVAKIA 71 Coming to Terms with the Past: De-Stalinization and the Uprising Rewriting the history of the Slovak National Uprising first required important political developments to transpire, and the process drew succor from new efforts at de-Stalinization in 1963 . But the impact of the Bamabite Commission also revealed the crucial role historians played in this process. As Ferdinand Beer, Antonin Bencik, Frantisek Janacek and Jan Kfon recalled, their work on the Bamabite Commission offered historians a rare chance to play an important role in current events: ft was - as far as we know - the first time such a large group of scholars was asked to do this kind of work. This experience left its mark on their whole way of doing work and became, at least for historians, one of those rare occasions when they could not only reconstruct history, but also help to make it. 22 The recollections of these historians also spoke to the transformative effect the Bamabite Commission had on its member-scholars, which proved a formative experience for the way they approached their craft thereafter. Because it focused not only on the political trials of the early 1950s, but also on the activities of the "bourgeois nationalists" during the SNP, the Bamabite Commission employed several professional historians who consequently gained access to documents formerly off limits to researchers, including the files of the "bourgeois nationalists" and materials concerning the cases of Vladimir Clementis and others.23 A document collection on the SNP, originally planned to appear in conjunction with the twentieth anniversary of the Uprising in 1964 and intended to span 300 to 400 pages when conceived in the spring of 1963, soon ballooned to more than a thousand pages and took an extra year to produce. As Vilem Precan, the Czech editor of the volume, recounts in hi s preface, the renewed interest in the Uprising first observed during celebrations of its nineteenth anniversary, coupled with the political fallout of the 22 23 Beer and others, "Svedectvi z Barnabitek," Kulturni tvorba, 2 May 1968. Sikora, " Po liticky vyvoj na Slovensku," 38. 72 SLOVAKIA Barnabite Commission's report, created "editorial possibilities" that compelled him to broaden the scope of the project. Precan had to sift through piles of newly available documents and include as many of these materials as he could, a daunting task that kept him from completing the volume until 1965 - a full year behind schedule.24 Confronted with documentary evidence of the fabrications from the political trials, the historian-members of the Bamabite Commission were floored by the level of deceit, which exceeded their wildest imagination. Confronting such proof of the crimes of Stalinism had a galvanizing effect on Slovak and Czech historians similar to the jolt Nikita Khrushchev's "Secret Speech" had given to Soviet Communists in 1956. As a group of historians recalled in the spring of 1968, "In a certain sense, all of us inside the walls of the former Bamabite monastery went through our own 20 th Congress." 25 For these historians at least, there could be no going back to the old, dogmatic interpretations of Slovak history, especially where the Uprising was concerned. Sensing the opportunity de-Stalinization and the Barnabite Commission had created, historians took the initiative in probing sensitive issues like the Slovak question and the wartime resistance in Slovakia. As early as March of 1963, Falt'an had urged a drastic reexamination of the Uprising, one that would break out of the "black-and-white pigeonholes" of historiography from the Stalinist era to "evaluate objectively and justly" such topics as the role of (non-communist) Slovak regulars from the 1st Czechoslovak Army in the SNP. 26 Further steps in this direction came in the summer of 1963, when historians openly connected the significance of their professional work to the concurrent process of rehabilitation. Miroslav Kropilak opened the Slovak Historical Society ' s conference in June 1963 by reminding his fellow historians of their shared obligation in reassessing "wrongly interpreted" segments of their history. 27 The congress helped to engage Slovak historians in the task 24 Vilem Precan, "S lovo cita tel'ovi," in Slovenske narodne povstanie - Dokumenty, ed. Precan, 5-6. 25 Beer and others, " Svedectvi z Barnabitek. " 26 Samo Falt'an, " Histori a a dn esok," Kulturny i ivot, 23 March 1963 . 27 Kropilak's ex hortati on to eliminate th e "unscienti fic methods" of research employed in studi es of recent Slovak history marked an about fac e from his own presentation at the Fourth Congress of Slovak Histori ans a year earli er in Kosice. At Kosi- SLOVAKIA 73 of eliminating vestiges of the "cult of personality," and it created space, as the historian Marek Havrila remarked, for the "de-ideologizing" (odideologizovanie) of history and the "academifying" (zvedectenie) of the discipline.28 Rewriting History: New (and Old) Narratives of the Uprising Historians began to rewrite the history of the Uprising in time for its twentieth anniversary in 1964, reflecting not only the opportunities created by the Bamabite Commission, but also the heightened interest in commemorating this milestone. Many historians took seriously the need for better scholarship on the Uprising and strove to make use both of newly available materials as well as the relaxation of political constraints. But other historians largely paid lip service to the tasks of writing new, post-Stalinist narratives of the SNP, hewing closely to older, more dogmatic interpretations. On the whole, the new historiography of the Uprising produced in the 1960s yielded improved histories, but it remained bound to the shifting politics of the day. A key development early in this process was an academic conference held at Smolenice on 8-10 June 1964, when several Slovak and Czech historians presented their latest research on the Uprising. The conference marked important progress on the "arduous journey" historians had traveled, as Kropilak recalled in his foreword to the published volume of conference papers, since it brought a "difficult acknowledgment of the unexamined truths, half-truths and untruths" that had characterized historiography of the Uprising from the Stalinist era.29 In a similar vein, Alexander Dubcek, who became KSS first secretary amid the political shakeup of the previous year, ce in I 962 , Kropil ak gave a paper on the anti fas ci st move ment in Eastern Slovakia th at uphe ld communist orthodoxy. He credited the party for building the resistance from the grass roots until the Upri sing, but made no mention of th e contributions of non-Co mmuni sts in the Slova k res istance. Bokes, " Va ine zhromazdenie," 650 ; "Stvrty sjazd slovenskych hi storik ov," Historicky casopis I 0, no. 4 ( 1962): 632. 28 Marek Havril a, " K ni ektory m pro blemom vyv inu slovenskej hi storiografie a slovenskej histori ckej spolocnosti pri SA V v 50. a 60. rokoch 20. storocia," Historicky casopis 55 , no. I (2007) : 28, 32. 29 Mi ros lav Kropil ak, " Uvod," in Slovenske narodne povstanie roku I 944, eds. Hol otik and Kropilak, 5. 74 SLOVAKIA opened the conference proceedings by exhorting historians to undertake "a really broad and deep critical analysis of all problems" concerning this significant chapter in recent Slovak history, and Dubcek also reminded historians that the rectification of earlier mistakes was not simply a question of the past, but also a living concern of the present and future .30 As if Dubcek's point could somehow be lost on his audience, the participation of Husak and Novomesky at Smolenice underscored the topicality of scholarship on the SNP. Indeed, Husak expressed his belief on the final day that the conference itself was a sign of the times, since a definite measure of political relaxation in Slovakia was a precondition for historians to address openly the pitfalls of Stalinist-era historiography, and to shed new light on the history of the Uprising. 31 The papers presented at Smolenice aimed mainly at debunking the myths and errors of the Stalinist-era narrative of the SNP. For instance, Falt'an directly criticized the Ninth KSS Congress for having "artificially created" a circle of "bourgeois nationalist traitors and agents of imperialism" that included Husak, Novomesky and Smidke as its leading figures. This trio of Slovak Communists had created the illegal Fifth KSS Central Committee in 1943 , following the arrest of members of the Fourth KSS Central Committee, and had played a major role in organizing the Uprising. Yet the members of the Fifth KSS Central Committee came under fire after the communist takeover of 1948 for their collaboration with nonCommunists, which provided one justification for their persecution as Slovak "bourgeois nationalists." Falt'an portrayed the Slovak Communists who had helped to orchestrate the SNP as both patriotic and communist, rendering the wartime KSS leadership as neither "bourgeois" nor "nationalist" in an effort to break with the dogmatic interpretations that had marred previous historiography.32 Another crucial component of this attempt to cast aside Stalinistera narratives was the effort historians made to address lacunae in scholarship on the Uprising. To this end, the Slovak historian Milos 30 Alexander Dubcek, "Marx isticka histori ografia a nasa revolucna minulost'," in S/ovenske narodne povstanie roku / 944, eds. Holotik and Kropil ak, I 8. 31 Gustav Husak, " K ni ektorym otazkam Slovenskeho narodn eho povstania," in S/ovenske narodne povstanie roku / 944, eds. Holotik and Kropilak, 652-653. 32 Samo Falt'an, " Slovenske narodn e povstani e a jeho problemy," in Slovenske narodne povstanie roku / 944, eds. Holotik and Kropilak, 222, 234. SLOVAKIA 75 Tichy called attention to the contributions of non-Communists in the SNP. Though the Communists had been the only party in Slovakia that opposed the breakup of the republic and the Tiso government from the outset, Tichy emphasized how the non-communist parties could not be treated as monolithic supporters of Slovak separatism. Thus, Tichy took care to note how segments of the Social Democratic Party, along with individual members of other "bourgeois" (meaning non-communist) parties had held views similar to those of Slovak Communists with respect to the creation of a pro-German Slovak state. It was noteworthy for Tichy even to mention these nonCommunists who went on to join the wartime resistance, since, as he noted, the record of the non-communist resistance had been thoroughly trivialized and falsified in earlier historiography.33 Tichy struck one of the first important blows against the Stalinist narrative of the Uprising by virtue of recognizing the existence of noncommunist opposition to the Slovak state, though it was not until Jablonicky published Z ilegality do povstania at the end of the decade that this "civilian" segment of the wartime Slovak resistance gained the recognition it deserved. Even though historians consciously sought objectivity and historical fidelity at Smolen ice, they did not reject all elements of the Stalinist-era narrative of the SNP. Thus, while Falt'an preached the importance of historical truth in denouncing the lies that characterrized earlier histories, he sought this "truth" within a distinctly Marxist framework. Comparing the Slovak National Uprising of 1944 to the Warsaw Uprising of the same year, Falt'an placed the Slovak revolt on a qualitatively higher plane than the Polish insurrection, since the SNP had, in Falt'an 's estimation, the superior class orientation. Whereas the Polish "reactionary bourgeoisie" had "abused" popular hatred of Nazi Germany in order to serve its own "political speculations" and "anti-Soviet aims," the Slovak people had taken up arms under the leadership of "revolutionary forces" headed by the KSS .34 Marxist hermeneutics continued to color other interpretations of the Uprising advanced at Smolenice. Like Falt'an, Tichy took great 33 Milos Tic hy, " Hl avne etapy fo rmy a probl emy narodn ooslobodzo vac ieho hnuti a na Slove nsku do vzniku Povstani a," in Slovenske narodne povstanie roku / 944, eds. Ho lotik and Kropilak, 65, 7 1. 34 Fa lt'a n, "S lovens ke narodn e povstanie a jeho pro bl emy," 27 1. 76 SLOVAKIA pains to emphasize the class dimension of the Slovak people's rejection of the pre-Munich First Republic. Tichy claimed the Slovak people (l'ud) had directed their hatred not at the fraternal Czech nation, but rather against the "politics of the ruling Czech bourgeoisie." 35 Similarly, Frantisek Janacek, a Czech historian and former member of the Barnabite Commission, conceded the importance of the national element in the Uprising, yet he suggested there was less real significance to such national sentiment in and of itself than in the political objectives to which Slovak Communists could put it in the SNP. Thus, Janacek upheld a doctrinaire Marxist interpretation of national sentiment in deeming it instrumental to revolutionary ends. He argued the initiative the Communists exhibited on the Slovak question had made the KSS a vanguard force that Slovaks recognized as a "national" (narodm) party. 36 Husak also hewed closely to this orthodox narrative of the Uprising instead of accentuating the national dimension of the SNP, averring at Smolenice that "the Slovak National Uprising was above all a political conception, the political revolution of the Slovak people." 37 Even as historians embarked on a pursuit for the truth about the SNP at Smolenice, they continued to parrot old party cliches about the Uprising. Indeed, historical fidelity coexisted alongside shifting political dictates in the historiography of the SNP throughout the l 960s, demonstrating how historians' professed desire for objectivity toward the past ran aground on their inability to remain aloof from the politics of the present. In O Slovenskom narodnom povstani, published in 1964, Falt'an culled new facts and documents in a quest to tell the truth about the Uprising, albeit a truth with a clear agenda. Falt'an's book expanded on the ideas he presented at Smolenice, as he continued his efforts to vindicate the Slovak Communists who had been condemned as "bourgeois nationalists" in the 1950s. But while Falt'an made skillful use of wartime documents to present a more historically accurate picture of the Slovak resistance, the same tired cliches about international solidarity and the Soviet Union 35 Tichy, " Hlavne etapy formy a problemy narodnooslobodzovacieho hnutia na Slovensku," 68-69. 36 Frantisek Janacek, " Dve promeny slovenske otazky (Mezi Mnichovem a Slovenskym narodnim povsta nim)," in Slovenske narodne povstanie roku /944 , eds. Holotik and Kropilak, 618 , 628. 37 Husak, "K ni ektorym otazkam Slovenskeho narodneho povstania," 657. SLOVAKIA 77 still peppered his work. He claimed the Uprising, among other things, "was the expression of great faith in the Soviet people," showing how de-Stalinization and a more relaxed political environment did not relieve Slovaks and Czechs of the duty to show deference to their Soviet allies - an obligation that remained in force even at the height of liberalization in 1968.38 Even the most groundbreaking histories of the Uprising from the mid-sixties exhibited a multiplicity of agendas. In Dejinna kriiovatka, a group of Slovak and Czech historians drew on their work on the Bamabite Commission in an attempt to "rehabilitate" the historical image of the SNP. Their work helped to expose the distortions of the Stalinist era, but it also restored the Slovak question to a prominent role in the new, post-Stalinist narrative of the Uprising. Dejinna kriiovatka appeared in a modest printing of 10,000 copies, yet it gained renown as the first attempt at a comprehensive history of the Slovak National Uprising that consciously rejected the Stalinist narrative and addressed several lacunae in scholarship on the Uprising. And yet, for all its significance as a landmark of Slovak historiography, Dejinna kriiovatka continued to uphold a Marxist worldview in interpreting the SNP as an affirmation of socialist revolution as well as a manifestation of how attractive communist ideas were to the average Slovaks who formed the core of the partisan masses in the Uprising.39 A similar emphasis on the communist aims of the Uprising appeared in Husak's Svedectvo o Slovenskom narodnom povstani. To his credit, Husak addressed some previously neglected or trivialized facets of the Uprising, pointing out the contributions of the noncommunist opposition within the antifascist camp, the existence of 40 which had been all but denied in Stalinist-era scholarship. Yet Husak's motives for calling attention to this marginalized component of the resistance were also self-serving. Lauding the role of the nonCommunists in the Uprising allowed Husak to validate the strategy of cooperating with non-Communists that he and other KSS leaders had pursued. Husak's intent in writing his recollection of the Uprising seemed to be to vindicate himself, not only in terms of the 38 Falt'an, 0 Slovenskom narodnom povstani, 8, I 03. Beer and others, Dejinna kriiovatka, 125-126, 252. 40 Husak, Svedectvo o Slovenskom narodnom povstani, 36-37. 39 78 SLOVAKIA historical record, but also in the eyes of the party. As such, Husak stuck close to the communist interpretation of the SNP as a revolt directed against the ruling Slovak and Czech bourgeoisies, while simultaneously heralding the Communist Party (a self-referential bit of praise, considering his role as a member of the wartime KSS leadership) for leading the Uprising and launching the national and democratic revolution in Slovakia. 41 Husak's book also created a sensation after it appeared in August of 1964. The responses from Slovak and Czech intellectuals and historians ranged from the fawning to the damning, but most reviews 42 emphasized its positive contributions to scholarship on the SNP. These early favorable reviews led many Slovaks to view Husak, not only as a prominent figure in the Uprising, but as Jablonicky observed years later, they also encouraged both defenders and detractors of Husak to think of him "as a promising politician possibly on the rise in Slovakia."43 Husak's account of the Uprising conferred considerable authority on him, though not all historians accepted his portrayal of the SNP without reservation. The Czech scholar Josef Domansky offered the first critical remarks on Husak's book, noting one shortcoming was its "methodological non-clarity" resulting from the blurred division between Husak the memoirist and Husak the historian. On the whole, Domansky judged the book positively, even if it had its flaw s, and he regarded it as part of the new trend in historiography that helped to clarify the importance of the Slovak question and to transcend the oversimplifications of earlier scholarship on the Uprising.44 Yet Husak's book became a cause celebre among Slovak - and Czech - intellectuals when it came under fire from on high . Antonin Novotny had little patience for Husak, since Novotny had resisted the rehabilitation of Husak and other victims of Stalinism. When KSS leaders refused to rein in Husak, Novotny commissioned a party hack, the Czech historian Vaclav Kral , to write a scathing review in 41 Ibid., 129, 133 , 139. See, for instance, Anna Stvrtecka, "O dokum entoc h a fa ktoc h," Kultiirny i ivot, 27 August I 965 ; and Jifi Doleza l, " Dvakrat o S P," Mezinarodni politika I 0, no. I 0 (October 1964): 472. 43 Jablonicky, "S lovenske narodne povstani e a tri etapy jeho hodnoteni a," 452 . 44 Josef Domansky, " Nad knihou o Slovenskem narodnim povs tani," Nova mys/ 20, no. I ( 1965): 133- 134. 42 SLOVAKIA 79 order to discredit Husak.45 The KSC cultural weekly Kulturni tvorba published Kral 's review in February 1966, almost two years after Husak' s book appeared in print, and focused, in Kral ' s words, "on a series of theses and questions that are insufficiently or incorrectly developed in Husak's book." Yet Kral's dissection of Husak' s narrative contained thinly veiled criticism of Husak's wartime activities as a member of the KSS Central Committee that organized the • · 46 Upnsmg. Though the high-level political machinations behind Kral ' s review were not common knowledge at the time, the response from Slovak and Czech historians was irate. Anton Bencik, Vaclav Kura) and Jaromir Navratil - one Slovak and two Czech historians - published a reply to Kral in defense of Husak' s work, which stressed the importance of Svedectvo o Slovenskom narodnom povstani as a harbinger of the new developments in historiography following the KSC's renunciation of "bourgeois nationalism" in 1963 . "The publication of Husak's book was indisputably an event," they offered in their response, yet the renown Husak had achieved with this work was only possible because it corresponded to contemporary knowledge of the Uprising and had been accepted by the historical community. Indeed, Husak 's book had been vetted in several reviews, which generally judged it favorably , albeit with some criticism of individual facets . Bencik, Kura! and Navratil also found it puzzling how Kral had remained silent during the historiographical discussions of Husak 's book when it first appeared, and was only then speaking out against the work, long after the fact. The timing was peculiar, though Bencik, Kura) and Navratil did not press their • • 47 susp1c10ns. 45 Vac lav Kra l, "O os udu jedne recenze," Kulturni tvorba, 25 April 1968. Vaclav Kra l, "O Husakove svedectvi troc hu j inak," Kul!urni tvorba, 24 February 1966. 47 Anton Benci k, Vaclav Ku ra ] and Jaromir Navratil , "Jes te o Husakove svedectvi a nejen o nem," Kulturni tvorba, 3 1 March 1966. The rev iew was reprinted a week later in th e Slovak cul tura l magaz ine Predvoj. Anton Benc ik , Vac lav Ku ra ] and Jaro mir Nav ratil , "Este o Husakovom Svedectve a nielen o i\om," Predvoj , 7 April 1966. 46 80 SLOVAKIA Toward Better Histories? On the whole, Slovak historiography of the SNP during the sixties struggled to find its way, as the competing impulses of communist orthodoxy and professional integrity pulled individual historians in opposite directions. While some scholars, like Jablonicky, or the historians who worked on the Bamabite Commission, proved relatively successful at eschewing dogma in writing new narratives more concerned with fidelity to the historical record, it proved impossible even for these more commendable histories to avoid all the cliches about the Uprising that had marked Stalinist-era scholarship. Yet historiography did not exist in a vacuum, and Slovak historians - as well as journalists, writers, politicians and other public figures addressing the theme of the SNP - also played an active role in using the history of the Uprising to reshape contemporary politics. The Slovak National Uprising was an episode from recent history, and the new vitality of scholarship on it during the midsixties ensured the Uprising remained living history for the remainder of the decade. Rewriting the history of the SNP allowed Slovak (and Czech) scholars to press for the rehabilitation of its persecuted leaders. But the new narrative of the Uprising also helped to "rehabilitate" the idea of the Slovak nation in public discourse, which in tum created an opening for politically engaged Slovaks to advance a nationalist agenda. Ultimately, this agenda would aim at a new approach to the Slovak question in the form of a federation, but in the interim, it entailed the promotion of a Slovak national consciousness firmly rooted in the new, "rehabilitated" historical image of the Uprising.  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 Rising Against Stalinism: Destalinization and the Reinterpretation of the Slovak National Uprising in Slovak Historiography of the 1960s Description An account of the resource Scott Brown Slovakia, Vol. 40 (No. 74-75), 2010 pp. 60-80 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Brown, Scott A., 1981- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2010 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/175032ad0419add59986bb244c13b3d1.pdf f95053c465777d45b43828f3cdd0e150 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 2"> SLOVAK NATIONALISM: FEDERATIVE TENDENCIES OF SLOVAK NATIONALISM B. S. BUC, Ph.D. 1. The Struggle For Survival The most characteristic effort, underlying all the undertakings of re-awakened Slovak nationalism, is the attempt to gain recognition of national individuality first in Austria-Hungary and then in Czecho-Slovakia. Both of these states - Hungary under the pretense of the thousand-year common life of Slovaks within its confines and Czecho-Slovakia under the guise of Slav tribal kinship - pursued a similar aim, namely, to break the will of the Slovaks after they had developed their own national character and to enrich their own collectivity with Slovaks. When we take into consideration that the Slovaks appeared on the modern scene as an almost unknown political factor, we will realize that obstacles, which stood and at present still stand in the way of their political ambitions, were and are continually great. Slovak nationalism, therefore could not reckon with the rapid achievement of independence in its own state. For that rea:::on it had no direct aim in its program to break those state ties in which it found itself. It fought only for the change of its internal structure in such a way that its life would not be menaced. If it became an element of dissolution of state ties, this was more the result of external circumstances which occasioned the break rather than of internal efforts. In such case, Slovak nationalism was, therefore, forced to choose between two alternatives: to maintain its original ties and live in continual dread of losing its national individuality; or to accept a new solution, promising greater possibilities for its own development. Thus, external circumstances caused Slovak nationalism to become one of the elements of dissolution, first of Austria-Hungary, in 1918, and later of Czecho-Slovakia in 1938. Neither of those states were dissolved as the result of an �26 SLOVAKIA internal revolution, even if conditions for such action were favorable, but rather through the decisions of external agents who were interested in the creation of a different and more favorable form of Central Europe. In each instance an unexpected opportunity presented itself to Slovak nationalism for a near revolutionary transition to more favorable conditions. One can observe, however, that in its foundations Slovak nationalism manifests greater tendencies toward federative living with other nations in the Central European sphere of influence than toward its own sovereign statehood. The thought of a federated Central Europe, in one form or another, underlies all efforts of Slovak nationalism and is, of course, the principal aim of the entire Slovak struggle for self-preservation. 2. Federation Rather Than Dissolution of Austria-Hungary In general, the reason for the dissolution of Austria.Hungary rested in the many nationalities that were dissatisfied with this empire. On the other hand, it is also true that shortly before the First World War, the nations of Austria-Hungary as well as the Western Democracies saw in Habsburg Monarchy their best guarantee against German and Russian imperialism. The nations, therefore, opposed very sharply all assimilative efforts of this state, not, however, at the cost of its dissolution. They remembered that the origin of Austria-Hungary was not so much the result of the political genius of the Habsburgs, J::,ut rather of the political, economical, and geographical conditions of the Central European sphere of influence. AustriaHungary was regarded, therefore, as one of the main component parts of the political equilibrium in Europe. This supposition was wholly correct. With the displacement of Austria-Hungary, the European equilibrium was broken to the detriment of those nations which lived within its confines. All federative efforts in Central Europe tend principally to the formation of Austria-Hungary, not, however, in the form of the former Habsburg Monarchy, but on the basis of economical, geographical, and political expedients of that part of Europe, of which it was a political representative for several centuries. �SLOVAKIA 27 The first attempts of the nations of Austria-Hungary for a revived nationalism proceeded no further than its federation. Scarcely any other nation in Austria-Hungary manifested a greater impatience with the latter's politics than the Czechs; and even they proclaimed through the lips of their most renowned historian Francis Palacky: "If Austria did not exist, we would have to create it!" This same Czech historian, writing to the German revolutionary congress in Frankfurt-on-the-Main in 1848, said: "The preservation of Austria - its integrity and solidification is and must be the great and important concern not only of the Czech nation, but of the whole Europe, nay, of all humanity and foreign lands" (1). Even Dr. Edward Benes, one of the principal creators of Czecho-Slovakia and later an unreconciled enemy of the Habsburgs, wrote in 1908: "People often speak about the dissolution of Austria. I absolutely do not believe in it. The historical and economic ties, which mutually unite the nations of Austria, are too strong to allow Austria to collapse" (2). From the revolutionary years of 1848, the thought of federating Austria-Hungary was the foremost political goal of all nationalities of this monarchy, and was even accepted sympathetically by the imperial court itself. But after the so-called agreement with the Hungarians (Magyars) in 1867, the Habsburgs gave precedence to the forceful solution of the national problem by applying coercive methods of assimilation. This came as a disappointment to the other nationalities and increased greatly their movements toward complete emancipation. It made them to forget the historical and economic ties which bound them to the Habsb:irg monarchy and moved them to work for its dissolution. The federation of Austria-Hungary was demanded by the changed views of society, which the philosophy of the Enlightenment and Romanticism had created. These new views emphasized the principle of plurality instead of the former principle of unity, the principle of individual liberty instead of the principle of unreserved obedience to state authority. Had the Habsburgs recalled this great change in the thinking of people, they would certainly have held their GANS.ER LIBRARY �28 SLOVAKIA empire together even if they would have changed its former autocratic foundation. In accord with the other nationalities of Austria-Hungary, the aim of all Slovak undertakings was the federation of Austria-Hungary. The Slovaks publicly emphasized the thought of federation , first in a memorandum which they presented to the emperor at Vienna, in 1861, and then at the nationality congress in Budapest, in 1867. At the second nationality congress which was held on August 10, 1895, also in Budapest, during a time of great persecutions, "the Rumanians, Serbs and Slovaks, who assembled in Budapest (wrote the Neue Freie Presse) demand the division of Hungary into ethnic self-administrative units, which in effect is equal to the demand to abolish the union between Hungary and Transylvania, to renew the Serbian Duchy and create a self-administrative Slovakia, such as Hurban promoted already thirty years earlier" (3). The unwillingness of Budapest and Vienna to meet these demands led not only the Slovaks but also other nationalities to accept willingly such solutions to their problem that prepared the way for the complete dissolution of Austria-Hungary. The offer of this new solution came chiefly from the Western Democracies during the First World War even despite the fact that, in the West, Austria-Hungary was considered as late as 1903 as "the only barrier, sufficiently strong, at the beginning of the 20th century, which could discourage German ambitions the day when these would begin to threaten the European balance ( 4). During the First World War, however, it became apparent that Austria-Hungary proceeded in a completely opposite direction, that is, it abetted the ambitions of Germany Western Democracies, therefore, decided to dissolve it. The greatest influence came from the "American crusading spirit," which, in the form of Wilson's idealistic principle of self-determination of nations, gave the nationalities an unforeseen moral weapon. Austria-Hungary comprised such a mixture of nationalities that the realization of the principle of self-determination was impossible without repeating the situation of Austria-Hungary would - and that in a much worse form - in new national states along national lines. In the new states which had risen out of the ashes of �SLOVAKIA r Austria-Hungary, the burden of power passed from rulers to subordinates, while the political order remained as it was. The former national chauvinism of antagonism began to disintegrate the cohabitation of Central European nations more than ever before and opened the way for the repeated aggrandizement of German imperialism. 3. The Goal of the Slovak Autonomist Movement: A Federated Czecho-Slovakia It was self-evident that, as soon as suppositions for arranging Central Europe upon a new basis emerged, the Slovaks would accept this solution enthusiastically. They found an opportunity to free themselves from their "thousand-year slavery," by which term they referred to their life within the confines of Hungary after the downfall of Greater Moravia in 906. They joined with the Czechs to form one state under the condition that Czecho-Slovakia would be a federated state. This federation was guaranteed by two agreements between Czechs and Slovaks in the United States, in Cleveland in 1915, and then in Pittsburgh in 1918. At the Peace Conference, in 1919, even Dr. Edward Benes promised this in the name of the Czecho-Slovak Government when he stated that: "it is the intention of the Czecho-Slovak Government to create the organization of the state by accepting as a basis of natural rights the principles applied in the constitution of the Swiss Republic a sort of Switzerland . . ." (5). Immediately with the rise of Czecho-Slovakia, the lure of might showed itself more powerful for the Czech majority than the ideals of national equality and rights. For this reason they began to organize a new state on the basis of the principle of power, applying the narrowest centralization. Dr. Ferdis Juriga, one of the most eminent representatives of Slovak nationalism, opposed those Czech propensities on the floor of Parliament in Prague on January 28, 1920, in the following words: "We must tend to decentralization, toward self-administration, so that the Republic might develop on a federalistic basis, because federalism is the system of the future. We must preserve our individuality and not let ourselves be absorbed. Federation is not only in the interest of our nation and the Czecho-Slovak Republic, but it also �30 SLOVAKIA answers the spirit of all mankind. It is an all-human tendency, the tendency of all mankind, this tendency to validate oneself to develop, to which every individual person and every national unit should have the right, which should crystalize out into a legal personality, so that these various nations could then become federalized in one great world republic. This would be the highest ideal and the path that leads to it is: federalism" (6) His position was a bit idealistic, but he expressed correctly the modern effort to arrange the cohabitation of nations on a pluralistic basis in the sense of the principle of equality. We have already said that the dissolution of Austria-Hungary must be charged to the lack of respect for this voice of the times. Czecho-Slovakia, which along national lines was only a worse copy of Austria-Hungary, gave precedence also to such a way. According to C. A. Macartney, "the Slovaks therefore reacted in the form of a flamboyant Slovak nationalism which was a main reason for the absence of revolt with which they accepted the dissolution of the Czecho-Slovak State"(7.) Despite the fact that Slovaks were co-creators of Czecho-Slovakia with the Czechs, they attracted to themselves all the national minorities and together with Germans, Hungarians, Poles, and Ruthenians fought against the so-called imperialism of Prague, as in former times, under AustriaHungary, they fought with Czechs, Serbs, Croatians, and Rumanians against the imperialism of Budapest and Vienna. In this struggle, the main issue at stake was the change of the internal structure of Czecho-Slovakia in the sense of former promises and agreements - and not in its dissolution. When in 1939 Czecho-Slovakia fell under the heel of Hitler's Germany, however, the Slovaks found the way open to the creation of their own state, which was the only way out under the given political circumstances as well as the logical conclusion of their former national endeavors. The short-lived existence of this independent state gave to the Slovak nationalism what it had hitherto lacked, namely, a uniform will to live independently and a conviction that it will know how to stand its ground as an equally worthy member among the other nations. �SLOVAKIA 31 4. Slovak Planners of a Federated Central Europe Slovak nationalism did not strive alone for the federation of those states with which it had ties, but also manifested great energies to raise the entire sphere of Central Europe upon a federated basis. The idea of a federated Central Europe was ever popular with the Slovaks, not simply because it assured the maintenance of certain sovereign prerogatives, as among other established nations, but principally it seemed to provide a surer guarantee for the protection of their threatened national individuality. Slovaks of all political convictions not only joined all federative efforts, but also presented several propositions for solving the problem of Central Europe in the sense of a federation. Perhaps the most renowned figure in this field was Dr. Milan Hodza, at first Minister of Agriculture and then Premier of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. He devoted his whole life to this idea. He draws motives for his endeavors from the fact that, "Small nations are liable to become a nuisance for world politics if they are isolated and beset by rivalries; but they are certainly sure to become precious elements of a fair and therefore indispensable balance of political forces, if they can prove themselves capable of taking a common view of those things which are common among them, especially when their geographical position renders them important"(8). Dr. Hod.fa endeavored to develop cooperation between the Central European nations and the consolidation of the economic situation in this part of Europe. The climax of these endeavors was his "Danube Plan," which aimed to create, according to Hodza's own words: "one single, great economic unit in Central Europe." This was to be attained by removing tariff barriers and establishing a customs union which would regulate agriculture and industrial production, and reorganize the system of payments and transportation, etc. (9). Another Slovak plan for solving the Central European problem is the proposal for confederation originating with Dr. Ferdinand Durcansky, the first Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Slovak Republic during the Second World War. Dr. Durcansky developed his plan for the confederation of Central Europe at the beginning of 1944 in studies �32 SLOVAKIA which were published in the "Revue de droit international, de sciences diplomatiques et politiques" in Geneva. He favors confederation chiefly to ward off every danger, which is said to threaten the sovereignty of small nations whenever they become a part of greater political bodies. According to Dr. :Durcansky, confederation "gives guarantees of independence and freedom to the nations of Central Europe, enables a solution of incidental disputes which could arise between the individual states of the confederation and, on the other hand, could defend Central Europe against external attacks" (10). Up to the present time, however, attempts for the federation of Central Europe have not ripened into practical results, whether their proponents were Slovaks or members of other nations. The reason of their failure, as stated by Dr. Edward Benes, "are much more of a sentimental, psychological, and moral nature than of a political and economic nature" (11). It is difficult to foretell at the present time whether the nations of Central Europe will be able to reach some settlement of their mutual differences and unite for the sake of their own preservation. The present tragedy of Central Europe brings even the most extreme elements to realize that some kind of federation is the "categorical imperative" for that sector of the world. (1) Dr. Joseph Kirschbaum: Slovakia and Central-European Federation Plans, Slovakia, April 1953, p. 3. (2) Le probleme Autrichien et la question Tcheque, Paris,, 1908, p. 307. (3) Aurel Popovici. Die Vereinigten Staaten von Grossoestreich, Leipzig, 1906, p . 43. (4) Henry Rene : Questions d'Autriche-Hongrie et Questions d'Orient, Paris, 1903, p . 126. (5) Lloyd George: The Truth About the Peace Treaties, London, 1925, p. 337. (6) Karol Sidor, Slovenska politika na pode praiskeho snemu, Bratislava, 1943, Vol I, p. 69. (7) Problems of the Danube Basin, London, 1942, p. 122. (8) Dr. Milan Hodza: Federation in Central Europe. London, 1942, p. 75. (9) Ibid., pp. 131-133. (10) Revue de droit international, de sciences diplomatiques et politiques. XXII, annee, No. I, p. 23-52. (11) "Le probleme de !'Europe Central," Sources et documents tchecoslovaques, No. 24, p. 47. � SLOVAKIA 2"> SLOVAK NATIONALISM: FEDERATIVE TENDENCIES OF SLOVAK NATIONALISM B. S. BUC, Ph.D. 1. The Struggle For Survival The most characteristic effort, underlying all the undertakings of re-awakened Slovak nationalism, is the attempt to gain recognition of national individuality first in Austria-Hungary and then in Czecho-Slovakia. Both of these states - Hungary under the pretense of the thousand-year common life of Slovaks within its confines and Czecho-Slovakia under the guise of Slav tribal kinship - pursued a similar aim, namely, to break the will of the Slovaks after they had developed their own national character and to enrich their own collectivity with Slovaks. When we take into consideration that the Slovaks appeared on the modern scene as an almost unknown political factor, we will realize that obstacles, which stood and at present still stand in the way of their political ambitions, were and are continually great. Slovak nationalism, therefore could not reckon with the rapid achievement of independence in its own state. For that rea:::on it had no direct aim in its program to break those state ties in which it found itself. It fought only for the change of its internal structure in such a way that its life would not be menaced. If it became an element of dissolution of state ties, this was more the result of external circumstances which occasioned the break rather than of internal efforts. In such case, Slovak nationalism was, therefore, forced to choose between two alternatives: to maintain its original ties and live in continual dread of losing its national individuality; or to accept a new solution, promising greater possibilities for its own development. Thus, external circumstances caused Slovak nationalism to become one of the elements of dissolution, first of Austria-Hungary, in 1918, and later of Czecho-Slovakia in 1938. Neither of those states were dissolved as the result of an �26 SLOVAKIA internal revolution, even if conditions for such action were favorable, but rather through the decisions of external agents who were interested in the creation of a different and more favorable form of Central Europe. In each instance an unexpected opportunity presented itself to Slovak nationalism for a near revolutionary transition to more favorable conditions. One can observe, however, that in its foundations Slovak nationalism manifests greater tendencies toward federative living with other nations in the Central European sphere of influence than toward its own sovereign statehood. The thought of a federated Central Europe, in one form or another, underlies all efforts of Slovak nationalism and is, of course, the principal aim of the entire Slovak struggle for self-preservation. 2. Federation Rather Than Dissolution of Austria-Hungary In general, the reason for the dissolution of Austria.Hungary rested in the many nationalities that were dissatisfied with this empire. On the other hand, it is also true that shortly before the First World War, the nations of Austria-Hungary as well as the Western Democracies saw in Habsburg Monarchy their best guarantee against German and Russian imperialism. The nations, therefore, opposed very sharply all assimilative efforts of this state, not, however, at the cost of its dissolution. They remembered that the origin of Austria-Hungary was not so much the result of the political genius of the Habsburgs, J::,ut rather of the political, economical, and geographical conditions of the Central European sphere of influence. AustriaHungary was regarded, therefore, as one of the main component parts of the political equilibrium in Europe. This supposition was wholly correct. With the displacement of Austria-Hungary, the European equilibrium was broken to the detriment of those nations which lived within its confines. All federative efforts in Central Europe tend principally to the formation of Austria-Hungary, not, however, in the form of the former Habsburg Monarchy, but on the basis of economical, geographical, and political expedients of that part of Europe, of which it was a political representative for several centuries. �SLOVAKIA 27 The first attempts of the nations of Austria-Hungary for a revived nationalism proceeded no further than its federation. Scarcely any other nation in Austria-Hungary manifested a greater impatience with the latter's politics than the Czechs; and even they proclaimed through the lips of their most renowned historian Francis Palacky: "If Austria did not exist, we would have to create it!" This same Czech historian, writing to the German revolutionary congress in Frankfurt-on-the-Main in 1848, said: "The preservation of Austria - its integrity and solidification is and must be the great and important concern not only of the Czech nation, but of the whole Europe, nay, of all humanity and foreign lands" (1). Even Dr. Edward Benes, one of the principal creators of Czecho-Slovakia and later an unreconciled enemy of the Habsburgs, wrote in 1908: "People often speak about the dissolution of Austria. I absolutely do not believe in it. The historical and economic ties, which mutually unite the nations of Austria, are too strong to allow Austria to collapse" (2). From the revolutionary years of 1848, the thought of federating Austria-Hungary was the foremost political goal of all nationalities of this monarchy, and was even accepted sympathetically by the imperial court itself. But after the so-called agreement with the Hungarians (Magyars) in 1867, the Habsburgs gave precedence to the forceful solution of the national problem by applying coercive methods of assimilation. This came as a disappointment to the other nationalities and increased greatly their movements toward complete emancipation. It made them to forget the historical and economic ties which bound them to the Habsb:irg monarchy and moved them to work for its dissolution. The federation of Austria-Hungary was demanded by the changed views of society, which the philosophy of the Enlightenment and Romanticism had created. These new views emphasized the principle of plurality instead of the former principle of unity, the principle of individual liberty instead of the principle of unreserved obedience to state authority. Had the Habsburgs recalled this great change in the thinking of people, they would certainly have held their GANS.ER LIBRARY �28 SLOVAKIA empire together even if they would have changed its former autocratic foundation. In accord with the other nationalities of Austria-Hungary, the aim of all Slovak undertakings was the federation of Austria-Hungary. The Slovaks publicly emphasized the thought of federation , first in a memorandum which they presented to the emperor at Vienna, in 1861, and then at the nationality congress in Budapest, in 1867. At the second nationality congress which was held on August 10, 1895, also in Budapest, during a time of great persecutions, "the Rumanians, Serbs and Slovaks, who assembled in Budapest (wrote the Neue Freie Presse) demand the division of Hungary into ethnic self-administrative units, which in effect is equal to the demand to abolish the union between Hungary and Transylvania, to renew the Serbian Duchy and create a self-administrative Slovakia, such as Hurban promoted already thirty years earlier" (3). The unwillingness of Budapest and Vienna to meet these demands led not only the Slovaks but also other nationalities to accept willingly such solutions to their problem that prepared the way for the complete dissolution of Austria-Hungary. The offer of this new solution came chiefly from the Western Democracies during the First World War even despite the fact that, in the West, Austria-Hungary was considered as late as 1903 as "the only barrier, sufficiently strong, at the beginning of the 20th century, which could discourage German ambitions the day when these would begin to threaten the European balance ( 4). During the First World War, however, it became apparent that Austria-Hungary proceeded in a completely opposite direction, that is, it abetted the ambitions of Germany Western Democracies, therefore, decided to dissolve it. The greatest influence came from the "American crusading spirit," which, in the form of Wilson's idealistic principle of self-determination of nations, gave the nationalities an unforeseen moral weapon. Austria-Hungary comprised such a mixture of nationalities that the realization of the principle of self-determination was impossible without repeating the situation of Austria-Hungary would - and that in a much worse form - in new national states along national lines. In the new states which had risen out of the ashes of �SLOVAKIA r Austria-Hungary, the burden of power passed from rulers to subordinates, while the political order remained as it was. The former national chauvinism of antagonism began to disintegrate the cohabitation of Central European nations more than ever before and opened the way for the repeated aggrandizement of German imperialism. 3. The Goal of the Slovak Autonomist Movement: A Federated Czecho-Slovakia It was self-evident that, as soon as suppositions for arranging Central Europe upon a new basis emerged, the Slovaks would accept this solution enthusiastically. They found an opportunity to free themselves from their "thousand-year slavery," by which term they referred to their life within the confines of Hungary after the downfall of Greater Moravia in 906. They joined with the Czechs to form one state under the condition that Czecho-Slovakia would be a federated state. This federation was guaranteed by two agreements between Czechs and Slovaks in the United States, in Cleveland in 1915, and then in Pittsburgh in 1918. At the Peace Conference, in 1919, even Dr. Edward Benes promised this in the name of the Czecho-Slovak Government when he stated that: "it is the intention of the Czecho-Slovak Government to create the organization of the state by accepting as a basis of natural rights the principles applied in the constitution of the Swiss Republic a sort of Switzerland . . ." (5). Immediately with the rise of Czecho-Slovakia, the lure of might showed itself more powerful for the Czech majority than the ideals of national equality and rights. For this reason they began to organize a new state on the basis of the principle of power, applying the narrowest centralization. Dr. Ferdis Juriga, one of the most eminent representatives of Slovak nationalism, opposed those Czech propensities on the floor of Parliament in Prague on January 28, 1920, in the following words: "We must tend to decentralization, toward self-administration, so that the Republic might develop on a federalistic basis, because federalism is the system of the future. We must preserve our individuality and not let ourselves be absorbed. Federation is not only in the interest of our nation and the Czecho-Slovak Republic, but it also �30 SLOVAKIA answers the spirit of all mankind. It is an all-human tendency, the tendency of all mankind, this tendency to validate oneself to develop, to which every individual person and every national unit should have the right, which should crystalize out into a legal personality, so that these various nations could then become federalized in one great world republic. This would be the highest ideal and the path that leads to it is: federalism" (6) His position was a bit idealistic, but he expressed correctly the modern effort to arrange the cohabitation of nations on a pluralistic basis in the sense of the principle of equality. We have already said that the dissolution of Austria-Hungary must be charged to the lack of respect for this voice of the times. Czecho-Slovakia, which along national lines was only a worse copy of Austria-Hungary, gave precedence also to such a way. According to C. A. Macartney, "the Slovaks therefore reacted in the form of a flamboyant Slovak nationalism which was a main reason for the absence of revolt with which they accepted the dissolution of the Czecho-Slovak State"(7.) Despite the fact that Slovaks were co-creators of Czecho-Slovakia with the Czechs, they attracted to themselves all the national minorities and together with Germans, Hungarians, Poles, and Ruthenians fought against the so-called imperialism of Prague, as in former times, under AustriaHungary, they fought with Czechs, Serbs, Croatians, and Rumanians against the imperialism of Budapest and Vienna. In this struggle, the main issue at stake was the change of the internal structure of Czecho-Slovakia in the sense of former promises and agreements - and not in its dissolution. When in 1939 Czecho-Slovakia fell under the heel of Hitler's Germany, however, the Slovaks found the way open to the creation of their own state, which was the only way out under the given political circumstances as well as the logical conclusion of their former national endeavors. The short-lived existence of this independent state gave to the Slovak nationalism what it had hitherto lacked, namely, a uniform will to live independently and a conviction that it will know how to stand its ground as an equally worthy member among the other nations. �SLOVAKIA 31 4. Slovak Planners of a Federated Central Europe Slovak nationalism did not strive alone for the federation of those states with which it had ties, but also manifested great energies to raise the entire sphere of Central Europe upon a federated basis. The idea of a federated Central Europe was ever popular with the Slovaks, not simply because it assured the maintenance of certain sovereign prerogatives, as among other established nations, but principally it seemed to provide a surer guarantee for the protection of their threatened national individuality. Slovaks of all political convictions not only joined all federative efforts, but also presented several propositions for solving the problem of Central Europe in the sense of a federation. Perhaps the most renowned figure in this field was Dr. Milan Hodza, at first Minister of Agriculture and then Premier of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. He devoted his whole life to this idea. He draws motives for his endeavors from the fact that, "Small nations are liable to become a nuisance for world politics if they are isolated and beset by rivalries; but they are certainly sure to become precious elements of a fair and therefore indispensable balance of political forces, if they can prove themselves capable of taking a common view of those things which are common among them, especially when their geographical position renders them important"(8). Dr. Hod.fa endeavored to develop cooperation between the Central European nations and the consolidation of the economic situation in this part of Europe. The climax of these endeavors was his "Danube Plan," which aimed to create, according to Hodza's own words: "one single, great economic unit in Central Europe." This was to be attained by removing tariff barriers and establishing a customs union which would regulate agriculture and industrial production, and reorganize the system of payments and transportation, etc. (9). Another Slovak plan for solving the Central European problem is the proposal for confederation originating with Dr. Ferdinand Durcansky, the first Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Slovak Republic during the Second World War. Dr. Durcansky developed his plan for the confederation of Central Europe at the beginning of 1944 in studies �32 SLOVAKIA which were published in the "Revue de droit international, de sciences diplomatiques et politiques" in Geneva. He favors confederation chiefly to ward off every danger, which is said to threaten the sovereignty of small nations whenever they become a part of greater political bodies. According to Dr. :Durcansky, confederation "gives guarantees of independence and freedom to the nations of Central Europe, enables a solution of incidental disputes which could arise between the individual states of the confederation and, on the other hand, could defend Central Europe against external attacks" (10). Up to the present time, however, attempts for the federation of Central Europe have not ripened into practical results, whether their proponents were Slovaks or members of other nations. The reason of their failure, as stated by Dr. Edward Benes, "are much more of a sentimental, psychological, and moral nature than of a political and economic nature" (11). It is difficult to foretell at the present time whether the nations of Central Europe will be able to reach some settlement of their mutual differences and unite for the sake of their own preservation. The present tragedy of Central Europe brings even the most extreme elements to realize that some kind of federation is the "categorical imperative" for that sector of the world. (1) Dr. Joseph Kirschbaum: Slovakia and Central-European Federation Plans, Slovakia, April 1953, p. 3. (2) Le probleme Autrichien et la question Tcheque, Paris,, 1908, p. 307. (3) Aurel Popovici. Die Vereinigten Staaten von Grossoestreich, Leipzig, 1906, p . 43. (4) Henry Rene : Questions d'Autriche-Hongrie et Questions d'Orient, Paris, 1903, p . 126. (5) Lloyd George: The Truth About the Peace Treaties, London, 1925, p. 337. (6) Karol Sidor, Slovenska politika na pode praiskeho snemu, Bratislava, 1943, Vol I, p. 69. (7) Problems of the Danube Basin, London, 1942, p. 122. (8) Dr. Milan Hodza: Federation in Central Europe. London, 1942, p. 75. (9) Ibid., pp. 131-133. (10) Revue de droit international, de sciences diplomatiques et politiques. XXII, annee, No. I, p. 23-52. (11) "Le probleme de !'Europe Central," Sources et documents tchecoslovaques, No. 24, p. 47. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1958, Vol. 8 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 26), March 1958.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 27), June 1958.</li> <li>Issue 3 (No. 28), December 1958.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1958 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 2"> SLOVAK NATIONALISM: FEDERATIVE TENDENCIES OF SLOVAK NATIONALISM B. S. BUC, Ph.D. 1. The Struggle For Survival The most characteristic effort, underlying all the undertakings of re-awakened Slovak nationalism, is the attempt to gain recognition of national individuality first in Austria-Hungary and then in Czecho-Slovakia. Both of these states - Hungary under the pretense of the thousand-year common life of Slovaks within its confines and Czecho-Slovakia under the guise of Slav tribal kinship - pursued a similar aim, namely, to break the will of the Slovaks after they had developed their own national character and to enrich their own collectivity with Slovaks. When we take into consideration that the Slovaks appeared on the modern scene as an almost unknown political factor, we will realize that obstacles, which stood and at present still stand in the way of their political ambitions, were and are continually great. Slovak nationalism, therefore could not reckon with the rapid achievement of independence in its own state. For that rea:::on it had no direct aim in its program to break those state ties in which it found itself. It fought only for the change of its internal structure in such a way that its life would not be menaced. If it became an element of dissolution of state ties, this was more the result of external circumstances which occasioned the break rather than of internal efforts. In such case, Slovak nationalism was, therefore, forced to choose between two alternatives: to maintain its original ties and live in continual dread of losing its national individuality; or to accept a new solution, promising greater possibilities for its own development. Thus, external circumstances caused Slovak nationalism to become one of the elements of dissolution, first of Austria-Hungary, in 1918, and later of Czecho-Slovakia in 1938. Neither of those states were dissolved as the result of an 26 SLOVAKIA internal revolution, even if conditions for such action were favorable, but rather through the decisions of external agents who were interested in the creation of a different and more favorable form of Central Europe. In each instance an unexpected opportunity presented itself to Slovak nationalism for a near revolutionary transition to more favorable conditions. One can observe, however, that in its foundations Slovak nationalism manifests greater tendencies toward federative living with other nations in the Central European sphere of influence than toward its own sovereign statehood. The thought of a federated Central Europe, in one form or another, underlies all efforts of Slovak nationalism and is, of course, the principal aim of the entire Slovak struggle for self-preservation. 2. Federation Rather Than Dissolution of Austria-Hungary In general, the reason for the dissolution of Austria.Hungary rested in the many nationalities that were dissatisfied with this empire. On the other hand, it is also true that shortly before the First World War, the nations of Austria-Hungary as well as the Western Democracies saw in Habsburg Monarchy their best guarantee against German and Russian imperialism. The nations, therefore, opposed very sharply all assimilative efforts of this state, not, however, at the cost of its dissolution. They remembered that the origin of Austria-Hungary was not so much the result of the political genius of the Habsburgs, J::,ut rather of the political, economical, and geographical conditions of the Central European sphere of influence. AustriaHungary was regarded, therefore, as one of the main component parts of the political equilibrium in Europe. This supposition was wholly correct. With the displacement of Austria-Hungary, the European equilibrium was broken to the detriment of those nations which lived within its confines. All federative efforts in Central Europe tend principally to the formation of Austria-Hungary, not, however, in the form of the former Habsburg Monarchy, but on the basis of economical, geographical, and political expedients of that part of Europe, of which it was a political representative for several centuries. SLOVAKIA 27 The first attempts of the nations of Austria-Hungary for a revived nationalism proceeded no further than its federation. Scarcely any other nation in Austria-Hungary manifested a greater impatience with the latter's politics than the Czechs; and even they proclaimed through the lips of their most renowned historian Francis Palacky: "If Austria did not exist, we would have to create it!" This same Czech historian, writing to the German revolutionary congress in Frankfurt-on-the-Main in 1848, said: "The preservation of Austria - its integrity and solidification is and must be the great and important concern not only of the Czech nation, but of the whole Europe, nay, of all humanity and foreign lands" (1). Even Dr. Edward Benes, one of the principal creators of Czecho-Slovakia and later an unreconciled enemy of the Habsburgs, wrote in 1908: "People often speak about the dissolution of Austria. I absolutely do not believe in it. The historical and economic ties, which mutually unite the nations of Austria, are too strong to allow Austria to collapse" (2). From the revolutionary years of 1848, the thought of federating Austria-Hungary was the foremost political goal of all nationalities of this monarchy, and was even accepted sympathetically by the imperial court itself. But after the so-called agreement with the Hungarians (Magyars) in 1867, the Habsburgs gave precedence to the forceful solution of the national problem by applying coercive methods of assimilation. This came as a disappointment to the other nationalities and increased greatly their movements toward complete emancipation. It made them to forget the historical and economic ties which bound them to the Habsb:irg monarchy and moved them to work for its dissolution. The federation of Austria-Hungary was demanded by the changed views of society, which the philosophy of the Enlightenment and Romanticism had created. These new views emphasized the principle of plurality instead of the former principle of unity, the principle of individual liberty instead of the principle of unreserved obedience to state authority. Had the Habsburgs recalled this great change in the thinking of people, they would certainly have held their GANS.ER LIBRARY 28 SLOVAKIA empire together even if they would have changed its former autocratic foundation. In accord with the other nationalities of Austria-Hungary, the aim of all Slovak undertakings was the federation of Austria-Hungary. The Slovaks publicly emphasized the thought of federation , first in a memorandum which they presented to the emperor at Vienna, in 1861, and then at the nationality congress in Budapest, in 1867. At the second nationality congress which was held on August 10, 1895, also in Budapest, during a time of great persecutions, "the Rumanians, Serbs and Slovaks, who assembled in Budapest (wrote the Neue Freie Presse) demand the division of Hungary into ethnic self-administrative units, which in effect is equal to the demand to abolish the union between Hungary and Transylvania, to renew the Serbian Duchy and create a self-administrative Slovakia, such as Hurban promoted already thirty years earlier" (3). The unwillingness of Budapest and Vienna to meet these demands led not only the Slovaks but also other nationalities to accept willingly such solutions to their problem that prepared the way for the complete dissolution of Austria-Hungary. The offer of this new solution came chiefly from the Western Democracies during the First World War even despite the fact that, in the West, Austria-Hungary was considered as late as 1903 as "the only barrier, sufficiently strong, at the beginning of the 20th century, which could discourage German ambitions the day when these would begin to threaten the European balance ( 4). During the First World War, however, it became apparent that Austria-Hungary proceeded in a completely opposite direction, that is, it abetted the ambitions of Germany Western Democracies, therefore, decided to dissolve it. The greatest influence came from the "American crusading spirit," which, in the form of Wilson's idealistic principle of self-determination of nations, gave the nationalities an unforeseen moral weapon. Austria-Hungary comprised such a mixture of nationalities that the realization of the principle of self-determination was impossible without repeating the situation of Austria-Hungary would - and that in a much worse form - in new national states along national lines. In the new states which had risen out of the ashes of SLOVAKIA r Austria-Hungary, the burden of power passed from rulers to subordinates, while the political order remained as it was. The former national chauvinism of antagonism began to disintegrate the cohabitation of Central European nations more than ever before and opened the way for the repeated aggrandizement of German imperialism. 3. The Goal of the Slovak Autonomist Movement: A Federated Czecho-Slovakia It was self-evident that, as soon as suppositions for arranging Central Europe upon a new basis emerged, the Slovaks would accept this solution enthusiastically. They found an opportunity to free themselves from their "thousand-year slavery," by which term they referred to their life within the confines of Hungary after the downfall of Greater Moravia in 906. They joined with the Czechs to form one state under the condition that Czecho-Slovakia would be a federated state. This federation was guaranteed by two agreements between Czechs and Slovaks in the United States, in Cleveland in 1915, and then in Pittsburgh in 1918. At the Peace Conference, in 1919, even Dr. Edward Benes promised this in the name of the Czecho-Slovak Government when he stated that: "it is the intention of the Czecho-Slovak Government to create the organization of the state by accepting as a basis of natural rights the principles applied in the constitution of the Swiss Republic a sort of Switzerland . . ." (5). Immediately with the rise of Czecho-Slovakia, the lure of might showed itself more powerful for the Czech majority than the ideals of national equality and rights. For this reason they began to organize a new state on the basis of the principle of power, applying the narrowest centralization. Dr. Ferdis Juriga, one of the most eminent representatives of Slovak nationalism, opposed those Czech propensities on the floor of Parliament in Prague on January 28, 1920, in the following words: "We must tend to decentralization, toward self-administration, so that the Republic might develop on a federalistic basis, because federalism is the system of the future. We must preserve our individuality and not let ourselves be absorbed. Federation is not only in the interest of our nation and the Czecho-Slovak Republic, but it also 30 SLOVAKIA answers the spirit of all mankind. It is an all-human tendency, the tendency of all mankind, this tendency to validate oneself to develop, to which every individual person and every national unit should have the right, which should crystalize out into a legal personality, so that these various nations could then become federalized in one great world republic. This would be the highest ideal and the path that leads to it is: federalism" (6) His position was a bit idealistic, but he expressed correctly the modern effort to arrange the cohabitation of nations on a pluralistic basis in the sense of the principle of equality. We have already said that the dissolution of Austria-Hungary must be charged to the lack of respect for this voice of the times. Czecho-Slovakia, which along national lines was only a worse copy of Austria-Hungary, gave precedence also to such a way. According to C. A. Macartney, "the Slovaks therefore reacted in the form of a flamboyant Slovak nationalism which was a main reason for the absence of revolt with which they accepted the dissolution of the Czecho-Slovak State"(7.) Despite the fact that Slovaks were co-creators of Czecho-Slovakia with the Czechs, they attracted to themselves all the national minorities and together with Germans, Hungarians, Poles, and Ruthenians fought against the so-called imperialism of Prague, as in former times, under AustriaHungary, they fought with Czechs, Serbs, Croatians, and Rumanians against the imperialism of Budapest and Vienna. In this struggle, the main issue at stake was the change of the internal structure of Czecho-Slovakia in the sense of former promises and agreements - and not in its dissolution. When in 1939 Czecho-Slovakia fell under the heel of Hitler's Germany, however, the Slovaks found the way open to the creation of their own state, which was the only way out under the given political circumstances as well as the logical conclusion of their former national endeavors. The short-lived existence of this independent state gave to the Slovak nationalism what it had hitherto lacked, namely, a uniform will to live independently and a conviction that it will know how to stand its ground as an equally worthy member among the other nations. SLOVAKIA 31 4. Slovak Planners of a Federated Central Europe Slovak nationalism did not strive alone for the federation of those states with which it had ties, but also manifested great energies to raise the entire sphere of Central Europe upon a federated basis. The idea of a federated Central Europe was ever popular with the Slovaks, not simply because it assured the maintenance of certain sovereign prerogatives, as among other established nations, but principally it seemed to provide a surer guarantee for the protection of their threatened national individuality. Slovaks of all political convictions not only joined all federative efforts, but also presented several propositions for solving the problem of Central Europe in the sense of a federation. Perhaps the most renowned figure in this field was Dr. Milan Hodza, at first Minister of Agriculture and then Premier of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. He devoted his whole life to this idea. He draws motives for his endeavors from the fact that, "Small nations are liable to become a nuisance for world politics if they are isolated and beset by rivalries; but they are certainly sure to become precious elements of a fair and therefore indispensable balance of political forces, if they can prove themselves capable of taking a common view of those things which are common among them, especially when their geographical position renders them important"(8). Dr. Hod.fa endeavored to develop cooperation between the Central European nations and the consolidation of the economic situation in this part of Europe. The climax of these endeavors was his "Danube Plan," which aimed to create, according to Hodza's own words: "one single, great economic unit in Central Europe." This was to be attained by removing tariff barriers and establishing a customs union which would regulate agriculture and industrial production, and reorganize the system of payments and transportation, etc. (9). Another Slovak plan for solving the Central European problem is the proposal for confederation originating with Dr. Ferdinand Durcansky, the first Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Slovak Republic during the Second World War. Dr. Durcansky developed his plan for the confederation of Central Europe at the beginning of 1944 in studies 32 SLOVAKIA which were published in the "Revue de droit international, de sciences diplomatiques et politiques" in Geneva. He favors confederation chiefly to ward off every danger, which is said to threaten the sovereignty of small nations whenever they become a part of greater political bodies. According to Dr. :Durcansky, confederation "gives guarantees of independence and freedom to the nations of Central Europe, enables a solution of incidental disputes which could arise between the individual states of the confederation and, on the other hand, could defend Central Europe against external attacks" (10). Up to the present time, however, attempts for the federation of Central Europe have not ripened into practical results, whether their proponents were Slovaks or members of other nations. The reason of their failure, as stated by Dr. Edward Benes, "are much more of a sentimental, psychological, and moral nature than of a political and economic nature" (11). It is difficult to foretell at the present time whether the nations of Central Europe will be able to reach some settlement of their mutual differences and unite for the sake of their own preservation. The present tragedy of Central Europe brings even the most extreme elements to realize that some kind of federation is the "categorical imperative" for that sector of the world. (1) Dr. Joseph Kirschbaum: Slovakia and Central-European Federation Plans, Slovakia, April 1953, p. 3. (2) Le probleme Autrichien et la question Tcheque, Paris,, 1908, p. 307. (3) Aurel Popovici. Die Vereinigten Staaten von Grossoestreich, Leipzig, 1906, p . 43. (4) Henry Rene : Questions d'Autriche-Hongrie et Questions d'Orient, Paris, 1903, p . 126. (5) Lloyd George: The Truth About the Peace Treaties, London, 1925, p. 337. (6) Karol Sidor, Slovenska politika na pode praiskeho snemu, Bratislava, 1943, Vol I, p. 69. (7) Problems of the Danube Basin, London, 1942, p. 122. (8) Dr. Milan Hodza: Federation in Central Europe. London, 1942, p. 75. (9) Ibid., pp. 131-133. (10) Revue de droit international, de sciences diplomatiques et politiques. XXII, annee, No. I, p. 23-52. (11) "Le probleme de !'Europe Central," Sources et documents tchecoslovaques, No. 24, p. 47.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Slovak Nationalism: Federative Tendencies of Slovak Nationalism Description An account of the resource B. S. Buc, Ph.D.<br />Slovakia, Vol. 8, No. 3 (28), December 1958<br />pp. 25-32<br /><ol><li>The Struggle for Survival</li> <li>Federation Rather Than Dissolution of Austria-Hungary</li> <li>The Goal of the Slovak Autonomist Movement: A Federated Czecho-Slovakia</li> <li>Slovak Planners of a Federated Central Europe</li> </ol> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Buc, B. S. (Bonaventure S.), 1910-1966 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource December 1958 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/e4e96e0185e88caf73e4f3a0ea0568ae.pdf 75095b8ce4605699c52bae7ffdcaf674 PDF Text Text Published quarterly by the VOL. VIII Slovak League of America NO. 2 (27) JUNE, 1958 SLOVAK NATIONALISM: CONFLICTS OF SLOVAK NATIONALISM ' B. S. BUC, Ph.D. . 1. Magyar Renegade vs. Pan-Slavist The historical and ideological development of Slovak nationalism was certainly not devoid of internal conflicts. It is self-evident that a society, which lived through many centuries without any political markings whatsoever, had to submit to a series of influences. They left many traces upon its national• character, which hindered the harmonious blending of energies that would have been necessary for the more succes'sfu1 attainment of a lofty goal. Since the Slovaks had lived for a thousand years within the framework of the Hungarian State without their territorial boundaries, they possessed no suppositions to establish at least that kind of group consciousness which would mirror the cultural, political, or geographical character of the land in which they lived. Even though reawakened Slovak nationalism traced its beginnings of national individuality to G'reat Moravia, it had to lean mostly upon an ethnical distinction from the Magyar.(1) Since the land of the Slovaks formed an integral part of the Hungarian over practically the entire ethnical expanse of the Slovaks, and in the' south created such a conglomeration of Slovak and Magyar elements, th1:1.t even today it is impossible fo establish between them such bountiaries which would be agreeable to ' the state and at the same time would fulfill the desire for self-determination. Into the territory of Slovakia, as it was formed after the First World War as a part of Czecho-Slovakia, were incorporated 655,322 Hungarians. They comprised 27 percent of all the inhabitants. Meanwhile 180,000 Slovaks re, ,.. mained in Hungary and they, for the most part, were scat"( ( �2 SLOVAKIA tered throughout the land. This fact gave the Magyars a Slovakia in order to liberate their co-racialists. And they accomplished their goal in 1938 when Czecho-Slovakia crumbled under Hitler's pressure. The Vienna arbitrage, whose principal agents were the Italian foreign minister Ciano and the German foreign minister Ribentrop, apportioned to Hungary 10,309 square kilometers of Slovak land together with 853,670 inhabitants. According to statistics of the year 1930, these inhabitants comprised 503,980 Magyars, 26,157 Jews, 272,145 Slovaks, and 1,825 Ruthenians. Still remaining in Slovakia were 57,193 Magyars. The number of Slovaks in Hungary after the arbitrage increased from 180,00 to 352,145, that is, six times more than the Magyars remaining in Slovakia(2). After the Second World War, all the land taken away by the arbitrage was returned to Slovakia. The new communist-dominated Czecho-Slovak government proceeded to solve this national mixup by making an agreement with Communist Hungary to exchange all Magyars in Slovakia for all Slovaks in Hungary. Furthermore, it removed forcibly a certain portion of the Magyars from Southern Slovakia into the Sudetenland in place of the ousted Germans. Prior to World War I, the upper social classes in Slovakia - the intelligentsia, merchants and greater landowners - were also almost wholly magyarized. If they acknowledged their Slovak origin, they nevertheless accepted the idea of the Hungarian State as their political "credo" and did not concur with the efforts of revived Slovak nationalism. Rather they looked upon it as the manifestation of an unfriendly attitude to the Hungarian fatherland. They therefore engaged freely in all undertakings of the Hungarian government to smear the Pan-Slavists, as they labelled the Slovak patriots. Thus at the very beginning of Slovak nationalism, arises the first major conflict, namely the struggle between Slovak renegades and Pan-Slavists. Slovak renegades were those people of Slovak origin who, either because of opportunities or conviction, offered their services toward the assimilating efforts of the Hun_garian government, which aimed at creating as soon as possible a homogeneous speaking Magyar State. On the �SLOVAKIA 3 other hand, Slovak patriots, were considered Pan-Slavists. They were so named because, in their political struggle, they proceeded hand in hand with the other Slav nationalities in Hungary and often gave evidence of Pan-Slavistic tendencies. The conflict of these two divisions within Slovak society grew steadily more and more violent after the revolutionary year of 1848. Upon it were centered all struggles on Slovak ethnical territory, whether they were of a political, cultural, social, or religious nature. The division of Slovak society into renegades and Pan-Slavists had not only political but also social roots. The assemblage of Slovak renegades was composed of members of the lordly class, among whom we find the intelligentsia, merchants, greater landowners or peers. On the other side stood the great mass of people comprising the Pan-Slavists, among whom were numbered small village farmers and various agricultural workers. Because industry was still in its rudimentary stages, the working class was practically non-extant. From among the intelligentsia, priests had the closest contacts with the broad masses of people and, therefore, became natural leaders and agents of Slovak nationalism. . The aforementioned fact gives further testimony that Slovak nationalism was more a social than a national movement in its beginnings. The reviving tasks of national leaders in the beginnings of Slovak nationalism possessed rather a culturo-social than a national-political character. Slovak leaders entered upon a national-political program only with the revolutionary times of 1848, when they organized a military uprising and brought forth their demand that not Magyar but rather Slovak should be the language used in schools and official circles of the defined Slovak territory within the framework of Hungary. The beginnings leading towards the accomplishment of this demand seemed very favorable in the years prior to 1867. At that time Vienna, resisting the revolting Magyars, sought the support of her nationalities who demanded from the Magyar government of Hungary the same national rights which the Magyars, led by Slovak renegade Louis Kossuth, demanded for themselves in Vienna. �4 SLOVAKIA In 1867, .however, a ~ettlement took place between Vieniia and' Budapest. Slovak nationalism thus lost the '' giveIJ. over support of Vienna and was as a prize to the Magyars to become an internal concz;en of the Hungarian portion of the Habsburg Monarchy. Immediatel y the Magyars feverishly set for~h to magyarize all their nationalities, which action manifested itself on Slovak ethnical .territory by the abolition of all Slovak , political and purely cultural institutions and by the introductio n of Magyar as the official language jn HtJ.ngary. SGhools 1 were to educate a new generation, one that would speak only Magyar and one that would be devoted w:holly to the, Magyars and the ,Hungarian State which they controlled. In these attempts the Magyar-co ntrolled Hungarian governmen t found in Slovakia willing supporters among the ranks of the above-men tioned Slovak renegades, who, in full compliance ·with the psychologic al bent of every renegade, labored more fanatically in instilling the magyarizing program than the governmen t itself had actually contemplat ed. The result could only end in a bitter conflict with the deeply Slovak-con scious group of inhabitants. , This conflict came to light npt only in political manifestations, as is elecfoms, but purrow~d deep even into the daily concerns of the inhabitants . In elections, genuinely Slovak candidates generally had little hope of winning even in those ,electoral districts where the vast majority sympathize d with them. The reason lay in a voting law , which granted voting privileges only to those who possessed a certain· amount of property. This law excluded from voting precisely that portion of Slovak ethnical teritory which formed tb.e basis of Slovak nationalism and granted the decisive word to those who had lost t~eir Slovak national consciousn ess but propertywise were more ,powerful. li'urthermo re, the elections were public and influenced very ev,idently by much use of bribery. Official candidates received heavy aid and support from the governmen t, whereas national candidates could only rely upon their, own resources, which were for the most part meagre and limited. In daily life the conflict between . Slovak renegades �SLOVAKIA 5 and patriotic Slovaks was mirrored mostly in the use of language. The renegades used the Magyar tongue almost exclusively; they regarded the speaking of Magyar not only as a maninfestation of "patriotic" sentiment, but also as the mark of a higher social position. Slovak, 1on the other hand, was looked upon as the tongue of poverty and its use was considered a display of "anti-patriotic'' feeling. In this conflict, which created an atmosphere of almost continual political as well as social tension, Slovak nationalism suffered the loss of much strength, for social privileges, schools and governmental pressure inflicted upon it serious harm and threatened it with destruction. 2. "Czechoslovak" vs. Autonomist With the establishment of Czecho-Slovakia this process was suddenly halted and the Slovaks found themselves in more favorable conditions. Because of the- changed political situation, a large 'number bf former Slovak renegades departed from Slovakia. Furthermore, many of them began to admit again their Sldvak origin, orientated themselves to the new poltiical setup, and even though manifesting little enthusiasm for the revolutionary change, they nevertheless undertook no organized effort which could have proved detrimental to the erection of the new state. It is comprehensible that all national Slovak units accepted the establishment of Czecho-Slovakia with gfeat enthusiasm. But this enthusiasm lasted only as long as its emotional foundation, built in the past under the influence of Pan-Slavism, was extanh It was primarily nurtured by a common fate of the Czechs and Slovaks in Austria-Hungary and led them to progress jointly in their struggles for national ,rights. When, however, both units merged and , had to work out serious problems which appeared during the erection of the new state, the basic difference of the Czech and Slovak character projected itself on the scene and gave an impetus to many conflicts, which in time grew more violent. It is true that Czechs and Slovaks did not find it too difficult to understand one another ling-uistica:lly because of the marked kinship of their languages. Nevertheless, 1-the ideological antl cultural background · of �6 SLOVAKIA / their natures showed itself to be so different that it created an almost impassable gulf between them. The fore-warning of this break was the difference of their religious positions. From the burning of John Hus, the first ecclesiastical reformer at the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Czech character continued to show opposition to Rome and to the Habsburgs. After successfully routing all Czech reforming elements in 1647, the Habsburgs carried on intensive re-Catholiciza tion in Czech lands. With the downfall of the Habsburgs after the First World War, the Czechs found it opportune to undo what they had looked upon as an injustice and, therefore, did not conceal their anti-Catholic thinking in creating CzechoSlovakia. The Slovaks, who are 82 percent Catholic, had no grudge against Rome, and after attaining their national liberty showed no unfriendliness to Catholicism. Thus, immediately in the beginning of the new state, the religious question became an experimental rock of Czech-Slovak relationship and drove the popular and formerly Czechinclined Father Andrew Hlinka with his Slovak People's Party into violent opposition against the Czechs. When, in addition, with the help of a minority of Slovak Lutherans and isolated Liberals, Prague began to organize Czecho-Slova kia centralisticall y by disregarding former agreements about making it a federative republic of two distinct nations, "Czechs and Slovaks," Slovak Catholics inaugurated a movement which came to be known under the name "Autonomist. " The whole discussion seemed, however, to turn around the connotation of the phrase "Czechoslovak nation." In the first chapter of this treatise, allusion was made to the impact of Pan-Slavism upon the budding Slovak nationalism. The Pan-Slavist visualized a kind of political and ethnographica l unification of all Slavs on the ground of their kinship and close language relationship. Influenced by this Pan-Slavistic trend, some Slovaks - especially Lutherans - were prone to accept the idea of the complete fusion of the Slovaks with the Czechs. This objective was to be achieved through a centralized rather than federative Czecho-Slovak ia. Thus, in disregard of all �SLOVAKIA 7 previous agreements between the Czechs and Slovaks, the Czecho-Slovak Republic was organized on the basis of a centralized government. Moreover, the special phrase "Czechoslovak nation" was coined. It had to denote that Czechs and Slovaks were ethnographically, culturally, and politically the same nation. Practically, it meant that the Slovaks were to be made over into Czechs, since the Slovak language was declared a dialect of the Czech and Slovakia was not conceded any right to self-government. Thus, in this new conflict "Czechoslovak vs. Autonomist" two issues were involved: the issue of national difference between the Slovaks and Czechs and the issue of self-government for Slovakia. Those who denied them were "Czechoslovaks"; those who claimed them were "Autonomists." There arose once again the struggle between those who favored the government and those who opposed it for its incorrect interpretation of Slovak feelings. To determine by proper evaluation which side profited in this conflict, it would be unjust to form conclusions solely on the basis of the election outcomes of those parties who stood for the autonomist program. The Slovak People's Party, led by Father Hlinka, alone had a purely autonomist program. But the individuality of the Slovak nation was also stressed by the Slovak National Party, led by Martin Razus, a Lutheran minister, comprising chiefly the Slovak Lutherans, and by the Communist Party. The latter proceeded further than Hlinka's party by demanding the complete separation of Slovakia from the Czechs lands as early as 1926. The autonomist movement achieved its greatest victory in the elections of 1925; of the 299 representative seats in the Czecho-Slovak Parliament, 160 were won by the Czechs, 47 by the Slovaks, 5 by the Ruthenians, 1 by the Russians, 75 by the Germans and 10 by the Magyars. Now the 47 seats belonging to the Slovaks did not represent autonomists only; it simply indicated the representatives from Slovak ethnical territory. Of these seats, 23, belonged to the Hlinka Slovak People's Party, 5 to the Communist Party, 1 to the Slovak National Party; the remainder belonged to the parties which based their plat- �8 SLOVAKIA form on the principle of a "Czechoslovak" nation and stood for a centralized Czecho-Slovak Republic(3). Even though the Slovak People's Party emerged from this election with 23 delegates and gained ascendancy over the other parties seeking for votes in Slovakia, its strength would not necesarily indicate that the idea of a Slovak national individuality was highly popular among Slovak inhabitants. In evaluating the results to determine how parties opposed to this idea were won over in Slovakia, one must not overlook the factor of material benefits offered by those in power to anyone voting for them. Thus, opportunism rather than nationalism was the chief factor which influenced the so-called official parties on Slovak ethnical territory. Actually the defenders and confessors of centralism in Slovakia comprised only a small group of individuals who, with the aid of the Czechs, constituted a true ruling class. In this way they assured for themselves a lasting political career and of course material comforts. They, therefore, took the place of the former Slovak renegades and, like the latter, were the instruments of foreign influences endeavoring to deter the uni-characteristic development of Slovak nationalism. Nevertheless, in the Czecho-Slovak versus Autonomist conflict, Slovak nationalism possessed since the beginning a greater advantage than in the Slovak renegade versus patriotic Slovak conflict because it had the support of schools. It is a very significant circumstance, that although the greater majority of professors and teachers in Slovak schools at the beginning of the Czecho-Slovak Repuplic were Czechs, who came to Slovakia l:>ecause of the lack of specialized Slovak talent, they nevertheless were not able to educate a Slovak generation which wo_u ld become devoted to the idea of the "Czechoslovak" nation, and to a centralized Czecho-Slovak Republic ,based on that idea. The Czechs explain this phenomenon as the ungratefulness of the young Slovak generation for ,proferred aid. It is true that this Czech assistance enabl,~d the Slovaks to make inroads into modern European , society. But the key to the correct evaluation of this seeming ungrateful_ness is offered, by statistics which co111pare the labor pos- �SLOVAKIA 9 sibilities between Czechs and Slovaks on Slovak ethnical territory. The employment question became the most effective outlet for the dissemination of the autonomist movement over the broader Slovak strata, whereby a young, Czech-trained Slovak generation was won over to its objectives. On the other hand, it aided also that group of Slovaks and Czechs who, controlling the sole possibility of distributing labor, possessed an effective means of advantageously influencing in politics all opportunistically inclined natures. Thus, the "Czechoslovak" versus Autonomist conflict also assumed the character of a social struggle. The employment problem in other homogeneous speaking states caused a social tension and made it possible for Communists and Socialists to make greater election gains. In Slovakia, however, it led to an increased tension between Czechs and Slovaks and became the fruitful soil for a separatist nationalism. Czech officials, teachers, and other white collar employees entered Slovakia with the understanding that they would remain there in the exercise of their proper functions until Slovakia could gather sufficient expert forces of its own. After the departure of the Magyars and Slovak, renegades, there remained few experts in Slovakia who could be used in public administration and education(4). Since the Czechs in Austria had their own autonomy and at the same time took an important part in the management of the entire monarchy, they possessed a surplus of intellectuals and for that reason considered Slovakia as a province for the allocation of their intellectuals. Not only did the Czechs reveal an unwillingness to leave the labor possibilities in favor of the new Slovak intelligentsia, but, by utilizing their own influential connections, they also increased their own ranks. The unequal representation of Slovaks and Czechs that existed in the public organs of Slovakia is evident from the following employment statistics of the Board of State Railways in Bratislava and Kosice. In 1925, of 5,134 engineers and higher officers, 90 percent were Czechs; of 12,355 second grade laborers 60 percent were Czechs; of 16, 025 unskilled laborers, 30 percent were Czechs(5). �10 SLOVAKIA This situation is best mirrored in the emigration from Czecho-Slovakia during the years 1920-1937. Of the 400,193 people, who emigrated from the whole country, 213,283 or 52.2 percent belonged to Slovakia. This is an astonishingly high percentage when one considers that Slovakia formed only 23 percent of the whole population of the Czecho-Slovak Republic(6). It was impossible for such a situation not to give rise to many complaints on the part of the Slovaks. It turned them against the Czechs as well as against the Czecho-Slovak state and steadily created suppositions for the greater emphasis of a separate national individuality and eventually an independent state. 3. Lutheran vs. Catholic The conflicts of Slovak nationalism often have their roots in the religious differences of the Slovak population. We have already mentioned that Catholic priests and Lutheran ministers had played an important role in the reawakening of Slovak nationalism. To Western observers this often appears as a remnant of so-called clericalism. It is hardly possible, however, to make a parallel between what is known in France and Italy as clericalism and the role of priests in Slovak politics. In Slovakia priests entered into politics under the influence of the ideas of the Enlightenment, which philosophy gave an impetus to anticlerical struggles in other countries. And it is a fact that Slovak priests also entered into frequent controversy with higher members of the hierarchy, chiefly because the latter were not of Slovak origin and for the greater part supported the Magyar government in its attempts at assimilation in Hungary. That these conflicts did not develop into open religious splits can be accredited to the Popes who, stemming from Pope Leo XIII and his social encyclicals, sympathized with peoples' movements and continually sought to keep them within the fold of the Church. It happened frequently that in disagreements, involving priests and bishops, Rome stood on the side of the priests whenever the controversy stemmed from different social or national sources An outstanding example of the Vatican's attitude is �SLOVAKIA 11 mirrored in the case of Father IDinka, leader of the Slovak Autonomists. Suspended in 1906 by his Magyar Bishop Parvy for participating in the election campaign, Hlinka found Rome favorable to his cause. Bishop Parvy was thus virtually compelled to reinstate Hlinka as pastor. Thus, assured of the sympathies of the Vatican and enthused over the idea of helping their oppressed kin, the Slovak priests took over the leadership in Slovak nationalism. Whenever any member of the Slovak laity in Hungary received an education, the person usually became denationalized either because of the schools or the nature of his position, which demanded of him a subservient service to the government. Otherwise it was impossible to advance in a chosen career. Furthermore, children from peasant, village families found it economically almost impossible to receive a higher education. Only members of wealthier families, which comprised the group of Slovak renegades, were able to pursue higher studies and obtain leading positions. The only vocation open to boys with a village and farming background was that to the priesthood. Not only did the priestly vocation offer an education to such boys, since seminary studies were almost completely free, but it also sent its priests back among the same people whence they came. Furthermore, although the courses were conducted in a Magyar spirit, and this could have influenced them, nevertheless upon the completion of their studies they returned to their own people and once again found themselves in the center of their origin. Moreover, they were not weighted down with the fear that they would be hindered in their career if they failed to act according to the intentions of the government. They were, therefore, very independent in their actions and in fulfilling their vocation. These priests, however, were on the lowest rung of the ecclesiastical hierarchy; the higher rungs were either completely Magyar or Slovak renegadist. It is self-evident that they would be mostly attracted to the ideas of the Enlightenment concerning the people and later romantic ideas concerning the nation. In the majority of instances they, therefore, sought with revolutionary zest to make �12 SLOVAKIA these ideas productive under the motto: "For God and Country!" It is true that, because of the nature of their vocation, they carried religion into politics, and therefore gave an impetus to conflicts of a religious nature. But it is also true, that the reasons why religion became embroiled in politics in Central Europe were not because priests desired to become the leaders of national and peoples' movements, but because of the very nature of the society which retained the religious foundation it had inherited from the Middle Ages. The undermining of this foundation, after the birth of Liberalism, could not fail to call forth ecclesiastical reaction, which began to appear in the establishment of Catholic parties as the most effective, defensive means in the political struggles of democracies. According to the statistics of 1930, the population of Slovakia comprised percentage-wise the following religious denominations: Roman and Greek Catholics - 78.013 percent; Lutherans 12.008 percent; Calvinists 4.376 percent; Jews - 4.102 percent; others - 1.5 percent(?). Only Catholics and Lutherans, however, play a role in Slovak nationalism. Calvinists are for the most part Magyars; and Jews, when not Magyars, in most instances take sides with those who oppose Slovak nationalism. Between Lutherans and Catholics there existed in the beginnings of Slovak nationalism a certain competition in patriotism, which did not always tend in the same direction, principally in matters concerning the legislation of the national Slovak language. In their religious services, the Lutherans used the old Czech language of the so-called "Kralice Bible" that was translated by the Moravian Brethren who were followers of John Hus. This fact led them to retain Czech as the literary tongue for some time. Catholics, on the other hand, always used the Slovak language of the common people and legalized it as national in 1787. From the beginning, Catholics showed the evident tendency to emphasize their distinct national Slovak individuality from that of the Czechs. Lutherans, highly influenced by Pan-Slavism however, were prone to accept the idea that Czechs and Slovaks form a common racial unit of one great Slav family. �SLOVAKIA 13 It was not until the revolutionary times of 1848 that r..udovit Stur, one of the most eminent Lutheran national revivers, established the supposition that Lutherans should also accept the principle of a Slovak language distinct from the Czech. Suppositions were thus established for the close cooperation between Lutherans and Catholics to guarantee national rights to Slovaks in what formerely had been Hungary. In spite of their minority, the Lutherans in 1848 took over the leadership in Slovak nationalism. They formed a rich romantic literature, initiated many political steps in the Hungarian government to obtain national rights for Slovaks, founded a few Slovak cultural institutions and led the only Slovak political party in Hungary, called the Slovak National Party. Catholics accepted their leadership as self-evidential. This acceptance assured almost complete harmony between both units of Slovak nationalism. Towards the end of the nineteenth century Catholics were summoned into more feverish political activity by a newly-created, all-state, Catholic party called the People's Party, founded and headed by the Magyar Count Zichy. The party was brought to life through many laws passed by the liberal-controlled Hungarian Parliament that sought to destroy the present Christian tradition of the country. One of these laws dealt with marriage and demanded that every citizen undergo a civil wedding ceremony. Otherwise, the program of the People's Party appropriated the social principles enumerated in the encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII and also fought for the recognition of national rights for individual nationalism in Hungary. It was a program which Slovak Catholic priests were seeking to realize for a long time. For this reason, the party achieved comparatively wonderful success on Slovak ethnical territory shortly after its entrance into the political struggle. In this party Father Andrew Hlinka achieved public political recognition and in time became the most eminent representative of Slovak nationalism. Although the People's Party received great help from non-Magyar priests and the Catholic laity, the Magyar leaders were in no way anxious to fulfill the nationalitypoint of their program either in the government or within �14 SLOVAKIA the framework of their own party. Rather they supported almost openly the assimilative pressure of the government upon nationalities and, therefore, upon the Slovaks. The deceived Slovak Catholics, therefore, left this party and formed their own Slovak People's Party under the leadership of Father Andrew Hlinka. This party appropriated the social and religious program of the original People's Party and immediately brought forth its claim to national rights for Slovaks. The introduction of the Slovak People's Party created the following situation in Slovakia: Slovak Catholics began to organize into the People's Party, whereas the existing Slovak National Party became only a political organ of Slovak Lutherans. It emphasized a political division according to religion, but no serious conflicts, in the sense of Catholic versus Lutheran, ensued at that time. Magyar pressure steadily created new suppositions for cooperation towards the same national goal. This political division along religious lines became the source of conflict between Catholics and Lutherans only when, in the new Czecho-Slovakia, the fight for national rights was replaced by the struggle to seize power. In this struggle the Lutherans were victorious, because they accepted willingly the centralizing efforts of Prague. The anti-ecclesiastical and Hussite-enrooted politics of the new Czecho-Slovakia meant a grave injury to the deeply religious-conscious Catholics, though it was, to a certain extent, welcomed by the Lutherans. For Catholics, it was a serious reason to fight uncompromisingly for an autonomous Slovakia; for Lutherans and a small group of liberals it was the foundation whereby they easily accepted the principle of the "Czechoslovak" nation and the centralization based on this principle. Prague, therefore, rewarded them with power, and did that without any regard for the vast majority of Slovak Catholics. Practically all of the more prominent politicians in Czecho-Slovakia from Slovakia were Lutherans. They formed a very narrow ruling class, because they were limited to a few chosen families. Out of their midst came a narrow circile of so-called "experts," whom Prague made good use of to govern in Slo- �SLOVAKIA 15 vakia. The eminent English historian C. A. Macartney describes the situation thusly: The fact remains that the (Czechoslovak) government has been obliged more often than not to rule Slovakia against the wishes of most of its inhabitants, maintaining itself only by the expedients of restricting the powers of the self-governing bodies to within the narrowest possible limits, of filling the seats designated for "experts" with its own nominees, and utilizing freely weapons of censorship and police supervision(8). 4. The Reason For the Division It will not be hard to understand why the above-mentioned conflicts developed within the Slovak community if we bear in mind the two main obstacles which revived Slovak nationalism had to overcome. The one was of an internal character, while the other was due to external pressure. Internally, the Slovaks had at the beginning the ten- t dency to confuse their nationality with that of an imaginary Slav nation. This mixup arose from the Pan-Slavistic ideology that greatly appealed to some Slovak leaders, because it imbued them with the feeling of strength in view of the desperate situation in which they found themselves in Hungary. On the other hand, it hindered them from developing the consciousness of a distinct national Slovak character, because some readily accepted the idea of unity with the "closest" Slav nation, namely, th,e Czechs. The Slovaks who felt most strongly inclined to a union with the Czechs opposed the codification of a separate Slovak language. To them the Czech language seemed suitable even for those of their kin living in Hungary. Although these tendencies never took firm roots with majority of the population in Slovakia, they were, the ) nevertheless, strong enough to arouse conflicts and later to enable the Czechs to exploit the Slovaks politically. That I the Czechs have not succeeded can be attributed to the fact that the majority of the Slovaks have always felt \ and professed to be an ethnographically, historically, and culturally distinct nation from the Czechs, and have constantly endeavored to create for Slovakia such political conditions which would stress that distinct national character. I �16 SLOVAKIA The terms "Czechoslovak" and "Autonomist" are to be understood as political designations: the "Czechoslovaks" are those Slovaks who profess to be Czechs; the "Autonomists" are those who feel and act as Slovaks. The designation "Autonomist" comes from the Autonomist Party whose purpose was to assure an autonomous government for Slovakia as opposed to a centralized Czecho-Slovakia sought for by Czechoslovaks. The conflict "Czechoslovak versus Autonomist" can best be expressed in the form of a question: Are we Czechs or are we Slovaks? To this question the Czechoslovak would answer: I am a Czech; the Autonomist: I am a Slovak. Realizing these basic differences, we can easily see that the "Czechoslovak versus Autonomist" conflict resemble the former "Slovak renegade (Magyarized Slovak) versus Pan-Slavist" conflict. The term "Czechoslovak" compares with the Slovak renegade, while the term "Autonomist" with the Pan-Slavist. The difference, however, lies in the fact that the Magyarized Slovak denied his Slovak nationality, while the Czechoslovak has always admitted his original Slovak ethnographical nationality. The former's denial flows from the lack of kinship between Slovaks and Magyars, whereas the Czechoslovak admission is based upon a close racial kinship between Czechs' and Slovaks. Thus, the latter would like to merge the Slovaks with the Czechs despite the fact that there is a sensitive difference between both these related nations. That these conflicts developed to such proportions as to endanger the survival of the Slovaks can be accounted for by the political pressure exerted first by Magyars and later by Czechs. With the removal of that pressure came the disappearance of these conflicts and a deeper understanding of a distinct national personality ensued. As of now, the "Magyarized Slovak versus Pan-Slavist" conflict belongs to history and has r.ceased to be of any importance in the politics of the country. Hardly any citizen of Slovak descent would long for the return of former Hungary, let alone to profess any kinship with the Magyars. The "Czechoslovak versus Autonomist" conflict is not yet dead. Nevertheless, it is losing its original "rai- �SLOVAKIA 17 son d' etre." The Slovaks who still long for the preservation of Czecho-Slovakia, have abandoned the highly disputed fiction of the "Czechoslovak nation" and are accepting the realistic view that Czechs and Slovaks are ethnographically, politically, and historically distinct nations. Thus, these conflicts brought to an end discussions about national personality. The differences which still remain / revolve about the following problem: in what kind of an alliance or political form should Slovaks live to assure for themselves the best conditions for their future survival? (1) Sometimes a distinction has to be made between "Magyar" and "Hungarian" in dealing with the national problems of Hungary prior to World War I. The former Hungarian Kingdom was a country of many nationalities that in their capacity of citizens, were also Hungarians. The designation "Magyar" for "Hungarian" is, therefore, more appropriate whenever the ethnographic character of the problem is to be emphasized. Thus "Magyarizing process" is to denote the forceful methods used by the dominating Magyars or Hungarians to assimilate the other nationalities of Hungary with the view of creating a linguistically and ethnographically homogeneous state. (2) Joseph A. Mikus: La Slovaquie dans le Drame de !'Europe, Paris, 1955; p. 104. (3) Karol Sidor: Andrej Hlinka, Bratislava, 1934; p. 535. (4) Harrison Thomson: Czechoslovakia in European History, p. 292. ((5) K. Culen: Cesi a Slovaci vo Verejnej Sprave Cesko-Slo• venskej Republiky, Bratislava, 1944; p. 70. (6) Joseph A. Mikus: op. cit.; p. 66. (7) Kalendar Kanadskej Slovenskej Ligy, Winnipeg, 1953; p. 64. (8) Hungary and Her Successors, London, 1937; p. 145. • • • WHO SAID IT? "The on[y just and deimocira.tiic solution od' tJhe 'Cwchoslo,v ak' mess crnate'd by T. G. Masaryk and Benes and their foHorwers woudd be tJhe compl.ete freedom and .poliitica:l. inde-0 pendence of the nations inv;o1ved. No just and deimoeratic soluition will be arnived at as long as a 'CzechoslovaJkia' is a}iloiwed to ex,isit, becaiuse everything proposed in the direction of rea[i:zirug the fornldaimental rights of the Slovruk and Rlutihenian peoples would. he l'a be[ed 'aiccording to law' as anti~State and punishiable as such, as. it had been in the first (1918-1938) and third ReipUibJics (1945-1948) orf Czecho-Slo~ia." - (P. A. Hroibak, letter to Hon. Aivin M. Benltfo:y, Juliy 10, 1953). � Published quarterly by the VOL. VIII Slovak League of America NO. 2 (27) JUNE, 1958 SLOVAK NATIONALISM: CONFLICTS OF SLOVAK NATIONALISM ' B. S. BUC, Ph.D. . 1. Magyar Renegade vs. Pan-Slavist The historical and ideological development of Slovak nationalism was certainly not devoid of internal conflicts. It is self-evident that a society, which lived through many centuries without any political markings whatsoever, had to submit to a series of influences. They left many traces upon its national• character, which hindered the harmonious blending of energies that would have been necessary for the more succes'sfu1 attainment of a lofty goal. Since the Slovaks had lived for a thousand years within the framework of the Hungarian State without their territorial boundaries, they possessed no suppositions to establish at least that kind of group consciousness which would mirror the cultural, political, or geographical character of the land in which they lived. Even though reawakened Slovak nationalism traced its beginnings of national individuality to G'reat Moravia, it had to lean mostly upon an ethnical distinction from the Magyar.(1) Since the land of the Slovaks formed an integral part of the Hungarian over practically the entire ethnical expanse of the Slovaks, and in the' south created such a conglomeration of Slovak and Magyar elements, th1:1.t even today it is impossible fo establish between them such bountiaries which would be agreeable to ' the state and at the same time would fulfill the desire for self-determination. Into the territory of Slovakia, as it was formed after the First World War as a part of Czecho-Slovakia, were incorporated 655,322 Hungarians. They comprised 27 percent of all the inhabitants. Meanwhile 180,000 Slovaks re, ,.. mained in Hungary and they, for the most part, were scat"( ( �2 SLOVAKIA tered throughout the land. This fact gave the Magyars a Slovakia in order to liberate their co-racialists. And they accomplished their goal in 1938 when Czecho-Slovakia crumbled under Hitler's pressure. The Vienna arbitrage, whose principal agents were the Italian foreign minister Ciano and the German foreign minister Ribentrop, apportioned to Hungary 10,309 square kilometers of Slovak land together with 853,670 inhabitants. According to statistics of the year 1930, these inhabitants comprised 503,980 Magyars, 26,157 Jews, 272,145 Slovaks, and 1,825 Ruthenians. Still remaining in Slovakia were 57,193 Magyars. The number of Slovaks in Hungary after the arbitrage increased from 180,00 to 352,145, that is, six times more than the Magyars remaining in Slovakia(2). After the Second World War, all the land taken away by the arbitrage was returned to Slovakia. The new communist-dominated Czecho-Slovak government proceeded to solve this national mixup by making an agreement with Communist Hungary to exchange all Magyars in Slovakia for all Slovaks in Hungary. Furthermore, it removed forcibly a certain portion of the Magyars from Southern Slovakia into the Sudetenland in place of the ousted Germans. Prior to World War I, the upper social classes in Slovakia - the intelligentsia, merchants and greater landowners - were also almost wholly magyarized. If they acknowledged their Slovak origin, they nevertheless accepted the idea of the Hungarian State as their political "credo" and did not concur with the efforts of revived Slovak nationalism. Rather they looked upon it as the manifestation of an unfriendly attitude to the Hungarian fatherland. They therefore engaged freely in all undertakings of the Hungarian government to smear the Pan-Slavists, as they labelled the Slovak patriots. Thus at the very beginning of Slovak nationalism, arises the first major conflict, namely the struggle between Slovak renegades and Pan-Slavists. Slovak renegades were those people of Slovak origin who, either because of opportunities or conviction, offered their services toward the assimilating efforts of the Hun_garian government, which aimed at creating as soon as possible a homogeneous speaking Magyar State. On the �SLOVAKIA 3 other hand, Slovak patriots, were considered Pan-Slavists. They were so named because, in their political struggle, they proceeded hand in hand with the other Slav nationalities in Hungary and often gave evidence of Pan-Slavistic tendencies. The conflict of these two divisions within Slovak society grew steadily more and more violent after the revolutionary year of 1848. Upon it were centered all struggles on Slovak ethnical territory, whether they were of a political, cultural, social, or religious nature. The division of Slovak society into renegades and Pan-Slavists had not only political but also social roots. The assemblage of Slovak renegades was composed of members of the lordly class, among whom we find the intelligentsia, merchants, greater landowners or peers. On the other side stood the great mass of people comprising the Pan-Slavists, among whom were numbered small village farmers and various agricultural workers. Because industry was still in its rudimentary stages, the working class was practically non-extant. From among the intelligentsia, priests had the closest contacts with the broad masses of people and, therefore, became natural leaders and agents of Slovak nationalism. . The aforementioned fact gives further testimony that Slovak nationalism was more a social than a national movement in its beginnings. The reviving tasks of national leaders in the beginnings of Slovak nationalism possessed rather a culturo-social than a national-political character. Slovak leaders entered upon a national-political program only with the revolutionary times of 1848, when they organized a military uprising and brought forth their demand that not Magyar but rather Slovak should be the language used in schools and official circles of the defined Slovak territory within the framework of Hungary. The beginnings leading towards the accomplishment of this demand seemed very favorable in the years prior to 1867. At that time Vienna, resisting the revolting Magyars, sought the support of her nationalities who demanded from the Magyar government of Hungary the same national rights which the Magyars, led by Slovak renegade Louis Kossuth, demanded for themselves in Vienna. �4 SLOVAKIA In 1867, .however, a ~ettlement took place between Vieniia and' Budapest. Slovak nationalism thus lost the '' giveIJ. over support of Vienna and was as a prize to the Magyars to become an internal concz;en of the Hungarian portion of the Habsburg Monarchy. Immediatel y the Magyars feverishly set for~h to magyarize all their nationalities, which action manifested itself on Slovak ethnical .territory by the abolition of all Slovak , political and purely cultural institutions and by the introductio n of Magyar as the official language jn HtJ.ngary. SGhools 1 were to educate a new generation, one that would speak only Magyar and one that would be devoted w:holly to the, Magyars and the ,Hungarian State which they controlled. In these attempts the Magyar-co ntrolled Hungarian governmen t found in Slovakia willing supporters among the ranks of the above-men tioned Slovak renegades, who, in full compliance ·with the psychologic al bent of every renegade, labored more fanatically in instilling the magyarizing program than the governmen t itself had actually contemplat ed. The result could only end in a bitter conflict with the deeply Slovak-con scious group of inhabitants. , This conflict came to light npt only in political manifestations, as is elecfoms, but purrow~d deep even into the daily concerns of the inhabitants . In elections, genuinely Slovak candidates generally had little hope of winning even in those ,electoral districts where the vast majority sympathize d with them. The reason lay in a voting law , which granted voting privileges only to those who possessed a certain· amount of property. This law excluded from voting precisely that portion of Slovak ethnical teritory which formed tb.e basis of Slovak nationalism and granted the decisive word to those who had lost t~eir Slovak national consciousn ess but propertywise were more ,powerful. li'urthermo re, the elections were public and influenced very ev,idently by much use of bribery. Official candidates received heavy aid and support from the governmen t, whereas national candidates could only rely upon their, own resources, which were for the most part meagre and limited. In daily life the conflict between . Slovak renegades �SLOVAKIA 5 and patriotic Slovaks was mirrored mostly in the use of language. The renegades used the Magyar tongue almost exclusively; they regarded the speaking of Magyar not only as a maninfestation of "patriotic" sentiment, but also as the mark of a higher social position. Slovak, 1on the other hand, was looked upon as the tongue of poverty and its use was considered a display of "anti-patriotic'' feeling. In this conflict, which created an atmosphere of almost continual political as well as social tension, Slovak nationalism suffered the loss of much strength, for social privileges, schools and governmental pressure inflicted upon it serious harm and threatened it with destruction. 2. "Czechoslovak" vs. Autonomist With the establishment of Czecho-Slovakia this process was suddenly halted and the Slovaks found themselves in more favorable conditions. Because of the- changed political situation, a large 'number bf former Slovak renegades departed from Slovakia. Furthermore, many of them began to admit again their Sldvak origin, orientated themselves to the new poltiical setup, and even though manifesting little enthusiasm for the revolutionary change, they nevertheless undertook no organized effort which could have proved detrimental to the erection of the new state. It is comprehensible that all national Slovak units accepted the establishment of Czecho-Slovakia with gfeat enthusiasm. But this enthusiasm lasted only as long as its emotional foundation, built in the past under the influence of Pan-Slavism, was extanh It was primarily nurtured by a common fate of the Czechs and Slovaks in Austria-Hungary and led them to progress jointly in their struggles for national ,rights. When, however, both units merged and , had to work out serious problems which appeared during the erection of the new state, the basic difference of the Czech and Slovak character projected itself on the scene and gave an impetus to many conflicts, which in time grew more violent. It is true that Czechs and Slovaks did not find it too difficult to understand one another ling-uistica:lly because of the marked kinship of their languages. Nevertheless, 1-the ideological antl cultural background · of �6 SLOVAKIA / their natures showed itself to be so different that it created an almost impassable gulf between them. The fore-warning of this break was the difference of their religious positions. From the burning of John Hus, the first ecclesiastical reformer at the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Czech character continued to show opposition to Rome and to the Habsburgs. After successfully routing all Czech reforming elements in 1647, the Habsburgs carried on intensive re-Catholiciza tion in Czech lands. With the downfall of the Habsburgs after the First World War, the Czechs found it opportune to undo what they had looked upon as an injustice and, therefore, did not conceal their anti-Catholic thinking in creating CzechoSlovakia. The Slovaks, who are 82 percent Catholic, had no grudge against Rome, and after attaining their national liberty showed no unfriendliness to Catholicism. Thus, immediately in the beginning of the new state, the religious question became an experimental rock of Czech-Slovak relationship and drove the popular and formerly Czechinclined Father Andrew Hlinka with his Slovak People's Party into violent opposition against the Czechs. When, in addition, with the help of a minority of Slovak Lutherans and isolated Liberals, Prague began to organize Czecho-Slova kia centralisticall y by disregarding former agreements about making it a federative republic of two distinct nations, "Czechs and Slovaks," Slovak Catholics inaugurated a movement which came to be known under the name "Autonomist. " The whole discussion seemed, however, to turn around the connotation of the phrase "Czechoslovak nation." In the first chapter of this treatise, allusion was made to the impact of Pan-Slavism upon the budding Slovak nationalism. The Pan-Slavist visualized a kind of political and ethnographica l unification of all Slavs on the ground of their kinship and close language relationship. Influenced by this Pan-Slavistic trend, some Slovaks - especially Lutherans - were prone to accept the idea of the complete fusion of the Slovaks with the Czechs. This objective was to be achieved through a centralized rather than federative Czecho-Slovak ia. Thus, in disregard of all �SLOVAKIA 7 previous agreements between the Czechs and Slovaks, the Czecho-Slovak Republic was organized on the basis of a centralized government. Moreover, the special phrase "Czechoslovak nation" was coined. It had to denote that Czechs and Slovaks were ethnographically, culturally, and politically the same nation. Practically, it meant that the Slovaks were to be made over into Czechs, since the Slovak language was declared a dialect of the Czech and Slovakia was not conceded any right to self-government. Thus, in this new conflict "Czechoslovak vs. Autonomist" two issues were involved: the issue of national difference between the Slovaks and Czechs and the issue of self-government for Slovakia. Those who denied them were "Czechoslovaks"; those who claimed them were "Autonomists." There arose once again the struggle between those who favored the government and those who opposed it for its incorrect interpretation of Slovak feelings. To determine by proper evaluation which side profited in this conflict, it would be unjust to form conclusions solely on the basis of the election outcomes of those parties who stood for the autonomist program. The Slovak People's Party, led by Father Hlinka, alone had a purely autonomist program. But the individuality of the Slovak nation was also stressed by the Slovak National Party, led by Martin Razus, a Lutheran minister, comprising chiefly the Slovak Lutherans, and by the Communist Party. The latter proceeded further than Hlinka's party by demanding the complete separation of Slovakia from the Czechs lands as early as 1926. The autonomist movement achieved its greatest victory in the elections of 1925; of the 299 representative seats in the Czecho-Slovak Parliament, 160 were won by the Czechs, 47 by the Slovaks, 5 by the Ruthenians, 1 by the Russians, 75 by the Germans and 10 by the Magyars. Now the 47 seats belonging to the Slovaks did not represent autonomists only; it simply indicated the representatives from Slovak ethnical territory. Of these seats, 23, belonged to the Hlinka Slovak People's Party, 5 to the Communist Party, 1 to the Slovak National Party; the remainder belonged to the parties which based their plat- �8 SLOVAKIA form on the principle of a "Czechoslovak" nation and stood for a centralized Czecho-Slovak Republic(3). Even though the Slovak People's Party emerged from this election with 23 delegates and gained ascendancy over the other parties seeking for votes in Slovakia, its strength would not necesarily indicate that the idea of a Slovak national individuality was highly popular among Slovak inhabitants. In evaluating the results to determine how parties opposed to this idea were won over in Slovakia, one must not overlook the factor of material benefits offered by those in power to anyone voting for them. Thus, opportunism rather than nationalism was the chief factor which influenced the so-called official parties on Slovak ethnical territory. Actually the defenders and confessors of centralism in Slovakia comprised only a small group of individuals who, with the aid of the Czechs, constituted a true ruling class. In this way they assured for themselves a lasting political career and of course material comforts. They, therefore, took the place of the former Slovak renegades and, like the latter, were the instruments of foreign influences endeavoring to deter the uni-characteristic development of Slovak nationalism. Nevertheless, in the Czecho-Slovak versus Autonomist conflict, Slovak nationalism possessed since the beginning a greater advantage than in the Slovak renegade versus patriotic Slovak conflict because it had the support of schools. It is a very significant circumstance, that although the greater majority of professors and teachers in Slovak schools at the beginning of the Czecho-Slovak Repuplic were Czechs, who came to Slovakia l:>ecause of the lack of specialized Slovak talent, they nevertheless were not able to educate a Slovak generation which wo_u ld become devoted to the idea of the "Czechoslovak" nation, and to a centralized Czecho-Slovak Republic ,based on that idea. The Czechs explain this phenomenon as the ungratefulness of the young Slovak generation for ,proferred aid. It is true that this Czech assistance enabl,~d the Slovaks to make inroads into modern European , society. But the key to the correct evaluation of this seeming ungrateful_ness is offered, by statistics which co111pare the labor pos- �SLOVAKIA 9 sibilities between Czechs and Slovaks on Slovak ethnical territory. The employment question became the most effective outlet for the dissemination of the autonomist movement over the broader Slovak strata, whereby a young, Czech-trained Slovak generation was won over to its objectives. On the other hand, it aided also that group of Slovaks and Czechs who, controlling the sole possibility of distributing labor, possessed an effective means of advantageously influencing in politics all opportunistically inclined natures. Thus, the "Czechoslovak" versus Autonomist conflict also assumed the character of a social struggle. The employment problem in other homogeneous speaking states caused a social tension and made it possible for Communists and Socialists to make greater election gains. In Slovakia, however, it led to an increased tension between Czechs and Slovaks and became the fruitful soil for a separatist nationalism. Czech officials, teachers, and other white collar employees entered Slovakia with the understanding that they would remain there in the exercise of their proper functions until Slovakia could gather sufficient expert forces of its own. After the departure of the Magyars and Slovak, renegades, there remained few experts in Slovakia who could be used in public administration and education(4). Since the Czechs in Austria had their own autonomy and at the same time took an important part in the management of the entire monarchy, they possessed a surplus of intellectuals and for that reason considered Slovakia as a province for the allocation of their intellectuals. Not only did the Czechs reveal an unwillingness to leave the labor possibilities in favor of the new Slovak intelligentsia, but, by utilizing their own influential connections, they also increased their own ranks. The unequal representation of Slovaks and Czechs that existed in the public organs of Slovakia is evident from the following employment statistics of the Board of State Railways in Bratislava and Kosice. In 1925, of 5,134 engineers and higher officers, 90 percent were Czechs; of 12,355 second grade laborers 60 percent were Czechs; of 16, 025 unskilled laborers, 30 percent were Czechs(5). �10 SLOVAKIA This situation is best mirrored in the emigration from Czecho-Slovakia during the years 1920-1937. Of the 400,193 people, who emigrated from the whole country, 213,283 or 52.2 percent belonged to Slovakia. This is an astonishingly high percentage when one considers that Slovakia formed only 23 percent of the whole population of the Czecho-Slovak Republic(6). It was impossible for such a situation not to give rise to many complaints on the part of the Slovaks. It turned them against the Czechs as well as against the Czecho-Slovak state and steadily created suppositions for the greater emphasis of a separate national individuality and eventually an independent state. 3. Lutheran vs. Catholic The conflicts of Slovak nationalism often have their roots in the religious differences of the Slovak population. We have already mentioned that Catholic priests and Lutheran ministers had played an important role in the reawakening of Slovak nationalism. To Western observers this often appears as a remnant of so-called clericalism. It is hardly possible, however, to make a parallel between what is known in France and Italy as clericalism and the role of priests in Slovak politics. In Slovakia priests entered into politics under the influence of the ideas of the Enlightenment, which philosophy gave an impetus to anticlerical struggles in other countries. And it is a fact that Slovak priests also entered into frequent controversy with higher members of the hierarchy, chiefly because the latter were not of Slovak origin and for the greater part supported the Magyar government in its attempts at assimilation in Hungary. That these conflicts did not develop into open religious splits can be accredited to the Popes who, stemming from Pope Leo XIII and his social encyclicals, sympathized with peoples' movements and continually sought to keep them within the fold of the Church. It happened frequently that in disagreements, involving priests and bishops, Rome stood on the side of the priests whenever the controversy stemmed from different social or national sources An outstanding example of the Vatican's attitude is �SLOVAKIA 11 mirrored in the case of Father IDinka, leader of the Slovak Autonomists. Suspended in 1906 by his Magyar Bishop Parvy for participating in the election campaign, Hlinka found Rome favorable to his cause. Bishop Parvy was thus virtually compelled to reinstate Hlinka as pastor. Thus, assured of the sympathies of the Vatican and enthused over the idea of helping their oppressed kin, the Slovak priests took over the leadership in Slovak nationalism. Whenever any member of the Slovak laity in Hungary received an education, the person usually became denationalized either because of the schools or the nature of his position, which demanded of him a subservient service to the government. Otherwise it was impossible to advance in a chosen career. Furthermore, children from peasant, village families found it economically almost impossible to receive a higher education. Only members of wealthier families, which comprised the group of Slovak renegades, were able to pursue higher studies and obtain leading positions. The only vocation open to boys with a village and farming background was that to the priesthood. Not only did the priestly vocation offer an education to such boys, since seminary studies were almost completely free, but it also sent its priests back among the same people whence they came. Furthermore, although the courses were conducted in a Magyar spirit, and this could have influenced them, nevertheless upon the completion of their studies they returned to their own people and once again found themselves in the center of their origin. Moreover, they were not weighted down with the fear that they would be hindered in their career if they failed to act according to the intentions of the government. They were, therefore, very independent in their actions and in fulfilling their vocation. These priests, however, were on the lowest rung of the ecclesiastical hierarchy; the higher rungs were either completely Magyar or Slovak renegadist. It is self-evident that they would be mostly attracted to the ideas of the Enlightenment concerning the people and later romantic ideas concerning the nation. In the majority of instances they, therefore, sought with revolutionary zest to make �12 SLOVAKIA these ideas productive under the motto: "For God and Country!" It is true that, because of the nature of their vocation, they carried religion into politics, and therefore gave an impetus to conflicts of a religious nature. But it is also true, that the reasons why religion became embroiled in politics in Central Europe were not because priests desired to become the leaders of national and peoples' movements, but because of the very nature of the society which retained the religious foundation it had inherited from the Middle Ages. The undermining of this foundation, after the birth of Liberalism, could not fail to call forth ecclesiastical reaction, which began to appear in the establishment of Catholic parties as the most effective, defensive means in the political struggles of democracies. According to the statistics of 1930, the population of Slovakia comprised percentage-wise the following religious denominations: Roman and Greek Catholics - 78.013 percent; Lutherans 12.008 percent; Calvinists 4.376 percent; Jews - 4.102 percent; others - 1.5 percent(?). Only Catholics and Lutherans, however, play a role in Slovak nationalism. Calvinists are for the most part Magyars; and Jews, when not Magyars, in most instances take sides with those who oppose Slovak nationalism. Between Lutherans and Catholics there existed in the beginnings of Slovak nationalism a certain competition in patriotism, which did not always tend in the same direction, principally in matters concerning the legislation of the national Slovak language. In their religious services, the Lutherans used the old Czech language of the so-called "Kralice Bible" that was translated by the Moravian Brethren who were followers of John Hus. This fact led them to retain Czech as the literary tongue for some time. Catholics, on the other hand, always used the Slovak language of the common people and legalized it as national in 1787. From the beginning, Catholics showed the evident tendency to emphasize their distinct national Slovak individuality from that of the Czechs. Lutherans, highly influenced by Pan-Slavism however, were prone to accept the idea that Czechs and Slovaks form a common racial unit of one great Slav family. �SLOVAKIA 13 It was not until the revolutionary times of 1848 that r..udovit Stur, one of the most eminent Lutheran national revivers, established the supposition that Lutherans should also accept the principle of a Slovak language distinct from the Czech. Suppositions were thus established for the close cooperation between Lutherans and Catholics to guarantee national rights to Slovaks in what formerely had been Hungary. In spite of their minority, the Lutherans in 1848 took over the leadership in Slovak nationalism. They formed a rich romantic literature, initiated many political steps in the Hungarian government to obtain national rights for Slovaks, founded a few Slovak cultural institutions and led the only Slovak political party in Hungary, called the Slovak National Party. Catholics accepted their leadership as self-evidential. This acceptance assured almost complete harmony between both units of Slovak nationalism. Towards the end of the nineteenth century Catholics were summoned into more feverish political activity by a newly-created, all-state, Catholic party called the People's Party, founded and headed by the Magyar Count Zichy. The party was brought to life through many laws passed by the liberal-controlled Hungarian Parliament that sought to destroy the present Christian tradition of the country. One of these laws dealt with marriage and demanded that every citizen undergo a civil wedding ceremony. Otherwise, the program of the People's Party appropriated the social principles enumerated in the encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII and also fought for the recognition of national rights for individual nationalism in Hungary. It was a program which Slovak Catholic priests were seeking to realize for a long time. For this reason, the party achieved comparatively wonderful success on Slovak ethnical territory shortly after its entrance into the political struggle. In this party Father Andrew Hlinka achieved public political recognition and in time became the most eminent representative of Slovak nationalism. Although the People's Party received great help from non-Magyar priests and the Catholic laity, the Magyar leaders were in no way anxious to fulfill the nationalitypoint of their program either in the government or within �14 SLOVAKIA the framework of their own party. Rather they supported almost openly the assimilative pressure of the government upon nationalities and, therefore, upon the Slovaks. The deceived Slovak Catholics, therefore, left this party and formed their own Slovak People's Party under the leadership of Father Andrew Hlinka. This party appropriated the social and religious program of the original People's Party and immediately brought forth its claim to national rights for Slovaks. The introduction of the Slovak People's Party created the following situation in Slovakia: Slovak Catholics began to organize into the People's Party, whereas the existing Slovak National Party became only a political organ of Slovak Lutherans. It emphasized a political division according to religion, but no serious conflicts, in the sense of Catholic versus Lutheran, ensued at that time. Magyar pressure steadily created new suppositions for cooperation towards the same national goal. This political division along religious lines became the source of conflict between Catholics and Lutherans only when, in the new Czecho-Slovakia, the fight for national rights was replaced by the struggle to seize power. In this struggle the Lutherans were victorious, because they accepted willingly the centralizing efforts of Prague. The anti-ecclesiastical and Hussite-enrooted politics of the new Czecho-Slovakia meant a grave injury to the deeply religious-conscious Catholics, though it was, to a certain extent, welcomed by the Lutherans. For Catholics, it was a serious reason to fight uncompromisingly for an autonomous Slovakia; for Lutherans and a small group of liberals it was the foundation whereby they easily accepted the principle of the "Czechoslovak" nation and the centralization based on this principle. Prague, therefore, rewarded them with power, and did that without any regard for the vast majority of Slovak Catholics. Practically all of the more prominent politicians in Czecho-Slovakia from Slovakia were Lutherans. They formed a very narrow ruling class, because they were limited to a few chosen families. Out of their midst came a narrow circile of so-called "experts," whom Prague made good use of to govern in Slo- �SLOVAKIA 15 vakia. The eminent English historian C. A. Macartney describes the situation thusly: The fact remains that the (Czechoslovak) government has been obliged more often than not to rule Slovakia against the wishes of most of its inhabitants, maintaining itself only by the expedients of restricting the powers of the self-governing bodies to within the narrowest possible limits, of filling the seats designated for "experts" with its own nominees, and utilizing freely weapons of censorship and police supervision(8). 4. The Reason For the Division It will not be hard to understand why the above-mentioned conflicts developed within the Slovak community if we bear in mind the two main obstacles which revived Slovak nationalism had to overcome. The one was of an internal character, while the other was due to external pressure. Internally, the Slovaks had at the beginning the ten- t dency to confuse their nationality with that of an imaginary Slav nation. This mixup arose from the Pan-Slavistic ideology that greatly appealed to some Slovak leaders, because it imbued them with the feeling of strength in view of the desperate situation in which they found themselves in Hungary. On the other hand, it hindered them from developing the consciousness of a distinct national Slovak character, because some readily accepted the idea of unity with the "closest" Slav nation, namely, th,e Czechs. The Slovaks who felt most strongly inclined to a union with the Czechs opposed the codification of a separate Slovak language. To them the Czech language seemed suitable even for those of their kin living in Hungary. Although these tendencies never took firm roots with majority of the population in Slovakia, they were, the ) nevertheless, strong enough to arouse conflicts and later to enable the Czechs to exploit the Slovaks politically. That I the Czechs have not succeeded can be attributed to the fact that the majority of the Slovaks have always felt \ and professed to be an ethnographically, historically, and culturally distinct nation from the Czechs, and have constantly endeavored to create for Slovakia such political conditions which would stress that distinct national character. I �16 SLOVAKIA The terms "Czechoslovak" and "Autonomist" are to be understood as political designations: the "Czechoslovaks" are those Slovaks who profess to be Czechs; the "Autonomists" are those who feel and act as Slovaks. The designation "Autonomist" comes from the Autonomist Party whose purpose was to assure an autonomous government for Slovakia as opposed to a centralized Czecho-Slovakia sought for by Czechoslovaks. The conflict "Czechoslovak versus Autonomist" can best be expressed in the form of a question: Are we Czechs or are we Slovaks? To this question the Czechoslovak would answer: I am a Czech; the Autonomist: I am a Slovak. Realizing these basic differences, we can easily see that the "Czechoslovak versus Autonomist" conflict resemble the former "Slovak renegade (Magyarized Slovak) versus Pan-Slavist" conflict. The term "Czechoslovak" compares with the Slovak renegade, while the term "Autonomist" with the Pan-Slavist. The difference, however, lies in the fact that the Magyarized Slovak denied his Slovak nationality, while the Czechoslovak has always admitted his original Slovak ethnographical nationality. The former's denial flows from the lack of kinship between Slovaks and Magyars, whereas the Czechoslovak admission is based upon a close racial kinship between Czechs' and Slovaks. Thus, the latter would like to merge the Slovaks with the Czechs despite the fact that there is a sensitive difference between both these related nations. That these conflicts developed to such proportions as to endanger the survival of the Slovaks can be accounted for by the political pressure exerted first by Magyars and later by Czechs. With the removal of that pressure came the disappearance of these conflicts and a deeper understanding of a distinct national personality ensued. As of now, the "Magyarized Slovak versus Pan-Slavist" conflict belongs to history and has r.ceased to be of any importance in the politics of the country. Hardly any citizen of Slovak descent would long for the return of former Hungary, let alone to profess any kinship with the Magyars. The "Czechoslovak versus Autonomist" conflict is not yet dead. Nevertheless, it is losing its original "rai- �SLOVAKIA 17 son d' etre." The Slovaks who still long for the preservation of Czecho-Slovakia, have abandoned the highly disputed fiction of the "Czechoslovak nation" and are accepting the realistic view that Czechs and Slovaks are ethnographically, politically, and historically distinct nations. Thus, these conflicts brought to an end discussions about national personality. The differences which still remain / revolve about the following problem: in what kind of an alliance or political form should Slovaks live to assure for themselves the best conditions for their future survival? (1) Sometimes a distinction has to be made between "Magyar" and "Hungarian" in dealing with the national problems of Hungary prior to World War I. The former Hungarian Kingdom was a country of many nationalities that in their capacity of citizens, were also Hungarians. The designation "Magyar" for "Hungarian" is, therefore, more appropriate whenever the ethnographic character of the problem is to be emphasized. Thus "Magyarizing process" is to denote the forceful methods used by the dominating Magyars or Hungarians to assimilate the other nationalities of Hungary with the view of creating a linguistically and ethnographically homogeneous state. (2) Joseph A. Mikus: La Slovaquie dans le Drame de !'Europe, Paris, 1955; p. 104. (3) Karol Sidor: Andrej Hlinka, Bratislava, 1934; p. 535. (4) Harrison Thomson: Czechoslovakia in European History, p. 292. ((5) K. Culen: Cesi a Slovaci vo Verejnej Sprave Cesko-Slo• venskej Republiky, Bratislava, 1944; p. 70. (6) Joseph A. Mikus: op. cit.; p. 66. (7) Kalendar Kanadskej Slovenskej Ligy, Winnipeg, 1953; p. 64. (8) Hungary and Her Successors, London, 1937; p. 145. • • • WHO SAID IT? "The on[y just and deimocira.tiic solution od' tJhe 'Cwchoslo,v ak' mess crnate'd by T. G. Masaryk and Benes and their foHorwers woudd be tJhe compl.ete freedom and .poliitica:l. inde-0 pendence of the nations inv;o1ved. No just and deimoeratic soluition will be arnived at as long as a 'CzechoslovaJkia' is a}iloiwed to ex,isit, becaiuse everything proposed in the direction of rea[i:zirug the fornldaimental rights of the Slovruk and Rlutihenian peoples would. he l'a be[ed 'aiccording to law' as anti~State and punishiable as such, as. it had been in the first (1918-1938) and third ReipUibJics (1945-1948) orf Czecho-Slo~ia." - (P. A. Hroibak, letter to Hon. Aivin M. Benltfo:y, Juliy 10, 1953). � 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 1958, Vol. 8 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 26), March 1958.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 27), June 1958.</li> <li>Issue 3 (No. 28), December 1958.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1958 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 Published quarterly by the VOL. VIII Slovak League of America NO. 2 (27) JUNE, 1958 SLOVAK NATIONALISM: CONFLICTS OF SLOVAK NATIONALISM ' B. S. BUC, Ph.D. . 1. Magyar Renegade vs. Pan-Slavist The historical and ideological development of Slovak nationalism was certainly not devoid of internal conflicts. It is self-evident that a society, which lived through many centuries without any political markings whatsoever, had to submit to a series of influences. They left many traces upon its national• character, which hindered the harmonious blending of energies that would have been necessary for the more succes'sfu1 attainment of a lofty goal. Since the Slovaks had lived for a thousand years within the framework of the Hungarian State without their territorial boundaries, they possessed no suppositions to establish at least that kind of group consciousness which would mirror the cultural, political, or geographical character of the land in which they lived. Even though reawakened Slovak nationalism traced its beginnings of national individuality to G'reat Moravia, it had to lean mostly upon an ethnical distinction from the Magyar.(1) Since the land of the Slovaks formed an integral part of the Hungarian over practically the entire ethnical expanse of the Slovaks, and in the' south created such a conglomeration of Slovak and Magyar elements, th1:1.t even today it is impossible fo establish between them such bountiaries which would be agreeable to ' the state and at the same time would fulfill the desire for self-determination. Into the territory of Slovakia, as it was formed after the First World War as a part of Czecho-Slovakia, were incorporated 655,322 Hungarians. They comprised 27 percent of all the inhabitants. Meanwhile 180,000 Slovaks re, ,.. mained in Hungary and they, for the most part, were scat"( ( 2 SLOVAKIA tered throughout the land. This fact gave the Magyars a Slovakia in order to liberate their co-racialists. And they accomplished their goal in 1938 when Czecho-Slovakia crumbled under Hitler's pressure. The Vienna arbitrage, whose principal agents were the Italian foreign minister Ciano and the German foreign minister Ribentrop, apportioned to Hungary 10,309 square kilometers of Slovak land together with 853,670 inhabitants. According to statistics of the year 1930, these inhabitants comprised 503,980 Magyars, 26,157 Jews, 272,145 Slovaks, and 1,825 Ruthenians. Still remaining in Slovakia were 57,193 Magyars. The number of Slovaks in Hungary after the arbitrage increased from 180,00 to 352,145, that is, six times more than the Magyars remaining in Slovakia(2). After the Second World War, all the land taken away by the arbitrage was returned to Slovakia. The new communist-dominated Czecho-Slovak government proceeded to solve this national mixup by making an agreement with Communist Hungary to exchange all Magyars in Slovakia for all Slovaks in Hungary. Furthermore, it removed forcibly a certain portion of the Magyars from Southern Slovakia into the Sudetenland in place of the ousted Germans. Prior to World War I, the upper social classes in Slovakia - the intelligentsia, merchants and greater landowners - were also almost wholly magyarized. If they acknowledged their Slovak origin, they nevertheless accepted the idea of the Hungarian State as their political "credo" and did not concur with the efforts of revived Slovak nationalism. Rather they looked upon it as the manifestation of an unfriendly attitude to the Hungarian fatherland. They therefore engaged freely in all undertakings of the Hungarian government to smear the Pan-Slavists, as they labelled the Slovak patriots. Thus at the very beginning of Slovak nationalism, arises the first major conflict, namely the struggle between Slovak renegades and Pan-Slavists. Slovak renegades were those people of Slovak origin who, either because of opportunities or conviction, offered their services toward the assimilating efforts of the Hun_garian government, which aimed at creating as soon as possible a homogeneous speaking Magyar State. On the SLOVAKIA 3 other hand, Slovak patriots, were considered Pan-Slavists. They were so named because, in their political struggle, they proceeded hand in hand with the other Slav nationalities in Hungary and often gave evidence of Pan-Slavistic tendencies. The conflict of these two divisions within Slovak society grew steadily more and more violent after the revolutionary year of 1848. Upon it were centered all struggles on Slovak ethnical territory, whether they were of a political, cultural, social, or religious nature. The division of Slovak society into renegades and Pan-Slavists had not only political but also social roots. The assemblage of Slovak renegades was composed of members of the lordly class, among whom we find the intelligentsia, merchants, greater landowners or peers. On the other side stood the great mass of people comprising the Pan-Slavists, among whom were numbered small village farmers and various agricultural workers. Because industry was still in its rudimentary stages, the working class was practically non-extant. From among the intelligentsia, priests had the closest contacts with the broad masses of people and, therefore, became natural leaders and agents of Slovak nationalism. . The aforementioned fact gives further testimony that Slovak nationalism was more a social than a national movement in its beginnings. The reviving tasks of national leaders in the beginnings of Slovak nationalism possessed rather a culturo-social than a national-political character. Slovak leaders entered upon a national-political program only with the revolutionary times of 1848, when they organized a military uprising and brought forth their demand that not Magyar but rather Slovak should be the language used in schools and official circles of the defined Slovak territory within the framework of Hungary. The beginnings leading towards the accomplishment of this demand seemed very favorable in the years prior to 1867. At that time Vienna, resisting the revolting Magyars, sought the support of her nationalities who demanded from the Magyar government of Hungary the same national rights which the Magyars, led by Slovak renegade Louis Kossuth, demanded for themselves in Vienna. 4 SLOVAKIA In 1867, .however, a ~ettlement took place between Vieniia and' Budapest. Slovak nationalism thus lost the '' giveIJ. over support of Vienna and was as a prize to the Magyars to become an internal concz;en of the Hungarian portion of the Habsburg Monarchy. Immediatel y the Magyars feverishly set for~h to magyarize all their nationalities, which action manifested itself on Slovak ethnical .territory by the abolition of all Slovak , political and purely cultural institutions and by the introductio n of Magyar as the official language jn HtJ.ngary. SGhools 1 were to educate a new generation, one that would speak only Magyar and one that would be devoted w:holly to the, Magyars and the ,Hungarian State which they controlled. In these attempts the Magyar-co ntrolled Hungarian governmen t found in Slovakia willing supporters among the ranks of the above-men tioned Slovak renegades, who, in full compliance ·with the psychologic al bent of every renegade, labored more fanatically in instilling the magyarizing program than the governmen t itself had actually contemplat ed. The result could only end in a bitter conflict with the deeply Slovak-con scious group of inhabitants. , This conflict came to light npt only in political manifestations, as is elecfoms, but purrow~d deep even into the daily concerns of the inhabitants . In elections, genuinely Slovak candidates generally had little hope of winning even in those ,electoral districts where the vast majority sympathize d with them. The reason lay in a voting law , which granted voting privileges only to those who possessed a certain· amount of property. This law excluded from voting precisely that portion of Slovak ethnical teritory which formed tb.e basis of Slovak nationalism and granted the decisive word to those who had lost t~eir Slovak national consciousn ess but propertywise were more ,powerful. li'urthermo re, the elections were public and influenced very ev,idently by much use of bribery. Official candidates received heavy aid and support from the governmen t, whereas national candidates could only rely upon their, own resources, which were for the most part meagre and limited. In daily life the conflict between . Slovak renegades SLOVAKIA 5 and patriotic Slovaks was mirrored mostly in the use of language. The renegades used the Magyar tongue almost exclusively; they regarded the speaking of Magyar not only as a maninfestation of "patriotic" sentiment, but also as the mark of a higher social position. Slovak, 1on the other hand, was looked upon as the tongue of poverty and its use was considered a display of "anti-patriotic'' feeling. In this conflict, which created an atmosphere of almost continual political as well as social tension, Slovak nationalism suffered the loss of much strength, for social privileges, schools and governmental pressure inflicted upon it serious harm and threatened it with destruction. 2. "Czechoslovak" vs. Autonomist With the establishment of Czecho-Slovakia this process was suddenly halted and the Slovaks found themselves in more favorable conditions. Because of the- changed political situation, a large 'number bf former Slovak renegades departed from Slovakia. Furthermore, many of them began to admit again their Sldvak origin, orientated themselves to the new poltiical setup, and even though manifesting little enthusiasm for the revolutionary change, they nevertheless undertook no organized effort which could have proved detrimental to the erection of the new state. It is comprehensible that all national Slovak units accepted the establishment of Czecho-Slovakia with gfeat enthusiasm. But this enthusiasm lasted only as long as its emotional foundation, built in the past under the influence of Pan-Slavism, was extanh It was primarily nurtured by a common fate of the Czechs and Slovaks in Austria-Hungary and led them to progress jointly in their struggles for national ,rights. When, however, both units merged and , had to work out serious problems which appeared during the erection of the new state, the basic difference of the Czech and Slovak character projected itself on the scene and gave an impetus to many conflicts, which in time grew more violent. It is true that Czechs and Slovaks did not find it too difficult to understand one another ling-uistica:lly because of the marked kinship of their languages. Nevertheless, 1-the ideological antl cultural background · of 6 SLOVAKIA / their natures showed itself to be so different that it created an almost impassable gulf between them. The fore-warning of this break was the difference of their religious positions. From the burning of John Hus, the first ecclesiastical reformer at the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Czech character continued to show opposition to Rome and to the Habsburgs. After successfully routing all Czech reforming elements in 1647, the Habsburgs carried on intensive re-Catholiciza tion in Czech lands. With the downfall of the Habsburgs after the First World War, the Czechs found it opportune to undo what they had looked upon as an injustice and, therefore, did not conceal their anti-Catholic thinking in creating CzechoSlovakia. The Slovaks, who are 82 percent Catholic, had no grudge against Rome, and after attaining their national liberty showed no unfriendliness to Catholicism. Thus, immediately in the beginning of the new state, the religious question became an experimental rock of Czech-Slovak relationship and drove the popular and formerly Czechinclined Father Andrew Hlinka with his Slovak People's Party into violent opposition against the Czechs. When, in addition, with the help of a minority of Slovak Lutherans and isolated Liberals, Prague began to organize Czecho-Slova kia centralisticall y by disregarding former agreements about making it a federative republic of two distinct nations, "Czechs and Slovaks," Slovak Catholics inaugurated a movement which came to be known under the name "Autonomist. " The whole discussion seemed, however, to turn around the connotation of the phrase "Czechoslovak nation." In the first chapter of this treatise, allusion was made to the impact of Pan-Slavism upon the budding Slovak nationalism. The Pan-Slavist visualized a kind of political and ethnographica l unification of all Slavs on the ground of their kinship and close language relationship. Influenced by this Pan-Slavistic trend, some Slovaks - especially Lutherans - were prone to accept the idea of the complete fusion of the Slovaks with the Czechs. This objective was to be achieved through a centralized rather than federative Czecho-Slovak ia. Thus, in disregard of all SLOVAKIA 7 previous agreements between the Czechs and Slovaks, the Czecho-Slovak Republic was organized on the basis of a centralized government. Moreover, the special phrase "Czechoslovak nation" was coined. It had to denote that Czechs and Slovaks were ethnographically, culturally, and politically the same nation. Practically, it meant that the Slovaks were to be made over into Czechs, since the Slovak language was declared a dialect of the Czech and Slovakia was not conceded any right to self-government. Thus, in this new conflict "Czechoslovak vs. Autonomist" two issues were involved: the issue of national difference between the Slovaks and Czechs and the issue of self-government for Slovakia. Those who denied them were "Czechoslovaks"; those who claimed them were "Autonomists." There arose once again the struggle between those who favored the government and those who opposed it for its incorrect interpretation of Slovak feelings. To determine by proper evaluation which side profited in this conflict, it would be unjust to form conclusions solely on the basis of the election outcomes of those parties who stood for the autonomist program. The Slovak People's Party, led by Father Hlinka, alone had a purely autonomist program. But the individuality of the Slovak nation was also stressed by the Slovak National Party, led by Martin Razus, a Lutheran minister, comprising chiefly the Slovak Lutherans, and by the Communist Party. The latter proceeded further than Hlinka's party by demanding the complete separation of Slovakia from the Czechs lands as early as 1926. The autonomist movement achieved its greatest victory in the elections of 1925; of the 299 representative seats in the Czecho-Slovak Parliament, 160 were won by the Czechs, 47 by the Slovaks, 5 by the Ruthenians, 1 by the Russians, 75 by the Germans and 10 by the Magyars. Now the 47 seats belonging to the Slovaks did not represent autonomists only; it simply indicated the representatives from Slovak ethnical territory. Of these seats, 23, belonged to the Hlinka Slovak People's Party, 5 to the Communist Party, 1 to the Slovak National Party; the remainder belonged to the parties which based their plat- 8 SLOVAKIA form on the principle of a "Czechoslovak" nation and stood for a centralized Czecho-Slovak Republic(3). Even though the Slovak People's Party emerged from this election with 23 delegates and gained ascendancy over the other parties seeking for votes in Slovakia, its strength would not necesarily indicate that the idea of a Slovak national individuality was highly popular among Slovak inhabitants. In evaluating the results to determine how parties opposed to this idea were won over in Slovakia, one must not overlook the factor of material benefits offered by those in power to anyone voting for them. Thus, opportunism rather than nationalism was the chief factor which influenced the so-called official parties on Slovak ethnical territory. Actually the defenders and confessors of centralism in Slovakia comprised only a small group of individuals who, with the aid of the Czechs, constituted a true ruling class. In this way they assured for themselves a lasting political career and of course material comforts. They, therefore, took the place of the former Slovak renegades and, like the latter, were the instruments of foreign influences endeavoring to deter the uni-characteristic development of Slovak nationalism. Nevertheless, in the Czecho-Slovak versus Autonomist conflict, Slovak nationalism possessed since the beginning a greater advantage than in the Slovak renegade versus patriotic Slovak conflict because it had the support of schools. It is a very significant circumstance, that although the greater majority of professors and teachers in Slovak schools at the beginning of the Czecho-Slovak Repuplic were Czechs, who came to Slovakia l:>ecause of the lack of specialized Slovak talent, they nevertheless were not able to educate a Slovak generation which wo_u ld become devoted to the idea of the "Czechoslovak" nation, and to a centralized Czecho-Slovak Republic ,based on that idea. The Czechs explain this phenomenon as the ungratefulness of the young Slovak generation for ,proferred aid. It is true that this Czech assistance enabl,~d the Slovaks to make inroads into modern European , society. But the key to the correct evaluation of this seeming ungrateful_ness is offered, by statistics which co111pare the labor pos- SLOVAKIA 9 sibilities between Czechs and Slovaks on Slovak ethnical territory. The employment question became the most effective outlet for the dissemination of the autonomist movement over the broader Slovak strata, whereby a young, Czech-trained Slovak generation was won over to its objectives. On the other hand, it aided also that group of Slovaks and Czechs who, controlling the sole possibility of distributing labor, possessed an effective means of advantageously influencing in politics all opportunistically inclined natures. Thus, the "Czechoslovak" versus Autonomist conflict also assumed the character of a social struggle. The employment problem in other homogeneous speaking states caused a social tension and made it possible for Communists and Socialists to make greater election gains. In Slovakia, however, it led to an increased tension between Czechs and Slovaks and became the fruitful soil for a separatist nationalism. Czech officials, teachers, and other white collar employees entered Slovakia with the understanding that they would remain there in the exercise of their proper functions until Slovakia could gather sufficient expert forces of its own. After the departure of the Magyars and Slovak, renegades, there remained few experts in Slovakia who could be used in public administration and education(4). Since the Czechs in Austria had their own autonomy and at the same time took an important part in the management of the entire monarchy, they possessed a surplus of intellectuals and for that reason considered Slovakia as a province for the allocation of their intellectuals. Not only did the Czechs reveal an unwillingness to leave the labor possibilities in favor of the new Slovak intelligentsia, but, by utilizing their own influential connections, they also increased their own ranks. The unequal representation of Slovaks and Czechs that existed in the public organs of Slovakia is evident from the following employment statistics of the Board of State Railways in Bratislava and Kosice. In 1925, of 5,134 engineers and higher officers, 90 percent were Czechs; of 12,355 second grade laborers 60 percent were Czechs; of 16, 025 unskilled laborers, 30 percent were Czechs(5). 10 SLOVAKIA This situation is best mirrored in the emigration from Czecho-Slovakia during the years 1920-1937. Of the 400,193 people, who emigrated from the whole country, 213,283 or 52.2 percent belonged to Slovakia. This is an astonishingly high percentage when one considers that Slovakia formed only 23 percent of the whole population of the Czecho-Slovak Republic(6). It was impossible for such a situation not to give rise to many complaints on the part of the Slovaks. It turned them against the Czechs as well as against the Czecho-Slovak state and steadily created suppositions for the greater emphasis of a separate national individuality and eventually an independent state. 3. Lutheran vs. Catholic The conflicts of Slovak nationalism often have their roots in the religious differences of the Slovak population. We have already mentioned that Catholic priests and Lutheran ministers had played an important role in the reawakening of Slovak nationalism. To Western observers this often appears as a remnant of so-called clericalism. It is hardly possible, however, to make a parallel between what is known in France and Italy as clericalism and the role of priests in Slovak politics. In Slovakia priests entered into politics under the influence of the ideas of the Enlightenment, which philosophy gave an impetus to anticlerical struggles in other countries. And it is a fact that Slovak priests also entered into frequent controversy with higher members of the hierarchy, chiefly because the latter were not of Slovak origin and for the greater part supported the Magyar government in its attempts at assimilation in Hungary. That these conflicts did not develop into open religious splits can be accredited to the Popes who, stemming from Pope Leo XIII and his social encyclicals, sympathized with peoples' movements and continually sought to keep them within the fold of the Church. It happened frequently that in disagreements, involving priests and bishops, Rome stood on the side of the priests whenever the controversy stemmed from different social or national sources An outstanding example of the Vatican's attitude is SLOVAKIA 11 mirrored in the case of Father IDinka, leader of the Slovak Autonomists. Suspended in 1906 by his Magyar Bishop Parvy for participating in the election campaign, Hlinka found Rome favorable to his cause. Bishop Parvy was thus virtually compelled to reinstate Hlinka as pastor. Thus, assured of the sympathies of the Vatican and enthused over the idea of helping their oppressed kin, the Slovak priests took over the leadership in Slovak nationalism. Whenever any member of the Slovak laity in Hungary received an education, the person usually became denationalized either because of the schools or the nature of his position, which demanded of him a subservient service to the government. Otherwise it was impossible to advance in a chosen career. Furthermore, children from peasant, village families found it economically almost impossible to receive a higher education. Only members of wealthier families, which comprised the group of Slovak renegades, were able to pursue higher studies and obtain leading positions. The only vocation open to boys with a village and farming background was that to the priesthood. Not only did the priestly vocation offer an education to such boys, since seminary studies were almost completely free, but it also sent its priests back among the same people whence they came. Furthermore, although the courses were conducted in a Magyar spirit, and this could have influenced them, nevertheless upon the completion of their studies they returned to their own people and once again found themselves in the center of their origin. Moreover, they were not weighted down with the fear that they would be hindered in their career if they failed to act according to the intentions of the government. They were, therefore, very independent in their actions and in fulfilling their vocation. These priests, however, were on the lowest rung of the ecclesiastical hierarchy; the higher rungs were either completely Magyar or Slovak renegadist. It is self-evident that they would be mostly attracted to the ideas of the Enlightenment concerning the people and later romantic ideas concerning the nation. In the majority of instances they, therefore, sought with revolutionary zest to make 12 SLOVAKIA these ideas productive under the motto: "For God and Country!" It is true that, because of the nature of their vocation, they carried religion into politics, and therefore gave an impetus to conflicts of a religious nature. But it is also true, that the reasons why religion became embroiled in politics in Central Europe were not because priests desired to become the leaders of national and peoples' movements, but because of the very nature of the society which retained the religious foundation it had inherited from the Middle Ages. The undermining of this foundation, after the birth of Liberalism, could not fail to call forth ecclesiastical reaction, which began to appear in the establishment of Catholic parties as the most effective, defensive means in the political struggles of democracies. According to the statistics of 1930, the population of Slovakia comprised percentage-wise the following religious denominations: Roman and Greek Catholics - 78.013 percent; Lutherans 12.008 percent; Calvinists 4.376 percent; Jews - 4.102 percent; others - 1.5 percent(?). Only Catholics and Lutherans, however, play a role in Slovak nationalism. Calvinists are for the most part Magyars; and Jews, when not Magyars, in most instances take sides with those who oppose Slovak nationalism. Between Lutherans and Catholics there existed in the beginnings of Slovak nationalism a certain competition in patriotism, which did not always tend in the same direction, principally in matters concerning the legislation of the national Slovak language. In their religious services, the Lutherans used the old Czech language of the so-called "Kralice Bible" that was translated by the Moravian Brethren who were followers of John Hus. This fact led them to retain Czech as the literary tongue for some time. Catholics, on the other hand, always used the Slovak language of the common people and legalized it as national in 1787. From the beginning, Catholics showed the evident tendency to emphasize their distinct national Slovak individuality from that of the Czechs. Lutherans, highly influenced by Pan-Slavism however, were prone to accept the idea that Czechs and Slovaks form a common racial unit of one great Slav family. SLOVAKIA 13 It was not until the revolutionary times of 1848 that r..udovit Stur, one of the most eminent Lutheran national revivers, established the supposition that Lutherans should also accept the principle of a Slovak language distinct from the Czech. Suppositions were thus established for the close cooperation between Lutherans and Catholics to guarantee national rights to Slovaks in what formerely had been Hungary. In spite of their minority, the Lutherans in 1848 took over the leadership in Slovak nationalism. They formed a rich romantic literature, initiated many political steps in the Hungarian government to obtain national rights for Slovaks, founded a few Slovak cultural institutions and led the only Slovak political party in Hungary, called the Slovak National Party. Catholics accepted their leadership as self-evidential. This acceptance assured almost complete harmony between both units of Slovak nationalism. Towards the end of the nineteenth century Catholics were summoned into more feverish political activity by a newly-created, all-state, Catholic party called the People's Party, founded and headed by the Magyar Count Zichy. The party was brought to life through many laws passed by the liberal-controlled Hungarian Parliament that sought to destroy the present Christian tradition of the country. One of these laws dealt with marriage and demanded that every citizen undergo a civil wedding ceremony. Otherwise, the program of the People's Party appropriated the social principles enumerated in the encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII and also fought for the recognition of national rights for individual nationalism in Hungary. It was a program which Slovak Catholic priests were seeking to realize for a long time. For this reason, the party achieved comparatively wonderful success on Slovak ethnical territory shortly after its entrance into the political struggle. In this party Father Andrew Hlinka achieved public political recognition and in time became the most eminent representative of Slovak nationalism. Although the People's Party received great help from non-Magyar priests and the Catholic laity, the Magyar leaders were in no way anxious to fulfill the nationalitypoint of their program either in the government or within 14 SLOVAKIA the framework of their own party. Rather they supported almost openly the assimilative pressure of the government upon nationalities and, therefore, upon the Slovaks. The deceived Slovak Catholics, therefore, left this party and formed their own Slovak People's Party under the leadership of Father Andrew Hlinka. This party appropriated the social and religious program of the original People's Party and immediately brought forth its claim to national rights for Slovaks. The introduction of the Slovak People's Party created the following situation in Slovakia: Slovak Catholics began to organize into the People's Party, whereas the existing Slovak National Party became only a political organ of Slovak Lutherans. It emphasized a political division according to religion, but no serious conflicts, in the sense of Catholic versus Lutheran, ensued at that time. Magyar pressure steadily created new suppositions for cooperation towards the same national goal. This political division along religious lines became the source of conflict between Catholics and Lutherans only when, in the new Czecho-Slovakia, the fight for national rights was replaced by the struggle to seize power. In this struggle the Lutherans were victorious, because they accepted willingly the centralizing efforts of Prague. The anti-ecclesiastical and Hussite-enrooted politics of the new Czecho-Slovakia meant a grave injury to the deeply religious-conscious Catholics, though it was, to a certain extent, welcomed by the Lutherans. For Catholics, it was a serious reason to fight uncompromisingly for an autonomous Slovakia; for Lutherans and a small group of liberals it was the foundation whereby they easily accepted the principle of the "Czechoslovak" nation and the centralization based on this principle. Prague, therefore, rewarded them with power, and did that without any regard for the vast majority of Slovak Catholics. Practically all of the more prominent politicians in Czecho-Slovakia from Slovakia were Lutherans. They formed a very narrow ruling class, because they were limited to a few chosen families. Out of their midst came a narrow circile of so-called "experts," whom Prague made good use of to govern in Slo- SLOVAKIA 15 vakia. The eminent English historian C. A. Macartney describes the situation thusly: The fact remains that the (Czechoslovak) government has been obliged more often than not to rule Slovakia against the wishes of most of its inhabitants, maintaining itself only by the expedients of restricting the powers of the self-governing bodies to within the narrowest possible limits, of filling the seats designated for "experts" with its own nominees, and utilizing freely weapons of censorship and police supervision(8). 4. The Reason For the Division It will not be hard to understand why the above-mentioned conflicts developed within the Slovak community if we bear in mind the two main obstacles which revived Slovak nationalism had to overcome. The one was of an internal character, while the other was due to external pressure. Internally, the Slovaks had at the beginning the ten- t dency to confuse their nationality with that of an imaginary Slav nation. This mixup arose from the Pan-Slavistic ideology that greatly appealed to some Slovak leaders, because it imbued them with the feeling of strength in view of the desperate situation in which they found themselves in Hungary. On the other hand, it hindered them from developing the consciousness of a distinct national Slovak character, because some readily accepted the idea of unity with the "closest" Slav nation, namely, th,e Czechs. The Slovaks who felt most strongly inclined to a union with the Czechs opposed the codification of a separate Slovak language. To them the Czech language seemed suitable even for those of their kin living in Hungary. Although these tendencies never took firm roots with majority of the population in Slovakia, they were, the ) nevertheless, strong enough to arouse conflicts and later to enable the Czechs to exploit the Slovaks politically. That I the Czechs have not succeeded can be attributed to the fact that the majority of the Slovaks have always felt \ and professed to be an ethnographically, historically, and culturally distinct nation from the Czechs, and have constantly endeavored to create for Slovakia such political conditions which would stress that distinct national character. I 16 SLOVAKIA The terms "Czechoslovak" and "Autonomist" are to be understood as political designations: the "Czechoslovaks" are those Slovaks who profess to be Czechs; the "Autonomists" are those who feel and act as Slovaks. The designation "Autonomist" comes from the Autonomist Party whose purpose was to assure an autonomous government for Slovakia as opposed to a centralized Czecho-Slovakia sought for by Czechoslovaks. The conflict "Czechoslovak versus Autonomist" can best be expressed in the form of a question: Are we Czechs or are we Slovaks? To this question the Czechoslovak would answer: I am a Czech; the Autonomist: I am a Slovak. Realizing these basic differences, we can easily see that the "Czechoslovak versus Autonomist" conflict resemble the former "Slovak renegade (Magyarized Slovak) versus Pan-Slavist" conflict. The term "Czechoslovak" compares with the Slovak renegade, while the term "Autonomist" with the Pan-Slavist. The difference, however, lies in the fact that the Magyarized Slovak denied his Slovak nationality, while the Czechoslovak has always admitted his original Slovak ethnographical nationality. The former's denial flows from the lack of kinship between Slovaks and Magyars, whereas the Czechoslovak admission is based upon a close racial kinship between Czechs' and Slovaks. Thus, the latter would like to merge the Slovaks with the Czechs despite the fact that there is a sensitive difference between both these related nations. That these conflicts developed to such proportions as to endanger the survival of the Slovaks can be accounted for by the political pressure exerted first by Magyars and later by Czechs. With the removal of that pressure came the disappearance of these conflicts and a deeper understanding of a distinct national personality ensued. As of now, the "Magyarized Slovak versus Pan-Slavist" conflict belongs to history and has r.ceased to be of any importance in the politics of the country. Hardly any citizen of Slovak descent would long for the return of former Hungary, let alone to profess any kinship with the Magyars. The "Czechoslovak versus Autonomist" conflict is not yet dead. Nevertheless, it is losing its original "rai- SLOVAKIA 17 son d' etre." The Slovaks who still long for the preservation of Czecho-Slovakia, have abandoned the highly disputed fiction of the "Czechoslovak nation" and are accepting the realistic view that Czechs and Slovaks are ethnographically, politically, and historically distinct nations. Thus, these conflicts brought to an end discussions about national personality. The differences which still remain / revolve about the following problem: in what kind of an alliance or political form should Slovaks live to assure for themselves the best conditions for their future survival? (1) Sometimes a distinction has to be made between "Magyar" and "Hungarian" in dealing with the national problems of Hungary prior to World War I. The former Hungarian Kingdom was a country of many nationalities that in their capacity of citizens, were also Hungarians. The designation "Magyar" for "Hungarian" is, therefore, more appropriate whenever the ethnographic character of the problem is to be emphasized. Thus "Magyarizing process" is to denote the forceful methods used by the dominating Magyars or Hungarians to assimilate the other nationalities of Hungary with the view of creating a linguistically and ethnographically homogeneous state. (2) Joseph A. Mikus: La Slovaquie dans le Drame de !'Europe, Paris, 1955; p. 104. (3) Karol Sidor: Andrej Hlinka, Bratislava, 1934; p. 535. (4) Harrison Thomson: Czechoslovakia in European History, p. 292. ((5) K. Culen: Cesi a Slovaci vo Verejnej Sprave Cesko-Slo• venskej Republiky, Bratislava, 1944; p. 70. (6) Joseph A. Mikus: op. cit.; p. 66. (7) Kalendar Kanadskej Slovenskej Ligy, Winnipeg, 1953; p. 64. (8) Hungary and Her Successors, London, 1937; p. 145. • • • WHO SAID IT? "The on[y just and deimocira.tiic solution od' tJhe 'Cwchoslo,v ak' mess crnate'd by T. G. Masaryk and Benes and their foHorwers woudd be tJhe compl.ete freedom and .poliitica:l. inde-0 pendence of the nations inv;o1ved. No just and deimoeratic soluition will be arnived at as long as a 'CzechoslovaJkia' is a}iloiwed to ex,isit, becaiuse everything proposed in the direction of rea[i:zirug the fornldaimental rights of the Slovruk and Rlutihenian peoples would. he l'a be[ed 'aiccording to law' as anti~State and punishiable as such, as. it had been in the first (1918-1938) and third ReipUibJics (1945-1948) orf Czecho-Slo~ia." - (P. A. Hroibak, letter to Hon. Aivin M. Benltfo:y, Juliy 10, 1953).  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 Slovak Nationalism: Conflicts of Slovak Nationalism Description An account of the resource B. S. Buc, Ph.D.<br />Slovakia, Vol. 8, No. 2 (27), June 1958<br />pp. 1-17<br /><ol><li>Magyar Renegade vs. Pan-Slavist</li> <li>"Czechoslovak" vs. Autonomist</li> <li>Lutheran vs. Catholic</li> <li>The Reason for the Division</li> </ol> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Buc, B. S. (Bonaventure S.), 1910-1966 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 1958 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/cd6fdeb7bf9c1e701006882fa9be89ea.pdf f0212d8b7ed16139def8efddc82bb212 PDF Text Text 46 SLOVAKIA partment heads of U. S. Government on all Slovak and Czech matters still remain at their posts at our expense on the strength of a memorandum prepared by the Benes Czechs a memorandum whose language reveals that its authors just as well might have been the Czech Reds, or their "comrades" in Moscow! • • • SLOVAK NATIONALISM: THE ORIGINS OF SLOVAK NATIONALISM B. S. Bue, Ph.D. 1. Nationalism and the Existing "Status Quo" To speak of the Slovaks is to touch upon a problem which at the present time has assumed vital and worldwide proportions, namely, the problem of nationalism. Nationalism is one of the most discussed issues in the modern political world. The reason lies in the more extensive definition by which nationalism refers not only to the lofty devotion of citizens towards their native country, also known as patriotism, but especially to a revolutionary movement of our modern society. Thus, nationalism is giving rise to dangerous political tensions in various sectors of the globe and threatening to disintegrate the political status quo of many long established nations. There is need, therefore, of a thorough understanding of all its components, motives, and objectives. Slovak nationalism involves a lofty devotion to a native land, but as yet has not developed serious revolutionary characteristics. It has not, therefore, attracted significant attention from the international community. Nevertheless, it has grown from almost complete oblivion t o such proportions that it must be taken into consideration as one of the most important forces shaping the future destiny of Central Europe. From the beginning of its existence Slovak nationalism was nurtured by ideas which followed the revolutionary changes of medieval, feudal society and laid the foundation for the birth of new political systems which we call "Western Democracy." But Slovak nationalism is Western not because of its ideological relationship alone. During �SLOVAKIA 47 the First World War Western Democracies actually gave it physical support so that it could achieve partially the fulfillment of its ambitions. In the words of Don Luigi Sturza: "Once a country or a people has succeeded in developing a consciousness of its own personality and in affirming it in the struggles with which history has confronted it, there is no stopping."(!) Dissatisfied with only a partial fulfillment of its political ambitions, Slovak nationalism is endeavoring at the present time to attain the final goal sought by every nationalism, that is, complete national independence in its own state. Generally, under the term of nationalism fall most present political efforts that seek to alter the existing status quo which was formed in past centuries by great powers and the maintaining of which occupies their chief interests. The modern nationalistic movements seem to be governed more by sentiment than by realism in their outlook with regard to geographical, economic and strategic setups. From the standpoint of economy, they aim at breaking up time-tested, unified wholes and to form instead economically and strategically isolated inactive groups that easily succumb to one or another imperialism. The characteristic quality of these modern nationalistic movements is revolutionism. Under this term we must consider not only the violence that is perpetrated in the struggle for liberation, but above all the effort exerted to establish society upon new foundations. Such an arrangement cannot be realized in the present because its formation is always dependent upon a temporal and historical evolution. It is, however, difficult to condemn nationalistic movements from the standpoint of being guided more by sentiment than by realism. They are emotional only because they are striving to undo what we hold as sacred, accepted forms of the past; or they are realistic in that they endeavor to fulfill the modern principle of freedom and equality not only in the case of individuals, but also in the case of the organized groups that we call nations. �48 SLOVAKIA 2. Nature of Modern Nationalism Modern nationalism is very difficult to define precisely because its concept is not fixed and varies in scope and meaning. Nationalism is what the nationalists have made it; it is not a neat fixed concept, but a varying combination of beliefs and conditions. It may be in part founded on myth, but myths, like other errors, have a way of perpetuating themselves and of becoming not true but real. The fact is that myth and actuality, and truth and error, are inextricably intermixed in modern nationalism.. The only reasonable way to get at the nature of nationalism is to determine what beliefs - however true or false - and what conditions - however misinterpreted - are commonly present. The following ten are here hypothetically advanced. No claim is laid for their infallibility or finality. 1. A certain defined (often vaguely) unit of territory (whether possessed or coveted). 2. Some common cultural characteristics, such as language (or widely understood languages), customs, manners, and literature (folk tales and lore are the beginning). If an individual believes he shares these, and wishes to continue sharing them, he is usually said to be a member of the nationality. 3. Some common dominant social (as Christian) and economic (as capitalistic or recently communistic) institutions. 4. A common independent or sovereign government (type does not matter) or the desire for one. The "principle" that each nationality should be separate and independent is involved here. 5. A belief in a common history (it can be invented) and in a common origin (often mistakingly conceived to be racial in nature). 6. A love or esteem for fellow nationals (not necessarily as individuals). 7. A devotion to the entity (however little comprehended) called the nation, which embodies the common territory, culture, social and economic institutions, government, and fellow nationals, and which is at the same time (whether organism or not) more than their sum. 8. A common pride in the achievements (often military more than cultural) of this nation and a common sorrow in its tragedies (particularly its defeats). 9. A disregard for the hostility to other (not necessarily all) like groups, especially if these prevent or seem to threaten the separate national existence. 10. A hope that the nation will have a great and glorious future (usually in teritorial expansion) and become supreme in some way (in world power if the nation is already large) (2). Applying to the Slovaks, these ten characteristic points upon which all modern nationalisms are supposed to be based, we arrive at the conclusion that Slovak nationalism is based upon : �SLOVAKIA 49 1. a certain defined territory; 2. its own language and culture; 3. the Christian foundation of its society; 4. the "principle" that Slovaks must live in their own independent state; 5. the knowledge of its own long history; 6. a love for fellow nationals; 7. a devotion to their territory, 8. more upon a common sorrow for national tragedy than pride in national achievements; 9. a certain hostility to those who have attempted, or are attempting, to enslave the Slovak people; 10. a hope that the nation will be glorious, but definitely not an ambition to make Slovakia a decisive world power. 8. Geographical and Historical Suppositions of Slovak Nationalism The territory occupied by the Slovaks lies in the heart of Europe. Although Slovakia is a small country, it is, nevertheless, larger in area than Albania, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Holland, or Switzerland. Slovakia today comprises an area of 48,957 square kilometers, or 22,500 square miles, and approximates the size of Belgium and Holland combined, or the size of West Virginia in the U. S. A. Its present population is 3,800,000. Francis Hrusovsky, eminent Slovak historian, has described the political significance of the geographical position of Slovakia in the following words: "Slovakia lies along the northern shores of the Central Danube, where the eastern slopes of the Alps touch the western slopes of the Carpathian mountains, and its territory covers the northern part of the Danubian basin. Since the dawn of European history, a route has run through the gate of the Danube, connecting the West and the East. This important route was intersected at this very point by several routes which ran from south to north and linked the coasts of the Adriatic with those of the Baltic and North Seas. From earliest times, nations seeking new homelands have flowed over these routes which intersect along the Danube. Through the portals of the Danube marched aggressive conquerors, and the soil of this land frequently served as the stage for bloody conflicts. The nation which settled in such a bustling spot experienced little peace, continually having to defend itself to keep from being swept away by the raging �50 SLOVAKIA storms. In defending its life its strength was exhausted and hence could not grow and develop as it might have in a peaceful atmosphere where the catastrophe is not always imminent . . . When, at the end of the 4th Century, the Romans had to withdraw from the Danube, and when, subsequently, the German tribes also left that territory, the Slavs flooded Central Europe from the Baltic Sea to the Balkans" (3). Since the sixth century, therefore, the territory of Slovakia has been the homeland of the Slovaks and their forefathers. During the first two centuries the Slav (Slovanic) tribes, whose descendants are the present-day Slovaks, did not enjoy an independent life. For from the sixth to the eighth century, the entire central European sector suffered under the dominating sway of warring Avars who carried on attacks upon Western Europe. At the end of the eighth century, however, Charlemagne successfully destroyed the power of the Avar Empire. This victory enabled the tribes of the Slovanic races to begin efforts at unification and soon to establish the Greater Moravian Empire. This era then saw the definite beginning and unfolding of the history of the Slovaks, although most of the Slavs can trace from it the partial origins, if not of their political, at least of their cultural life. The brief but exceedingly rich history of the Greater Moravian Empire is a source of "common pride in the achievements of this nation and a common sorrow in its tragedies"(4) for Slovak nationalism. Without a doubt, it would be difficult to prove that during the existence of the Greater Moravian Empire the Slovaks constituted an element independent and separate from the other Slav (Slovanic) races. They constituted a part of the Slav races who, during the migration of nations, crossed the Carpathian boundaries and settled in the valley of the Danube and Moravian rivers. Furthermore, no clearly defined boundaries of Greater Moravia existed. Nevertheless, we know that it covered a large part of the territory surrounding the Carpathian mountains. In this sector the interests of the Western Franks met with the interests of the Byzantine Empire. The empire of Great Moravia was located in the territories of present-day Slovakia and Moravia, which were inhabited at that time by �SLOVAKIA 51 the predecessors of the Slovaks, with the Czechs settling in the land of the Boii, Bohemia. The first documentary evidence of Great Moravia dates from the year 822. In that year a parliamentary gathering took place at Frankfurt-on-the-Main, which included representatives of Great Moravia. The leaders of Great Moravia had to maintain constant vigilance against the frequent attacks of the Franks who, under the guise of spreading Christianity, sought to make vassals of the Great Moravian rulers(5). For a time the inhabitants of Great Moravia were successful. But to the danger which threatened them from the part of the Franks was soon added the danger of harrassing Magyar nomads of Mongolian origin, who had then begun to make inroads into Central Europe. After many bitter and wearisome struggles they finally succumbed either in the year 906 or 908. Though short-lived, the Great Moravia's eventful life proved itself an inexhaustible source of heroic material for the poets of the budding Slovak nationalism of the 17th and 18th centuries. Faithful to the mythical tendencies of Romanticism and Pan-Slavism, Slovak authors exploited successfully Great Moravia's hidden past and thus created in the almost extinct group of Slovak people a feeling of greatness and national pride. Slovakia was made by them the cradle of all Slav (Slovanic) cultures and the Slovaks the leading Slav nation in the conversion of the other Slavs from backward paganism to the higher cultural life of Christianity. These conclusions were reached on the ground of two testimonials which, even at the present time, bear witness of Great Moravia's cultural role and political importance for the Slovanic nations. These testimonials are : a church built in 830 A.D., and the Slovanic liturgy with its Cyrillic alphabet. They represented two different tendencies that play a big role in Great Moravia's politics on account of her vital position between the German Franks and . the Byzantines, respectively between the Latin and Eastern (Greek) form of Christianity. The little church in the Slovak city of Nitra, portions of whose walls are still preserved in the foundations of the �52 SLOVAKIA Cathedral church, is a testimonal of German influence and of the Latin trend in the Great Moravian era. It was built by Pribina - one of the first known ru• lers on Slovak soil who chose Nitra as the seat of govern• ment - and blessed by Adalram, the Archbishop of Salzburg, in the year 833(6). From this fact it is evident that Pribina brought with him the Germanic influence which he absorbed under the rulers of the Frankish Empire. For Slovak nationalism, however, this church is an historical mdication of the bent of the forefathers of Slovakia to Western culture, so clearly manifested in the Latin form of Christianity. The culture-religious testimonial, linking Great Moravia with the present, is the Slovanic liturgy still faithfully followed in Orthodox churches and the Greek Catholic churches of the Eastern Rite. The alphabet of the Russians and other Slavs also has its origin in Great Moravia. Not all the rulers favored Germanic influences as freely and sympathetically as Pribina. Rather they opposed them because of their desire to preserve as great an independence as possible. This opposition led at first to internal dissensions and later manifested itself in sincere efforts to find means of christianizing the Slovak and other Slovanic tribes of Great Moravia other than that of Frankish missionaries. During the internal upheaval Mojmir replaced Pribina. The defeat and departure of Pribina signifies the removal of Frankish influence and a broader unification of all Slovak and other Slovanic tribes under one ruler. The rulers of the Franks, however, always used the matter of Christianizing the Slavs as an excuse to meddle in the internal affairs of Great Moravia. The rulers of Great Moravia were therefore left with but one choice: to seek out such means of christianizing their subjects which would enable them to restrain every occasion of the Frankish Empire to circumscribe Slovak independence and subject the people to vassalage. This was the aim of Rastislav, Mojmir's successor, when he turned to the Byzantine Emperor Michael Ill - according to a preserved legend - with a request to send a bishop and teacher, who would enlighten and instruct his �SLOVAKIA 53 people in the true faith and in their own tongue"(7). Emperor Michael III must have realized the political implications of Rastislav's request, for he sent at once, in the year 863, to Great Moravia two of his most worthy and learned men - the Saints Cyril and Methodius who are honored today not only as Slovak Apostles, but also as "Apostles of the Slavs." Though Saints Cyri land Methodius were Greeks, they nevertheless understood the language of the Slovaks. They began their missionary labors by introducing a new adphabet and by translating the Bible and other religious books into the language of the people. Thus, through their efforts, was founded the Slovanic liturgy. Frankish bishops, however, saw in these innovations an opportune occasion to cause discord, for at this time divisions appeared which eventually ended in schism and divided the people into two camps, namely, the western and eastern forms of Christianity. Saints Cyril and Methodius desired to safeguard their methods of christianization in the eyes of Rome and obtained permission from the Pope to conduct the liturgy in Slovanic. But the political pressure of the Franks upon Great Moravia steadily grew stronger and stronger. It sapped the strength of the Slovak rulers and succeeded in bringing about the catastrophe of 906, i.e., the downfall of Great Moravia. The missionary labors of Saints Cyril and Methodius in the central European sphere of activity came to an end. Their pupils wended their way to the Balkans and lived among the Bulgarians and other Slovanic races, who eventually became the heirs of that cultural seed first sown in the confines of present-day Slovakia. With the downfall of Great Moravia, new states gradually began to take form in Central Europe, namely, the Czech, Polish, and Hungarian. For a thousand years this well-established portion of Great Moravia became a part of Hungarian rule. When, however, new ideas in the far distant future offer new opportunities for organizing a society, Great Moravia once again comes to life in the minds of its present generations, and becomes for the Slovaks the source of their "common pride in the achievements of this nation and a common sorrow in its �54 SLOVAKIA tragedies"(8). The brief but very dramatic events of Great Moravia play a very important role in the reawakening of Slovak nationalism: they give it an historical substance for its ambitions to statehood an doffer countless historical examples of past heroism as an incentive in its present attempts to acrieve these ambitions. The link between Great Moravia and present-day Slovak nationalism is more emotional than real, for the end of Great Moravia meant the end of its cultural and political influence within the area of Central Europe which is today called Slovakia. The Slovanic race residing at that time on the territory of what is iow Slovakia, the forefathers of the Slovaks, definitely came under the sphere of influence of Latin Christianity and politically became a part of the Hungarian State. That they were not wholly absorbed by the Magyars during the many centuries of their life in the Hungarian State can be attributed only to the cosmopolitan character of the Hungarian State and to the use of Latin as the official language in governmental and educational systems. The concepts "nation" and "nationality," as we know them today, probably did not exist at all at that time, and were certainly entirely different from the concept "state." 4. New Concepts: "People" and "Nation" The origin of modern Slovak nationalism, as well as of all nationalism in Central Europe, must be determined from that period when, under the influence of the Enlightenment, great masses of hitherto enslaved peoples began to be aware of their distinctive group characteristics. Medieval, feudal society itself felt that the end was near for its outmoded social system and clamored for reform. These reforms were to better the conditions and status of the "people" so that they could ascend the European political stage as new and revolutionary actors. As decisive political actors, these "people" first appeared in the American Revolution, where they laid the foundations of American democracy as opposed to European aristocracy and its autocratic form of government. A further and more radically revolutionary appearance of these actors occurred �SLOVAKIA 55 in the French Revolution which shook the foundations not only of France but of all Europe. Thanks to the military genius of Napoleon, the battlecry of these new revolutionary "people" flooded all of Europe with his soldiers. In the political millieu of the Slovaks, under the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the revolutionary "people" obtained certain rights emanating from the drastic reforms inaugurated by the emperor of "Enlightenment," Joseph II. Although the greater portion of these reforms had to be repealed because of the opposition of the yet powerful upper class, nevertheless much agitation and reaction ensued with the result that this empire found itself embroiled in a revolutionary cauldron - the presentiment of its eventual downfall. In the language of the thinkers of the Enlightenment the concept "people" primarily denoted the social class of the poor as distinct from the class of aristocrats. It brought about revolutions of the poor against the rich, respectively of the underprivileged against the privileged. In this conflict, however, the established boundaries of the medieval states were not affected. When subsequently the German Romantic philosophers came to emphasize the importance of common history, language and culture, the cosmopolitan medieval European society started to split also along the new line of ethnographical groups, called nations. The result of it was that the long time established boundaries of the European states started to crack under the constant efforts of the ethnographical groups to emancipate themselves from the subjection of the other ethnographic groups that might have been predominating in their original states. In the case of "people" there was much more concern over the freedom of the individual, whereas in the case of "nation" the struggle for the freedom of the groups, called nations, is uppermost. In those places where language boundaries were consonant with the boundaries of the state, the concept "nation"(9), based upon a kinship of language, produced a greater national unity. Such was the situation in France and Germany. A homogeneous language produced among the Germans a strong feeling of fellowship and led to the unification of the Germans into a solid German state �56 SLOVAKIA under the leadership of Prussia. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire, however, the language question became the root of great discord and shook the foundations of this mighty territory. The many nationalities under its sway, after asserting their individuality, began to demand their own rights and, abetted by Western Democracies, brought Austro-Hungary to complete dissolution. This period of increasing European ferment brought forth also from the Slovaks their assertion for national independence from the other components of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, particularly from the Magyars. As the other nations under Austro-Hungarian domination, so too the Slovaks codified their national language and began to search for historical, ideological, and cultural evidence that would express their national individuality. At first this national reawakening bore the markings of Pan-Slavism, whereby the Slovaks sought to establish Slovakia as the cradle of all the Slovanic nations. Memories of Great Moravia played an important role in this regard, for in the minds of Pan-Slavism this empire was the first political manifestation of Slovaks as well as the other Slavs. PanSlavism was supported more by Slovak Lutherans rather than Catholics. The reason is that many Slovak Lutherans received their education in Germany where they had the opportunity of becoming acquainted with Hegelian philosophy, which laid a mystical foundation for the nation state on a high phi•losophical plane where God, the world-spirit, reason, nature, and history intermingled and became one. In the profound and seldom clear introductions to his Philosophy of Right and Philosophy of History he proclaimed that each people was imbued with a world force endowing it with peculiar spirit and special purpose, and that the state was the final embodiment of dialectic evolution flowing out of the historical experience and genius of a people (10). Basing himself on the philosopphical premises of Hegel, Herder came to the conclusion that the Roman and German nations had fulfilled their historical mission and that the future will belong to the Slovanic peoples. Because of their dove-like character, they will bring to the world a period of peace and gentleness. These claims were in complete opposition to historical facts, but as myths they were �SLOVAKIA 57 instrumental in g1vmg birth to a special heroic Pan-Slavistic literature. By exalting the mythological past of Slovanic nations this literature gave rise to national pride. On the other hand, the realistic politics in which the Slovaks had to engage in order to safeguard themselves from the Magyarizing efforts of the rulers of the Hungarian State, led them gradually to abandon the utopian idea of Pan-Slavism and to assert instead their distinct national individuality. From 1860 to the end of the First World War, they had to undergo a period of severe trials at the hands of the Magyars, who attempted to accomplish in a few decades what they had failed to attain in centuries, that is, the assimilation of non-Magyar nations in Hungary. It is difficult to say whether they could have succeeded in this venture, because the First World War disrupted their attempts. The Slovaks, as well as the other nations in Austro-Hunga ry, found themselves in new political circumstances, and gained more favorable opportunities to develop their distinct national traits. 5. Progress of Slovak Nationalism After the First World War The dissolution of the Austro-Hung arian Monarchy after the First World War opened up a great opportunity for the development of Slovak national sentiment. Slovakia was taken away from the Magyars. With its inclusion in the Czecho-Slovak Republic, Slovakia for the first time in history obtained defined boundaries. The importance of this historical step cannot be minimized, for Slovak nationalism began to lean upon a certain well defined territory. The separation of the Slovaks from the Magyars broke also the tie binding the former to their feudal order and opened up opportunities for the near revolutionary development of a new democratic, Slovak society within the confines of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. Through the medium of schools, the Magyar attempt to assimilate the Slovaks was halted. In the Czecho-Slovak Republic the national Slovak language became the language not only of the people but also of the schools and official business. Thus, for the first time in history, opportunities arose for the formation of a distinct �58 SLOVAKIA Slovak culture, even though the centralizing efforts of the new Czecho-Slovak state, dominated by the Czechs, were opposed to such a development. Although at the present time the vast majority of the Slovaks bears an unfriendly attitude toward inclusion in any form of Czecho-Slovakia, whether it be communist or democratic, it is self-evident that such was not the case during the First World War. Then the Slovaks accepted warm-hearted ly and hopefully the creation of Czecho-Slovakia, for together with the Czechs they possessed a mutual kinship of language and culture as well as similar political ambitions. The present unfavorable attitude toward the Czechs is attributed to the failure of Czechs to fulfill their promises and agreements, that is, the failure to grant autonomy to Slovakia and the refusal to concede to the Slovaks ethnical and racial rights belonging to them as a distinct nation. Instead, the Czech majority in the Prague parliament decided to form the so-called "Czechoslovak" nation by law, i.e., by maens of the Czechoslovak constitution, whereby the Slovaks in practice were identified racially with the Czechs, and Slovakia was made completely dependent upon the central government in Prague. Such an action was looked upon in Slovakia as a secret move to assimilate the Slovaks with the Czechs, and thus to deprive the Slovaks of their national individuality. Therefore, imediately after the creation of Czecho-Slovakia following the First World War, there arose in Slovakia a powerful movement for autonomy. This movement, warring against the concept "Czechoslovak nation" and the centralism based upon it, presents a new phase in the development of Slovak nationalism in the new and more favorable conditions of the Czechoslovak Republic. Even though this movement never had a clear majority of the Slovaks, but "this," as Mr. C. A. Macartney rightly points out, "does not necessarily mean that the majority of the Slovaks were in favor of a centralized Czechoslovak Republic. The elections were not fought on the issue of Autonomy versus Centralism, and material advantages were to be gained by voting for the Czechoslovak parties, especially for the always inoffice Agrarians. In fact, apart for the small and cultured Lutheran minority, most Slovaks who voted for the democratic Czechoslovak parties were probably opportunists. Those who felt most strongly were usually Autonomists or Communists" (11. ) �SLOVAKIA 59 Little wonder, therefore, that the majority of Slovaks displayed no sorrow at Hitler's overthrow of Czecho-Slovakia and accepted joyfully the idea of establishing a separate Slovak state, even though it was widely felt that the conditions for beginning a seprate existence during the revolutionary period of 1938-1939 were not very favorable. The existence of the Slovak Republic during the Second World War may appear to outside observers as the operation of those political elements is widely known as fascism, actually, however, the short-lived existence of the Slovak Republic indicates the final phase of the development of Slovak nationalism: the achieving of its own statehood. In spite of the situations in which the Slovaks have become involved since the last war, their efforts both in the free Western World and in Slovakia are concentrated as they never were before to restore independence to their country. (1) Nationalism and Internationalism, New York, 1946; p. 16. (2) Boyd C. Shafer: Nationalism: Myth and Reality, New York, Harcourt, Brace Company, 1954, pp. 7-8. (3) This is Slovakia: Obrana Press, Scranton, 1955; pp. 2-6. (4) Shafer: op. cit.; p. 7. (5) Dr. Frantisek Bokes: Dejiny Slovenska a Slovakov, Bratislava, 1940; p. 31. (6) Bokes: op. cit., p. 33. (7) Dr. Uudovit Zachar: Borba za narodnu slobodu, Bratislava, 1931; p. 220. (8) Shafer: op. cit.; p . 7. (9) The reader should be reminded that the author of this treatise uses always the word "nation" to indicate an ethnographic group and not a nation-state. (10) Boyd Shafer: Nationalism: Myth and Reality; p. 25. (11) Seton Watson: Eastern Europe Between the Wars 1918-1941, London, Hutchinson Co. , 1945; pp. 176-177 . • • • WHO SAID IT? ''Consemralive Catholic politics has no place in the twentieth century, noc can it exist in the proximity of the lJlSS!R. Politics of provocation is no positive politics. Denunciation of Comm unism, often supported by the shibboleth "For God and Country," can no longer be accepted even in view of the dem()ICratic evolution Olf the Slovak nation." - (Ferdinand Peroutka, a Benes Czech, DNESEK, 11-20-47). � 46 SLOVAKIA partment heads of U. S. Government on all Slovak and Czech matters still remain at their posts at our expense on the strength of a memorandum prepared by the Benes Czechs a memorandum whose language reveals that its authors just as well might have been the Czech Reds, or their "comrades" in Moscow! • • • SLOVAK NATIONALISM: THE ORIGINS OF SLOVAK NATIONALISM B. S. Bue, Ph.D. 1. Nationalism and the Existing "Status Quo" To speak of the Slovaks is to touch upon a problem which at the present time has assumed vital and worldwide proportions, namely, the problem of nationalism. Nationalism is one of the most discussed issues in the modern political world. The reason lies in the more extensive definition by which nationalism refers not only to the lofty devotion of citizens towards their native country, also known as patriotism, but especially to a revolutionary movement of our modern society. Thus, nationalism is giving rise to dangerous political tensions in various sectors of the globe and threatening to disintegrate the political status quo of many long established nations. There is need, therefore, of a thorough understanding of all its components, motives, and objectives. Slovak nationalism involves a lofty devotion to a native land, but as yet has not developed serious revolutionary characteristics. It has not, therefore, attracted significant attention from the international community. Nevertheless, it has grown from almost complete oblivion t o such proportions that it must be taken into consideration as one of the most important forces shaping the future destiny of Central Europe. From the beginning of its existence Slovak nationalism was nurtured by ideas which followed the revolutionary changes of medieval, feudal society and laid the foundation for the birth of new political systems which we call "Western Democracy." But Slovak nationalism is Western not because of its ideological relationship alone. During �SLOVAKIA 47 the First World War Western Democracies actually gave it physical support so that it could achieve partially the fulfillment of its ambitions. In the words of Don Luigi Sturza: "Once a country or a people has succeeded in developing a consciousness of its own personality and in affirming it in the struggles with which history has confronted it, there is no stopping."(!) Dissatisfied with only a partial fulfillment of its political ambitions, Slovak nationalism is endeavoring at the present time to attain the final goal sought by every nationalism, that is, complete national independence in its own state. Generally, under the term of nationalism fall most present political efforts that seek to alter the existing status quo which was formed in past centuries by great powers and the maintaining of which occupies their chief interests. The modern nationalistic movements seem to be governed more by sentiment than by realism in their outlook with regard to geographical, economic and strategic setups. From the standpoint of economy, they aim at breaking up time-tested, unified wholes and to form instead economically and strategically isolated inactive groups that easily succumb to one or another imperialism. The characteristic quality of these modern nationalistic movements is revolutionism. Under this term we must consider not only the violence that is perpetrated in the struggle for liberation, but above all the effort exerted to establish society upon new foundations. Such an arrangement cannot be realized in the present because its formation is always dependent upon a temporal and historical evolution. It is, however, difficult to condemn nationalistic movements from the standpoint of being guided more by sentiment than by realism. They are emotional only because they are striving to undo what we hold as sacred, accepted forms of the past; or they are realistic in that they endeavor to fulfill the modern principle of freedom and equality not only in the case of individuals, but also in the case of the organized groups that we call nations. �48 SLOVAKIA 2. Nature of Modern Nationalism Modern nationalism is very difficult to define precisely because its concept is not fixed and varies in scope and meaning. Nationalism is what the nationalists have made it; it is not a neat fixed concept, but a varying combination of beliefs and conditions. It may be in part founded on myth, but myths, like other errors, have a way of perpetuating themselves and of becoming not true but real. The fact is that myth and actuality, and truth and error, are inextricably intermixed in modern nationalism.. The only reasonable way to get at the nature of nationalism is to determine what beliefs - however true or false - and what conditions - however misinterpreted - are commonly present. The following ten are here hypothetically advanced. No claim is laid for their infallibility or finality. 1. A certain defined (often vaguely) unit of territory (whether possessed or coveted). 2. Some common cultural characteristics, such as language (or widely understood languages), customs, manners, and literature (folk tales and lore are the beginning). If an individual believes he shares these, and wishes to continue sharing them, he is usually said to be a member of the nationality. 3. Some common dominant social (as Christian) and economic (as capitalistic or recently communistic) institutions. 4. A common independent or sovereign government (type does not matter) or the desire for one. The "principle" that each nationality should be separate and independent is involved here. 5. A belief in a common history (it can be invented) and in a common origin (often mistakingly conceived to be racial in nature). 6. A love or esteem for fellow nationals (not necessarily as individuals). 7. A devotion to the entity (however little comprehended) called the nation, which embodies the common territory, culture, social and economic institutions, government, and fellow nationals, and which is at the same time (whether organism or not) more than their sum. 8. A common pride in the achievements (often military more than cultural) of this nation and a common sorrow in its tragedies (particularly its defeats). 9. A disregard for the hostility to other (not necessarily all) like groups, especially if these prevent or seem to threaten the separate national existence. 10. A hope that the nation will have a great and glorious future (usually in teritorial expansion) and become supreme in some way (in world power if the nation is already large) (2). Applying to the Slovaks, these ten characteristic points upon which all modern nationalisms are supposed to be based, we arrive at the conclusion that Slovak nationalism is based upon : �SLOVAKIA 49 1. a certain defined territory; 2. its own language and culture; 3. the Christian foundation of its society; 4. the "principle" that Slovaks must live in their own independent state; 5. the knowledge of its own long history; 6. a love for fellow nationals; 7. a devotion to their territory, 8. more upon a common sorrow for national tragedy than pride in national achievements; 9. a certain hostility to those who have attempted, or are attempting, to enslave the Slovak people; 10. a hope that the nation will be glorious, but definitely not an ambition to make Slovakia a decisive world power. 8. Geographical and Historical Suppositions of Slovak Nationalism The territory occupied by the Slovaks lies in the heart of Europe. Although Slovakia is a small country, it is, nevertheless, larger in area than Albania, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Holland, or Switzerland. Slovakia today comprises an area of 48,957 square kilometers, or 22,500 square miles, and approximates the size of Belgium and Holland combined, or the size of West Virginia in the U. S. A. Its present population is 3,800,000. Francis Hrusovsky, eminent Slovak historian, has described the political significance of the geographical position of Slovakia in the following words: "Slovakia lies along the northern shores of the Central Danube, where the eastern slopes of the Alps touch the western slopes of the Carpathian mountains, and its territory covers the northern part of the Danubian basin. Since the dawn of European history, a route has run through the gate of the Danube, connecting the West and the East. This important route was intersected at this very point by several routes which ran from south to north and linked the coasts of the Adriatic with those of the Baltic and North Seas. From earliest times, nations seeking new homelands have flowed over these routes which intersect along the Danube. Through the portals of the Danube marched aggressive conquerors, and the soil of this land frequently served as the stage for bloody conflicts. The nation which settled in such a bustling spot experienced little peace, continually having to defend itself to keep from being swept away by the raging �50 SLOVAKIA storms. In defending its life its strength was exhausted and hence could not grow and develop as it might have in a peaceful atmosphere where the catastrophe is not always imminent . . . When, at the end of the 4th Century, the Romans had to withdraw from the Danube, and when, subsequently, the German tribes also left that territory, the Slavs flooded Central Europe from the Baltic Sea to the Balkans" (3). Since the sixth century, therefore, the territory of Slovakia has been the homeland of the Slovaks and their forefathers. During the first two centuries the Slav (Slovanic) tribes, whose descendants are the present-day Slovaks, did not enjoy an independent life. For from the sixth to the eighth century, the entire central European sector suffered under the dominating sway of warring Avars who carried on attacks upon Western Europe. At the end of the eighth century, however, Charlemagne successfully destroyed the power of the Avar Empire. This victory enabled the tribes of the Slovanic races to begin efforts at unification and soon to establish the Greater Moravian Empire. This era then saw the definite beginning and unfolding of the history of the Slovaks, although most of the Slavs can trace from it the partial origins, if not of their political, at least of their cultural life. The brief but exceedingly rich history of the Greater Moravian Empire is a source of "common pride in the achievements of this nation and a common sorrow in its tragedies"(4) for Slovak nationalism. Without a doubt, it would be difficult to prove that during the existence of the Greater Moravian Empire the Slovaks constituted an element independent and separate from the other Slav (Slovanic) races. They constituted a part of the Slav races who, during the migration of nations, crossed the Carpathian boundaries and settled in the valley of the Danube and Moravian rivers. Furthermore, no clearly defined boundaries of Greater Moravia existed. Nevertheless, we know that it covered a large part of the territory surrounding the Carpathian mountains. In this sector the interests of the Western Franks met with the interests of the Byzantine Empire. The empire of Great Moravia was located in the territories of present-day Slovakia and Moravia, which were inhabited at that time by �SLOVAKIA 51 the predecessors of the Slovaks, with the Czechs settling in the land of the Boii, Bohemia. The first documentary evidence of Great Moravia dates from the year 822. In that year a parliamentary gathering took place at Frankfurt-on-the-Main, which included representatives of Great Moravia. The leaders of Great Moravia had to maintain constant vigilance against the frequent attacks of the Franks who, under the guise of spreading Christianity, sought to make vassals of the Great Moravian rulers(5). For a time the inhabitants of Great Moravia were successful. But to the danger which threatened them from the part of the Franks was soon added the danger of harrassing Magyar nomads of Mongolian origin, who had then begun to make inroads into Central Europe. After many bitter and wearisome struggles they finally succumbed either in the year 906 or 908. Though short-lived, the Great Moravia's eventful life proved itself an inexhaustible source of heroic material for the poets of the budding Slovak nationalism of the 17th and 18th centuries. Faithful to the mythical tendencies of Romanticism and Pan-Slavism, Slovak authors exploited successfully Great Moravia's hidden past and thus created in the almost extinct group of Slovak people a feeling of greatness and national pride. Slovakia was made by them the cradle of all Slav (Slovanic) cultures and the Slovaks the leading Slav nation in the conversion of the other Slavs from backward paganism to the higher cultural life of Christianity. These conclusions were reached on the ground of two testimonials which, even at the present time, bear witness of Great Moravia's cultural role and political importance for the Slovanic nations. These testimonials are : a church built in 830 A.D., and the Slovanic liturgy with its Cyrillic alphabet. They represented two different tendencies that play a big role in Great Moravia's politics on account of her vital position between the German Franks and . the Byzantines, respectively between the Latin and Eastern (Greek) form of Christianity. The little church in the Slovak city of Nitra, portions of whose walls are still preserved in the foundations of the �52 SLOVAKIA Cathedral church, is a testimonal of German influence and of the Latin trend in the Great Moravian era. It was built by Pribina - one of the first known ru• lers on Slovak soil who chose Nitra as the seat of govern• ment - and blessed by Adalram, the Archbishop of Salzburg, in the year 833(6). From this fact it is evident that Pribina brought with him the Germanic influence which he absorbed under the rulers of the Frankish Empire. For Slovak nationalism, however, this church is an historical mdication of the bent of the forefathers of Slovakia to Western culture, so clearly manifested in the Latin form of Christianity. The culture-religious testimonial, linking Great Moravia with the present, is the Slovanic liturgy still faithfully followed in Orthodox churches and the Greek Catholic churches of the Eastern Rite. The alphabet of the Russians and other Slavs also has its origin in Great Moravia. Not all the rulers favored Germanic influences as freely and sympathetically as Pribina. Rather they opposed them because of their desire to preserve as great an independence as possible. This opposition led at first to internal dissensions and later manifested itself in sincere efforts to find means of christianizing the Slovak and other Slovanic tribes of Great Moravia other than that of Frankish missionaries. During the internal upheaval Mojmir replaced Pribina. The defeat and departure of Pribina signifies the removal of Frankish influence and a broader unification of all Slovak and other Slovanic tribes under one ruler. The rulers of the Franks, however, always used the matter of Christianizing the Slavs as an excuse to meddle in the internal affairs of Great Moravia. The rulers of Great Moravia were therefore left with but one choice: to seek out such means of christianizing their subjects which would enable them to restrain every occasion of the Frankish Empire to circumscribe Slovak independence and subject the people to vassalage. This was the aim of Rastislav, Mojmir's successor, when he turned to the Byzantine Emperor Michael Ill - according to a preserved legend - with a request to send a bishop and teacher, who would enlighten and instruct his �SLOVAKIA 53 people in the true faith and in their own tongue"(7). Emperor Michael III must have realized the political implications of Rastislav's request, for he sent at once, in the year 863, to Great Moravia two of his most worthy and learned men - the Saints Cyril and Methodius who are honored today not only as Slovak Apostles, but also as "Apostles of the Slavs." Though Saints Cyri land Methodius were Greeks, they nevertheless understood the language of the Slovaks. They began their missionary labors by introducing a new adphabet and by translating the Bible and other religious books into the language of the people. Thus, through their efforts, was founded the Slovanic liturgy. Frankish bishops, however, saw in these innovations an opportune occasion to cause discord, for at this time divisions appeared which eventually ended in schism and divided the people into two camps, namely, the western and eastern forms of Christianity. Saints Cyril and Methodius desired to safeguard their methods of christianization in the eyes of Rome and obtained permission from the Pope to conduct the liturgy in Slovanic. But the political pressure of the Franks upon Great Moravia steadily grew stronger and stronger. It sapped the strength of the Slovak rulers and succeeded in bringing about the catastrophe of 906, i.e., the downfall of Great Moravia. The missionary labors of Saints Cyril and Methodius in the central European sphere of activity came to an end. Their pupils wended their way to the Balkans and lived among the Bulgarians and other Slovanic races, who eventually became the heirs of that cultural seed first sown in the confines of present-day Slovakia. With the downfall of Great Moravia, new states gradually began to take form in Central Europe, namely, the Czech, Polish, and Hungarian. For a thousand years this well-established portion of Great Moravia became a part of Hungarian rule. When, however, new ideas in the far distant future offer new opportunities for organizing a society, Great Moravia once again comes to life in the minds of its present generations, and becomes for the Slovaks the source of their "common pride in the achievements of this nation and a common sorrow in its �54 SLOVAKIA tragedies"(8). The brief but very dramatic events of Great Moravia play a very important role in the reawakening of Slovak nationalism: they give it an historical substance for its ambitions to statehood an doffer countless historical examples of past heroism as an incentive in its present attempts to acrieve these ambitions. The link between Great Moravia and present-day Slovak nationalism is more emotional than real, for the end of Great Moravia meant the end of its cultural and political influence within the area of Central Europe which is today called Slovakia. The Slovanic race residing at that time on the territory of what is iow Slovakia, the forefathers of the Slovaks, definitely came under the sphere of influence of Latin Christianity and politically became a part of the Hungarian State. That they were not wholly absorbed by the Magyars during the many centuries of their life in the Hungarian State can be attributed only to the cosmopolitan character of the Hungarian State and to the use of Latin as the official language in governmental and educational systems. The concepts "nation" and "nationality," as we know them today, probably did not exist at all at that time, and were certainly entirely different from the concept "state." 4. New Concepts: "People" and "Nation" The origin of modern Slovak nationalism, as well as of all nationalism in Central Europe, must be determined from that period when, under the influence of the Enlightenment, great masses of hitherto enslaved peoples began to be aware of their distinctive group characteristics. Medieval, feudal society itself felt that the end was near for its outmoded social system and clamored for reform. These reforms were to better the conditions and status of the "people" so that they could ascend the European political stage as new and revolutionary actors. As decisive political actors, these "people" first appeared in the American Revolution, where they laid the foundations of American democracy as opposed to European aristocracy and its autocratic form of government. A further and more radically revolutionary appearance of these actors occurred �SLOVAKIA 55 in the French Revolution which shook the foundations not only of France but of all Europe. Thanks to the military genius of Napoleon, the battlecry of these new revolutionary "people" flooded all of Europe with his soldiers. In the political millieu of the Slovaks, under the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the revolutionary "people" obtained certain rights emanating from the drastic reforms inaugurated by the emperor of "Enlightenment," Joseph II. Although the greater portion of these reforms had to be repealed because of the opposition of the yet powerful upper class, nevertheless much agitation and reaction ensued with the result that this empire found itself embroiled in a revolutionary cauldron - the presentiment of its eventual downfall. In the language of the thinkers of the Enlightenment the concept "people" primarily denoted the social class of the poor as distinct from the class of aristocrats. It brought about revolutions of the poor against the rich, respectively of the underprivileged against the privileged. In this conflict, however, the established boundaries of the medieval states were not affected. When subsequently the German Romantic philosophers came to emphasize the importance of common history, language and culture, the cosmopolitan medieval European society started to split also along the new line of ethnographical groups, called nations. The result of it was that the long time established boundaries of the European states started to crack under the constant efforts of the ethnographical groups to emancipate themselves from the subjection of the other ethnographic groups that might have been predominating in their original states. In the case of "people" there was much more concern over the freedom of the individual, whereas in the case of "nation" the struggle for the freedom of the groups, called nations, is uppermost. In those places where language boundaries were consonant with the boundaries of the state, the concept "nation"(9), based upon a kinship of language, produced a greater national unity. Such was the situation in France and Germany. A homogeneous language produced among the Germans a strong feeling of fellowship and led to the unification of the Germans into a solid German state �56 SLOVAKIA under the leadership of Prussia. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire, however, the language question became the root of great discord and shook the foundations of this mighty territory. The many nationalities under its sway, after asserting their individuality, began to demand their own rights and, abetted by Western Democracies, brought Austro-Hungary to complete dissolution. This period of increasing European ferment brought forth also from the Slovaks their assertion for national independence from the other components of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, particularly from the Magyars. As the other nations under Austro-Hungarian domination, so too the Slovaks codified their national language and began to search for historical, ideological, and cultural evidence that would express their national individuality. At first this national reawakening bore the markings of Pan-Slavism, whereby the Slovaks sought to establish Slovakia as the cradle of all the Slovanic nations. Memories of Great Moravia played an important role in this regard, for in the minds of Pan-Slavism this empire was the first political manifestation of Slovaks as well as the other Slavs. PanSlavism was supported more by Slovak Lutherans rather than Catholics. The reason is that many Slovak Lutherans received their education in Germany where they had the opportunity of becoming acquainted with Hegelian philosophy, which laid a mystical foundation for the nation state on a high phi•losophical plane where God, the world-spirit, reason, nature, and history intermingled and became one. In the profound and seldom clear introductions to his Philosophy of Right and Philosophy of History he proclaimed that each people was imbued with a world force endowing it with peculiar spirit and special purpose, and that the state was the final embodiment of dialectic evolution flowing out of the historical experience and genius of a people (10). Basing himself on the philosopphical premises of Hegel, Herder came to the conclusion that the Roman and German nations had fulfilled their historical mission and that the future will belong to the Slovanic peoples. Because of their dove-like character, they will bring to the world a period of peace and gentleness. These claims were in complete opposition to historical facts, but as myths they were �SLOVAKIA 57 instrumental in g1vmg birth to a special heroic Pan-Slavistic literature. By exalting the mythological past of Slovanic nations this literature gave rise to national pride. On the other hand, the realistic politics in which the Slovaks had to engage in order to safeguard themselves from the Magyarizing efforts of the rulers of the Hungarian State, led them gradually to abandon the utopian idea of Pan-Slavism and to assert instead their distinct national individuality. From 1860 to the end of the First World War, they had to undergo a period of severe trials at the hands of the Magyars, who attempted to accomplish in a few decades what they had failed to attain in centuries, that is, the assimilation of non-Magyar nations in Hungary. It is difficult to say whether they could have succeeded in this venture, because the First World War disrupted their attempts. The Slovaks, as well as the other nations in Austro-Hunga ry, found themselves in new political circumstances, and gained more favorable opportunities to develop their distinct national traits. 5. Progress of Slovak Nationalism After the First World War The dissolution of the Austro-Hung arian Monarchy after the First World War opened up a great opportunity for the development of Slovak national sentiment. Slovakia was taken away from the Magyars. With its inclusion in the Czecho-Slovak Republic, Slovakia for the first time in history obtained defined boundaries. The importance of this historical step cannot be minimized, for Slovak nationalism began to lean upon a certain well defined territory. The separation of the Slovaks from the Magyars broke also the tie binding the former to their feudal order and opened up opportunities for the near revolutionary development of a new democratic, Slovak society within the confines of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. Through the medium of schools, the Magyar attempt to assimilate the Slovaks was halted. In the Czecho-Slovak Republic the national Slovak language became the language not only of the people but also of the schools and official business. Thus, for the first time in history, opportunities arose for the formation of a distinct �58 SLOVAKIA Slovak culture, even though the centralizing efforts of the new Czecho-Slovak state, dominated by the Czechs, were opposed to such a development. Although at the present time the vast majority of the Slovaks bears an unfriendly attitude toward inclusion in any form of Czecho-Slovakia, whether it be communist or democratic, it is self-evident that such was not the case during the First World War. Then the Slovaks accepted warm-hearted ly and hopefully the creation of Czecho-Slovakia, for together with the Czechs they possessed a mutual kinship of language and culture as well as similar political ambitions. The present unfavorable attitude toward the Czechs is attributed to the failure of Czechs to fulfill their promises and agreements, that is, the failure to grant autonomy to Slovakia and the refusal to concede to the Slovaks ethnical and racial rights belonging to them as a distinct nation. Instead, the Czech majority in the Prague parliament decided to form the so-called "Czechoslovak" nation by law, i.e., by maens of the Czechoslovak constitution, whereby the Slovaks in practice were identified racially with the Czechs, and Slovakia was made completely dependent upon the central government in Prague. Such an action was looked upon in Slovakia as a secret move to assimilate the Slovaks with the Czechs, and thus to deprive the Slovaks of their national individuality. Therefore, imediately after the creation of Czecho-Slovakia following the First World War, there arose in Slovakia a powerful movement for autonomy. This movement, warring against the concept "Czechoslovak nation" and the centralism based upon it, presents a new phase in the development of Slovak nationalism in the new and more favorable conditions of the Czechoslovak Republic. Even though this movement never had a clear majority of the Slovaks, but "this," as Mr. C. A. Macartney rightly points out, "does not necessarily mean that the majority of the Slovaks were in favor of a centralized Czechoslovak Republic. The elections were not fought on the issue of Autonomy versus Centralism, and material advantages were to be gained by voting for the Czechoslovak parties, especially for the always inoffice Agrarians. In fact, apart for the small and cultured Lutheran minority, most Slovaks who voted for the democratic Czechoslovak parties were probably opportunists. Those who felt most strongly were usually Autonomists or Communists" (11. ) �SLOVAKIA 59 Little wonder, therefore, that the majority of Slovaks displayed no sorrow at Hitler's overthrow of Czecho-Slovakia and accepted joyfully the idea of establishing a separate Slovak state, even though it was widely felt that the conditions for beginning a seprate existence during the revolutionary period of 1938-1939 were not very favorable. The existence of the Slovak Republic during the Second World War may appear to outside observers as the operation of those political elements is widely known as fascism, actually, however, the short-lived existence of the Slovak Republic indicates the final phase of the development of Slovak nationalism: the achieving of its own statehood. In spite of the situations in which the Slovaks have become involved since the last war, their efforts both in the free Western World and in Slovakia are concentrated as they never were before to restore independence to their country. (1) Nationalism and Internationalism, New York, 1946; p. 16. (2) Boyd C. Shafer: Nationalism: Myth and Reality, New York, Harcourt, Brace Company, 1954, pp. 7-8. (3) This is Slovakia: Obrana Press, Scranton, 1955; pp. 2-6. (4) Shafer: op. cit.; p. 7. (5) Dr. Frantisek Bokes: Dejiny Slovenska a Slovakov, Bratislava, 1940; p. 31. (6) Bokes: op. cit., p. 33. (7) Dr. Uudovit Zachar: Borba za narodnu slobodu, Bratislava, 1931; p. 220. (8) Shafer: op. cit.; p . 7. (9) The reader should be reminded that the author of this treatise uses always the word "nation" to indicate an ethnographic group and not a nation-state. (10) Boyd Shafer: Nationalism: Myth and Reality; p. 25. (11) Seton Watson: Eastern Europe Between the Wars 1918-1941, London, Hutchinson Co. , 1945; pp. 176-177 . • • • WHO SAID IT? ''Consemralive Catholic politics has no place in the twentieth century, noc can it exist in the proximity of the lJlSS!R. Politics of provocation is no positive politics. Denunciation of Comm unism, often supported by the shibboleth "For God and Country," can no longer be accepted even in view of the dem()ICratic evolution Olf the Slovak nation." - (Ferdinand Peroutka, a Benes Czech, DNESEK, 11-20-47). � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1958, Vol. 8 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 26), March 1958.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 27), June 1958.</li> <li>Issue 3 (No. 28), December 1958.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1958 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 46 SLOVAKIA partment heads of U. S. Government on all Slovak and Czech matters still remain at their posts at our expense on the strength of a memorandum prepared by the Benes Czechs a memorandum whose language reveals that its authors just as well might have been the Czech Reds, or their "comrades" in Moscow! • • • SLOVAK NATIONALISM: THE ORIGINS OF SLOVAK NATIONALISM B. S. Bue, Ph.D. 1. Nationalism and the Existing "Status Quo" To speak of the Slovaks is to touch upon a problem which at the present time has assumed vital and worldwide proportions, namely, the problem of nationalism. Nationalism is one of the most discussed issues in the modern political world. The reason lies in the more extensive definition by which nationalism refers not only to the lofty devotion of citizens towards their native country, also known as patriotism, but especially to a revolutionary movement of our modern society. Thus, nationalism is giving rise to dangerous political tensions in various sectors of the globe and threatening to disintegrate the political status quo of many long established nations. There is need, therefore, of a thorough understanding of all its components, motives, and objectives. Slovak nationalism involves a lofty devotion to a native land, but as yet has not developed serious revolutionary characteristics. It has not, therefore, attracted significant attention from the international community. Nevertheless, it has grown from almost complete oblivion t o such proportions that it must be taken into consideration as one of the most important forces shaping the future destiny of Central Europe. From the beginning of its existence Slovak nationalism was nurtured by ideas which followed the revolutionary changes of medieval, feudal society and laid the foundation for the birth of new political systems which we call "Western Democracy." But Slovak nationalism is Western not because of its ideological relationship alone. During SLOVAKIA 47 the First World War Western Democracies actually gave it physical support so that it could achieve partially the fulfillment of its ambitions. In the words of Don Luigi Sturza: "Once a country or a people has succeeded in developing a consciousness of its own personality and in affirming it in the struggles with which history has confronted it, there is no stopping."(!) Dissatisfied with only a partial fulfillment of its political ambitions, Slovak nationalism is endeavoring at the present time to attain the final goal sought by every nationalism, that is, complete national independence in its own state. Generally, under the term of nationalism fall most present political efforts that seek to alter the existing status quo which was formed in past centuries by great powers and the maintaining of which occupies their chief interests. The modern nationalistic movements seem to be governed more by sentiment than by realism in their outlook with regard to geographical, economic and strategic setups. From the standpoint of economy, they aim at breaking up time-tested, unified wholes and to form instead economically and strategically isolated inactive groups that easily succumb to one or another imperialism. The characteristic quality of these modern nationalistic movements is revolutionism. Under this term we must consider not only the violence that is perpetrated in the struggle for liberation, but above all the effort exerted to establish society upon new foundations. Such an arrangement cannot be realized in the present because its formation is always dependent upon a temporal and historical evolution. It is, however, difficult to condemn nationalistic movements from the standpoint of being guided more by sentiment than by realism. They are emotional only because they are striving to undo what we hold as sacred, accepted forms of the past; or they are realistic in that they endeavor to fulfill the modern principle of freedom and equality not only in the case of individuals, but also in the case of the organized groups that we call nations. 48 SLOVAKIA 2. Nature of Modern Nationalism Modern nationalism is very difficult to define precisely because its concept is not fixed and varies in scope and meaning. Nationalism is what the nationalists have made it; it is not a neat fixed concept, but a varying combination of beliefs and conditions. It may be in part founded on myth, but myths, like other errors, have a way of perpetuating themselves and of becoming not true but real. The fact is that myth and actuality, and truth and error, are inextricably intermixed in modern nationalism.. The only reasonable way to get at the nature of nationalism is to determine what beliefs - however true or false - and what conditions - however misinterpreted - are commonly present. The following ten are here hypothetically advanced. No claim is laid for their infallibility or finality. 1. A certain defined (often vaguely) unit of territory (whether possessed or coveted). 2. Some common cultural characteristics, such as language (or widely understood languages), customs, manners, and literature (folk tales and lore are the beginning). If an individual believes he shares these, and wishes to continue sharing them, he is usually said to be a member of the nationality. 3. Some common dominant social (as Christian) and economic (as capitalistic or recently communistic) institutions. 4. A common independent or sovereign government (type does not matter) or the desire for one. The "principle" that each nationality should be separate and independent is involved here. 5. A belief in a common history (it can be invented) and in a common origin (often mistakingly conceived to be racial in nature). 6. A love or esteem for fellow nationals (not necessarily as individuals). 7. A devotion to the entity (however little comprehended) called the nation, which embodies the common territory, culture, social and economic institutions, government, and fellow nationals, and which is at the same time (whether organism or not) more than their sum. 8. A common pride in the achievements (often military more than cultural) of this nation and a common sorrow in its tragedies (particularly its defeats). 9. A disregard for the hostility to other (not necessarily all) like groups, especially if these prevent or seem to threaten the separate national existence. 10. A hope that the nation will have a great and glorious future (usually in teritorial expansion) and become supreme in some way (in world power if the nation is already large) (2). Applying to the Slovaks, these ten characteristic points upon which all modern nationalisms are supposed to be based, we arrive at the conclusion that Slovak nationalism is based upon : SLOVAKIA 49 1. a certain defined territory; 2. its own language and culture; 3. the Christian foundation of its society; 4. the "principle" that Slovaks must live in their own independent state; 5. the knowledge of its own long history; 6. a love for fellow nationals; 7. a devotion to their territory, 8. more upon a common sorrow for national tragedy than pride in national achievements; 9. a certain hostility to those who have attempted, or are attempting, to enslave the Slovak people; 10. a hope that the nation will be glorious, but definitely not an ambition to make Slovakia a decisive world power. 8. Geographical and Historical Suppositions of Slovak Nationalism The territory occupied by the Slovaks lies in the heart of Europe. Although Slovakia is a small country, it is, nevertheless, larger in area than Albania, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Holland, or Switzerland. Slovakia today comprises an area of 48,957 square kilometers, or 22,500 square miles, and approximates the size of Belgium and Holland combined, or the size of West Virginia in the U. S. A. Its present population is 3,800,000. Francis Hrusovsky, eminent Slovak historian, has described the political significance of the geographical position of Slovakia in the following words: "Slovakia lies along the northern shores of the Central Danube, where the eastern slopes of the Alps touch the western slopes of the Carpathian mountains, and its territory covers the northern part of the Danubian basin. Since the dawn of European history, a route has run through the gate of the Danube, connecting the West and the East. This important route was intersected at this very point by several routes which ran from south to north and linked the coasts of the Adriatic with those of the Baltic and North Seas. From earliest times, nations seeking new homelands have flowed over these routes which intersect along the Danube. Through the portals of the Danube marched aggressive conquerors, and the soil of this land frequently served as the stage for bloody conflicts. The nation which settled in such a bustling spot experienced little peace, continually having to defend itself to keep from being swept away by the raging 50 SLOVAKIA storms. In defending its life its strength was exhausted and hence could not grow and develop as it might have in a peaceful atmosphere where the catastrophe is not always imminent . . . When, at the end of the 4th Century, the Romans had to withdraw from the Danube, and when, subsequently, the German tribes also left that territory, the Slavs flooded Central Europe from the Baltic Sea to the Balkans" (3). Since the sixth century, therefore, the territory of Slovakia has been the homeland of the Slovaks and their forefathers. During the first two centuries the Slav (Slovanic) tribes, whose descendants are the present-day Slovaks, did not enjoy an independent life. For from the sixth to the eighth century, the entire central European sector suffered under the dominating sway of warring Avars who carried on attacks upon Western Europe. At the end of the eighth century, however, Charlemagne successfully destroyed the power of the Avar Empire. This victory enabled the tribes of the Slovanic races to begin efforts at unification and soon to establish the Greater Moravian Empire. This era then saw the definite beginning and unfolding of the history of the Slovaks, although most of the Slavs can trace from it the partial origins, if not of their political, at least of their cultural life. The brief but exceedingly rich history of the Greater Moravian Empire is a source of "common pride in the achievements of this nation and a common sorrow in its tragedies"(4) for Slovak nationalism. Without a doubt, it would be difficult to prove that during the existence of the Greater Moravian Empire the Slovaks constituted an element independent and separate from the other Slav (Slovanic) races. They constituted a part of the Slav races who, during the migration of nations, crossed the Carpathian boundaries and settled in the valley of the Danube and Moravian rivers. Furthermore, no clearly defined boundaries of Greater Moravia existed. Nevertheless, we know that it covered a large part of the territory surrounding the Carpathian mountains. In this sector the interests of the Western Franks met with the interests of the Byzantine Empire. The empire of Great Moravia was located in the territories of present-day Slovakia and Moravia, which were inhabited at that time by SLOVAKIA 51 the predecessors of the Slovaks, with the Czechs settling in the land of the Boii, Bohemia. The first documentary evidence of Great Moravia dates from the year 822. In that year a parliamentary gathering took place at Frankfurt-on-the-Main, which included representatives of Great Moravia. The leaders of Great Moravia had to maintain constant vigilance against the frequent attacks of the Franks who, under the guise of spreading Christianity, sought to make vassals of the Great Moravian rulers(5). For a time the inhabitants of Great Moravia were successful. But to the danger which threatened them from the part of the Franks was soon added the danger of harrassing Magyar nomads of Mongolian origin, who had then begun to make inroads into Central Europe. After many bitter and wearisome struggles they finally succumbed either in the year 906 or 908. Though short-lived, the Great Moravia's eventful life proved itself an inexhaustible source of heroic material for the poets of the budding Slovak nationalism of the 17th and 18th centuries. Faithful to the mythical tendencies of Romanticism and Pan-Slavism, Slovak authors exploited successfully Great Moravia's hidden past and thus created in the almost extinct group of Slovak people a feeling of greatness and national pride. Slovakia was made by them the cradle of all Slav (Slovanic) cultures and the Slovaks the leading Slav nation in the conversion of the other Slavs from backward paganism to the higher cultural life of Christianity. These conclusions were reached on the ground of two testimonials which, even at the present time, bear witness of Great Moravia's cultural role and political importance for the Slovanic nations. These testimonials are : a church built in 830 A.D., and the Slovanic liturgy with its Cyrillic alphabet. They represented two different tendencies that play a big role in Great Moravia's politics on account of her vital position between the German Franks and . the Byzantines, respectively between the Latin and Eastern (Greek) form of Christianity. The little church in the Slovak city of Nitra, portions of whose walls are still preserved in the foundations of the 52 SLOVAKIA Cathedral church, is a testimonal of German influence and of the Latin trend in the Great Moravian era. It was built by Pribina - one of the first known ru• lers on Slovak soil who chose Nitra as the seat of govern• ment - and blessed by Adalram, the Archbishop of Salzburg, in the year 833(6). From this fact it is evident that Pribina brought with him the Germanic influence which he absorbed under the rulers of the Frankish Empire. For Slovak nationalism, however, this church is an historical mdication of the bent of the forefathers of Slovakia to Western culture, so clearly manifested in the Latin form of Christianity. The culture-religious testimonial, linking Great Moravia with the present, is the Slovanic liturgy still faithfully followed in Orthodox churches and the Greek Catholic churches of the Eastern Rite. The alphabet of the Russians and other Slavs also has its origin in Great Moravia. Not all the rulers favored Germanic influences as freely and sympathetically as Pribina. Rather they opposed them because of their desire to preserve as great an independence as possible. This opposition led at first to internal dissensions and later manifested itself in sincere efforts to find means of christianizing the Slovak and other Slovanic tribes of Great Moravia other than that of Frankish missionaries. During the internal upheaval Mojmir replaced Pribina. The defeat and departure of Pribina signifies the removal of Frankish influence and a broader unification of all Slovak and other Slovanic tribes under one ruler. The rulers of the Franks, however, always used the matter of Christianizing the Slavs as an excuse to meddle in the internal affairs of Great Moravia. The rulers of Great Moravia were therefore left with but one choice: to seek out such means of christianizing their subjects which would enable them to restrain every occasion of the Frankish Empire to circumscribe Slovak independence and subject the people to vassalage. This was the aim of Rastislav, Mojmir's successor, when he turned to the Byzantine Emperor Michael Ill - according to a preserved legend - with a request to send a bishop and teacher, who would enlighten and instruct his SLOVAKIA 53 people in the true faith and in their own tongue"(7). Emperor Michael III must have realized the political implications of Rastislav's request, for he sent at once, in the year 863, to Great Moravia two of his most worthy and learned men - the Saints Cyril and Methodius who are honored today not only as Slovak Apostles, but also as "Apostles of the Slavs." Though Saints Cyri land Methodius were Greeks, they nevertheless understood the language of the Slovaks. They began their missionary labors by introducing a new adphabet and by translating the Bible and other religious books into the language of the people. Thus, through their efforts, was founded the Slovanic liturgy. Frankish bishops, however, saw in these innovations an opportune occasion to cause discord, for at this time divisions appeared which eventually ended in schism and divided the people into two camps, namely, the western and eastern forms of Christianity. Saints Cyril and Methodius desired to safeguard their methods of christianization in the eyes of Rome and obtained permission from the Pope to conduct the liturgy in Slovanic. But the political pressure of the Franks upon Great Moravia steadily grew stronger and stronger. It sapped the strength of the Slovak rulers and succeeded in bringing about the catastrophe of 906, i.e., the downfall of Great Moravia. The missionary labors of Saints Cyril and Methodius in the central European sphere of activity came to an end. Their pupils wended their way to the Balkans and lived among the Bulgarians and other Slovanic races, who eventually became the heirs of that cultural seed first sown in the confines of present-day Slovakia. With the downfall of Great Moravia, new states gradually began to take form in Central Europe, namely, the Czech, Polish, and Hungarian. For a thousand years this well-established portion of Great Moravia became a part of Hungarian rule. When, however, new ideas in the far distant future offer new opportunities for organizing a society, Great Moravia once again comes to life in the minds of its present generations, and becomes for the Slovaks the source of their "common pride in the achievements of this nation and a common sorrow in its 54 SLOVAKIA tragedies"(8). The brief but very dramatic events of Great Moravia play a very important role in the reawakening of Slovak nationalism: they give it an historical substance for its ambitions to statehood an doffer countless historical examples of past heroism as an incentive in its present attempts to acrieve these ambitions. The link between Great Moravia and present-day Slovak nationalism is more emotional than real, for the end of Great Moravia meant the end of its cultural and political influence within the area of Central Europe which is today called Slovakia. The Slovanic race residing at that time on the territory of what is iow Slovakia, the forefathers of the Slovaks, definitely came under the sphere of influence of Latin Christianity and politically became a part of the Hungarian State. That they were not wholly absorbed by the Magyars during the many centuries of their life in the Hungarian State can be attributed only to the cosmopolitan character of the Hungarian State and to the use of Latin as the official language in governmental and educational systems. The concepts "nation" and "nationality," as we know them today, probably did not exist at all at that time, and were certainly entirely different from the concept "state." 4. New Concepts: "People" and "Nation" The origin of modern Slovak nationalism, as well as of all nationalism in Central Europe, must be determined from that period when, under the influence of the Enlightenment, great masses of hitherto enslaved peoples began to be aware of their distinctive group characteristics. Medieval, feudal society itself felt that the end was near for its outmoded social system and clamored for reform. These reforms were to better the conditions and status of the "people" so that they could ascend the European political stage as new and revolutionary actors. As decisive political actors, these "people" first appeared in the American Revolution, where they laid the foundations of American democracy as opposed to European aristocracy and its autocratic form of government. A further and more radically revolutionary appearance of these actors occurred SLOVAKIA 55 in the French Revolution which shook the foundations not only of France but of all Europe. Thanks to the military genius of Napoleon, the battlecry of these new revolutionary "people" flooded all of Europe with his soldiers. In the political millieu of the Slovaks, under the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the revolutionary "people" obtained certain rights emanating from the drastic reforms inaugurated by the emperor of "Enlightenment," Joseph II. Although the greater portion of these reforms had to be repealed because of the opposition of the yet powerful upper class, nevertheless much agitation and reaction ensued with the result that this empire found itself embroiled in a revolutionary cauldron - the presentiment of its eventual downfall. In the language of the thinkers of the Enlightenment the concept "people" primarily denoted the social class of the poor as distinct from the class of aristocrats. It brought about revolutions of the poor against the rich, respectively of the underprivileged against the privileged. In this conflict, however, the established boundaries of the medieval states were not affected. When subsequently the German Romantic philosophers came to emphasize the importance of common history, language and culture, the cosmopolitan medieval European society started to split also along the new line of ethnographical groups, called nations. The result of it was that the long time established boundaries of the European states started to crack under the constant efforts of the ethnographical groups to emancipate themselves from the subjection of the other ethnographic groups that might have been predominating in their original states. In the case of "people" there was much more concern over the freedom of the individual, whereas in the case of "nation" the struggle for the freedom of the groups, called nations, is uppermost. In those places where language boundaries were consonant with the boundaries of the state, the concept "nation"(9), based upon a kinship of language, produced a greater national unity. Such was the situation in France and Germany. A homogeneous language produced among the Germans a strong feeling of fellowship and led to the unification of the Germans into a solid German state 56 SLOVAKIA under the leadership of Prussia. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire, however, the language question became the root of great discord and shook the foundations of this mighty territory. The many nationalities under its sway, after asserting their individuality, began to demand their own rights and, abetted by Western Democracies, brought Austro-Hungary to complete dissolution. This period of increasing European ferment brought forth also from the Slovaks their assertion for national independence from the other components of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, particularly from the Magyars. As the other nations under Austro-Hungarian domination, so too the Slovaks codified their national language and began to search for historical, ideological, and cultural evidence that would express their national individuality. At first this national reawakening bore the markings of Pan-Slavism, whereby the Slovaks sought to establish Slovakia as the cradle of all the Slovanic nations. Memories of Great Moravia played an important role in this regard, for in the minds of Pan-Slavism this empire was the first political manifestation of Slovaks as well as the other Slavs. PanSlavism was supported more by Slovak Lutherans rather than Catholics. The reason is that many Slovak Lutherans received their education in Germany where they had the opportunity of becoming acquainted with Hegelian philosophy, which laid a mystical foundation for the nation state on a high phi•losophical plane where God, the world-spirit, reason, nature, and history intermingled and became one. In the profound and seldom clear introductions to his Philosophy of Right and Philosophy of History he proclaimed that each people was imbued with a world force endowing it with peculiar spirit and special purpose, and that the state was the final embodiment of dialectic evolution flowing out of the historical experience and genius of a people (10). Basing himself on the philosopphical premises of Hegel, Herder came to the conclusion that the Roman and German nations had fulfilled their historical mission and that the future will belong to the Slovanic peoples. Because of their dove-like character, they will bring to the world a period of peace and gentleness. These claims were in complete opposition to historical facts, but as myths they were SLOVAKIA 57 instrumental in g1vmg birth to a special heroic Pan-Slavistic literature. By exalting the mythological past of Slovanic nations this literature gave rise to national pride. On the other hand, the realistic politics in which the Slovaks had to engage in order to safeguard themselves from the Magyarizing efforts of the rulers of the Hungarian State, led them gradually to abandon the utopian idea of Pan-Slavism and to assert instead their distinct national individuality. From 1860 to the end of the First World War, they had to undergo a period of severe trials at the hands of the Magyars, who attempted to accomplish in a few decades what they had failed to attain in centuries, that is, the assimilation of non-Magyar nations in Hungary. It is difficult to say whether they could have succeeded in this venture, because the First World War disrupted their attempts. The Slovaks, as well as the other nations in Austro-Hunga ry, found themselves in new political circumstances, and gained more favorable opportunities to develop their distinct national traits. 5. Progress of Slovak Nationalism After the First World War The dissolution of the Austro-Hung arian Monarchy after the First World War opened up a great opportunity for the development of Slovak national sentiment. Slovakia was taken away from the Magyars. With its inclusion in the Czecho-Slovak Republic, Slovakia for the first time in history obtained defined boundaries. The importance of this historical step cannot be minimized, for Slovak nationalism began to lean upon a certain well defined territory. The separation of the Slovaks from the Magyars broke also the tie binding the former to their feudal order and opened up opportunities for the near revolutionary development of a new democratic, Slovak society within the confines of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. Through the medium of schools, the Magyar attempt to assimilate the Slovaks was halted. In the Czecho-Slovak Republic the national Slovak language became the language not only of the people but also of the schools and official business. Thus, for the first time in history, opportunities arose for the formation of a distinct 58 SLOVAKIA Slovak culture, even though the centralizing efforts of the new Czecho-Slovak state, dominated by the Czechs, were opposed to such a development. Although at the present time the vast majority of the Slovaks bears an unfriendly attitude toward inclusion in any form of Czecho-Slovakia, whether it be communist or democratic, it is self-evident that such was not the case during the First World War. Then the Slovaks accepted warm-hearted ly and hopefully the creation of Czecho-Slovakia, for together with the Czechs they possessed a mutual kinship of language and culture as well as similar political ambitions. The present unfavorable attitude toward the Czechs is attributed to the failure of Czechs to fulfill their promises and agreements, that is, the failure to grant autonomy to Slovakia and the refusal to concede to the Slovaks ethnical and racial rights belonging to them as a distinct nation. Instead, the Czech majority in the Prague parliament decided to form the so-called "Czechoslovak" nation by law, i.e., by maens of the Czechoslovak constitution, whereby the Slovaks in practice were identified racially with the Czechs, and Slovakia was made completely dependent upon the central government in Prague. Such an action was looked upon in Slovakia as a secret move to assimilate the Slovaks with the Czechs, and thus to deprive the Slovaks of their national individuality. Therefore, imediately after the creation of Czecho-Slovakia following the First World War, there arose in Slovakia a powerful movement for autonomy. This movement, warring against the concept "Czechoslovak nation" and the centralism based upon it, presents a new phase in the development of Slovak nationalism in the new and more favorable conditions of the Czechoslovak Republic. Even though this movement never had a clear majority of the Slovaks, but "this," as Mr. C. A. Macartney rightly points out, "does not necessarily mean that the majority of the Slovaks were in favor of a centralized Czechoslovak Republic. The elections were not fought on the issue of Autonomy versus Centralism, and material advantages were to be gained by voting for the Czechoslovak parties, especially for the always inoffice Agrarians. In fact, apart for the small and cultured Lutheran minority, most Slovaks who voted for the democratic Czechoslovak parties were probably opportunists. Those who felt most strongly were usually Autonomists or Communists" (11. ) SLOVAKIA 59 Little wonder, therefore, that the majority of Slovaks displayed no sorrow at Hitler's overthrow of Czecho-Slovakia and accepted joyfully the idea of establishing a separate Slovak state, even though it was widely felt that the conditions for beginning a seprate existence during the revolutionary period of 1938-1939 were not very favorable. The existence of the Slovak Republic during the Second World War may appear to outside observers as the operation of those political elements is widely known as fascism, actually, however, the short-lived existence of the Slovak Republic indicates the final phase of the development of Slovak nationalism: the achieving of its own statehood. In spite of the situations in which the Slovaks have become involved since the last war, their efforts both in the free Western World and in Slovakia are concentrated as they never were before to restore independence to their country. (1) Nationalism and Internationalism, New York, 1946; p. 16. (2) Boyd C. Shafer: Nationalism: Myth and Reality, New York, Harcourt, Brace Company, 1954, pp. 7-8. (3) This is Slovakia: Obrana Press, Scranton, 1955; pp. 2-6. (4) Shafer: op. cit.; p. 7. (5) Dr. Frantisek Bokes: Dejiny Slovenska a Slovakov, Bratislava, 1940; p. 31. (6) Bokes: op. cit., p. 33. (7) Dr. Uudovit Zachar: Borba za narodnu slobodu, Bratislava, 1931; p. 220. (8) Shafer: op. cit.; p . 7. (9) The reader should be reminded that the author of this treatise uses always the word "nation" to indicate an ethnographic group and not a nation-state. (10) Boyd Shafer: Nationalism: Myth and Reality; p. 25. (11) Seton Watson: Eastern Europe Between the Wars 1918-1941, London, Hutchinson Co. , 1945; pp. 176-177 . • • • WHO SAID IT? ''Consemralive Catholic politics has no place in the twentieth century, noc can it exist in the proximity of the lJlSS!R. Politics of provocation is no positive politics. Denunciation of Comm unism, often supported by the shibboleth "For God and Country," can no longer be accepted even in view of the dem()ICratic evolution Olf the Slovak nation." - (Ferdinand Peroutka, a Benes Czech, DNESEK, 11-20-47).  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Slovak Nationalism: The Origins of Slovak Nationalism Description An account of the resource B. S. Buc, Ph.D.<br />Slovakia, Vol. 8, No. 1 (26), March 1958<br />pp. 46-59<br /><ol><li>Nationalism and the Existing "Status Quo"</li> <li>Nature of Modern Nationalism</li> <li>Geographical and Historical Suppositions of Slovak Nationalism</li> <li>New Concepts: "People" and "Nation"</li> <li>Progress of Slovak Nationalism After the First World War</li> </ol> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Buc, B. S. (Bonaventure S.), 1910-1966 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1958 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/32d1053a80dcb78dc024f7df71c4639e.pdf 9418bfa45709b25302ea6e1e013f0934 PDF Text Text 38 SLOVAKIA ·SLOVAK NATION ALISM: 1 B. S. BUC, Ph.D. NATIONALISM OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY 1. The Ephemeral Slovak Soviet Republic Because of the deeply religious basis of the Slovaks as well as the agrarian nature of Slovakia, Communism with its revolutionary materialistic-socia l program had from the beginning no hope of winning over the Slovaks. It, therefore, endeavored all the more to conquer them by force. The first attempt at forceful domination in Slovakia was undertaken in 1919. This occurred after the First World War in connection with the creation of the Hungarian Soviet Republic whose leader was the well known Bela Kuhn. The Hungarian Communist government invaded Slovakia with its army and occupied the Eastern sector with the sities of Presov and Kosice. Following in the wake of the occupation, a public Communist assembly met at Presov on June 16, 1919, and announced the establishment of the Slovak Soviet Republic with the proclamation that: This day the Slovak Soviet RepUiblic was created on Slovaik soil, liberated from imperialism. The first conscious, instinctive act of the proletariat, freed from the yoke of Czech imperialism, was that oppressors proclaim with such great glory, but in reality falsify (1). At this assembly, a temporary revolutionary committee was appointed which transferred its seat from Presov to Kosice. There on June 20, 1919, a twenty-member Slovak Revolutionary Council was named with the Czech Communist A. Jarousek at its head. This Council formally informed the Czecho-iSlovak government in Prague that Slovakia is separating from the Czech lands. Immediately the Soviet government of Moscow hastened to greet this new Slovak dictatorship of the proletariat. The existence of this very stormily-begun Slovak Soviet Republic was short-lived. On July 5, 1919, the Red Hungarian Army was coerced to withdraw from Slovak territory and the "Slovak Soviet Republic" ended. Except for many atrocities perpetrated on the inhabitants by the �SLOVAKIA 39 Red Army, no signs whatever remained in Slovakia after this three-week Communist adventure (2). 2. Coordination of Nationalism and Class Struggle After the shattering of this first Communist attempt to enslave Slovakia in 1919, it would hardly be necessary to speak of the Communist Party in connection with Slovak nationalism. But the situation which ensued in Slovakia, after Communist occupation in 1944 through Russian partisans and then the army, made the Communist Party one of the most significant fashioners of the present fate of Slovaks in general. It was a repetition of the events of 1919, except with longer lasting and far-reaching results. Communism would never have attained its present position in Slovakia, had the end of the war not permitted it. Election results prior to the Second World War indicate that the Communist Party was never powerful in Slovakia; in the election year of 1919, it had 10.66 per cent of the votes; in 1935, 12.97 per cent. And even these percentages would be lower, if other nationalities were separated and only Slovak votes counted. This is shown by the fact that in voting districts comprising a clearly Slovak population, the percentage gains of the Communist Party were always substantially lower than in districts where they were mixed with Hungarians(3). The weak successes of the Communists in Slovakia, despite the facts that the social situation of the Slovak population was really not the best, must be attributed to the religious foundation of the Slovaks and in part to the influence of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party, which in its program presented a more compact statement of the national and social demands of the Slovak inhabitants. Recalling to mind the delicacy of the nationality problem in the newly established Czecho-Slovakia, the Communist Party immediately in 1919 began to orientate its program in order to draw as much as possible from it. Clement Gottwald, leader of the Party, marked this program in 1924 in the following words: Such a solution to the question must be sought and found which will enable the Party to support nationality movements �40 SLOVAKIA and to unite its revolui-tonary energies, or to coordinate with revolutionary class warfare the whole proletariat of the CzechoSlovak RepUlblic. I am of the opinion that the Party can, with comparatirve ea,se, gain leadership in the movement of national minorities and thus cast to the r,e ar the bour,geois-chauvinist parties . .. . The Comunist Party in Slovakia must not only utilize the national movements for the class interests of the proletariat, but must stand directly at its head and lead it along paths actually revolutionary (4). In accord with the plan, the Communist Party in Slovakia also fought for the autonomy of Slovakia as did the Slovak People's Party. When in the elections of 1925 the autonomists achieved their greatest successes, the Communists hastened to promise more than autonomy. In January, 1926, they announced: 'Dhe Communist Party of Czechoslovakia raises .. these concrete demands: the complete independence of Slovakia. Let the SlovaJk nation itself decide on arranging its own affairs (5). This signified competition with the autonomists in emphasizing Slovak national ambitions. We do not know for sure whether to account the gains - even though trivial - of the Communist Party in Slovakia to its social struggle for the rights of the proletariat, or to its tactizing with Slovak nationalism. But the latter definitely gained votes for them. Despite its more than positive position in regard to Slovak nationalism, the Communist party was nevertheless organized only on a statewide basis as a "Czechoslovak" Party. Its leadership in Slovakia, however, rested in the hands of a sma:11 but capable group of Slovak intellectuals, who became adherents of the Party not from social motives, but rather because its ideological foundation introduced to them a new kind of belief. They were Slovak nationalists, but because of their negative attitude toward religion, they found it difficult to attach themselves to the other two national parties, namely, the Slovak People's Party and the Slovak National Party; the former was led by a Catholic priest, the latter by a Lutheran minister. They were, therefore, idealists blinded by idealism to such an extent that they were unable to realize that the Communist Party was actually an instrument of Russian imperialism, concealing itself at times in relation to �SLOVAKIA 41 Slav nations under Russian Pan-Slavism. They were fittingly called "Sa:lon Communists," because both their social position and their behavior were in complete opposition to the concept "proletariat" which they were supposed to represent. It is not surprising, therefore, that this group of Slovak Communists received the dissolution of Czecho-Slovakia in 1938 with as much joy as the other Slovak national elements. Although the Slovak Government had forbidden the activities of the Communist Party, yet a majority of its representatives was left free and held important offices. This enabled them, through salon and not revolutionary means, to make preparations for the opportune establishment of a "Slovak Republic without Germans and Fascists" when the occasion should arise (6). 3. Towards a New Slovak Soviet Republic The moments for the fulfillment of their plans seemed to arrive when, near the end of August, 1944, Soviet parachutists succeeded in carrying the operations of war into Slo.vak territory and called forth co-called "Slovak uprising against the Germans." Slovak Communists, therefore, hastened in September of that year to establish the indepen*dent Communist Party of Slovakia to the great surprise of Czech Communist agents. They acted in accord with Moscow itself, which sought, through its partisans, to win over the President of the Slovak Republic, Joseph Tiso, by promising protection to the Slovak Republic (7). Tiso's attitude to these efforts was one of greatest rejection: Cooperation with Moscow would have signified a terrible cata,s trophe for the nation. It would have been a denial of Christianity. Communism was from its first beginnings and remained an irreconcilable enemy not only of our nation, our independence, but is a danger for all of Europe. Communism brings with itself a rapid debasement of the moral, spiritual and material level of every nation in whose bosom it reposes. Every true patriot, therefore, cannot soil his hands by cooperating with such a political system as well as with its representatives residing in Moscow (8). In these steps we see the two-faced action of Moscow, which "did not cease to assure officially that her aim was �42 SLOVAKIA to renew the Czecho-Slovak Republic, but underneath carried on, through her partisans, a survey to ascertain the mood in Slovakia towards the annexation of that country (9). 4. Change of Moscow's Plans When Moscow failed to gain support of Slovak national elements to proclaim the Slovak Soviet Republic and saw that Communism in Slovakia lacked strong roots, she decided definitely to reestablish Czecho-Slovakia. The elections of 1946 in renovated Czech-Slovakia indicate why this solution was more advantageous for Moscow's plans. The Communist Party in Czech territory had a more probable chance of winning. This decision of Moscow, however, meant the beginning of tragedy for Slovak national Communists. It was already discernible in the action of Moscow, which appointed William Siroky, a Hungarian by origin, as Chairman of the newly established Communist Party in Slovakia in preference to Slovak nationalists. In Siroky Moscow found a very compliant instrument for her further political drama in Czecho-Slovakia. Czecho-Slovakia indeed was renewed, but not in its original size and greatness. First of all Moscow annexed Ruthenia. When Dr. Edward Benes was returning from Moscow, shortly after the Red Army occupied Slovak territory, he had to remain in Kosice where the native Communists compelled him to agree to the so-called Kosice program of April, 1945, according to which the new Czecho-Slovakia was to be a state of two nations, Czech and Slovak. Clement Gottwald, as Premier of the government, announced on April 5, 1945, that "the Republic will be renewed as a comomn state of the co-equal Czech and Slovak nations" and that "the new government of the Republic will be concerned that, during the constitutional solution of the relations between the Czech and Slovak nations, the Slovak organs will be constituted with the same legislative, administrative and executive power which the Slovak nation enjoys today in its Slovak National Council" (10). Perhaps, in respect to elections, the Slovaks �SLOVAKIA 43 were at least promised autonomy as the last step to win them over to Communism. 5. Centralized Czecho-Slovakia Once Again A year later, in May of 1946, the first elections were held in the new Czecho-Slovakia, and they indicated a substantial difference within the Communist Parties of Slovakia and the Czech lands. The Communist Party of Slovakia, united with the Social Democrats, gained 30.6 per cent of the votes; whereas in Czech territory the Communist party obtained 40.4 per cent and the Social Democrats 15.6 per cent which together totalled 56 per cent. In Czech lands we see a very evident victory for the Communist Party. Of the 300 seats in Parliament, the combined parties of the Communists and Socialists had 153 deputies. A certain official from the Russian embassy made this observation about the results of the 1946 elections: "The majority is not great, but it suffices in order to rule over the other parties in a democratic way" (11). The elections sounded the death knell of the promised autonomy for Slovakia. Theoretically, the principle of two nations was continually stressed; practically, however, even a stronger centralization than during the first Czecho-Slovak Republic began to shape up. Even more, on September 28, 1948, when the Communist Party of Slovakia was abolished and became a part of the united Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia. This was more than the Slovak Communists could stand. Even the fear of retaliation •c ould not restrain them from rising up in opposition. The threat of revenge for this deviation from servility was not long in coming. In February of 1951, the foremost leaders, V. Clementis, Dr. G. Husak, L. Novomesky and K. Smidke, were expelled from the Party and deprived of all functions because "they planned a new Slovak separatist program and together formed a plot aimed at tearing Slovakia away from the Czecho-Slovak Republic" (12). In April others were condemned as bourgeois nationalists. The substance of their crimes is contained in a long condemnation, in which we find the following: �44 SLOVAKIA The ideological background of their treachery consisted in their attempts to solve the national question of the Slovak nation, not in collruboration with thet Czech working class but mainly in cooperation with the Slovak bourgeoisie and accepted eventually their leadership. In this connection they accepted the Slovak fascist puppet State. Later on, they successfully penetrated the leadership of the Slovak national uprising and got hold of important positions in the new People's Democratic State. They misused their positions in the Slovak National Council and on the Board of Commissioners in a criminal way in order to isolate Slovakia from the Czech working people and from the construction of Socialism, thus strengthening in Slovakia the remnants of capitalism and jeopardizing the achievements of the Slovak working class. Their aim was to break up the common Czecho-Slo,vak State and to hand over Slovakia to the reactionary bourg.eois-iP and to the mercy of foreign imperialists (13'). We do not know how L. Novomesky, one of the accused, understood, a;fter his trial, the words which he wrote in 1948, prior to his imprisonment, in the introduction to a book of his co-sufferer G. Husak: They say superficially that re,volutions devour their o,wn children. This is not trur! The truth rather is that revolutions, determined to r-emain faithful to their program, slough off those of their children who would pel'vert their meaning, their program and their end (14). After this purge President Gottwald appointed a Czech Communist, M. Bacilek, as President of the Slovak National Council. The whole apparatus of the Communist Party and administration in Slovakia is now in the hands of Czechs and Magyars, and not in the hands of Slovak elements. In liquidating the Communist Slovaks, Prague liquidated practically the idea of a Czecho,Slovak State. !Between the years 19415 and HW7, Benes had annihilated the Ca,tholics, the principal political force of Slovakia. During the course of the crisis 1n ,119418, the Czech Communists and Democrats had era.sed such Slovak Protestants as Le.Urich, and Ursiny. Prague suppressed finally the last political suppor.t of the Czecho-Siovak State in Slovakia: the Communists. The fourth Czecho-Slovak Republic as a national State of Czechs and Slovak,s is, therefore, dead. Instead a Socialist Soviet State emerges (,115). 6. Aftermath of Stalin's Death The changes in Moscow after the death of Joseph Stalin, however, testify that the drama of Slovak na- �SLOVAKIA 45 tionalist Communists is not completed and awaits the completion of its last act, if the new seemingly revolutionary directives, inaugurated by the XX Congress of the Communist Party in Moscow by Khrushchev, will be brought into effect. These directives, among other things, stress very emphatically the principle of self-determination in dealing with the national ambitions of various nations. If action really follows words, then this "new Moscow approach" towards the solution of problems stemming from nationalism may give the Slovak nationalist Communists new hopes to implement their old dream, the Slovak Soviet Republic. It seems that the first step along this new line was made by the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Czecho-Slovakia, which convened from the first to eleventh of May, 1956, in order to discuss the directives of the XX Congress of the Communist Party of the U. S. S. R. Present at this meeting was W. Siroky, the present :Prime Minister of the Czecho-Slovak Government. He uttered a manifesto in which among other things, he stressed: A!bove all it is necessary to concern ourselves with the questions of extending the jurisdiction of the Slovak Nation-al Council of the highest organ of State power in Slovakia. Today there are already suppositions for extending the legislative jurisdiction of the Slovak National Council, and we must probably think also -about constitutional changes i,n the same way. . . . In just that way must we consider extending the jurisdiction of the Slovak National Council in the eyes of the Board of Commissioners and e~pressly estaiblish constitutional conclusions of responsibility to the Board of •Commissionens o'f ithe Slovak National Council (16). The Slovak National Council and the Board of Commissioners, according to the Kosice program of 1945, were to be the legisfative and executive organs of the planned autonomous government of Slovakia. After the elections of 1946 their jurisdiction was completely limited, so that they really became only executive organs of the centralist administration of Prague. The conclusion of w_ Siroky's address would be that in due time a complete autonomy would prevail. But W. Siroky went so far as to say: "as the foundatio~ of its politics concerning the nationalist question, the Communist Party considers the right of na- �46 SLOVAKIA tions toward self-expression, that is, the right to break away freely from or unite freely to another nation" (17). Such a position would have been favorably acceptable to the nationalist Slovak Communists, but Siroky, a Stalinist and still in power, gave to it his own interpretation. It was certainly with the intention to threaten his imprisoned colleagues that in concluding his address he said: 'Noting our successes, . . . we can in no way underestimate the influence of the bourgeois nationalist ideology, Its heralds utilize every occasion of um.est, every want and negative mani• festation for its spread and livelihood. It is the plaitform of the enemies of socialism, and must not even lead us astray then when 1bouregois nationalism, as for example at present, emerges under the slogan of a People's Democratic Slovakia 018). Here then is the evidence why nationalist Slovak Communists, even when released from prison, have not been rehabilitated. If, however, Moscow shall desire the removal of W. Siroky and Bacilek and shall set up the first, then the world in the near future shall be surprised to hear the proclamation of a new Slovak Soviet Republic. The recently developed situation in Hungary strengthened again the position of the Stalinists and brought ahout the occupation of Slovakia by the Czech and Russ~an armies. 7. There Will Be No Stopping The existence of the Slovaks as a political force in Central Europe is not a fact of negligible importance at the present time. They have reached such a level of group consciousness that it will be impossible to disregard them in dealing with the political problems of that area. Their emergence presents a vivid example of the development of modern nationalism, for, as Don Luigi Sturzo has writ7 ten: "Once a country or a people has succeeded in developing a consciousness of its own personality and on affirming it in the struggle with which history has confronted it, there is no stopping." Many incentives led the Slovaks to develop a consciousness of their own personality despite the fact that they have been living for over a thousand . years without any specific political rights within Hungary. �SLOVAKIA 47 The first incentive came from the social philosophy of the Enlightenment. It created a new political power out of the submerged social class of people by advocating certain rights for the masses in dealing with the public affairs of states. At the same time this movement destroyed the predominance of Latin and elevated the people's language to literary prominence. In the case of the Slovaks it led to the codification of their vernacular language which became the first step towards the assertion of their own distinct personality. German Romantic philosophy provided a second incentive and gave a further impetus towards the same goal. Its contribution consisted in defining more closely the concept "people" by changing it into the concept "nation" whereby a greater stress was placed upon the importance of a common history, language and culture. This philosophy was also instrumental in creating among the Slav nations a literary and political movement called Pan-Slavism. Under the impact of Pan-Slavism Slovaks were made aware of their glorious past as represented by Greater Moravia, the first Slav state in Central Europe, and began to feel that their land was the cradle of present-day cultures. The third incentive was provided by President Wilson's principle of self-determination of nations and the Western Allies' decision to dismember Austria-Hungary after the First World War. The map of Central Europe was changed and the Slovaks became a part of a new state called the Czecho-Slovak Republic. In the CzechoSlovak Republic they were supposed to be equal partners with the kin Czechs, but these ambitions were never realized because the imaginary "Czechoslovak" nation sought to merge them with the Czechs on the ground of their close kinship. Nevertheless, in the Czecho-Slovak Republic the almost extinct Slovak community grew up into a new democratic society, and the Slovaks were ready to venture into an independent life in their own Slovak Republic. At present the overwhelming majority of Slovaks consider the situation as an enforced one and remain almost united in their efforts to regain their lost independence. �48 SLOVAKIA Under the present circumstances their ,o bjectives and efforts are directed towards the following goals: 1. Slovakia within the framework of a democratic Czecho-Slovakia is still the objective of a small group of "Czecho-Slovaks" who are composed primarily of former diplomats and leading personalities of the first CzechoS1ovakia. Being aware of the opposition of the majority of Slovaks at home agruinst the Czechs this group of Slovaks finally agreed to have the state based on the idea of two distinct Czech and Slovak nations instead of the former imaginary "Czechoslovak" nation. 2. Independent Slovakia either as a unit within the proposed federated Central Europe or simply as an independent democratic state. Both alternatives enjoy almost the same popularity with the overwhelming majority of the Slovaks at home and abroad. They represent the desires and endeavors of a substantial part of the Slovak population whose objective has always been to assure for Slovaks the rights of an ethnographically, culturally and politica:lly distinct personality in the international family of nations. 3. A Slovak Soviet Republic might have been the objective of a small group of Slovak Communists before they were executed or imprisoned as bourgeois deviationists. They once again seemed to have had a chance to act after Stalin's death but are now forestalled by what happened in Hungary in 1956. In spite of the fact that there still are groups among the Slovaks that endeavor to make Slovakia dependent upon the Czechs or upon the Russians, the ambitions of Slovak nationalism will hardly be gratified until the Slovaks find their haven in a sovereign Slovak State or in such a political arrangement of Central Europe wherein the Slovaks will be allotted the same sovereign rights as other so-called established nations possess today. (11J) iM. Gosiorovsky: "O Sovietoch na Slovensku v roku 1919", Nova Mysl, Pr-ague, September, 191'9, 2716,284. (Q) Ibidem. (3) !For ,e xample, 1n the elections of 1.929 voting districts, comprising a clearly Slovak population conceded very little percentage-wise to the Communist Party: Presov 4.57 per cent, Turcian- �SLOVAKIA 49 sky Sv. Martin 6J18 per cent, Ba,nska Bystrica 7.60 per cent. Whereas in districts comprising a greater majority of Hungarians, the Communists showed grea ter gains: Kosice 115.4!8 per cent and Nove Zamky IJ6.84 ·p er cent. - Dr. F. Durcansky, Biela Kniha, Buenos Aires, 19B4, p. 7'84). {4) Pravda Chudoby, 30. juna 1954. (5) Pravda, 30. maja 1'926. (6) Durcansky, op. cit., p. 796. (7) Dr. F. Durcansky, "Marne sa snail Moskva ziskat' Slovakov", Literarny almanac'1 Slovaka v Amerike, Chicago, 195G, pp. 43-48. (8) 1lbid., pp. 45-416. {9) J. Smutny, Doklady a rozp.ravy, CLondon, November 1952), p. 5. (10) Ustanoveni ceskoslovenske vlady Narodni fronty Cechu a Slovaku a jeji prvni projevy, (Praha 1<947), pp. 21 sp. (l1lJ) iH. Ripka, Czechoslovakia Enslaved, (London, 1949), p. 47. C12) Rude pravo, (27. fobruara 19511). •Q13) Joseph Mikus: La Slovaquie dans le drame de l'Europe, Paris, 11955. 014) G. Husak, Zapas o zajtrajsok, (Bratislava, 1943), p. 3. (15) ,J . A. !Mikus, op. cit., ,p. 3'86. (Paris, 119515), p. 386. (16) Slovak, (jun 11956). (17) Ibidem. (lt8) Ibidem. BIBLIOGRAPHY Association Hongroise des Affaires Etrangeres. La deportation des Hongrois de Slovaquie, Budapest, .1947. Aulneau, J .: Histoire de l'Europe Central, Paris, ·1926. Autonomist: Slovakia's Plea for Autonomy, Jednota Press, Middletown, Pa., ,11935. Benes, E.: Czechoslovak Policy fo.r Victory and Peace, London, 1:94'4. Benes, E.: Le probleme .A utrichien et la question tcheque, Paris, •1908. Benes, E.: My War Memoirs, London, 1928. Blasko, S.: Slovakia in Blood and Shackles, Piassaic, N .J., 1954. Bokes, F.: Dejiny Slovakov a Slovenska (History of the Slovaks and Slovakia), Bratislava, 1'946. Botto, J.: Slovaci: Vyvin ich narodneho povedomia (Slovaks: the Development of Their National Consciousness), Turciansky Sv. Martin, ·11906. Carr, E. H.: Natio,nalism and After, London, 1·946. Chmelar, J.: National Minorities in Central Europe, Prague, 1'937. Clementis, V.: Panslavism, Past and Present, London, 194G. Culen, K.: Dejiny Slovakov v Amerike (History of the Slovaks in America), Bratislava, 11942. Cul-en, K.:Cesi a Slovaci v statnych sluibach CSR (Cze'Chs and Slovak•s in the Civil Service of the Czechoslovak Republic), Bratislava, 1944>. Culen, K.: Pittsburghska dohoda (The Pittsburgh .Pact), •B ratislava, '1937. Denis, E.: La question d'Autriche: Les Slovaques, Paris, 1917. Diamond, W.: Czechoslovakia Between East and West, London. 1947. �50 SLOVAKIA Durcansky, F.: Slovenska biela kniha (Slovak White Book), Buenos Aires, 11954!. European Movement: Basis For An Eastern Europea,i Policy, London, 1950. Gottwald, K.: Slove,nsko hladuje (Slovakia is Starving), Bratislava, 1925. Gottwald, K.: Za socialisticky itat, za socialisticke pravo (For a Socialistic State, For a Socialistic Right), Prague, 1940. Hodza, M.: Federation in Central Europe, London, 1~. Hrusovsky, F.: Slovensko v dejinach Strecl,nej Europy (Slovakia in the History of Central Eu.rope), Turciansky Sv. Martin, 1939. Hrufovsky, F ,: This Is Slovakia, Obrana Press, Scranton, Pa., 1955. Ingrim, R.: After Hitler Stalin? Bruce Pulb lishing Co., Milwaukee, '1946. Lloyd George, David: The Truth About the Peace Treaties, London, 1 '1925. Macartney, C. A.: Hungary a,nd Her Successo.rs, London-New York, 194'3'. Macartney, C. A.: National States and National Minorities, London, 1934. Macartney, C. A.: Problems of the Danube Basin, London, 194!2. M~ryk, T. G.: New Europe, London, 11917. Masaryk, T. G.: The Problem of Small Nations in the European Crisis, London, 1915. Masaryk, T. G.: La resurrection d'un etat (Souvenirs et reflections 1914-1958), Paris, .1930. Mendelsohn, P.: The Nuremberg Documents, London, 11946. Mikus, J. A.: La Slovaquie da,ns le drame de l'Europe, Paris, 1955-. Miniisterstvo vnitra (The Ministry of Interior): Spiknuti proti republice (Conspiracy Against the Czecho-Slovak Republic in Slovakia), Prague, 194'7. Osusky, S.: Benes and Slovakia, London, 1943. Peroutka, V.: Budovani statu (Building of a New State), Pra•g ue, 11'93•3-li936. Popovici, Aurel: Die Verei,n igten Staaten von Grossoesterreich, Leipzig, 1906. Rene, Renry: Questions d'Aut.riche-Hongrie et questions d'Orient, P-aris, 1903. Ripka, H.: Small and Great Nations, London, 1194!4'. Ripka, H.: Czechoslovakia Enslaved, London, 1948. Schlesinger, R.: Federalism i,n Central Europe, London, 1945. Seton Watson, R. W.: Slovakia Then and Now, London and Prague, 1 1'931. Seton Watson, R. W.: A History of the Czechs and Slovaks, London, 194'3'. Seton Watson, R. W.: Eastern Europe Between the Wars 1918-1941, London, 1945. Sidor, K.: Andrej Hlinka, Bratislava, 1934. Sidor, K.: Slovenska politika na pode p.razskeho snemu (Slovak Politics On the ·F loor of the Prague ,Parliament), iBratislll/Va, 1943. Shafer, Boyd C.: Nationalism: Myth and Reality, New York, 19514. Slovak Catholic Federation of America: The Slovaks and the Pittsburgh Pact, Chicago, 1004. �SLOVAKIA 51 Sturzo, Do r Luigi: NatiQ\nalism and Internationalism, New York, 1946. Thomson, Harrison: Czechoslovakia in European Histo.ry, Princeton Press, New Jerisey, 11'944. Ustanoveni ceskoslovenske vlady Narodni fronty Cechu a Slovaku a jeji prvni projevy (Decrees and First Manifestoes of the Czecho-Slovak Gover,nment Composed of the Czech and Slovak National Front), Prague, 1947. Ustav Dr. E. Benesa CDr. E. Benes lns'titurte): Doklady a .rozpravy (Documents and Deliberations), London, 1'952. ARTICLES IN MAGAZINES AND PERIODICALS Brauner, H.: Die Volkswerdung der Slowaken (The Development of Slovaks lnot a Nation), a treatise published in Deutsches Archive ftir Landes und Volkswerdung, Vo1. V, Berlin, 1944. Darras, M.: Onze ans de vie independante en Slovaquie, Le monde slave, Paris, May-June, .1000. Durcansky, F.: l'.Europe Central dans le passe et dans l'avenir, La revue de drnit internacional, de sciences diplomatiques et politiques, Geneve, XX]I, annee, no. 1, 1/94'4. Durcansky, F.: Marne sa snaii Moskva ziskat' Slovakov (The Futile Efforts of Moscow to Win Over the Slovaks), Literarny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike, an Almanach pU!blished in Chicago by the publislhers of the SLOVAK V AiMERllKE, a newspaper in the Slovak language, Chicago, 1:953. Chudoba, B.: Czechoslovakia: A Study in Disintegration, Thought, Fordham University Quarterly, March, 1950. Clementis, V.: Ni satelite de l'U.R.S.S. ni artisan d'un bloc slave, Parallele 50, Paris, September 20, '1950. Gosiorovs'ky, .M.: 0 •S ovietoch na Slovensku v roku 1919 (About the Soviets in Slovakia in 1919), Nova mysl (The New Thought), Prague, September, 111919. Hlinka, A.: Memoirs des Slovaques a la Conference de la Paix, A Memorandum to the Peace Conference in Paris, 1919. Kirschbaum, J .: Slovakia and Central European Federation Plans, SLOVAIIQ!A, a periodical plllblished by the Slovak League of Ameriica, Middletown, Pa., April, 1953. Pir, A. V.: America's Slovak Societies, published in the Bulletin of t he Slovak Nat ional Council A'broa,d, Middletown, Pa., August, 1956. Naboienska itatistika (Religious Statistics), Kalendar Kanadskej Slovenskej Ligy (Almanach of the Canadian Slovak League), Winnipeg, Manitdba, 19zy3. Schlesinger, R.: Slovakia Today and Tomorrow, Contemporary Review, London, August, 1939. ARTICLES IN NEWSPAPERS Pravda (The Truth), an official paper of the Communist Party in Slovakia. Samostatnost' pre Slovensko (Independence For Slovakia), Bratislava, May 30, 1926. Pravda Chudoby (The Truth of the Downtroddtm), a Czech, Communist rparper. Narodni h,nuti a komunisticka strana Ceskoslovenska (National Movements and the Communist 'Party of Czechoslovakia), Prague, June 3'0, 1924. �52 SLOVAKIA Rude pravo (The Red Law), an official paper of the Czeeh Communist Party. Odhaleni zradcu (The Traitors Uncovered), Pra,g ue, Felbruary 27, ,1951<. Slovak, a paper published by the Slovak Liberation Committee in Munich, Germany. Autonomna vlada pre Slovensko? (An Autonomous Government For Slovakia?), !Munich, June, 1956 . • • • FA'llHER SEGIN!AK'S IMPRE$SIONS OF PRAGUE AND PRESOV "A visit behind the Iron Curtain can best be characterized by the feeling that one is seeing the living-dead." With these words, Father Theodore Seginak, 0.S.B., superior of the Benedictine Fathers' Holy Trinity Priory, described his recent visit to Prague in Bohemia and Presov in Slovakia. After attending a meeting of all the Benedictine superiors of the world in Rome from September 18 to 26, Father Seginak was accompanied by Father Alexander Minchik, O.S.B., on the trip behind the Iron Curtain. Visas for the trip behind the Iron Curtain are most difficult to obtain. Only after repeated requests had been made did the two priests receive the necessary permission to visit. Even so only two times a week can flights from Vienna to Prague be had. At the Prague airport a thorough search of all apparel was made, as well as a close scrutiny of all money brought into the country. The customs officials demanded to see everything, and sternly warned the two priests that on their return journey they would be required to show a receipt for all purchases made during their visit. The streets of Prague were filled with sullen, downcast persons who performed their duties with a mechanical precision. One always had the feeling that the eyes of the communist "big brother" were on you. In fact, it is routine in restaurants to sit down to a meal and look up to see a policeman gaping in the window at the diners. The very best meal is steak - which is really hamburger with an egg on top. Father Seginak was amazed at the prices of clothing and the very poor quality. An American $45 suit costs � 38 SLOVAKIA ·SLOVAK NATION ALISM: 1 B. S. BUC, Ph.D. NATIONALISM OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY 1. The Ephemeral Slovak Soviet Republic Because of the deeply religious basis of the Slovaks as well as the agrarian nature of Slovakia, Communism with its revolutionary materialistic-socia l program had from the beginning no hope of winning over the Slovaks. It, therefore, endeavored all the more to conquer them by force. The first attempt at forceful domination in Slovakia was undertaken in 1919. This occurred after the First World War in connection with the creation of the Hungarian Soviet Republic whose leader was the well known Bela Kuhn. The Hungarian Communist government invaded Slovakia with its army and occupied the Eastern sector with the sities of Presov and Kosice. Following in the wake of the occupation, a public Communist assembly met at Presov on June 16, 1919, and announced the establishment of the Slovak Soviet Republic with the proclamation that: This day the Slovak Soviet RepUiblic was created on Slovaik soil, liberated from imperialism. The first conscious, instinctive act of the proletariat, freed from the yoke of Czech imperialism, was that oppressors proclaim with such great glory, but in reality falsify (1). At this assembly, a temporary revolutionary committee was appointed which transferred its seat from Presov to Kosice. There on June 20, 1919, a twenty-member Slovak Revolutionary Council was named with the Czech Communist A. Jarousek at its head. This Council formally informed the Czecho-iSlovak government in Prague that Slovakia is separating from the Czech lands. Immediately the Soviet government of Moscow hastened to greet this new Slovak dictatorship of the proletariat. The existence of this very stormily-begun Slovak Soviet Republic was short-lived. On July 5, 1919, the Red Hungarian Army was coerced to withdraw from Slovak territory and the "Slovak Soviet Republic" ended. Except for many atrocities perpetrated on the inhabitants by the �SLOVAKIA 39 Red Army, no signs whatever remained in Slovakia after this three-week Communist adventure (2). 2. Coordination of Nationalism and Class Struggle After the shattering of this first Communist attempt to enslave Slovakia in 1919, it would hardly be necessary to speak of the Communist Party in connection with Slovak nationalism. But the situation which ensued in Slovakia, after Communist occupation in 1944 through Russian partisans and then the army, made the Communist Party one of the most significant fashioners of the present fate of Slovaks in general. It was a repetition of the events of 1919, except with longer lasting and far-reaching results. Communism would never have attained its present position in Slovakia, had the end of the war not permitted it. Election results prior to the Second World War indicate that the Communist Party was never powerful in Slovakia; in the election year of 1919, it had 10.66 per cent of the votes; in 1935, 12.97 per cent. And even these percentages would be lower, if other nationalities were separated and only Slovak votes counted. This is shown by the fact that in voting districts comprising a clearly Slovak population, the percentage gains of the Communist Party were always substantially lower than in districts where they were mixed with Hungarians(3). The weak successes of the Communists in Slovakia, despite the facts that the social situation of the Slovak population was really not the best, must be attributed to the religious foundation of the Slovaks and in part to the influence of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party, which in its program presented a more compact statement of the national and social demands of the Slovak inhabitants. Recalling to mind the delicacy of the nationality problem in the newly established Czecho-Slovakia, the Communist Party immediately in 1919 began to orientate its program in order to draw as much as possible from it. Clement Gottwald, leader of the Party, marked this program in 1924 in the following words: Such a solution to the question must be sought and found which will enable the Party to support nationality movements �40 SLOVAKIA and to unite its revolui-tonary energies, or to coordinate with revolutionary class warfare the whole proletariat of the CzechoSlovak RepUlblic. I am of the opinion that the Party can, with comparatirve ea,se, gain leadership in the movement of national minorities and thus cast to the r,e ar the bour,geois-chauvinist parties . .. . The Comunist Party in Slovakia must not only utilize the national movements for the class interests of the proletariat, but must stand directly at its head and lead it along paths actually revolutionary (4). In accord with the plan, the Communist Party in Slovakia also fought for the autonomy of Slovakia as did the Slovak People's Party. When in the elections of 1925 the autonomists achieved their greatest successes, the Communists hastened to promise more than autonomy. In January, 1926, they announced: 'Dhe Communist Party of Czechoslovakia raises .. these concrete demands: the complete independence of Slovakia. Let the SlovaJk nation itself decide on arranging its own affairs (5). This signified competition with the autonomists in emphasizing Slovak national ambitions. We do not know for sure whether to account the gains - even though trivial - of the Communist Party in Slovakia to its social struggle for the rights of the proletariat, or to its tactizing with Slovak nationalism. But the latter definitely gained votes for them. Despite its more than positive position in regard to Slovak nationalism, the Communist party was nevertheless organized only on a statewide basis as a "Czechoslovak" Party. Its leadership in Slovakia, however, rested in the hands of a sma:11 but capable group of Slovak intellectuals, who became adherents of the Party not from social motives, but rather because its ideological foundation introduced to them a new kind of belief. They were Slovak nationalists, but because of their negative attitude toward religion, they found it difficult to attach themselves to the other two national parties, namely, the Slovak People's Party and the Slovak National Party; the former was led by a Catholic priest, the latter by a Lutheran minister. They were, therefore, idealists blinded by idealism to such an extent that they were unable to realize that the Communist Party was actually an instrument of Russian imperialism, concealing itself at times in relation to �SLOVAKIA 41 Slav nations under Russian Pan-Slavism. They were fittingly called "Sa:lon Communists," because both their social position and their behavior were in complete opposition to the concept "proletariat" which they were supposed to represent. It is not surprising, therefore, that this group of Slovak Communists received the dissolution of Czecho-Slovakia in 1938 with as much joy as the other Slovak national elements. Although the Slovak Government had forbidden the activities of the Communist Party, yet a majority of its representatives was left free and held important offices. This enabled them, through salon and not revolutionary means, to make preparations for the opportune establishment of a "Slovak Republic without Germans and Fascists" when the occasion should arise (6). 3. Towards a New Slovak Soviet Republic The moments for the fulfillment of their plans seemed to arrive when, near the end of August, 1944, Soviet parachutists succeeded in carrying the operations of war into Slo.vak territory and called forth co-called "Slovak uprising against the Germans." Slovak Communists, therefore, hastened in September of that year to establish the indepen*dent Communist Party of Slovakia to the great surprise of Czech Communist agents. They acted in accord with Moscow itself, which sought, through its partisans, to win over the President of the Slovak Republic, Joseph Tiso, by promising protection to the Slovak Republic (7). Tiso's attitude to these efforts was one of greatest rejection: Cooperation with Moscow would have signified a terrible cata,s trophe for the nation. It would have been a denial of Christianity. Communism was from its first beginnings and remained an irreconcilable enemy not only of our nation, our independence, but is a danger for all of Europe. Communism brings with itself a rapid debasement of the moral, spiritual and material level of every nation in whose bosom it reposes. Every true patriot, therefore, cannot soil his hands by cooperating with such a political system as well as with its representatives residing in Moscow (8). In these steps we see the two-faced action of Moscow, which "did not cease to assure officially that her aim was �42 SLOVAKIA to renew the Czecho-Slovak Republic, but underneath carried on, through her partisans, a survey to ascertain the mood in Slovakia towards the annexation of that country (9). 4. Change of Moscow's Plans When Moscow failed to gain support of Slovak national elements to proclaim the Slovak Soviet Republic and saw that Communism in Slovakia lacked strong roots, she decided definitely to reestablish Czecho-Slovakia. The elections of 1946 in renovated Czech-Slovakia indicate why this solution was more advantageous for Moscow's plans. The Communist Party in Czech territory had a more probable chance of winning. This decision of Moscow, however, meant the beginning of tragedy for Slovak national Communists. It was already discernible in the action of Moscow, which appointed William Siroky, a Hungarian by origin, as Chairman of the newly established Communist Party in Slovakia in preference to Slovak nationalists. In Siroky Moscow found a very compliant instrument for her further political drama in Czecho-Slovakia. Czecho-Slovakia indeed was renewed, but not in its original size and greatness. First of all Moscow annexed Ruthenia. When Dr. Edward Benes was returning from Moscow, shortly after the Red Army occupied Slovak territory, he had to remain in Kosice where the native Communists compelled him to agree to the so-called Kosice program of April, 1945, according to which the new Czecho-Slovakia was to be a state of two nations, Czech and Slovak. Clement Gottwald, as Premier of the government, announced on April 5, 1945, that "the Republic will be renewed as a comomn state of the co-equal Czech and Slovak nations" and that "the new government of the Republic will be concerned that, during the constitutional solution of the relations between the Czech and Slovak nations, the Slovak organs will be constituted with the same legislative, administrative and executive power which the Slovak nation enjoys today in its Slovak National Council" (10). Perhaps, in respect to elections, the Slovaks �SLOVAKIA 43 were at least promised autonomy as the last step to win them over to Communism. 5. Centralized Czecho-Slovakia Once Again A year later, in May of 1946, the first elections were held in the new Czecho-Slovakia, and they indicated a substantial difference within the Communist Parties of Slovakia and the Czech lands. The Communist Party of Slovakia, united with the Social Democrats, gained 30.6 per cent of the votes; whereas in Czech territory the Communist party obtained 40.4 per cent and the Social Democrats 15.6 per cent which together totalled 56 per cent. In Czech lands we see a very evident victory for the Communist Party. Of the 300 seats in Parliament, the combined parties of the Communists and Socialists had 153 deputies. A certain official from the Russian embassy made this observation about the results of the 1946 elections: "The majority is not great, but it suffices in order to rule over the other parties in a democratic way" (11). The elections sounded the death knell of the promised autonomy for Slovakia. Theoretically, the principle of two nations was continually stressed; practically, however, even a stronger centralization than during the first Czecho-Slovak Republic began to shape up. Even more, on September 28, 1948, when the Communist Party of Slovakia was abolished and became a part of the united Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia. This was more than the Slovak Communists could stand. Even the fear of retaliation •c ould not restrain them from rising up in opposition. The threat of revenge for this deviation from servility was not long in coming. In February of 1951, the foremost leaders, V. Clementis, Dr. G. Husak, L. Novomesky and K. Smidke, were expelled from the Party and deprived of all functions because "they planned a new Slovak separatist program and together formed a plot aimed at tearing Slovakia away from the Czecho-Slovak Republic" (12). In April others were condemned as bourgeois nationalists. The substance of their crimes is contained in a long condemnation, in which we find the following: �44 SLOVAKIA The ideological background of their treachery consisted in their attempts to solve the national question of the Slovak nation, not in collruboration with thet Czech working class but mainly in cooperation with the Slovak bourgeoisie and accepted eventually their leadership. In this connection they accepted the Slovak fascist puppet State. Later on, they successfully penetrated the leadership of the Slovak national uprising and got hold of important positions in the new People's Democratic State. They misused their positions in the Slovak National Council and on the Board of Commissioners in a criminal way in order to isolate Slovakia from the Czech working people and from the construction of Socialism, thus strengthening in Slovakia the remnants of capitalism and jeopardizing the achievements of the Slovak working class. Their aim was to break up the common Czecho-Slo,vak State and to hand over Slovakia to the reactionary bourg.eois-iP and to the mercy of foreign imperialists (13'). We do not know how L. Novomesky, one of the accused, understood, a;fter his trial, the words which he wrote in 1948, prior to his imprisonment, in the introduction to a book of his co-sufferer G. Husak: They say superficially that re,volutions devour their o,wn children. This is not trur! The truth rather is that revolutions, determined to r-emain faithful to their program, slough off those of their children who would pel'vert their meaning, their program and their end (14). After this purge President Gottwald appointed a Czech Communist, M. Bacilek, as President of the Slovak National Council. The whole apparatus of the Communist Party and administration in Slovakia is now in the hands of Czechs and Magyars, and not in the hands of Slovak elements. In liquidating the Communist Slovaks, Prague liquidated practically the idea of a Czecho,Slovak State. !Between the years 19415 and HW7, Benes had annihilated the Ca,tholics, the principal political force of Slovakia. During the course of the crisis 1n ,119418, the Czech Communists and Democrats had era.sed such Slovak Protestants as Le.Urich, and Ursiny. Prague suppressed finally the last political suppor.t of the Czecho-Siovak State in Slovakia: the Communists. The fourth Czecho-Slovak Republic as a national State of Czechs and Slovak,s is, therefore, dead. Instead a Socialist Soviet State emerges (,115). 6. Aftermath of Stalin's Death The changes in Moscow after the death of Joseph Stalin, however, testify that the drama of Slovak na- �SLOVAKIA 45 tionalist Communists is not completed and awaits the completion of its last act, if the new seemingly revolutionary directives, inaugurated by the XX Congress of the Communist Party in Moscow by Khrushchev, will be brought into effect. These directives, among other things, stress very emphatically the principle of self-determination in dealing with the national ambitions of various nations. If action really follows words, then this "new Moscow approach" towards the solution of problems stemming from nationalism may give the Slovak nationalist Communists new hopes to implement their old dream, the Slovak Soviet Republic. It seems that the first step along this new line was made by the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Czecho-Slovakia, which convened from the first to eleventh of May, 1956, in order to discuss the directives of the XX Congress of the Communist Party of the U. S. S. R. Present at this meeting was W. Siroky, the present :Prime Minister of the Czecho-Slovak Government. He uttered a manifesto in which among other things, he stressed: A!bove all it is necessary to concern ourselves with the questions of extending the jurisdiction of the Slovak Nation-al Council of the highest organ of State power in Slovakia. Today there are already suppositions for extending the legislative jurisdiction of the Slovak National Council, and we must probably think also -about constitutional changes i,n the same way. . . . In just that way must we consider extending the jurisdiction of the Slovak National Council in the eyes of the Board of Commissioners and e~pressly estaiblish constitutional conclusions of responsibility to the Board of •Commissionens o'f ithe Slovak National Council (16). The Slovak National Council and the Board of Commissioners, according to the Kosice program of 1945, were to be the legisfative and executive organs of the planned autonomous government of Slovakia. After the elections of 1946 their jurisdiction was completely limited, so that they really became only executive organs of the centralist administration of Prague. The conclusion of w_ Siroky's address would be that in due time a complete autonomy would prevail. But W. Siroky went so far as to say: "as the foundatio~ of its politics concerning the nationalist question, the Communist Party considers the right of na- �46 SLOVAKIA tions toward self-expression, that is, the right to break away freely from or unite freely to another nation" (17). Such a position would have been favorably acceptable to the nationalist Slovak Communists, but Siroky, a Stalinist and still in power, gave to it his own interpretation. It was certainly with the intention to threaten his imprisoned colleagues that in concluding his address he said: 'Noting our successes, . . . we can in no way underestimate the influence of the bourgeois nationalist ideology, Its heralds utilize every occasion of um.est, every want and negative mani• festation for its spread and livelihood. It is the plaitform of the enemies of socialism, and must not even lead us astray then when 1bouregois nationalism, as for example at present, emerges under the slogan of a People's Democratic Slovakia 018). Here then is the evidence why nationalist Slovak Communists, even when released from prison, have not been rehabilitated. If, however, Moscow shall desire the removal of W. Siroky and Bacilek and shall set up the first, then the world in the near future shall be surprised to hear the proclamation of a new Slovak Soviet Republic. The recently developed situation in Hungary strengthened again the position of the Stalinists and brought ahout the occupation of Slovakia by the Czech and Russ~an armies. 7. There Will Be No Stopping The existence of the Slovaks as a political force in Central Europe is not a fact of negligible importance at the present time. They have reached such a level of group consciousness that it will be impossible to disregard them in dealing with the political problems of that area. Their emergence presents a vivid example of the development of modern nationalism, for, as Don Luigi Sturzo has writ7 ten: "Once a country or a people has succeeded in developing a consciousness of its own personality and on affirming it in the struggle with which history has confronted it, there is no stopping." Many incentives led the Slovaks to develop a consciousness of their own personality despite the fact that they have been living for over a thousand . years without any specific political rights within Hungary. �SLOVAKIA 47 The first incentive came from the social philosophy of the Enlightenment. It created a new political power out of the submerged social class of people by advocating certain rights for the masses in dealing with the public affairs of states. At the same time this movement destroyed the predominance of Latin and elevated the people's language to literary prominence. In the case of the Slovaks it led to the codification of their vernacular language which became the first step towards the assertion of their own distinct personality. German Romantic philosophy provided a second incentive and gave a further impetus towards the same goal. Its contribution consisted in defining more closely the concept "people" by changing it into the concept "nation" whereby a greater stress was placed upon the importance of a common history, language and culture. This philosophy was also instrumental in creating among the Slav nations a literary and political movement called Pan-Slavism. Under the impact of Pan-Slavism Slovaks were made aware of their glorious past as represented by Greater Moravia, the first Slav state in Central Europe, and began to feel that their land was the cradle of present-day cultures. The third incentive was provided by President Wilson's principle of self-determination of nations and the Western Allies' decision to dismember Austria-Hungary after the First World War. The map of Central Europe was changed and the Slovaks became a part of a new state called the Czecho-Slovak Republic. In the CzechoSlovak Republic they were supposed to be equal partners with the kin Czechs, but these ambitions were never realized because the imaginary "Czechoslovak" nation sought to merge them with the Czechs on the ground of their close kinship. Nevertheless, in the Czecho-Slovak Republic the almost extinct Slovak community grew up into a new democratic society, and the Slovaks were ready to venture into an independent life in their own Slovak Republic. At present the overwhelming majority of Slovaks consider the situation as an enforced one and remain almost united in their efforts to regain their lost independence. �48 SLOVAKIA Under the present circumstances their ,o bjectives and efforts are directed towards the following goals: 1. Slovakia within the framework of a democratic Czecho-Slovakia is still the objective of a small group of "Czecho-Slovaks" who are composed primarily of former diplomats and leading personalities of the first CzechoS1ovakia. Being aware of the opposition of the majority of Slovaks at home agruinst the Czechs this group of Slovaks finally agreed to have the state based on the idea of two distinct Czech and Slovak nations instead of the former imaginary "Czechoslovak" nation. 2. Independent Slovakia either as a unit within the proposed federated Central Europe or simply as an independent democratic state. Both alternatives enjoy almost the same popularity with the overwhelming majority of the Slovaks at home and abroad. They represent the desires and endeavors of a substantial part of the Slovak population whose objective has always been to assure for Slovaks the rights of an ethnographically, culturally and politica:lly distinct personality in the international family of nations. 3. A Slovak Soviet Republic might have been the objective of a small group of Slovak Communists before they were executed or imprisoned as bourgeois deviationists. They once again seemed to have had a chance to act after Stalin's death but are now forestalled by what happened in Hungary in 1956. In spite of the fact that there still are groups among the Slovaks that endeavor to make Slovakia dependent upon the Czechs or upon the Russians, the ambitions of Slovak nationalism will hardly be gratified until the Slovaks find their haven in a sovereign Slovak State or in such a political arrangement of Central Europe wherein the Slovaks will be allotted the same sovereign rights as other so-called established nations possess today. (11J) iM. Gosiorovsky: "O Sovietoch na Slovensku v roku 1919", Nova Mysl, Pr-ague, September, 191'9, 2716,284. (Q) Ibidem. (3) !For ,e xample, 1n the elections of 1.929 voting districts, comprising a clearly Slovak population conceded very little percentage-wise to the Communist Party: Presov 4.57 per cent, Turcian- �SLOVAKIA 49 sky Sv. Martin 6J18 per cent, Ba,nska Bystrica 7.60 per cent. Whereas in districts comprising a greater majority of Hungarians, the Communists showed grea ter gains: Kosice 115.4!8 per cent and Nove Zamky IJ6.84 ·p er cent. - Dr. F. Durcansky, Biela Kniha, Buenos Aires, 19B4, p. 7'84). {4) Pravda Chudoby, 30. juna 1954. (5) Pravda, 30. maja 1'926. (6) Durcansky, op. cit., p. 796. (7) Dr. F. Durcansky, "Marne sa snail Moskva ziskat' Slovakov", Literarny almanac'1 Slovaka v Amerike, Chicago, 195G, pp. 43-48. (8) 1lbid., pp. 45-416. {9) J. Smutny, Doklady a rozp.ravy, CLondon, November 1952), p. 5. (10) Ustanoveni ceskoslovenske vlady Narodni fronty Cechu a Slovaku a jeji prvni projevy, (Praha 1<947), pp. 21 sp. (l1lJ) iH. Ripka, Czechoslovakia Enslaved, (London, 1949), p. 47. C12) Rude pravo, (27. fobruara 19511). •Q13) Joseph Mikus: La Slovaquie dans le drame de l'Europe, Paris, 11955. 014) G. Husak, Zapas o zajtrajsok, (Bratislava, 1943), p. 3. (15) ,J . A. !Mikus, op. cit., ,p. 3'86. (Paris, 119515), p. 386. (16) Slovak, (jun 11956). (17) Ibidem. (lt8) Ibidem. BIBLIOGRAPHY Association Hongroise des Affaires Etrangeres. La deportation des Hongrois de Slovaquie, Budapest, .1947. Aulneau, J .: Histoire de l'Europe Central, Paris, ·1926. Autonomist: Slovakia's Plea for Autonomy, Jednota Press, Middletown, Pa., ,11935. Benes, E.: Czechoslovak Policy fo.r Victory and Peace, London, 1:94'4. Benes, E.: Le probleme .A utrichien et la question tcheque, Paris, •1908. Benes, E.: My War Memoirs, London, 1928. Blasko, S.: Slovakia in Blood and Shackles, Piassaic, N .J., 1954. Bokes, F.: Dejiny Slovakov a Slovenska (History of the Slovaks and Slovakia), Bratislava, 1'946. Botto, J.: Slovaci: Vyvin ich narodneho povedomia (Slovaks: the Development of Their National Consciousness), Turciansky Sv. Martin, ·11906. Carr, E. H.: Natio,nalism and After, London, 1·946. Chmelar, J.: National Minorities in Central Europe, Prague, 1'937. Clementis, V.: Panslavism, Past and Present, London, 194G. Culen, K.: Dejiny Slovakov v Amerike (History of the Slovaks in America), Bratislava, 11942. Cul-en, K.:Cesi a Slovaci v statnych sluibach CSR (Cze'Chs and Slovak•s in the Civil Service of the Czechoslovak Republic), Bratislava, 1944>. Culen, K.: Pittsburghska dohoda (The Pittsburgh .Pact), •B ratislava, '1937. Denis, E.: La question d'Autriche: Les Slovaques, Paris, 1917. Diamond, W.: Czechoslovakia Between East and West, London. 1947. �50 SLOVAKIA Durcansky, F.: Slovenska biela kniha (Slovak White Book), Buenos Aires, 11954!. European Movement: Basis For An Eastern Europea,i Policy, London, 1950. Gottwald, K.: Slove,nsko hladuje (Slovakia is Starving), Bratislava, 1925. Gottwald, K.: Za socialisticky itat, za socialisticke pravo (For a Socialistic State, For a Socialistic Right), Prague, 1940. Hodza, M.: Federation in Central Europe, London, 1~. Hrusovsky, F.: Slovensko v dejinach Strecl,nej Europy (Slovakia in the History of Central Eu.rope), Turciansky Sv. Martin, 1939. Hrufovsky, F ,: This Is Slovakia, Obrana Press, Scranton, Pa., 1955. Ingrim, R.: After Hitler Stalin? Bruce Pulb lishing Co., Milwaukee, '1946. Lloyd George, David: The Truth About the Peace Treaties, London, 1 '1925. Macartney, C. A.: Hungary a,nd Her Successo.rs, London-New York, 194'3'. Macartney, C. A.: National States and National Minorities, London, 1934. Macartney, C. A.: Problems of the Danube Basin, London, 194!2. M~ryk, T. G.: New Europe, London, 11917. Masaryk, T. G.: The Problem of Small Nations in the European Crisis, London, 1915. Masaryk, T. G.: La resurrection d'un etat (Souvenirs et reflections 1914-1958), Paris, .1930. Mendelsohn, P.: The Nuremberg Documents, London, 11946. Mikus, J. A.: La Slovaquie da,ns le drame de l'Europe, Paris, 1955-. Miniisterstvo vnitra (The Ministry of Interior): Spiknuti proti republice (Conspiracy Against the Czecho-Slovak Republic in Slovakia), Prague, 194'7. Osusky, S.: Benes and Slovakia, London, 1943. Peroutka, V.: Budovani statu (Building of a New State), Pra•g ue, 11'93•3-li936. Popovici, Aurel: Die Verei,n igten Staaten von Grossoesterreich, Leipzig, 1906. Rene, Renry: Questions d'Aut.riche-Hongrie et questions d'Orient, P-aris, 1903. Ripka, H.: Small and Great Nations, London, 1194!4'. Ripka, H.: Czechoslovakia Enslaved, London, 1948. Schlesinger, R.: Federalism i,n Central Europe, London, 1945. Seton Watson, R. W.: Slovakia Then and Now, London and Prague, 1 1'931. Seton Watson, R. W.: A History of the Czechs and Slovaks, London, 194'3'. Seton Watson, R. W.: Eastern Europe Between the Wars 1918-1941, London, 1945. Sidor, K.: Andrej Hlinka, Bratislava, 1934. Sidor, K.: Slovenska politika na pode p.razskeho snemu (Slovak Politics On the ·F loor of the Prague ,Parliament), iBratislll/Va, 1943. Shafer, Boyd C.: Nationalism: Myth and Reality, New York, 19514. Slovak Catholic Federation of America: The Slovaks and the Pittsburgh Pact, Chicago, 1004. �SLOVAKIA 51 Sturzo, Do r Luigi: NatiQ\nalism and Internationalism, New York, 1946. Thomson, Harrison: Czechoslovakia in European Histo.ry, Princeton Press, New Jerisey, 11'944. Ustanoveni ceskoslovenske vlady Narodni fronty Cechu a Slovaku a jeji prvni projevy (Decrees and First Manifestoes of the Czecho-Slovak Gover,nment Composed of the Czech and Slovak National Front), Prague, 1947. Ustav Dr. E. Benesa CDr. E. Benes lns'titurte): Doklady a .rozpravy (Documents and Deliberations), London, 1'952. ARTICLES IN MAGAZINES AND PERIODICALS Brauner, H.: Die Volkswerdung der Slowaken (The Development of Slovaks lnot a Nation), a treatise published in Deutsches Archive ftir Landes und Volkswerdung, Vo1. V, Berlin, 1944. Darras, M.: Onze ans de vie independante en Slovaquie, Le monde slave, Paris, May-June, .1000. Durcansky, F.: l'.Europe Central dans le passe et dans l'avenir, La revue de drnit internacional, de sciences diplomatiques et politiques, Geneve, XX]I, annee, no. 1, 1/94'4. Durcansky, F.: Marne sa snaii Moskva ziskat' Slovakov (The Futile Efforts of Moscow to Win Over the Slovaks), Literarny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike, an Almanach pU!blished in Chicago by the publislhers of the SLOVAK V AiMERllKE, a newspaper in the Slovak language, Chicago, 1:953. Chudoba, B.: Czechoslovakia: A Study in Disintegration, Thought, Fordham University Quarterly, March, 1950. Clementis, V.: Ni satelite de l'U.R.S.S. ni artisan d'un bloc slave, Parallele 50, Paris, September 20, '1950. Gosiorovs'ky, .M.: 0 •S ovietoch na Slovensku v roku 1919 (About the Soviets in Slovakia in 1919), Nova mysl (The New Thought), Prague, September, 111919. Hlinka, A.: Memoirs des Slovaques a la Conference de la Paix, A Memorandum to the Peace Conference in Paris, 1919. Kirschbaum, J .: Slovakia and Central European Federation Plans, SLOVAIIQ!A, a periodical plllblished by the Slovak League of Ameriica, Middletown, Pa., April, 1953. Pir, A. V.: America's Slovak Societies, published in the Bulletin of t he Slovak Nat ional Council A'broa,d, Middletown, Pa., August, 1956. Naboienska itatistika (Religious Statistics), Kalendar Kanadskej Slovenskej Ligy (Almanach of the Canadian Slovak League), Winnipeg, Manitdba, 19zy3. Schlesinger, R.: Slovakia Today and Tomorrow, Contemporary Review, London, August, 1939. ARTICLES IN NEWSPAPERS Pravda (The Truth), an official paper of the Communist Party in Slovakia. Samostatnost' pre Slovensko (Independence For Slovakia), Bratislava, May 30, 1926. Pravda Chudoby (The Truth of the Downtroddtm), a Czech, Communist rparper. Narodni h,nuti a komunisticka strana Ceskoslovenska (National Movements and the Communist 'Party of Czechoslovakia), Prague, June 3'0, 1924. �52 SLOVAKIA Rude pravo (The Red Law), an official paper of the Czeeh Communist Party. Odhaleni zradcu (The Traitors Uncovered), Pra,g ue, Felbruary 27, ,1951<. Slovak, a paper published by the Slovak Liberation Committee in Munich, Germany. Autonomna vlada pre Slovensko? (An Autonomous Government For Slovakia?), !Munich, June, 1956 . • • • FA'llHER SEGIN!AK'S IMPRE$SIONS OF PRAGUE AND PRESOV "A visit behind the Iron Curtain can best be characterized by the feeling that one is seeing the living-dead." With these words, Father Theodore Seginak, 0.S.B., superior of the Benedictine Fathers' Holy Trinity Priory, described his recent visit to Prague in Bohemia and Presov in Slovakia. After attending a meeting of all the Benedictine superiors of the world in Rome from September 18 to 26, Father Seginak was accompanied by Father Alexander Minchik, O.S.B., on the trip behind the Iron Curtain. Visas for the trip behind the Iron Curtain are most difficult to obtain. Only after repeated requests had been made did the two priests receive the necessary permission to visit. Even so only two times a week can flights from Vienna to Prague be had. At the Prague airport a thorough search of all apparel was made, as well as a close scrutiny of all money brought into the country. The customs officials demanded to see everything, and sternly warned the two priests that on their return journey they would be required to show a receipt for all purchases made during their visit. The streets of Prague were filled with sullen, downcast persons who performed their duties with a mechanical precision. One always had the feeling that the eyes of the communist "big brother" were on you. In fact, it is routine in restaurants to sit down to a meal and look up to see a policeman gaping in the window at the diners. The very best meal is steak - which is really hamburger with an egg on top. Father Seginak was amazed at the prices of clothing and the very poor quality. An American $45 suit costs � 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 1959, Vol. 9 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 4 [sic] (No. 29), March 1959.</li> <li>Issue 5 [sic] (No. 30), June-December 1959.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1959 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 38 SLOVAKIA ·SLOVAK NATION ALISM: 1 B. S. BUC, Ph.D. NATIONALISM OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY 1. The Ephemeral Slovak Soviet Republic Because of the deeply religious basis of the Slovaks as well as the agrarian nature of Slovakia, Communism with its revolutionary materialistic-socia l program had from the beginning no hope of winning over the Slovaks. It, therefore, endeavored all the more to conquer them by force. The first attempt at forceful domination in Slovakia was undertaken in 1919. This occurred after the First World War in connection with the creation of the Hungarian Soviet Republic whose leader was the well known Bela Kuhn. The Hungarian Communist government invaded Slovakia with its army and occupied the Eastern sector with the sities of Presov and Kosice. Following in the wake of the occupation, a public Communist assembly met at Presov on June 16, 1919, and announced the establishment of the Slovak Soviet Republic with the proclamation that: This day the Slovak Soviet RepUiblic was created on Slovaik soil, liberated from imperialism. The first conscious, instinctive act of the proletariat, freed from the yoke of Czech imperialism, was that oppressors proclaim with such great glory, but in reality falsify (1). At this assembly, a temporary revolutionary committee was appointed which transferred its seat from Presov to Kosice. There on June 20, 1919, a twenty-member Slovak Revolutionary Council was named with the Czech Communist A. Jarousek at its head. This Council formally informed the Czecho-iSlovak government in Prague that Slovakia is separating from the Czech lands. Immediately the Soviet government of Moscow hastened to greet this new Slovak dictatorship of the proletariat. The existence of this very stormily-begun Slovak Soviet Republic was short-lived. On July 5, 1919, the Red Hungarian Army was coerced to withdraw from Slovak territory and the "Slovak Soviet Republic" ended. Except for many atrocities perpetrated on the inhabitants by the SLOVAKIA 39 Red Army, no signs whatever remained in Slovakia after this three-week Communist adventure (2). 2. Coordination of Nationalism and Class Struggle After the shattering of this first Communist attempt to enslave Slovakia in 1919, it would hardly be necessary to speak of the Communist Party in connection with Slovak nationalism. But the situation which ensued in Slovakia, after Communist occupation in 1944 through Russian partisans and then the army, made the Communist Party one of the most significant fashioners of the present fate of Slovaks in general. It was a repetition of the events of 1919, except with longer lasting and far-reaching results. Communism would never have attained its present position in Slovakia, had the end of the war not permitted it. Election results prior to the Second World War indicate that the Communist Party was never powerful in Slovakia; in the election year of 1919, it had 10.66 per cent of the votes; in 1935, 12.97 per cent. And even these percentages would be lower, if other nationalities were separated and only Slovak votes counted. This is shown by the fact that in voting districts comprising a clearly Slovak population, the percentage gains of the Communist Party were always substantially lower than in districts where they were mixed with Hungarians(3). The weak successes of the Communists in Slovakia, despite the facts that the social situation of the Slovak population was really not the best, must be attributed to the religious foundation of the Slovaks and in part to the influence of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party, which in its program presented a more compact statement of the national and social demands of the Slovak inhabitants. Recalling to mind the delicacy of the nationality problem in the newly established Czecho-Slovakia, the Communist Party immediately in 1919 began to orientate its program in order to draw as much as possible from it. Clement Gottwald, leader of the Party, marked this program in 1924 in the following words: Such a solution to the question must be sought and found which will enable the Party to support nationality movements 40 SLOVAKIA and to unite its revolui-tonary energies, or to coordinate with revolutionary class warfare the whole proletariat of the CzechoSlovak RepUlblic. I am of the opinion that the Party can, with comparatirve ea,se, gain leadership in the movement of national minorities and thus cast to the r,e ar the bour,geois-chauvinist parties . .. . The Comunist Party in Slovakia must not only utilize the national movements for the class interests of the proletariat, but must stand directly at its head and lead it along paths actually revolutionary (4). In accord with the plan, the Communist Party in Slovakia also fought for the autonomy of Slovakia as did the Slovak People's Party. When in the elections of 1925 the autonomists achieved their greatest successes, the Communists hastened to promise more than autonomy. In January, 1926, they announced: 'Dhe Communist Party of Czechoslovakia raises .. these concrete demands: the complete independence of Slovakia. Let the SlovaJk nation itself decide on arranging its own affairs (5). This signified competition with the autonomists in emphasizing Slovak national ambitions. We do not know for sure whether to account the gains - even though trivial - of the Communist Party in Slovakia to its social struggle for the rights of the proletariat, or to its tactizing with Slovak nationalism. But the latter definitely gained votes for them. Despite its more than positive position in regard to Slovak nationalism, the Communist party was nevertheless organized only on a statewide basis as a "Czechoslovak" Party. Its leadership in Slovakia, however, rested in the hands of a sma:11 but capable group of Slovak intellectuals, who became adherents of the Party not from social motives, but rather because its ideological foundation introduced to them a new kind of belief. They were Slovak nationalists, but because of their negative attitude toward religion, they found it difficult to attach themselves to the other two national parties, namely, the Slovak People's Party and the Slovak National Party; the former was led by a Catholic priest, the latter by a Lutheran minister. They were, therefore, idealists blinded by idealism to such an extent that they were unable to realize that the Communist Party was actually an instrument of Russian imperialism, concealing itself at times in relation to SLOVAKIA 41 Slav nations under Russian Pan-Slavism. They were fittingly called "Sa:lon Communists," because both their social position and their behavior were in complete opposition to the concept "proletariat" which they were supposed to represent. It is not surprising, therefore, that this group of Slovak Communists received the dissolution of Czecho-Slovakia in 1938 with as much joy as the other Slovak national elements. Although the Slovak Government had forbidden the activities of the Communist Party, yet a majority of its representatives was left free and held important offices. This enabled them, through salon and not revolutionary means, to make preparations for the opportune establishment of a "Slovak Republic without Germans and Fascists" when the occasion should arise (6). 3. Towards a New Slovak Soviet Republic The moments for the fulfillment of their plans seemed to arrive when, near the end of August, 1944, Soviet parachutists succeeded in carrying the operations of war into Slo.vak territory and called forth co-called "Slovak uprising against the Germans." Slovak Communists, therefore, hastened in September of that year to establish the indepen*dent Communist Party of Slovakia to the great surprise of Czech Communist agents. They acted in accord with Moscow itself, which sought, through its partisans, to win over the President of the Slovak Republic, Joseph Tiso, by promising protection to the Slovak Republic (7). Tiso's attitude to these efforts was one of greatest rejection: Cooperation with Moscow would have signified a terrible cata,s trophe for the nation. It would have been a denial of Christianity. Communism was from its first beginnings and remained an irreconcilable enemy not only of our nation, our independence, but is a danger for all of Europe. Communism brings with itself a rapid debasement of the moral, spiritual and material level of every nation in whose bosom it reposes. Every true patriot, therefore, cannot soil his hands by cooperating with such a political system as well as with its representatives residing in Moscow (8). In these steps we see the two-faced action of Moscow, which "did not cease to assure officially that her aim was 42 SLOVAKIA to renew the Czecho-Slovak Republic, but underneath carried on, through her partisans, a survey to ascertain the mood in Slovakia towards the annexation of that country (9). 4. Change of Moscow's Plans When Moscow failed to gain support of Slovak national elements to proclaim the Slovak Soviet Republic and saw that Communism in Slovakia lacked strong roots, she decided definitely to reestablish Czecho-Slovakia. The elections of 1946 in renovated Czech-Slovakia indicate why this solution was more advantageous for Moscow's plans. The Communist Party in Czech territory had a more probable chance of winning. This decision of Moscow, however, meant the beginning of tragedy for Slovak national Communists. It was already discernible in the action of Moscow, which appointed William Siroky, a Hungarian by origin, as Chairman of the newly established Communist Party in Slovakia in preference to Slovak nationalists. In Siroky Moscow found a very compliant instrument for her further political drama in Czecho-Slovakia. Czecho-Slovakia indeed was renewed, but not in its original size and greatness. First of all Moscow annexed Ruthenia. When Dr. Edward Benes was returning from Moscow, shortly after the Red Army occupied Slovak territory, he had to remain in Kosice where the native Communists compelled him to agree to the so-called Kosice program of April, 1945, according to which the new Czecho-Slovakia was to be a state of two nations, Czech and Slovak. Clement Gottwald, as Premier of the government, announced on April 5, 1945, that "the Republic will be renewed as a comomn state of the co-equal Czech and Slovak nations" and that "the new government of the Republic will be concerned that, during the constitutional solution of the relations between the Czech and Slovak nations, the Slovak organs will be constituted with the same legislative, administrative and executive power which the Slovak nation enjoys today in its Slovak National Council" (10). Perhaps, in respect to elections, the Slovaks SLOVAKIA 43 were at least promised autonomy as the last step to win them over to Communism. 5. Centralized Czecho-Slovakia Once Again A year later, in May of 1946, the first elections were held in the new Czecho-Slovakia, and they indicated a substantial difference within the Communist Parties of Slovakia and the Czech lands. The Communist Party of Slovakia, united with the Social Democrats, gained 30.6 per cent of the votes; whereas in Czech territory the Communist party obtained 40.4 per cent and the Social Democrats 15.6 per cent which together totalled 56 per cent. In Czech lands we see a very evident victory for the Communist Party. Of the 300 seats in Parliament, the combined parties of the Communists and Socialists had 153 deputies. A certain official from the Russian embassy made this observation about the results of the 1946 elections: "The majority is not great, but it suffices in order to rule over the other parties in a democratic way" (11). The elections sounded the death knell of the promised autonomy for Slovakia. Theoretically, the principle of two nations was continually stressed; practically, however, even a stronger centralization than during the first Czecho-Slovak Republic began to shape up. Even more, on September 28, 1948, when the Communist Party of Slovakia was abolished and became a part of the united Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia. This was more than the Slovak Communists could stand. Even the fear of retaliation •c ould not restrain them from rising up in opposition. The threat of revenge for this deviation from servility was not long in coming. In February of 1951, the foremost leaders, V. Clementis, Dr. G. Husak, L. Novomesky and K. Smidke, were expelled from the Party and deprived of all functions because "they planned a new Slovak separatist program and together formed a plot aimed at tearing Slovakia away from the Czecho-Slovak Republic" (12). In April others were condemned as bourgeois nationalists. The substance of their crimes is contained in a long condemnation, in which we find the following: 44 SLOVAKIA The ideological background of their treachery consisted in their attempts to solve the national question of the Slovak nation, not in collruboration with thet Czech working class but mainly in cooperation with the Slovak bourgeoisie and accepted eventually their leadership. In this connection they accepted the Slovak fascist puppet State. Later on, they successfully penetrated the leadership of the Slovak national uprising and got hold of important positions in the new People's Democratic State. They misused their positions in the Slovak National Council and on the Board of Commissioners in a criminal way in order to isolate Slovakia from the Czech working people and from the construction of Socialism, thus strengthening in Slovakia the remnants of capitalism and jeopardizing the achievements of the Slovak working class. Their aim was to break up the common Czecho-Slo,vak State and to hand over Slovakia to the reactionary bourg.eois-iP and to the mercy of foreign imperialists (13'). We do not know how L. Novomesky, one of the accused, understood, a;fter his trial, the words which he wrote in 1948, prior to his imprisonment, in the introduction to a book of his co-sufferer G. Husak: They say superficially that re,volutions devour their o,wn children. This is not trur! The truth rather is that revolutions, determined to r-emain faithful to their program, slough off those of their children who would pel'vert their meaning, their program and their end (14). After this purge President Gottwald appointed a Czech Communist, M. Bacilek, as President of the Slovak National Council. The whole apparatus of the Communist Party and administration in Slovakia is now in the hands of Czechs and Magyars, and not in the hands of Slovak elements. In liquidating the Communist Slovaks, Prague liquidated practically the idea of a Czecho,Slovak State. !Between the years 19415 and HW7, Benes had annihilated the Ca,tholics, the principal political force of Slovakia. During the course of the crisis 1n ,119418, the Czech Communists and Democrats had era.sed such Slovak Protestants as Le.Urich, and Ursiny. Prague suppressed finally the last political suppor.t of the Czecho-Siovak State in Slovakia: the Communists. The fourth Czecho-Slovak Republic as a national State of Czechs and Slovak,s is, therefore, dead. Instead a Socialist Soviet State emerges (,115). 6. Aftermath of Stalin's Death The changes in Moscow after the death of Joseph Stalin, however, testify that the drama of Slovak na- SLOVAKIA 45 tionalist Communists is not completed and awaits the completion of its last act, if the new seemingly revolutionary directives, inaugurated by the XX Congress of the Communist Party in Moscow by Khrushchev, will be brought into effect. These directives, among other things, stress very emphatically the principle of self-determination in dealing with the national ambitions of various nations. If action really follows words, then this "new Moscow approach" towards the solution of problems stemming from nationalism may give the Slovak nationalist Communists new hopes to implement their old dream, the Slovak Soviet Republic. It seems that the first step along this new line was made by the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Czecho-Slovakia, which convened from the first to eleventh of May, 1956, in order to discuss the directives of the XX Congress of the Communist Party of the U. S. S. R. Present at this meeting was W. Siroky, the present :Prime Minister of the Czecho-Slovak Government. He uttered a manifesto in which among other things, he stressed: A!bove all it is necessary to concern ourselves with the questions of extending the jurisdiction of the Slovak Nation-al Council of the highest organ of State power in Slovakia. Today there are already suppositions for extending the legislative jurisdiction of the Slovak National Council, and we must probably think also -about constitutional changes i,n the same way. . . . In just that way must we consider extending the jurisdiction of the Slovak National Council in the eyes of the Board of Commissioners and e~pressly estaiblish constitutional conclusions of responsibility to the Board of •Commissionens o'f ithe Slovak National Council (16). The Slovak National Council and the Board of Commissioners, according to the Kosice program of 1945, were to be the legisfative and executive organs of the planned autonomous government of Slovakia. After the elections of 1946 their jurisdiction was completely limited, so that they really became only executive organs of the centralist administration of Prague. The conclusion of w_ Siroky's address would be that in due time a complete autonomy would prevail. But W. Siroky went so far as to say: "as the foundatio~ of its politics concerning the nationalist question, the Communist Party considers the right of na- 46 SLOVAKIA tions toward self-expression, that is, the right to break away freely from or unite freely to another nation" (17). Such a position would have been favorably acceptable to the nationalist Slovak Communists, but Siroky, a Stalinist and still in power, gave to it his own interpretation. It was certainly with the intention to threaten his imprisoned colleagues that in concluding his address he said: 'Noting our successes, . . . we can in no way underestimate the influence of the bourgeois nationalist ideology, Its heralds utilize every occasion of um.est, every want and negative mani• festation for its spread and livelihood. It is the plaitform of the enemies of socialism, and must not even lead us astray then when 1bouregois nationalism, as for example at present, emerges under the slogan of a People's Democratic Slovakia 018). Here then is the evidence why nationalist Slovak Communists, even when released from prison, have not been rehabilitated. If, however, Moscow shall desire the removal of W. Siroky and Bacilek and shall set up the first, then the world in the near future shall be surprised to hear the proclamation of a new Slovak Soviet Republic. The recently developed situation in Hungary strengthened again the position of the Stalinists and brought ahout the occupation of Slovakia by the Czech and Russ~an armies. 7. There Will Be No Stopping The existence of the Slovaks as a political force in Central Europe is not a fact of negligible importance at the present time. They have reached such a level of group consciousness that it will be impossible to disregard them in dealing with the political problems of that area. Their emergence presents a vivid example of the development of modern nationalism, for, as Don Luigi Sturzo has writ7 ten: "Once a country or a people has succeeded in developing a consciousness of its own personality and on affirming it in the struggle with which history has confronted it, there is no stopping." Many incentives led the Slovaks to develop a consciousness of their own personality despite the fact that they have been living for over a thousand . years without any specific political rights within Hungary. SLOVAKIA 47 The first incentive came from the social philosophy of the Enlightenment. It created a new political power out of the submerged social class of people by advocating certain rights for the masses in dealing with the public affairs of states. At the same time this movement destroyed the predominance of Latin and elevated the people's language to literary prominence. In the case of the Slovaks it led to the codification of their vernacular language which became the first step towards the assertion of their own distinct personality. German Romantic philosophy provided a second incentive and gave a further impetus towards the same goal. Its contribution consisted in defining more closely the concept "people" by changing it into the concept "nation" whereby a greater stress was placed upon the importance of a common history, language and culture. This philosophy was also instrumental in creating among the Slav nations a literary and political movement called Pan-Slavism. Under the impact of Pan-Slavism Slovaks were made aware of their glorious past as represented by Greater Moravia, the first Slav state in Central Europe, and began to feel that their land was the cradle of present-day cultures. The third incentive was provided by President Wilson's principle of self-determination of nations and the Western Allies' decision to dismember Austria-Hungary after the First World War. The map of Central Europe was changed and the Slovaks became a part of a new state called the Czecho-Slovak Republic. In the CzechoSlovak Republic they were supposed to be equal partners with the kin Czechs, but these ambitions were never realized because the imaginary "Czechoslovak" nation sought to merge them with the Czechs on the ground of their close kinship. Nevertheless, in the Czecho-Slovak Republic the almost extinct Slovak community grew up into a new democratic society, and the Slovaks were ready to venture into an independent life in their own Slovak Republic. At present the overwhelming majority of Slovaks consider the situation as an enforced one and remain almost united in their efforts to regain their lost independence. 48 SLOVAKIA Under the present circumstances their ,o bjectives and efforts are directed towards the following goals: 1. Slovakia within the framework of a democratic Czecho-Slovakia is still the objective of a small group of "Czecho-Slovaks" who are composed primarily of former diplomats and leading personalities of the first CzechoS1ovakia. Being aware of the opposition of the majority of Slovaks at home agruinst the Czechs this group of Slovaks finally agreed to have the state based on the idea of two distinct Czech and Slovak nations instead of the former imaginary "Czechoslovak" nation. 2. Independent Slovakia either as a unit within the proposed federated Central Europe or simply as an independent democratic state. Both alternatives enjoy almost the same popularity with the overwhelming majority of the Slovaks at home and abroad. They represent the desires and endeavors of a substantial part of the Slovak population whose objective has always been to assure for Slovaks the rights of an ethnographically, culturally and politica:lly distinct personality in the international family of nations. 3. A Slovak Soviet Republic might have been the objective of a small group of Slovak Communists before they were executed or imprisoned as bourgeois deviationists. They once again seemed to have had a chance to act after Stalin's death but are now forestalled by what happened in Hungary in 1956. In spite of the fact that there still are groups among the Slovaks that endeavor to make Slovakia dependent upon the Czechs or upon the Russians, the ambitions of Slovak nationalism will hardly be gratified until the Slovaks find their haven in a sovereign Slovak State or in such a political arrangement of Central Europe wherein the Slovaks will be allotted the same sovereign rights as other so-called established nations possess today. (11J) iM. Gosiorovsky: "O Sovietoch na Slovensku v roku 1919", Nova Mysl, Pr-ague, September, 191'9, 2716,284. (Q) Ibidem. (3) !For ,e xample, 1n the elections of 1.929 voting districts, comprising a clearly Slovak population conceded very little percentage-wise to the Communist Party: Presov 4.57 per cent, Turcian- SLOVAKIA 49 sky Sv. Martin 6J18 per cent, Ba,nska Bystrica 7.60 per cent. Whereas in districts comprising a greater majority of Hungarians, the Communists showed grea ter gains: Kosice 115.4!8 per cent and Nove Zamky IJ6.84 ·p er cent. - Dr. F. Durcansky, Biela Kniha, Buenos Aires, 19B4, p. 7'84). {4) Pravda Chudoby, 30. juna 1954. (5) Pravda, 30. maja 1'926. (6) Durcansky, op. cit., p. 796. (7) Dr. F. Durcansky, "Marne sa snail Moskva ziskat' Slovakov", Literarny almanac'1 Slovaka v Amerike, Chicago, 195G, pp. 43-48. (8) 1lbid., pp. 45-416. {9) J. Smutny, Doklady a rozp.ravy, CLondon, November 1952), p. 5. (10) Ustanoveni ceskoslovenske vlady Narodni fronty Cechu a Slovaku a jeji prvni projevy, (Praha 1<947), pp. 21 sp. (l1lJ) iH. Ripka, Czechoslovakia Enslaved, (London, 1949), p. 47. C12) Rude pravo, (27. fobruara 19511). •Q13) Joseph Mikus: La Slovaquie dans le drame de l'Europe, Paris, 11955. 014) G. Husak, Zapas o zajtrajsok, (Bratislava, 1943), p. 3. (15) ,J . A. !Mikus, op. cit., ,p. 3'86. (Paris, 119515), p. 386. (16) Slovak, (jun 11956). (17) Ibidem. (lt8) Ibidem. BIBLIOGRAPHY Association Hongroise des Affaires Etrangeres. La deportation des Hongrois de Slovaquie, Budapest, .1947. Aulneau, J .: Histoire de l'Europe Central, Paris, ·1926. Autonomist: Slovakia's Plea for Autonomy, Jednota Press, Middletown, Pa., ,11935. Benes, E.: Czechoslovak Policy fo.r Victory and Peace, London, 1:94'4. Benes, E.: Le probleme .A utrichien et la question tcheque, Paris, •1908. Benes, E.: My War Memoirs, London, 1928. Blasko, S.: Slovakia in Blood and Shackles, Piassaic, N .J., 1954. Bokes, F.: Dejiny Slovakov a Slovenska (History of the Slovaks and Slovakia), Bratislava, 1'946. Botto, J.: Slovaci: Vyvin ich narodneho povedomia (Slovaks: the Development of Their National Consciousness), Turciansky Sv. Martin, ·11906. Carr, E. H.: Natio,nalism and After, London, 1·946. Chmelar, J.: National Minorities in Central Europe, Prague, 1'937. Clementis, V.: Panslavism, Past and Present, London, 194G. Culen, K.: Dejiny Slovakov v Amerike (History of the Slovaks in America), Bratislava, 11942. Cul-en, K.:Cesi a Slovaci v statnych sluibach CSR (Cze'Chs and Slovak•s in the Civil Service of the Czechoslovak Republic), Bratislava, 1944>. Culen, K.: Pittsburghska dohoda (The Pittsburgh .Pact), •B ratislava, '1937. Denis, E.: La question d'Autriche: Les Slovaques, Paris, 1917. Diamond, W.: Czechoslovakia Between East and West, London. 1947. 50 SLOVAKIA Durcansky, F.: Slovenska biela kniha (Slovak White Book), Buenos Aires, 11954!. European Movement: Basis For An Eastern Europea,i Policy, London, 1950. Gottwald, K.: Slove,nsko hladuje (Slovakia is Starving), Bratislava, 1925. Gottwald, K.: Za socialisticky itat, za socialisticke pravo (For a Socialistic State, For a Socialistic Right), Prague, 1940. Hodza, M.: Federation in Central Europe, London, 1~. Hrusovsky, F.: Slovensko v dejinach Strecl,nej Europy (Slovakia in the History of Central Eu.rope), Turciansky Sv. Martin, 1939. Hrufovsky, F ,: This Is Slovakia, Obrana Press, Scranton, Pa., 1955. Ingrim, R.: After Hitler Stalin? Bruce Pulb lishing Co., Milwaukee, '1946. Lloyd George, David: The Truth About the Peace Treaties, London, 1 '1925. Macartney, C. A.: Hungary a,nd Her Successo.rs, London-New York, 194'3'. Macartney, C. A.: National States and National Minorities, London, 1934. Macartney, C. A.: Problems of the Danube Basin, London, 194!2. M~ryk, T. G.: New Europe, London, 11917. Masaryk, T. G.: The Problem of Small Nations in the European Crisis, London, 1915. Masaryk, T. G.: La resurrection d'un etat (Souvenirs et reflections 1914-1958), Paris, .1930. Mendelsohn, P.: The Nuremberg Documents, London, 11946. Mikus, J. A.: La Slovaquie da,ns le drame de l'Europe, Paris, 1955-. Miniisterstvo vnitra (The Ministry of Interior): Spiknuti proti republice (Conspiracy Against the Czecho-Slovak Republic in Slovakia), Prague, 194'7. Osusky, S.: Benes and Slovakia, London, 1943. Peroutka, V.: Budovani statu (Building of a New State), Pra•g ue, 11'93•3-li936. Popovici, Aurel: Die Verei,n igten Staaten von Grossoesterreich, Leipzig, 1906. Rene, Renry: Questions d'Aut.riche-Hongrie et questions d'Orient, P-aris, 1903. Ripka, H.: Small and Great Nations, London, 1194!4'. Ripka, H.: Czechoslovakia Enslaved, London, 1948. Schlesinger, R.: Federalism i,n Central Europe, London, 1945. Seton Watson, R. W.: Slovakia Then and Now, London and Prague, 1 1'931. Seton Watson, R. W.: A History of the Czechs and Slovaks, London, 194'3'. Seton Watson, R. W.: Eastern Europe Between the Wars 1918-1941, London, 1945. Sidor, K.: Andrej Hlinka, Bratislava, 1934. Sidor, K.: Slovenska politika na pode p.razskeho snemu (Slovak Politics On the ·F loor of the Prague ,Parliament), iBratislll/Va, 1943. Shafer, Boyd C.: Nationalism: Myth and Reality, New York, 19514. Slovak Catholic Federation of America: The Slovaks and the Pittsburgh Pact, Chicago, 1004. SLOVAKIA 51 Sturzo, Do r Luigi: NatiQ\nalism and Internationalism, New York, 1946. Thomson, Harrison: Czechoslovakia in European Histo.ry, Princeton Press, New Jerisey, 11'944. Ustanoveni ceskoslovenske vlady Narodni fronty Cechu a Slovaku a jeji prvni projevy (Decrees and First Manifestoes of the Czecho-Slovak Gover,nment Composed of the Czech and Slovak National Front), Prague, 1947. Ustav Dr. E. Benesa CDr. E. Benes lns'titurte): Doklady a .rozpravy (Documents and Deliberations), London, 1'952. ARTICLES IN MAGAZINES AND PERIODICALS Brauner, H.: Die Volkswerdung der Slowaken (The Development of Slovaks lnot a Nation), a treatise published in Deutsches Archive ftir Landes und Volkswerdung, Vo1. V, Berlin, 1944. Darras, M.: Onze ans de vie independante en Slovaquie, Le monde slave, Paris, May-June, .1000. Durcansky, F.: l'.Europe Central dans le passe et dans l'avenir, La revue de drnit internacional, de sciences diplomatiques et politiques, Geneve, XX]I, annee, no. 1, 1/94'4. Durcansky, F.: Marne sa snaii Moskva ziskat' Slovakov (The Futile Efforts of Moscow to Win Over the Slovaks), Literarny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike, an Almanach pU!blished in Chicago by the publislhers of the SLOVAK V AiMERllKE, a newspaper in the Slovak language, Chicago, 1:953. Chudoba, B.: Czechoslovakia: A Study in Disintegration, Thought, Fordham University Quarterly, March, 1950. Clementis, V.: Ni satelite de l'U.R.S.S. ni artisan d'un bloc slave, Parallele 50, Paris, September 20, '1950. Gosiorovs'ky, .M.: 0 •S ovietoch na Slovensku v roku 1919 (About the Soviets in Slovakia in 1919), Nova mysl (The New Thought), Prague, September, 111919. Hlinka, A.: Memoirs des Slovaques a la Conference de la Paix, A Memorandum to the Peace Conference in Paris, 1919. Kirschbaum, J .: Slovakia and Central European Federation Plans, SLOVAIIQ!A, a periodical plllblished by the Slovak League of Ameriica, Middletown, Pa., April, 1953. Pir, A. V.: America's Slovak Societies, published in the Bulletin of t he Slovak Nat ional Council A'broa,d, Middletown, Pa., August, 1956. Naboienska itatistika (Religious Statistics), Kalendar Kanadskej Slovenskej Ligy (Almanach of the Canadian Slovak League), Winnipeg, Manitdba, 19zy3. Schlesinger, R.: Slovakia Today and Tomorrow, Contemporary Review, London, August, 1939. ARTICLES IN NEWSPAPERS Pravda (The Truth), an official paper of the Communist Party in Slovakia. Samostatnost' pre Slovensko (Independence For Slovakia), Bratislava, May 30, 1926. Pravda Chudoby (The Truth of the Downtroddtm), a Czech, Communist rparper. Narodni h,nuti a komunisticka strana Ceskoslovenska (National Movements and the Communist 'Party of Czechoslovakia), Prague, June 3'0, 1924. 52 SLOVAKIA Rude pravo (The Red Law), an official paper of the Czeeh Communist Party. Odhaleni zradcu (The Traitors Uncovered), Pra,g ue, Felbruary 27, ,1951<. Slovak, a paper published by the Slovak Liberation Committee in Munich, Germany. Autonomna vlada pre Slovensko? (An Autonomous Government For Slovakia?), !Munich, June, 1956 . • • • FA'llHER SEGIN!AK'S IMPRE$SIONS OF PRAGUE AND PRESOV "A visit behind the Iron Curtain can best be characterized by the feeling that one is seeing the living-dead." With these words, Father Theodore Seginak, 0.S.B., superior of the Benedictine Fathers' Holy Trinity Priory, described his recent visit to Prague in Bohemia and Presov in Slovakia. After attending a meeting of all the Benedictine superiors of the world in Rome from September 18 to 26, Father Seginak was accompanied by Father Alexander Minchik, O.S.B., on the trip behind the Iron Curtain. Visas for the trip behind the Iron Curtain are most difficult to obtain. Only after repeated requests had been made did the two priests receive the necessary permission to visit. Even so only two times a week can flights from Vienna to Prague be had. At the Prague airport a thorough search of all apparel was made, as well as a close scrutiny of all money brought into the country. The customs officials demanded to see everything, and sternly warned the two priests that on their return journey they would be required to show a receipt for all purchases made during their visit. The streets of Prague were filled with sullen, downcast persons who performed their duties with a mechanical precision. One always had the feeling that the eyes of the communist "big brother" were on you. In fact, it is routine in restaurants to sit down to a meal and look up to see a policeman gaping in the window at the diners. The very best meal is steak - which is really hamburger with an egg on top. Father Seginak was amazed at the prices of clothing and the very poor quality. An American $45 suit costs  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 Slovak Nationalism: Nationalism of the Communist Party Description An account of the resource B. S. Buc, Ph.D.<br />Slovakia, Vol. 9, No. 5 (30), June-December 1959<br />pp. 38-52<br /><ol><li>The Ephemeral Slovak Soviet Republic</li> <li>Coordination of Nationalism and Class Struggle</li> <li>Towards a New Slovak Soviet Republic</li> <li>Change of Moscow's Plans</li> <li>Centralized Czecho-Slovakia Once Again</li> <li>Aftermath of Stalin's Death</li> <li>There Will Be No Stopping</li> </ol> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Buc, B. S. (Bonaventure S.), 1910-1966 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June-December 1959 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/ffdd90e93a1e0dd7bfadee4f9be62543.pdf 3d921bb0dc4b66649d2663cee5110f77 PDF Text Text 32 SLOVAKIA Bratislava streets rang out with song for quite a time. We embraced each other and danced. Then we marched, or rather should ,J say, danced all the way to Svoradov. The fraternity was another joyous scene. I still remember vividly how we embraced Colman Murgas in the refectory, his eyes streaming with tears. I was so excited that 1 could hardly eat. Like so many others, l had lost my appetite for food. Like them, I was satiated with joy. The Slovaks proclaimed their country an independent Republic on March 14, 1939. • • • SLOVAK NATIONALISM: THE ROLE OF EMIGRANTS IN SLOVAK NATIONALISM B. S. BUC, Ph.D. 1. The Nation of Emigrants Slovak nationalism cannot be considered as the outgrowth of the Central European soil and the pure product of political forces of that sector. It was steadily developing under many outside influences which penetrated that sector either in the form of new ideas or in the form of outside political and economic interests. Moreover, in the period of the greatest oppression, the real shaping of the Slovak national will for survival was occuring outside Slovakia, among emigrants. About one third of the present Slovak population lives outside Slovakia as emigrants in various sectors of the world. That makes Slovaks truly a nation of emigrants. They were forced to emigrate either for economic or political reasons. Slovakia is a mountainous country with forests covering 40 % of the land. Moreover, prior to 1918, a substantial part of Slovak land was owned by the Magyar or foreign aristocracy, so that Slovaks had little opportunity to make living from agriculture. Temporary or permanent emigration became, therefore the only solution to the economic problem for many children of Slovak farmers. When they �SLOVAKIA 33 reached free soil, especially the United 1S tates of America, they proved themselves to be the greatest promoters of Slovak nationalism, not only among themselves but also in their native country. They conveyed ideas of democracy and freedom to their homeland and influenced the outside world to help their compatriots at home in their struggle for survival in Hungary. In 1918, when Slovakia became a part of Czecho-Slovakia, emigration did not cease. It is true, however, that in the first years of the new Republic, Czecho-,Slovakia inaugurated a drastic agrarian reform, wherein almost all of the soil belonging to the aristocracy was apportioned among new owners. Nevertheless, these reforms failed to ameliorate the original situation, because they aimed at rewarding political careerists rather than at bettering the social position of the inhabitants. According to a French observer : "many of the good lands, instead of being apportioned among the peasants, were used to constitute a new agrarian bourgeoisie, under the name of 'surplus estates' " (1). These estates served to favor the political aims of the Czech agrarian party, who used them either to establish Czechs in Southern Slovakia, or to reward Slovaks who were inclined to apply cen• tralist politics to the government of Slovakia. This gave rise to a privileged class, the "surplussers" who resembled very much the ancient landlords of the Hungarian feudal system. While the latter received their lands as a recompense for their services in the army, the former received them for their services in politics (2). Under Czecho-Slovakia, however, Slovak industry fared even worse. The Czechs were chiefly concerned with industrial expansion within their own domains and, therefore, not only contributed nothing to the expansion of former Slovak industries, but adversely put down many existing undertakings in an evident attempt to keep Slovakia agrarian. According to William iDiamond: "During the period from 1934 to 1937, 91.5% of all factory manufacturing in the state occured in Czech lands" ( 3). According to information presented in May of 1949 to the XIX Congress of the Communist !Party in Prague by William Siroky, who at that time was Chairman of the Communist Party in Slovakia, 92,000 workers were engaged in Slovak industries and trades in 191i3. This figure �34 SLOVAKIA comprised about 17 % of the total population. After the unification of Czechs and Slovaks, the progressive tendency in industry since the First World War was completely halted. In 1'927, no more than 80,000 workers were engaged in industry in Slovakia. Within ten more years, during which industry showed great and rapid progress in Czech lands the increase in the number of workers in Slovakia was negligible, with the result that in 1937 they numbered 104,91'5 ( 4). Because of this unhealthy economic situation in Slovakia, almost one-third of the entire S 1 o v a k population sought relief through emigration. The majority emigrated to the United States between 1'873 and 1918. When the United States placed a limit on immigration in 1918, however, the Slovaks emigrated to Canada, South America, Australia, France, and Belgium. This emigration actually became the only liberty-holding portion of Slovaks and, therefore, chiefly before 1918, an almost exclusive representative of Slovak national endeavors. 2. Slovak Immigrants in the United States The leading position in these endeavors was held by Slovak immigrants in the United States. In 1910 Slovaks in this country numbered 281,707; by 1920 the number had increased to 619,866. According to a private appraisal, however, the number should be at least 200,000 more, for about that number of people of Slovak descent may have registered as Austro-iHungarians. Slovaks are represented mostly in the state of Pennsylvania, where in 1920 they numbered 296,219. The remainder are scattered mainly through nine states: Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Connecticut, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Indiana ( 5) . On United States soil, the Slovaks developed a very living, organized activity chiefly in the field of fraternalism. At the present time there exist eleven such ·Slovak fraternal organizations with a membership of more than 400,000 and with assets totaling 88½ million d0llars (6). They established besides an extensive Slovak press, which had a great significance for Slovak nationalism in that it was really the only national press during the time of fierce �SLOVAKIA 35 magyarization at the close of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. 3. Shaping of the National Will Every coercive measure of the Hungarian government encountered great opposition in the Slovak press of the United States. On the soil of this country Slovak and Magyars waged an obstinate battle, with the result that the Western World became acquainted with the name "Slovak" and with the nationality problem of Austria-Hungary. The first public and organized opposition of Slovaks towards !Magyars in the United ,States took place at Cleveland in 1902. The Magyar immigrants of that city were attempting to place in the Public Square a monument dedicated to their revolutionary Magyar leader of 1848, Louis Kossuth. They were hindered by the Slovaks, who publicly revealed Kossuth's totalitarian methods towards Slovaks and other nationalities of Hungary. When, in 1906, the Hungarian government brought Rev. Andrew Hlinka and several other 'Slovak patriots to trial, this action led the immigrants of all convictions in the United States to join forces and to found a united organization called Slovak League of America at the first Slovak Congress assembled in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 26, 1907. According to .its first tenets, the principal aim of the Slovak League was to exert every effort "that S 1 ova k nation would rank among the other nations as an equal among equals'' (7). Its first step was the creation of a national fund to carry on an active struggle for the liberation of Slovaks. Among the League's first successes in this country must be numbered the fact that, during the census of 1910, the following question was aked in the questionnaire: what is your mother tongue? Through this change, passed by the Senate at the proposal of Senator Oliver, the Slovaks as well as the other nationalities of former Hungary could not be separated from the universal concept of "Hungarian", under which they should have been originally classed for belonging to the Hungarian Kingdom (8). At the outbreak of the First World War, the Slovak �36 SLOVAKIA League published a memorandum, which was sent to all members of Congress and to other distinguished political figures in the United States as well as others in the West. This memorandum, in the spirit of American democratic ideals, stressed the desire that: The Slovaks in Hungary should obtain their natural privileges of life, freedom, and pursuit of happiness, which they have been deprived of by the dynasty; that the ,Slovaks be given opportunity to develop their national spirit, their abilities, and the natural resources of their native land; that the Slovaks be guaranteed the realization of their national ideals and efforts, which have been mercilessly trodden by the tyrannical Hungarian Government (9). The memorandum was signed by: all ofificials of the Slovak League; the representatives of twenty-three Slovak newspapers; the representatives of twenty organizations; fifty-two Slovak Catholic priests and forty Slovak Protestant ministers. 'It was published in five languages besides English. The main significance of this memorandum, however, lies in the fact that the 1S lovaks in this country immediately after the outbreak of the war assumed the leadership of the entire Slovak nation. They did it not only because they were free to express the will of the whole nation, but also because the number of their organized ranks exceeded the number of organized Slovaks ever known in their own fatherland. The number of publications represented on the memorandum also exceeded the number edited by the Slovaks in their native country. 4. In Search of a New Ally When the Slovak immigrants in the United States had sent out the afore-mentioned memorandum, they still had not made up their minds clearly concerning the future of their native land. Since they did not intend to form an independent state out of Slovakia, they had to concern themselves with the problem of deciding within what kind of future framework the Slovaks should enjoy those political rights which they sought. All were unanimously agreed that Slovakia must be definitely torn away from Hungary. Several proposed combinations developed. Some favored the Czechs as the ally to be sought. Others favored the Russians. Others favored the Poles, who already had promises from the Allies for the �SLOVAKIA 37 restoration of Poland. Gradually the Czechs came to be selected as the most logical ally to be sought (10). The thinking most prevalent in the minds of the Slovak immigrants in the United States is clearly stated in a letter of the Rev. Matthew Jankola, one of the foremost active participants in these matters. In a letter written in Bridgeport, Conn., on December 15, 1915, he wrote: We shall mean nothing in a monarchy, and absolutely nothing in a great Russia. But we would stand on a footing of equality with the Czechs, a la Austria and Hungary; or as formerly Norway and Sweden; with our own self-government, our own parliament, our own Slovak State language. Can we ever obtain this under Russia, or in In regards to the Czechs, their supremacy can Austria-Hungary? only be temporary; until the time that we rear one generation in our own spirit. I do not consider Czech liberalism so dangerous. Our naI mean common ture and character are different. The S I ova k shall retain their character (11). people - In the meantime, in Europe, profesor Thomas G. Masaryk began a revolutionary movement for the liberation of Czechs and Slovaks in Austria-Hungary. Under his influence the Czech immigrants in the United States also formed a joint organization under the name "Czech National Alliance" , which organization adopted the same program regarding Czechs as the Slovak League had done regarding Slovaks. T. G. Masaryk soon became the recognized head of the movement for the liberation of the Czechs and the alliance of the Slovaks with the Czechs. 5. The Cleveland Agreement Professor T. G. Masaryk from •Paris asked the Czech ational Alliance in America to gain the cooperation of the Slovak League for common Czech and Slovak liberation efforts. Following that request, the secretary of the Czech National Alliance invited the Slovak League of America to a meeting. Along with this invitation the secretary sent a proposed draft of an agreement which was accepted in Cleveland on October 25, 1915, and since that time has been known as the Cleveland Agreement. It contained the following points: 1. Independence of Czech lands and Slovakia. 2. A union of the Czech and Slovak nations in a federative alliance of states with a complete national autonomy for Slovakia, with its own state government, its own cultural freedom and, therefore, �38 SLOVAKIA its own complete use of the Slovak language, its own financial and political government, and with Slovak as the ,State language. 3. Voting power: general, secret, and direct. 4. Form of government: A personal union with a democratic State, the same as in ,England. 5. These points form the basis of the mutual agreement and can be enlarged or expanded only with the approval of both parties. The Czech National Alliance reserves the right of making possible changes, and the Slovak League has the same right (12) . This Cleveland Agreement opened up suppositions for the close cooperation of Czechs and Slovaks and eventually led to the formation of the common political state of the Czecho-<Slovak Republic. In spite of this agreement, however, the Czech side began to show indications of naming all common liberation undertakings as Czech. This instilled in the Slovaks the fear that the Czechs did not wish to accept the Slovaks as equal partners. Many discussions, therefore, ensued with the result that, during these sessions, one of the Slovak representatives clearly pin-pointed the Slovak position with the words: "Yes, we want to tear away from the Magyars and be with the Czechs, but not under the Czechs" ( 13). The above-mentioned Czech tactic prompted many of the Slovaks to lose faith in the Cleveland Agreement and in the Czechs, and prompted them to look for new allies. Such a decision did not take a firm foothold because, in the meantime, important events had occurred in the diplomatic world. President Wilson was re-elected on November 8, 1916. Soon after his re-election (December 21, 1916) he issued a proclamation to the warring nations in which he asked for a statement of their war aims. The Allies answered on January 12, 1917, and, in the conditions which they enumerated, the following sentence was found: "Liberation of the Italians, Slavs, Rumanians, Czecho-Slovaks from foreign government control" (14 ) . T. G. Masaryk explains that the term "Czecho-Slovaks" was written into the Allies' reply after the reply had been completed. "The word Czecho.JSlovaks", he writes, "contained in the proclamation, has its own interesting internal history. There were three suggestions: liberation of the Czechs - the Czech nation - the Czecho-Slovaks. The latter suggestion was accepted at a conference of Dr. Ed- �SLOVAKIA 39 ward Benes (Czech), Milan R. Stefanik (.Slovak), and Stephen Osusky (American Slovak)" (15). Dr. Benes, on the other hand, writes that he conferred with Mr. Osusky and Mr. Sychravy about the matter, since M. iR. Stefanik was then in Russia; and he further states that "Osusky expressed fear that the Allies' reply to President Wilson might name Czechs only, not the Slovaks". - For that reason he insisted on the term "Czecho-Slovaks" (16). 6. The Pittsburgh Pact The Allies' reply concerning the liberation of CzechoSlovakia definitely determined that, after a victoriously ended war, the Slovaks would be thrust into a common political state with the Czechs, which opened up among the Slovaks all sorts of speculations regarding the future of their fatherland. The official pronouncement concerning the Czecho-Slovaks indicated the existence of two separate groups with the formation of a new state. The Slovaks, therefore, had less reasons to fear that the Czechs would deprive them of their national individuality. T. G. Masaryk, who came to the United States near the end of the war, in April of 1'918, helped in no way to dispel this fear. He was looked upon as the person who could settle most of the small differences, suspicions, and discrepancies that had arisen. Delivering his first speech May 5, 191'8, in Chicago, Ill., he repeatedly mentioned the Czech lands, the Czech army, the Czech fight, the Czech future, etc., but not once did he mention Slovakia and completely ignored Slovak participation in the struggle. His speech was a big disappointment to the Slovaks and ,g ave rise to new doubts about Czech sincerity. On May 30, 1918, T. G. Masaryk came to 'Pittsburgh. Once again he spoke, but this time he changed face and stated proudly that he was of Slovak descent. He also said that Slovaks and Czechs were united and that the differences which arose were artificially produced through German and Magyar influences. He declared that there would be a free Bohemia and a free Slovakia, that political control, education, courts of justice, and all else in Slovakia would be_ Slovak, and in Bohemia, Czech. Each n a t i o n, therefore, would be master in its own home. �SLOVAKIA 40 The huge gathering received Masaryk's address with tremendous acclaim. All Slovaks were overjoyed, for these were just the things they had been wishing for (17). That same evening Masaryk held a conference with the representatives of the Slovaks in the Moose Temple and on the following day, May 31st, drafted a new agreement establishing the relations between Czechs and Slovaks in the new state. Besides him this agreement was signed by eleven Czechs and seventeen ,Slovak representatives and contained the following: The Czecho-Slovak Pact agreed upon in Pittsburgh , Pa., on May 30th, 1918. Representatives of the Slovak and Czech or anlzations the Slovak League, the Czech National Alliin the United States discussed the Czechoance, and the Alliance of Czech Catholics Slovak question in the presence of the chairman of the Czecho-Slovak National Council, 1Prof. Masaryk, and the program declaration made up to this time, and resolved the following: We approve the political program which endeavors to unite the Czechs and Slovaks in an independent state of the Czech lands and Slovakia. Slovakia shall have its own administration, its own parliament, and its own courts. The Slovak language shall be the official language in the schools, in offices, and in public life in general. The Czecho-Slovak State shall be a republic, its constitution shall be democratic. The organization of the cooperation of the Czechs and Slovaks in the USA shall be intensified and arranged with mutual understanding as necessity and the changing conditions shall require. The detailed regulations for the establishment of the Czecho-Slovak State are being left to the liberated Czechs and Slovaks and their legal representatives. ( 18). Saturated with the ideals of American democracy, Slovak immigrants in this country endeavored in the Pittsburgh 'P act to assure for their fatherland such rights as they enjoyed here. They labored thus in full knowledge of their leading position, which they held as regards their enslaved fatherland. They were the only free and organized portion of the Slovak nation, and Slovaks at home, as far as they were able under existing circumstances, not only accepted them as the framers of their political future, but also placed in them their only hope of liberation from Magyar enslavement. The greatest weakness of the Pittsburgh Pact as regards any decisions in Slovakia showed itself to be the final 1 �SLOVAKIA 41 point which stated that "the detailed arrangements and regulations in the Czecho-Slovak State are being left to the liberated Czechs and Slovaks and their legal representatives". Without having any knowledge of the action of the Slovak League in the United States, the newly created Slovak Council in Slovakia - formed as a result of the war's end - met in Turciansky Svaty Martin on October 30, 1918, two days after the iPrague Proclamation of an independent Czecho.JSlovak Republic. Here a declaration was brought out in which, altough the Council requested the right of self-expression for Slovaks according to the demands of President Wilson on October 18, 1918, it nevertheless announced that "the Slovak nation is both a linguistic and culturo-historical component of the joint CzechoSlovak nation" (19). Amidst the enthusiastic atmosphere, the small group of those who stood for complete union of Czechs and Slovaks were free to draw up the declaration in such a way that it would best fit their objectives. By emphasizing that "the 1Slovak nation is both a linguistic and a culturo-historical component of the joint Czecho-Slovak nation" the Martin Declaration - as it came to be known since - was considered to be the denial of the distinct Slovak individuality about which the Slovak representatives were most concerned when they entered into the Cleveland and ·Pittsburgh agreements with the Czechs. The freedom exercised by the promoters of the union with the Czechs in drawing up the declaration in Turciansky Sv. Martin is also apparent from the fact that one of them, Dr. Milan Hodza, who was entrusted with the task of publishing the document, left out several points arbitrarily. One of the omitted points was the request that the Slovaks be represented at the peace conference. This Martin Declaration - no matter how doubtfull its worth - was, however, considered a free expression of the will of the liberated Slovaks by Prague, and, consequently, the Pittsburgh Pact was declared void. T. G. Masaryk went so far that, in his reply of October 12, 1929, to the Rev. Andrew Hlinka, leader of the Slovak People's Party, he wrote of this Pact: �42 SLOVAKIA But the main thing is that the document that verbal agreement is forged, is a falsum, because at the time when the American Slovaks wanted that verbal agreement, the League did not exist legally, it was not recognized by the State until 1919. For that reason a serious politician, a statesman, cannot and must not operate with a paper. Falsification cannot become an act of State .•• (20). From its very beginning, therefore, Czecho-Slovakia was organized as a centralistic Czech state, in which Slovakia was more in the position of a colony than as an equal partner. The Czechs, on the other hand, tactfully utilized the already-mentioned conflicts .w ithin the Slovak camp. For the majority of inhabitants, the incorporation of Slovakia into the Czecho-Slovak Republic was such an unexpected surprise that a certain development was necessary before the complete range of the new political situation actually came forth. To make matter worse, a split occurred even among the active members of the Slovak League. One part, under the impact of alarming news from their liberated native country, was convinced that the carrying out of the Pittsbwgh Pact would be a misfortune for Slovakia and, therefore, did not insist, as was expected, upon its incorporation into the constitution of the new state. The other part, even though comprising an insignificant number of opportunists, was won over to the idea of centralism by being rewarded with well-paid offices within the administration of the new state. The Pittsburgh Pact was, therefore, excluded with comparative ease from all discussions during the formation of 'Slovak and Czech relations in the new Czecho-Slovakia. Even though this pact failed to fulfill its primary function, it gave to 'Slovak autonomists an effective weapon to accuse the Czechs of insincerity and faithlessness. With the creation of Czecho-Slovakia, there was an obvious tendency, according to the Czech writer Vaclav Peroutka, to exclude "Catholics from public offices and the enjoyment of honor" (21). And it was under such circumstances that in May, 1919, a year after its signing, the Pittsburgh ·P act came into the hands of the Rev. Andrew Hlinka, the leader of the Slovak Catholics. He did not hesitate to make out of it the Magna Charta of the movement for autonomy. It gave his autonomist movement a clear program and offered effect- �SLOVAKIA 43 ive propaganda material to depict Czech faithlessness. It is quite obvious that the denial of the Pittsburgh Pact occasioned much greater harm to the survival of Czecho-Slovakia than it would have done at the beginning when the newly liberated, still politically immature Slovakia was consolidating its forces. Even though the Slovak immigrant failed to achieve his original goal through this pact, he nevertheless created in his native country an irresistable desire to attain it. The Pittsburgh Pact sounded the tocsin to battle, the outcome of which was to be a clearer and more accurate definition of national rights. The present situation shows that the Slovak immigrant in the United States has almost lost his distinguishing marks in the new American society. Whereas, in the history of Slovakia, he still remains one of the most distinguished actors in defining its national character and in determining its political ambitions. If the "American democratic crusading spirit" sank deep into the life of a nation by means of an immigrant, it perhaps did so mostly in the case of Slovakia in connection with the iPittsburgh Pact. 7. The Present Political Emigrants The afore-mentioned Slovak emigrants, who left Slovakia mostly from social motives, were joined in recent years by a small though in its actions a very alert group of people, who left Slovakia and came to the West from clearly political motives. They departed in two waves. The first represented the functionaries of the independent Slovak Republic who, after the downfall of Slovakia in 1945, sought asylum in the West to escape the vengeance of the so-called "people's courts" . They were joined three years later (1948) by a further wave of political exiles who fled when Communists took complete control of the Czecho-Slovak government. The latter group comprised functionaries of non-Communist parties of the Czecho-Slovakia, in other words, people who were not in accord with the Communist "People's Democracy". In both instances we actually behold the first mass, political, Slovak emigration which, from the viewpoint of Slovak nationalism, signifies that political activity is its �44 SLOVAKIA very pulsating vocation. Its aim is the return homeward of all exiles and, therefore, a change in the political situation which forced the Slovaks to leave their native land. Slovak emigrants are bearing influence in two ways: they are endeavoring to gain the favor of Western Democracies in their efforts to overthrow the Communist dictatorship; and they are displaying the ability to organize underground movements to bring about a change, perhaps through internal revolution. One could probably surmise that the group who left Slovakia immediately after Second War will seek the revival of an independent Slovakia as a continuation of the Slovak Republic, whereas the other group will simply join those forces that work for the restoration of a democratic CzechoSlovakia. But the time-interval between these two waves of emigrants is not an accurate divisor of their political affiliation. It is true, however, that the Slovaks are divided into two camps: the Slovak and Czecho ..Slovak camp. The former aims for an i n d e p e n d e n t Slovakia without the Czecho-Slovak framework; the latter aims for a Slovakia within the Czecho-Slovak framework. Numerically, however, those who desire an independent Slovakia constitute the overwhelming majority. They include not only former functionaries of the 1Slovak Republic but also at least 90% of all those who left Czecho-Slovakia after the Communist coup of 194'8. As an o r g a n i z e d force, both camps act through three organs: the National Council of Free Czechoslovakia; the Slovak National Council Abroad; and the Slovak Liberation Committee. The aim of the National Council of Free Czechoslovakia is the destruction of present Communist dictatorship and the restoration of democracy in the spirit of T. G. Masaryk and Dr. E. Benes (anti-Catholic). CzechoJSlovakia involves, however, the solution of two problems: 1. the problem of some three and one-half million displaced Sudeten Germans whose desire to return to their homeland is being actively supported by the newly-risen West Germany; 2. what position is Slovakia to have in the new demecratic CzechoSlovakia. It is a known fact that the greater majority of Slovaks 1 �SLOVAKIA 45, at home are more than ever before opposed to any idea or form of a Czecho-Slovakia. Informed people know that Slovakia can be maintained within the framework of CzechoSlovakia only by force and violence. The other two organs, the Slovak National Council Abroad and the Slovak Liberation Committee, are striving for the creation of an independent Slovakia. Their difference lies not so much in their aim as in their methods. Even though the Slovak National Council Abroad avers that the Slovak Republic which existed during the Second World War was formed in accord with the principles of international law as the free manifestation of the people, it nevertheless does not insist upon her legal continuity. lt is a great promoter of the federative solution of Central Europe in which it seeks for Slovakia the same position that other national groups will have. It is the political organ of the greater number of the 1Slovak exiles of 1945 and 1948. Furthermore, its program has been endorsed by the two largest organizations of older emigrants, namely, the Slovak League of America and the Canadian Slovak League. The Slovak Liberation Committee is the political organ of a radical portion of the Slovak exiles. It strives for an independent Slovakia on the basis of a legal continuity of the former Slovak Republic. It is distinguished by a special activity which manifests itself principally in many memorandums sent to the United Nations Organization as well as to the other r esponsible political circles in the West. Because of this across-the-border activity as well as other efforts to organize underground movements in Slovakia, which is dominated by Czech Communists, the ·Slovak Liberation Committee is looked upon in Czecho-Slovakia as the principal enemy of the government of the People's Democracy. It seems to be quite popular with the dissatisfied and change-hungry inhabitants at home. 1 It is hard to foretell whether any of these organs will succeed in achieving any of their objectives at the present time. It is highly improbable that any of them will succeed in organizing an active underground movement, which would be in a position to bring about a change in the present po- �46 SLOVAKIA litical situation with the aid of an internal revolution. The hope for a change depends only upon a new war, and then upon the measure in which respective efforts will be in accord with the interests of victorious powers. 1. ,M. Darras: "Onze ans de vie independente en Slovaque", LeMonde slave, (rnai-juin, 1930), 177. 2. Joseph A. Mikus: La Slovaque dans le Drame de l'Europe, Paris, 1'955, p. 57. 3. ·W illiam ,Diamond : Czechoslovakia Between East and West, London, 1947, p. 172. 4. Pravda, Bratislava, May 29, 1949. 15. ,Karol Sidor: Slovaci v zahranicnom odboji, Bratislava, 1929, p. 1'6. 6. Bulletin of the Slovak National Council Abroad, Middletown, Pa., August, 1956, p. 3. 7. Sidor: loc. cit., p. 32. 8. Karol Sidor: Slovaci v zahranicnom odboji, Bratislava, 1929, p. 33. 9. The Slovaks and the Pittsburgh ,Pact, Chicago, Tylka Bros. Press, 1Inc., 1934, p. 10. 10. I bid., p. 13. 11. Ibid., p. 13. 12. Ibid., p. 16. 13. Ibid., p. 18. 14. Ibid., p. 19. 15. T. G. Masaryk : La resurection d' un Etat ('Souvenir et reflection 1914-1918), Paris, 1930, p . 256. 16. nr .. Eduard Benes: My War Memoirs, London, 1928, p. 157. 17. The Slovaks and The Pittsburgh Pact, Joe. cit., p . 24. 18. Ibid., p. 27. 19. Dr. Frantisek Bokes : Dejiny Sloven ska a Slovakov, Bratislava, 1946, p. 363. 20. To this an authority on American law on April 23, 1930, when asked a bout the legality of the Slovak League had to say: "I understand the organization in question having a C onstitution, by-laws, officers, etc., though not chartered by the State. For the purpose of taking the action which -w as taken, such an organization would have all the n ecessary power as fully as if had been chartered. The agreement entered into by the unchartered organization refered to would be just as effectiv-e as if entered into with a chartered organization and just as valid if closed on ,Memorial Day as on any other day". (The Slovaks and The Pittsburgh Pact, loc. cit., p. 36-39). 21. Vaclav Peroutka : Budovani statu, Prague, 1933-1935, I , p. 352 . • • • RECOMMENDED BOOKS: THE SLOVAKS - their history and traditions - by Peter P. Yurchak; 312 pages, hard cover, bound In cloth - $3.00; paper cover - $2.00. SKETCHES FROM SLOVAK HISTORY by Joseph Skultety; 229 pages, well documented; hard cover, bound in cloth - $2.00; paper cover - $1.00. � 32 SLOVAKIA Bratislava streets rang out with song for quite a time. We embraced each other and danced. Then we marched, or rather should ,J say, danced all the way to Svoradov. The fraternity was another joyous scene. I still remember vividly how we embraced Colman Murgas in the refectory, his eyes streaming with tears. I was so excited that 1 could hardly eat. Like so many others, l had lost my appetite for food. Like them, I was satiated with joy. The Slovaks proclaimed their country an independent Republic on March 14, 1939. • • • SLOVAK NATIONALISM: THE ROLE OF EMIGRANTS IN SLOVAK NATIONALISM B. S. BUC, Ph.D. 1. The Nation of Emigrants Slovak nationalism cannot be considered as the outgrowth of the Central European soil and the pure product of political forces of that sector. It was steadily developing under many outside influences which penetrated that sector either in the form of new ideas or in the form of outside political and economic interests. Moreover, in the period of the greatest oppression, the real shaping of the Slovak national will for survival was occuring outside Slovakia, among emigrants. About one third of the present Slovak population lives outside Slovakia as emigrants in various sectors of the world. That makes Slovaks truly a nation of emigrants. They were forced to emigrate either for economic or political reasons. Slovakia is a mountainous country with forests covering 40 % of the land. Moreover, prior to 1918, a substantial part of Slovak land was owned by the Magyar or foreign aristocracy, so that Slovaks had little opportunity to make living from agriculture. Temporary or permanent emigration became, therefore the only solution to the economic problem for many children of Slovak farmers. When they �SLOVAKIA 33 reached free soil, especially the United 1S tates of America, they proved themselves to be the greatest promoters of Slovak nationalism, not only among themselves but also in their native country. They conveyed ideas of democracy and freedom to their homeland and influenced the outside world to help their compatriots at home in their struggle for survival in Hungary. In 1918, when Slovakia became a part of Czecho-Slovakia, emigration did not cease. It is true, however, that in the first years of the new Republic, Czecho-,Slovakia inaugurated a drastic agrarian reform, wherein almost all of the soil belonging to the aristocracy was apportioned among new owners. Nevertheless, these reforms failed to ameliorate the original situation, because they aimed at rewarding political careerists rather than at bettering the social position of the inhabitants. According to a French observer : "many of the good lands, instead of being apportioned among the peasants, were used to constitute a new agrarian bourgeoisie, under the name of 'surplus estates' " (1). These estates served to favor the political aims of the Czech agrarian party, who used them either to establish Czechs in Southern Slovakia, or to reward Slovaks who were inclined to apply cen• tralist politics to the government of Slovakia. This gave rise to a privileged class, the "surplussers" who resembled very much the ancient landlords of the Hungarian feudal system. While the latter received their lands as a recompense for their services in the army, the former received them for their services in politics (2). Under Czecho-Slovakia, however, Slovak industry fared even worse. The Czechs were chiefly concerned with industrial expansion within their own domains and, therefore, not only contributed nothing to the expansion of former Slovak industries, but adversely put down many existing undertakings in an evident attempt to keep Slovakia agrarian. According to William iDiamond: "During the period from 1934 to 1937, 91.5% of all factory manufacturing in the state occured in Czech lands" ( 3). According to information presented in May of 1949 to the XIX Congress of the Communist !Party in Prague by William Siroky, who at that time was Chairman of the Communist Party in Slovakia, 92,000 workers were engaged in Slovak industries and trades in 191i3. This figure �34 SLOVAKIA comprised about 17 % of the total population. After the unification of Czechs and Slovaks, the progressive tendency in industry since the First World War was completely halted. In 1'927, no more than 80,000 workers were engaged in industry in Slovakia. Within ten more years, during which industry showed great and rapid progress in Czech lands the increase in the number of workers in Slovakia was negligible, with the result that in 1937 they numbered 104,91'5 ( 4). Because of this unhealthy economic situation in Slovakia, almost one-third of the entire S 1 o v a k population sought relief through emigration. The majority emigrated to the United States between 1'873 and 1918. When the United States placed a limit on immigration in 1918, however, the Slovaks emigrated to Canada, South America, Australia, France, and Belgium. This emigration actually became the only liberty-holding portion of Slovaks and, therefore, chiefly before 1918, an almost exclusive representative of Slovak national endeavors. 2. Slovak Immigrants in the United States The leading position in these endeavors was held by Slovak immigrants in the United States. In 1910 Slovaks in this country numbered 281,707; by 1920 the number had increased to 619,866. According to a private appraisal, however, the number should be at least 200,000 more, for about that number of people of Slovak descent may have registered as Austro-iHungarians. Slovaks are represented mostly in the state of Pennsylvania, where in 1920 they numbered 296,219. The remainder are scattered mainly through nine states: Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Connecticut, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Indiana ( 5) . On United States soil, the Slovaks developed a very living, organized activity chiefly in the field of fraternalism. At the present time there exist eleven such ·Slovak fraternal organizations with a membership of more than 400,000 and with assets totaling 88½ million d0llars (6). They established besides an extensive Slovak press, which had a great significance for Slovak nationalism in that it was really the only national press during the time of fierce �SLOVAKIA 35 magyarization at the close of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. 3. Shaping of the National Will Every coercive measure of the Hungarian government encountered great opposition in the Slovak press of the United States. On the soil of this country Slovak and Magyars waged an obstinate battle, with the result that the Western World became acquainted with the name "Slovak" and with the nationality problem of Austria-Hungary. The first public and organized opposition of Slovaks towards !Magyars in the United ,States took place at Cleveland in 1902. The Magyar immigrants of that city were attempting to place in the Public Square a monument dedicated to their revolutionary Magyar leader of 1848, Louis Kossuth. They were hindered by the Slovaks, who publicly revealed Kossuth's totalitarian methods towards Slovaks and other nationalities of Hungary. When, in 1906, the Hungarian government brought Rev. Andrew Hlinka and several other 'Slovak patriots to trial, this action led the immigrants of all convictions in the United States to join forces and to found a united organization called Slovak League of America at the first Slovak Congress assembled in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 26, 1907. According to .its first tenets, the principal aim of the Slovak League was to exert every effort "that S 1 ova k nation would rank among the other nations as an equal among equals'' (7). Its first step was the creation of a national fund to carry on an active struggle for the liberation of Slovaks. Among the League's first successes in this country must be numbered the fact that, during the census of 1910, the following question was aked in the questionnaire: what is your mother tongue? Through this change, passed by the Senate at the proposal of Senator Oliver, the Slovaks as well as the other nationalities of former Hungary could not be separated from the universal concept of "Hungarian", under which they should have been originally classed for belonging to the Hungarian Kingdom (8). At the outbreak of the First World War, the Slovak �36 SLOVAKIA League published a memorandum, which was sent to all members of Congress and to other distinguished political figures in the United States as well as others in the West. This memorandum, in the spirit of American democratic ideals, stressed the desire that: The Slovaks in Hungary should obtain their natural privileges of life, freedom, and pursuit of happiness, which they have been deprived of by the dynasty; that the ,Slovaks be given opportunity to develop their national spirit, their abilities, and the natural resources of their native land; that the Slovaks be guaranteed the realization of their national ideals and efforts, which have been mercilessly trodden by the tyrannical Hungarian Government (9). The memorandum was signed by: all ofificials of the Slovak League; the representatives of twenty-three Slovak newspapers; the representatives of twenty organizations; fifty-two Slovak Catholic priests and forty Slovak Protestant ministers. 'It was published in five languages besides English. The main significance of this memorandum, however, lies in the fact that the 1S lovaks in this country immediately after the outbreak of the war assumed the leadership of the entire Slovak nation. They did it not only because they were free to express the will of the whole nation, but also because the number of their organized ranks exceeded the number of organized Slovaks ever known in their own fatherland. The number of publications represented on the memorandum also exceeded the number edited by the Slovaks in their native country. 4. In Search of a New Ally When the Slovak immigrants in the United States had sent out the afore-mentioned memorandum, they still had not made up their minds clearly concerning the future of their native land. Since they did not intend to form an independent state out of Slovakia, they had to concern themselves with the problem of deciding within what kind of future framework the Slovaks should enjoy those political rights which they sought. All were unanimously agreed that Slovakia must be definitely torn away from Hungary. Several proposed combinations developed. Some favored the Czechs as the ally to be sought. Others favored the Russians. Others favored the Poles, who already had promises from the Allies for the �SLOVAKIA 37 restoration of Poland. Gradually the Czechs came to be selected as the most logical ally to be sought (10). The thinking most prevalent in the minds of the Slovak immigrants in the United States is clearly stated in a letter of the Rev. Matthew Jankola, one of the foremost active participants in these matters. In a letter written in Bridgeport, Conn., on December 15, 1915, he wrote: We shall mean nothing in a monarchy, and absolutely nothing in a great Russia. But we would stand on a footing of equality with the Czechs, a la Austria and Hungary; or as formerly Norway and Sweden; with our own self-government, our own parliament, our own Slovak State language. Can we ever obtain this under Russia, or in In regards to the Czechs, their supremacy can Austria-Hungary? only be temporary; until the time that we rear one generation in our own spirit. I do not consider Czech liberalism so dangerous. Our naI mean common ture and character are different. The S I ova k shall retain their character (11). people - In the meantime, in Europe, profesor Thomas G. Masaryk began a revolutionary movement for the liberation of Czechs and Slovaks in Austria-Hungary. Under his influence the Czech immigrants in the United States also formed a joint organization under the name "Czech National Alliance" , which organization adopted the same program regarding Czechs as the Slovak League had done regarding Slovaks. T. G. Masaryk soon became the recognized head of the movement for the liberation of the Czechs and the alliance of the Slovaks with the Czechs. 5. The Cleveland Agreement Professor T. G. Masaryk from •Paris asked the Czech ational Alliance in America to gain the cooperation of the Slovak League for common Czech and Slovak liberation efforts. Following that request, the secretary of the Czech National Alliance invited the Slovak League of America to a meeting. Along with this invitation the secretary sent a proposed draft of an agreement which was accepted in Cleveland on October 25, 1915, and since that time has been known as the Cleveland Agreement. It contained the following points: 1. Independence of Czech lands and Slovakia. 2. A union of the Czech and Slovak nations in a federative alliance of states with a complete national autonomy for Slovakia, with its own state government, its own cultural freedom and, therefore, �38 SLOVAKIA its own complete use of the Slovak language, its own financial and political government, and with Slovak as the ,State language. 3. Voting power: general, secret, and direct. 4. Form of government: A personal union with a democratic State, the same as in ,England. 5. These points form the basis of the mutual agreement and can be enlarged or expanded only with the approval of both parties. The Czech National Alliance reserves the right of making possible changes, and the Slovak League has the same right (12) . This Cleveland Agreement opened up suppositions for the close cooperation of Czechs and Slovaks and eventually led to the formation of the common political state of the Czecho-<Slovak Republic. In spite of this agreement, however, the Czech side began to show indications of naming all common liberation undertakings as Czech. This instilled in the Slovaks the fear that the Czechs did not wish to accept the Slovaks as equal partners. Many discussions, therefore, ensued with the result that, during these sessions, one of the Slovak representatives clearly pin-pointed the Slovak position with the words: "Yes, we want to tear away from the Magyars and be with the Czechs, but not under the Czechs" ( 13). The above-mentioned Czech tactic prompted many of the Slovaks to lose faith in the Cleveland Agreement and in the Czechs, and prompted them to look for new allies. Such a decision did not take a firm foothold because, in the meantime, important events had occurred in the diplomatic world. President Wilson was re-elected on November 8, 1916. Soon after his re-election (December 21, 1916) he issued a proclamation to the warring nations in which he asked for a statement of their war aims. The Allies answered on January 12, 1917, and, in the conditions which they enumerated, the following sentence was found: "Liberation of the Italians, Slavs, Rumanians, Czecho-Slovaks from foreign government control" (14 ) . T. G. Masaryk explains that the term "Czecho-Slovaks" was written into the Allies' reply after the reply had been completed. "The word Czecho.JSlovaks", he writes, "contained in the proclamation, has its own interesting internal history. There were three suggestions: liberation of the Czechs - the Czech nation - the Czecho-Slovaks. The latter suggestion was accepted at a conference of Dr. Ed- �SLOVAKIA 39 ward Benes (Czech), Milan R. Stefanik (.Slovak), and Stephen Osusky (American Slovak)" (15). Dr. Benes, on the other hand, writes that he conferred with Mr. Osusky and Mr. Sychravy about the matter, since M. iR. Stefanik was then in Russia; and he further states that "Osusky expressed fear that the Allies' reply to President Wilson might name Czechs only, not the Slovaks". - For that reason he insisted on the term "Czecho-Slovaks" (16). 6. The Pittsburgh Pact The Allies' reply concerning the liberation of CzechoSlovakia definitely determined that, after a victoriously ended war, the Slovaks would be thrust into a common political state with the Czechs, which opened up among the Slovaks all sorts of speculations regarding the future of their fatherland. The official pronouncement concerning the Czecho-Slovaks indicated the existence of two separate groups with the formation of a new state. The Slovaks, therefore, had less reasons to fear that the Czechs would deprive them of their national individuality. T. G. Masaryk, who came to the United States near the end of the war, in April of 1'918, helped in no way to dispel this fear. He was looked upon as the person who could settle most of the small differences, suspicions, and discrepancies that had arisen. Delivering his first speech May 5, 191'8, in Chicago, Ill., he repeatedly mentioned the Czech lands, the Czech army, the Czech fight, the Czech future, etc., but not once did he mention Slovakia and completely ignored Slovak participation in the struggle. His speech was a big disappointment to the Slovaks and ,g ave rise to new doubts about Czech sincerity. On May 30, 1918, T. G. Masaryk came to 'Pittsburgh. Once again he spoke, but this time he changed face and stated proudly that he was of Slovak descent. He also said that Slovaks and Czechs were united and that the differences which arose were artificially produced through German and Magyar influences. He declared that there would be a free Bohemia and a free Slovakia, that political control, education, courts of justice, and all else in Slovakia would be_ Slovak, and in Bohemia, Czech. Each n a t i o n, therefore, would be master in its own home. �SLOVAKIA 40 The huge gathering received Masaryk's address with tremendous acclaim. All Slovaks were overjoyed, for these were just the things they had been wishing for (17). That same evening Masaryk held a conference with the representatives of the Slovaks in the Moose Temple and on the following day, May 31st, drafted a new agreement establishing the relations between Czechs and Slovaks in the new state. Besides him this agreement was signed by eleven Czechs and seventeen ,Slovak representatives and contained the following: The Czecho-Slovak Pact agreed upon in Pittsburgh , Pa., on May 30th, 1918. Representatives of the Slovak and Czech or anlzations the Slovak League, the Czech National Alliin the United States discussed the Czechoance, and the Alliance of Czech Catholics Slovak question in the presence of the chairman of the Czecho-Slovak National Council, 1Prof. Masaryk, and the program declaration made up to this time, and resolved the following: We approve the political program which endeavors to unite the Czechs and Slovaks in an independent state of the Czech lands and Slovakia. Slovakia shall have its own administration, its own parliament, and its own courts. The Slovak language shall be the official language in the schools, in offices, and in public life in general. The Czecho-Slovak State shall be a republic, its constitution shall be democratic. The organization of the cooperation of the Czechs and Slovaks in the USA shall be intensified and arranged with mutual understanding as necessity and the changing conditions shall require. The detailed regulations for the establishment of the Czecho-Slovak State are being left to the liberated Czechs and Slovaks and their legal representatives. ( 18). Saturated with the ideals of American democracy, Slovak immigrants in this country endeavored in the Pittsburgh 'P act to assure for their fatherland such rights as they enjoyed here. They labored thus in full knowledge of their leading position, which they held as regards their enslaved fatherland. They were the only free and organized portion of the Slovak nation, and Slovaks at home, as far as they were able under existing circumstances, not only accepted them as the framers of their political future, but also placed in them their only hope of liberation from Magyar enslavement. The greatest weakness of the Pittsburgh Pact as regards any decisions in Slovakia showed itself to be the final 1 �SLOVAKIA 41 point which stated that "the detailed arrangements and regulations in the Czecho-Slovak State are being left to the liberated Czechs and Slovaks and their legal representatives". Without having any knowledge of the action of the Slovak League in the United States, the newly created Slovak Council in Slovakia - formed as a result of the war's end - met in Turciansky Svaty Martin on October 30, 1918, two days after the iPrague Proclamation of an independent Czecho.JSlovak Republic. Here a declaration was brought out in which, altough the Council requested the right of self-expression for Slovaks according to the demands of President Wilson on October 18, 1918, it nevertheless announced that "the Slovak nation is both a linguistic and culturo-historical component of the joint CzechoSlovak nation" (19). Amidst the enthusiastic atmosphere, the small group of those who stood for complete union of Czechs and Slovaks were free to draw up the declaration in such a way that it would best fit their objectives. By emphasizing that "the 1Slovak nation is both a linguistic and a culturo-historical component of the joint Czecho-Slovak nation" the Martin Declaration - as it came to be known since - was considered to be the denial of the distinct Slovak individuality about which the Slovak representatives were most concerned when they entered into the Cleveland and ·Pittsburgh agreements with the Czechs. The freedom exercised by the promoters of the union with the Czechs in drawing up the declaration in Turciansky Sv. Martin is also apparent from the fact that one of them, Dr. Milan Hodza, who was entrusted with the task of publishing the document, left out several points arbitrarily. One of the omitted points was the request that the Slovaks be represented at the peace conference. This Martin Declaration - no matter how doubtfull its worth - was, however, considered a free expression of the will of the liberated Slovaks by Prague, and, consequently, the Pittsburgh Pact was declared void. T. G. Masaryk went so far that, in his reply of October 12, 1929, to the Rev. Andrew Hlinka, leader of the Slovak People's Party, he wrote of this Pact: �42 SLOVAKIA But the main thing is that the document that verbal agreement is forged, is a falsum, because at the time when the American Slovaks wanted that verbal agreement, the League did not exist legally, it was not recognized by the State until 1919. For that reason a serious politician, a statesman, cannot and must not operate with a paper. Falsification cannot become an act of State .•• (20). From its very beginning, therefore, Czecho-Slovakia was organized as a centralistic Czech state, in which Slovakia was more in the position of a colony than as an equal partner. The Czechs, on the other hand, tactfully utilized the already-mentioned conflicts .w ithin the Slovak camp. For the majority of inhabitants, the incorporation of Slovakia into the Czecho-Slovak Republic was such an unexpected surprise that a certain development was necessary before the complete range of the new political situation actually came forth. To make matter worse, a split occurred even among the active members of the Slovak League. One part, under the impact of alarming news from their liberated native country, was convinced that the carrying out of the Pittsbwgh Pact would be a misfortune for Slovakia and, therefore, did not insist, as was expected, upon its incorporation into the constitution of the new state. The other part, even though comprising an insignificant number of opportunists, was won over to the idea of centralism by being rewarded with well-paid offices within the administration of the new state. The Pittsburgh Pact was, therefore, excluded with comparative ease from all discussions during the formation of 'Slovak and Czech relations in the new Czecho-Slovakia. Even though this pact failed to fulfill its primary function, it gave to 'Slovak autonomists an effective weapon to accuse the Czechs of insincerity and faithlessness. With the creation of Czecho-Slovakia, there was an obvious tendency, according to the Czech writer Vaclav Peroutka, to exclude "Catholics from public offices and the enjoyment of honor" (21). And it was under such circumstances that in May, 1919, a year after its signing, the Pittsburgh ·P act came into the hands of the Rev. Andrew Hlinka, the leader of the Slovak Catholics. He did not hesitate to make out of it the Magna Charta of the movement for autonomy. It gave his autonomist movement a clear program and offered effect- �SLOVAKIA 43 ive propaganda material to depict Czech faithlessness. It is quite obvious that the denial of the Pittsburgh Pact occasioned much greater harm to the survival of Czecho-Slovakia than it would have done at the beginning when the newly liberated, still politically immature Slovakia was consolidating its forces. Even though the Slovak immigrant failed to achieve his original goal through this pact, he nevertheless created in his native country an irresistable desire to attain it. The Pittsburgh Pact sounded the tocsin to battle, the outcome of which was to be a clearer and more accurate definition of national rights. The present situation shows that the Slovak immigrant in the United States has almost lost his distinguishing marks in the new American society. Whereas, in the history of Slovakia, he still remains one of the most distinguished actors in defining its national character and in determining its political ambitions. If the "American democratic crusading spirit" sank deep into the life of a nation by means of an immigrant, it perhaps did so mostly in the case of Slovakia in connection with the iPittsburgh Pact. 7. The Present Political Emigrants The afore-mentioned Slovak emigrants, who left Slovakia mostly from social motives, were joined in recent years by a small though in its actions a very alert group of people, who left Slovakia and came to the West from clearly political motives. They departed in two waves. The first represented the functionaries of the independent Slovak Republic who, after the downfall of Slovakia in 1945, sought asylum in the West to escape the vengeance of the so-called "people's courts" . They were joined three years later (1948) by a further wave of political exiles who fled when Communists took complete control of the Czecho-Slovak government. The latter group comprised functionaries of non-Communist parties of the Czecho-Slovakia, in other words, people who were not in accord with the Communist "People's Democracy". In both instances we actually behold the first mass, political, Slovak emigration which, from the viewpoint of Slovak nationalism, signifies that political activity is its �44 SLOVAKIA very pulsating vocation. Its aim is the return homeward of all exiles and, therefore, a change in the political situation which forced the Slovaks to leave their native land. Slovak emigrants are bearing influence in two ways: they are endeavoring to gain the favor of Western Democracies in their efforts to overthrow the Communist dictatorship; and they are displaying the ability to organize underground movements to bring about a change, perhaps through internal revolution. One could probably surmise that the group who left Slovakia immediately after Second War will seek the revival of an independent Slovakia as a continuation of the Slovak Republic, whereas the other group will simply join those forces that work for the restoration of a democratic CzechoSlovakia. But the time-interval between these two waves of emigrants is not an accurate divisor of their political affiliation. It is true, however, that the Slovaks are divided into two camps: the Slovak and Czecho ..Slovak camp. The former aims for an i n d e p e n d e n t Slovakia without the Czecho-Slovak framework; the latter aims for a Slovakia within the Czecho-Slovak framework. Numerically, however, those who desire an independent Slovakia constitute the overwhelming majority. They include not only former functionaries of the 1Slovak Republic but also at least 90% of all those who left Czecho-Slovakia after the Communist coup of 194'8. As an o r g a n i z e d force, both camps act through three organs: the National Council of Free Czechoslovakia; the Slovak National Council Abroad; and the Slovak Liberation Committee. The aim of the National Council of Free Czechoslovakia is the destruction of present Communist dictatorship and the restoration of democracy in the spirit of T. G. Masaryk and Dr. E. Benes (anti-Catholic). CzechoJSlovakia involves, however, the solution of two problems: 1. the problem of some three and one-half million displaced Sudeten Germans whose desire to return to their homeland is being actively supported by the newly-risen West Germany; 2. what position is Slovakia to have in the new demecratic CzechoSlovakia. It is a known fact that the greater majority of Slovaks 1 �SLOVAKIA 45, at home are more than ever before opposed to any idea or form of a Czecho-Slovakia. Informed people know that Slovakia can be maintained within the framework of CzechoSlovakia only by force and violence. The other two organs, the Slovak National Council Abroad and the Slovak Liberation Committee, are striving for the creation of an independent Slovakia. Their difference lies not so much in their aim as in their methods. Even though the Slovak National Council Abroad avers that the Slovak Republic which existed during the Second World War was formed in accord with the principles of international law as the free manifestation of the people, it nevertheless does not insist upon her legal continuity. lt is a great promoter of the federative solution of Central Europe in which it seeks for Slovakia the same position that other national groups will have. It is the political organ of the greater number of the 1Slovak exiles of 1945 and 1948. Furthermore, its program has been endorsed by the two largest organizations of older emigrants, namely, the Slovak League of America and the Canadian Slovak League. The Slovak Liberation Committee is the political organ of a radical portion of the Slovak exiles. It strives for an independent Slovakia on the basis of a legal continuity of the former Slovak Republic. It is distinguished by a special activity which manifests itself principally in many memorandums sent to the United Nations Organization as well as to the other r esponsible political circles in the West. Because of this across-the-border activity as well as other efforts to organize underground movements in Slovakia, which is dominated by Czech Communists, the ·Slovak Liberation Committee is looked upon in Czecho-Slovakia as the principal enemy of the government of the People's Democracy. It seems to be quite popular with the dissatisfied and change-hungry inhabitants at home. 1 It is hard to foretell whether any of these organs will succeed in achieving any of their objectives at the present time. It is highly improbable that any of them will succeed in organizing an active underground movement, which would be in a position to bring about a change in the present po- �46 SLOVAKIA litical situation with the aid of an internal revolution. The hope for a change depends only upon a new war, and then upon the measure in which respective efforts will be in accord with the interests of victorious powers. 1. ,M. Darras: "Onze ans de vie independente en Slovaque", LeMonde slave, (rnai-juin, 1930), 177. 2. Joseph A. Mikus: La Slovaque dans le Drame de l'Europe, Paris, 1'955, p. 57. 3. ·W illiam ,Diamond : Czechoslovakia Between East and West, London, 1947, p. 172. 4. Pravda, Bratislava, May 29, 1949. 15. ,Karol Sidor: Slovaci v zahranicnom odboji, Bratislava, 1929, p. 1'6. 6. Bulletin of the Slovak National Council Abroad, Middletown, Pa., August, 1956, p. 3. 7. Sidor: loc. cit., p. 32. 8. Karol Sidor: Slovaci v zahranicnom odboji, Bratislava, 1929, p. 33. 9. The Slovaks and the Pittsburgh ,Pact, Chicago, Tylka Bros. Press, 1Inc., 1934, p. 10. 10. I bid., p. 13. 11. Ibid., p. 13. 12. Ibid., p. 16. 13. Ibid., p. 18. 14. Ibid., p. 19. 15. T. G. Masaryk : La resurection d' un Etat ('Souvenir et reflection 1914-1918), Paris, 1930, p . 256. 16. nr .. Eduard Benes: My War Memoirs, London, 1928, p. 157. 17. The Slovaks and The Pittsburgh Pact, Joe. cit., p . 24. 18. Ibid., p. 27. 19. Dr. Frantisek Bokes : Dejiny Sloven ska a Slovakov, Bratislava, 1946, p. 363. 20. To this an authority on American law on April 23, 1930, when asked a bout the legality of the Slovak League had to say: "I understand the organization in question having a C onstitution, by-laws, officers, etc., though not chartered by the State. For the purpose of taking the action which -w as taken, such an organization would have all the n ecessary power as fully as if had been chartered. The agreement entered into by the unchartered organization refered to would be just as effectiv-e as if entered into with a chartered organization and just as valid if closed on ,Memorial Day as on any other day". (The Slovaks and The Pittsburgh Pact, loc. cit., p. 36-39). 21. Vaclav Peroutka : Budovani statu, Prague, 1933-1935, I , p. 352 . • • • RECOMMENDED BOOKS: THE SLOVAKS - their history and traditions - by Peter P. Yurchak; 312 pages, hard cover, bound In cloth - $3.00; paper cover - $2.00. SKETCHES FROM SLOVAK HISTORY by Joseph Skultety; 229 pages, well documented; hard cover, bound in cloth - $2.00; paper cover - $1.00. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1959, Vol. 9 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 4 [sic] (No. 29), March 1959.</li> <li>Issue 5 [sic] (No. 30), June-December 1959.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1959 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 32 SLOVAKIA Bratislava streets rang out with song for quite a time. We embraced each other and danced. Then we marched, or rather should ,J say, danced all the way to Svoradov. The fraternity was another joyous scene. I still remember vividly how we embraced Colman Murgas in the refectory, his eyes streaming with tears. I was so excited that 1 could hardly eat. Like so many others, l had lost my appetite for food. Like them, I was satiated with joy. The Slovaks proclaimed their country an independent Republic on March 14, 1939. • • • SLOVAK NATIONALISM: THE ROLE OF EMIGRANTS IN SLOVAK NATIONALISM B. S. BUC, Ph.D. 1. The Nation of Emigrants Slovak nationalism cannot be considered as the outgrowth of the Central European soil and the pure product of political forces of that sector. It was steadily developing under many outside influences which penetrated that sector either in the form of new ideas or in the form of outside political and economic interests. Moreover, in the period of the greatest oppression, the real shaping of the Slovak national will for survival was occuring outside Slovakia, among emigrants. About one third of the present Slovak population lives outside Slovakia as emigrants in various sectors of the world. That makes Slovaks truly a nation of emigrants. They were forced to emigrate either for economic or political reasons. Slovakia is a mountainous country with forests covering 40 % of the land. Moreover, prior to 1918, a substantial part of Slovak land was owned by the Magyar or foreign aristocracy, so that Slovaks had little opportunity to make living from agriculture. Temporary or permanent emigration became, therefore the only solution to the economic problem for many children of Slovak farmers. When they SLOVAKIA 33 reached free soil, especially the United 1S tates of America, they proved themselves to be the greatest promoters of Slovak nationalism, not only among themselves but also in their native country. They conveyed ideas of democracy and freedom to their homeland and influenced the outside world to help their compatriots at home in their struggle for survival in Hungary. In 1918, when Slovakia became a part of Czecho-Slovakia, emigration did not cease. It is true, however, that in the first years of the new Republic, Czecho-,Slovakia inaugurated a drastic agrarian reform, wherein almost all of the soil belonging to the aristocracy was apportioned among new owners. Nevertheless, these reforms failed to ameliorate the original situation, because they aimed at rewarding political careerists rather than at bettering the social position of the inhabitants. According to a French observer : "many of the good lands, instead of being apportioned among the peasants, were used to constitute a new agrarian bourgeoisie, under the name of 'surplus estates' " (1). These estates served to favor the political aims of the Czech agrarian party, who used them either to establish Czechs in Southern Slovakia, or to reward Slovaks who were inclined to apply cen• tralist politics to the government of Slovakia. This gave rise to a privileged class, the "surplussers" who resembled very much the ancient landlords of the Hungarian feudal system. While the latter received their lands as a recompense for their services in the army, the former received them for their services in politics (2). Under Czecho-Slovakia, however, Slovak industry fared even worse. The Czechs were chiefly concerned with industrial expansion within their own domains and, therefore, not only contributed nothing to the expansion of former Slovak industries, but adversely put down many existing undertakings in an evident attempt to keep Slovakia agrarian. According to William iDiamond: "During the period from 1934 to 1937, 91.5% of all factory manufacturing in the state occured in Czech lands" ( 3). According to information presented in May of 1949 to the XIX Congress of the Communist !Party in Prague by William Siroky, who at that time was Chairman of the Communist Party in Slovakia, 92,000 workers were engaged in Slovak industries and trades in 191i3. This figure 34 SLOVAKIA comprised about 17 % of the total population. After the unification of Czechs and Slovaks, the progressive tendency in industry since the First World War was completely halted. In 1'927, no more than 80,000 workers were engaged in industry in Slovakia. Within ten more years, during which industry showed great and rapid progress in Czech lands the increase in the number of workers in Slovakia was negligible, with the result that in 1937 they numbered 104,91'5 ( 4). Because of this unhealthy economic situation in Slovakia, almost one-third of the entire S 1 o v a k population sought relief through emigration. The majority emigrated to the United States between 1'873 and 1918. When the United States placed a limit on immigration in 1918, however, the Slovaks emigrated to Canada, South America, Australia, France, and Belgium. This emigration actually became the only liberty-holding portion of Slovaks and, therefore, chiefly before 1918, an almost exclusive representative of Slovak national endeavors. 2. Slovak Immigrants in the United States The leading position in these endeavors was held by Slovak immigrants in the United States. In 1910 Slovaks in this country numbered 281,707; by 1920 the number had increased to 619,866. According to a private appraisal, however, the number should be at least 200,000 more, for about that number of people of Slovak descent may have registered as Austro-iHungarians. Slovaks are represented mostly in the state of Pennsylvania, where in 1920 they numbered 296,219. The remainder are scattered mainly through nine states: Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Connecticut, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Indiana ( 5) . On United States soil, the Slovaks developed a very living, organized activity chiefly in the field of fraternalism. At the present time there exist eleven such ·Slovak fraternal organizations with a membership of more than 400,000 and with assets totaling 88½ million d0llars (6). They established besides an extensive Slovak press, which had a great significance for Slovak nationalism in that it was really the only national press during the time of fierce SLOVAKIA 35 magyarization at the close of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. 3. Shaping of the National Will Every coercive measure of the Hungarian government encountered great opposition in the Slovak press of the United States. On the soil of this country Slovak and Magyars waged an obstinate battle, with the result that the Western World became acquainted with the name "Slovak" and with the nationality problem of Austria-Hungary. The first public and organized opposition of Slovaks towards !Magyars in the United ,States took place at Cleveland in 1902. The Magyar immigrants of that city were attempting to place in the Public Square a monument dedicated to their revolutionary Magyar leader of 1848, Louis Kossuth. They were hindered by the Slovaks, who publicly revealed Kossuth's totalitarian methods towards Slovaks and other nationalities of Hungary. When, in 1906, the Hungarian government brought Rev. Andrew Hlinka and several other 'Slovak patriots to trial, this action led the immigrants of all convictions in the United States to join forces and to found a united organization called Slovak League of America at the first Slovak Congress assembled in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 26, 1907. According to .its first tenets, the principal aim of the Slovak League was to exert every effort "that S 1 ova k nation would rank among the other nations as an equal among equals'' (7). Its first step was the creation of a national fund to carry on an active struggle for the liberation of Slovaks. Among the League's first successes in this country must be numbered the fact that, during the census of 1910, the following question was aked in the questionnaire: what is your mother tongue? Through this change, passed by the Senate at the proposal of Senator Oliver, the Slovaks as well as the other nationalities of former Hungary could not be separated from the universal concept of "Hungarian", under which they should have been originally classed for belonging to the Hungarian Kingdom (8). At the outbreak of the First World War, the Slovak 36 SLOVAKIA League published a memorandum, which was sent to all members of Congress and to other distinguished political figures in the United States as well as others in the West. This memorandum, in the spirit of American democratic ideals, stressed the desire that: The Slovaks in Hungary should obtain their natural privileges of life, freedom, and pursuit of happiness, which they have been deprived of by the dynasty; that the ,Slovaks be given opportunity to develop their national spirit, their abilities, and the natural resources of their native land; that the Slovaks be guaranteed the realization of their national ideals and efforts, which have been mercilessly trodden by the tyrannical Hungarian Government (9). The memorandum was signed by: all ofificials of the Slovak League; the representatives of twenty-three Slovak newspapers; the representatives of twenty organizations; fifty-two Slovak Catholic priests and forty Slovak Protestant ministers. 'It was published in five languages besides English. The main significance of this memorandum, however, lies in the fact that the 1S lovaks in this country immediately after the outbreak of the war assumed the leadership of the entire Slovak nation. They did it not only because they were free to express the will of the whole nation, but also because the number of their organized ranks exceeded the number of organized Slovaks ever known in their own fatherland. The number of publications represented on the memorandum also exceeded the number edited by the Slovaks in their native country. 4. In Search of a New Ally When the Slovak immigrants in the United States had sent out the afore-mentioned memorandum, they still had not made up their minds clearly concerning the future of their native land. Since they did not intend to form an independent state out of Slovakia, they had to concern themselves with the problem of deciding within what kind of future framework the Slovaks should enjoy those political rights which they sought. All were unanimously agreed that Slovakia must be definitely torn away from Hungary. Several proposed combinations developed. Some favored the Czechs as the ally to be sought. Others favored the Russians. Others favored the Poles, who already had promises from the Allies for the SLOVAKIA 37 restoration of Poland. Gradually the Czechs came to be selected as the most logical ally to be sought (10). The thinking most prevalent in the minds of the Slovak immigrants in the United States is clearly stated in a letter of the Rev. Matthew Jankola, one of the foremost active participants in these matters. In a letter written in Bridgeport, Conn., on December 15, 1915, he wrote: We shall mean nothing in a monarchy, and absolutely nothing in a great Russia. But we would stand on a footing of equality with the Czechs, a la Austria and Hungary; or as formerly Norway and Sweden; with our own self-government, our own parliament, our own Slovak State language. Can we ever obtain this under Russia, or in In regards to the Czechs, their supremacy can Austria-Hungary? only be temporary; until the time that we rear one generation in our own spirit. I do not consider Czech liberalism so dangerous. Our naI mean common ture and character are different. The S I ova k shall retain their character (11). people - In the meantime, in Europe, profesor Thomas G. Masaryk began a revolutionary movement for the liberation of Czechs and Slovaks in Austria-Hungary. Under his influence the Czech immigrants in the United States also formed a joint organization under the name "Czech National Alliance" , which organization adopted the same program regarding Czechs as the Slovak League had done regarding Slovaks. T. G. Masaryk soon became the recognized head of the movement for the liberation of the Czechs and the alliance of the Slovaks with the Czechs. 5. The Cleveland Agreement Professor T. G. Masaryk from •Paris asked the Czech ational Alliance in America to gain the cooperation of the Slovak League for common Czech and Slovak liberation efforts. Following that request, the secretary of the Czech National Alliance invited the Slovak League of America to a meeting. Along with this invitation the secretary sent a proposed draft of an agreement which was accepted in Cleveland on October 25, 1915, and since that time has been known as the Cleveland Agreement. It contained the following points: 1. Independence of Czech lands and Slovakia. 2. A union of the Czech and Slovak nations in a federative alliance of states with a complete national autonomy for Slovakia, with its own state government, its own cultural freedom and, therefore, 38 SLOVAKIA its own complete use of the Slovak language, its own financial and political government, and with Slovak as the ,State language. 3. Voting power: general, secret, and direct. 4. Form of government: A personal union with a democratic State, the same as in ,England. 5. These points form the basis of the mutual agreement and can be enlarged or expanded only with the approval of both parties. The Czech National Alliance reserves the right of making possible changes, and the Slovak League has the same right (12) . This Cleveland Agreement opened up suppositions for the close cooperation of Czechs and Slovaks and eventually led to the formation of the common political state of the Czecho-<Slovak Republic. In spite of this agreement, however, the Czech side began to show indications of naming all common liberation undertakings as Czech. This instilled in the Slovaks the fear that the Czechs did not wish to accept the Slovaks as equal partners. Many discussions, therefore, ensued with the result that, during these sessions, one of the Slovak representatives clearly pin-pointed the Slovak position with the words: "Yes, we want to tear away from the Magyars and be with the Czechs, but not under the Czechs" ( 13). The above-mentioned Czech tactic prompted many of the Slovaks to lose faith in the Cleveland Agreement and in the Czechs, and prompted them to look for new allies. Such a decision did not take a firm foothold because, in the meantime, important events had occurred in the diplomatic world. President Wilson was re-elected on November 8, 1916. Soon after his re-election (December 21, 1916) he issued a proclamation to the warring nations in which he asked for a statement of their war aims. The Allies answered on January 12, 1917, and, in the conditions which they enumerated, the following sentence was found: "Liberation of the Italians, Slavs, Rumanians, Czecho-Slovaks from foreign government control" (14 ) . T. G. Masaryk explains that the term "Czecho-Slovaks" was written into the Allies' reply after the reply had been completed. "The word Czecho.JSlovaks", he writes, "contained in the proclamation, has its own interesting internal history. There were three suggestions: liberation of the Czechs - the Czech nation - the Czecho-Slovaks. The latter suggestion was accepted at a conference of Dr. Ed- SLOVAKIA 39 ward Benes (Czech), Milan R. Stefanik (.Slovak), and Stephen Osusky (American Slovak)" (15). Dr. Benes, on the other hand, writes that he conferred with Mr. Osusky and Mr. Sychravy about the matter, since M. iR. Stefanik was then in Russia; and he further states that "Osusky expressed fear that the Allies' reply to President Wilson might name Czechs only, not the Slovaks". - For that reason he insisted on the term "Czecho-Slovaks" (16). 6. The Pittsburgh Pact The Allies' reply concerning the liberation of CzechoSlovakia definitely determined that, after a victoriously ended war, the Slovaks would be thrust into a common political state with the Czechs, which opened up among the Slovaks all sorts of speculations regarding the future of their fatherland. The official pronouncement concerning the Czecho-Slovaks indicated the existence of two separate groups with the formation of a new state. The Slovaks, therefore, had less reasons to fear that the Czechs would deprive them of their national individuality. T. G. Masaryk, who came to the United States near the end of the war, in April of 1'918, helped in no way to dispel this fear. He was looked upon as the person who could settle most of the small differences, suspicions, and discrepancies that had arisen. Delivering his first speech May 5, 191'8, in Chicago, Ill., he repeatedly mentioned the Czech lands, the Czech army, the Czech fight, the Czech future, etc., but not once did he mention Slovakia and completely ignored Slovak participation in the struggle. His speech was a big disappointment to the Slovaks and ,g ave rise to new doubts about Czech sincerity. On May 30, 1918, T. G. Masaryk came to 'Pittsburgh. Once again he spoke, but this time he changed face and stated proudly that he was of Slovak descent. He also said that Slovaks and Czechs were united and that the differences which arose were artificially produced through German and Magyar influences. He declared that there would be a free Bohemia and a free Slovakia, that political control, education, courts of justice, and all else in Slovakia would be_ Slovak, and in Bohemia, Czech. Each n a t i o n, therefore, would be master in its own home. SLOVAKIA 40 The huge gathering received Masaryk's address with tremendous acclaim. All Slovaks were overjoyed, for these were just the things they had been wishing for (17). That same evening Masaryk held a conference with the representatives of the Slovaks in the Moose Temple and on the following day, May 31st, drafted a new agreement establishing the relations between Czechs and Slovaks in the new state. Besides him this agreement was signed by eleven Czechs and seventeen ,Slovak representatives and contained the following: The Czecho-Slovak Pact agreed upon in Pittsburgh , Pa., on May 30th, 1918. Representatives of the Slovak and Czech or anlzations the Slovak League, the Czech National Alliin the United States discussed the Czechoance, and the Alliance of Czech Catholics Slovak question in the presence of the chairman of the Czecho-Slovak National Council, 1Prof. Masaryk, and the program declaration made up to this time, and resolved the following: We approve the political program which endeavors to unite the Czechs and Slovaks in an independent state of the Czech lands and Slovakia. Slovakia shall have its own administration, its own parliament, and its own courts. The Slovak language shall be the official language in the schools, in offices, and in public life in general. The Czecho-Slovak State shall be a republic, its constitution shall be democratic. The organization of the cooperation of the Czechs and Slovaks in the USA shall be intensified and arranged with mutual understanding as necessity and the changing conditions shall require. The detailed regulations for the establishment of the Czecho-Slovak State are being left to the liberated Czechs and Slovaks and their legal representatives. ( 18). Saturated with the ideals of American democracy, Slovak immigrants in this country endeavored in the Pittsburgh 'P act to assure for their fatherland such rights as they enjoyed here. They labored thus in full knowledge of their leading position, which they held as regards their enslaved fatherland. They were the only free and organized portion of the Slovak nation, and Slovaks at home, as far as they were able under existing circumstances, not only accepted them as the framers of their political future, but also placed in them their only hope of liberation from Magyar enslavement. The greatest weakness of the Pittsburgh Pact as regards any decisions in Slovakia showed itself to be the final 1 SLOVAKIA 41 point which stated that "the detailed arrangements and regulations in the Czecho-Slovak State are being left to the liberated Czechs and Slovaks and their legal representatives". Without having any knowledge of the action of the Slovak League in the United States, the newly created Slovak Council in Slovakia - formed as a result of the war's end - met in Turciansky Svaty Martin on October 30, 1918, two days after the iPrague Proclamation of an independent Czecho.JSlovak Republic. Here a declaration was brought out in which, altough the Council requested the right of self-expression for Slovaks according to the demands of President Wilson on October 18, 1918, it nevertheless announced that "the Slovak nation is both a linguistic and culturo-historical component of the joint CzechoSlovak nation" (19). Amidst the enthusiastic atmosphere, the small group of those who stood for complete union of Czechs and Slovaks were free to draw up the declaration in such a way that it would best fit their objectives. By emphasizing that "the 1Slovak nation is both a linguistic and a culturo-historical component of the joint Czecho-Slovak nation" the Martin Declaration - as it came to be known since - was considered to be the denial of the distinct Slovak individuality about which the Slovak representatives were most concerned when they entered into the Cleveland and ·Pittsburgh agreements with the Czechs. The freedom exercised by the promoters of the union with the Czechs in drawing up the declaration in Turciansky Sv. Martin is also apparent from the fact that one of them, Dr. Milan Hodza, who was entrusted with the task of publishing the document, left out several points arbitrarily. One of the omitted points was the request that the Slovaks be represented at the peace conference. This Martin Declaration - no matter how doubtfull its worth - was, however, considered a free expression of the will of the liberated Slovaks by Prague, and, consequently, the Pittsburgh Pact was declared void. T. G. Masaryk went so far that, in his reply of October 12, 1929, to the Rev. Andrew Hlinka, leader of the Slovak People's Party, he wrote of this Pact: 42 SLOVAKIA But the main thing is that the document that verbal agreement is forged, is a falsum, because at the time when the American Slovaks wanted that verbal agreement, the League did not exist legally, it was not recognized by the State until 1919. For that reason a serious politician, a statesman, cannot and must not operate with a paper. Falsification cannot become an act of State .•• (20). From its very beginning, therefore, Czecho-Slovakia was organized as a centralistic Czech state, in which Slovakia was more in the position of a colony than as an equal partner. The Czechs, on the other hand, tactfully utilized the already-mentioned conflicts .w ithin the Slovak camp. For the majority of inhabitants, the incorporation of Slovakia into the Czecho-Slovak Republic was such an unexpected surprise that a certain development was necessary before the complete range of the new political situation actually came forth. To make matter worse, a split occurred even among the active members of the Slovak League. One part, under the impact of alarming news from their liberated native country, was convinced that the carrying out of the Pittsbwgh Pact would be a misfortune for Slovakia and, therefore, did not insist, as was expected, upon its incorporation into the constitution of the new state. The other part, even though comprising an insignificant number of opportunists, was won over to the idea of centralism by being rewarded with well-paid offices within the administration of the new state. The Pittsburgh Pact was, therefore, excluded with comparative ease from all discussions during the formation of 'Slovak and Czech relations in the new Czecho-Slovakia. Even though this pact failed to fulfill its primary function, it gave to 'Slovak autonomists an effective weapon to accuse the Czechs of insincerity and faithlessness. With the creation of Czecho-Slovakia, there was an obvious tendency, according to the Czech writer Vaclav Peroutka, to exclude "Catholics from public offices and the enjoyment of honor" (21). And it was under such circumstances that in May, 1919, a year after its signing, the Pittsburgh ·P act came into the hands of the Rev. Andrew Hlinka, the leader of the Slovak Catholics. He did not hesitate to make out of it the Magna Charta of the movement for autonomy. It gave his autonomist movement a clear program and offered effect- SLOVAKIA 43 ive propaganda material to depict Czech faithlessness. It is quite obvious that the denial of the Pittsburgh Pact occasioned much greater harm to the survival of Czecho-Slovakia than it would have done at the beginning when the newly liberated, still politically immature Slovakia was consolidating its forces. Even though the Slovak immigrant failed to achieve his original goal through this pact, he nevertheless created in his native country an irresistable desire to attain it. The Pittsburgh Pact sounded the tocsin to battle, the outcome of which was to be a clearer and more accurate definition of national rights. The present situation shows that the Slovak immigrant in the United States has almost lost his distinguishing marks in the new American society. Whereas, in the history of Slovakia, he still remains one of the most distinguished actors in defining its national character and in determining its political ambitions. If the "American democratic crusading spirit" sank deep into the life of a nation by means of an immigrant, it perhaps did so mostly in the case of Slovakia in connection with the iPittsburgh Pact. 7. The Present Political Emigrants The afore-mentioned Slovak emigrants, who left Slovakia mostly from social motives, were joined in recent years by a small though in its actions a very alert group of people, who left Slovakia and came to the West from clearly political motives. They departed in two waves. The first represented the functionaries of the independent Slovak Republic who, after the downfall of Slovakia in 1945, sought asylum in the West to escape the vengeance of the so-called "people's courts" . They were joined three years later (1948) by a further wave of political exiles who fled when Communists took complete control of the Czecho-Slovak government. The latter group comprised functionaries of non-Communist parties of the Czecho-Slovakia, in other words, people who were not in accord with the Communist "People's Democracy". In both instances we actually behold the first mass, political, Slovak emigration which, from the viewpoint of Slovak nationalism, signifies that political activity is its 44 SLOVAKIA very pulsating vocation. Its aim is the return homeward of all exiles and, therefore, a change in the political situation which forced the Slovaks to leave their native land. Slovak emigrants are bearing influence in two ways: they are endeavoring to gain the favor of Western Democracies in their efforts to overthrow the Communist dictatorship; and they are displaying the ability to organize underground movements to bring about a change, perhaps through internal revolution. One could probably surmise that the group who left Slovakia immediately after Second War will seek the revival of an independent Slovakia as a continuation of the Slovak Republic, whereas the other group will simply join those forces that work for the restoration of a democratic CzechoSlovakia. But the time-interval between these two waves of emigrants is not an accurate divisor of their political affiliation. It is true, however, that the Slovaks are divided into two camps: the Slovak and Czecho ..Slovak camp. The former aims for an i n d e p e n d e n t Slovakia without the Czecho-Slovak framework; the latter aims for a Slovakia within the Czecho-Slovak framework. Numerically, however, those who desire an independent Slovakia constitute the overwhelming majority. They include not only former functionaries of the 1Slovak Republic but also at least 90% of all those who left Czecho-Slovakia after the Communist coup of 194'8. As an o r g a n i z e d force, both camps act through three organs: the National Council of Free Czechoslovakia; the Slovak National Council Abroad; and the Slovak Liberation Committee. The aim of the National Council of Free Czechoslovakia is the destruction of present Communist dictatorship and the restoration of democracy in the spirit of T. G. Masaryk and Dr. E. Benes (anti-Catholic). CzechoJSlovakia involves, however, the solution of two problems: 1. the problem of some three and one-half million displaced Sudeten Germans whose desire to return to their homeland is being actively supported by the newly-risen West Germany; 2. what position is Slovakia to have in the new demecratic CzechoSlovakia. It is a known fact that the greater majority of Slovaks 1 SLOVAKIA 45, at home are more than ever before opposed to any idea or form of a Czecho-Slovakia. Informed people know that Slovakia can be maintained within the framework of CzechoSlovakia only by force and violence. The other two organs, the Slovak National Council Abroad and the Slovak Liberation Committee, are striving for the creation of an independent Slovakia. Their difference lies not so much in their aim as in their methods. Even though the Slovak National Council Abroad avers that the Slovak Republic which existed during the Second World War was formed in accord with the principles of international law as the free manifestation of the people, it nevertheless does not insist upon her legal continuity. lt is a great promoter of the federative solution of Central Europe in which it seeks for Slovakia the same position that other national groups will have. It is the political organ of the greater number of the 1Slovak exiles of 1945 and 1948. Furthermore, its program has been endorsed by the two largest organizations of older emigrants, namely, the Slovak League of America and the Canadian Slovak League. The Slovak Liberation Committee is the political organ of a radical portion of the Slovak exiles. It strives for an independent Slovakia on the basis of a legal continuity of the former Slovak Republic. It is distinguished by a special activity which manifests itself principally in many memorandums sent to the United Nations Organization as well as to the other r esponsible political circles in the West. Because of this across-the-border activity as well as other efforts to organize underground movements in Slovakia, which is dominated by Czech Communists, the ·Slovak Liberation Committee is looked upon in Czecho-Slovakia as the principal enemy of the government of the People's Democracy. It seems to be quite popular with the dissatisfied and change-hungry inhabitants at home. 1 It is hard to foretell whether any of these organs will succeed in achieving any of their objectives at the present time. It is highly improbable that any of them will succeed in organizing an active underground movement, which would be in a position to bring about a change in the present po- 46 SLOVAKIA litical situation with the aid of an internal revolution. The hope for a change depends only upon a new war, and then upon the measure in which respective efforts will be in accord with the interests of victorious powers. 1. ,M. Darras: "Onze ans de vie independente en Slovaque", LeMonde slave, (rnai-juin, 1930), 177. 2. Joseph A. Mikus: La Slovaque dans le Drame de l'Europe, Paris, 1'955, p. 57. 3. ·W illiam ,Diamond : Czechoslovakia Between East and West, London, 1947, p. 172. 4. Pravda, Bratislava, May 29, 1949. 15. ,Karol Sidor: Slovaci v zahranicnom odboji, Bratislava, 1929, p. 1'6. 6. Bulletin of the Slovak National Council Abroad, Middletown, Pa., August, 1956, p. 3. 7. Sidor: loc. cit., p. 32. 8. Karol Sidor: Slovaci v zahranicnom odboji, Bratislava, 1929, p. 33. 9. The Slovaks and the Pittsburgh ,Pact, Chicago, Tylka Bros. Press, 1Inc., 1934, p. 10. 10. I bid., p. 13. 11. Ibid., p. 13. 12. Ibid., p. 16. 13. Ibid., p. 18. 14. Ibid., p. 19. 15. T. G. Masaryk : La resurection d' un Etat ('Souvenir et reflection 1914-1918), Paris, 1930, p . 256. 16. nr .. Eduard Benes: My War Memoirs, London, 1928, p. 157. 17. The Slovaks and The Pittsburgh Pact, Joe. cit., p . 24. 18. Ibid., p. 27. 19. Dr. Frantisek Bokes : Dejiny Sloven ska a Slovakov, Bratislava, 1946, p. 363. 20. To this an authority on American law on April 23, 1930, when asked a bout the legality of the Slovak League had to say: "I understand the organization in question having a C onstitution, by-laws, officers, etc., though not chartered by the State. For the purpose of taking the action which -w as taken, such an organization would have all the n ecessary power as fully as if had been chartered. The agreement entered into by the unchartered organization refered to would be just as effectiv-e as if entered into with a chartered organization and just as valid if closed on ,Memorial Day as on any other day". (The Slovaks and The Pittsburgh Pact, loc. cit., p. 36-39). 21. Vaclav Peroutka : Budovani statu, Prague, 1933-1935, I , p. 352 . • • • RECOMMENDED BOOKS: THE SLOVAKS - their history and traditions - by Peter P. Yurchak; 312 pages, hard cover, bound In cloth - $3.00; paper cover - $2.00. SKETCHES FROM SLOVAK HISTORY by Joseph Skultety; 229 pages, well documented; hard cover, bound in cloth - $2.00; paper cover - $1.00.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Slovak Nationalism: The Role of Emigrants in Slovak Nationalism Description An account of the resource B. S. Buc, Ph.D.<br />Slovakia, Vol. 9, No. 4 (29), March 1959<br />pp. 32-46<br /><ol><li>The Nation of Emigrants</li> <li>Slovak Immigrants in the United States</li> <li>Shaping of the National Will</li> <li>In Search of a New Ally</li> <li>The Cleveland Agreement</li> <li>The Pittsburgh Pact</li> <li>The Present Political Emigrants</li> </ol> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Buc, B. S. (Bonaventure S.), 1910-1966 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1959 LCNAF